I really don't think that "turning up the heat" will help - Sega makes games and most gamers won't have heard of Sally.
For example the asian market most likely has NEVER ever heard of Sally, the European market had a single - and FLOPPED!- series with her (seriously, Sonic Underground ran longer & more often than the SatAM-Aosth combo we got in Germany), what, ten years ago; and has the majority of the US-American gamers even heard of the comic? I'm not sure about this.
It would be STUPID marketing wise to attach Sonic to anyone. The games are a family friendly jump'n'run series mainly marketed at young kids. A relationship that's not a parental marriage will catapult them out of their target - just remember how many six year old boys still go "EW. You touched a GIRL. Even if it's just in the comic, the knowledge about it will leak thanks to gaming sites and co. Something like that won't go unnoticed - which negates the "It's just in the comic!" argument. Someone IS going to take offense.
Additional problem: Does Sega even have the copyright/trademark to the character of Sally? Isn't it DC'S or Archies?Sega hold's Sonic's trademark, but with Sally I'm not sure. If they were to endorse a relationship, they will do it with one of THEIR characters. They won't risk a shared copyright with DC/Archie, or anything that's iffy and might get them sued for part of the profit.
Sega earns it's money with games, not with the Archie comics. If the Archie Comic tanks, Sega will shrug it off. If it does well, it's still insignificant. But if it does something that goes against the BRAND of Sonic the hedgehog, Sega will have to deal with the fall out. They're pretty good at screwing Sonic over themselves, but they won't allow others to do that.
As annoying as it is, but Archie can keep doing the Sonic Comic only as long as Sega sees an advantage in it - and a percieved change in the brand of care-free, unattached Sonic will them have fuming. Archie's caught in an advanced form of the fanfiction dilemma. Sure, Sonic's known and gives their comics pull, but in exchange they're Sega's bitches and have to do what Sega says. If Archie steps on Sega's toes, they'll be punished.
Which means, "Will he or won't he" is the best the Archie-readers will get, because anything else won't make sense money or marketing-wise for Sega.
And THIS, dears, is why you're FUCKED if you try to work in a continuity owned by someone else. If you upset the continuity owner, they'll come after you with lawers - and it doesn't matter if you make money from it. If archie wants to play at their own fancy, they need to do so in franchaises they own themselves.
