Dr. Robotnik
From Sonic Blur
Dr. Robotnik is the primary villain in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. In the Archie Comics continuity, as presented in the comic book series Sonic the Hedgehog, the name "Dr. Robotnik" in fact refers to two separate versions of the character.
The first version (Robotnik Prime) conquered most of Sonic's home planet of Planet Mobius and was an enemy of Sonic for many years. He was apparently killed by his own weapon in a climatic battle with Sonic. Some time later his role as Sonic's nemesis was taken over by another version of Robotnik (now known by the more common moniker of Dr. Eggman), from an alternate reality.
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Ivo Robotnik/Robotnik Prime
The character of Dr. Robotnik initially used in the Archie Comics series was based on the version that had appeared in the Saturday morning cartoon, Sonic the Hedgehog. Information specifically about that version of the character can be found at Dr. Robotnik (other media)#Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series). As the comic series progressed, more details were added to the character's background, differentiating the two versions.
Early Life and Rise to Power
In the Archie Comics Sonic Universe, Dr. Robotnik begins his existence as Julian Kintobor of the House of Ivo, the son of a human-like Overlander and a human from the city of Megalopolis ("Kintobor" is Robotnik spelled backwards). He studied under the genius scientist, Dr. Nate Morgan for an extended period of time. Once his mentor passed unto him everything he knew, Julian conspired against Morgan and had him banished. During the breakout of the Great War between the animal-like Mobians and humanoid Overlanders, Julian worked as a high-profile weapons engineer for the Overlander armies, brainstorming the most sophisticated military hardware in history. Due to his engineering prowess, the Overlanders nearly pushed their Mobian adversaries to the brink of defeat. However, Julian's methods were put into question when it was revealed that he utilized live Overlander test subjects to evaluate his destructive brainchildren. He was tried in court by his brother Colin in response to this revelation, and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. The court rulings did not bode well with his plans for the future; and he eventually escaped confinement.
After barely evading law enforcement officers, Julian made it to the Mobian border and found himself welcomed by the Kingdom of Acorn. Swearing allegiance to the Kingdom, he vowed to contribute his inside knowledge on their enemy. The Kingdom of Acorn was ruled by a Royal Family, with an individual given the title "Warlord" overseeing most military matters. The Warlord at the time of Julian's arrival was Warlord Kodos, and he tried to take Julian under his wing in a plot to overthrow King Maximillian Acorn and rule. Kodos planned to stage a coup and send his enemies, such as King Maximillian, to the Zone of Silence. Julian liked the idea of conquering the Kingdom, but decided he didn't want to share power. Instead he tricked Kodos and banished the Warlord to Zone of Silence. After Kodos "disappeared", Julian assumed the mantle of Warlord.
After defeating the Overlanders in the Great War, Warlord Julian (like his SatAM counterpart) used Charles' invention, the roboticizer, to his own twisted ends. After sabotaging it to turn Sonic's father Jules into a drone, he secretly had Sonic's mother, Bernie, roboticized. Bernie's roboticization was blamed on a lab accident, and soon Tails' father Amadeus Prower was likewise turned into a robot. Julian's plotting culminated with a successful coup to usurp power over all royal territories. Changing his name from Dr. Julian Ivo Kintobor to Dr. Ivo Robotnik, he transfigured the once beautiful capital city of Mobotropolis into an industrial wasteland he dubbed Robotropolis. Once his power over the Mobian regions was secure, the tyrant then focused his attention on consolidating the rest of the planet. Soon enough, he had nearly all of inhabited Mobius under his thumb; only a select few locations were kept hidden and protected from his all-encompassing power. He would continue to rule Mobius with an iron fist, with his loyal robotic henchmen and his wayward nephew, Snively Kintobor. As time went on, Robotnik disseminated various regional governors across the planet called "Underbosses" to enforce his will and to lead campaigns against local dissenters.
Decline and Fall
With the Overlanders forced into hiding by Robotnik's armies of SWATbots, his reign continued to last undisputed. Things changed however, when he found resistance in the form of burgeoning rebel cells calling themselves "Freedom Fighters", particularly in the Knothole group led by the King's daughter Princess Sally Acorn, and championed by a now grown Sonic the Hedgehog. He continually attempted to crush the resistance for 50 issues, until the four-issue "EndGame" story, where, in addition to trying to have Sally killed and Sonic framed for the murder, discovered the location of Knothole, held the Freedom Fighters at gunpoint, and planned to unleash a weapon called the "Ultimate Annihilator" (In later issues it is referred to as the "Ultimate Nullifier"), a powerful weapon that could warp reality itself. Decisive victory was at hand for the dictator; it appeared as if all of hope for Mobius was lost. Unfortunately for Robotnik, Snively tampered with his ultimate weapon, and after gruelling final battle with Sonic, Julian Ivo Kintobor was killed by being torn apart atom by atom when the weapon backfired.
Beyond Death
Robotnik's displaced molecules recombined temporarily with the help of Knuckles' new reality-warping abilities and a device invented by Robo-Robotnik (a version of Robotnik who had come from a different reality, and had taken Robotnik's place). The reborn Robotnik soon formulated a plot with Robo-Robotnik to reverse the process as a way to destroy Sonic and his comrades. Robotnik tricked his former enemies in Knothole Village into thinking Robo-Robotnik had resurrected him in order to steal his memories, and that he had escaped in hopes of allying with Sonic. King Acorn went along with the scheme but it was revealed that the Freedom Fighters only granted him amnesty in an attempt to sabotoge the device that had brought him back. His return was cut short in a quarrel with Robo-Robotnik after it was determined that his existence on this plane of reality was limited. Unfortunately for Robotnik, the machine was since destroyed. Nevertheless, that does not mean the dreaded despot will be gone for good.
Recent developments in the comic have revealed a new villain tentatively titled "Anonymous" who manipulates events behind the scenes with access to older Robotnik technology. It has been stated that he is around Robotnik's height, and his silhouette looks markedly like Robotnik Prime. Recent developments have revealed that Anonymous is A.D.A.M., Robo-Robotnik's rogue sentient computer virus. The lead writer has since revealed that the reason Robotnik Prime's image was used to depict Anonymous in past issues was due to the fact that he was in fact originally going to turn out to be the original Robotnik.
Robotnik's name is a reversal of his family's surname (Kintobor → Robotnik). After conquering Mobius he adopted the sinister moniker of "Robotnik" to differentiate himself from his past. He has several relatives — Snively, his nephew, being one of them. There is also his brother, Colin (who was roboticized and then later destroyed), and Snively's half-sister, Hope Kintobor. Finally, from Station Square, there is his deceased grandfather and cousin, [[|Professor Gerald Kintobor|Gerald]] and Maria Kintobor — just as in the games. Hope greatly resembles Maria, and currently lives with the Freedom Fighters in the newly christened Kingdom of Knothole.
Robo-Robotnik/Eggman
Origin and Coming to Mobius-Prime
Prior to the "EndGame" storyline, a Robotnik from another universe appeared, calling himself "Robo-Robotnik." In his universe, in addition to transforming Sonic and his cohorts into nightmarish cyborgs with half robotic/half biological faces ala the Terminator or Borg, he roboticized himself, making himself more powerful. In addition to using a variation of SWATBots known as Shadow Bots (ironically, they were defeated by Robotnik Prime's forces, and also looked like the SWATbots from the SatAM cartoon, being black instead of grey & white like Robotnik Prime's SWATbots), he sought a legendary weapon called the Giant Borg. He temporarily gained its power, until he was struck down by the force of thousands of multi-dimensional Sonics. The destruction of his weapon seemingly destroyed him, leaving him nothing more than a head — or so everyone thought. Robo-Robotnik would live on, by transferring his consciousness to a space station in his dimension and remained there for many years.
It was at this point that the Robotnik of Mobius Prime (the main reality of the books, where Sonic lives) was seemingly destroyed by his creation, E.V.E. Robotnik was actually sent to the alternate reality of Robo-Robotnik. The meeting inspired Robo-Robotnik, who decided to "get back in the game" as it were, and supposedly eliminated his version of Sonic along with the royal family, essentially conquering his version of Mobius. Feeling dissatisfied, he conspired to return to Mobius Prime and after a series of manipulations over several issues, he revealed himself after capturing all the Robians on Mobius. This plan to destroy Sonic failed, though he succeeded in conquering Robotropolis and controlling many of the Robians on Mobius (though he would later lose them). However, his body was destroyed, and he uploaded his mind into a new form (which was based on the design that was being used for him at video-games at the time). With his new body he took on a new name: Eggman (although he would still be called Robotnik at times in the story, to help readers get used to the changes). While in this form, he also briefly had the ability to roboticize others by touch (similar to the Midas Touch). If the victim was unwilling to be roboticized, however, they would be rendered little more than a metallic statue instead (a fate shared by Nate Morgan and several other Overlanders).
The series continued, and he lost his robotic body numerous times, each time rebuilding himself. He later found himself, Snively (who had by that point been roboticized), Sonic, and Tails captured by an alien race known as the Bem. Eggman and Snively were transformed back into flesh and blood, and forced to battle for their lives against a roboticized Sonic and Tails in order to prove whether or not flesh was superior to metal. They were returned to Mobius without being changed back, and have remained that way ever since, unable to roboticize themselves (due to an after-effect of the Bem's deroboticizer).
After the Bem
Not long after this, Mobius was attacked by another alien race: The Xorda. The Xorda had attacked Mobius in the ancient past when the planet was still known as "Earth", and had thought all life had been wiped out. Upon finding out that life still existed on the planet, they attacked again, leaving behind a device intended to destroy the entire world. Sonic successfully prevented this from happening, but was lost in space in the process, and was believed to be dead by all of Mobius. This granted Eggman the opportunity to spread his power base, and conquered small portions of Mobius, thereby creating the "Eggman Empire." His robot legions are controlled by a sentient computer named A.D.A.M. (short for Autonomous Digital Assault Microbe), and he has a robotic "daughter" named Mecha (or "M" for short). He also changed his main base of operations from the nuclear wasteland of Robotropolis (after being tricked into lowering the shields, nuclear missiles infiltrated the city and irradiated the area) to New Megapolis.
Eggman has supposedly taken the original Robotnik's place on Mobius Prime for the time being, but his power over Mobius has diminished to significantly less than that of the world's former autocrat. As time has progressed, he has taken on more traits from his games counterpart. Some debate remains over which incarnation of Robotnik is superior, and some have cited that Robo-Robotnik has been unable to maintain his power and empire as well as his predecessor. However, the fact that Eggman has since devastated his own world and had to deal with a growing number of obstacles and threats to his power on this "new Mobius" (including mutinous acts by his own 'son') should not be discounted.
Other Archie Incarnations of Robotnik
As with other characters in the comics, Robotnik had several other dimenisonal counterparts. In addition the two main versions of Robotnik that he has fought, the Archie version of Sonic has encountered other versions of Robotnik as well.
Mayor Julian Kintobor
This Robotnik is from a zone (another universe) where all of the freedom fighters and mobians (except the overlanders) are Godzilla like monsters. He is a kindly mayor who accidentally turned the inhabitants of the Island of Knothole into monsters while experimenting on the Chaos Emeralds. He started asking Sonic questions about his zone when he showed up. Sonic procceded to tell him about his zone's Robotnik betrayed everyone and conquered his world. Julian procceded to appologize to which Sonic said, "Don't be. He's not." His apperance is like Eggman's except its main color is white with red going down his arms. He also has a yellow cape.
Anti-Robotnik/Julian Kintobor
Hailing from the universe of the Anti-Sonic "Scourge the Hedgehog", this version of Robotnik, Julian Kintobor, is as heroic as Scourge is evil, and attempts to foil the evil plans of the Anti-Freedom Fighters while also working as a kindly veterinarian.
=Ivana Robotnik
A female version from a Mobius based on Sailor Moon, Ivana Robotnik. Ivana appeared on Mobius Prime intending to turn Sonic into a monster. However, she was stopped by an alliance of Sonic, her nemesis Sally Moon, and Sally's boyfriend Tuxedo Knux.
