Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Comic)


 * This article is about the version of the character seen in Sonic the Comic. For other versions, see Sonic the Hedgehog (disambiguation).

Sonic the Hedgehog is the title character of UK fortnightly comic Sonic the Comic. Based out of the Emerald Hill Zone, he protects the planet Mobius and leads a band of Freedom Fighters. He is famous on Mobius for opposing and later deposing the tyrant Doctor Robotnik. For undercover work, he disguises himself as the penguin Bob Beaky. Due to the amount of Chaos Energy he's absorbed, he can transform into the psychotic Super Sonic.

Character
In this continuity, Sonic, while still a hero and possessing a strong moral code, was portrayed with a different attitude than in other media. He is somewhat bossy, cocky, immature and arrogant, and characters regularly referred to his "strange sense of humor" - in "Attack on the Death Egg" in issue #6, Sonic deliberately let Tails think he was dead for a cheap laugh. Sonic frequently made cruel jokes at the expense of Tails, whom he often refers to as "pixel brain". However, despite his flaws, Sonic truly does care about his friends and their well-being, showing genuine concern when he thinks that they are in serious danger. He also showed anger when Porker Lewis quit the Freedom Fighters; writer Nigel Kitching has stated in a forum post that this was "because he didn't want Porker to go - not because he despised him for his cowardice but because he was just so desperate for Porker to stay. It's just Sonic's inability to express his feelings get him so screwed up."

He takes the protection of Mobius seriously; at the same time, he gets bored and restless when there's no new challenge or threat, and will often deliberately go to seek one out.

After the death of Johnny Lightfoot at the hands of the Chaos creature, Sonic genuinely blamed himself for putting his friends on the line, temporarily quitting the Freedom Fighters and returning with a less egocentric attitude and a stronger will.

He likes to eat a lot as seen in issue #5.

Early days
Originally a normal brown hedgehog and resident of the Green Hill Zone, Sonic accidentally discovered the lab of benevolent scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor. At this time, Sonic already claimed to be the fastest hedgehog on the planet, a fact which intrigued Kintobor. The two became friends, and Kintobor showed Sonic his various experiments and inventions.

Kintobor's main mission in life was to rid the planet Mobius of all evil. By using a machine that he called the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor (or ROCC) and the Golden Rings of Mobius, he channeled the evil energy into six Chaos Emeralds. However, Kintobor lacked the seventh Emerald that would stabilize the machine. Sonic agreed to help Kintobor search for the final Emerald in exchange for Kintobor using his scientific knowledge to help Sonic to run faster. Although they never found the Emerald, Kintobor's experiments on Sonic's speed eventually bore fruit, when he invented a pair of friction-reducing Power Sneakers.

When testing the Power Sneakers for the first time, Kintobor put Sonic into a "Kinetic Gyratoscope" in order to test Sonic's speed. Sonic ended up breaking the speed of sound, causing an accident that fused Sonic's quills together and turning them a distinctly different blue color. Sonic honed his skills using the various structures around the Green Hill Zone and soon learned to control his super-speed, allowing him to perform aerial feats and stunts. His signature move quickly became the "Sonic Spin Attack", which proved useful for destroying Badniks.

Upon Kintobor's transformation into Dr. Robotnik (one day after Sonic's own transformation ), Sonic used his speed to battle against the madman's attempts at conquering Mobius. He defeated the tyrant on two separate occasions, retrieving the Chaos Emeralds from him both times (briefly turning into the powerful Super Sonic as a result) and destroying the doctor's Death Egg satellite. In the process, he also rescued a young fox called Miles "Tails" Prower from drowning in the Swampland Zone, and Tails followed him around as a sidekick ever since.

Sonic kept the Chaos Emeralds hidden safely in North Cave in the Frozen Zone and fought off minor attacks by Robotnik. Unfortunately, on a trip to the Special Zone he discovered too late that the Doctor had taken control of his old friend the Omni-Viewer, and he and his friends were thrown forward in time by six months.

Freedom Fighter
In Sonic's six month absence, Robotnik conquered Mobius. Sonic immediately formed a Freedom Fighter organisation, operating out of Kintobor's old underground lab (along with a "Kintobor Computer" based on his brain patterns) with his friends Tails, Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis. Amy Rose joined later, much to Sonic's annoyance due to her insistence she was his girlfriend, and a brief alliance was formed with Captain Plunder and the Sky Pirates. Sonic spent the next few months sabotaging Robotnik's operations, liberating Badnik Processing Plants, fighting off assassins such as Metallix the Metal Sonic and Metamorphia, and keeping the Emeralds safe. He also was present at the destruction of an ancient robot called a Sentinel, which would haunt him later.

When Robotnik's Death Egg II crashed on the legendary Floating Island, Sonic went after and finally captured the tyrant. In the process he ran afoul of Knuckles the Echidna, who had been duped by Robotnik, and they established a long-standing rivalry. Unfortunately it turned out Robotnik had allowed himself to be captured so Knuckles could track him to Sonic's base and steal the Chaos Emeralds. The plan worked and the Emeralds were combined with the Floating Island's Emeralds. However, when Robotnik attempted to double-cross Knuckles and steal the Emerald Energy for himself, Knuckles realised the truth that Robotnik was evil and defeated him. In revenge for the defeat, Robotnik invaded and destroyed Sonic's base.

Now forced to go nomadic as Bob Beaky and his Traveling Circus, Sonic attempted to prevent the Death Egg II from being relaunched. Sonic teamed up with Knuckles to prevent the launch, initially failing and having to bring it down from the inside by retrieving the Master Emerald from Robotnik. In return for saving the Emerald, Sonic made Knuckles allow the Emerald Hill residents to flee to the Mushroom Hill Zone for refuge; he spent the next few weeks deliberately tracking down and rescuing every Emerald Hill prisoner.

The twin threats of Commander Brutus and the Brotherhood of Metallix both occurred in the same timeframe, pushing Sonic to his limits and both threatening to seize Mobius from Robotnik. Sonic was conned by Robotnik into going after the Brotherhood (even though Robotnik could've wiped them out via an auto-destruct program) and was forced to leave Porker behind on the Miracle Planet for a month as a result, while Brutus was only driven off by Sonic turning Super. The Brotherhood of Metallix later rewrote history so Robotnik was never created from Kintobor, allowing them to take over Mobius and wipe out its inhabitants; working with Omni-Viewer and the Chaotix Crew, Sonic was forced to go back in time and ensure that Robotnik was created in order to save the planet. To Sonic's disgust, this makes him responsible for Robotnik's tyranny. As an act of revenge, he deliberately called up Robotnik to taunt him with his failed plans before helping a Metropolis Zone mob destroy one of Robotnik's statues.

The road to victory
A turning-point occurred when Sonic was transformed into Super Sonic by accident when there was no enemy to fight - Super immediately tried to kill the Freedom Fighters, with Sonic at one point thinking he'd been successful. To stop Super, the Chaos Energy was drained from Sonic into the Special Zone but this accidentally caused Super to gain an independent existence from Sonic. After being involved in fighting against Brutus' vicious takeover attempt, Sonic went to the Special Zone to stop Super Sonic. As a temporary measure, Super was frozen in time inside the Omni-Viewer and then sealed in the Black Asteroid, but this trapped Sonic in the Special Zone.

Sonic spent the next few months living with the Chaotix Crew, alternately fighting serious villains such as Lord Sidewinder and Nack the Weasel and dealing with the surreal craziness of the Zone itself. He grew a heavy dislike of the Zone, its weirdness and its superheroes (such as the Z-Monkeys), constantly wanting to return home. When Super Sonic escaped the Omni-Viewer and charged up the Black Asteroid in order to escape that too, Sonic came up with the idea to teleport the Asteroid to Mobius. The resulting electromagnetic pulse wiped out all of Robotnik's computer systems and left him powerless; returning to Mobius via the Omni-Viewer, Sonic was unable to stop Robotnik escaping but did destroy his base, symbolizing the end of tyranny.

Free Mobius
The initial days of freedom left Sonic bewildered half the time. He was annoyed seeing former enemies like the Marxio Brothers profiting as legitimate businessmen and being unable to tell if they were still evil. He also had problems with boredom and a worry that, with Robotnik gone, there was nothing for him to do. The politics of Mobius' first post-Robotnik election left Sonic bored to death, but an on-the-spot remark by him led to the establishment of a system of regional governments - Zone Leaders - over a global government. He also tried several times to locate the missing Super Sonic, not realising the EM pulse had caused temporary amnesia and turned Super into a pacifist.

He battled Robotnik once more on Flickies' Island, determined not to allow another takeover, only to witness Robotnik abducted by a Prosecutor of the Drakon Empire. This led to repeated clashes against the Empire as Robotnik made a deal with the Drakon House of War's leader Ko-Dorr. Sonic was captured and put on trial for the destruction of a Sentinel, and forced to prove his innocence in combat against a new model Metallix (as Drakon law decides innocence in trial-by-combat). Thanks to Tails, Sonic escaped with his life and Ko-Dorr had to let him go for legal reasons. Sonic battled attempts by the Drakons to invade Mobius for the Chaos Emeralds, fending them off until they invaded the Floating Island - only to be betrayed by Robotnik.

Robotnik absorbed the Chaos Emerald's powers and became a god, reshaping reality to create a Mobius where Sonic had never existed. Traumatized by the sights - Amy and Johnny frightened civilians, Porker a lackey of Robotnik, Tails dead and Emerald Hill a metal wasteland - Sonic attempted to bring hope to the people that Robotnik could be beaten. Robotnik then proceeded to put Sonic through a myriad of torments, resurrecting several of Sonic's most dangerous foes, pitting him against an evil version of Knuckles, stripping Sonic of his speed, and finally showing Sonic that he was destined to fight Robotnik for sixty-five years and never win. Despite all of this, Sonic vowed to fight Robotnik to the end no matter what, and then manipulated the doctor's ego, taunting him into restoring Sonic's powers and Knuckles' memories of the original timeline by telling Robotnik that he was scared of losing. With Knuckles' help, Sonic used the gray Chaos Emerald to drain Robotnik of his newfound powers, reverting Mobius to normal and apparently killing Robotnik in the process.

Shanazar
Robotnik's lackey Grimer discovered Robotnik still lived in a sub-atomic universe and attempted to retrieve him, with Sonic following. This left him stranded in another universe once again, this time on the planet of Shanazar, a world run on magic and similar to Arabian Nights fantasy. It turned out Robotnik had reverted to Kintobor when he landed on Shanazar and had become the Grand Vizier of Princess Kupacius (ruler of a kingdom also called Shanazar). Unfortunately it was soon revealed that the transformation was only temporary and Robotnik returned soon after Sonic's arrival. Sonic also found himself placed in a moral dilemma regarding the Shanazar custom of allowing children to contain the spirit of mighty genies; while it was beneficial to both sides and the children were willing, it would reduce their life spans to five years. Unable to accept this, Sonic destroyed the Mystic Globe that made the ceremony possible and thus made himself an enemy of the kingdom. Robotnik then ordered a court magician to erase all memory of the device that Sonic used to come to Shanazar from Sonic's mind, effectively leaving the heroic hedgehog stranded.

Sonic travelled the world as a fugitive, saving lives and fighting multiple villains, including a hive-mind alien race called the Plax, whilst trying to both find a way home and stop Robotnik's plans. He was soon joined by Amy Rose, who was using the Eternity Ring to try and retrieve Sonic but accidentally ended up trapped with him. Together they eventually went after Robotnik directly, discovering he had plans to teleport back to Mobius by increasing the size of Shanazar and colliding the two planets - he would then take control in the resulting devastation. His process backfired, instead causing the two planets to merge into one and cause dimensional portals across Mobius to open up to "New Zones", other dimensions and other times. Enraged, Robotnik tried to attack Sonic and was beaten back.

Back on Mobius, Sonic immediately started exploring the portals and new Zones alongside Amy and Tekno.

Apocalypse
Driven insane, Robotnik decided to destroy Mobius and gained the help of the Plax in doing so. On Christmas Eve, Mobius began to suffer complete environmental collapse, endangering countless lives. Sonic, Amy, Tekno and Shortfuse the Cybernik launched a direct assault on Robotnik to stop him, just barely succeeding. Much to Sonic's joy afterwards, Robotnik appeared to be dead.

It turned out the Doctor had survived and grown ever more depressed. In an attempt to help him, Robotnik's lackey Grimer released the ancient Chaos creature upon Mobius. In battle against it in Metropolis Zone, Sonic was briefly trapped inside it and emerged with green eyes due to absorbing more Chaos energy. Chaos attacked again and killed Johnny Lightfoot. Sonic blamed himself for the death, admitting he'd never thought anyone would really be killed in all the years he'd risked their lives, and temporarily quit the Freedom Fighters.

Sonic rejoined shortly afterwards, having matured significantly, and was subsequently warped to the ancient past, witnessing both the Echidna-Drakon War and the creation of Chaos. Determined to destroy Chaos in the past so he couldn't kill Johnny in the present, Sonic launched an attack that saw him trapped inside Chaos again and nearly drowned; the Echidnas warped him back to the present, just in time to battle Chaos at his most powerful. Sonic was able to shrug off Chaos' ability to cause fear by focusing on rage but the final blow came when Super Sonic returned, needing Chaos Energy to remain alive; with the help of his friend Ebony, he'd tracked down Chaos and absorbed all of his energy. Unfortunately this caused Super Sonic to revert back to his former psychotic self and attempt to slaughter the Freedom Fighters. Determined to stop any more of his friends from being killed, Sonic had Ebony recombine the two of them into one being once more.

Sonic the Comic Online
The unofficial online continuation of STC showed Sonic's initial reaction to being recombined with Super Sonic - fear of transforming into Super and disbelief that he'd ever been a pacifist. When Tails was captured and put in danger by Dr Zachary and his Syndicate, Sonic showed an intense desire to rescue his friend above all else, still affected by Johnny's loss.

When the Chaos Emeralds were warped into the Special Zone once more, Sonic attempted to retrieve them and found himself in conflict against the Syndicate creation Shadow the Hedgehog - a conflict Sonic lost. As a result of Shadow gathering the Emeralds together, the Special Zone was destroyed as the Chaos Energy that formed it was absorbed. Sonic was then shown that Shadow had been raised by Kintobor and (now he'd been turned into Robotnik) was repaying him by carrying out his last wish of destroying Mobius; all of this had occurred because Sonic turned Kintobor into Robotnik. Devastated by the events and determined to save Mobius, Sonic went to the Drakon Empire for help. As a result the Syndicate was defeated and Shadow died of energy loss in the process, but Sonic was left knowing that by accepting help from the Drakons he could have enabled them to threaten Mobius in some way.

Soon after this, Sonic was hit by a smear campaign by the Kane Broadcasting Company, a media conglomerate owned by the mysterious Kane. The campaign attempted to prove Sonic was secretly a dangerous villain, revealing that he'd turned Kintobor into Robotnik (insinuating Sonic was behind the dictator all along) and that he transformed into Super Sonic (insinuating it constantly happened). There is no known motive beyond television ratings and potential profit, but it has tarnished Sonic's image. He has also come up against the Family, a crime syndicate run by insects who'd left the Special Zone before its destruction. Psychic mobster Oscura the Mantis recently attempted to drive Sonic mad through a mind swap and psychic illusions designed to prey on his fears, including Johnny's death; in the process it was revealed Sonic had a subconscious phobia of Amy settling for someone else. Things get worse when an unknown terrorist threatens to detonate Mega Mack bombs throughout Mobius. When Sonic tries unsuccessfully to stop the first bomb from exploding in the Emerald Hill Zone, the previously unknown terrorist reveals himself to be none other than Sonic.

Sonic was taken into custody and imprisoned until trial. When Sonic supposedly escapes prison to clear his name, he unexpectedly attacks the Freedom Fighters and disappears into a volcanic tunneling system beneath the Hill Top Zone. The Sonic who attacked the Freedom Fighters is revealed to be the new addition of the Metal Sonic. (Which has the style and shapeshifting powers of the Metal Sonic from Sonic Heroes) the two fight, and Sonic wins when he causes the volcano to erupt, destroying the Metal Sonic in the process.

Outside, a holographic version of the mastermind behind Sonic's infamy appears before the blue hedgehog: Grimer. He reveals that he was also behind the Family coming from the now-destroyed Special Zone, and the media-smearing broadcast run by Kane. His reasons were for revenge on Sonic for driving Robotnik insane. The acts of the new Metallix and Kane's smear campaign have now completely destroyed Sonic's reputation; the heroic hedgehog is now hated and feared worldwide, and his friends no longer trust him. His vengeance fulfilled, Grimer taunts Sonic, declaring that no one will ever trust him again, and then disappears, leaving Sonic alone and emotionally shattered.

Abilities
All of Sonic's abilities stem from his central power of super-speed - he can run faster than the speed of sound. The momentum of his speed allows him to smash robots with his fists and feet, and by curling up into a ball he can smash into objects with great force, a move called the Spin Attack. By running at full speed around an enemy, he forms a Sonic Cyclone that rips the enemy to shreds through its slipstream. By vibrating his molecules at super-speed, Sonic can break free of chains and can create a forcefield.

He pushed himself to the limits of his speed in "Hyper Sonic" during issue #134 to stop two D.R.A.T. missiles; this caused him to move so fast, even when just walking, that everything around him seemed frozen. He returned to normal by forcibly relaxing himself (by looking up trainspotting websites).

In this continuity, Sonic appears to be highly intelligent (although not a genius of the same calibur of Porker Lewis or Tekno the Canary), with a natural flair for cunning plans, such as his strategy to defeat the Brotherhood of Metallix.

Originally, Sonic's exposure to the Chaos emeralds caused his transformation into the powerful Super Sonic, but his long-time exposure to Chaos energy means he can now transform due to extreme stress in dangerous situations. As Super, all of Sonic's natural abilities are greatly enhanced, and he also gains the ability to fly and project energy blasts; however, he is unable to control himself while in this state.

Trivia

 * In Sonic the Comic #8, Doctor Ovi Kintobor refered to Sonic as "Erinaceus Europaeus", the Latin name for the West European Hedgehog species. (This is the species of hedgehog native to the UK.) It is unknown whether such a species would be recognised on Mobius, but if so it is possible that Sonic is a member of this species.