original description

Just so you know, this isn't my attempt at "fixing" an aspect of the Sonic franchise. It just a fun alternate take on a previously existing concept.

Sonic and Co are the heroes that everyone is familiar with, but long before Sonic was born (around 70 year ago), there existed a hero who was strong and brave with heart of gold an nerves of steel, who what will to fight against all evil and protect those who were helpless, A hip, rebellious young rabbit by the name of Johnny "Felix" Lightfoot!



While there was no evil robot building scientist for him fight, there still many adventure to be had, as Johnny ran, bounced and glided his way into all kind of escapades. For he truly was "the original hero of Green Hills"



He eventually married long time his fiancé, Cinimmon the Rabbit who later gave to thier birth to thier daughter Vanilla. But as Johnny grew closer to his autumn years, he slowly found himself having less time to he a hero. Not only did he have to help after his family, his old age was catching up to him as he was no longer as spry and vigorous a he was in his youth.



And as he finally accepted the realty of long gone youth, Ol' John hung up his bight red leather jacket so he could live long enough to be a good grandfather to his beloved grandaughter, Cream. Because like Ol' John says "Not all heroes need run, fly or break though walls and as long as you have a good heart, that all it takes to a true hero.".



Johnny Lightfoot was born with the innate ability to run a super speed, leap at great distances and glide though the air using his ears. While nowhere near as a fast as Sonic, he was able to run at up to 600 miles per hour back when he was in his prime. While he retains these abilities to this day and is still no slouch, he finds himself taking it slower and easier these days as he lacks the strength a stamina that had once possessed as a youth.



Jonnny is kind, happy and warm hearted yet is known being wily, witty and playfully mischievous. In his youth, he was known to quite wild, energetic and rambunctious, but these days his demeanour has mellowed due to a combination of old age, wisdom, common sense he had acquired over the the years and overly tight back muscles.



These days, Ol' John prefers to rely more his wits as opposed to physical prowess. When confronted by no-goodniks, hoodlums a ne'er-do-wells in his ripe old age, he'll often use his "obfuscating disability" to annoy them by pretending that to be frail, deaf of senile…and then blindside 'em when the least expect it! He may be old, but he's still kicks hard!

Autor's, note:



Johnny "Felix" Lightfoot as an idea I had for a “composite character” that could exist within the Sonic universe. But first, a little history…



It is well known amongst Sonic fans that the titular hedgehog was originally going to be a rabbit. But Sonic Team decided against it, and decided to go with the blue hedgehog. The character concept was however later used as an alternate skin for Sonic in “Sonic Superstars”. Some fans refer to this character as “Felix”.



Another well-known rabbit ally within the Sonic franchise is Johnny Lightfoot, a side character from the UK’s Fleetway Sonic series, who is one of the freedom fighters who aided Sonic and co.



This particular is an amalgam of both these characters, but of course, I didn't stop there. Because as always, I like put a little spin of things.



When creating this character, I started wondering “Did other heroes or villains exist in Sonic’s universe BEFORE Sonic was born into even born into existence?" Other cartoon/comic worlds have explored the concept of heroes that existed in the distant past so I don't see how the world of Sonic would be any different. I also though the idea of an old, retired freedom fight being the grandfather of Cream the Rabbit would make for an interesting concept and answer the question; "What happen to Sonic character when they get old?"



I terms of design and concept, I (loosly) based him of Joseph Joestar from "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" in that you have a single character with three different designs depending on his age.



For "Child" Johnny, I didn't change to much and based him off his the "Sonic Superstars" skin with shape of a "classic" Sonic character.



For "Adolescent" Johnny, I gave him a more, "modern " Sonic character ascetic to reflect a more "mature" look and replaced the bowtie with the leather jacket of his Fleetway counterpart and gave him a sort-of "teddy boy/rockabilly" look.



For "Old Adult" Johnny (AKA Ol' John), I based appearance on that of Bugs Bunny and Joseph Joestar in "Diamond is Unbreakable" to give him the appeached of a tired old codger has a glit of being so is much that he seems.



Yeah, I kinda enjoyed drawing this. 😄