>>25913
I don't know if I'd want anything as long as the Zombot arc. And isn't the premise of '90s American Sonic that he was an outlaw? There are three TV shows and hundreds of issues of comics about that.
But I suppose you mean one where even his friends think he's an outlaw, and he is lumped in as a bad guy with Eggman. Could be neat, but I'd hope for a better villain for the arc than Clutch. Not sure who would work other than Eggman, though. Sonic isn't a series with that many good villains. They got pretty close to doing this with Archie Sonic two or three times, but only very briefly, so it didn't go very deep on the concept. Naugus and Scourge would be an obvious duo to do this. They're the ones who sort of did it before. But the IDW OCs suck. They're not as bad as the worst Archie OCs, but they're also not as good as the best Archie/SatAM OCs (who I would say are Scourge and Naugus).
I suppose Surge ruining Sonic's reputation so she can steal his role as hero would be interesting. I'd like that arc. I feel like perhaps she is not the mastermind type, and someone else would be orchestrating things and just letting her play a part. But Clutch taking over the world? He doesn't feel like that type of character either.
Maybe the way I'd do it is to have Eggman actually be the one to orchestrate it, by manipulating Surge and Kit in a way where even they don't understand that he's the one behind it. Maybe Clutch and others can then try to move in and take advantage of the situation, but I really don't think he's good enough to be the primary villain for such a big arc like that.
Also, if Kit is involved, that means Tails is going along with Sonic, and that might make it less cool. I sort of like the idea of even Tails going against Sonic, or at least not being able to openly tag along and be his sidekick anymore. Plus, I just don't think Kit is a terribly interesting character, but that could change if further stories explored him a bit more.
I'd use this arc to get rid of the whole Restoration thing. I hate the idea of Sonic being part of the government. I don't like The Kingdom of Acorn being so important, but I hate it even more with the very commie-seeming "Resistance" and "Restoration." The group was made to fight Eggman when he took over. Fine. But then they cling to power after beating him. It reeks of commies calling themselves "the revolution" decades after forming the government. And yes, there is also GUN in the games, but at least GUN isn't run by Amy and a bunch of female furry OCs. It's much less connected to Sonic and other main characters, except for Team Dark, but the precise point of them is that they're a bit morally gray, and GUN is shown to be a flawed organization, unlike The Restoration.
So Sonic being made an outlaw would be a great way to show The Restoration as flawed. They all get hoodwinked, and are happy to have Surge swoop in and be their new hero. Tails and Amy would be more hesitant to actually believe everything, but they don't have enough evidence to actually change the minds of everyone else. Jewel, Tangle, Whisper, Lanolin, Belle, and the rest of the OCs can all be tricked, though. They haven't known Sonic as long, and since they're OCs, it's not as weird if they're not Sonic's friends anymore. They're also the actual leaders of The Restoration and its chief military force, so it's their opinions of Sonic that would matter.
I guess at the beginning of the story, even though Tails and Amy don't fully believe it, they aren't fully convinced of Sonic's innocence, either, but then after actually meeting him (presumably in a fight, because that's what you do), they get won over. But even then they can only help him in secret, as Jewel and the others tell them that if they seriously choose to ally with Sonic, then they're outlaws as well.
Maybe Surge doesn't even set out to be the hero, but just to fight Sonic. But since Sonic is designated bad, she becomes the hero. Maybe she believed Sonic was the bad guy at first, though she would have fought him regardless, and was just happy to have the opportunity. I suppose I'd add a bit where she almost starts to legitimately like being a hero, but I wouldn't go so far as to actually make her into a good guy. They wouldn't do that with Scourge. It would make her too much like Shadow, which she already is anyway, since if you remove the alt-universe aspect from Scourge, he's already just Shadow. So maybe she gets tempted toward good, but in the end her bitterness gets the better of her. Really she was just doing it for her own glory, or even more, just to hurt Sonic and everyone else. Even once she finds out Sonic is being framed, she's happy to run with it and keep making things worse for him.
As you mentioned, Eggman trying to mess with Sonic and win him over to the dark side would be very cool. He can ruin Sonic's reputation, but that's only one step to truly breaking his spirit, which is the real goal. Not just his spirit, but everybody's. He successfully kills the spirit of The Restoration by having them turn on Sonic. Or perhaps all he really did was show that the initial spirit that birthed the organization had already been killed by its own bureaucracy and the flaws of the individuals in it. But Sonic's unbreakable spirit, seen as he beats Eggman and Scourge, causes them to eventually see these flaws, and allow The Restoration to dissolve, with only smaller regional governments which have alliances and agreements for defense against Eggman and the like. This is precisely what Sonic the Comic did when Eggman's world empire was defeated. It makes more sense because Sonic is all about freedom, and having a big military government run by him and his friends is fucking weird. At least Amy doesn't work for GUN, and the president isn't some furry girl OC. That's even weirder than having Sonic be casual friends with George Bush. It's not that Sonic would even be against the idea, or that he'd have anything against Jewel, it's just that the organization being the central premise of the comic doesn't make thematic sense. Plus, it's not like GUN has been important in a very long time. If they were gonna have some big military government, at least use the one from the games.
Because oh yeah, Sonic already was an outlaw. All we're talking about is Sonic Adventure 2. But I suppose Sonic being an outlaw stops being important pretty early in that game. So an arc about it would still be cool.