Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Publishing)

On July 21, 2017, IDW Publishing announced a deal with Sega to produce a new series of Sonic comics following the cancellation of the previous Sonic the Hedgehog series by Archie Comics after a 24-year run.[1] The new series began with a four-week long event where the first four issues were released each week in April 2018, followed by a monthly release of subsequent issues starting in May 2018. Archie Sonic writer Ian Flynn was later confirmed to return as the series' lead writer, alongside artist Tyson Hesse.[2]

During New York Comic Con 2017, Ian Flynn confirmed that characters old and new would be featured in the series, hinting that characters from the games and the original comics might possibly return.[3][4][5][6] In January 2018, IDW revealed that Tracy Yardley, who originally worked on Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, would be one of the pencillers for the IDW series. Several other artists from the Archie Comics series have also contributed to the IDW series.

In April 2020, it was announced that the artist Evan Stanley would be writing for the series.[7]

On June 28, 2020, two characters from the comic series, Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf, were announced to appear in the Sonic mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle.[8]

The events of the comic begin shortly after the events of Sonic Forces,[9] in which Doctor Eggman has gone missing following his defeat by the Resistance, but the remnants of his Badnik army continue to attack around the world. After the robot attacks suddenly become more coordinated, Sonic, while investigating the cause, discovers that Eggman has sustained amnesia and taken on the friendly persona of "Mr. Tinker" in the village that found him. After observing Mr. Tinker's work, Sonic decides he is truly reformed, although he has to convince Shadow of the same. It is revealed that Metal Sonic is leading the Eggman Empire in his master's absence, intending to eventually restore Eggman to his proper place. He conquers Angel Island, where the heroes fight him. Metal Sonic with the Master Emerald assumes a Super Mode, then uses his biodata to transform into the stronger Master Overlord. Through a combined effort by the Resistance and their allies, Metal Sonic is thwarted and Angel Island liberated.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tinker is kidnapped by Rough and Tumble at the behest of a new villain: Dr. Starline, a platypus who has become enamored by Eggman's work. With some help from Metal Sonic, Dr. Starline restores Eggman's memories, being rewarded with a position as the doctor's head assistant. Eggman then develops the Metal Virus, a contagion that turns organic material to machines under his control, and prepares to unleash it on the world from his new "Faceship" flying base. He tricks Rough and Tumble into infecting themselves during a battle with Sonic and Amy; the hedgehogs defeat the newly coined "Zombots", but Sonic is infected in the process.

In the Tangle & Whisper miniseries, Tangle finds Whisper chasing after who appears to be Sonic, revealing to be a shapeshifting octopus named Mimic. She offers to help her track down Mimic, in which Whisper reluctantly accepts. After being nearly killed by Mimic's bombs while investigating, Whisper shares her backstory and explanation of her trauma in which she and Mimic were part of a mercenary group named the Diamond Cutters, and Mimic betrayed and killed the rest of her team in a trap. Tangle and Whisper then find and successfully defeat Mimic, but Tangle dissuades Whisper from killing him, not wanting her to do what Mimic had done to her team. After imprisoning Mimic, Tangle and Whisper separate paths, but promise to meet again soon.

As Eggman begins spreading his Metal Virus across the world, Sonic learns that he can keep his infection at bay by running. Eventually, however, his speed loses its ability to counter the virus, as revealed by Cream the Rabbit's robot aide, Gemerl. Despite the best efforts of Sonic and his allies, the Metal Virus quickly spreads around the globe out of control. Tails' attempt to create a cure using data gathered by Sonic is thwarted when Zombots destroy Tails' lab and Sonic loses the data while confronting Eggman and Starline. The Restoration, a successor to the Resistance led by Amy, is driven out of their base as it and all other strongholds against the Metal Virus are overrun. Worst of all, many of Sonic's allies are infected and turned into Zombots, including Tangle, Shadow, Big the Cat, all of Team Chaotix except for Espio, and Cream's entire family except herself and Gemerl; additionally, E-123 Omega is decapitated by Shadow after the latter becomes a Zombot. With only Angel Island left untouched by the plague, the demoralized survivors take shelter there with Knuckles' permission.

Meanwhile, Eggman himself loses control of the Zombot plague, but shows little interest in regaining control of it, instead planning to abandon the planet for another. Starline, disillusioned with Eggman, secretly devises his own plan to control the Zombots using the Deadly Six, despite knowing of their grudge against Eggman and Sonic after the events of Sonic Lost World. Seeing a chance to get revenge, the six Zeti pretend to accept Starline's offer and Starline later warps them aboard the Faceship. Anticipating a double-cross, Starline tries to control the Zeti with a Cacophonic Conch, but his lungs give out, rendering the conch useless. The Deadly Six soon chase Eggman, Starline, and Metal Sonic out of the Faceship onto Angel Island, where they are captured by Sonic and the other survivors. The Deadly Six then steal the Chaos Emeralds on board and devise a plot to conquer and terrorize the world; five of them taking over various settlements while their leader, Zavok, commandeers the Faceship. Rouge, who recently infiltrated the Faceship, overhears this and secretly notifies the Restoration. Forced to strike a truce with Sonic and the Restoration, Eggman and Metal Sonic fire Starline and confiscate the Warp Topaz gemstone he uses to create portals. The group then prepares to collect the Chaos Emeralds from the Deadly Six, intending to combine the Warp Topaz with the power of Super Sonic and destroy the Metal Virus. Needing additional help, Amy hires the Babylon Rogues.

Eggman and Tails build a multi-portal generator using the Warp Topaz, and the Restoration splits up to confront each Deadly Six member simultaneously, while Sonic remains behind to slow his Metal Virus infection using a treadmill. The Zeti are defeated one by one and the Restoration obtains five of the seven Chaos Emeralds. However, Cream is infected and Gemerl drop outs to take care of her, while the Babylon Rogues are marooned amidst a crowd of Zombots. The remaining survivors return to Angel Island just as Zavok finds them, and Rouge steals the emerald powering the Faceship, causing it to crash. An enraged Zavok uses his emerald's power to transform into a giant and resumes his assault, forcing the Sonic and the other survivors to confront their infected allies. During the battle, the survivors, including Eggman, are overrun and infected until only Sonic and Silver remain. The two hedgehogs eventually claim the final emerald, and their transformation into Super Sonic and Super Silver cures the former. After they defeat Zavok, Silver uses his psychokinesis to rid the world of the virus, while Sonic destroys it by sending it into the sun via an enhanced Warp Topaz portal. The heroes are happily reunited, but as Starline had forewarned, the Chaos Emeralds' power overloads the Warp Topaz, and it explodes before Sonic can dispose of it through the portal. Sonic disappears thereafter, and is later revealed to have landed in the Sol Dimension where Blaze lives. The world then starts to recovers from the Metal Virus pandemic, while Doctor Eggman and his robots return to their normal plans of villainy, such as reconstructing Omega to attack Sonic's friends. An amnesiac Sonic has his memories restored and returns to his home dimension.

In the Bad Guys miniseries, Starline, planning to conquer the world and surpass Eggman to gain his respect again, breaks into a prison and frees Eggman's former assistants, Rough, Tumble, Mimic, and Zavok, to recruit them for his plan.[10] As part of the plan, they raid one of Eggman's bases for the Power Cores, artifacts which amplifies one's ability. Meanwhile, Starline, fearing Rough, Tumble, Mimic, and Zavok are too dangerous to let free, plans to kill them after he is finished with using them. Mimic and Zavok get a hold of this plan, and after raiding another of Eggman's bases, but equipped with the Power Cores, Mimic threatens to kill Starline if he doesn't erase him from the Eggnet Database. Starline does so, but then realizes he has his Tricore, which can amplify multiple abilities, and could've just easily fought off.[11] Upon the skunk brothers learning of Starline's secret plan, Rough and Tumble join Zavok and Mimic in their betrayal against Starline. Starline escapes with his Tricore. The villains finally part and go off on their own ways, with Starline now planning to conquer the world just to top and replace Eggman.

To obtain parts to rebuild Omega, Sonic and Tails search one of Eggman's abandoned bases, while Amy, Rouge, and Cream compete in Chao races to obtain parts from a champion Chao racer known as Clutch.[12] Cheese must, however, be given to Clutch in return. Amy, Rouge, and Cream discover that from Shadow's finding, Clutch is abusive to his losing Chao, locking them up in a cage. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails come across a wooden marionette-like robot named Belle. They reunite with Amy temporarily and introduce her to Belle. Clutch escapes and unleashes a large robot bear, Snowball, to fight Amy. In the meantime, a hooded figure, who turns out to be Starline, kidnaps Tails and Rouge to experiment on them and unleashes a large avalanche at the chateau, giving Sonic and Shadow a dilemma on who to save.

Bleeding Cool gave the first issue a score of 6.5/10, praising the art and creativity of the story but criticizing Sonic's characterization: "Sonic is an insufferable character... He's smug, annoying, and radical in that 1990's sense."[13]

Fans have also criticized the portrayal of Amy Rose, as they felt her portrayal is a copy of Sally Acorn.

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