Forgotten characters in IDW

[Red Hot Jack]

So, what past characters would you like to see in IDW?

From canon, I was interested to see Wendy and the Witchcarters back for the special as part of the classic cast, plus obviously the Hooligans and Tails Doll and Metal Knuckles last year, I'm not sure if they count as "non canon" as they were only in minor spin-offs from the classic era, but still, good to see they are back and into the "main canon" or IDW as part of the sub-canon.

As for other characters, Sticks is my top of the list, Ian Flynn pitched the idea that Sticks lives on Angel Island and sometimes protects the Master Emerald, SEGA rejected that during season 1, but still it was a matter of timing so it could be possible now, or maybe with another idea, I would like to see her interact with main Amy and Cream to be honest, but yeah she fits so well with the world of Sonic in general, I want to see her in the main universe. Maybe tone down the meta humour though.

From Sonic X, I would like to see Cosmo, I'm not sure it's possible but the idea of anthro vegetables was cool to me, in design, obviously Cosmo has a specific storyline so it would take a lot of work to integrate her into main canon, I'm not sure how it would be possible, but I'd welcome it.

As for the humans... the ones from the film are more possible to see I guess, cartoonified, but I'm kind of opposed to having Tom and Maddie in main canon, because for me Sonic doesn't need parents. A human rival like Sam Speed would be interesting, and Topaz but I guess another female cop buddie for Rouge is the same thing in theory.

Now the big thing: Freedom Fighters and SatAM characters. I honestly want them now, if Sticks can get another chance why not them?

Yeah I'm not a fan of them from their SatAM counterparts or early Archie, I liked them in reboot but that is off limits. If they can integrate them as part of the natural Sonic world, sure, I personally don't think old Sally and co. can work without changes to make them fit more into the modern world, Sally can't be naked, can't be with Sonic, etc. different storyline too, unironically I would like them more if they actually fit with what Sonic is now.

But I've seen online fans are really attached to their old selves, and would probably be opposed to having new versions that are not as big important characters or modified. I still think another reboot for them is the only way, eh. I also want Uncle Chuck and Naugus in some way, not Snively though, never liked him.

 

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

I want to see Sticks, just to make sure she's not dead.

Other than that I don't want anyone until we have 2nd book. Book has hard time using current cast.

[Michael Takagawa]

It’s up to Sega if they want to use the characters from alternate continuities again. Maybe in a decade or more.

[Styx_Linoone]

9 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

As for other characters, Sticks is my top of the list, Ian Flynn pitched the idea that Sticks lives on Angel Island and sometimes protects the Master Emerald, SEGA rejected that during season 1, but still it was a matter of timing so it could be possible now, or maybe with another idea, I would like to see her interact with main Amy and Cream to be honest, but yeah she fits so well with the world of Sonic in general, I want to see her in the main universe. Maybe tone down the meta humour though.

The ending to Frontiers basically confirms we may get a road trip arc with all three of them.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

18 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

As for other characters, Sticks is my top of the list, Ian Flynn pitched the idea that Sticks lives on Angel Island and sometimes protects the Master Emerald, SEGA rejected that during season 1,

Sega! GET TGE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY!!

Say what you want about how annoying she is, but that was a great idea…they can’t use Shade (yet?) and Sticks is free enough that she’d be the ideal second person living on Angel Island. Would solve everything!

But Sega said no. Like fuck. Why?

And the Freedom Fighters and anyone in SatAM would need to be redesigned. I liked the Archie Reboot designs enough that I can trust them with a new version.

 A for characters like Naugus, I always figured he would fit in with the Zeti as a rogue member against them. Would spice things up among antagonists for future Bad Guy arcs.

[DabigRG]

Oh each of these:

Classic characters besides will remain exclusive to specials unless we get a Classic book.

Sticks was rejected twice only because they weren't too wowed by the premise and timing, but they also maintained her as a not right now so she is usable.

Flynn has an idea for how to pitch a redux of the Metarex saga, which he believes might be possible in part because Sega actually came to him with the idea of bringing back Vector's crush on Vanilla.

Tom, Maddie, and most importantly Agent Stone might have to be exclusive to a Paramount sponsored book, although the love for the latter does make him wonder if Sega might be willing to double dip.

The Freedom Fighters would have to be new versions of their characters since there's some questionable rights for Archie still being a concern.

[Promethean0416]

Yes, but regarding the FF, aside from having to redesign new versions, the only one who would have a decent solid chance to get in IDW with approval would be Sally alone. Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine would have a low to average chance each, and sadly for Nicole, her chances are extremely slim.

 

This is from one of the BumbleKasts from maybe a month or so back. I can find and post it if anyone wants proof whenever I have the time, but others can look too if they want.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

9 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Sticks was rejected twice only because they weren't too wowed by the premise and timing, but they also maintained her as a not right now so she is usable

Stick vs Neo Metal Sonic, protecting Angel Island while Knuckles was away, and Metal Sonic took over, and preparing a counter strike in case the other characters arrived.

Fuck timing. We legit missed out on that!

Yeah, she might’ve lost quickly, but would you pass up the chance to see Metal swat her away?

I don’t know what wasn’t so wowing of the pitch, but I wouldn’t have even thought of using Sticks as someone also on the island. But just hearing it now sounded way too good for them to pass up so soundly. Maybe room and pacing, but…just makes me curious to see their draft of ideas.

4 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

Yes, but regarding the FF, aside from having to redesign new versions, the only one who would have a decent solid chance to get in IDW with approval would be Sally alone. Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine would have a low to average chance each, and sadly for Nicole, her chances are extremely slim.

Why is Nicole so slim again?

 

[Promethean0416]

51 minutes ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

 

Why is Nicole so slim again?

I am still looking for the BumbleKast interview that states this, but from what I remember, the only reason Sally has the best chance was because she had some outside appearances outside of SatAM and made some in-game appearances as well as her own merchandise. The other FF sans Nicole had cameos too IIRC, but Nicole, on the other hand, has not had any other outside appearances aside from the Archie comic and in turn, has the lowest chance to appear in IDW should another attempt to get them in there happens. 

And keep in mind that even if she did, she will not be in that lynx form anymore...

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

Stick vs Neo Metal Sonic, protecting Angel Island while Knuckles was away, and Metal Sonic took over, and preparing a counter strike in case the other characters arrived.

Fuck timing. We legit missed out on that!

Yeah, she might’ve lost quickly, but would you pass up the chance to see Metal swat her away?

 

I was partial to the mutual "Who are you? What are you doing here? Get off of my island! What do you mean your island?!" scenario myself.

[Promethean0416]

I found the FF presumed chances of appearance in this interview here:

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

1 hour ago, Promethean0416 said:

I am still looking for the BumbleKast interview that states this, but from what I remember, the only reason Sally has the best chance was because she had some outside appearances outside of SatAM and made some in-game appearances as well as her own merchandise. The other FF sans Nicole had cameos too IIRC, but Nicole, on the other hand, has not had any other outside appearances aside from the Archie comic and in turn, has the lowest chance to appear in IDW should another attempt to get them in there happens. 

And keep in mind that even if she did, she will not be in that lynx form anymore...

Wait, so exposure is the problem? Or am I just reading that differently?

Can she still be a Lynx of some kind?

I don’t doubt she’ll have a design change too, but I’m curious if there’s a hard ban on what she’s allowed to look like. Maybe not a holo-lynx, but still a lynx.

[StaticMania]

2 hours ago, Promethean0416 said:

I am still looking for the BumbleKast interview that states this, but from what I remember, the only reason Sally has the best chance was because she had some outside appearances outside of SatAM and made some in-game appearances as well as her own merchandise. The other FF sans Nicole had cameos too IIRC, but Nicole, on the other hand, has not had any other outside appearances aside from the Archie comic and in turn, has the lowest chance to appear in IDW should another attempt to get them in there happens. 

And keep in mind that even if she did, she will not be in that lynx form anymore...

All this says to me is that she can't get in because she didn't exist before Sonic Spinball was made.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Sticks being in Angel Island can kinda work if she's just been hanging around without Knuckles knowing, but anything beyond that is lame. Why would she guard the Emerald, why would Knuckles allow anyone else to do it, etc. It's one of those ideas where it's just tying things too nicely into a bow without considering how it actually works for the characters- not to mention, Sticks already exists. It makes no sense to make a story that introduces her in-universe- she already exists and is Amy's friend in-universe. For Sticks to appear, she'll have to have a story that introduces her out-of-universe, but establishes she's been there all along for the characters- think how Silver gets established in IDW issue 5 (or was it 6, don't remember right now).

Nicole's lynx design is not from SatAM or any of that material, it's an Archie-exclusive thing. Archie-exclusive means no go. If those characters get to reappear, she'll have to be rethought from the starting point (IE, a handheld computer AI thing) and developed in such a way as to try and avoid redoing the Archie version. Adding to that, Sage now also overlaps into a lot of the directions Nicole would be naturally taken towards.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

You could use the whole Robotnik War from Forces as a background to Sticks being on Angel Island.

Lord knows continuity has been so loose that they could easily get away with just throwing her there and explaining everything else later. Would work a hell of a lot better than you think, and I could buy her being established there all along.

Why would she guard the Master Emerald and why would Knuckles allow anyone else to do it? Because Knuckles asked her too when the Resistance needed him, he trusted her enough to do it, and he had no one else to turn to (which I still maintain that Ian’s thoughts on using Vector as the leader was a much better idea, but I digress). I could buy it, and I would never have figured any manner for Sticks to have even fit in IDW to begin with, and it’s much better than the lack of reasons of why Knuckles wasn’t doing his job in the first place.

Mind you, storytelling hasn’t always been the best, but I could see the battle for Angel Island working as an introduction for Sticks and accept that she’s been there all along.

Was a wasted opportunity from where I’m looking at it, and I don’t really care about the character.

[GentlemanX]

It's worth noting that, that Bumblekast is out of date. In a more recent Bumblekast Ian has said that the Spinball cameos have not held the weight he hoped they would making that less of a factor in what characters could potentially show up. Anyway, long post warning - trying to structure it so each paragraph talks about something unique, so if you don't care about what I'm talking about int he first sentence you can probably move on to the next paragraph and see if that's of interest to you.

Trying to read between the lines here, so I'm not trying to put words in Ian's mouth: the following is only my interpretation of how things have gone thus far based on what's been said. It is my belief that getting Sega to allow the use of non-Modern game elements has been a struggle. IDW seems to have a lot of freedom with using elements from Sonic 1, 2, 3&K, and CD plus everything Adventure forward (with exceptions: Chronicles content seems to be unlikely again based on Ian's comments about not even the Gizoid stuff being referenced and we know certain characters like Infinite have been shut down, characters like Chaos and Tikal might be in flux given they were stated to be dead but Ian has said they're making headway on changing that given the references to them in Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence), but everything else has limitations or out right bans.

Classic content is still seemingly locked to Classic stories minus the Origins games even though everything's one timeline now. That being said, with the exception of Spinball and presumably Mean Bean Machine, there doesn't seem to be any limit on Classic Game Characters in new Classic Sonic stories. So while stuff like the Tails 20th special was allowed to deep mine to use the Witchkarters, characters like Mighty and Ray who get tons of merchandise nowadays and are clearly important to the brand again are still not allowed to be used in Modern stories. I'd guess this will be the first thing to notably change given how unpopular the decision is with fans and how relatively harmless introducing Modern versions of these characters would be. I know on the creative side Ian doesn't mind the split, but I'm sure he'd also be fine breaking down the barrier if given the chance too.

In terms of non game material, I'd say overall Modern Sonic media are more likely than Classic Sonic media. Sonic X might be the most viable media given Ian has referenced the X VectorxVanilla crush being given as a note by Sega for IDW. I wouldn't expect the human characters to come back given how unpopular they are with the larger fanbase (my impression is Topaz is the most popular). Cosmo is definitely the most requested and Ian's stated he hopes to pitch an adaptation of the Metarex Arc to get her in, but personally I'm not sure that's in the cards. References to Cosmo have been in various Tails Sonic Channel art giving me the impression Sega considers the Metarex story as already having happened, but I admit that's just headcanon on my part and I'd welcome being wrong there. To me, the most likely to be approved would be Bokkun since he, Decoe, and Bocoe got to appear in the Metarex Arc (Chris too, but I imagine very people that aren't me would be happy to see him back), and while Decoe and Bocoe filled the same role as Orbot and Cubot and have designs from another TMS property, Bokkun could fill more of his own niche and is clearly made with Sonic in mind.

Boom seems pretty much dead beyond the obvious exception of Sticks. Ian has stated he submitted a proposal to use Lyric at one point and while Sega liked the pitch it got shut down because Lyric wasn't usable. While one could make the argument that means more that Boom game stuff, which was more unpopular than the show, is unusable while the show could be, I figure it's more the whole Boom sub-brand in general. At the end of the day, Boom remains a failed experiment and one Sega seems ready to move on from. All contemporary Sonic spin-offs be it IDW or Prime (with the notable exception of the movies) is now far more tied to the games seemingly in a response to Boom's failure to catch on. Sticks is the lone element that is fine, due I'm sure to the fact she was designed by Sonic Team. She showed up in Rio 2016, she was very quickly put onto Sonic Channel in both a bio and a comic, she's mentioned more than once in Frontiers, and we know Sega has told IDW not to use her in certain stories rather than a flat out refusal. She'll show up again, that's basically guaranteed. Everything else? Probably not coming back.

Classic Sonic Non Game media is where we really start running into problems. Sega already has reluctance to use Classic Sonic game material outside of the Classic Sonic brand, so using material they had even less approval over back in the day seems to be possibly a bridge too far. Personally, I just don't think Sega wants to use this material, be it for pragmatic reasons like what role the character would serve that's not occupied by another character (I mention this a few times because Ian has said this on Bumblekast - it gives me the impression that Sega doesn't like the "everything and the kitchen sink" approach Ian took to Archie and that everything not created by Sega of Japan has to justify itself to appear again - being something groups of the fanbase like is not enough for Sega) or for less nuanced reasons in that Sega doesn't like it.

Let's get the most limited factor out of the way first: Archie Sonic. Pre-reboot elements obviously bring with them the legal problems caused by the Penders lawsuit. Getting that stuff back on the table would require Sega either licensing, or more likely purchasing, the rights to those elements. Sega isn't going to do that because they don't care enough about that material (again, not created by Sega of Japan). There hasn't been any evidence that Sega doesn't own the post-reboot material, but Ian's also heavily implied that fact hasn't increased that material's chances. Again, we're talking about something Sega had little to no involvement in the creation of and is probably considered guilty by association to the legal problems of pre-reboot. My guess here is that the cancellation of the Archie comic was linked to Sega actively choosing to abandon that material, which is why all arguments to include the Freedom Fighters are clearly earmarked at utilizing the SatAM versions as a baseline. Again, there doesn't seem to be a legitimate reason for this beyond that Sega has decreed that material unusable, but that's where we are. So we're not likely to see Sega owned characters like Gold or Eclipse again. In terms of the SatAM cast and AOSTH cast that appeared Post-Reboot, with one notable exception this won't really impact what's off the table (does anyone really care if Antoine loses the last name D'Coolette? Over not seeing the character at all?). Characterization changes definitely, again referencing Antoine's development, but nothing character shattering. The lone exception is Nicole. Outside of her name, pretty much all defining elements of Archie Nicole come from Archie itself. The lynx design was created by Tania del Rio, her characterization beyond "computer that's learning to emote thanks to Sonic" comes the comics, her friendship pre-reboot and romantic relationship post-reboot with Sally both stem from the comics, etc. Again, there's nothing theoretically stopping Sega from allowing these elements to be reintroduced gradually, but the reality is Sega is stopping these elements from being reintroduced. Again, from my seat it looks like guilty by association and there's nothing we can really do about it. Archie Sonic is as dead as dead can get as far as Sega is concerned, even if *in my opinion* it'd be in Sega's best interests to get that material under control and clearly distinguished as its own thing rather than just pretend that it's a toxic element to the brand as a whole to be avoided at all costs. But unless there's another, more significant, leadership change at Sega I'd say that's unlikely.

Okay, so where does that leave AOSTH and SatAM material? AOSTH isn't brought up near as much as SatAM so it's harder to judge where things stand with that. We do know that the AOSTH design of Robotnik is approved to appear on merchandise again if rarely, and one officially endorsed video a while back was allowed to use Wes Weasley, so there at least appears to be some level of willingness to appeal to the AOSTH fanbase. I don't know if that extends to appearances in IDW though. Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts are all based on Sonic 2 badniks, making me think they all stand the best chance to come back from anything in the show. But again, Orbot and Cubot fill a relatively similar niche even if the S^6 were more active than the pair. Other characters like Breezie are probably a harder sell, but again Weasley got a reference and his design goes so much against the flow who knows. Again, Ian hasn't really talked about AOSTH since the Freedom Fighters are considered a bigger priority by the fanbase so I don't know.

For SatAM, we know that the Freedom Fighters are getting the most pressure internally to appear and we also know that hasn't really lead to anything thus far. As pointed out earlier, it has come up repeatedly that Sega feels the need to justify non-game elements existence for them to appear again. Rotor is singled out routinely due to his narrative purpose (inventor and Sonic's best friend) overlapping with Tails. The fact that Rotor is a known character isn't important, he needs to be broken down to a baseline purpose to justify his reappearance to Sega. So if Rotor would appear again, it'd require using his SatAM version as the base and then heavily changing him to fit some other role. Since part of the sell Ian's highlighted for them thus far is the team dynamic, Antoine and Bunnie both fill different enough niches to say they bring something new to the table, be it personality or abilities. The goal post then moves to justifying them due to popularity. Antoine and Bunnie aren't considered popular enough to justify their reappearance by niche alone, which is why Ian is emphasizing bringing back the "Freedom Fighters". The term is acknowledged as popular enough that it appears as an Achievement in Sonic Forces and was used as promotion for Tangle and Whisper in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. So Sega seems to consider the "Freedom Fighters" to be more worth bringing back than characters like Antoine and Bunnie on their own. The one exception to this is Sally. Sega of America wanted a Sally mini-series in the 90s to see her popularity, Sega of America intervened to prevent Sally from being killed off in Endgame, Sally was considered relevant enough to replace Amy in Sonic CD's manual, and Sega of Europe allowed a version of her to appear in Sonic the Comic while other characters like Snively were not, and Sega of Australia valued the character enough to be heavily marketed in Sega World Sydney be it in merch, live shows, and iconography. Sally is by far the most popular non-Game character in the franchise prior to IDW and is easily recognizable even outside of the hard core fans. I believe, even if nothing else from SatAM comes back, EVENTUALLY Sega will allow Sally to be reinvented for a future appearance. For now, focus is being placed on the Freedom Fighters because Sally is considered more valuable as a bargaining chip to bring them all back than just herself. If the Freedom Fighters concept is eventually dropped by Sega for consideration, I think there will then be an effort to just bring Sally back and that will have a more likely success. The biggest thing against Sally at the moment is that many of her traits such as leadership and hiding of romantic feelings have been given to Amy recently, to mixed results and reception among the fanbase. Nicole reduced to her SatAM counterpart is "computer that's learning to emote thanks to Sonic", which is definitely a character but isn't nearly as unique as her Archie counterpart. As Fonseca just said, there's a certain level of overlap between that at Sage, with some obvious differences in portrayal given Sage's connection to Eggman. For his part, Ian has stated recently that he doesn't see Sage and Nicole as that similar in execution, but the important part isn't convincing Ian as it is convincing Sega. As for everything else from SatAM be it Snively, Naugus, Chuck, Ducly, Ari etc. - we're back to the "are they popular?" problem with Antoine and Bunnie except infinitely worse.

As for everything else Classic Sonic: Sonic Underground isn't super popular and is actually more popular outside the fandom than it is within it. The only things Underground really worth saving are probably Sonia and Manic, both who are most interesting due to their familial relationship with Sonic which would be heavily toned down since Sega isn't going to let them be his siblings again. They could work as just friends, but at that point it becomes questionable to justify the trouble of arguing for them and even harder to argue they fit roles not filled by other characters. The OVA is seemingly more on the table than other stuff given the level of promotion Knuckles' hat got, but given how outlandish the President and Sara are I'd say it's unlikely they'd be brought back. Old Man Owl is probably the most likely thing from the OVA they could use, and again "is he popular enough?" Though, he is at least something that was probably approved by Sega of Japan, so he has that going for him. Fleetway has much the same problem as Archie Sonic legally, which is going to prevent characters like Tekno, Ebony, Shortfuse, Grimer, etc. The most viable are Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis given they're based on Pocky and Picky, but that essentially puts them in the same position as Sally except without close to the same popularity. The Shogakukan manga is pretty obscure, but seems to have been heavily referenced by Sega of Japan in the 90s. Amy and Charmy obviously came from it, and there's Sega Software R&D Dept. 8 art of characters like Anton, Nicky, and their families. While maybe not as likely as Classic Game characters, I think there's a decent enough chance that Sega would allow the characters to show up at least in other Classic Sonic stories. At this point you start getting into REALLY obscure stuff like Zonik from the Fantail books and... yeah there aren't even people asking for them really.

Lastly real quick there's the matter of characters from cancelled material. Honey and the Sonic Band characters should be in the clear given their reference in the Encyclo-Speed-ia and the 30th anniversary special, but they're presumably under the same stipulations as the other classic characters. The one exception to this is probably Tiara and X-Treme content. Given Ian's comments about this about using X-Treme material in Archie, it sounds like Sega doesn't want this material used. Not certain on why, but given Ian's comments at the time being pretty irritated by the undisclosed reason given, my guess is it's something inconsequential or easily proven wrong. Again, "because Sega doesn't want to". 

Overall, I wish the creatives had more freedom to use at the very least the material Sega owns, but it seems clear that Sega still isn't ready to give things to people just because they can. While there's definitely moving parts that are allowing for more material to be considered valuable to the franchise overall and steps being taken to make everything now coming out to be more interconnected, the result is that a lot of material that was allowed to exist before is now being given considerably more scrutiny. Something big seemed to happen behind the scenes back in 2017 and poor reception to the status quo post Forces has allowed for baby steps at fixing problems through stuff like the lore team and Tails Tube videos. I hope Sega listens to the fans more and allows the fans turned professionals more decision making in the future, but for now we're still in the growing pains phase.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I’ve always been interested in seeing Cosmo return, and since extraterrestrials are becoming more and more of a staple with the Black Arms, the Wisps, and now the Ancients, I would love to see a sort of remake or IDW version of the Metarex saga.

I wonder what the redesigns would look like? Or how the story would go? I kinda like having more surviving Seedarians than just leaving Cosmo and the Metarex leaders as the sole remaining survivors. Sorta like the surviving Alteans in Voltron Legendary Defenders.

[DabigRG]

Wait wait wait, they used Wes Weasley for something officially recently? Why?

[Mauro Fonseca]

Man the fact the instinct to something like Cosmo and her people, from a show with art direction directly influenced and under Sonic Team, is to go "I wonder how we'd get to change them" is why I don't want them used and I suspect Sega's got similar feelings to it. It's a plain open dissonance in what people want Sonic to be.

EDIT: and yes, I get the feeling their intent is that whatever stuff in Sonic X is canon to the games, up to including maybe Cosmo and the Metarex, is intended as already having happened, much like how Sticks has already been introduced and already knows the cast. At most I could maybe see, in a very lucky alignment of planets, them approving a sequel story, rather than an adaptation; and tbh I don't quite want that since I feel Cosmo's not going to be as useful a character existing again rather than as a memory for Tails. All that stuff is best kept as cameo fodder, much like how Tikal and Chaos should be allowed to remain dead- there's plenty of characters to use already without needing to undo the ones that got finality to their stories.

Anyway there's some details I know GentlemanX got wrong here and there but by and large, that's a reasonable guess at it all from you guys' POV from the outside. I'd say it's a good post to use as reference futurely. I'll say I don't think Sally is necessarily more guaranteed than the others in Spinball- stuff like the Sidney merch or the use in StC (which was because of the Sonic 1 localisation, nothing to do with SatAM) is irrelevant to the modern day company. If she has better odds, it'd be because you'd likely more easily convince Sega to approve of one character appearing back, than five or so.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

It’s more like we expect them to change and are okay with it. We know that comes with the territory of being adapted to a new work.

It’s not like they can’t have new stories and adventures in an alternate setting from where they originated, especially given their own differences. 

I like when legacy characters have a new lease on life than being forgotten for years, or treated as useless because they initial take didn’t come off as interesting as they intended.

Plus, it’s not like they haven’t come with interesting new takes on them.

[Wraith]

My favorite off-canon canon is reboot Archie and all that material seems to be sealed. I'd like to see the Freedom Fighters return but in-between Sega's reluctance and how controversial they've become with the fanbase I can't see it happening any time soon.

I'm not really fond of most other extended universe stuff. I didn't even want sticks to come back. IDW has some of the best original characters the IP has gotten, and they found a nice balance with them where they usually enrich the game cast rather than overshadowing them, so I wouldn't m mind if they just kept that up and let the past be the past.

[GentlemanX]

9 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Wait wait wait, they used Wes Weasley for something officially recently? Why?

A good question, I'm not entirely sure because I can't find the video. I know it wasn't uploaded to the official Sonic channel but was promoted for some reason (charity? collab? can't remember. The video was of sprites where Sonic was fighting I believe the Death Egg Robot. Each time Sonic hit him the background and sprites would change. At one point he hits the Death Egg Robot and the background changes to AOSTH and the robot now looks like Wes Weasley until he hits him again. Again, not sure who made the video and what it was for, but I do know it was something at least endorsed by Sega to some degree.

7 hours ago, Mauro Fonseca said:

Anyway there's some details I know GentlemanX got wrong here and there but by and large, that's a reasonable guess at it all from you guys' POV from the outside.

Yeah, that makes sense. I've tried to keep up with all the information and content that's circulated since I started participating in the fandom some 20 years ago, but at the end of the day it's all second hand information.

 

[Matdrac]

What I most want to see a new version in IDW are the robotic minions of Dr. Eggman:

Coconuts, Scratch, Grounder (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)

Bokkun (Sonic X)

[Red Hot Jack]

Sally and the FFs could be adapted into being modern forms of the animal friends trapped in badniks, that is my idea. And yeah Nicole was the best character but most of her potential was from Archie, there wasn't much outside of the comic. The fact that they appeared in Spinball could go either way, they could be trapped in the Classic exclusive cast too, who knows.

Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts could simply be Classic exclusive, Eggman has a big family in the modern era, I'm rather content with Orbot and CUbot despite what people say, Metal Sonic and Sage are his kids and the dumbots are the despised others.

Cosmo and the Metarex I'm really interested in, I'd also rather not explore the Black Arms further because I despise their designs, but hey they are part of the canon too, so I don't know...

Sticks can't be actually introduced, Amy and co. already are friends with her, she is already introduced even with Boom not being canon. I guess a cool debut would have been cooler, even though she is not the most story-type character, her background is interesting though, having lived in the jungle alone since she was a baby.

[Red Hot Jack]

This is a half joke running online but what if the tailstube pink haired lady is new Sally? She looks nothing like her but I would say, if she returns, expect something completely different.