Super Shadow

"Time to unleash the ultimate power!"

- Super Shadow, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Super Shadow (スーパーシャドウ) is the Super State of Shadow the Hedgehog when he harnesses the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Super Shadow made his first appearance in Sonic Adventure 2 and has since then appeared in numerous games. While transformed, all his powers and abilities are enhanced up to their full limit.

Appearance
When transformed into Super Shadow, Shadow's black fur turns into a golden lemon-cream color. Other than that, his additional fur colors, eye color and quill style remains unchanged. He also possesses a golden aura that varies in size, which can be anything from smooth to flame-like in shape. In Shadow the Hedgehog however, his quills pointed upwards like Super Sonic's instead of being in their normal stance.

In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, his nose has the same color as his fur.

Powers and abilities
While in his Super State, Shadow arguably becomes one of the most powerful characters in the series. As Super Shadow, Shadow is strong enough to defeat Devil Doom on his own, go toe-to-toe with Solaris, and resist the overwhelming force from the Space Colony ARK falling through the atmosphere. During his first time using it, Shadow had trouble maintaining his Super State, but now appears to have mastered it.

As Super Shadow, Shadow's innate abilities far surpasses his normal ones. Not only is his strength multiplied many times over, but his speed has been enhanced immeasurably as well, allowing him to evenly match Super Sonic's who can move at the speed of light and presumably beyond. His reflexes are also improved, allowing him to keep up with his increased movements. Like the traditional Super State, Shadow has gained new abilities, including high-speed run-flight and virtual invulnerability to harm, although his invulnerability can be bypassed if he is hit with enough force, such as Solaris' attacks. By combining his Super State with his Hero Shadow and Dark Shadow transformations, Super Shadow can enhance his abilities even further.

All of Shadow’s Chaos Powers are enhanced to their full limit in his Super State, enabling him to put far more power and range into his attacks. He can now channel and project large amounts of chaos energy as bullets with enough power to blow up a building and he can freely perform Chaos Control which lets him bend time and space to his will. The latter has been enhanced to such levels that he can teleport the Black Comet into space on his own and transport the Space Colony ARK back into orbit (the latter with Super Sonic's aid).

Moves and techniques
Super Shadow makes heavily use of his Chaos Spear techniques and the moves derived from it. Due to his Super State, Shadow's Chaos Spear has been greatly amplified, allowing him to charge it with enough power to impale being like the nigh-invulnerable Devil Doom. Alternatively, he can fire smaller and faster arrows with lesser power, or launch Chaos Spears that explode upon impact as seen in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. Super Shadow can also use a variant of the Chaos Spear called the Spear of Light where he launches a rain of red spears with enough force to penetrate Solaris' light shells. He can also utilize an enhanced version of his Chaos Blast.

Like Super Sonic, Super Shadow can use the Super Sonic Boost, an attack where Shadow cloaks himself in a fiery aura and launches himself into enemies with increased speed and enormous force. Alternatively, he is able to perform smaller dashes for quick, short-ranged movements. He can even combine his Super Sonic Boost with similar techniques to amplify its size and power, such as Super Sonic's Super Sonic Boost.

Sonic X
Just like Super Sonic, Sonic X is the only animated Sonic TV series so far to feature Super Shadow. Super Shadow is also the only other super transformation presented in the TV series besides Super Sonic. His physical proportions are unchanged and his black fur turns lemon yellow, but is slightly darker. Some scenes, however, depicts his quills pointing slightly more vertically than usual.

Super Shadow first appearance was in the second season. During the Shadow Saga, Shadow became Super Shadow in order to battle the Final Lizard, alongside Super Sonic and prevent the Space Colony ARK from destroying the Earth. In their struggle, Super Shadow removes his Inhibitor Rings to give himself a power boost and together, they send the Space Colony ARK back into orbit with a unified Chaos Control. Afterwards, Shadow is presumed to have died.

Super Shadow later reappeared in the middle of the third season. In a struggle for the seven Chaos Emeralds inside a Metarex fortress in space, Sonic and Shadow ended up entering their Super States in the conflict, and they have a brief battle. Soon after though, a gravitational field inside the fortress treats to destroy Dr. Eggman and his space ship, but Super Shadow manages to save them, by performing a Chaos Control that warps the space ship away.

Super Shadow appeared again, at the end of the third season, alongside Super Sonic, in the final battle against Dark Oak, but they are unable to break through Dark Oak's force field as he prepares to destroy the galaxy. However, thanks to the sacrifice of Cosmo, they manage to finally defeat Dark Oak. After trying to save Cosmo, Super Shadow knocks Super Sonic unconscious and performs Chaos Control to warp himself and Dark Oak's corrupted Planet Egg far away before it explodes.

Archie Comics
Following the comic's adaptation of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow entered his Super State to become Super Shadow when he allied himself with Super Sonic to stop the Finalhazard from destroying Mobius with the Space Colony ARK, but the effort from it left him drained of energy and he became lost in space. He entered this form again when he was saved by an alien race called the Bem from drifting through space, by providing him with enough power to become Super Shadow. The reason for this was so he could combat the approaching Xorda. Super Shadow proved unprepared for the Xorda attack, however, and was sent plummeting towards Mobius.

Shadow reached his super transformation once again, this time due to A.D.A.M. pulling all of the Chaos Emeralds in the universe towards Mobius to use their incredible powers for his own gain. After being released from captivity by Dr. Eggman, Super Shadow used his Chaos Control to aid Turbo Tails and sent all of the Chaos Emeralds into the Zone of Silence, thus ending A.D.A.M.'s plans.

Theme song

 * "I Am... All of Me" by Crush 40 - Played during the final battle of Shadow the Hedgehog against Devil Doom. It describes the mystery surrounding Shadow's past from his perspective and his quest to figure it out, while outlining the different paths he can take.

Trivia

 * Super Shadow is the second most frequently used super transformation in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, next to Super Sonic.
 * During the battle against the Finalhazard in Sonic Adventure 2, it is implied with in-battle quotes that Shadow struggles more than Sonic in maintaining his Super State. This could be due to a lack of experience with the transformation (whereas Sonic has used it many times), or that he was exerting himself more in the battle.
 * Many people mistakenly call this form Hyper Shadow, due to a misprint in the strategy guide for the game. While the term is still widely used, hacking and viewing the in-game files confirms the name Super Shadow.
 * When Super Shadow wanted to stop the Space Colony Ark from falling into the Earth with Super Sonic, his shoes' light was purple.
 * It is also strange that Shadow uses Hover Shoes, while he can fly by his Super State power.
 * The artwork from the Sonic Art Assets DVD is a recolor of an artwork used for promoting Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Its purpose at the time was box art for the upcoming Action Figure 3 pack featuring Super Sonic, Super Shadow, and Super Silver.
 * In Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, when Shadow uses his All-Star Move (Super Shadow), if you look closely, you will notice that his nose is yellow, along with the rest of his body. This is probably a mistake, because his nose remains black in all of the other games Super Shadow makes an appearance in.