Whenever Shadow breaks out the Chaos Spear, the attack is shaped like an actual spear that he can throw or use as a melee weapon. This is more in-line with its portrayal in the Archie comics, as opposed to the games where Shadow fires a bolt of energy.
The Metal Virus is quite similar to how Dr. Eggman was able to roboticize others with a mere touch during a brief period in the Archie comic.
Those affected by said metal virus end up becoming chrome-tinted versions of themselves with red/black eyes, which seems to be based on the "metal skin" Easter Egg from Sonic Heroes's two-player mode.
Starline, Surge, and Kit are all based on various glitch entities in the Classic series.
Dr. Starline is based on "Wechnia", a scrapped character from Knuckles Chaotix whose ability to fly suggests that he's a Dummied Out version of Tails. Ingame, he appears as a white, red and black version of Knuckles. Starline is a platypus, another monotreme, and has a primarily white and black color palette alongside being a genius inventor like Tails. Additionally, Starline's name is a pun based on the "official" name Wechnia receives in Chaotix's hidden level select menu: "***", or a line of stars. His faction symbol alludes to this as well, being a line of five stars over a graphic of his hair swoop.
Starline's two abilities are also references to older media in the franchise. His ability to open portals using the Warp Topaz brings to mind Dr. Finitevus' ability to do the same with his warp rings (both characters were also scheming white-furred monotreme scientists).
Once Starline loses his Warp Topaz, he replaces it with the Tricore. Its mechanics and drawbacks are similar to the Stance System of Sonic Heroes, where Starline can use the Tricore to get a boost in Speed, Power, or Flight (indicated by blue, red, and yellow auras), much like the type of character the player is controlling at the time. The player is also only allowed to have one character in control to use their abilities at a time, with a button dedicated to switch which team member to use during gameplay. Starline similarly needs to switch out Power Cores to change the type of boost he's getting. Starline can also expend the Tricore's power to use his own variation of the Team Blast, the Tricore Blast, which allows him to heavily damage his foes. His Tricore Blast is executed very similarly to the Sonic Overdrive.
Surge the Tenrec is based on the "Ashura" glitch from Sonic 2, being a green "Hedgehog" with a black spot taking up most of her forehead. Her personality is based on Scourge the Hedgehog from the Archie series (an evil Sonic who hails from Moebius), whose more iconic design was also heavily based on the glitch.
Kitsunami "Kit" the Fennec is based on the "Blue Knuckles" glitch from Sonic 3, a mishap wherein all three playable characters would be mashed together somewhat, being Knuckles with Sonic's color palette and being referred to as Tails by the Level Completion graphics. Kit is a blue Fennec fox, whose large floppy ears give him a silhouette similar to Knuckles. Tails' AI in the original Sonic games he stars in had him follow Sonic at all times, with zero care for any hazards in his way. In Kit's case, he is programmed to follow and support Surge no questions asked, having a meek and depressed personality to boot. (Flynn has also cited a specific blue Tails glitch he remembers from his childhood as an inspiration for Kit.)
The Chaotix travel around in the Beat Monster, Vector's car from Team Sonic Racing.
Amy Rose's pink convertible car, the Pink Cabriolet, takes its name from Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and its design from Team Sonic Racing. When she needs to return to Angel Island during the Misadventures arc, the car transforms to have flight capabilities, making it resemble its Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed counterpart.
One of Belle's catchphrases, "Gears and starters," is the same phrase that Eggman once uttered in Issue #175 of the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), which also serves as foreshadowing of her creator's identity. This catchphrase is also shared with E-117 Sigma, who briefly utters it in shock during the Scrapnik Island miniseries.
Vector the Crocodile has a crush on Vanilla the Rabbit, just like in Sonic X. This is first referenced in issue #32, with Vector having a bashful response to Vanilla when they come to help the detective agency. The second time it's present is in Issues #65-66, where he's the most excited at attending the dinner being prepared by the Rabbit family and is surprised when the Chaotix inform him that Vanilla invited the whole team and not just him.
Individual Issues
In issue 1, on top of the first page serving as a general recap of Sonic’s battles with Eggman, the Egg Dragoon’s panel is captioned with “But after their last battle...” (followed up with “...Dr. Eggman vanished...” for Forces' Death Egg Robot). Egg Dragoon was the final Eggman robot Sonic fought chronologically in the Archie comics.
Near the end of issue #2, Sonic's response to Amy asking if he's heading off again ends with him saying "Living by my way. My own way", which is a paraphrased line from "It Doesn't Matter", his theme in the Adventuregames.
Sonic groans at Rough and Tumble in Issue #3, claiming they make "the Hooligans" look good, an obvious call back to Nack, Bean and Bark, who were known as "Team Hooligan" in the Archie comics.
The first animal friend we see Sonic play around with in issue 5 is a Ricky. In the "Western continuity" of the 1990s (being the SatAM and Archie continuities), this particular critter and its counterparts had the name "Sally Acorn"; the most famous of these Sallies was one of Sonic's dearest companions in the aforementioned continuities.
When Sonic and Espio talk to a village mayor about all the good things Eggman did for the town under amnesia, Sonic quips "This was much easier when it was just 'I hate that hedgehog'", Eggman's catchphrase from the oldcartoons.
This is echoed with Amy revealing that the password for the Eggman Empire's network is usually some variation of "H4T3TH4TH3DGEH0G."
In Issue #7, when Sonic jumps off Tails' plane onto Eggman's airship, he crosses his legs and puts his hands behind his head while in freefall for a bit which he can do in Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forcesif you don't press anything in freefalling 3D sections.
Likewise in Issue #7, when Neo Metal Sonic is about to drop him to his doom from atop his airship, Sonic says "I never fear the fall". This line is directly taken from "His World", his theme song from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).
Issue #9 has a few allusions to Sonic Heroes, from the Chaotix hanging onto Charmy identically to Flight formation from that game to Neo Metal Sonic quoting lines from "What I'm Made Of", the theme of his boss fight as Metal Overlord, as he uses the Master Emerald to power up into his Super Mode. Said Super Mode is also a reminiscent of what Mecha Sonic did in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Likewise, Issue #10 slipped in this exchange between Sonic and Knuckles:
Sonic: Knux! Secure the Master Emerald so he can't draw power from it! I'll keep him busy! Knuckles: Are you nuts? He'll crush you!
In Issue #10, Mr. Tinker sings a much more friendly version of E.G.G.M.A.N., "his" theme from Sonic Adventure 2. Neo Metal Sonic's One-Winged Angel form of "Master Overlord" is a straight send-up to his Metal Overlord form from Sonic Heroes as well.
In issue #12, Shadow's taken off before any chance of a celebration can follow the final battle. Rouge assures us that "he's gone, never to look back again", a paraphrased quote from the True Ending song of his title game.Similarly, Eggman muses to Dr. Starline that despite the potential to restart Neo Metal Sonic's plan with greater success, "it's time for a change of pace", itself a line from Sonic Unleashed.
In issue #15 Amy finds Eggman's planned means of distributing the Metal Virus: a miniaturized version of the Space Colony ARK from Sonic Adventure 2.
In issue #29, Knuckles gets infected with the Metal Virus. Infected Knuckles' design resembles Mecha Knuckles from Sonic Advance 1.
After the heroes have won in issue #29, Team Chaotix celebrates their reunion by singing their self-titled theme song from Sonic Heroes.
Similarly, Cream & Cheese's opening move in issue #30 against Zavok references not just Cheese's status as Cream's primary form of attack, but her voice line for signaling an attack in Heroes.
In issue #30, Sonic's disappearance due to the Warp Topaz overloading is similar to the ending of Archie Sonic issue #125, where Sonic in that continuity also disappeared after deactivating a Doomsday Device used by aliens to wipe out Planet Mobius.
On just one cover and the first two pages, issue #31 has more Easter Eggs than the Easter Bunny himself could carry:
On the "B"-cover, Storm's mugshot lists him as having been captured by the Knothole Village Police Precinct referencing Knothole Village from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) (though the K at the beginning and the E at the end are partially obscured by Storm's large fingers. Jon Gray revealed that he did that so that SEGA had a harder time translating it and striking the reference down). The numbers on said mugshot also reference the release date of Sonic Riders.
Blaze's monologue about Sonic roughly matches how he described his personality to Sir Percival in Sonic and the Black Knight. Coincidentally enough, Blaze is Sir Percival in that game.
The person she's talking to also happens to be Sonic, who has lost his memory after his combined Metal Virus/Warp Topaz ordeals. Upon recovering, he refers to himself as "Mr. Needlemouse" after a young girl in Blaze's world called him that. It was a common misconception that "Mr. Needlemouse" was the original name before "Sonic the Hedgehog"note The Japanese word for hedgehog is composed of Japanese words for needle and mouse, so a more accurate translation was Mr. Hedgehog. Sega would later decide to always use the English word "Hedgehog" no matter the language.
Shadow ends up adopting Clutch's Dark Chao at the end of the "Chao Races & Badnik Bases" arc. A similar Chao appears in some of Shadow's Sonic Channel wallpapers.
A dark-colored Chao reclining on its side with a bored expression can be seen at various points in the "Chao Races & Badnik Bases" arc; this Chao is a dead ringer for Chacron/Chaclon, the hardest Chao Race opponent in Sonic Adventure and one of the hardest in its sequel.
In Issue #49, while under a tarp, Sonic goes "I'm waiting".
Starline's state by the end of Issue #50 is an epicallyironic mirror of Eggman's in the 200th issue of the Archie comics: utterly defeated despite his big plans and preparations, and reduced to little more than a rambling, broken shell of a man.
Much like how Robotnik Prime in the Archie Comics died in Issue #50, Issue #50 of IDW sees the death of Dr. Starline.
Eggman is shown using the communicator drone from his missions in Shadow the Hedgehog during Issue #51, with the shuttle used by Tails and Belle resembling the spaceship form of the Final Weapon from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
While scrounging for a new weapon in Issue #52, Surge pulls out the firearm that Eggman held Amy at gunpoint with back in Adventure 2.
Issue #55 has Eggman using the Eggwalker from Sonic Adventure 2, albeit stripped of its upgrades. It is also powered by a Chaos Drive from the same game. On top of that, one of the background details during Sonic and Metal Sonic's clash shows a Chao Container from the same game (breaking this box grants the player a key to enter the game's Chao Garden).
One of the panels from #55 shows Eggman pushing his glasses up while standing behind Metal Sonic, which is framed similarly to a shot from the anime OVA.
During Issue #57, Lanolin's role as field team leader, holding a handheld computer device, butting heads with Sonic on how to carry out plans and being upset at Sonic's reckless behavior can sound like a sheep version of Sally Acorn from Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) to some readers.
In Issue #58, Tails discovers that the giant crystals popping up all over the city have the same wavelength and properties of the Chaos Emeralds, though much weaker energy. Tails created a fake Chaos Emerald in hopes of foiling Eggman's scheme in Sonic Adventure 2, with Tails' line regarding the fake Emeralds being a paraphrase of his description from SA2.
In the same issue, Sonic mentions trying to destroy the big fake Chaos Emerald crystals, Tails says that it's a bad idea, with Blaze adding that "shattering" something as powerful as the Chaos Emeralds is asking for trouble. The use of the word "shatter" may bring to mind Sonic accidentally destroying the Paradox Prism from Sonic Prime, and how each parallel universe created was called a "Shatterspace."
Cover B for Issue #59 features a horde of Shadow Androids, many of which have greyish teal highlights instead of red making them resemble Mephiles after he copies Shadow's appearance.
The Echidna Idol that Rouge steals from Eggman in Issue #61 and Amy gives back to Knuckles in Issue #62 has a golden helmet and chest plate that's incredibly reminiscent of Enerjak from the Archie comics.
Issue #63 Cover B features Sonic and Blaze running through Frog Forest from Sonic Heroes.
Silver becoming part of the Neo Diamond Cutters in Issue #63 is evocative of him becoming part of the Secret Freedom Fighters in the Archie comics.
When Sonic and Blaze jump out of the sewer, their jumps are depicted in the same flame tornado/spinball way from the Sonic Rush duology.
In a flashback, Blaze sees two women's summer outfits on display in a store window. The white outfit is her beach dress on the 2022 Annual's main cover, while the red outfit is Amy's swimsuit from Sonic X.
While hanging off Spagonia's Clock Tower, Sonic paraphrases part of his pre-fight dialogue with Shadow before their final duel in Sonic Adventure 2, "What you see is what you get. I'm just a hedgehog who loves—" before getting cut off by the Clock Tower's ringing.
Issue #64 Cover RI features a Hot Air Balloon that has the slogan "Got Ring?" on it, which was seen on a blimp in the Sonic Adventure 2 stage, Radical Highway.
On top of them being partnered up at the end of Issue #64, Blaze and Silver decide that the first place they're going to go sightseeing is Soleanna.
Silver's attack on Mimic to expose his "Duo" identity uses various pieces of furniture, including chairs, much like in his boss fight in Sonic '06 where he used them against Sonic. Similarly, Silver's comment about him wanting to throw a car at Sonic is a nod to his boss fight in the mainline console/PC versions of Sonic Generations, where one of his attacks is throwing vehicles at the blue blur.
The Alliterative Title of the Knuckles/Chaotix/Babylon Rogues story in Issues #65-66 is called "Relic Robbing Rumble", which is similar to that of the Sonic Universe arc "Treasure Team Tango", which also featured the Babylon Rogues as antagonists.
Knuckles eating a bowl of grape-flavored ice cream with grapes in it is essentially what his live-action counterpart wanted at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022).
In Issue #67, Blaze recalls how Sonic and her got off on a rather hostile note before they became friends, with this moment accompanied by a redrawn flashback of their Duel Boss fight from Sonic Rush in Dead Line zone. There's even a complete shot of the Earth in the background while they fight.
When Amy brings up how Knuckles and Shadow fought Sonic in the past, the past fight with Knuckles is shown to be his boss fight from Sonic Adventure in Mystic Ruins.
Much like the RE Cover of Tangle & Whisper Issue #1 Reprint, the Exclusive Cover of Issue #67 features a 3D render of Surge the Tenrec to celebrate her addition to Sega HARDlight's mobile games (Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, with her render taken from the latter game).
Issue #68 has Tails riding atop an upgraded version of the Yellow Tail, the Yellow Tail Turbo, which is his signature Extreme Gear airboard from the Sonic Riders series of games.
Sonic last fought a giant salamander in an early issue of the Archie comic series, with Universalamander being the first threat to make him go Super Sonic.
Miniseries
Bad Guys
From the Bad Guys miniseries, Starline's plan to pull one over on Eggman involves acquiring the Power Cores from Sonic Heroes, which in-game were used to increase the heroes' Character Levels and here are depicted as Eggman-built ability enhancers, with Starline using them to form the Tricore as described above. Eggman later brings out his Egg Hawk machine from Heroes to attack what he believes to be Sonic.
The guitar shape of the prison is a nod to Prison Island's design from Sonic X which likewise looked like one as well.
In Issue #3, Surge uses the expletive "Sweet Gaia below" in reference to Dark and Light Gaia from Sonic Unleashed.
In Issue #4, Surge trashes Metal Sonic (with Kit's help) before gloating that it's "not even good enough to be my fake", a call-back to Sonic and Shadow's banter in Sonic Adventure 2.
From the same issue, Eggman eludes Starline hijacking his systems by escaping into his unfinished "memorial garage", filled with retired Humongous Mecha from previous games. Among the machines shown are the original Death Egg Robot, the Egg Emperor, the Eggrobo, and the Egg Dragoon.
When Eggman pulls up a video feed to the base that's under attack, Surge and Kit are striking poses that match Sonic and Tails' character art from Sonic Adventure.
Scrapnik Island
Much of Eggman's old but powerful machines and weapons pop up in Scrapnik Island. E-Series robots (like Sigma) and the Egg Carrier were first introduced in Sonic Adventure, while Mecha Sonic appeared in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Mecha Knuckles first appeared in Sonic Advance.
The miniseries starts during a storm at sea, much like Sonic Rush Adventure.
As Tails states before him and Sonic crash-land, the wrecked Death Egg found on Scrapnik Island is the old Death Egg—as in, the one that kicked off the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and was ultimately taken down in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In fact, the security camera Sigma spies Sonic with is actually a repurposed Red Eye, the boss of Death Egg Zone's first act in Sonic & Knuckles.
Likely a coincidence, but this isn't the first time the franchise had an E-117 Sigma robot. According to a now-defunct Sonic Universe blog post that detailed the fates of the other E-Series up to E-123 Omega, that universe's E-117 Sigma fought E-102 Gamma and managed to infect him with a "Zero Virus" before being destroyed.
With the brace, Sonic's walking ability is limited, but he can still Spin Dash. This may recall the similar handicap he faced in Sonic Labyrinth.
Rancheros' baseball cap is similar to the one from "Sonic's Favorite Clothes" that Old Man Owl wore in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
The concept of an island of neglected Badniks was first done in the Archie Sonic comics' "Isle of Misfit Badniks" stories.
The targeting scope Tails has shows the word "Lock-On" while he aims at Mecha Sonic, which uses the same font as the logo for the Lock-on Technology used to connect Sonic 3 & Knuckles into one game.
The furnace resembles the core of Eggmanland/Robotropolis from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. As well, Sonic trying to save Mecha resembles him trying to save Hyper Metal Sonic, though in this case, he succeeds.
Fang the Hunter
The rumored eighth emerald (an inconsistency introduced in Sonic the Fighters) is described in a variety of ways from Fang's sources, which reference different iterations of the Chaos Emeralds.
One says it is either orange or gold, which are two colors used in Fighters (Orange held by Tails and Yellow held by Bark).
The "rainbow" color could be nod to the Hyper Sonic transformation from Sonic 3 & Knuckles (which makes Sonic's fur flash through the Super Emeralds' colors like a rainbow) or the unimplemented Rainbow Gem from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), which would have allowed Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to transform into their super states.invoked
Another one of Fang's sources says that there are emeralds inside this eighth emerald, which is similar to the Master Emerald's depiction in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). In the film's universe, the Master Emerald was forged by the echidnas to be the ultimate weapon, which were later freed when the Master Emerald was broken.
Knuckles uses traps in Mushroom Hill Zone to imprison Bean and Bark, much like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where he inconvenienced Sonic and Tails with Angel Island's traps.
Issue #1 Cover A has all seven Chaos Emeralds, along with the "rumored" eight emerald, which is hexagonal-shaped. The Chaos Emeralds were hexagonal in games like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic Spinball, Sonic Drift and Sonic Triple Trouble, before Sonic 3 would establish the gems being a brilliant diamond cut.
Issue #1 Cover B is modeled after the character select screen of Sonic the Fighters, complete with the same background and style of character portraits.
Annuals & One-Shots
The Babylon Rogues' office in the 2019 Annual is identical to their office in the Sonic Riders games.
The 2020 annual comic reveals that despite not appearing in the comic until issue #25 as a Zombot, Big the Cat has been running around looking for Froggy in the background of nearly every issue and was just never noticed (while not noticing what was going on around him, either). This brings to mind Sonic Adventure 2, where he had a secret cameo in every stage and a number of cutscenes.
The Annual also shows that Nite the Owl's station is K-TBR, which sounds a lot like Kintobor, the original name of Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Comic. Its frequency is 199.2, a.k.a. 1992, the year Sonic the Hedgehog 2 came out.
Silver and Espio's interaction in "Future Growth" from the 2022 Annual harkens back to their pair-up in Sonic Rivals 2.
The 2022 Annual's Cover B contains a cavalcade of references on the graffiti wall, the full details explained by the artist on Twitter. Highlights include:
The Black Market Chao and a Half Fish, as well as Froggy.
"Look at all those Eggman's robots!", one of Tails' lines from Heroes.
In Endless Summer, this is combined with a Call-Forward, where Sonic references how he has "saved the world 900 times," referring to the 900th Adventure one-shot that would release later in the same year.
Jet's beach outfit is the same one he wore in a 2013 piece of Sonic Channel art (except with a visor hat instead of sunglasses), while Wave's and Storm's are their "Tidal Wave" and "Tropical Storm" costumes from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. Additionally, Jewel's swimsuit is identical to Amy's in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, albeit recolored.
The 900th Adventure celebratory one-shot, fittingly enough, has a number of references to the series' history:
Evan Stanley's segment of the book sees the Warp Topaz teleport in the distinctive, dragon-shaped pathway of Dragon Road from Sonic Unleashed, as well as an orca whale, a consistent obstacle Sonic has run into since Emerald Coast in Sonic Adventure.
Like in Scrapnik Island, Daniel Barnes' segment is a near-whole-hogreference to Sonic's battle with Metal Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie — the Egg Shogun Z takes design cues from Metal Robotnik, the segment is set in a dilapidated, abandoned cityscape overrun with foliage, and Sonic both gets the Egg Shogun Z to punch itself in the face and rides a redirected missile straight into it.
When attempting to use the Warp Topaz, Cubot quotes two lines of Shadow's dialogue from the first encounter between him and Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2.
Aaron Hammerstrom's segment pairs Blaze up with Cream and Cheese, a friendship established in Blaze's debut game, Sonic Rush.
While Sonic is chilling on the beach, he says "Man, nothing can interrupt this Endless Summer."
Badniks from across the franchise note Balloon, Bell, Bu-Bu, Geji-Geji, Guruguru, Hariisen, KeroKero, Kubinaga, Kura-Kura, Mogu, Mon, Yadokk, and Yukigasen, in addition to the Advance 1 design for Leon, and the Advance 2 designs for Gohla and Pen as well as Akatento, Egg Pawn, Flickey, Gaogao, Ginpe, Guard, Pierrot, and Snowy, are a part of the audience watching the Winter Jam.
Team Big (consisting of Big and Froggy), are introduced as "Big guy and little guy," a reference to the lyrics of "Lazy Days (Livin' in Paradise)," Big's Image Song from Sonic Adventure.
Sonic's Ice Sculptures of himself and Tails are modeled after the Sonic the Sketchog series of Line stickers and drawings in the game manuals.
When Cubot reveals that Froggy was a Badnik all along, Omega immediately unloads his weaponry, while shouting "Annihilate-Charge-Annihilate-Charge-Annihilate-Charge—" which he frequently repeats when attacking in Sonic Heroes.
In Eggman's lab, a capsule containing Mecha Sonic Mk. III can be seen in the background.
to Antoine and Bunnie from Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), with their proximity a reference to them being a couple in the Archie comics.
