Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic Boom)

"Strong. Determined. The muscle of the team."

- Sonic Boom Official Website

Knuckles the Echidna is one of the main characters in the upcoming series, Sonic Boom. He is an anthropomorphic red echidna and serves as the brawn of his team.

Concept and Creation
When developing the character designs, Knuckles was made larger and more muscular to emphasize his strength, his role as the strong guy on the team and the bruiser he is.

The sports tape Knuckles wears is inspired by fighters and American football players and is meant to give him a sense of practical heroism by showing that that he is not vain, which is a trait more fitting for villans, when saving the world, and to give him a more grounded approach.

Appearance
Knuckles is much larger than the rest of the group and all of his other incarnations. Instead of having the same basic body type as Sonic, he has an incredibly large torso and muscular arms, making him very top-heavy despite his bigger legs. Like the other characters, Knuckles wears fingered gloves (unlike the boxing gloves sported by most of his incarnations), however, Knuckles has sports tape wrapped around his hands and wrists, similar to a Muay Thai boxer, making his gloves hard to see. His ankles and biceps are wrapped as well.

Personality
Knuckles is described as a "punch-first-and-keep-punching-until-you-need-a-punch-break" kind of echidna, and the best solution to a problem for him is to smash it to pieces. He is determined and strong of character, but also hard-headed, slow on the uptake and a bit goofy. Despite his rough personality though, Knuckles does have a soft spot and he loves nature.

Powers and Abilities
Described as the "muscle of the team", Knuckles possesses extreme physical strength. He is also able to dig through the ground and climb onto walls using the spikes on his hands.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Knuckles has a friendly rivalry going on with Sonic the hedgehog, though they still remain good friends. He does not take lightly to Sonic's snarky comments about him, but is nevertheless proud of Sonic's growth as a person.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric/Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Knuckles also appears in the video games Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal. The games serve as a prequel to the TV series, where Knuckles and his friends Sonic, Tails and Amy come to an unknown island to battle an ancient evil named Lyric the Last Ancient. Knuckles is one of the four playable characters in both games, where he can dig underground and climb along surfaces.

Archie Comics
It was revealed on 16 July 2014 that Archie Comics are set to publish a comic book series based on Sonic Boom which will feature Knuckles.

Trivia

 * Knuckles' appearance is similar to those of other super-strong characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, such as Bark the Polarbear, Vector the Crocodile, Big the Cat and Storm the Albatross