Operation: Remaster[1] is an event that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by IDW Publishing. It was a plan devised by Dr. Starline in order to break the perpetual conflict between Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman and allow Starline to conquer the world by controlling its "hero-versus-villain" dynamic.[1]
History[]
Past[]
During his time as Dr. Eggman's apprentice, Dr. Starline became aware of Eggman's flaws and how they, along with his obsession towards besting Sonic the Hedgehog, kept Eggman locked in a constant conflict with the hedgehog who always manages to best him, creating a never-ending cycle with nothing changing in Eggman's favor.[2][3]
All or Nothing and Out of the Blue[]
After being fired from his position in the Eggman Empire, thrown into the wilderness and robbed of his Warp Topaz, a mentally shaken Starline made it to his repository. There, he made a video log documenting his newfound desire to make Eggman see his way of things by completing a new robotic creation of his based on a frame he had prototyped for Eggman. With it, he planned to give Eggman a live display of the doctor's arrogance by making his robotic creation superior to any Badnik, including Metal Sonic.[4]
After calming down, Starline began plotting to conquer the world himself on behalf of Eggman in order to break the "Sonic Cycle", thereby getting Eggman to learn by his example and convince the doctor to acknowledge him as his equal.[5]
Bad Guys[]
In order to progress with Operation: Remaster, Dr. Starline needed a better facility with the proper equipment, and so tried to seize Egg Base Sigma as his new base of operations, but failed. In order to get the base himself, he assembled a team of villains—Zavok, Mimic, Rough and Tumble—and convinced them to help him.[6] While gathering the Power Cores needed to assault an Eggnet hub where Starline could assign Egg Base Sigman to himself however, Zavok inspired Starline to surpass Eggman instead of just becoming his equal.[7] Despite having his temporary allies turn on him when they attacked the Eggnet hub, Starline managed to assign Egg Base Sigma to himself. With Operation: Remaster underway, Starline decided to change the directive of his plans by conquering the world for himself and surpassing Eggman.[8][9]
Having realized that he needed introspection and revision to surpass Eggman, Starline took what he had learned by working with Zavok and the others in order to develop Operation: Remaster. Having seen that his initial plans to built a better robot, whose power and obedience meant nothing in this chaotic and unpredictable world, were short-sighted, Starline decided to take things further by harnessing the will and ingenuity of a living being and fuse them with his initial designs. As such, he acquired two living specimens, whom he would designate "Surge the Tenrec" and "Kitsunami the Fennec", and planned to turn them into his cybernetic pawns.[4]
Chao Races and Badnik Bases[]
Needing the right bio-data for Surge and Kit, Starline took advantage of his access to the Eggnet, allowing him to access Neo Metal Sonic's bio-data files on Sonic and Shadow.[10] Deciding to add the bio-data of Sonic's most useful ally, Tails, to the mix as well, Dr. Starline went to White Park Zone where he manipulated Rouge to have Tails come to him. After capturing him, while keeping Sonic and Shadow from pursuing their missing friend, Tails managed to escape. Starline tried to capture him again, but thanks to Belle the Tinkerer, he only got a piece of Tails' fur. However, this was enough for Starline to proceed with Operation: Remaster.[10][11][12][13]
Zeti Hunt![]
Starline soon after went after Belle, having noticed she was one of Dr. Eggman's creations and figured that her emotional intelligence could help Operation: Remaster along. After kidnapping Belle from Restoration HQ during the Deadly Six's attack, Starline took her to a safe location where he copied the data he needed from her for Operation: Remaster, thereby saving himself months of programming work. Afterward, he rid himself of any way to trace him and eluded capture when the Chaotix Detective Agency tracked him down.[14][15]
With all of his preparations complete, Starline was ready to begin his true plans: rather than trying to change society, he plotted to control the world's "Hero-versus-villain" dynamic, thereby allowing him to shape the world and its people with the theatrics they have become accustomed to. To this end, the first step of Operation: Remaster was to remove Dr. Eggman from play, and the second step was to have Surge and Kit replace the world's most prominent heroes: Sonic and Tails.[1]
Having acquired all the ingredients he needed, Starline began modifying Surge and Kit with cybernetics. By installing Power Cores into them and harnessing the bio-data he had acquired, Starline was able to complete his "base models" by emulating the "biomechanical miracles" of his adversaries. Still, Starline was not able to replicate them completely, as Surge needed electro-magnetic propulsion and Kit needed external support. Still, Starline sought to improve upon things and not maintain the status quo. In addition, Starline repurposed the Metal Virus's resilience into safe cellular upgrades for Surge and Kit in order to supplement their enhanced cybernetics, thereby making them much more physically resilient.[4]
Needing a way to keep someone as powerful as Surge and Kit under control, Starline used the programming he acquired from Belle to overwrite Surge and Kit's existing personalities with fabricated ones. This way, Starline could control their thoughts, memories and desires. Furthermore, as a fail-safe, he made them especially prone to his hypnotic gear in case he needed to realign them. Soon after, Starline went to work specializing Surge and Kit. Using his hypnotic gear, Starline spent hundreds of sessions with Surge and Kit in order to instill them with the motivations he needed from them: Surge was programmed to hate Sonic and seek his destruction, while Kit was programmed to devote his life to serving Surge as her support unit.[4]
Imposter Syndrome and Trial by Fire[]
Next, Starline had Surge and Kit go through hundreds of tests in order to get data on their skills, powers and teamwork. However, Starline soon noticed that an unforeseen side effect of the pair's hypnotic vulnerability had left them dealing with psychological traumas, and that he could not erase their memories completely whenever he needed to realign them, as they were adapting. As such, he had to suppress and edit Surge and Kit with each revival, a tedious, but necessary process. Regardless, Starline noticed they were making progress and so prepared for their field tests.[4]
Eventually, Operation: Remaster was ready to move into its final testing stages. After Surge and Kit passed their last obstacle course test, Starline had to rein them in again with hypnosis. He then sent them out on a field test. By having them create a forest fire at the Forest Ridge Zone Campground that could kill Sonic's friends in the area, they would demoralize Sonic. Days later, Starline had to assess Surge and Kit's fitness by having them cause chaos in Central City without getting caught. While Surge and Kit pulled off their test without a hitch, they also created a distraction that allowed Starline to go to Tails' Lab unnoticed. However, he was unable to figure out if Tails was onto his operation, and so withdrew with Surge and Kit. Back at Starline Base Sigma, the trio learned that their forest fire had been handled without casualties. Regardless, Starline was ready for the final test of Operation: Remaster. The plan for this test was to test out Starline's bypass algorithm in Egg Base Alpha the first step of Operation: Remaster. Before they could head out however, Starline had to rein in Surge and Kit with hypnosis again. This time, however, he noticed Surge was developing a resistance to it, and so he decided to be more careful with the duo rather than starting over from scratch.[1]
Arriving at Egg Base Alpha, Starline and his cohorts infiltrated the base. While Starline went to work implementing his bypass algorithm, Surge and Kit ensured that all outgoing transmissions from the base were disabled. During this, however, Surge and Kit noticed that the former was more durable that she should be. Eventually though, Starline's program took effect, giving him control over Egg Base Alpha and its Badniks. Following a meeting with Starline, however, Surge and Kit decided to go rogue. Having noticed that they were unable to recall exactly what Starline had done to enhance them, Surge and Kit plotted to find out what Starline had done to them and make him pay.[16]
By hacking Starline's database, Surge and Kit discovered how Starline had used and manipulated them. Worse yet, Starline kept no records of the pair's previous lives, leaving them with info about their pasts. When Starline then showed up reset Surge and Kit again though, the pair were able to capture him and subdue him with his own hypnotic gear. Afterwards, Surge and Kit decided to destroy everyone they deemed guilty for their present circumstances, deeming them unworthy of futures if they could not have their pasts. Rather than killing Starline though, Surge and Kit decided to use him and Operation: Remaster to gather all their targets in one place, and then annihilate them all. As such, when Starline recovered, the pair gaslighted him into believing that he had told them how he had modified them and that they were still behind him in spite of that. As such, Starline announced the next phase of Operation: Remaster: taking control of Eggman's newest capital city: Eggperial City.[4]
Arriving at Eggperial City's outskirts, Starline, Surge, and Kit attacked the city. After reaching his target, Starline went for Eggman's servers to upload his override program while Surge and Kit kept the attention of Eggman and his forces on themselves. Still intending to use Starline, Surge and Kit followed Starline's plans by dealing with every Badnik they encountered. Meanwhile, a miffed Eggman took notice of Surge and Kit and sent Metal Sonic after them. Though Metal Sonic was a tough opponent, Surge and Kit beat him. In the meantime, Starline successfully uploaded and activated his override program, thus bringing all of the Eggman Empire's robots under his control. With his forces turned against him, Eggman retreated to his Memorial Garage before his robots could apprehend him. Afterwards, Starline assumed control of the Eggman Empire, which he renamed the "Starline Empire", and sent a deployment out to take Eggman into custody. With step one of Operation: Remaster seemingly a success, Starline ordered the world's Badniks to assemble in Eggperial City in order to lure in Sonic and Tails for the next phase of his plan. What Starline did not know, however, was that Surge and Kit made plans on how to take him and everyone else out once their targets had been gathered.[17][18]
Battle for the Empire[]
Everything about Operation: Remaster soon after seemingly fell into place when Sonic and Tails arrived in Eggperial City to investigate the reason for the assembled Badniks. With their arrival, Starline had Orbot inform Surge and Kit that their targets had arrived. However, it was then that Dr. Eggman showed up in the Egg Emperor and attacked Starline in his headquarters. While Starline fought back using his Tricore, Surge and Kit separated Sonic and Tails from each other so they could take own their targets on their own.[19]
From there, Operation: Remaster unraveled. After Sonic was taken to a dome by Surge, who blamed Sonic for her current existence due to his refusal to kill his enemies, the two would duke it out, with neither able to overpower the other. Sonic tried to convince Surge to start things over with him and redefine herself, but Surge twisted Sonic's arguments around and became even more determined to make the world burn for making her an outcast. In the end though, Sonic won when he knocked Surge onto the edge of a chasm, which she ended up falling into when she refused Sonic's help at getting back up. As for Tails and Kit, Tails initially managed to calm the hostile Kit down and learn about how Starline had abused him. This led to Kit and Tails agreeing to work together to stop Starline, but when Tails suggested bringing in Sonic, Kit turned hostile again, as he refused to let anyone interrupt Surge's fight with Sonic. Regardless, Tails was able to outlast Kit's water supply and managed to defeat Kit by turning off his Hydro Pack.[19]
As for Dr. Starline, the platypus went into hiding. While Eggman searched for him in the Egg Emperor, Starline made his way to Eggman's Memorial Garage and armed himself with the Super Eggrobo. Using this mech, Starline fought Eggman mech-to-mech while trying to convince him that Operation: Remaster would work and that they would be able to rule the world together. Eggman, however, rejected Starline's opinion and refused to share that power with anyone. As their fight took them into the underground sectors of Eggperial City, Eggman managed to destroy the Super Eggrobo. In return, to prove his point, Starline used his Tricore's Tricore Blast to destroy the Egg Emperor. Surviving his mech's destruction however, Eggman revealed that he deliberately chose the Egg Emperor because he had anticipated that Starline would exhaust his Tricore in an attempt to make his point clear after he had realized Starline was the one who raided his Power Core facility. Starline then tried to use his hypno gear on Eggman, but the latter revealed that he had taken precautions against that as well. Though he then resorted to his Multi-Tool Heel Spurs, Starline was physically overpowered by Eggman, Now defeated and stripped of all of his options, a mentally broken Starline was crushed when the ceiling caved in on top of him, killing him instantly. With that, Eggman reclaimed his empire, leaving Operation: Remaster a failure.[19]
Trivia[]
- The "Sonic Cycle" is named after the concept proposed on NeoGAF Forums. The concept proposes a recurring cycle of fandom discourse, where the news of a new videogame releases, the fans will be excited and claim it's a new comeback for the series, only for the game to come out with less than stellar reviews.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #1, story one
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #18, "Victims"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #23, "The Last Minute, Part 3"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #3, story one
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #31, "Recovery, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #1, "A Few Bad Men"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #2, "Smash & Grab"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #3, "Trust Issues"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys #4, "No Honor Among Thieves"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day 2022, "Prelude to Disaster"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #33, "Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Part 1"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #35, "Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Part 3"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #36, "Chao Races and Badnik Bases, Part 4"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #42, "Zeti Hunt, Part 2"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #44, "Zeti Hunt, Part 4"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #2, story one
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4, story one
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog #49, "Wound Up"
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Sonic the Hedgehog #50, "Battle for the Empire"
External links[]
- Operation: Remaster at IDW Sonic Hub Wiki, the IDW Sonic wiki.