Knuckles the Echidna
From Sonic Blur
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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Biography
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Knuckles' Past
Knuckles initially lived alone, his objective in life being to protect Angel Island and safeguard the Master 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, 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.
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 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, 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.
Although he was not allowed to return to the Angel Island, Knuckles gathered the approval to go back from Sally. He then learned that Eggman had enslaved the populace and had the Dingo population enforcing his will. In the heat of the ensuing battle, Knuckles' regained his powers 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. Since that time, Knuckles and the Chaotix have lived in Knothole Village, 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.
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. Despite this information, he refused to return to the island, feeling that his responsiblity 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 restore Dimitri to his once great status as Enerjak using the energy contained within the Emerald.
Possible Futures
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 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 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 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. Spoilers end here.
Personality
Like his video game incarnation, Knuckles is honest, independent, headstrong, devoted to his duty and often gullible. 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 stalwart with the support of his friends.
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.
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.
Like Sonic, Knuckles has a variety of powered-up forms that he can assume, among them Hyper Knuckles, Chaos Knuckles, and Super Knuckles.
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.
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.
