Some of the characters from the Sonic The Hedgehog series from Archie Comics will not return at all when it moves to IDW Publishing.
In the Q&A portion of the Bumblekast Podcast, Ian Flynn, former chief writer for the Sonic The Hedgehog comic books for Archie, has confirmed that characters that were originally made in the Archie comics will not transition to the IDW version. Flynn reprises his role as chief writer for the IDW series.
Released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog was a huge success and launched SEGA into a leading video game company, rivaling Nintendo throughout the 1990’s. Sonic became the company’s official mascot and numerous video games of the character have been released. The most recent entry, Sonic Forces, came out for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in November of 2017.
Running from 1993 to 2016 at 290 issues, Archie Comics’s adaptation of the Sonic The Hedgehog video game franchise by SEGA was formally recognized by the Guinness World Records as the longest-running series based on a video game. In 2013, former writer Ken Penders filed a lawsuit against Archie Comics for ownership of the characters he created in the comics. 3 years later, a similar lawsuit was filed by Scott Fulop, also a former writer for the Sonic series in the comics.
Following these lawsuits, SEGA, which owns the Sonic franchise, announced on July 19 of 2017 that it’s ending its partnership with Archie Comics. IDW would be announced as the new publisher of the comics 2 days later and the IDW version will be a reboot of the series. The first issue of IDW’s Sonic The Hedgehog will be released in April of 2018.