For those fans who only know Sonic the Hedgehog from his various videogame appearances, it may come as a surprise to learn some of the heavier developments that have happened to the Blue Blur across his comics history. But for fans who have followed his adventures, it's common knowledge that Sonic's life has been closer to that of a freedom fighter than that of a Looney Tunes character, complete with being framed for his girlfriend's murder.
This contingency of the late Dr. Robotnik's final and most diabolical plan took place in Archie Comics' discontinued Sonic the Hedgehog series during the "Operation: EndGame" arc. Essentially, a former member of the Wolf Pack Freedom Fighters named Drago Wolf betrays his allies and convinces his then girlfriend Hershey the Cat to wear a specially-designed suit that looks incredibly like Sonic. Little does Hershey know that Dr. Robotnik created the suit and installed "optic image refractors" that cause her to see other people as Snively, Robotnik's nephew.
Dr. Robotnik's plan finally comes to fruition in Sonic the Hedgehog #47, when the Freedom Fighters infiltrate his base of operations, Robotropolis. Leading the charge is Princess Sally Acorn, the group's leader, and the speedster hero Sonic the Hedgehog, who plan on entering undetected via a particularly high tower. The tower is so high that, to reach the top, Sonic must first fire a rope gun that latches to a high ledge and then run up the rope to reach their destination. Sadly for the Freedom Fighters, it's a plan that suits Robotnik's scheme perfectly, especially when the two heroes split up.
As Sally climbs down, Hershey the Cat spots the woman who should be her ally. Seeing Sally as Snively, and wanting to strike a blow for her allies, Hershey cuts the rope. To the Freedom Fighters below, Hershey's Robotnik-designed suit makes it appear that it's Sonic who does the deed, with the hedgehog having apparently lost his mind and caused Sally to fall to her death. Though Sally actually survives the fall, she's spirited away by other forces involved in the conflict, and Sonic receives a life sentence in the Devil's Gulag, an offshore prison complex that holds the most dangerous criminals.
Things move on from there, but the dark, convoluted plot is a hallmark of Sonic's most popular comic-book stories, which take the idea of a small band of freedom fighters fighting a technocratic villain at face value and produce stories akin to Mission Impossible, but starring woodland creatures as the badass, falsely accused characters always only one mission away from death. Like other cartoons before and after it, Sonic the Hedgehog offers a fantastic set of clearly differentiated characters with clear relationships, just waiting for an engaged writer to come along and throw them into surprising adventures. Fans of the TV shows and games may think that Sonic's biggest problem is finding his next chili dog or dodging Amy's affections, but the work of a super-powered subversive is never done, and in his Archie Comics reality, that's exactly what Sonic was.