Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Publishing)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a comic book series based on the Sega video game franchise, published by IDW Publishing. It is the third licensed comic book iteration based on Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property, after Fleetway Publications's Sonic the Comic and Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Publication history
In July 2017, IDW Publishing announced a deal with Sega to produce a new series of Sonic comics following the cancellation of Archie Comics' previous series. The new series will begin with a four-week long event where the first four issues will be released each week in April 2018, followed by a monthly release of subsequent issues starting in May 2018. Writer Ian Flynn is confirmed to return alongside artist Tyson Hesse.

During New York Comic Con 2017, Ian Flynn confirmed that characters old and new will be featured in the upcoming series hinting that characters from the games and the original comics might possibly return in the series. On December 28, 2017 however, Flynn revealed that the characters he created for Archie Comics are off-limits in the IDW Sonic comics.

On January 11, 2018, IDW launched a Facebook page entitled "IDW Sonic Comic Squad!", where they will release all the latest news on the IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comics. A couple of days later IDW revealed that Tracy Yardley, who originally worked on Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics, will be one of the pencillers for IDW's incarnation. Several other artists from the Archie Comics series have also contributed to the IDW series.

Plot
The story begins shortly after the events of Sonic Forces. The Resistance has defeated Doctor Eggman, who has gone missing, but his remaining robots continue to attack small villages around the world. Sonic must work together with old friends like Tails, Knuckles and Amy, along with new allies like Tangle the Lemur, in order to protect the innocent and find out who is controlling Eggman's forces.

Reception
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."