Contains a preview of Sonic the Hedgehog Annual 2022!
An official sneak peek of this year's upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog annual shows the fan-favorite hero Blaze the Cat exploring her own dimension beyond the Blue Blur's homeworld in ways readers have never seen before.
For understandable reasons, the vast majority of the ongoing IDW series transpires in Sonic's world - a plane of existence that Blaze has visited a few times over the course of the more than 50-issue comic. But readers have only gotten a few glimpses of Blaze's own dimension, all of which took place after Sonic was literally blasted into her world at the end of his battle against the Metal Virus and the Deadly Six. But every instance of his brief sojourn took place in Blaze's Imperial Palace of the Sol Empire. Sonic - who had lost his memories and thought his name was Mr. Needlemouse - may have taken a few laps around Blaze's island, but readers didn't get to follow him. They just heard about it.
But now IDW is showing fans much more in the official preview of Sonic the Hedgehog Annual 2022's first of three stories "Guardians" by Ian Flynn, Adam Bryce Thomas and Joana Lafuente. In the pages, Blaze chases a fleeing pirate ship, which she eventually boards before demanding where the leader of the Robot Pirates is hiding. The robotic pirate she targets, however, tells her that every other member of the fleet is gone, informing the princess that she has won.
Seeing Blaze the Cat on a body of water beyond the confines of her palace is already showing readers more of Blaze's world than IDW's main comic series has revealed thus far. Moreover, readers have never been introduced to any of Blaze's enemies before now, either. However, it's possible that these two pages will be almost the full extent of the annual issue's foray into Blaze's world. Based on Blaze's shocked reaction when she hears that the Robot Pirates are no more, it's possible that the short story will revolve around her struggling with the prospect of having eliminated all the threats to her Sol Emeralds, these Robot Pirates being the last of them. Hopefully that's not the case and the short story's purpose is to show Blaze protecting the emeralds against numerous enemies, so readers can gain a deeper understanding of her world.
That said, Blaze's dimension is clearly much more expansive than just being a collection of villains to battle and large bodies of land and water to explore. Readers are undoubtedly curious about her world's Sol Emeralds since they seem to possess even more power than Sonic's Chaos Emeralds. Earlier on in the series, the will of the Sol Emeralds instructed Blaze to prevent a terrible event from transpiring in Sonic's world, which led to the cat's involvement in the battle against Metal Sonic. It would therefore be intriguing if readers will get the chance to witness the many other capabilities of Blaze's emeralds in this special annual issue.
Regardless, the prospect of exploring Blaze the Cat's world and dimension is exciting. The incredible vistas of her world and palace in Sonic the Hedgehog #30-32 were breathtaking, so readers are sure to experience many more beautifully rendered views in this upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog Annual 2022.
Sonic the Hedgehog Annual 2022 is available from IDW Publishing August 17.