Marxio Brothers

One of the earliest of Sonic The Comic's thinly vieled parodies. The Marxio Brothers (Grouchio, Chicio, Harpio) are a strange mix of 1930 comedians The Marx Brothers and video game icons the Super Mario Bros., debuting at a time when Sega and Nintendo were major rivals in the video game industry.

The Marxio Brothers were three electricians who came from 'Marxio World', a place they are terrified of (most likely poking fun at the 'horror' of being in a Mario or Nintendo game and not a Sonic Universe) who became agents of Dr. Robotnik running his 'commercial ventures'.

They debuted running the Casino Night Zone in 'Casino Night' (STC 18) where they were scamming Mobians using hypnosis to make them compulsive gamblers. In 'Carnival Night Conspiracy' (STC 39-44) the Brothers had another theme park, this time the Carnival Night Zone being built on the Floating Island as another money-maker for Robotnik; initially they managed to convince Knuckles Robotnik wasn't involved and that he could use the money from the Zone to renovate the older Zones on the island, and an attempt at killing him on a roller coaster convinced him to let them stay ("I loved the ride!"). The Guardian found them out anyway (due to Chicio's incompetence), and he split the Carnival Night Zone from the Floating Island to drop to Mobius below.

Following Robotniks' removal from power, the Marxio Brothers convinced the Mobian authorities that Robotnik had duped them and were able to buy the Chemical Plant Zone, with the intent of making it environmentally friendly. They called Sonic in because of a problem that they felt might cause the zone to detonate, which turned out to be Megatox; whether or not this was a deliberate trap for Sonic is left unknown, though the Marxios denied it.

The Marxio Brothers also star in a series of Mobian video games as seen in STC #26, which Sonic isn't a fan of - "who cares about the adventures of three electricians?"

In the unofficial continuation of Sonic the Comic, Chicio appears in #239, being interviewed for a tabloid smear campaign against Sonic; there was a small cameo before this for the game Super Marxio Sunshine.