The team behind Sonic Frontiers has announced that an upcoming comic will serve as a prequel for the new upcoming game. The comics will supplement the game and an upcoming prequel animation that’s yet to be released.
For those who don’t know, Sonic Frontiers is the ambitious and upcoming “open-world” Sonic game set to come out later this year. The game sets to establish a more coherent Sonic canon, as well as walk back the lukewarm legacy of Sonic Forces which came out five years ago.
Sonic and the comics industry have a storied history together with Archie Comics (yes, that Archie) acquiring the license in the early 90s. Archie Comics held the license for almost thirty years and created their own canon separate from the games but making full use of its aesthetics. Sonic even had a crossover with Mega Man, which Archie also owned the comic rights to. Eventually writers for the comic filed lawsuits against Archie Comics which ultimately led to retcons and rewrites; they eventually had to give up the rights to comic publisher IDW who holds the rights to this day.
Sonic’s return to comics makes perfect sense when you consider the team behind the upcoming Sonic Frontiers. Ian Flynn is an American writer who previously worked on the ongoing IDW Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, he’s also the lead writer for the upcoming game. A prequel comic is arguably just a return to form for Flynn, but it also gives us insight into Sega’s hopes for Sonic Frontiers.
In a recent interview with the fansite Sonic Stadium the head of Sonic Team Takashi Iizuka revealed what sort of plans the team has for the Sonic series narratively. When discussing the lore for the franchise, Iizuka told Sonic Stadium: “if we’re talking about the comics, the Netflix series and the games? Moving forward, the idea of trying to get all of them into the same universe”. This comment was made after Iizuka elaborated that bringing everything together might not be feasible. After all, the Hollywood movies seem to have their own thing going for them and it would be difficult to balance not just the story, but also potential licensing issues between IDW, Sonic Team, and Sony Pictures. A coherent canon between the Netflix series, the comics, and Sonic Frontiers is still something to be excited for, and might pave the way for a longer story outside of the franchise’s vaguely related games.
Hype has been building for Sonic Frontiers as the game’s release date draws ever closer. Capcom has already announced a Monster Hunter themed DLC release for the game. Sonic Frontiers is expected to release on November 8 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and the Xbox Series X/S.
