Sorry if this is a dumb question, because yes, I know Nicole was in SatAM, and isn't technically a "new" Archie character - but I've always wondered, why was Archie still allowed to use Nicole's Lynx form post-reboot, when that particular version of her was designed/conceptualized by Tania Del Rio, before the reboot? (To be clear, I love Lynx Nicole, I've just always wondered)
Nah, this isn't a dumb question. I don't know the specifics, but it seems like it largely just comes down to the fact that Tania del Rio was still working for Archie at the time of the lawsuits. (She hadn't contributed to Sonic in years at that point, but she was still working on the Archie side of Archie Comics.) Either they already had a complete work for hire contract for her on file, unlike the '90s creators who regained the rights to their work, or they made her sign a new one ASAP to retroactively cover their asses. Something like that
(Also, if Archie's story in court is to be believed, the old contracts were destroyed in an accident at their warehouse in 1996, after which they hastily got everyone to sign the incomplete contracts that didn't hold up in court. Tania started working at Archie around 2004.)
It's like how a few of the Grandmasters like Conquering Storm and Akhlut survived the reboot (albeit with redesigns) because Aleah and Ian were still working on the series. Not all of their contributions survived the reboot, obviously, but they were able to keep some of them
