Franchise: Sonic The Hedgehog

In The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, when Sonic is found presumed dead on the ground, the pose he is laying in is a reference to a meme within animation circles known as the "Family Guy Death Pose". This pose is frequently used throughout the animated series of the same name created by Seth MacFarlane, which became criticized in later years for utilizing cheaper animation. This is not the first time this pose was referenced in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise; the first time being in Issue #3 of the IDW comic book miniseries "Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome", where the character Surge collapses into the pose at one point.

Ben Hurst, one of the writers for the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" animated series, attempted to pitch a continuation of the show to Sega in 2002 as either a third season or a movie. He consulted DiC Entertainment, who produced the show (as well as two other Sonic cartoons, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic Underground"), and was given the name of a Sega executive who wanted to talk with him more about the idea. Hurst then received a call from Ken Penders, at the time the head writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, who had been made aware of Hurst's interest in making a movie based on the series. Hurst offered to include Penders in the project, and told him his strategy for the pitch was to develop a satisfying storyline to conclude the show, and simultaneously giving Sega ideas for new games. This resulted in a long-standing controversy where Hurst claimed that Penders sabotaged his plan by telling Sega that he was trying to co-opt the franchise, resulting in Hurst's dismissal from the project. Over 13 years after Hurst's death, Penders would give his side of the story in a 2023 blog post, claiming that Hurst's joint proposal between the two would involve asking Sega to pay them to produce the series, and doubted that Sega would even schedule a meeting to let them pitch it if Sega funding the pitch was the premise, stating that "the owner of any IP is looking for a payday when it comes to using the rights for their properties."

In September 2003, Penders pitched his own concept for a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, titled "Sonic Armageddon". Four pieces of concept art were produced, and even a homemade pitch video was made to show to Sega executives. From what is known about the pitch (which seemed to borrow elements from both the 1993 series and the Archie comics), it would have involved the planet Mobius being destroyed and changed the depiction of the roboticization procedure to something much more gruesome than what had been previously seen. Notably, several major characters (such as the Freedom Fighters sans Sonic, Tails and Sally) are not shown in either the pitch video or the concept art, and the characters that are shown are given major redesigns. A common belief is that DreamWorks Animation was Penders' choice to produce the film, but Penders would later state in 2019 that he had pitched the idea to Sega only, and that DreamWorks had no involvement. The film never materialized; Penders would later claim on separate occasions that the idea was dropped because of "massive corporate upheaval", as well as the development of the animated series "Sonic X" affecting talks regarding the film.

On April 8th, 2022 (the American release date for the film "Sonic the Hedgehog 2"), former Archie Comics writer Ken Penders revealed that he was contacting his legal team in regards to the Echidnas and their backstory featured in the film. According to Penders, both Knuckles' unnamed father and the workings of the film's depiction of the Master Emerald were derivitive of two of his characters, Locke and Enerjak. Despite the fact that the powers of the game version of the Master Emerald had been established back in 1994 with the release of Sonic & Knuckles, Penders has claimed to have legal ownership over the ideas he created in 1996. However, as of March 2024, no lawsuit has materialized.

"TailsTube" is a webseries that began airing on March 22, 2022. Described as a "fun and informative, Tails-hosted show about all things Sonic", the series is hosted by a VTuber version of Miles "Tails" Prower, as he answers questions from fans about the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, often featuring special guests from throughout the series. The series is notable for explaining various aspects of the series' lore. For example, the first episode debunks a popular fan theory that claims that Sonic's world and Earth are two separate planets, and the fourth episode confirmed the existence of a multiverse in the series, as well as establishing that "Classic Sonic" and "Modern Sonic" are not separate entities from alternate dimensions, instead being the same character's past and future variants. The sixth episode also sees Tails mention Jewel the Beetle and the Restoration, two prominent parts of IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series, further connecting it to the game series canon.

In August 2016, Scott Fulop, a former editor and writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics (whose notable contributions include the characters Mammoth Mogul and the Fearsome Foursome), began pursuing legal action against Archie Comics for the unauthorized use of his characters and reprinted stories. He was inspired to do so by fellow former writer Ken Penders, who had also infamously sued Archie for similar reasons. However, on September 5, 2017, Fulop ultimately lost his lawsuit.

On September 21, 2020, as part of his podcast BumbleKast, writer Ian Flynn expressed interest in adapting Cosmo and the Metarex from the animated series "Sonic X" into IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, which would effectively incorporate them into the mainline Sonic canon. A year later, he would reveal that said arc would not happen anytime soon, as fellow writer Evan Stanley had more stories that needed to be finished. In January 2024, however, Flynn revealed that most content that comes from the show is off the table, including characters such as Cosmo, the Metarex, Topaz, Mr. Tanaka, and Ella.

However, there may be an exception to this in the form of the "Next Show", a fictional children's show featuring a purple mascot character named Next that Cream and Cheese are shown to be fans of during Sonic X. The show was first referenced in Cream's Sonic Channel profile, where it was listed as one of her likes. Later, 2023 would feature two seperate instances of the show being referenced: first during the "Otherworld Comedy" series of wallpapers posted on Sonic Channel, where it was mentioned in the story for the May 2023 wallpaper ("Story Act 5: My Vector Man"), then later as part of the official Christmas 2023 picture, where a toy based on Next appears amongst the pile of gifts.

During the reboot of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, several characters and aspects adapted into the comic from the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon (commonly referred to as "Sonic SatAM") were noticeably altered for a variety of factors:

• Ixis Naugus (referred to simply as Naugus in the show) was changed to "Walter Naugus". His species (which was never actually stated in the show, though the pre-reboot comics depicted him as a rhino-bat-lobster hybrid) was changed to that of a troll, with a tail being added to his design to help make him look as such, alongside his attire being updated to more resemble a warlock. Additionally, despite what was initially believed, the term "Ixis" was originally applied to Naugus' cartoon production materials, and was not invented by former writer Ken Penders. This meant it was still usable in the comics, and was later given to the deity worshipped by the troll species.
• Muttski was changed to "Ben "Mutt" Muttski", and was changed from a non-anthropomorphic dog to an anthropomorphic one. Notably, his new name was given in honor of Ben Hurst, the main writer of "Sonic SatAM" who sadly passed away in 2010.
• Snively Robotnik (referred to simply as Snively in the show) was changed to "Doctor Julian Snively", with his first name being a nod to "Sonic SatAM", as Dr. Robotnik's original name in the show was Julian. According to Ian Flynn, he is no longer related to Dr. Eggman in the reboot due to Sega's mandates not allowing other media to invent family members for the main "SegaSonic" cast. Ironically, while his half-sister Hope Kintobor was removed from the reboot, Snively inherited her position as G.U.N.'s R&D Specialist.
• Maximillian Acorn (referred to simply as "The King" in the show) was changed to "King Nigel Acorn". His name was most likely changed due to being coined by former writer Ken Penders. Notably, his new name, speech pattern and mannerisms are shared with Nigel Thornberry from the animated series "The Wild Thornberrys": Nigel was voiced by British actor Tim Curry, who also voiced the King in "Sonic SatAM".
• Nicole the Holo-Lynx's new backstory in the reboot has her being created by Dr. Ellidy in an attempt to digitize the consciousness of his dying daughter Nikki. This may have been loosely inspired by Ben Hurst's plans for the cancelled third season of "Sonic SatAM", where it would have been revealed that Nicole was originally a normal girl until she was tricked by Dr. Robotnik into having her entire personality transferred into a computer satellite.
• Although the Wolf Pack originated from "Sonic SatAM", the only member of the group who was not created by Ken Penders was their leader Lupe the Wolf, who also originated from the show. As such, when the comic was rebooted, she was the only member of the group to be carried over.
• Aside from King Acorn, the only parent of a "Sonic SatAM" character to make it into the reboot was Sabina, the mother of Dulcy the Dragon and herself a character from the show. However, while Ian Flynn did confirm that she was still Dulcy's mother in the reboot, she never actually appeared in the comic prior to its cancellation. Additionally, given that Dulcy refers to her with present tense, it's likely that Sabina is still alive in the reboot, whereas she had died in the original continuity.

Due to the cancellation of the animated series "Sonic Underground", its storyline was left unresolved. However, staff members involved in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics had considered finishing the storyline: writer Ian Flynn had thought about writing a new story that could serve to wrap up where the original series left off, but felt it would be "stepping on the original creatives' toes," and that even if he was allowed to do it the story likely wouldn't see the light of day for at least two years. Originally, "Sonic Universe" issue 50 was intended to be the official epilogue for the show, with a preview cover being released. However, the epilogue was cancelled, and the issue instead featured a story centered around Metal Sonic.

In early 2013, Ian Flynn revealed that material from "Sonic Underground" was off-limits: this was the reason why the epilogue was put on hold. He also stated plans to include the epilogue as part of "Lost Hedgehog Tales", a written document featuring Sonic comic material that will no longer be used, suggesting that the epilogue was no longer possible. In June 2017, any chance of a "Sonic Underground" epilogue by Archie was precluded when Sega announced that the comics produced by them had been cancelled.

In the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, Sonic’s disdain of mushrooms could be a jab at his rivalry with Mario in the 90s. This is reinforced in the Thai dub of the film, where the joke about Tom saying that Sonic won’t be the only “fungi” on the mushroom planet is replaced with “at least you can have a mushroom forever,” to which Sonic replies with “No. I’m not Mario”.

Nintendo possibly “returned the favor” in 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where the Super Mario Bros. Plumbing advertisement features a map with one of the landmarks listed as “Mushroom Planet”.

On June 23, 2016, Sega released a YouTube video titled "25 Years of Sonic the Hedgehog!", a video going through an abridged timeline of the Sonic franchise's games on the anniversary of the first game's North American release. Strangely and controversially for a celebratory video, the video makes multiple snide remarks towards the games featured, some that are innocent in nature (such as Sonic the Hedgehog 3's description mentioning the "Knuckle Chuckle" meme and Sonic Heroes' description referencing the infamous "Look at all those Eggman's Robots!" translation error) while others very directly mock flaws and criticised elements of the games, such as Sonic 3's referencing the "barrel of doom", Sonic 3D Blast's description poking fun at how the Flicky AI would run away from Sonic, 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog not even receiving a description and simply showing its loading graphic, and Sonic Colors' description stating that it is where "Sonic in 3D finally finds its footing", a statement that is technically true when looking at critical reception, but tends to aggravate fans of 2000s-era Sonic games.

In the early 2010s, Pop, a British TV channel that syndicated DIC's Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, had the fanmade game Sonic on Clouds avaliable on its website.

Dan Slott, a comic book writer best known for his work on Marvel Comics such as "The Amazing Spider-Man", "Fantastic Four", and "Silver Surfer", wrote for two issues of Archie's "Sonic Super Special" series as part of its "Zone Wars" storyline. Despite these being his only works for the comic, he did make one notable contribution: Zonic the Zone Cop, an alternate reality version of Sonic who monitored all realities in order to maintain balance across the various Zones, though allowing other people to appear in other Zones when they are needed. In November 2022, in response to various fan questions about Zonic, Slott noted that he was willing to collaborate with Sega to bring him back, and had no protective hang-ups over the character unlike an unspecified Sonic creator who was "super protective of all the characters he's created over the years to the point where SEGA doesn't want to use ANY of them in other media" (likely referring to legal issues surrounding former writer Ken Penders).

Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, a character introduced in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, is based on a purple sprite that is created for several milliseconds on the game's title screen if the player quickly switches between Sonic and Knuckles' sprites. Notably, Ian Flynn stated in the graphic novel "Sonic Universe 3: Knuckles Returns" that Thrash was meant to be another rogue of Knuckles who could "throw down with Knuckles and have it mean something", which did not line up with his role in his debut during "Sonic Universe" Issue #11. However, this would later be conveyed during the "Endangered Species" story arc of the main comic, where it's revealed that he has a strong hatred towards the Echidna species due to their actions against his ancestors. When asked about the possibility of bringing Thrash back in the comic's reboot, Ian Flynn said he would love to bring him back, but "it comes with all that baggage... We can't really bring him back without people going 'Oh boy! And here we go!'"

In a post titled "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: One Year Later...", Karl Bollers (a former writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics) revealed numerous plans that he had intended to include in the comics following Issue #134 that were never used, such as:

• Sonic and Amy becoming a couple after being stranded at sea together, keeping it a secret from Sally.
• Tails reuniting with his parents by traveling into space on a modified Tornado.
• Amy's origins being explored in a fuller adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
• Knuckles departing Angel Island after learning that his presence exposes the location of the Master Emerald, going on a global pilgrimage to learn martial arts and battling a Dr. Eggman controlled-Monkey Khan while himself under the control of the Iron Queen before discovering the Master Geode.
• Sally being a pawn in a villainous plot by the corrupted Source of All and Ixis Naugus to prevent the future first previewed in "Sonic In Your Face!".
• Bunnie and Antoine breaking up due to a change in Antoine's personality, with Bunnie's origins later being explored and her true name being revealed as "Scarlette O'Hare" (which may have served as the inspiration for Scarlette Rabbot from Sonic Universe's "Fractured Mirror" story arc, and Bunnie's codename when she was in the Metropolis Egg Army in Issue #255).
• Antoine gaining his scar due to an accident with a knife and becoming a villain after allowing himself to be possessed by a corrupted Source of All in hopes of winning Bunnie back.
• Rotor retiring from field duty in order to pursue a role analogous to that played by "Q" from the James Bond franchise.
• The Source of All surviving Robotropolis' destruction and reconstituting itself in a remote mountain range, where it began to exert control over King Max, brainwashing the Arachne Clan and another group of Spiders known as the Strand, and possessing Antoine while under the control of Ixis Naugus.
• Locke and Lara-Le putting aside their previous disputes to help raise Kneecaps after his father Wynmacher ends up in the Egg Grape Chamber.
• Dr. Robotnik kidnapping Hope Kintobor under the pretense that he is the only correct choice to be her legal guardian, while using her as bait to lure in Shadow.
• Ixis Naugus attempting to return by transforming Max's body into a duplicate of his own, only to be thwarted by the destruction of the Crown of Acorns.
• Mammoth Mogul beginning to age rapidly due to his original Chaos Emerald running out of energy, forcing him to seek out alternative sources through illicit archaeological expeditions and hiring mercenaries like Nack the Weasel. The Master Geode, a powerful gemstone that would fulfill Mogul's needs, would be contested by him, the Iron Queen, Robotnik, and Rouge the Bat.
• Nate Morgan surviving the destruction of Robotropolis and being de-Roboticized by the Bem, returning as Coconuts' amnesia-addled ally, who creates a new Metal Sonic, Metal Amy, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll that are mistaken for Robian versions of the heroes.
• Snively taking up a fifteen foot-tall mechanical battle suit and the alias "Skarkus" in pursuit of revenge against Robotnik for leaving him alone against the Xorda, leading to an alliance between him and Shadow.
• A.D.A.M. and Nicole becoming romantically involved, leading to A.D.A.M. seizing control of the Shadowbot army and leading them from New Megaopolis to Knothole.
• A new Dingo Regime leader named Colonel Mange being introduced, with Croctobot, Jack Rabbit, and Gala-Na being reintroduced as Robotnik Sub-Bosses over Downunda, the Great Desert, and Albion. This would have led to the disappearance of the Downunda Freedom Fighters and a confrontation involving the Mercian Freedom Fighters.
• Evil Sonic coming to enjoy impersonating Sonic and enjoying the love of his parents and adulation of his people, leading him to plan to eliminate Sonic and permanently take his place.

Additionally, in the aftermath of Ken Penders' lawsuit against Archie Comics, Bollers has confirmed that he now owns the rights to all the characters he created for the comics, such as Mina Mongoose, Ash Mongoose, and Hope Kintobor.

Lanolin the Sheep, a character introduced in IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, was created by artist Adam Bryce Thomas as a background character in Issue #2. He would continue drawing Lanolin in subsequent issues he illustrated for, often with a new look. Comic writer Ian Flynn would eventually confirm her name on Twitter. She even appeared in an early draft of Issue #30's A cover (drawn by Thomas), but was edited out in the final version. Starting with Issue #57, Lanolin began to have a supporting role in story arcs: according to Ian, this is due to how her appearances had evolved to the point of gaining a role in the story, and her increase in prominence lead to a more developed personality. By her own admission in Issue #58, she is "bossy and inexperienced", being rather new to her role as a leader. Despite this, some fans have criticized the character for having a tendency to act as if she is just as experienced as her peers (i.e. critiquing Silver in Issue #63 despite having no experience with psychokinesis, and her interactions with Tangle in Issue #62 giving the impression that she had a genuine problem with her, despite the scene's comedic nature). This has resulted in comparisons to Sally Acorn, a character from the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" cartoon who was a main character throughout the Archie Sonic comics, due to their status as no-nonsense leaders able to keep even Sonic in line. These similarities also lead some fans (particularly those who don't like Flynn's writing) to accuse that Lanolin was an attempt to replace her despite having gone on record stating that he wanted to incorporate Sally and the Freedom Fighters into the IDW comics.

In the aftermath of Ken Penders' lawsuit against Archie Comics that lead to their Sonic the Hedgehog comics getting rebooted, a common misconception among fans is that one of the characters he acquired the rights to as a result was Fiona Fox. This is not actually true: while Penders did help "recreate" the character, the initial character (an Auto-Automaton dubbed "Auto-Fiona"), was created by another former writer, Michael Gallagher. While it's uncertain if that he means he owns the character, Penders has stated that he did not want to claim a character that he did not create.

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics introduced an original character named Geoffrey St. John, who at one point in the comic was in a romantic relationship with Sally Acorn, a character from the 1993 "Sonic the Hedgehog" animated series. This has been met with controversy from fans, because Sally was, at the earliest, 15 years old at the time of the relationship. While Geoffrey's age was never stated in the comic leading some to argue that a seemingly nonexistent age gap would be irrelevant, his creator Ken Penders claimed in 2015 that the character was 21 years old at the time of Sonic the Hedgehog Issue #46, which released in May 1997. In the Sonic-Grams fan letter section of that same issue, one fan letter asked if Sally is 14 or 15 years old, with the editor Justin Freddy Gabrie confirming she is 15 (it should be noted that while Gabrie incorrectly lists the wrong age for Bunnie Rabbot in this response implying others could be wrong, Sally's age is consistent with her being the same age as Sonic throughout the comic). All of this information is made significantly worse when Geoffrey is shown making out with Sally during the same issue, which they also did in other issues around this time. To complicate this further, in Issue #20 of the spin-off comic Knuckles the Echidna, which released in January 1999, it's shown that Geoffrey is older than Sally's older brother Elias Acorn, who was 21 at the time of the relationship, through two scenes. The first is when Geoffrey calls him a "kid" in the present, and the second is through a flashback showing Geoffrey as a physically older child than Elias, who was 5 years old in this flashback. Both aforementioned issues were co-written and solely written by Penders respectively, meaning that even if his original claim of Geoffrey being 21 was incorrect, it implies that he retconned Geoffrey to be older than that at the time, making the age gap larger.

This controversy worsened even further when Penders revealed in 2019 that he had planned at some point for a story involving Geoffrey taking Sally's virginity. While he acknowledged that this was a story that ultimately couldn't be told in the comic, as content found in the series had to remain within the realm of a G-rating, he attempted to justify the relationship in the context of a historical drama setting by saying:


However, considering the cited source material, this justification is fundamentally wrong as the actual implied age gap would be larger than the 4 years Penders suggested (Sally's 15 to Geoffrey's at least 21), leading fans to accuse Geoffrey, and Penders by extension, of being a pedophile.

There are two instances in the history of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics where writers had attempted to write a same-sex relationship for characters originally created for the 1993 animated series that the comic was based on.

On October 30, 2009, former writer Ken Penders revealed that he had intended for the character Rotor the Walrus to be gay, stating:


It would later be stated that Rotor's "life partner" was Cobar, an Echidna scientist who only ever appeared during the MOBIUS: 25 YEARS LATER storyline. According to technical advisor Robert Repas (speaking on behalf of Penders), Sega feared backlash over the relationship, and thus ordered him to keep the relationship low-key, only allowing subtle hints, though Penders later clarified that it was likely then-editor Justin Freddy Gabrie that he had spoken with and not Sega. At the same time, this relationship has been critcized by fans for its lack of subtextual evidence, which was not helped by Penders only revealing it years after the fact. According to later writer Ian Flynn as part of a Q&A wrap-up, Rotor and Cobar's relationship is considered a piece of behind-the-scenes trivia and is not canon to the current Sonic timeline as, according to him, there had been no canonical build-up to Rotor's sexual preference regardless of intention.

However, Flynn would be involved in the second instance of trying to write in a same-sex relationship. In the first episode of the BumbleKast from October 5, 2015, he stated:


Shortly after the comic's cancellation, Flynn would confirm that he and his wife/fellow writer Aleah Baker had written subtle details hinting at this romance into the comic. He initially described these details as "blatant", but retracted it for "subtle", implying that there were some internal/editorial considerations at play for how far they could go with the hints. During the same BumbleKast episode, he also revealed that part of the reason why Sally and Nicole's relationship was made subtle was due to potential backlash from the Sonic fandom, as Sally had been commonly depicted as Sonic's girlfriend and love interest up to that point. One of Sega's mandates for the comic near the end of its run was that game characters like Sonic were not allowed to enter serious relationships, meaning Sonic would not be allowed to commit to Sally in the comic's reboot.

On March 17, 2019, in response to a post on the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account celebrating St. Patrick's Day, YouTuber Jacksepticeye jokingly asked if he could voice "Irish the Hedgehog", to which the Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account responded:


A year later, they made good on this promise, releasing a video titled "Irish the Hedgehog" on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel. According to Sega, the character was designed by artist Mark Hughes, and the video included a "folksy" remix of the song "Escape from the City" from Sonic Adventure 2 made by Hyper Potions and Jun Senoue.

A few years afterwards, Jacksepticeye would return to the Sonic franchise to voice another character: the appropriately-named Jack from the "Sonic Prime" episode "It Takes One to No Place".

Quik & Silva features many plagiarized characters as duplicated enemies, including characters from Nebulus, Bubble Bobble, Contra, and The Great Giana Sisters. Among these characters is Sonic the Hedgehog, whose first title had not released at that point, technically making it Sonic's first appearance in a home console video game, even if unauthorized and predated by the arcade game Rad Mobile.