After letting the writers of Sonic's previous comics do whatever they want, and all the trouble, lawsuits and general insanity that ensued from that, the people at SEGA now work close at hand with the staff at IDW to ensure that this new comic sticks to the Sonic franchise's canon as close as possible... even if, like with many other licensors and their properties, they have to directly interfere with the writers to achieve that goal.
It has been however stated that the Archie series' believed full list of mandates interpreted as being brought over to this comic was a fan-theorized list falsely attributed
to head writer Ian Flynn, and that even with the comic having active input from SEGA, the people working on it do still enjoy a "great deal of freedom" compared to many other licensed books. Fellow writer Daniel Barnes has similarly argued that many fans' perceptions of these mandates have been exaggerated, indicating that SEGA's restrictions on the series are more nuanced and less of an overbearing obstruction to creativity, despite what some reports would suggest at first. Despite this, given that the comic has been retroactively made canon to the games, writers still can't expand on too much in the world and they have to be very careful to not step on SEGA's toes in case the company's next game decides to contradict comic book elements or vice-versa.
- Game characters cannot have relatives unless they were established in the game canon, i.e. Cream and her mother.
- Game characters cannot die. This mandate of course doesn’t apply to characters originally created for the comic, as Dr. Starline was Killed Off for Real in Issue #50. There are workarounds for this, such as being Mistaken for Dying, "Mistaken For Dead" or being brought Back from the Dead:
- Sonic gets caught in a blast when the Warp Topaz overloads. However, Sonic's friends, and Eggman, believe that Sonic survived and will come back sooner or later, which he does after a couple of issues being stranded in Blaze's world.
- Played for Horror for the Metal Virus arc and Zombots concept, which both serve as a Fate Worse than Death, with only hints of victims dying if left unchecked.
- Game characters that already died in canon, such as Mephiles, Black Doom, Tikal and Chaos, are banned from use. The Scrapniks get by this, but it's more easy to justify given that they're robots and can be repaired.
- Game characters cannot have wardrobe changes unless approved. "Chao Races and Badnik Bases" has some characters (mainly the female game characters) wear different clothes for extreme conditions. (It should be noted that these winter outfits already existed, being featured in art on SEGA's official Sonic Channel in Japan, which may be why it was allowed.) Male characters remain the same.
- Sonic can't be shown getting overly emotional (i.e. crying).note
- Much like the post-reboot of the Archie comic, the word "Mobius" is banned—the planet is simply called "Earth", although usually referred to as "Sonic's World". Unlike post-reboot Archie, which allowed the names "Mobian" and "Mobini", anything related to Mobius is banned in this comic.
- Sonic must always win at the end. Even if he and his friends are at the losing end in an overarching story (the Metal Virus arc, for example), they must come out on top when it concludes. Much like in Archie however, said victories can still be quite bittersweet.
- Characters and material from other licensed properties (Sonic the Comic, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Sonic Underground, the OVA, Sonic X and the Paramount films) cannot be used. This rule extends to characters and redesigns done by the current writers. The writers are allowed to make mythology gags as long as they correspond to the game canon, with one example being that SEGA specifically requested them to bring back Vector's crush on Vanilla from Sonic X. The only exception is Sticks from Sonic Boom, and that's because she was created by SEGA themselves and showed up in non-Boom media, but any ideas regarding her use still need to be okayed by SEGA.
- Sticks herself has had some roles and stories pitched for her, but they've been all shot down for the time being. One example is her being a substitute guardian for the Master Emerald in order to give Knuckles more freedom to be used outside Angel Island.
- A Metarex Saga adaptation was at one point pitched by Ian Flynn according to the January 5 and January 15, 2024 Episodes of BumbleKast. This pitch was also rejected, along with him confirming that any characters from Sonic X were generally off the table after asking someone about its usage in general.Flynn: Who I talked to and what they said made it very clear that it's just not on the table. This would have to change at a level of management I cannot even conceive of.
- Male characters, sans Eggman, can't wear pants — also a rule in post-reboot Archie, albeit never explicitly stated. The inverse is also true; female characters have to have some form of lower clothing.
- At the start of the comic's release, Classic characters such as Mighty, Ray, Nack/Fang, Bean, and Bark were restricted to only appearing in Classic-themed issues, as SEGA wanted to keep Classic and Modern Sonic seperatenote . This non-mix mandate can also be seen in certain call-back elements, as Issue #1 doesn't show any Eggman mechs pre-Adventure and in Issue #5, Sonic doesn't bring up any of Eggman's plans pre-Adventure. There are some exceptions, though, such as Eggman's Eggcave having classic-style Badniks on display in the 2020 annual. More Badniks have also started showing up in the main series, including a Motobug becoming something of a Team Pet. It then gets muddier when Scrapnik Island features a lot of classic robots such as Mecha Sonic Mk. II from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
- While showing events from Classic Era games are allowed, it seems that the cast must be presented as their Modern incarnations regardless of the time placement, if Mecha Sonic's flashbacks are any indication.
- It seems this embargo is finally being loosened gradually, as Issue #63 features both a mixture of locations that Sonic and Blaze visited on her vacation tour of Sonic's world. This includes Station Square, Spagonia, and Mirage Saloon, which are all games from various periods of Sonic's history. This seems further shown with the fifth Episode of TailsTube, which has the modern versions of Tails, Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles all reminiscing on their past adventures, which includes them talking about Fang, Mighty, and Ray from their appearances in both Sonic Superstars and Sonic Mania, citing how they all are still active in the present day and going on their own adventures. It seems Sega is at least willing to let these characters have modern counterparts, although as long as they remain offscreen for the time being.
- Flynn has stated that out of all the game characters, Shadow is given the most notes and guidelines regarding how he should be portrayed. It's gotten to the point where Flynn has stated he's less incentivized to write for Shadow until SEGA eases up their grip on him. Fortunately, according to Evan Stanley, Sega has indeed eased up on the guidelines as of 2023.
- Shadow's original portrayal in Issue #19 was that he would remove his inhibitor rings to fight the Zombots, but SEGA vetoed it. A secondhand statement made on Reddit led to fans assuming that Shadow's infamous Vegeta-like personality in this issue was also mandated by SEGA, but Flynn eventually clarified a few years later that Shadow not removing his inhibitor rings was the only real change that SEGA asked him to make, indicating that he was always meant to lose through his own arrogance.
- The scene in Issue #31 where Shadow reflects on his actions and his faults in the above issue was originally meant to have Shadow speaking out loud about them, but SEGA asked Flynn to change it so that Shadow's reflection was internal— as in, shown through thought balloons instead of speech balloons.
- Shadow's original portrayal in Issue #19 was that he would remove his inhibitor rings to fight the Zombots, but SEGA vetoed it. A secondhand statement made on Reddit
- When asked on his podcast, Flynn stated that SEGA is generally against new characters being modeled after insects, aquatic life, or large animals, like elephants, due to being difficult to translate to the Sonic style. Though it's not a hard mandate, as they did make an exception for Jewel and Mimic, they have rejected characters on this basis. Reptiles and birds are apparently okay, but in general, SEGA seems to prefer that the IDW crew stick with small to medium-sized mammals.
- As allegedly stated by Takashi Iizuka during a Q&A session at the Summer of Sonic event in 2013, only male hedgehogs are allowed to go Super with the Chaos Emeralds. Neo Metal Sonic is the only one to get by this, being a robot, though SEGA probably let it slide because he was based off a hedgehog. That being said, Sonic Team's Morio Kishimoto has stated that he had never even heard of this rule before.
- Flynn isn't allowed to directly reference a game's events, since the comic is supposed to be its own thing. In fact, some references he had to sneak under SEGA's nose. Hence, some game events may be canon to the comics, but not others. However, since the comic itself became canon, this mandate no longer applies, leading to more and more references to past events.
- Flynn originally planned for the Warp Topaz to be destroyed at the end of Issue #29 after it seemingly blew up, but received a note from Sega telling him to keep it intact for reasons unknown, so the Warp Topaz being destroyed wasn't shown in the final product. It was eventually resolved (for now, anyway) in the celebratory 900th issue special.
- Evan Stanley originally wrote Cheese with male pronouns as done previously in both the comic itself and other material, but all Chao were requested by Sega to be referred with neutral "they/them" pronouns starting with Issue #33. This seems to be an effort to better reflect the idea that Chao have No Biological Sex, and has since crossed over into the games as of The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Mimic’s character card released to promote Tangle & Whisper states his age to be 32. According to the BumbleKast, Ian originally planned for him to be teenaged, like the majority of the characters, but Takashi Iizuka himself mandated that Mimic be aged up, as he appeared to be much older than the other characters from his point of view. This is why Mimic is the same height as Sonic and Whisper despite being an adult. This was also the reason Ian declined to state Starline’s age when asked in the same episode, as he’s waiting an official word of that from Iizuka and Sega.
- It has been stated that, while there is money in Sonic's world, showing it onscreen is forbidden.
- Knuckles is not allowed to leave Angel Island unless he has a very good reason to.
- While the Master Emerald still has its canonical abilities of powering up robots (Neo Metal Sonic using it as power source in the early issues, for example) and neutralizing the Chaos Emeralds, SEGA requested that it not be portrayed with any other special properties, which is likely why Sonic and Silver couldn't use it to go Super during the Metal Virus Arc. When Ian asked how the Master Emerald keeps Angel Island floating if it doesn't have any unique powers, SEGA didn't reply back with an answer.
- The origin story that Ian Flynn had originally pitched for Surge and Kit was rejected by SEGA, who offered their own take for the duo's pasts which more or less made them into expies of Androids 17 and 18 from Dragon Ball Z.
- According to Ian Flynn, Sega says that Team Dark are not a consistent thing and the name is strictly a marketing term. In other words, the three of them are not an organized team and often spend most of the time doing their own things, and seem to work for G.U.N. as freelancers as opposed to agents in their employ. Shadow apparently also doesn't consider Rouge and Omega "friends" (though Sonic Battle shows that he prefers to call them his "allies" instead, given his emotionally distant personality).
- Characters are not allowed to be in romantic relationships. This has led to particular problems with Tangle and Whisper; according to Ian Flynn, he and the rest of IDW agree with the fan perception of them as a lesbian couple, but he's forbidden from making it canon not because of Hide Your Lesbians, but because of the ban on relationships in general. The most IDW have been able to do is sneak the colours of the lesbian pride flag into the background of a panel of them holding hands.
- Despite the infamous "Two Worlds" rule being eventually retconned, SEGA has asked Ian Flynn to still not show off any humans other than Eggman for the time being.
