Mephiles (Archie)

Mephiles is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-off comic series published by Archie Comics. He is an evil smoky spirit and the power and intelligence of Solaris who took the shape of Shadow the Hedgehog. After being split from his original form, Mephiles sought to end all existence, but was erased from the timeline.

History
Mephiles was born during an experiment with Solaris conducted by the Duke of Soleanna and his researchers in an attempt to harness Solaris' time-warping powers. The resulting experiments spilt Solaris in two, creating Mephiles and Iblis, Solaris's fiery power and destructive nature. After his birth, Mephiles was trapped inside a device called the Scepter of Darkness by Shadow the Hedgehog.

Years later, Mephiles was released and stole Shadow's shape and abilities by merging with his shadow. Planning to rejoin with Iblis, Mephiles created a plan that spanned over two hundred years, brought him the seven Chaos Emeralds, saw the death of Sonic the Hedgehog and the release of Iblis from within Princess Elise. With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Mephiles rejoined Iblis and Solaris was reborn. Before Solaris could destroy all of time, however, it was defeated by an alliance of villains, heroes and a revived Sonic. Mephiles' existence was then fully erased from the timeline when Sonic and Elise traveled back in time to the days before Solaris was experimented upon where Elise snuffed out the tiny white flame that was Solaris.

Despite this time paradox seems to have safely dealt with Mephiles, it is suspected he could have slipped through a crack in time.

Personality
Mephiles was described as a brilliant and cruel individual, perfectly willing to kill others for his own gain.

Powers and Abilities
While most of his powers are unknown, Mephiles possessed both the power and intelligence of Solaris. He was very intelligent and cunning as he orchestrated a successful plan spanning two hundred years that brought his the seven Chaos Emeralds, the release of Iblis and the death of Sonic, all according to his design. He also had the ability to copy a person's shape and abilities by merging with said person's shade as seen when he did this to Shadow and gained his appearance and powers.

Trivia

 * Mephiles was first hinted to have existed within the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book universe when Ian Flynn confirmed that the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) had occured in the comics on the Ask Ian discussion board. It was first later in the Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia that Mephiles was officially revealed to have existed, along with details about his history.
 * Mephiles, or possibly an alternate version of Mephiles, appeared in Sonic Universe #29, marking Mephiles' first appearance in the comics. This Mephiles was imprisoned in the Zone Jail and appeared during Scourge's time at the prison claiming he needed to "lighten up". During the riot, this Mephiles was seen attempting to escape.
 * In the games he had no feet but in one of his cameos in the Zone Jail and in his artwork he has feet.
 * Ian Flynn made plans to bring Mephiles back thanks to his popularity, but he stated that Mephiles is currently off limits for use.
 * According to Ian Flynn on the Bumbleking forums, he believes that Sega implied that the Time Eater was the leftover matter of Mephiles, as such he stated that the Time Eater is an alternate state of Mephiles in the Archie comic that "slipped through a crack in time".