Super Sonic (Sonic the Comic)

Super Sonic is a powered-up form of Sonic the Hedgehog, who appeared in Sonic the Comic, the UK publication by Fleetway Editions. Unlike in other continuities, the Fleetway Super Sonic is portrayed as a psychotic demon-like entity who manifests himself in Sonic's body under conditions of extreme stress or exposure to Chaos Energy. Sonic frequently had to battle to keep this alter-ego in check, because Super Sonic's immense destructive powers, hyperaggression, sadistic humour and lack of restraint frequently endangered innocent civilians and even Sonic's own friends. Indeed, Super Sonic seems to enjoy the prospect of killing Sonic's friends: in issue #184 he deliberately holds back to prolong the pleasure of killing them.

Super Sonic was created when Sonic absorbed a dose of evil energy that had been absorbed by the Chaos Emeralds.

Early appearances
Sonic first transformed into Super Sonic shortly after the events of the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game, having successfully regained all six of the Chaos Emeralds. However, when brought together in Sonic's Secret Underground Base, the Chaos Emeralds become unstable, and radiate Chaos Energy, generating a spatial warp that sends them into the Special Zone. When they did so on this occasion, Sonic took the full force of the energy, and transformed into Super Sonic.

Some time later (but before the events of the series proper, presumably during the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 2), Tails witnessed Sonic transform into Super Sonic when he absorbed too much Ring Energy from the Golden Rings of Mobius. (In Sonic the Comic, the Golden Rings had been used as a means of channelling evil energy into the Chaos Emeralds by Doctor Ovi Kintobor's ROCC.)

Super Sonic's first appearance in the series occurred while Sonic and Tails were helping to clean up the Oil Ocean Zone. An Aquis badnik attempted to burn Sonic alive, having lured him into an oil trap, but failed when Sonic transformed into Super Sonic. This was the first time that Sonic had transformed without absorbing Energy from external sources: Sonic later revealed that he had absorbed so much energy over the years that he could now tap into his latent Chaos powers whenever he became stressed or extremely angry. Though Sonic was fully aware of Super's existence, he has no memory of what happened when he transformed. Due to Super's uncontrollable nature, these transformations were extremely risky: on this first occasion, Super Sonic attacked the small rabbit he had freed from the Aquis, as well as Tails and their friend Red, until Tails was able to remind Sonic who he was and calm him down enough that he reverted to his usual cool blue persona.

Sonic continued to transform into Super Sonic, first to escape a volcano in the Hill Top Zone, and then again in the Oil Ocean Zone while searching for a Super Bomb. On these occasions, he was still aggressive, but his power could be directed. For example, in the Hill Top Zone, Tails managed to curb Super Sonic's destructive instincts through reverse psychology, leading him to prevent the destruction of a village just to show that he could.

As time went on, Super Sonic became both more powerful - able to fire energy beams from his eyes and wield explosive Chaos Energy - and more dangerous. After intentionally dosing himself with Emerald Power from the Master Emerald, Super Sonic tore apart a Metallix robot, then began to savagely beat Knuckles until Sonic returned to normal. When Super Sonic fought Commander Brutus, destroying the robot's Troopers and tearing off his arm, Super nearly killed Amy Rose when Brutus tried to use her as a human shield, noticing too late that Super wasn't stopping.

Separate entities
A turning point came when Sonic went to visit Porker Lewis on the Floating Island and accidentally fell into the pit where the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were suspended. Super Sonic was even more deranged (sporting jagged fangs) and, with no immediate threat to occupy him, decided to go destroy Amy Rose and the other Freedom Fighters. After a destructive battle, the Freedom Fighters used the Tornado as a decoy while they escaped; when Sonic returned to normal, he believed he'd killed his friends and so went underground. The Freedom Fighters managed to track Super Sonic's energies using the Kintobor Computer, after he had transformed again during a bar brawl. To save Sonic from himself, his friends channelled the Emerald radiation out of him, through a Star Post into the Special Zone; but so great was the energy that Super Sonic was now given an independent existence in the Special Zone.

The new Super Sonic allied himself with a crime kingpin called Lord Sidewinder, but turned on him the instant the original Sonic arrived, leading to a showdown. It ended when the Omni-Viewer absorbed Super Sonic into his energy field and used his space-time manipulation powers to freeze time inside it, immobilizing both of them. Eventually, however, it transpired that the Omni-Viewer had merely reduced time to a crawl and that Super would eventually emerge. Sonic and Chaotix sealed the Omni-Viewer in the Black Asteroid so that nobody could get to Super Sonic and that even if he escaped, he would be trapped.

Nevertheless, Super Sonic was able to escape by charging himself up so much that he made himself into a sort of electron bomb in order to destroy the Asteroid. This explosion produced an electro-magnetic pulse that spread all over planet Mobius, deactivating all of Doctor Robotnik's badniks and computers, and contributing to the downfall of the doctor's dictatorial rule over the planet. Super Sonic was so drained of energy by this that he lost both his memory and his powers, and he was taken in by two old-age pensioners (Madge and Arthur) once back on Mobius' surface. (#97-100)

While the Freedom Fighters remained unable to find the amnesiac Super Sonic, the hedgehog himself applied for work at the Groovy Train, a coffee bar owned by the witch Ebony and her psychic friend Pyjamas. They attempted to help Super Sonic recover his memory before finding the truth behind his identity. In the process of fighting a villain, Super's memory returned but his new amiable personality remained; he immediately renounced the use of his powers for fear of becoming his former demonic self once more. He then resided with Ebony and Pyjamas from then on, living a peaceful life.

During the comic's adaptation of Sonic Adventure (STC's final story), it was revealed that Super Sonic was dying as his Chaos Energy was running out. Ebony helped him reach the site of the confrontation between Sonic, Robotnik, and the monstrous Chaos creature, hoping to recharge him. Super Sonic hurled himself into Perfect Chaos, absorbing all the Chaos Energy from the creature and reverting it back into its Drakon state. Unfortunately, the re-energized Super Sonic had reverted to his demonic state. In order to save the planet from him, Sonic and Ebony worked together to trick Super Sonic into getting close enough so that Sonic and Super Sonic could be reintegrated into a single being.

Powers and abilities
Super Sonic possesses even greater speed and physical strength than Sonic normally does, an example being that he was able to carve a giant statue of himself out of lava as a volcano erupted. In addition he is also capable of high speed flight, surviving in the vacuum of space without breathing apparatus, and emitting an EMP powerful enough to knock out electricity all over Mobius. Super's might is such that he can tear and damage solid Megatal, a Mobian metal long believed to be completely indestructible.

His favoured attack is his energy beam. He can fire highly destructive blasts of pink energy from his eyes in rapid succession.

Future plans
When writer Nigel Kitching was asked if he had any future plans for Super Sonic before the comic's cancellation, he pointed out that Ebony, despite being Super's friend, had not seemed upset when he was destroyed. Kitching mentioned an idea that perhaps Ebony had secretly used her magic to save him, although he had not planned out any details. He suggested that Super Sonic may not have been rejoined to Sonic as everyone believed, but that he might now be part of Ebony just as he was once part of Sonic.

In Sonic the Comic's unofficial fan-made continuation, Sonic the Comic - Online, Sonic has turned into Super Sonic twice; the second time, he defeated Shadow the Hedgehog with ease. A media smear campaign is claiming Sonic is merely a front for Super Sonic.