Knuckles the Echidna (comic character)
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- This article is about the character from the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. For information on the character from the video games and TV series, see Knuckles the Echidna. To learn about the comic series based on this character, see Knuckles the Echidna (comic series)
| Knuckles the Echidna | |
 Cover of Knuckles #1, which led to a regular series that ran for 32 issues. |
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| Publication information | |
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| Publisher | Archie Comics |
| First appearance | Sonic the Hedgehog #13 |
| Created by | Ken Penders |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Knuckles of the House of Edmund |
| Team affiliations | Sonic the Hedgehog, Chaotix, Brotherhood of Guardians, Kingdom of Acorn, Freedom Fighters |
| Abilities |
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In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series 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.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Knuckles' Past
Knuckles initially lived alone, his objective in life being to protect Angel Island and safeguard the Chaos Emerald, 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 of the House of Edmund, 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, but 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-great-great uncle. Later, Knuckles found himself confronted by the Dark Legion, a group founded by Dimitri's descendants, including his rival Kragok and female arch-nemesis Lien-Da. In addition, he found himself facing such challenges as going through Roboticization to battle Mecha Sonic and being set the task of recovering the Sword of Acorns. During the latter, he unknowingly met a relative of his friend Tails in the form of Merlin Prower.
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. His time was occupied with quests and battles, among them numerous confrontations with the Dark Legion, taking over as Mitre of the Lost Tribe of Echidnas from his great-grandfather Athair, joining Sonic and Tails in a battle against Mammoth Mogul-which led to the creation of the Master Emerald, replacing the Chaos Emeralds that had originally been used to keep Angel Island aloft-and fighting the Overlander known as Hunter. Knuckles was then forced to deal with the disappearance of Echidnaopolis' population, a result of a discharge from the Dark Legion's Quantum Beam.
Knuckles later undertook an evolution that changed his pigment and awakened greater powers, becoming the functionally omnipotent Chaos Knuckles. Using his new power, he joined forces with the Dark Legion in several efforts to alter history. After failing, he used his power to reverse the effects of the Quantum Beam himself. 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. This confirmed his legendary status, as according to the prophecy of the Ancient Walkers, the Avatar (aka Knuckles) would bypass death and deliver the world from its suffering.
[edit] After Rebirth
After the battle with the Xorda and Sonic's transportation to the other side of the galaxy, Dr. Eggman was able to take over Angel Island and backed the oppressive Dingo regime. Because of this, Knuckles was not allowed to return to Angel Island for a long after Robotnik seized control of it, until Knuckles eventually gained the approval to go back from Sally after Sonic's return. In the heat of the ensuing battle, Knuckles regained his powers and the people praised him as the 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. Since that time, Knuckles and the Chaotix have lived in Knothole, working together with the Freedom Fighters. This choice resulted in Knuckles becoming involved in battles against the likes of the Destructix and Ixis Naugus. He also accompanied Sonic, Tails, and Merlin to the Bem homeworld of Argentium to rescue Tails' parents Amadeus and Rosemary Prower, and thus was among the first Mobians to learn of the threat posed by the Black Arms, a warlike race of aliens who had visited Mobius once and were likely to return at any time.
Locke approached Knuckles again sometime before the Argentium mission, arguing with him to return to his duties as Guardian of Angel Island. From this conversation, Knuckles learned that the Echidnas were still threatened by the Dingoes under General Kage and that the Dark Legion had been split into civil war, with the two factions led by Lien-Da and an Echidna resembling his late nemesis Kragok, though the latter appears to actually be his old ally Remington, who is Kragok's biological son. Despite this information, he refused to return to the island, feeling that his responsibility to Mobius as a whole was greater. Unknowingly, he left an opening for Dr. Finitevus, who convinced Locke to entrust Angel Island to his care and that of the Destructix while he went to look for the missing Brotherhood of Guardians. Locke had no way of knowing Finitevus' true intent: to recreate Enerjak using the energy contained within the Emerald.
When Sonic was implanted with a remote control device that forced him to act against his will on Robotnik's orders, Knuckles was responsible for subduing him and destroying the device. Since it was located in Sonic's ear, Knuckles solved the problem with an uppercut, though Sally later admonished him for the potentially lethal tactic.[1] Not long afterwards, Knuckles held off Snively Kintobor while Sonic helped Shadow the Hedgehog search Gerald Robotnik's journal for answers to his past, a quest that Knuckles deeply sympathized with. Knuckles then became the only member of the Chaotix to avoid capture by Eggman's forces when Knothole came under attack by the villain's Egg Fleet. With the help of Sonic, Tails, Amy Rose, and NICOLE, he was able to quickly liberate his comrades from their Egg Grape Chamber prison and transport them to a new home. Knuckles wasn't in the city of New Mobotropolis long, however, leaving the city on his own and heading to Angel Island just before Tails' parents began their reformist revolution. Despite Julie-Su's protests, he claimed that New Mobotropolis' need for his help wasn't urgent and that it would be a good time to patch up things with his father and help Locke out with the Echidnas.
[edit] Time as Enerjak
Knuckles disappeared during this mission, a circumstance made more ominous by Enerjak's return. Upon arriving on Angel Island, Knuckles was beaten and taken captive by the Destructix and Scourge the Hedgehog, who delivered him to Dr. Finitevus, Lien-Da, and his old friend Remington (who not only didn't recognize Knuckles, but who had taken over as Grandmaster of the Frost Legion after learning of his origin as the son of Knuckles' old rival, Kragok). After Finitevus informed Knuckles that 90% of the Echidna people had been killed by Robotnik, Knuckles drew the powers of the Master Emerald into himself, setting off a brainwashing spell trap set by Finitevus, and transformed into a new-and-improved Enerjak. Using his newfound powers, he banished the Dingoes to Sandopolis, restored the Dark Legionnaires to their normal forms-including Remington's lost memories-and sent all the Echidnas but Lien-Da and a few loyalists to Albion. Teleporting to New Mobotropolis, he easily overcame NICOLE's forcefield and confronted the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix. It was only when Julie-Su, heartbroken and vengeful, tried to attack him and avenge Knuckles, whom she believed dead, that Enerjak removed his helmet to reveal himself as Knuckles, to the horror and shock of all his friends, Julie-Su and particularly his mentor Archimedes, who had witnessed the horrible events leading up to his transformation.
As his friends tried to come to grips with Knuckles' change, the new Enerjak revealed his plan to rid Mobius of technology and bring peace once and for all to the planet. When his friends tried to convince him that he wasn't acting like himself, and that his methods were far too extreme, he attempted to undo Julie-Su's cybernetics just as he had those of the Dark Legion, only to come under attack from the returning Sonic. After this surprise attack, Sonic was not able to match Knuckles at all, at which point Shadow, GUN's newest agent arrived and fought Enerjak alone after removing his power inhibitors. Though Shadow was able to match Enerjak's might, he could not keep such a monumental effort up and soon tired. As Enerjak seemed to have the upper hand, Dr. Eggman arrived and teleported Enerjak away to his new Egg Grapes, made specifically to contain Enerjak. Knuckles' situation was made even more grim when his father, abducting Julie-Su and Sonic for the purpose of enlisting their aid, revealed that he couldn't undo Finitevus' spell on his son, and that his solution to defeating Enerjak was to use a Brotherhood-made weapon...to kill him.
Robotnik's modifications to the Egg Fleet proved faulty very quickly: immediately upon recovering from the shock of being transported, Knuckles broke free of his prison and proceeded to lay waste to New Megaopolis. Easily wiping out Robotnik's ground forces, Enerjak then struck a final blow by turning the missiles of the Egg Fleet back against them, destroying them utterly. While Robotnik fled to safety, Enerjak returned to Angel Island in order to recover after losing a great deal of power. Seeking Dr. Finitevus, he commanded his "benefactor" to replenish his power, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Sonic, who had just destroyed the weapon Locke had been attempting to recover. Leaping atop the Master Emerald, Sonic drew power from it, and Finitevus stopped Enerjak from attacking him as he became Super Sonic; the doctor was apparently pleased as he saw his own corrupted energy neutralized by Sonic's power. The battle began in earnest as Super Sonic attempted to break Knuckles free by taunting him, goading him with the usual banter between them. Unfortunately, Finitevus' magic proved too strong, and Knuckles continued to attack his former friend.
Meanwhile, back on Angel Island's surface, Finitevus revealed to Julie-Su that he had "locked" his hex by making it so that it could only be broken by someone sacrificing their own life. Julie-Su and Archimedes were both willing, but it was Locke who stepped in to save his son. Returned to normal, Knuckles found his father dead and in a rage attacked Dr. Finitevus, eager to punish him for all his crimes. The mad doctor escaped, and Knuckles, motivated most likely by guilt at having lost his father because of his past decisions, swore that he would remain on Angel Island to guard the Master Emerald-for the rest of his life.
[edit] Returning to the Team
Knuckles was soon talked out of his course of action by Rouge the Bat, who found him sulking as he observed the Chaotix at work building a bridge between the new Shrine Isle-the Master Emerald Shrine on its own small island-and the mainland of Angel Island. Having just flown over Albion and visited General Helmut Von Stryker amongst the Dingoes, Knuckles' feelings of guilt had increased to the point where he felt his people were better off in Albion, where they would be safe from him. Rouge quickly antagonized his decision to take up the old Guardian traditions, pointing out that they had resulted in the apparent destruction of the Brotherhood and that he had no way of knowing how things would have turned out had he remained on Angel Island instead of fighting on the surface. She also pointed out that with the Warp Ring Locke had passed to Julie-Su, who in turn had passed it to him, he could move back and forth between the fight with Robotnik and Angel Island, fulfilling both his obligations. Thus assuaged, Knuckles happily rejoined the Chaotix, unaware that Rouge only motivated him to do so in her own interests.
Soon after returning to the surface with the Chaotix, Knuckles would find himself fighting against the Dark Legion, now serving under Dr. Eggman as his "Dark Egg Legion".
[edit] Possible Futures
A variety of Knuckles from alternate futures also exist. These include a future where Knuckles apparently gives rise to a race of mechanical Echidnas called Brass Knuckles, who later menace the Freedom Fighters of the Galaxy. Another future Knuckles is one 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 political 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 religious 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. This decision resulted from the realization that he was giving Lara as little choice over being a Guardian as his late father Locke had given him. However, Lara sneaked 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 the Hedgehog, 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. The plan went off flawlessly.
[edit] Personality
Like his video game incarnation, Knuckles is honest, independent, headstrong and devoted to his duty. He is very serious and usually likes to be by himself, but can be relied upon to help out whenever the planet needs saving. At times he seems jealous of the freedom that Sonic has, but is always ready to help his friends when needed. He also maintains close ties to his friends and family, though at times such relationships are tense.
However, Knuckles also faces a number of problems unique to the comics. Here, Knuckles is not the last of his kind, but comes to realize that he is a mutant among the Echidna people. Worse yet, he must come to grips with the fact that he is part of a prophecy that says he will help save the world, all while dealing with the pressures of being a teenager.
The comics also address how miserable Knuckles' existence has been. From day one, Knuckles has lived a life different from that of any normal Mobian. Combined with all the suffering he has been put through, this has led him to despise the legacy he is forced to carry. At one point, Knuckles determined that the Guardian line would end with him, so that no child of his would have to suffer through the same things he did.
Despite these setbacks, Knuckles remains stalwart. For a time, he was incredibly depressed, having lost his enhanced abilities and his homeland upon returning from the afterlife. Upon regaining both, he realized that Mobius as a whole needed him more than Angel Island, and he dedicated himself to protecting the entire planet. This has led him to clash with his father on numerous occasions, but he remains vigilant with the support of his friends. For all of his conviction, however, Knuckles remains strongly attached to his people, and this proved to be his downfall when Finitevus told him of the destruction of 90% of the Echidna race, allowing him to fall victim to the mad doctor's influence as the new Enerjak.
Knuckles is not that much unlike Sonic: he is cocky and big-mouthed, with a lot of a wise-cracks (as well as arrogance). He also keeps up his usage of booby-traps around Floating Island (as seen in the original video games). He also is all too willing to use his fists and loathes Robotnik with a passion. His infamous gullibility seems to have disappeared, though is not completely gone, as proven when Knuckles fell into Dr. Finitevus' trap to become the new Enerjak, and by comments made by Rouge the Bat following their later encounter.
[edit] Love Life
Archie's 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 and to beat Julie-Su by stealing Knuckles from her. 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. However, it is clear that she will not give up on her attempts easily, given that she planned a sting operation that resulted in the capture of Mammoth Mogul, Ixis Naugus, Nack the Weasel, Bark the Polar Bear, and Bean the Dynamite. When asked why she had not previously informed the Freedom Fighters of her plan, Rouge said that she had done it to impress Knuckles.
Due to their shared childhood experiences and the pressure both have felt in their roles, it briefly seemed possible that Knuckles might develop romantic feelings for Sally Acorn, whom he referred to as his "special friend." Their affection for each other was exhibited in several instances, though quickly sublimated by dangerous conditions. However, this relationship stopped at close friendship, and the two have not shown any such inclination towards each other since.
[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. Following his return from the afterlife, these powers remained dormant briefly, but were eventually reawakened when he was exposed to the Master Emerald once again for a long enough time.
Like Sonic and Tails, Knuckles has several powered-up forms. His initial transformation is known as Hyper Knuckles and is seen numerous times throughout the series. Other forms of his include the induced and semipermanent (would have been permanent if not for his death) persona of Chaos Knuckles, and also the incarnation Super Knuckles.
[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. Another alternate dimensional version of Knuckles featured was chief of police in the same reality that was home to Sally McAcorn, in which he served a tyrannical law-making computer modeled after Dr. Robotnik. Yet another Knuckles, a giant mutant with three spikes on each hand, was present in a realm wherein he and other giant Freedom Fighters lived on Knothole Island, and menaced the city of Kintopolis.
Several other versions of Knuckles were seen as a result of his efforts, while in the form of Chaos Knuckles, to alter history.
Presumably, countless other counterparts of Knuckles from other dimensions exist. However, since having Knuckles join numerous counterparts of himself in battle would be cliché after the plot was used with Sonic and Tails, it is unlikely that a large number of these counterparts will ever appear.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Prototype storyline for issues after #134 featured Knuckles refusing to remain on Angel Island because his presence caused the Master Emerald to put off more energy, making it easily detectable to villains, rather than his decision that his Guardian duties included the entire planet of Mobius. However, instead of remaining in Knothole with the Freedom Fighters and other Chaotix, he set off on a world tour to learn martial arts, eventually apprenticing himself to Monkey Khan. Khan's dojo would have turned out to be built atop the hiding place of a powerful jewel known as the Master Geode, which would have been targeted by Robotnik, the Iron Queen, and Mammoth Mogul. Knuckles was intended to become a pawn of the Iron Queen's placed under an evil spell and pitted against the Robotnik-controlled Khan. Eventually, he would have become temporarily omnipotent due to a reaction to the Master Geode, which ended up being fragmented and scattered across Mobius. In continuing his journey, Knuckles would have absorbed energy from these fragments, but the plot line appears to have been cancelled.[2]
[edit] References
All information is taken from the Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, and other such versions of the Archie Comics.
- ^ Archie Comics 65th Anniversary Free Comic Book Day Sonic the Hedgehog Issue
- ^ http://archive.sonic-hq.net/newsite/comics/kbsonicoverview.php Antagonists 2nd Tier Villains
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