Iron Queen

The Iron Queen, whose real name is Regina Ferrum, is an Overlander who worked alongside the Iron King in the Dragon Kingdom. She is the Bride of Four Houses and is capable of using Magitek against her enemies. After being chased away from the Iron Fortress by Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower and Monkey Khan, the Iron Queen remained unheard of for some time. Nearly two years later she came into contact with Snively and the two began a romantic relationship together with plans to overthrow Dr. Eggman and the Eggman Empire.

Early Life
Regina was born into a cult of technomages in the city of Mega Central many years prior to the Great War. As a child, she was taught by cult leaders how to control electronic impulses. As her skills improved, a young Regina was able to control robots from afar and move them to her will.

Years later when Regina was a young adult, Magitek was made illegal in Mega Central. She along with all other members of the Technomage cult were subsequently arrested and likely executed. However, because of her young age, the High Chancellor showed mercy on her and allowed her to live, though in exile. With no knowledge of any other technomage cults in the Overlander cities and with the Great War having recently began, Regina wandered aimlessly across the planet. Realizing she was the last member of her cult, she decided she would both survive through her and eventually consume and dominate the world. Eventually finding her way to the Dragon Kingdom, she pledged her allegiance to a local warlord, Jun Kun, realizing through him she could rise to power. Since then, the two worked together as warlords in the region.

Rulers in the Dragon Kingdom
Sonic and Tails first encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus. When they arrived at Stormtop Village, they learned that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves ruler of the village. When the villagers refused to swear loyalty to either, the Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yuen that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain. When the two tried to retrieve it, the Iron Queen cast a spell on renegade cyborg, Monkey Khan, to kill Sonic and Tails before they arrived. They managed to free Khan and he joined them in assaulting the Iron King at his fortress. Sonic and the others returned to Mount Stormtop to blow out the flames, the Iron Queen tried to use her magic to stop them but failed and the flames were extinguished. The Iron Queen left the village swearing vengeance on Sonic.

Plans and Rise to Power
At some point, Regina got involved in the Clan Wars, slaying the Bride of Rich Nights and taking the Yagyu Clan as her own personal vanguard. After this, the other three clans surrendered to her.

Nearly two years later, Regina responded to Snively, who was doing a routine checkup on all of the Sub-Bosses around Mobius. After chatting over the Eggnet for some time, the two became romantically attracted to one another and began planning to meet up and overthrow Dr. Eggman. To show her affection, Regina sent Snively a cologne scent from her region of Mobius, which Snively enjoyed but Lien-Da found repulsive. As Eggman went into a decline insanity and the Freedom Fighters pressed their advances against his ruined capital city of New Megaopolis Snively and Regina prepared to take over the empire.

After Sonic finally defeated Eggman in a one-on-one showdown, Eggman lost his final grip on sanity. Once the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix left, Snively locked Eggman in a padded cell in a straight jacket and headed to the landing bay of the Eggdome to greet Regina and her Yagyu Clan forces who had arrived via dirigible.

Ruler of the Eggman Empire
Regina's plans were revealed as she learned that New Megaopolis was in ruins and only the Eggdome was operational, calming the Iron King down as he questioned the reason why they took over the Eggman Empire. Dimitri later appealed his case of requiring the removal of the explosives in the cybernetics. As Regina claimed to be unable to remove them, she had Snively give him a briefcase that she said contained microchips that would neutralize the explosives, and though he accepted them Dimitri appeared suspicious of her claims. In a somewhat romantic moment with Snively, she revealed that she planned to crush the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis, dispose of the Iron King and rule the world with Snively. Meanwhile the Freedom Fighters began planning to topple her rule after they were made aware of her takeover by Monkey Khan.

Controlling New Mobotropolis
After Snivley told Regina about NICOLE, she flew to New Mobotropolis and took control of NICOLE, transforming her into Iron NICOLE. With NICOLE under her control, she made NICOLE open up the city where the Iron Dominion overtook the city, and had Iron NICOLE seal the city in a dome to prevent anyone from escaping. But Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Monkey Khan escaped and headed to the Dragon Kingdom to sever the ties to the Four Houses.

Dethroning
Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Monkey Khan would later return in success, and would fight to reclaim New Mobotropolis. Regina ordered Iron NICOLE to shoot them down, but she instead trapped Regina in a nanite sphere and revealed that Sally had freed her from the Iron Queen's control. Worse, with Monkey Khan's announcement that the Yagyu's ties to the Iron Queen have been cut, Lien-Da taking control of the Dark Egg Legion, and Monkey Khan blowing the Iron King away with the Fan of Fen Xing, Regina suddenly found herself all alone against the Knothole Freedom Fighters.

However, she wouldn't go quietly, instead taking over some of the city's nanites and creating a robotic dragon form for herself. However, it was ultimately destroyed by Sonic, and the Iron Queen was taken away. She was then placed in a technology-free stone cell in the Dragon Kingdom.

Abilities
Since her early childhood, the Iron Queen has had the power to control robotic machines after being taught Magitek, which appears to also work on beings who are partially robots such as the cyborg Monkey Khan. She can also use black magic to propel herself into the air and fly. Apart from her magical abilities, she is also a skilled tactician.

Romance
Regina is married to the Iron King. While she has been seen to flirt and call him her "love", their marriage was strictly out of benefit. The Iron Queen would later plan with her actual lover to dispose of him.

Regina found actual love with Snively, Eggman's lieutenant and nephew, while he was performing a routine surveillance check of all Eggman's Sub-Bosses. The two spoke back and forth for days over the Egg Network and became emotionally close, the two scheming together to take over the Eggman Empire. Since she usurped the Eggman Empire, Regina has been forced to conceal her relationship with Snively from everyone else, though when the two are alone together they are openly affectionate.

Background Information

 * Due to her design, some fans thought she was an Overlander. It was stated in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog #71 that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, Writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human female wed to a animal character might raise some eyebrows."
 * Writer Karl Bollers listed a number of possible plot points that were meant to be post-issue #134, many of them never seeing the light of day. Among them was one where Knuckles the Echidna headed to Kar Leung for some training under Monkey Khan, during which he would be brainwashed by the Iron Queen, while Khan himself would be brainwashed by Dr. Eggman, resulting in a 4-way battle for power between Eggman, the Iron Queen, Mammoth Mogul, and Rouge the Bat.
 * It was revealed as a spoiler in FCDS #3 that "RF" is the Iron Queen. This ended the long-time fan speculation that the two were the same character.
 * Some fans have speculated the "F" in Regina's last name stands for Ferrum, which means "Iron" in Latin just as "Regina" means "Queen". It was later revealed by writer Ian Flynn that her last name was indeed Ferrum in a spoiler tease on his forum.
 * The Iron Queen, along with the Iron King, holds the fourth longest non-appearance gap in the comics at 140 issues (StH: #60-200), tying them with the badnik Coconuts.
 * Oddly, despite her use of dark magic, the Iron Queen was not tracked down and eliminated by Sir Connery.