Doctor Ivo Robotnik (Sonic the Comic)


 * This article is about the Sonic the Comic incarnation of the character. For other versions, see Robotnik (disambiguation).

Doctor Ivo Robotnik is a character that appears in the Sonic the Comic series published by Fleetway Editions. He was originally a kind human scientist named Doctor Ovi Kintobor before an accident transformed him into the mad scientist Ivo Robotnik.

The Robotnik of this continuity is both a genius-level scientist (like the Doctor Eggman from the games continuity) and the despotic ruler of Planet Mobius (like the Dr. Robotnik from Archie Comics). Although Sonic the Comic does not contain the concept of roboticizing, Robotnik's Badniks are nevertheless powered by Mobians, who function as "Organic batteries". More advanced Badniks, such as Robotnik's Troopers and the Metallix series, do not possess such batteries.

Production background
The Sonic the Comic continuity originates with a short &quot;official&quot; storyline created by Sega of America for the original 16-bit game, which was then expanded upon by the book, Stay Sonic. The original tale was revamped even further by the enduring Sonic the Comic series by Fleetway Editions, as well as some other UK novels.

Although his goals and actions were always evil incarnate, this incarnation of Robotnik often showed many foibles, such as in early issues replacing the "ex" in words with "eggs" (e.g. "eggs-actly"), and acts of pettiness such as having his robots attack places he already rules just to show that he can. Writer Nigel Kitching tried hard to make Robotnik a menacing figure, and after a few early stories refused to add any eggy puns, although some were added afterwards by editor Richard Burton. Kitching claimed to be particularly disappointed when he read a story by Lew Stringer, in which Robotnik was shown throwing custard pies at a picture of Sonic (in fact Robotnik was throwing rotten fruit and eggs, and it occurred in Sonic the Comic #63, "Project Brutus, Part 1"), and responded by making the next stories ("Voice of the People" in Sonic the Comic #77 and "Plasma" in #78) as menacing as possible, with plenty of scary images by Richard Elson.

Design
Doctor Ivo Robotnik was originally designed to resemble Doctor Ivo Robotnik from the early games. As the series progressed, his design was changed. Beginning in Sonic the Comic #9, "Back to Reality" (and coinciding with Robotnik's conquest of planet Mobius), Robotnik's costume was re-designed by Richard Elson (following a similar design he'd used for the story "Cartoon Concerto" in the Sonic the Hedgehog Yearbook 1991) to incorporate elements of both the games design (such as the yellow collars) and the costume of Doctor Robotnik from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (including the yellow cross with the black circle in the middle). Some artists also used this design (e.g. Brian Williamson in Sonic the Comic #16), but others continued to use Robotnik's game design (e.g. Carl Flint in Sonic the Comic #12).

Shortly afterwards, Robotnik's design was required to be completely changed to resemble the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Robotnik, which was then the design of Robotnik used by almost all Sonic merchandise in the UK. This change took place in the story "Girl Trouble" (Sonic the Comic #21 and #22), written by Nigel Kitching and illustrated by Elson. In this story, Robotnik encases himself in an egg and emerges transformed in his new body. The change was permanent. When Robotnik temporarily reverted to Doctor Ovi Kintobor between Sonic the Comic #149 and Sonic the Comic #151, Kitching suggested this as an opportunity to re-design Robotnik again into his new "Eggman" design from Sonic Adventure, but the idea was rejected.

However, while no other transformations took place, Robotnik's design continued to be updated throughout the series. In Sonic the Comic #178, during the Sonic Adventure adaptation, Robotnik began to wear the style of jacket worn by the post-Sonic Adventure Eggman. He continued to wear the jacket until the comic's final original storyline ended in Sonic the Comic #184.

Origin
Originally, Robotnik was Doctor Ovi Kintobor, a kindly scientist from Earth who, through unexplained means, accidentally wound up stranded on Mobius. Setting up an underground laboratory in the Emerald Hill Zone, Kintobor resolved that he would make the peaceful Mobius a true paradise by literally eradicating the negative energy from it. Using a machine he named the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor (ROCC) (formed of many purifying golden Rings), he slowly gathered all the negative energy on Mobius, and, requiring a vessel to contain it, acquired six of the mysterious Chaos Emeralds to finish the job.

It was then that an inquisitive young brown hedgehog named Sonic stumbled across his lab. Kintobor quickly became friends with Sonic, and created a pair of Power Sneakers to enhance Sonic's speed, making him fast enough to break the sound barrier, but accidentally turning him blue in the process. Sonic used his new speed to help search for the Grey Emerald, which was said to serve as a "control Emerald" and which would stabilize the energy transfer. Their efforts were in vain, but Kintobor eventually apparently discovered a way to complete the transfer without the seventh emerald. Before the process was initiated, they decided to have lunch, but found only one rotten egg. With the egg in his hand, Kintobor went back to the ROCC—and tripped on a cable. The ROCC exploded, bathing Kintobor - and the egg - in chaos energy. Overloaded with "pure evil energy", he transformed into the demented Doctor Ivo Robotnik.

Conquest of Mobius
After two attempts to take over Mobius, as chronicled in the first two Sonic the Hedgehog video games, Robotnik employed a different tack, taking control of a portion of the weird alternate dimension known as the Special Zone and establishing his Egg Fortress there. Putting the sentient energy-field known as the Omni-Viewer under his control, Robotnik had his pawn transport Sonic and a group of his friends six months into Mobius's future. During their absence, Robotnik's forces overran the planet and Sonic returned to find Robotnik now had unquestioned control of Mobius.

Recommended by his image consultants to try a new look, Robotnik abandoned his traditional game-based appearance by enclosing himself in a gigantic egg, from which he "hatched" in a new body based on his AoStH incarnation. Galvanized into more aggressive action by this transformation, Robotnik and his lackey Grimer poured his time into "Operation Metallix" which bore fruit with Metallix, who derived power from a cyber-formed Miracle Planet.

Myriad schemes, robots and technology ensued in his constant war with Sonic. Robotnik's goal always remained to acquire the reality-warping power of the Chaos Emeralds for his own, and he was offered his chance when a mechanical failure on his orbital Death Egg II satellite caused the craft, with him aboard, to plummet out of the sky. Before impacting with Mobius, however, the spacecraft landed on the legendary Floating Island, where Robotnik encountered Knuckles the Echidna, guardian of the six Floating Island Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik convinced Knuckles that he was a humble scientist, and that he had once owned the six Mobian Chaos Emeralds before Sonic had stolen them. Knuckles allowed Robotnik to rebuild his Badnik armies on the Floating Island, and became Robotnik's personal bodyguard. When Sonic came looking for him, Robotnik allowed himself to be captured by the Freedom Fighters, allowing Knuckles to follow him to their base, where they ransomed Porker Lewis to acquire the ancient gems. Returning to the Floating Island, Knuckles, using a device of Robotnik's that would take the place of the Grey Emerald, reintegrated Sonic's six emeralds with the six kept on the island. Using his device to seize control of the chaos energy, Robotnik grew to giant size and performed such feats as turning Tails to glass, before Knuckles revealed he'd secretly had the Grey Emerald all along and depowered Robotnik.

Smarting after this defeat, Robotnik's first action was to return to the Freedom Fighters' base with an army of Badniks and destroy it, forcing Sonic and his team into operating out of a mobile headquarters. The Death Egg, however, remained on the Floating Island, and Robotnik soon returned there to supervise its repair, arranging for a new model of Metallix to steal the Master Emerald to power the deadly device. With the Death Egg active, Robotnik was poised to unleash its death ray upon the Emerald Hill Zone before Knuckles activated ancient weaponry on the Floating Island and crippled the ship. Invading it and stealing the Master Emerald, Sonic went up against Robotnik in a suit of armour, eventually sending him toppling back to Mobius. Enraged by the indignity, Robotnik vowed vengeance, moving his base of operations out of the Special Zone and into Citadel Robotnik in the Metropolis Zone, but he found himself unable to exact his revenge on the Emerald Hill Folk, as they had been secretly moved into seclusion on the Floating Island.

Coincidentally, Robotnik's next two greatest opponents were not the Freedom Fighters, but his own renegade creations. Using a copy of the Omni-Viewer, the rebellious Brotherhood of Metallix travelled back in time and altered Mobius' history, preventing the accident that had transformed Kintobor into Robotnik and allowing them to take over the planet. Sonic was forced to travel back in time himself and reverse the damage, making him actually responsible for creating Robotnik. Subsequently, Commander Brutus, a Badnik trooper that Robotnik programmed with a copy of his own brain patterns, constructed his own army of Badniks and invaded the Metropolis Zone, having acquired Robotnik's ambition for conquest. On the verge of defeat and his Badniks overrun, Robotnik faced his mental twin down in War Armour, spraying him with liquid nitrogen and shattering his body. He then took control of Brutus' Badnik army and taunted Mobius with his continued reign.

Downfall, deal with the Drakons and omnipotence
Over time, and thanks in part to the example set by groups such as the Freedom Fighters, Robotnik began to lose his grip of terror over his subjects. They destroyed his statues, held demonstrations and protests, mocked him on television, and even fought back against his Troopers.

A chain of seeming good fortune for Robotnik led to his ultimate downfall when he discovered that Sonic had become stranded in the Special Zone. Encountering the fatally wounded echidna Doctor Zachary, who had fallen from the Floating Island in battle with Knuckles, Robotnik restored him with cybernetic components and learned the Emerald Hill folk were hiding on the Island. Striking while Knuckles was absent, Robotnik and Zachary used the hapless Emerald Hill Folk to create a giant biological computer. When Knuckles returned, Robotnik and Zachary captured him too. Knuckles managed to break free and attempted to prevent the biological computer's activation, but was subdued by Zachary. Seconds before Robotnik was able to activate the machine, the Black Asteroid exploded in the skies above. The explosion, which had been created by Super Sonic, caused a massive electromagnetic pulse to sweep across planet Mobius, deactivating all of Robotnik's robots and computer systems, including his biological computer. Robotnik was overpowered and captured by the freed Emerald Hill Folk, led by Porker Lewis, and handed over to the returned Sonic.

Sonic took Robotnik to the Metropolis Zone with the intention of locking him away for a long time, but Robotnik was liberated by Grimer and attempted to re-activate his technology by using the power generator in the basement of Citadel Robotnik. He was thwarted again by Sonic, who overloaded the power core and destroyed the Citadel. Robotnik and Grimer managed to escape again and went into hiding, but Robotnik had been firmly toppled as ruler of the planet.

Long having planned to investigate the mysterious Flickies' Island, Robotnik used his fall from power as a chance to finally explore the island. He discovered that the Flicky birds that populated the island came from another dimension via a Mobius Ring, and that the Flickies made excellent organic batteries for new Badniks. However, Robotnik's tampering with the Mobius Ring attracted the attention of the alien Drakon Empire, who had set up the Mobius Ring millennia before as a test of Mobius' threat level. A Drakon Prosecutor arrived through the ring and captured Robotnik, taking him back through the ring to the Drakon homeworld for questioning. Ever the entrepreneur, he struck a deal with the aliens, so that they would support him in his attempts to re-conquer Mobius, and in return Robotnik would help the Drakon Emperor Ko-Dorr find the Chaos Emeralds. With Drakon backing (and a new Metallix modelled after Knuckles), Robotnik returned to Mobius and succeeded in capturing Sonic. Robotnik informed the Drakons that Sonic had destroyed one of their Sentinels (in fact, Sonic had merely been present when it self-destructed), so Ko-Dorr agreed to put Sonic into trial by combat against Robotnik's Knuckles Metallix. With Tails' help, Sonic defeated the Metallix and was pronounced innocent.

Robotnik returned to his Flickies' Island base, conducting a number of random Badnik attacks on Mobius while building up his army of Metallixes, which he made stronger than ever by using Drakon technology. He tried to appease Ko-Dorr by promising to secretly steal the Chaos Emeralds for him, but his timetable was rushed when Ko-Dorr insisted that Robotnik get him the Emeralds immediately. Desiring the Emeralds for himself and unwilling to let them fall into the hands of the Drakon Empire, Robotnik convinced Ko-Dorr that he did not know where the Emeralds were and encouraging the Empire to go after Sonic in order to find them. He then arranged a complicated double-cross, in which Grimer pretended to betray Robotnik and defect to the Drakons' side. Grimer revealed to Ko-Dorr that the Emeralds were on the Floating Island while Robotnik remained hidden away at his Flickies' Island base. Once the Drakon forces had taken out all of the Floating Island's defenses, Grimer teleported them back to Drak and Robotnik arrived through a Mobius Ring. Robotnik was finally able to take control of the jewels in their full-power state, absorbing their energy through a device directly into his body. However, the sheer energy apparently proved too much for his body to contain, and he was transformed into a crystal statue.

This was, however, soon revealed to be a chrysalis stage as Robotnik's body adapted to the immense energies it now contained. Once this was done, Robotnik used his new power to alter the timeline so that Sonic never existed. Robotnik was the absolute, omnipotent ruler, the Emerald Hill Zone was a cyber-formed industrial wasteland used to process radioactive waste for toxic chemical dumping, and Sonic's friends were either frightened citizens (Amy and Johnny), Robotnik's lackeys (Porker) or dead (Tails).

Robotnik proceeded to try and break Sonic's spirit by putting him through a series of torments: taking Sonic to the future to show that the hedgehog was destined to fight Robotnik for sixty-five years without any hope of victory; warping reality around him; resurrecting several of Sonic's most dangerous enemies; stripping the heroic hedgehog of his speed; and pitting Sonic against an evil Knuckles. Despite all of this, Sonic declared that he would fight Robotnik to the end no matter what, and then manipulated the doctor's ego, goading him into restoring Sonic's powers and Knuckles' memories of the original timeline. While Sonic distracted Robotnik, Knuckles was able to use the Grey Emerald to reverse all of the changes that Robotnik had made and drain all of the Emerald power from Robotnik's body. Barely able to exist without the power, Robotnik shrank down into nothingness.

Shanazar
He ended up in a sub-atomic universe on the planet Shanazar, and reverted back into Kintobor (presumably due to the energy drain). Found by inhabitants of Shanazar City, Kintobor was brought before Princess Kupacious, who made him her grand vizier and he began bringing technological improvements to the city.

Finding that he was beginning to turn back into Robotnik, Kintobor quickly formulated an elixir that held off the transformation. Sonic, Grimer and Nack the Weasel arrived in Shanazar in pursuit of him, the latter two being arrested, and Sonic and Kintobor were sent on a mission to the Mystic Mountain. Unfortunately the elixir's effects wore off, and he became Doctor Robotnik once again. (Nigel Kitching proposed using this as a way of bringing in the "Dr Eggman" design for Robotnik, but this did not go through)

Retaining his position as vizier, Robotnik had a court magician wipe Sonic's mind of the memory of the device he had used to come to Shanazar, so, while Sonic went on the run, Robotnik and Grimer fashion the device into a machine which would fused Mobius and Shanazar into one composite world. Intending to protect himself from any harmful effects with a magic gem so that he might emerge as the ruler of the combined planet, Robotnik was thwarted when Princess Kupacious, turned into a frog by more magic, stole the gem for herself. Regardless, the scheme amounted to nothing when Mobius and Shanazar fused without any ill effects.

Insanity
Confronted by Amy Rose with the possibility that his own evil methodology had been self-defeating, Robotnik began a dark, downward spiral. Tiring of his long-running war with Sonic, he decided that it was time to bring the game to an end - no longer would he strive to conquer Mobius, but instead, he would destroy it outright. A chance encounter with the robotic alien race the Plax gave Robotnik the opportunity he desired; mistaken by the Plax for a spiritual leader, the "Great Destroyer," that their legends spoke of, Robotnik used their technology to drain the "living" energy from both Mobius and its sister world, Earth, forcing both planets into total ecological collapse. Once again, Robotnik's own evil ways proved to be his undoing when the renegade super-Badnik he had created, Shortfuse the Cybernik, wired himself into the energy-transfer machine and used it to undo the damage to the planets.

Having been caught in a cave-in as his base collapsed around him following this confrontation, Robotnik reached his lowest point. Not rising from his chair, or even eating, for days on end, a suicidal depression overcame the former dictator. Desperate to snap his master out of his grim state, Grimer unearthed a container holding a creature made of living chaos that Robotnik had discovered years before, and unleashed it upon the Freedom Fighters. Unaware - but soon informed by Robotnik - that he was unable to control the Chaos creature, Grimer thought that he had succeeded as Robotnik's interest in watching the battles between Sonic and the monster grew. When Chaos targeted the Chaos Emeralds and Knuckles reacted by scattering them across Mobius, Robotnik went into action, gathering the emeralds at his fortress in the mountains, drawing Chaos and the Freedom Fighters there. Grimer was shocked, however, when he discovered that this was not part of some grand plan by Robotnik; the crazed villain had, in actuality, drawn his enemies there so that they might all die together as Chaos absorbed the emeralds. But Robotnik was denied even the embrace of oblivion when Super Sonic arrived to absorb Chaos's energies into his own body, and then be re-integrated back together with Sonic.

Trivia

 * Robotnik is a master of disguise, having assumed various roles, such as Doctor Sun, Rhino Neil, Stephen Squealbird, and the landlord of The Green Man tavern.