Bean the Dynamite (Archie)

Bean the Dynamite is a mercenary/bounty hunter and a former member of the Battle Bird Armada. He is hyperactive and wacky, a contrast to his close friend and partner, Bark the Polarbear.

Past
When younger, Bean was a member of the Battle Bird Armada (however, according to Storm, Battlekukku XV had attempted to kill him). He also worked in Nic the Weasel's gang. Later, he worked in a mercenary team with Fiona, and Bark. At one point, the three entered an illegal fighting tournament, only to be single-handedly defeated by Rouge.

"Out of the Blue"
Bean first appears with Bark, crashing Sonic's birthday party, at a newly rebuilt Freedom HQ. Bean breaks in, singing a childishly evil birthday song to Sonic, and then begins throwing his bombs at Sonic, Amy, and Antoine. Continuing this, Bean does so to Sally, as well, after which, Sonic finally stops him, and pins Bean up against a wall, telling him about Anti-Sonic. Before Sonic can finish, Bean starts pecking at his head. Fiona uses some "Shiny keys" to distract Bean. She throws them out of the window, to which Bean jumps after them. Outside of Freedom HQ, Bean plays with the keys as though they were a female that he was dating at the time. Bean then notices a shadow behind him, to which Bean turns, and asks the figure if he wants to help beat up Sonic, adding that it's good for his "glutes". A few minutes later, after the Freedom Fighters have defeated Bark, Shadow comes in, holding an unconscious Bean. After being put down, everyone (excluding Bean and Bark) begin talking. Bean wakes up, taking this as an opportunity to sneak into the Brain Trust's Room, and contact Robotnik. While tossing a bomb, Bean tells Robotnik that he and Bark were defeated. Robotnik begins complaining to Bean, only to be interrupted by Fiona, Sonic, and Rotor. Fiona scolds Bean, and tells him to sit with Bark.

"Round Up!"
While riding Extreme Gear with Bark, on Angel Island, to watch the Master Emerald, they run into Sonic, and Antoine. Bean, and Bark start circling the heroes, waiting for the right moment to attack. During this, Bean tells Sonic that they got the Extreme Gear by leaving the Battle Bird Armada at the right time. Before he finishes, Sonic jumps on Bean, and starts giving him a noogie. Bean reacts by freaking out, and yelling at Sonic not to infect him with "noogie germs". After losing control of the Extreme Gear, and Bean calling Sonic several names, Sonic is able to defeat Bean. After another battle, Sonic, Antoine, Bunnie, Sally, and Rouge pile all the villains, including Bean onto the Marvelous Queen, and Rouge takes them away.

"Eggman Empire"
After Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles rescue everyone from the Egg Grapes, Bean is seen among the crowd, checking on Charmy, while Dr. Quack tends to him. Bean is later seen again in a crowd, escaping Eggman's base. Bean, Bark, Nack, Ixis, and Mogul all appear together, in New Mobotropolis, after NICOLE has everyone sent there from Eggman's base. Mogul begins threatening to defeat everyone while they're weak, however, Nicole begins transporting them to an inescapable jail she had built. Bean is the only one to notice this process, though he doesn't realize what it is, only getting happy about a "shiny". Once transported, Bean responds by calling it "AWESOME"

"House of Cards"
While Elias goes to the New Mobotropolis prison cells, to talk to Amadeus, Bean gets hyper, and excited. Bean directs the attention of the other in-mates to Elias. Bean then starts yelling that he wants to wear Elias' crown. Hours later, while Tails, and Rosemary break Amadeus out, Bean accidentally alerts them that Sonic is there, by trying to turn Sonic's arrival into a joke about cheese.

"Mogul Rising"
While Sonic talks with Mogul in the cells, Bean appears, making faces at Sonic. The next night, Sonic, and Ash return to confront Mogul about the new Fearsome Foursome, Bean is seen sleeping in his cell. Later that night, when Mogul receives the Chaos Emerald, he breaks everyone out of the cells, including Bean. Being throw back, by Mogul freeing the criminals, Bean picks up Ash's glasses, and stares down at the floor, sticking his tongue out, much to Ash's disgust. Ash angrily grabs his glasses back, only before Mogul teleports the villains away, with his powers. Before leaving, Bean starts crying saying how much he'll miss Sonic, and that he'll write to him everyday.

"Mister Popular"
Bean, Bark, Nack, and Sleuth show up at a meeting with Mogul, to discuss their jobs. During the meeting, Bean is seen playing with a shiny silver fork, taken from his sandwich. He seems to ignore what everyone else is saying, as he mumbles "shiiiiiiny" to himself, while playing with the spoon. Several hours later, while Sonic, and Sally are out, Bean pops out with Bark, bombarding the heroes with an endless amount of bombs. Holding Bark's scarf, Bean starts singing "We're baaaaaack!" Sonic starts fighting the mercenaries, sending Bean flying, much to his joy. Sonic becomes distracted by Bark, while Bean gets ready to launch more bombs, warning Bark to get out of the way. Before being able to throw the bomb, Sally tries taking it from him. Bean yells at her, saying that it's his bomb. Sally tricks Bean into wanting to keep the already lit "shiny" bomb. Sally then throws the bomb in another direction, as Bean chases it, acting like a dog, shouting "Yap! Arf! Polar Bear's name!" Bean catches up to the bomb, only to have it blow up in his face. Later, Bean, and Bark watch as Sonic battles the Destructix. Sally interrupts this, and offers them more money than Mogul is, and less time in jail to help bail out Sonic. Bean tallies it up, and asks for cupcakes in the deal as well, to which Sally agrees. Bean then walks over to Bark, and discusses the profit with him. After a moment, they agree to help. While Lynx, and Frog hold Sonic down, for Simian to attack, Bean flies in, throwing bombs at everyone, except Sonic, Sally, and Bark. Bean rushes over to Hawk, hitting him with bombs, whilst insulting him for leaving the "armada", to which Hawk replies, "You're one to talk!" Bean is quickly distracted when Nack shoots Sonic with a type of laser tranquilizer gun. The Destructix take Sonic, as Sally pleads for them to stop. During this mishap, Bean and Bark betray Sally. Sally catches them, and tries to talk them into helping her get Sonic back, but Bean admits to messing up, and says that he might as well get paid for Mogul's job.

"Beating the House"
Bean shows up playing with metal, while waiting with the Destructix, for Mogul, to pay them all. Bean soon draws his attention to the currently captured Sonic. Bean begins asking Sonic childish questions such as: Why is he so fast, why is he blue, and "Are you, and the princess going to marry and have mutant hedge-squirrel babies?", much to Sonic's utter disgust. A few moments later, when Sonic is set free by Geoffrey, Amy Rose, Rouge the Bat, and Sally, Sonic grabs Bean, and slams him against the wall.

Sol Hunt
Bean recently joined forces with Nack and Bark to form Team Hooligan. Bean, along with the rest of their new team, eventually went in search of the missing Sol Emerald, after both Team Rose and Team Dark were found to be in pursuit of the emerald as well. Team Hooligan went to hide in the Great Forest at first, where they spied on the other two teams. All the while, Bean incessantly kept asking Nack what was happening while spying on the teams. Team Hooligan made its move when they captured Cheese the Chao attempting to bring the Sol Emerald to safety. After Cream the Rabbit of Team Rose was caught by Bark, Bean thought she was the most adorable thing he had ever seen and begged Nack to let him keep her as their team mascot so he could name her "Jorge." Bean even wanted to make Amy Rose a co-mascot with Cream, when both Amy and Blaze the Cat showed up, demanding Cream's release. Team Hooligan later made a speedy retreat on Nack's bike, only to have Blaze, using her flame powers, send the bike and its passengers flying. Bean became lodged in a tree and berated Nack for how he could have completely missed that Amy was there while he watched their every move. When Team Dark arrived to confront Team Rose, Bean readily agreed with Nack that it was time to leave before anyone realized they still had the Emerald. During their getaway, Bean held the emerald with a mesmerized look in his eyes, unaware that they were being followed by someone else.

As they rode through the forest, Bean casually commented on the situation, saying that he felt that this team could lead to a beautiful partnership. But only if no one ignored him, unaware of what Nack was so focused on, until the weasel called attention to a zeppelin tailing them. As they tried to outrace the blimp, it began to drop bombs; one explosion threw the bike and its passengers into the air (again), causing Bean to cackle in utter delight. The hooligans soon found their pursuers to be none other than the Babylon Rogues, who had picked up the odd signal themselves and decided to take the treasure. To their surprise, Bean quickly caught the Rogues' leader Jet the Hawk in a hug, happy to see him and calling him "Jettison Q. Hawkington" (despite Jet's insistence that that was not his name). Wave the Swallow and Storm the Albatross remarked that they'd thought that the Battle Lord had previously "taken care" of the eccentric duck. Despite Bean clinging to him, Jet went after the Sol Emerald. Nack the Weasel attempted to shoot the Rogues with his sniper rifle in order to take back the Sol Emerald, but Bean inadvertently kept ruining his shots. Eventually Nack, aiming at Jet, shot the emerald itself, causing it to erupt into a massive ring of flame, which impressed Bean and threw the Rogues to the ground. When the Rogues attempted to retaliate by remotely having their blimp drop its storage of bombs, Bean, as though conducting an orchestra, caused the bombs to detonate prematurely well above the ground, much to everyone's surprise. When Teams Rose and Dark finally caught up, a four-way fight for the Emerald was about to break out; Bean, grinning crazily, asked Nack, "I make boom now, yes?" and hefted a bomb. Nack coldly confirmed that there would be "lots of boom."

Bean spent most of the ensuing melee generally being obviously annoying or simply an easy target for more seasoned combatants. When Blaze the Cat finally got her hands on the Sol Emerald, Bean offered to toss her something else: a lit bomb. However, being pyrokinetic, Blaze simply snuffed the fuse. The bomb's failure to explode utterly shocked and bewildered Bean, and he began to "mourn" for the bomb, blaming himself for throwing it out into the world before it was ready. Pledging to remember it always, he soon began to deliberate the bomb's name (Cecil, Abigail, Jamie, Kendall) while largely ignoring the continued scuffle for the Sol Emerald. Eventually, Cream the Rabbit took him by the hand and told him it's time to join his friends, and Bean followed without protest, saying that "Jamie-Kendall Duckingworth III" would have wanted it that way. He was thus unaware that he, along with Nack, Bark, Jet, Wave and Storm, had essentially been corralled together as part of an effort to finally end the battle. With a snap of her fingers, Blaze re-ignited the bomb in Bean's hands; he was utterly delighted even as it exploded upon the entire group. Thrilled that his bomb had finally gone off and distracted by the loss of feeling in his hands, Bean seemed unfazed that his team lost the fight for the Emerald and happily agreed that it was time to leave when a blackened Bark carried off the unconscious Nack and followed after them.

Bark the Polar Bear
In a Q&A on writer Ian Flynn's forum, a fan asked Bean what he thought of Bark, Bean's reply was


 * That JERK?! That pompous, arrogant, mouthy furball?! That lumbering, oafish, grammatically-challenged, poorly dressed schmoe?! That flea-bitten, cap-wearin', garlic-smellin', soft-shoein' hunk of cheese?!
 * I love him like a brother!

Mammoth Mogul
Their relationship is never stated and is highly likely that they are just employer and employee when necessary.

Fiona Fox
Fiona and Bean appear to have a friendly relationship as they have worked together on missions frequently.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Bean appears not to have any animosity towards Sonic, but Bean's habit of being on the wrong side and his annoying personality tends to annoy Sonic.

Abilities
While Bean tends to be less focused on fighting matters, his main ability is to conjure up bombs to hurl at any threat. He's also been shown to occasionally prematurely detonate explosives.

Bean will also use some melee attacks, but will often be distracted by other minor details or speaking of nonsense.

Trivia

 * Bean and Bark both made a cameoe on the cover of Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 51, yet didn't make an actual appearance until Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 160.
 * Bean also made a cameo by himself in Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 76 (Page 6, Panel 1).
 * Bean makes a flashback cameo in Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 165 (Page 4, Panel 1), and Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 172 (Page 5, Panel 4).
 * While talking to Shadow, Bean says "Shine get!", an obvious reference to popular video game, Super Mario Sunshine.
 * Bean appears to be able to pull bombs out of thin air, like how Amy can produce hammer out of thin air too.
 * Bean's shoes are identical to Sonic's Power Sneakers, but with the buckles on the opposite side.
 * In Sonic Universe #23, Bean revealed an interesting ability. When Jet called in an air-strike to bomb the field, Bean set off every bomb telepathically while they were still in the air.
 * In an alternate zone, Bean wears an eye-patch and is named "Demo Duck". This and his expertise in explosives could be a reference to the Demoman from the game, Team Fortress 2.