Lights, camera, scrapped!note
Between the Executive Meddling, the in-fighting, the now-infamous Ken Penders lawsuit, and the comic's sudden cancellation in 2017, the comic has had many ideas that were ultimately scrapped.
Examples
Ken Penders:
- Ken Penders and Mike Kanterovich once pitched an idea for a crossover comic between Sonic the Hedgehog and basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics called "Slam Jammin' Sonic"
. The plot would have been about Rotor testing an experimental teleporter and accidentally sending Sonic to the real world in the middle of an NBA game where he would have helped the SuperSonics beat the Boston Celtics. Sonic then would then meet a friendly scientist who would have helped him return to his own world. - Another unrealized pitch by Penders and Kanterovich was a story set in the far future called "The Legend" where a child finds Sonic's shoes in a cave and is told the story of his heroic life, with the tale heavily implicating that Sonic sacrificed himself to destroy Robotnik. Editor Scott Fulop and Sega liked the concept but voiced their disapproval over explicitly implying that Sonic would die. Penders would later recycle aspects of the failed pitch for "Endgame" and "Mobius: 20 Years Later".
- One issue that was planned but never released was "A Day in the Life of Dr. Robotnik," with the cover having a Hostile Show Takeover.
- One of the earliest story ideas pitched by Ken Penders involved two villains who where essentially parodies of the Super Mario Bros. in reference to Sega and Nintendo's fierce rivalry in the 90's. This idea was rejected by Sega for being too obvious.
- Evil Sonic was originally going to be "Dr. Sonic" in most likely a role reversal of him and Dr. Robotnik.
- The original plot for "Endgame" really did involve Sally's demise — her apparent restoration later on was to have been a robot double, the truth only slowly coming out later as "Sally" began to act increasingly suspicious and out-of-character. Endgame also has a completely different first issue cover◊ as well as unused characters. This was changed once they settled on a darker tone and giving Antoine Character Development rather than have him repeating the exact same antagonistic role he already played in issue 40.
- Ken's stated that some of the original ideas for the Princess Sally miniseries included a roboticized Queen Alicia ruling over her own subjects as a threat to both the Freedom Fighters and Robotnik. Another was a Thelma & Louise type story with Sally and Bunnie. Sega vetoed both of these ideas, wanting to use only Sally and Robotnik. This is what led to the Substitute Freedom Fighters and Geoffrey St. John. Regarding the Source of All, one of the ideas that Ken was brainstorming with a friend of his was that the Source was actually an AI made out of a pool of nanotechnology, from either the past or the future, that was so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic. However, they never figured out what its motives were before it was nuked.
- Sonic’s first task as a Gentleman-At-Arms would be to accompany Sally to Station Square as she sets up Knothole's first embassy in a foreign land, which makes things awkward for them as they attempted to reconcile their relationship. This would also lead to other struggles, such as Antoine's duties as head of the Royal Guard conflict with his proposal to Bunnie, Evil Sonic causing trouble, and Knuckles and the Chaotix showing up at Station Square trying to fight the group that attempted to invade Angel Island.
- One issue would have had Uncle Chuck and Rosie go on a date in Knothole, with Sonic acting as a guardian angel to protect them from Robotnik's stealth-bots. However, when he later posted the sketches for the opening pages, Penders said it would have been the main story in Issue 160 and that the focus was going to be on Uncle Chuck and his relationship with Sonic.
- Mina and Amy Rose would made their way into Robotnik's stronghold to prove they’re just as capable on their own as any Freedom Fighter and Sally and Sonic would head out after them, only to discover Rouge and Nic the Weasel are each looking to abscond with a rare gem that would power Robotnik’s latest weapon.
- Sonic tries to find a cure for his father's roboticization after hearing him resenting his condition as a Robian, and with the aid of his Uncle Chuck, they use a piece of nano-technology stolen from Robotnik on him. While Jules would still be a Robian, he would have ended up resembling his organic form because of it.
- Penders originally planned to have Snively die heroically while he attempted to shut down an unstable nuclear power plant with the help of the Freedom Fighters. Snively's death would have hit Sonic hard with grief and would have caused uneasiness between all his friends.
- Ken Penders stated in April 2019 that one of his plans was for Sally's virginity to be taken first by Geoffrey. Fan reception to this concept, given the 10+ year age gap between the characters and the fact that this idea was being put forward for a comic whose primary audience was children, was overwhelmingly negative to say the least.
- Penders plans for the 200th issue involve Bunnie and Antoine getting married and the comic crossing over with the Mobius: 25 Years Later timeline, with the comic rebooting entirely after this.
- The Mobius: 25 Years Later storyline had a number of changes and cut made to its plot:
- It was originally going to be called Knuckles: 20 Years Later or Mobius: 20 Years Later. It would have centered around Knuckles fighting Dr. Ian Droid, the antagonist of Penders' The Lost Ones comic and the main villain of the Image crossover in Sonic Super Special Issue 7. Droid would have been the existential threat to Mobius that Locke had been preparing Knuckles to defeat and it would have also been implied that Droid was an alternate universe version of Robotnik.
- Lara-Su would have been 14 instead of 16 and she would have had spiked knuckles like her father except her would have been retractable. Lara-Su was also planned to be more of a central and proactive figure than she ended up being, with a personality much more similar to that of Julie-Su. Her original design was similar to her final one but would have been much more reminiscent of her mother.
- King Sonic would have been sent to the past but would have been a ghost-like apparition unable to seen, heard or directly interact with anything. With Sonic unable to fix the problems with the timeline, Rotor would have sent NICOLE back in time as seen in Sonic In Your Face.
- Rotor and Cobar were planned to be in a romantic relationship with each other. Unaware of this, Ian Flynn killed Cobar off, much to Penders' chagrin, later stating that had he known about their relationship then he would have kept him alive.
Karl Bollers
- Mina Mongoose was originally supposed to be named Chloe but Karl Bollers thought the comic had too many main female characters whose ended in a protracted "e" sound (Sally, Amy, Bunnie, Dulcy, etc.).
- Bollers wanted to introduce E-123 Omega sometime after Issue 134 as part of a story involving him rebelling against Eggman but this was vetoed by Sega.
- After Sonic and Sally went through the highly controversial break-up, Karl had plans for Sonic to date Amy Rose. However, Fiona Fox would end up developing feelings for Sonic and the two would become rivals for his affections. Though both girls would have a chance with Sonic, it never came to the level of Archie-Betty-Veronica fighting.
- Tails and Sonic's friendship would have become strained over their but they would put their feeling aside so that they could work together to upgrade the Tornado to be spaceflight capable so that Tails could be reunited with his parents.
- Rotor would have retired from field missions and taken on a tech development role similar to that of Q from James Bond.
- Eggman would find himself with multiple rivals beyond Sonic, including Shadow and a mysterious, fifteen foot-tall robot known as Skarkus. Eggman would later kidnap Hope Kintobor under the pretense that he is the only correct choice to be her legal guardian, while genuinely using her as bait to lure Shadow the Hedgehog (acting as a mysterious guardian angel for Hope). Skarkus is eventually revealed to be Snively in disguise, having formed an alliance with Shadow to try and get revenge on Eggman for leaving him to die during the Xorda invasion.
- Sally would have been revealed to be a pawn in a villainous plot by the Source of All, having survived the destruction of Robotropolis and reconstituting itself in a remote mountain range, set to prevent the future seen in Sonic In Your Face. To protect it, the children of Uma Arachis would have been gathered as a group known as The Strand, due to being corrupted by Ixis Naugus. Naugus would have possessed King Max through the crown and used him as a puppet in attempt to gain a physical form; transforming Max's body into a duplicate of his own, only to be thwarted by the destruction of the Crown of Acorns.
- Coconuts would find a de-roboticized and amnesic Nate Morgan (having survived the destruction of Robotropolis), turning his still-incredible genius into a weapon; rebuilding the original Metal Sonic, as well as a Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles and Metal Amy. These four robots would attack New Megaopolis and Knothole City with everyone believing they've been roboticized. During the conflict, Metal Sonic would gain enough power to morph into Metal Overlord.
- Antoine's darker demeanor and loss of innocence is revealed to be the result of him succumbing to the Source's will to, one day, marry Princess Sally without any given reason; which would result in the Source bonding with Sally permanently. In hopes of winning Bunnie back, Antoine allows himself to be possessed by a corrupted Source, turning him into a villain. It also would have been explained that his facial scar came from him slipping on a banana peel. Bunnie's breakup with Antoine would later lead to Bunnie's origins being explored and her true name being revealed as Scarlette O'Hare.
- Locke and Lara-Le would've set aside their previous disputes to help raise Kneecaps after his father ends up in the Egg Grape Chamber. Meanwhile, Knuckles would depart Angel Island, after learning that his presence exposes the location of the Master Emerald, going on a global pilgrimage to learn martial arts, and battling Monkey Khan while under the control of the Iron Queen before discovering the Master Geode, a powerful gemstone capable of restoring one's life. Mammoth Mogul, beginning to age rapidly due to his original Chaos Emerald running out of energy, forces himself to seek out an alternative source through illicit archaeological expeditions and hiring mercenaries like Nack the Weasel. The Master Geode would be contested by him, the Iron Queen, Dr. Eggman, and Rouge the Bat.
- A.D.A.M. and NICOLE would form a relationship, culminating in A.D.A.M. rebelling against Eggman and joining the Kingdom of Acorn with Eggman's army of Shadowbots.
Ian Flynn
- Ian Flynn originally intended to have E-123 Omega off Tommy Turtle, but Executive Meddling had that changed to the Egg Fleet. In fact, Executive Meddling kept Omega from appearing in the comic for some time since Karl Bollers tried to put him in. It wasn't until Issue 3 of Sonic Universe that he made an appearance.
- The end of "The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown" arc was very heavily setting up that Dr. Ivan Kintobor, an ancestor of Robotnik, had survived as a Human Popsicle and implied that he was going to be a major antagonist. The comic would later reveal that Ivan was actually long dead as he had not survived being frozen down.
- Robotnik at one point had problems with an unseen person who called themselves "Anonymous", showed themselves very adapt at reprogramming robots and computers, and Robotnik noticed that "Anonymous" from all evidence appeared to about as tall as himself. Romy Chacon's original idea was that this "Anonymous" would be revealed to be Robotnik Prime, who was Back from the Dead for real this time, while Karl Bollers was going to have it be Snively inside a mech suit and calling himself "Skarkus". Instead, it was revealed it was actually A.D.A.M. who was behind it all. Flynn was originally going to go with Chacon's plan to have it be Robotnik Prime but editorial mandates from Sega forbade it, likely because the company didn't want two Robotniks active in the comic at the same time.
- The prologue to Sonic Chronicles featured in the back-up story of Issue 191 was originally supposed to be the Nocturnus Clan's official debut in the comic and lay the groundwork for a new arc rather than just a non-canon tie-in to the game. In it, Knuckles would have been kidnapped by the Nocturnus Clan while exploring an ancient temple and Julie-Su would have rallied the Chaotix to rescue him. The story was nixed and changed by order of Sega for unknown reasons (Ken Penders lawsuit against the game's developers wouldn't be until years later). This required that the comic, whose line art had already been completed and inked, be redone completely on short notice.
- Flynn has also gone on record to say that the early implied romance between Tails and Barby Koala (of the Downunda Freedom Fighters) is "completely one-sided and kind of creepy," most likely due to the Age-Gap Romance with Tails being around 11-12 and Barby appearing to be in her late teens, and that as long as he's on the comic it's not going to happen.
- Ian Flynn wanted to do more with Mecha Robotnik but was ordered by his editor to kill her off.
- Remington was originally planned to be the new Enerjak but it was changed to Knuckles since at the time it had been years since Remington had last played a major role in the comic and it was feared that readers wouldn't have remembered who he was.
- The infamous storyline "Endangered Species" was a completely different story than what was written. Among the things noted:
- Issue 243 had edited font that was obviously put in at the last minute to keep from referring to certain characters and locations by name, while the rest was completely rewritten to have them Put on a Bus to Hell off-screen.
- The original solicits mentioned the Dark Egg Legion also fighting against Thrash the Devil. This would have meant that it would be a Mêlée à Trois between the Dark Egg Legion, Thrash the Devil and Team Fighters for the fate of the Echidna species instead of Thrash outright winning right then and there.
- The cover to the second part had Julie-Su back to back with Amy Rose. Julie was removed from the final cover.
- The cover to the third part had half of it changed three times. The original cover had Lien-Da having her whip binding Sonic. The almost finished cover replaced Lien with metal tendrils and the final added in leaves to represent the returning Krudzu.
- Saffron Bee would have been given a new design and an important role to play during the arc.
- As Ian Flynn has stated: The arc was originally supposed to have a happy ending.
- Someone obtained one of the original pages from Sonic #243 and, from clues gathered from it as it was already heavily altered, revealed that the Death Egg II would have actually been over Avalon, suggesting that Eggman was supposed to have invaded the village.
- Running alongside the aforementioned Endangered Species, the first two issues of Sonic Universe's Chaotix Quest arc was set to feature the return of Rob O' the Hedge, with his return going as far as to being advertised on the originally advertised cover art for part 2◊. Come the arc's actual release, the roles of Rob O' and his wife Mari-Ann where filled by a pair of Suspiciously Similar Substitutes, Bow Sparrow and Thorn the Lop, with it being established that the pair were filling in for their predecessors as leaders of the Mercian Freedom Fighters while they were away. Part 2's cover was also completely changed◊.
- Espio's reveal that there were others like Monkey Khan himself in Sonic Universe Issue 16 was meant to lead to the reveal that Ken was the first of twelve Khans, with him being the first successful attempt and Robotnik continuing the procedure with various subjects, and Jun Kun planned to eventually be revealed to be the Ox Khan, with Regina able to manipulate him using technomancy. While it didn't get far, there were ideas of Ken looking for vaults and helping the other Khans master their powers without going through the same troubles he did, while Jun Kun and Iron Queen or other villainous forces would look for the Khans to use them as living weapons. One idea for one of the khans was a sheep themed around the wind element who would have used a giant fan in contrast to Monkey Khan's staff. However, none of the Khan material had been officially approved prior to the comic's reboot.
- Antoine was originally going to eventually die to Metal Sonic's explosion, but was saved by the fan reaction to his injuries.
- Bunnie would have gone to her uncle to be Legionize in order to restore her lost robotic abilities, though her uncle would ensure that her robotics part did not have bombs implanted like the other Legionnaires. The story would have also focused on how Bunnie tends to make poor decisions when upset and how she doesn't cope with her issue properly.
- Hershey the Cat would be revealed to be alive, being deep undercover in a mission that required faking her death.
- Issue 250 was originally planned to be the issue where Mecha Sally was restored to normal and she would have had an outfit change similar to her reboot design.
- Ian Flynn was planning on introducing Anti-Shadow at some point. According to Flynn, Anti-Shadow would have been a lovable sweetheart who was also unstable and could brutally kill you without warning. The Anti-Gerald Robotnik would have been a warmonger who created Anti-Shadow to be a living weapon but had a change of heart in his final days and reprogrammed him to do good. Anti-Maria would have been evil and an awful influence on Anti-Shadow. Flynn also had his own idea for an Anti-Silver named Sterling, who would have been based around "Venice the Mink," one of Silver's prototype designs.
- Fiona would have realized that Scourge was a toxic influence in her life and broken up with him. However, she would have remained a villain, choosing to be her "manipulative, self serving rock."
- Flynn really wanted to introduce Eggman Nega into the comic but SEGA wouldn't allow it for undisclosed reasons. The most he was allowed to do was include a "Dr. Nega" as an enemy of the Zone Cops who only one ever seen once in silhouette.
- According to writer Ian Flynn, there was supposed to be two fusion characters in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide. The comic showcased the first, Chaos Devil, a fusion of the water creature Chaos and Wily Base boss Yellow Devil. The other was supposed to be "Metal Bass", a fusion of Metal Sonic and Bass. However, someone (he forgot who) nixed it, and we have Sonic and Mega Man battling Metal Sonic and Bass. The latter fusion's weakness would've been Rouge Woman's Black Wave, the only time it would've been used.
- Ian Flynn also wanted the Cosmic Retcon that would happen at the end be completely and utterly clean-cut, with no one remembering the old universe. However, he reigned on it when the editor asked him to, not wanting to alienate the older readers. Ultimately their memories of the old universe would fade as well, making it somewhat pointless.
- Ian Flynn really wanted to write a conclusion to Sonic Underground, but Executive Meddling always got in his way. He came close to being able to release the story in the fiftieth issue of Sonic Universe, with official promo art even being released, but those plans were nixed in favor of writing a lead up story to Worlds Collide. In a later interview, Flynn revealed that the plot would have been about the triplets and their friends broadcasting a concert to the whole world, during which their mother would have finally joined them as their band's lead singer and the literal "voice of the people," which would have somehow been the trigger for Robotnik's downfall. There then would have been an epilogue to showcase the happy endings all the characters received.
- "Shadow Fall", the first storyline involving Team Dark after the reboot, was meant to involve Black Doom and Mephiles. However, those were shot down because Black Doom would have been dead and Mephiles wiped out by the wonders of time travel.
- With the title officially cancelled, there are a number of stories that will remain untold due to being advertised prior to the lengthy hiatus, including a retelling of SegaSonic the Hedgehog and a proper adaptation of Sonic Lost World not tied up with crossovers. However, Ian Flynn has indicated that some pre-boot and reboot concepts might end up getting used in the IDW Sonic comic, depending on various circumstances.
- The Metal Virus arc from the IDW comics was originally conceived by Flynn as an Archie story line but it was shelved because Archie already had a successful Zombie Apocalypse story in their line-up with Afterlife with Archie. It was later set to be revived and transpire following the 300th issue, but the series was cancelled before that could happen. The only known plot point from this incarnation was that Bunnie would have play a key role in solving the crisis, as while her organic half will be infected, her robotic half would still have some sort of sentience.
- Cortez and Null were two villains planned for Sonic Universe issues that never were made due to the cancellation.
- After the reboot, Ian Flynn had planned to release his original ideas for the comic leading up to Issue 300 in an online document called the Lost Hedgehog Tales but chose not to as he decided he might still want to use the unused ideas in his later works.
- One idea Flynn had but never fleshed out was having Eggman put on trial only for Wes Weasley showing up as his defense lawyer, engaging in all kinds of wacky Courtroom Antics before helping Eggman teleport out of his jail cell.
Other
- The original origin for NICOLE was actually much more humorous in nature - Robotnik revived the Universalamander, a robot that forced Sonic to go Super Sonic for the first time. When the attempt to reshrink him failed, Sally whips out NICOLE, here called "NICOLE 7000", and uses her help to help Rotor build a new shrink ray that shrinks him to a molecular level. Ian Flynn says that the story happened "to a point" - they fought the Universalamander and he was shrunken, but NICOLE's involvement was non-canon.
- Evan Stanley had an idea for an Anti-Silver character named "Tarnish". However, she never had enough of a story for pitching it. She reused Tarnish costume for Silver in her personal webcomic.
- A team called Rush Comics had gotten the license to make a comic called Scourge the Speed Demon, a comic based on Sonic's Evil Twin Scourge the Hedgehog, with official endorsement from Ken Penders. However, the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the news, combined with accusations on the part of the creative team, led to the comic being cancelled a mere four days after the announcement.
- Clear Blue Sonic was almost a thing during Ian's run due to a mandate from Jazzware Toys.
- Nigel Kitching, writer for Sonic the Comic, actually offered Ian Flynn usage of the Brotherhood of Metallix, the army of Metal Sonics from the series. However, while Ian was flattered for the offer, he admitted he couldn't do it - the red tape involved in it would have been enough to choke a bear.
- Johnny from Sonic the Comic was once supposed to have unrequited feelings for Amy.
- Aleah Baker originally planned for the citizens of Meropis to have more traditional merpeople physiques, being mobians with fish tails for their lower halves, but editor Paul Kaminski changed them to have humanoid physiques, explaining that they were more versatile that way.
- Aleah Baker planned on expanding on Clove and Cassia backstory, revealing that two were from a nomadic society, that their mother had died from an affliction similar to Cassia's and that their father had disappear while searching for a cure for Cassia's illness. Later issues would have had Cassia falling in with a compassionate group, either the Freedom Fighters or G.U.N., and receiving proper treatment for her disease. Clove, unaware of her sister location, would have fallen into despair under the belief she had died in the wilderness before Rotor explained she was alive and well.
- Evan Stanley's plans for storylines following the The Silver Age included Silver going to the past and meeting Sonic and his friends for the first time while Gold, Schlemmer and the Bits would have fallen into the Digital World and would have been in danger of being digitized forever. NICOLE would have mistaken them for a virus and tried to destroy them but they would have been saved by Silver and Rotor. The group, known as Team Psych, would have gone on various time travel adventures as they try to learn more about the history of Onyx City and the mysterious leaders in charge of it.
- Gold the Tenrec was originally conceived as an A.I. "descended" from NICOLE.
- Tracy Yardley drew Metal Shadow for The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia, but said character never made it into the encyclopedia or the comic.
- In a case of What Could Have Not Been, The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia was released very shortly before the legal issues started hitting the comic. At that point, the book had already been delayed a few times until it was released a few years after its original planned release date. But according to Jon Gray, if the book had been pushed back even a few weeks further, it would've been cancelled entirely due to the legal issues, and they would've had little to nothing to show for the years worth of work they did on the book, so the team felt like they dodged a bullet by releasing it when they did.
