Knuckles the Echidna (Archie character)

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This article is about the character from the Archie Comics. For information on the character from the video games and TV series, see Knuckles the Echidna.
Knuckles the Echidna

Image:Knuckles_Archie.jpg
Knuckles

Publisher Archie Comics
First appearance Sonic the Hedgehog #13
Created by Ken Penders
Characteristics
Alter ego Knuckles of the House of Edmund
Affiliations Sonic the Hedgehog, Chaotix, Brotherhood of Guardians, Kingdom of Acorn, Freedom Fighters
Abilities Super strength, Reality warping abilities derived from Chaos energy, Skilled martial artist

In the American comic published by Archie Comics, Knuckles is the eighteenth guardian of the Floating Island. He lives on the planet Mobius on the flying landmass known as Angel Island. He is supported by the Chaotix, and often works together with Sonic the Hedgehog and the Freedom Fighters.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Knuckles' Past

Knuckles initially lived alone, his objective in life being to protect the island for many years until he learned of his noble heritage and the whereabouts of his people. His place in life was established centuries before his birth, as a descendant from Edmund who was the first Guardian. This continuity was the first to talk about Knuckles' relatives, introducing a group made up of his ancestors known as the Brotherhood of Guardians.

Knuckles' father, Locke, married Lara-Le from the House of Arian. After Knuckles was born, and without the knowledge or consent from his wife, Locke subjected Knuckles' egg to large doses of Chaos radiation in order to create a guardian that surpassed the abilities achieved by his ancestors. After Knuckles hatched from his egg, he quickly sported intellect and abilities that were very abnormal in children his age. Locke wanted to begin Knuckles' training as guardian at three, however Lara-le didn't want Knuckles to be raised this way, and the dispute ended their marriage. Locke won custody of Knuckles when he was five, and retreated to the Floating Island. Like his childhood friend Princess Sally Acorn, Knuckles would be to an extent secluded as a child, learning history, mathematics, geography, sciences, and other issues a guardian would need to know in order to perform his job effectively. When Knuckles was ten, Locke journeyed to the Forbidden Zone with the confidence that Knuckles could be the next guardian. Locke then joined the Brotherhood in Haven.

[edit] Present

Years later, Knuckles became the Guardian his father hoped for. With Princess Sally no longer able to see Knuckles now that Robotnik took over her father's city, his only friend would be the cockatoo Catweazle. Later on he became friends with Vector, Espio, Mighty, and Charmy-- soon to be members of the Chaotix. He was also mentored by Archimedes the fire ant since Guardians had previously relied on fire ants for this purpose. The Guardian eventually met Sonic the Hedgehog, with whom he formed a rivalry that gradually became mutual respect and friendship. Knuckles later found confrontation with Enerjak, who would turn out to be Dimitri, his great uncle. Later, Knuckles found himself confronted by the Dark Legion, a group founded by Dimitri's descendants, including his female arch-nemesis Lien-Da.

Since then, Echidnaopolis was restored to the Floating Island. Knuckles then learned of his ancestry, reunited with family, and still struggled with his personal life. He had to bear the weight of being a living Chaos Emerald, not to mention being part of a prophecy that said he was destined to help save the world, while trying to be a normal guy. Knuckles later undertook an evolution that changed his pigment, and awakened greater powers. He died in a battle against Mammoth Mogul to protect his former enemy Dimitri, and then later came back to life after rejecting the ability to become one with the Chaos Force. Because of this, Knuckles lost his powers after he thwarted an earthquake on the battlegrounds with the Xorda. According to the prophecy of the Ancient Walkers, the "Avatar"(Knuckles) would bypass death and deliver the world from its suffering.

Although he was prohibited to return to the Angel Island, Knuckles gathered the approval to go back by Sally. He then learned that Eggman had enslaved the populace and had the Dingo population enforcing his will in a Nazi fashion. In the heat of the ensuing battle, Knuckles' regained his powers and became Super Knuckles, and the people praised him Avatar. After realizing that the rest of the world suffered like his people, Knuckles gained the will to extend his services beyond the Angel Island, much to the disapproval of his father Locke.[1] Since that time, Knuckles and the Chaotix have lived in Knothole Village, working together with the Freedom Fighters. This choice of residence resulted in Knuckles becoming involved in battles against the likes of the Destructix and Ixis Naugus.

[edit] Possible Futures

Knuckles as he appears in the Mobius: 25 Years Later future.
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Knuckles as he appears in the Mobius: 25 Years Later future.

A variety of Knuckles from alternate futures also exist. These include a future Knuckles who goes insane after absorbing a massive amount of Chaos energy and becomes leader of the Dark Legion. In order to protect their daughter Lara-Su from the knowledge of what her father had become, Julie-Su told her that Knuckles had been killed by Constable Remington. After Lara-Su traveled back in time and tried to thwart the alleged assassination, her mother revealed to her the true fate of her father.

The main future Knuckles appears in Mobius: 25 Years Later. This Knuckles is a powerful polictical figure in his role as Guardian, and is paired with Julie-Su. Due to their shared opinion that commitment matters more than ceremony, the two are not officially married, but have a daughter named Lara-Su. In this future, Knuckles and Sonic have had some bad shared history, leading to repeated disputes between them. Among these is an incident where, after becoming Chaos Knuckles once more, Knuckles attempted to remake Mobius as he saw fit following his defeat of Dr. Eggman. Before he could carry out his plan in full, Sonic stopped him with an alien device, thus robbing Knuckles of his right eye. Refusing to have it replaced with a cloned organ citing religous beliefs, Knuckles instead had a cybernetic right eye implanted that allows him to see in all spectrums.

Together with Sonic, Knuckles was brought into the confidence of Rotor and Cobar, who discovered the imminent collapse of Mobius' timeline. Putting aside their differences, Knuckles and Sonic agreed to work together in hopes of saving their shared planet. Before setting out on this mission, Knuckles granted his daughter Lara-Su's request to become the next Guardian, something he had refused for some time beforehand. However, Lara snuck aboard his transport, and when Sonic was sent into the past using the Tachyon Displacement chamber, Lara-Su disappeared as well.

In the alternate Mobius: 25 Years Later, Knuckles retains his memories of the original timeline due to having been next to the Tachyon Displacement Chamber when it went off. This time around, Knuckles became chief enforcer to Shadow, who became the despotic ruler of Mobius. Among his assignments were capturing not only the returning Lara-Su and Sonic, but also Tails. Held captive, the trio had to convince Knuckles that Shadow's rule was not the best thing for Mobius. Knuckles soon revealed to the three, and Rotor, that he didn't take them prisoner for real, and that he had planned the fake arrest from the very beginning so that he, Tails, Lara-Su and Sonic could rebel against King Shadow together.

[edit] Love Life

In the comics, Knuckles developed a relationship with Julie-Su, a former Dark Legion member that defected to be with him. The two are linked by a sixth sense known as the Soultouch, which showed them that they were destined to be together. Because of their similar personalities, the two are very close. The creators of the comic have stated that Knuckles and Julie-Su will never have an actual marriage in the comics, likely stemming from the fact that, like Sonic getting married, this would ruin the series. However, several possible futures have been shown where the two live together, but are bound by commitment rather than legality.

Rouge the Bat has also made advances towards Knuckles, but due to his connection to Julie-Su and Knuckles displaying vehement dislike for her, it is unlikely that this will go anywhere. As if that weren't enough, Rouge has demonstrated that she has no romantic feelings for Knuckles; she simply wants to use him to get to the Master Emerald. These factors are likely to put an end to her membership in the Chaotix, since she joined them to help stop a plot by Dr. Eggman.

[edit] Abilities

Due to having altered DNA from his father's genetic experiments, Knuckles has strength far beyond that of an average Mobian. Knuckles also commands many of his abilities from the video games, including the power to glide and amazing burrowing ability.

In addition, exposure to the Master Emerald's radiation while still in his egg, combined with the DNA of his Guardian predecessors, has given Knuckles Chaos abilities far beyond that of almost any being on Mobius. Among the powers Knuckles has been granted by these energies are the ability to rapidly recover from any injury, the power to open portals to other places, the ability to generate matter from thin air, and various others.

[edit] Transformation

Like Sonic, Knuckles has a variety of powered-up forms that he can assume, among them Hyper Knuckles, Chaos Knuckles, and Super Knuckles.

See main article for more information.

[edit] Alternate selves

Like several characters in the Archie Comics continuity, Knuckles has been depicted has having multiple counterparts in other realities. Among these counterparts are Anti-Knuckles, a version of Knuckles from the Anti-universe, which is the evil version of the main Sonic universe. Anti-Knuckles, like Knuckles, guards the Master Emerald, but is otherwise vastly different from his main universe counterpart. He is a pacifist, lives on the Sunken Island-home to the city of Atlantinopolis-and speaks with an Irish accent. He acts as rival to Evil Sonic, and unfortunately shares his Mobius Prime counterpart's trusting nature, which led Evil Sonic to fooling him into journeying to Mobius Prime.

Knuckles also has a counterpart named Tuxedo Knux, from a Sailor Moon themed version of Mobius. This version of Knuckles wears the tuxedo, cape, and mask of character Tuxedo Mask, and his weapon is also a thrown rose. This version is also the boyfriend of Sally Moon, that dimension's Sally Acorn.

[edit] Trivia