The cover art of IDW's upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog issue gives Belle the Tinkerer a terrifying twist that evokes the most horrifying scenes from the Five Nights at Freddy's video game franchise. Hardcore fans also appreciate the apparent nod to the series' best arc to date and the ostensible return to what made Belle's character so appealing initially.
Fans of IDW's Sonic comic know that the world's most famous hedgehog isn't exactly a stranger to horror. Sonic's Metal Virus arc heavily incorporated classic themes from the horror genre, specifically zombie movies. In what is currently the series' best storyline, the Metal Virus followed Dr. Eggman's eponymous disease that transforms organic life into metallic zombies, which Sonic aptly dubs Zombots. The Metal Virus arc saw Sonic and Eggman team up too, adding to the arc's intrigue. The cover of this upcoming issue, therefore, gives readers hope that it will not only emulate Five Nights at Freddy's but reintroduce these effective literary devices in not just the next installment but for many issues to come.
Now, the cover for Sonic the Hedgehog #49's by Adam Bryce Thomas shows Sonic's ally Belle as something far more horrific. Belle is a powerful robot made by the good Dr. Eggman, but here that good is nowhere in sight, replaced by something straight out of Five Nights at Freddy's. What makes Belle's correlation to Five Nights at Freddy's so fantastic is that she shares some aesthetic similarities to the animatronic characters that attack the nightshift guard who unfortunately works at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Like these animatronic toys, Belle, too, is clearly a marionette who could be perceived as rather freaky even without all of the added effects of issue #49's cover.
Another possibility the cover art introduces is the prospect that writers might once again explore the dark side of Belle's origin story. What made her character uncharacteristically fascinating for IDW's Sonic was that she had been created by Dr. Eggman's good alter ego, Mr. Tinker. Though entirely pure, Mr. Tinker actually had a better chance of taking out Sonic than Eggman ever did. Fortunately for Sonic and his friends though, Belle possesses Mr. Tinker's purity and has struggled to come to terms with the creator whom she respects and admires being gone. Unfortunately, her inner duality was only explored for a few issues before the series shifted the tone entirely by focusing on her inability to fit in with Sonic's friends, an unfortunate switch that even more regrettably portrayed her state as a social pariah as being the product of her clumsiness that had the tendency of culminating into catastrophic accidents. She also shares some of the worst traits that many of the series' female characters, unfortunately, espouse: lack of self-assuredness mostly derived by their inexperience and timidity. Just the mere suggestion that the next issue might revisit the more intriguing aspect of Belle's character is intoxicating to fans.
Hopefully Sonic the Hedgehog #49 by writer and artist Evan Stanley will live up to the hype that its cover art promises to deliver. Why else would IDW choose a cover that evokes Five Nights at Freddy's besides to troll fans? Regardless, even if this Five Nights at Freddy's inspired Sonic cover ends up being a red herring, at least, readers still have the Imposter Syndrome tie-in event, which has proven to be shockingly quite good as well.
Check out Sonic the Hedgehog #49 when it releases on April 27th.