Warning: Spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog - Scrapnik Island #3A new Sonic miniseries is giving a heartbreaking spin to one of the greatest features of the older Archie comics continuity.
In IDW Publishing's Sonic the Hedgehog – Scrapnik Island #3 by Daniel Barns, Jack Lawrence, Nathalie Fourdraine, and Shawn Lee, a revived Mecha Sonic that had been reprogrammed into a good robot reverts back into a villainous Badnik. E-117 Sigma, the only one who has taken it upon himself to reprogram his fellow rejects on Scrapnik Island into kind robots, tells Tails that while he attempted to do the same thing with Mecha Sonic, his nuanced systems must have over-ridden his attempts. As a result, Eggman's original programming has taken over even after Mecha Sonic showed such promise by allying with Sonic and his friends.
This "reawakening," as E-117 Sigma calls it, essentially flips the process of Roboticization from Archie Comics' version of Sonic the Hedgehog. Completed in the Roboticizer, the horrifying procedure involves a living organism getting transformed into one of Dr. Robotnik's obedient robots that lack free will. Rescuing those who have been captured for Roboticization and restoring those who have already been Roboticized are major storylines in Archie's Sonic continuity that haunts the blue blur for the majority of the series. The irony is that even when Sonic is able to restore the minds of his Roboticized Uncle Chuck and parents, a later event returns everyone's bodies back to normal except for his father, which not only causes Sonic to feel responsible for this failure but leads to friction in his family.
Sonic's Comic Series Might Break Mecha Sonic Forever
IDW's Scrapik Island seems to be emulating this dynamic except, rather than Sonic losing a friend or family member, he loses a temporary robotic ally when their original programming reverts them into a villain. While obviously different, IDW's take on Roboticization is still emotionally charged. Instead of seeing Sonic failing to rebuild his family, IDW readers will recall an earlier moment in Scrapnik Island when Mecha Sonic shows a sunflower that he has been trying to keep alive in hopes of one day planting it in real soil beyond the desolate Scrapnik Island. The fact that the innocent side of Mecha Sonic might be gone for good is devastating, forcing readers to hope that something will restore E-117 Sigma's reprogramming so that Mecha Sonic can plant that flower like he initially dreamed.
Interestingly, this isn't the first time that IDW's Sonic has borrowed from the concept of Archie's Roboticization. A more direct callback happened during the Metal Virus saga where, instead of Dr. Robotnik forcing animals into a machine that transforms them into robots, Dr. Eggman created a virus that automatically does it all for him. But, of course, the effects only last for the duration of the saga and the only one of consequence who gets infected is Sonic himself before he loses his memories, but the stakes are much lower since it's obvious he'll be cured. Although it's likely that Scrapnik Island's Mecha Sonic will be "restored," the consequences are much more emotionally charged and leaving more readers sitting on the edge of their seats as they wait anxiously for the next and concluding issue to finally drop.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island #3 is available from IDW Publishing.
