Sonic the Hedgehog: New Characters from the Comics

By Jason Koop

In 2018, Sonic the Hedgehog, an icon in the video game industry since 1991, made a significant change.  His long-running comic book changed publishers, from Archie Comics to IDW Publishing.  While long-time writers and artists like Ian Flynn, Evan Stanley, Tracy Yardley and Adam Bryce Thomas stayed on as contributors, the comic book started a new continuity with the new publisher.  One that was more in line with the video games, and with parent company SEGA taking a more active, supervising role than they had with the Archie Comics series.

One thing long-running, serialized comic series do to freshen things up is introduce new characters.  They can offer a fresh perspective, new conflicts, and change the dynamic of the series.  Just using the video games, Sonic already had a large extended cast, so a comic that focuses not just on the titular character but spreads it out might not feel the “need” to freshen things up with new characters. 

Thankfully, the creative team has brought in new characters that – for the most part – have brought something new and distinct to the series; to help make it a worthwhile read in of itself, separate from the video games.  Some of these new characters have had starring roles for stretches, others have thus far been relegated to strictly secondary/background.

In this blog, I would like to bring into focus – albeit briefly – seven characters that have been introduced to us via the IDW comics.  Some of these have been introduced or referenced in other mediums – video games, podcast dramas, etc. – but all of these characters got their start in the IDW comics.

A deeply personal favourite, in more than one way.  In addition to the fact my love for wolves is only rivaled by wolverines, Whisper brings something truly unique to the series.  Not only is she as quiet and reserved like her name would suggest – a bit of a rarity in a series where it can feel like most characters are extroverts – but she also has her own personal history fighting Eggman, separate from Sonic.  She is deeply wounded, and watching her heal – with more than a few starts and stops – is refreshing.  Also, she has a variable Wispon and dresses in more tactical gear, which gives her a unique appearance.

Boisterous, energetic, a tail that can stretch to absurd lengths, and with optimism to spare, Tangle immediately felt right when she was introduced.  Her inexperience and naivete make her both an ideal person to get through Whisper’s walls, as well as being taken advantage of by Rouge.  Her hero-worshipping of all things Sonic make her both a fan-girl and a reminder of the simpler “good guys good and will always win” mentality that can be lost by the more experienced crowd.

If Tangle is something of a fan-girl for Sonic, Dr. Starline is a full-on fanatic of Dr. Eggman.  When Starline is on the scene, you can rest assured that more there will be at least a few references to either past Eggman tech or schemes.  But Starline is no lackey.  He is determined to be Eggman’s equal, and this is reflected in both how he dresses and his obsessions.

Surge is the product of Dr. Starline’s obsession.  Essentially created by Starline in a lab, she has been cybernetically enhanced and psychologically groomed to both hate Sonic and then replace him.  While her backstory – who she was before Starline – is still a mystery, it’s her current trajectory that is most interesting.  She has rough edges that would make even Shadow wince, and yet she finds herself looking down the road of being a hero of sorts.  As she continues to sort through what it means to live without any real past to fall back on, she also tends to push Sonic and friends to the extreme of what it means to live out what they say they stand for.

While Lanolin might seem to have come out of nowhere, if one were to look more closely, they would see that her first appearance dates back to the second issue.  Starting out as a background character, she is seen getting more and more involved in the Restoration, until she pushes herself into a critical role.  A hard worker who is determined to make the world a better place, Lanolin gives the audience an idea of what it might look like if one of us average joes were in a world of hedgehogs that run at Mach speeds, chameleons that can turn invisible, and lemurs with tails that can stretch to insane lengths.

One thing that was an early hook for the comics was that Dr. Eggman lost his memory and had re-invented himself as Mr. Tinkerer.  A friendly handyman for a remote mountain village, until kidnapped by Dr. Starline and forcefully having his memories returned, this new persona for the doctor does leave its mark on the audience.  But of course, Eggman is returned to the status quo, but “Mr. Tinkerer” has left behind a legacy.  A marionette-like robot named Belle.  Kind-hearted, helpful, and not at all useful in a fight, Belle deals with feelings of abandonment and wondering what her purpose is.

Karlissa’s favourite new addition.  Two big reasons why:  One, she is a beetle, and Karlissa loves bugs.  Two, Karlissa loves Jewel’s design (which is fair, considering that she is introduced in a comic).  But what makes her standout to me is that, like Lanolin, she exists outside of the adventures of Sonic.  She starts out as a curator of a mineral and gem museum, but then comes into a leadership role at the Restoration.  She is timid, but likes to challenge herself.  Frankly she is the kind of pencil pusher that isn’t likely to place herself in the middle of one of Sonic’s adventures, yet what she does is given value and dignity.  She has to be reminded – sometimes forcefully – not  to get lost in her work and forget whom and for what she is doing this work.

Want more Sonic the Hedgehog discussions? Check out Jason’s ranking of Sonic shows, listen to our first podcast episode on Sonic, or listen to Jason’s experiment with charting Sonic characters according to the Enneagram!

Sleep in Peace (story and preview)

By Karlissa J

Davy Jones started awake. A chilly, palpable darkness surrounded the merchild, his belly resting against soft mud.

He wasn’t afraid of the dark or the cold. He breathed through it. He lived in it. And yet something had unsettled him. “Uncle Jor’mun Gand?” Davy Jones whispered.

Silence.

“Uncle?”

“I heard you,” His uncle’s smooth voice floated from the darkness. “I told you not to wake me. What do you want?”

“Can… can I um… can I come sleep beside you?”

A pause. “Fine.”

Davy Jones swam up and over. He felt the rock that his uncle slept upon, then nosed his way to his uncle’s chest, curling beneath the larger merman’s arms. The child stretched out his own eel-like body. “Uncle?”

“Yes?”

“Um… I saw a glowing fish in the house.”

“A small one?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then don’t worry about it,” Jor’Mun Gand said absently. “All the food is stored away. And glowing fish are rarely scavengers anyways.”

The room fell back into quiet. Davy Jones could feel his uncle’s pulse. The merchild curled into a ball. “Uncle, I… I had a nightmare. I didn’t see anything, but I smelled something scary following me.”

His uncle shifted. “Tell me: what do you smell right now?”

Davy Jones’ little nose searched the water. His voice lifted cheerily, “I smell you.”

The two spent a moment tasting and smelling the chemical mixture of the water: the salt of the sea, the particles stirred by the current outside. Jor’mun Gand held his hand over Davy Jones’ heart, feeling the child’s rushing pulse.

He pulled his nephew closer. “Focus on the comforting smells. On me. On what’s really here. There are no monsters, no scary smells. Just us.”

Davy Jones took another couple sniffs to confirm his uncle’s words. Then, he set his head against the rock. The spiny dorsal fin trailing from his head to his back folded down.

No monsters, Davy Jones thought contentedly, curling his long claws into the rock beneath his hands and uncoiling his slimy, serpentine body. He yawned, exposing rows of mini daggers for teeth. No monsters – just us.

This short story is also the first chapter in Davy Jones’ Aquarium! Click here to find the book on Kobo or take a look at Karlissa J’s novels!

The Sheep and the Briars (a parable)

By Karlissa J

(This story was first published in the FellowScript InScribe Magazine, February 2025 issue)

Sheep may not be as stupid as we claim; yet there are things the Shepherd understands that sheep need help to figure out.

The Shepherd was instructing Well-Spoken Ram one day, telling him how he could help the other sheep.

Pointing to a row of briar bushes growing across the length of the pasture, the Shepherd explained: “Well-Spoken Ram, it is important that the sheep do not eat from these bushes. For just beyond them lies a pack of wolves, waiting for sheep to get too close. But the wolves will not pass to this side of the bushes.”

Peering between two briar bushes, Well-Spoken Ram glimpsed a dark figure, and a pair of sharp golden eyes locked onto his gaze. Well-Spoken Ram backed behind the Shepherd, trembling. “Are you sure they will not pass?”

Stroking him gently, the Shepherd repeated: “The wolves will not pass to this side of the bushes. But you must tell the other sheep not to eat from these briars.”

The ram did not know why the wolves would not cross the bushes. But he trusted his Shepherd’s word. “I can do that,” he agreed.

Well-Spoken Ram carried himself boldly, feeling very happy to be chosen by the Shepherd for this important job. He walked around the other sheep as they grazed throughout the pasture, and he bleated: “The Shepherd said with his own mouth: do not eat from the briar bushes! If you do, you will be devoured by wolves!”

Many sheep took this sage advice to heart, and steered clear of the briar bushes and the wolves beyond.

Among the meandering sheep was Loyal Lamb. Nibbling casually, mind absorbed in finding the softest patches of grass, Loyal Lamb tasted something strange on her tongue, something prickly but with juicy leaves.

“What is this?” She pulled back to examine a stick that had been lying within the grass. The lamb had never seen this type of stick.

But she recalled the warning of Well-Spoken Ram: never to eat from the briar bushes. With a shudder, she realized that the thorny branch in front of her might be from a briar bush!

“Oh no! Have I disobeyed the Shepherd, eating from a briar?” But she hadn’t been trying to; the branch had appeared in her path. Questions raced through her mind.

“Is it a briar branch, or something else? Does the Shepherd care if I eat from a branch, if I don’t eat from the bush itself? If it is a bad briar branch, will He forgive me for touching what I meant not to touch? Oh dear! I better go to Well-Spoken Ram for more answers!”

Well-Spoken Ram, meanwhile, had come to feel very proud of his position in directing the flock. Thus far, only the sheep that despised the Shepherd ignored his words, jeering at him as they tested out the briar bushes for themselves.

“Whatever befalls you,” he declared, “is on your own hooves!”

Then up came Loyal Lamb.

“Excuse me,” she bleated to Well-Spoken Ram. “I know I was told not to eat the briar, but I nibbled a branch in the grass, and it might have been a briar branch. Did I disobey the Shepherd’s words? What should I do?”

“You nibbled from a briar bush?!” Well-Spoken Ram snorted angrily. “Then of course you disobeyed the Shepherd! Oh, Loyal Lamb, are you one of the scoffers too? Do you not remember what the Shepherd said: if you eat of the briar the wolves will devour you?”

Loyal Lamb quaked. “I do not want to be devoured by wolves. I want to obey my Shepherd. But I’m afraid I may have eaten some briar – I do not know. Can you help me –”

At that the ram cried, “How dare you try to defend your actions?! Traitor! You do not obey the Shepherd!”

The sheep around heard his cry, and gathered towards Loyal Lamb, whispering, “A briar-eater? A briar-eater?”

Loyal Lamb trembled, and spoke haltingly, trying to explain; but her words were drowned as Well-Spoken Ram yelled loudly and clearly and persuasively: “The Shepherd said it, and we must obey! The lamb who ate from the briar bushes is doomed to face the wolves! Come, sheep: give the traitor over to her fate!”

And Well-Spoken Ram lowered his horns, charged at Loyal Lamb, and shoved her towards the briar row. The other sheep looked on, nodding and approving. “He is right about the Shepherd’s words.” “That lamb has clearly disobeyed the Shepherd.”

Beyond the briar bushes, the wolves awaited, eyes eager as the lamb was shoved, trembling and screaming, into their jaws.

“For all the law is fulfilled by this single piece of instruction: ‘You should love your neighbour as yourself.’ But if you are biting and devouring one another, watch out! You might end up consumed by each other!”

Galatians 5:14-15 (author’s paraphrase)

Sonic the Hedgehog on the Small Screen... Ranked

By Jason Koop

Everyone: in this, the month of March, the year of our Lord 2025, I am petitioning that this be henceforth known as “The Month of Sonic the Hedgehog”.  Why, you ask?  Simple, because everyone knows that a march is like walking really fast.  That’s as close as you can get to running without lifting your knees that high.

So, to celebrate this inaugural month of Sonic, let’s do something that is still very much “in” these days.  Ranking media.

But what to rank… the Sonic video games, where the hedgehog got his start?  Nah, I haven’t played every Sonic game. How about the comics?  I’ve certainly talked ad nauseum about those on the podcast.  Yeah… about that.  I’ve only really read the IDW comics, and have only seen parts of the Archie comic run. And the movies… well, the less I say about those the better.

Hmmm… the problem with making these click-bait-y type blogs is you either need to come in with a ton of knowledge or a lot of time to get caught up on what you don’t know.

For the sake of brevity, we will rank something from a relatively small selection size.  Sonic’s adventures on the small screen.  Heck, we can make it even smaller by reducing it to purely animated series.  That way I can eliminate the Knuckles mini-series.

#6.   The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)

Full disclaimer, I have only seen a couple episodes of this, and… I honestly feel that gives me a pretty good grasp on the series as a whole.  The theme song kind of summarizes what to expect.  Sonic and Tails run around, clash with the Dr. Robotnik and his minions, wacky hi-jinks ensue, with no real plot or character to make them stick.  Frankly, it has more in common with a Looney Tunes cartoon than anything particularly “Sonic”.  While certain characters from the show got limited exposure in the Archie comic run, there’s a reason why no one is really clamouring for references to this part of Sonic’s history.

#5.   Sonic Underground (1999)

Again, having only seen a couple episodes of this, this is another insanely wacky chapter in the Hedgehog’s existence.  Really, about the only thing it does is affirm the Hedgehog’s affinity to music.  Which, while neat in of itself, does little to make this one worth watching.  At least it pretends at having a plot/story arc for its protagonists.  That’s something.  And the title is a pun.

#4.   Sonic Boom (2014-17)

Part of an attempted re-boot for the franchise (which also included a few video games sharing the same title), this series presented both different designs for the characters and a much lighter tone.  While the characters are relatively flat, there are some fun episodes and truly humorous jokes.  Thankfully, the show is self-aware enough not to take itself seriously.  Overall though, it’s best described by its in-show fast-food franchise, a “Meh Burger”.

#3.   Sonic Prime (2022-24)

This series is… confusing to me.  On the one hand, it cuts out the wacky silliness that Sonic has been known to indulge in with his animated shows.  On the other hand, it replaces it with a multi-verse story that frankly feels too spread out.  While the multi-verse does give the audience interesting takes on certain characters (like Nine, Knuckles the Dread and Mangey Tails), we aren’t given any real reason to get attached to them and their conflict.

The Chaos Council – comprised of 5 different Eggmen – is pretty funny with its squabbles and Shadow does his best to keep things on point.  There are multiple cool action sequences, and the dialogue is pretty good too.  However, it’s all too… surface and would have been better off with less multi-verse hopping.

#2.   Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-94)

Also known as Sonic SatAM (because it typically played on Saturday mornings), this is the series that is arguably the most recognizable.  In a world where Robotnik has pretty much won, polluting most of the planet and robotizing many of its inhabitants, it’s up to Sonic, Tails and the Freedom Fighters to fight back.  It provided the groundwork for the initial 10 years of Sonic’s run in Archie comics; with several characters introduced in the show being main characters, like Princess Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine, Rotor, Nicole, and Robotnik’s lackey Snively.  There is a surprising amount of world-building that happens to separate it from just being “stop the evil Dr.’s most recent evil plan”.

#1.   Sonic X (2003-06)

This is by far the largest Sonic show, in terms of story and scope.  The cast is big, including Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Shadow, Rouge, and a human character, Chris Thorndyke. In the first season, the episodes range from funny side-stories (like where they play a baseball game against Eggman and his robots for a Chaos emerald), to more serious fare (like dealing with the fact that Chris feels very much an after thought of his parents).

The second season is where the series truly shines, taking Sonic and his friends away from Earth, and placing them in their own planet where they are soon caught up in an intergalactic war with the Metarex.  Here the series really goes big with its spectacle and stakes, leading to some surprisingly dark turns for a kids show, which makes the victory feel all the more earned.

The theme song is a fun jam.  And finally, it proves my theory that the perfect Sonic show should be an anime.

#0.   Sonic x Shadow Generations: Dark Beginnings (2024)

Karlissa went over my head an insisted I include this, to which I respond with…  IT’S NOT FAIR!!!  I mean, c’mon!  The animation is gorgeous, the dialogue is fantastic, the action scenes are flat-out SICK, and it features a hauntingly beautiful song by Casey Lee Williams!  I know, it’s a prelude to Shadow’s portion of the video game, and non-Sonic fans might not get a whole lot of it, but for someone like me (or even Karlissa, who has received fandom by association with me) its only flaw is that it’s not a full-on show!  Please, SEGA!!!  Make a show like this!  P.S.  Watch it on YouTube if you don’t own the game.