Yup that's another reason why I find IDW Sonic so painfully average like the white bread of comics (probably doomed to be like that due being a direct follow up to Forces). Like after the Zombot saga, it follows the same pattern of epic eye candy covers and seemly deep narratives from the solicitation only to be same trite status quo with characters often forgetting half, if not more of their abilities plus CIS (IDW Shadow being the most prolific example of this). Surge and Kit were literally kidnapped, experimented on, brainwashed and conditioned to be replacements to Sonic and Tails yet after touching upon on their deep trauma during their debu arc, they're treated as just another set of reoccurring characters and that's it.
The artstyle, certain action sequences and being close to many of the conventions of the games is really appealing but it honestly feels like the Scrapnik Island arc was indeed an outlier.
Also a reminder in the time IDW Sonic came out, Sage was introduced in Frontiers, got a different ending/role in the Final Horizons DLC, became one of the main reoccurring characters in cast, is playable in Crossworlds and is now making her own debut in IDW. Yet background human characters are still allowed in the comics lol! (And if/when humans do start appearing in IDW Sonic, don't expect to be any explanation on why it took so long for them to appear, just like post-Frontiers content not being explained in the comics and just accepting for tens of issues Sage was there all along lol!).
