Marxio Brothers

The Marxio Brothers (Grouchio, Chicio, and Harpio) are a trio of electricians that appeared in Sonic the Comic by Fleetway Editions. They were some of the publication's earliest parody characters, being based partly on early 20th century comedians the Marx Brothers and partly on video game icons the Super Mario Bros.. Despite this, they tend towards villainy, being closely allied with Doctor Robotnik's dictatorship of planet Mobius, and in particular running his various casino and carnival zones.

They debuted in Sonic the Comic #18 in 1994, at a time when Sega and Nintendo were major rivals in the video game industry. They were created by Nigel Kitching and Richard Elson.

The brothers
The three Marxio Brothers are Grouchio, Chicio, and Harpio, and they are based on the stage personas of Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx respectively.

Grouchio is recognizably the leader of the group, and frequently belittles his younger brothers. He is the self-proclaimed "smart one" and likes to take credit for all of the group's brilliant ideas (even those that come from Chicio). Despite his overblown ego, he seems to have some business savvy and skills as a confidence man. Like Groucho Marx, Grouchio is often seen smoking a cigar and smiling broadly. On at least one occasion he used the phrase "You realise, this means war!" Groucho Marx was famous for a similar line ("You know, this means war!") from the film A Night at the Opera, and for the shorter "This means war!" in several other movies (such as Duck Soup).

Chicio is the portly electrician who builds a lot of the traps and inventions for his older brother Grouchio. Chicio often has the credit for his work stolen by Grouchio, unless the plans go awry, in which case the blame is placed firmly on Chicio's shoulders. He speaks with a thick, stereotypical Italian accent, frequently using phrases such as "Mamma mia!" and adding "-a" to the end of words (for example, "We don't-a know what it is" and "What-a you talking about, Spike-a-ball?" ).

The third Marxio brother is Harpio, who dresses in green and is unable or unwilling to talk, preferring to communicate with his horn by use of well-timed honks.

History
The Marxio Brothers were three electricians who came from 'Marxio World', a place they are terrified of (most likely poking fun at the 'horror' of being in a Mario or Nintendo game and not a Sonic universe). It is implied that they were brought out of this world to Mobius by Doctor Robotnik, after which they worked to run his 'commercial ventures'.

In their first appearance, they were in charge of the Casino Night Zone for Robotnik. Chicio rigged all of the games in the zone to be unwinnable and they used a massive statue of Robotnik to hypnotise Mobians into becoming compulsive gamblers. When Robotnik learned through his spy network that Sonic the Hedgehog planned to make a raid on the Zone, he ordered the Marxio Brothers to make sure Sonic failed. They did manage to capture Sonic and Porker Lewis, and tie them to the roller coaster. However, Sonic was able to free them. Sonic managed to keep the Marxios occupied while Porker reprogrammed the zone's master computer so that all games always paid out, then destroyed the hypnotising Robotnik statue.

In 'Carnival Night Conspiracy' (STC 39-44) the Brothers had another theme park, this time the Carnival Night Zone being built on the Floating Island as another money-maker for Robotnik; initially they managed to convince Knuckles that Robotnik wasn't involved and that he (Knuckles) could use the money from the Zone to renovate the older Zones on the island, and an attempt at killing him on a roller coaster convinced him to let them stay ("I loved the ride!"). The Guardian found them out anyway (due to Chicio's incompetence), and he split the Carnival Night Zone from the Floating Island to drop to Mobius below.

Following Robotniks' removal from power, the Marxio Brothers convinced the Mobian authorities that Robotnik had duped them and were able to buy the Chemical Plant Zone, with the intent of making it environmentally friendly. They called Sonic in because of a problem that they felt might cause the zone to detonate, which turned out to be Megatox; whether or not this was a deliberate trap for Sonic is left unknown, though the Marxios denied it.

The Marxio Brothers also star in a series of Mobian video games, although Sonic isn't a fan - "who cares about the adventures of three electricians?"

Sonic the Comic Online
In the unofficial continuation of Sonic the Comic, Chicio appears in #239, being interviewed for a tabloid smear campaign against Sonic; there was a small cameo before this for the game Super Marxio Sunshine.

Trivia
Writer Nigel Kitching claimed it was difficult coming up with dialogue for Grouchio. He had to listen to his tapes of old Marx Brothers radio shows.