Doctor Starline

Doctor Starline is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by IDW Publishing. He is an anthropomorphic platypus and a shadowy scientist who is highly interested in Dr. Eggman and his work.

Concept and creation
According to Evan Stanley, Starline was made as a spiritual successor to old white echidna villains, namely Dr. Zachary and Dr. Finitevus. Stanley has also cited Jareth the Goblin King, a "steampunk Benjamin Franklin" and Michael Jackson's appearance in the "Thriller" music video as inspirations for the character.

Appearance
Doctor Starline is an anthropomorphic platypus with grey fur that covers most of his body. His beak is black-colored and narrow with nostrils on the front, and he possesses red eyes, black eyelids, and a thick tail. He also has three thick hair turfs on his head that are combed over the right side of his head. His front hair turf also possesses a black highlight.

For attire, he wears a purple and red tuxedo with golden cuffs, orange pince-nez glasses, and webbed black gloves with the left one having the Warp Topaz attached on the top and golden-tipped fingertips. He also wears black boots with golden buckles, red soles, medium-high heels, and upward-turned pointy toes.

Past
According to Starline, he has apparently made a career out of studying Dr. Eggman. He has also spent his career studying the Warp Topaz, a stone capable of warping space to open gateways to other places.

At some point in time, Starline managed to retrieve the Warp Topaz for himself. He also managed to collect all seven Chaos Emeralds.

After learning that Dr. Eggman had disappeared after the War, Starline used his Warp Topaz to open "windows" to the world, allowing him to search the world in record time for Eggman. After becoming quite ill from sleep deprivation, Starline found Eggman, who was suffering from amnesia, in Windmill Village. To help him retrieve Eggman, Starline decided to enlist the help of Rough the Skunk and Tumble the Skunk. He sprung the brothers from jail and told them that if they helped kidnap Eggman from the village he resided in, the latter would make weapons that would help them achieve revenge against Sonic the Hedgehog.

Battle For Angel Island
Dr. Starline subsequently used the Warp Topaz to bring Eggman, Rough and Tumble to his base in the Final Egg. After Rough and Tumble strapped Eggman up, Starline revealed himself to the doctor and told him of his intention to restore his former personality. Ignoring the amnesiac Eggman's pleas, Starline started to electrocute him with a specialized pair of goggles. Later, after completing the first round of Eggman's "procedure", Starline asked Eggman if he was feeling more like himself.

After three sessions using neuro-stimilants and aggressive hypnotherapy, Starline found frustration in Eggman as he was only gravitating towards his old inventions but not his old personality. When Rough and Tumble grew impatient at Starline for not keeping his end of their deal, he reassured them that he will be able to restore Eggman's memories, suggesting he might need a mental trigger. Soon after, the group met a badly damaged Metal Sonic when he arrived in the Final Egg. Upon seeing Metal Sonic, Eggman regained his memories, much to Starline's delight. Starline then introduced himself as an admirer of Eggman's work and also helped Eggman repair Metal Sonic. He also introduced Rough and Tumble, who Eggman did not initially like until Starline mentioned that they hated Sonic, which could prove a great asset, and offered to make them weapons to use against him. Meanwhile, Starline managed to bring Eggman up to speed on all that happened while the doctor had lost his memories; the fact that he ended up in a remote mountain village, Starline's methods to bring Eggman back to his senses and the power of his Warp Topaz. Though Eggman found no interest in the Warp Topaz, Starline had expected that and presented Eggman with the seven Chaos Emeralds he had secured as his "apprenticeship application". This made Eggman officially welcome Starline as his new lackey.

Soon, Starline and Eggman discovered that the biodata that Neo Metal Sonic had copied from Sonic and Shadow had become corrupted. Starline suggested reconstruction, to which Eggman refused in favor of moving on with a new plan. As Eggman needed time to test and prepare, the doctor tasked Starline with keeping Sonic distracted. Starline excitedly accepted this task as he knew exactly how to lure Sonic into a trap.

Infection
Following Eggman's instructions after advising him to mess with Sonic, Starline sent a letter to Tails with the aid of the Warp Topaz to lure Sonic into Rough and Tumble's hands. Upon reporting back to Eggman, Starline wondered why they had to be so overt, to which Eggman replied that the message was subtle approach for him. Satisfied with that, Starline saw Eggman begin his test of his new Metal Virus. After seeing it transmute a flower into metal, Starline would help Eggman test it on animals. Eggman later concluded his Metal Virus a succes after seeing it transmute flora and fauna into robotic slaves through touch while leaving processed and inorganic matter alone. Getting emotional over their work, Starline would explain to Eggman about how he found him with the Warp Topaz when Eggman asked him about it. Starline would then use his Warp Topaz to show Eggman Sonic and Tails' battle with Rough and Tumble. When the skunk brothers stood to loose though, Starline thought they would continue testing the Metal Virus since they had so miniscule data samples on it. To him surprised though, Eggman instead went on to implement it for the next phase of his plan. Although against it, Starline complied. Starline soon after sent Rough and Tumble back to base with the Warp Topaz before Rough tattled on Eggman. When Metal Sonic then offered to take a crack at Sonic after Rough and Tumble's failure, Starline offered to let him take a shot at Sonic, whom he knew where to strike.

Personality
Starline is calm, collected, formal and confident. However, he is also ruthless, sinister and cruel, as he was willing to force Eggman to be a part of an evidently painful procedure against his will to bring him back to normal. Showing contempt for weakness, he possesses exceptional willpower and an incredible drive, as seen how he kept searching for Dr. Eggman despite becoming quite ill from sleep deprivation in the process.

Starline appears to be a fanatic of the Eggman Empire as he wanted to bring its leader back to his former glory and then, with great pleasure, assist the doctor every step of the way to help him achieve global dominance. In fact, he is deeply devoted to Dr. Eggman and gets very excited about the idea of cooperating with him and following his instructions.

Unlike Dr. Eggman's more overt ways, Starkline is much more subtle, preferring for example to simply launch an ambush instead of luring someone into a trap with bait that exposes his activities. Also, he likes to be very thorough with his experiments, preferring to conduct enough experimentations on his projects in order to have sufficient data samples to work out from, unlike Dr. Eggman, who hastily begins implementing his plans as soon as his experiments show the desired results.

Powers and abilities
Being a scientist, Starline possesses a high intellect. He has great knowledge of the workings of the mind, having developed procedures for restoring memories lost to amnesia using radical methods, like neuro-stimilants and aggressive hypnotherapy. He has likewise conducted succesful research into the strange properties of the Warp Topaz and knows enough about machinery to assist Dr. Eggman with repairs on Metal Sonic.

Equipment
Starline possesses the Warp Topaz, a gemstone that is embedded in his left glove. With this stone, Starline can bend space to create gateways to other places, as long as the Warp Topaz is provided with a power source.

Dr. Eggman
Dr. Starline is fanatically obsessed with Dr. Eggman. He calls himself the doctor's kindred spirit and deeply admires his work. After discovering that Eggman had lost his memoires and personality following the end of the War, Starline took several measures to restore Eggman to his old self. He also gathered suitable minions for him in the form of Rough and Tumble and secured the Chaos Emeralds for him in order to ensure a position as his apprentice, showing not only deep loyalty and devotion towards the doctor, but also a profund knowledge of his preferences and desires. In addition, he is very enthusiastic about seeing the doctor at work and carrying out the missions he assigns to him.

Friends/allies

 * Eggman Empire
 * Cubot
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Orbot
 * Rough the Skunk
 * Tumble the Skunk

Enemies

 * Sonic the Hedgehog

Trivia

 * Starline's role in the comics is similar to Grimer's role in the Sonic the Comic series, where he was a non-human lab assistant who had loyalty for Dr. Robotnik.