On August 21, 2021, Ken Penders (a former writer for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics) announced plans to license out various characters from the comic that he has claimed ownership of (Prince Elias, Geoffrey St. John, Queen Alicia, etc.). Notably, this list included Scourge the Hedgehog (originally known as "Evil Sonic"), much to the bewilderment of Sonic fans as the character was depicted as an alternate reality version of Sonic (Scourge's original design was, visually speaking, simply Sonic wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses). When asked about this, Ian Flynn stated that (in his opinion) Sega and IDW wouldn't think it was worth the trouble to license side characters from a third party, particularly due to the former's desire to move away from referencing the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog animated series (commonly known as "Sonic SatAM", and a major influence on the Archie Sonic comics), and that it'd be easier to just make new characters. However, due to an inaccurate secondhand account of Flynn's response, Penders released an outline of the licensing deal insisting that he "really is easy to deal with", and accused Flynn of not wanting to work with non-game characters, despite that not being what Flynn said. The deal itself was criticized by fans due to both its steep asking price ($10,000 up front against royalties for a two year license) and for padding out the list of characters with obscure extras (Lt. Smiley, DYNAMAC-3000, etc.). Further complicating matters, the IDW Sonic spinoff miniseries "Imposter Syndrome" was announced, introducing the character of Surge the Tenrec, who many compared to Scourge due to their similar names and designs. Ian Flynn would later reveal that he had always intended for Surge (and her companion Kitsunami the Fenrec) to appear in the comic since the beginning.

On November 15th, RUSH! Comics announced that in association with Ken Penders, Scourge would receive a four-issue miniseries titled "Scourge the Speed Demon". The comic was immediately hit with backlash from fans due to Penders not only licensing out Evil Sonic, but his Scourge persona specifically, as Penders had no involvement with that version of the character (it was conceived by Mike Pellerito and Patrick Spaziante, and developed by Ian Flynn and Tracy Yardley), as well as continuing to blame Penders for the character's removal in the first place. The creative team behind the comic (which did not include Penders, as he merely licensed the character) also came under fire from the fandom: their previous comic, Rush! (for which the company was named after), had included a sexual harassment scene where the hero strips a pair of female villains nude in public because he thought they were hot. More concerningly, the lead artist was discovered to be following a large number of far right accounts (such as Breitbart, PragerU, Steven Crowder, and the Trump family) and had liked some controversial tweets from them (i.e. an Islamophobic tweet from far right activist Paul Joseph Watson), leading many to accuse the artist of being a white supremist. When asked about this, Penders responded:


The team would later release a statement in an attempt to clarify the situation, though it did not help. Likewise, "Imposter Syndrome" #1 was released, leading many to believe that Scourge was no longer needed due to Surge existing. On November 19th, it was announced that the comic had been cancelled a mere four days after its announcement due to the backlash from the fanbase. Ironically, it's worth noting that while Ken does own Scourge, he's forbidden from making new stuff that looks too similar to Sonic in order to avoid brand confusion. Scourge's design in the cancelled comic looked noticeably similar to Sonic's design (specifically the design from the Paramount films), meaning that by cancelling the comic, RUSH! Comics may have been able to avoid a potential lawsuit from Sega for copyright infringement.