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.

On April 14, 2020, it was announced that Evan Stanley, one of the series' artists, would be writing for the series.[7]

On June 28, 2020, two original characters from the series, Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf, were announced to appear in the Sonic mobile game Sonic Forces: Speed Battle as part of its events,[8][9] with them doing so next month.[10] Merchandise, including a plush toy, of the two have been released also.[11][12] Tangle was also briefly mentioned in the 2022 Sonic game Sonic Frontiers.[13] It is confirmed by the Lore Manager Chris Hernandez that the comics are canon to the games.[14]

The comic follows the adventures of Sonic and his friends (old and new) as they thwart Doctor Eggman and other villains.

After the end of the war, Eggman has genuinely lost his memory and ended up in a remote village where he has taken on the more friendly moniker of Mr. Tinker. Sonic learns that Neo Metal Sonic is now leading the Badniks, plotting to take over the world in Eggman's stead. While Sonic and his friends fight Neo Metal Sonic and his army on Angel Island, an Eggman admirer named Starline kidnaps Mr. Tinker and successfully reverts him back to Eggman after a defeated Metal Sonic returns to him.

While Tangle helps Whisper bring her former comrade turned criminal Mimic to justice, Eggman hatches a new scheme involving the Metal Virus, which turns organic material into mindless robots dubbed "Zombots", but it quickly mutates beyond his control. Starline brings in the Deadly Six in hopes that they can control the Zombots, but they betray him. This leads to a falling-out between Starline and Eggman and forces the latter to help Sonic and his friends cure the world.

Afterwards, Sonic and company decide to fix E-123 Omega, whose body was destroyed during the plague. Sonic and Tails investigate an Eggman base to find the blueprints while Rouge, Amy, Cream, and Cheese enter a competition to win parts; the former group discovers a peaceful Badnik created by Mr. Tinker named Belle while the latter comes into conflict with former crime boss Clutch. Meanwhile, Starline, hoping to regain Eggman's respect and rejoin him by proving his own superiority, sets his own plans in motion by allying himself with villains like Zavok and stalking Sonic's friends. Zavok reunites the Deadly Six and they attack the Restoration's home base, but are defeated and banished to their homeworld of Lost Hex.

From the bio-data he has collected, Starline creates Surge and Kitsunami, two cyborgs meant to replace Sonic and Tails and end the status quo between them and Eggman. Upon learning that he has been conditioning them and wiping their memories to create their personalities and being unable to find any trace of their past, Surge and Kit vow to destroy all heroes and villains. Starline, oblivious, moves to accomplish his vision by conquering the Eggman Empire's new capital, Eggperial City, which is expanding itself until it covers the entire planet, and lures Sonic, Tails, and Belle there. However, Eggman defeats Starline and leaves him to die, while Kit flees with Surge in tow after several defeats incapacitate her. Eggman himself is subsequently defeated, and Eggperial City destroyed, by the Restoration and their allies.

New characters to the series include:

• Tangle the Lemur – an energetic ring-tailed lemur who can elongate her tail for use in combat. She is briefly mentioned in the mainline game Sonic Frontiers.
• Whisper the Wolf – a reserved wolf who uses a Wisp-powered rifle and becomes Tangle's best friend. She was formerly a member of an anti-Eggman mercenary group called the Diamond Cutters.
• Jewel the Beetle – a beetle museum curator and Tangle's childhood friend who later becomes the newest Restoration leader following the Metal Virus pandemic.
• Belle the Tinkerer – a clumsy but kindhearted marionette-like robot created by Eggman when he was "Mr. Tinker".
• Lanolin the Sheep – a nervous sheep who joins the Restoration after Sonic and Amy saved her village.
• Doctor Starline – a platypus scientist who admires Eggman. He dies at Eggman's hands after trying to take over his empire.
• Rough & Tumble – a pair of trouble-making skunk brothers and former mercenaries.
• Mimic – a shapeshifting mimic octopus and former comrade of Whisper who betrayed his team to Eggman.
• Surge the Tenrec – a punkish cyborg lowland streaked tenrec created by Starline to be Sonic's doppelgänger, who is deeply traumatized by Starline's experiments.
• Kitsunami "Kit" the Fennec – a somber cyborg fennec fox created by Starline to be Tails' doppelgänger and Surge's sidekick, who is also deeply traumatized by Starline's experiments.
• Clutch the Opossum – an opossum crime boss who collects Eggtech and uses it for personal profit.

Joshua Davison on 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."[15]

Dustin Holland's review of the first issue of the Imposter Syndrome miniseries on Comic Book Resources praised the personalities of new villains Surge the Tenrec and Kit the Fennec, action-filled plot, and appropriately expressive art.[16]

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