Characters / Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) - Independent Antagonists

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Antagonists of the IDW comic that operate on their own and either have no affiliation with the Eggman Empire or worked under him briefly before striking out on their own.

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The Deadly Six

The Deadly Six as a whole

Introduced in: Issue #20 (Mentioned, Flashback)

Six beings known as Zeti that Sonic, Tails and Dr. Eggman once encountered on a planetoid called The Lost Hex. Able to control machines through techno-pathic powers, they forced an alliance between Sonic and Eggman to stop them.

Since then, they've been milling around on the Lost Hex, keeping tabs on Eggman through his equipment that he left behind there, bidding their time to strike for revenge. Following the Zombot crisis, the Zeti are now stuck on the surface, banished from their home and still chaffing for vengeance...

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• Adaptational Badass: While they still possess the same coldblooded desires they had in Sonic Lost World, Zavok and Master Zik were pretty much the only ones who could truly be taken seriously (and even then they weren't above a few comically serious moments) while the others were portrayed as Laughably Evil villains with silly personalities. Here, all of them are portrayed as a lot more menacing, dealing in sadistic acts towards the civilians, and their personality traits are played less for laughs.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While Zavok, Zazz, and Zik are accurate to their Lost World depictions, Zeena, Zomon, and Zor were portrayed in there as more Laughably Evil villains with silly personalities. Not so much in this series: Zeena is more openly vicious, Zor is less pessimistic and more sadistic, and Zomom is more openly cruel with his gluttony.
• Always Chaotic Evil: "Zeti Hunt" shows that concepts such as compassion and peace are genuinely alien and disturbing to The Deadly Six and considering how much pride Zavok has in being a Zeti, this implies that this mindset is natural for the species.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Zeena and Zomom in Issue 27, and Zor and Master Zik in Issue 28, get infected with the Metal Virus after they lose their Chaos Emeralds and are left at the mercy of Zombots they can't control. Zeena succumbs for sure, and since Zomom, Zor, and Zik were trapped and unable to escape after their defeats, they almost certainly got Zombot-ified, too.
  • Averted with Zazz, who after his loss to Espio remains out of the Zombots' reach on his floating Moon Mech. Zavok also averts this as his defeat comes right before Super Sonic and Super Silver destroy the Metal Virus, leaving no time for the Zombots to get him before they all go back to normal.
• Arc Villain: Their ability to control technology, pack-attack strategy, and hostility to both Sonic and Eggman means they're usually the main threat of the stories featuring them.
• Ax-Crazy: All of them are this, though it's more evident with Zazz and Zor.
• The Caligula: Zomom and Zeena are more interested in using the Zombots to fulfill their own petty goals (the former extorts food while Zeena forces the non-infected to praise her). Ironically they're the first two to be taken out.
• Devoured by the Horde: Zeena is thrown to the Zombots and infected onscreen while Zomom, Zor, and Master Zik are beaten and left at their feet to be consumed by the virus. Averted with Zazz, who Espio only manages to steal the Emerald from and is left on a floating platform away from the Zombots.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: And how! Sonic's own morals and principles? The compassionate, virtuous culture of his world? All foreign concepts to the Zeti, who dismiss it all as weakness. Only Zik has even a remote understanding of how non-Zeti people look out for each other and avoid conflict, while the others are confounded.
• Fantastic Racism: The Zeti regard all "non-Zeti" races with contempt, and view themselves as the Superior Species. This appears to be a trait shared amongst the group.
• Foreshadowing: Their appearance in this book was hinted at when in issue 5 when Sonic briefly mentions the Lost Hex when questions an amnestic Eggman. Come issue 20 where Starline reads about them in Eggman's archives and hits upon the idea to use them to control the Zombots with the Zeti's making their full return in The Last Minute Arc.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During the Zombot saga, Zavok gives the Emeralds to the other Zeti so as to amplify their powers and put the Zombots under their control. A good idea on paper... except the Emeralds are the only thing keeping the Zombots in check, the Zeti can't control larger hordes without them. Considering they're right in the middle of the masses, you can guess what'll happen if they lose the emerald.
• Karma Houdini: Zig-Zagged. After losing the Chaos Emeralds and Metal Virus, the Zeti are left humiliated in defeat (see Laser-Guided Karma below), but otherwise get off easy and, except for Zavok, remain at large. Zavok himself gets arrested and jailed, but escapes during the Bad Guys mini-series thanks to Starline.
• Knight of Cerebus: While they aren't the most recurring foes in Sonic's Rogues Gallery, they're arguably the most threatening—enough so that Eggman himself is afraid of them. Naturally, the plot considerably darkens whenever the Zeti show up.
• Laser-Guided Karma: During the Zombot saga, they threatened and bullied non-infected with control over the Zombots. Once defeated, however...
• Laughably Evil: Much in the same way as Eggman, they are portrayed as a lot more sinister in this take, though still maintain a palpable (if rather bleaker) sense of humor about it.
• Magnetism Manipulation: All Zeti have the power to control and manipulate magnetic fields. This power allows them to control machines and, when further enhanced by the Chaos Emeralds in their possession, effectively command the Zombots and even protect themselves from Metal Virus infection by directly holding the synthetic plague back.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The "Deadly Six". They live up to it, too.
• Out-Gambitted: Subverted. Starline expects the Zeti to double-cross him, so he grabs Cacaphonic Conch in advance to control them with. However, he doesn't know there's limit to the conch's effectiveness: it only works if you have the lung capacity. Starline, of course, doesn't, and his lungs giving out renders the conch useless, thus allowing the Zeti to get around his plan.
• Proud Warrior Race: Zavok expresses this view on the Zeti race at the beginning of the Zeti Hunt arc when he admonishes both Zazz and Zomom for the pitiful state he finds them in.
• Put on a Bus: All six of them are sent back to Lost Hex at the end of the Zeti Hunt arc, with no apparent means of returning to Sonic's planet. Though Zavok does swear they will find a way back and exact revenge on everyone there.
• Revenge: Pretty much their motive when they come into the comic, Zavok's still sore about his enslavement and their loss during the events of Lost World. When Starline offers him a chance to "rejoin" Eggman, he's more than happy to use the opportunity to get even with Eggman and Sonic.
• Revenge by Proxy: They want to avenge their loss to Sonic and enslavement by Eggman and to do so they want to completely destroy the world that the pair fought so long to protect/conquer.
• Sadist: All of them are this, though it's more pronounced with Zor.
• The Starscream: When Starline comes to offer them a chance to work with Eggman again. Zavok and Zor seem to agree. Once he leaves, they quickly start plotting how to backstab Eggman and him.
• Technopath: They are able to control machines with a mere thought. This extends to robots with complex A.I., such as Metal Sonic, to simple vehicles, such the Babylon Rogues' extreme gear.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Despite whatever comical traits they have, any Story Arc featuring the Zeti is likely to be Darker and Edgier than most. Even the Metal Virus Saga's Darkest Hour got even darker once Starline got them involved.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Concepts such as compassion, morality, and kindness are anathema to the Zeti, and they dismiss them as weakness.
• Would Hurt a Child: One of their most disturbing aspects in this comic.
  • Zomom forces children to feed him or else be turned into Zombots, and subsequently tries to pound Tails and Amy to a pulp in fury.
  • Zor wants to have a kid Zombot-ified and make the father watch.
  • Zavok has a Zombot Cheese and Chocola infect Tails, and later almost backhands a cured Charmy (who himself was enslaved as a Zombot by Zavok). In Zeti Hunt, he almost crushes Tails with his bare hand while simultaneously throttling Sonic.
  • Zeena physically abuses Cream during their fight, gleefully holding the little rabbit by the ears in front of some Zombots; Gemerl intervenes too late and Cream is infected, presumably succumbing off-screen^note Originally, Zeena was supposed to go even further and kick Cream around while she was down, but Sega drew the line and vetoed that plan. Later, after the Metal Virus is gone, Zavok threatens to kill Cream when she stands up to him, though thankfully he is arrested before he can harm her.

Zavok

Zavok

"Our victory will be merciless! Our vengeance, absolute!"

^{Click here to see him as Giant Zavok}

The leader of the Deadly Six. Despite his brute appearance, Zavok is a cunning and patient leader, who wishes to have his revenge on Doctor Eggman for enslaving his pack during the Lost World incident and to crush Sonic for defeating him during said incident.

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• Adaptational Ugliness: His giant form. While in Sonic Lost World it was merely a larger version of Zavok's standard appearance, the comic goes out of its way to make it look grotesque with Empty Eyes and giant, visible veins all over his body. Justified, as it's a side effect of the Chaos Emerald in his chest. Once the emerald is out, his giant form returns to normal.
• Aesop Amnesia: Averted big time. Unlike Eggman, Zavok learned from his previous defeat and made sure to go after the Restraining Bolt first when summoned to the Faceship.
• Any Last Words?: He asks Cream this while threatening her in Issue #30. She responds by ordering Cheese to punch him in the face.
• Arc Villain: Of All or Nothing and Zeti Hunt.
• Badass Boast: Gives one at the climax of the Zombot arc:
  Zavok: "This is your last show of resistance? This is all you can muster? You may have destroyed my means of creating more Metal Virus, but I still command the Zombots! I will have them infect every inch of the globe! I will see your precious world grow sick and perish!
• Bad Boss: He rules the other Zeti through fear. After Espio lays a beatdown onto Zazz, the latter shrugs it off saying that it's not as bad as what Zavok does.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Eggman and Starline in Years 3 and 4.
• Cold Ham: His speech is often melodramatic and long-winded, yet relatively composed (by his standards).
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Suffers this twice in as many issues, merely minutes apart in-universe. Super Sonic takes him down so fast that Super Silver literally calls said beatdown "anti-climactic". When Zavok gets back up and threatens Cream, she calls in some friends who trash him in two pages flat, and Silver arrests him.
  • He himself gives one to Metal Sonic twice using his EM powers, being one of only two characters (Kitsunami being the other) to fend off the robot single-handedly.
• Death Glare: Gives one to Sonic in Issue #44 to punctuate his warning that the Blue Blur will regret sparing the Deadly Six.
• Defiant to the End: In Issue #29, despite losing the Chaos Emerald, Zavok tries to attack Super Sonic and Super Silver with the last of his strength, with predictable results. He still refuses to give up and vows to tear up the planet with his bare hands instead. Even as Sonic's friends beat him up further and arrest him, he just stubbornly swears vengeance on all of them.
• Determinator: A villainous one as mention above. Even when remembering his past defeat and musing about surrendering, he quickly turns around and refuses to admit defeat.
  Zavok: Defeat is only a foundation for revenge.
• Didn't Think This Through: Ironically, just while mocking Starline for his own careless arrogance, Zavok leaves Mimic on guard in the command center of the base they are infiltrating. Mimic, being Mimic, shortly decides to pull his own betrayal and alerts Eggman they are there before bolting. When returning and being greeted by Eggman online, Zavok even notes to himself that he probably should have expected as much.
• Fatal Flaw: Arrogance, lack of compassion and his need to command through intimidation. Zavok is a tough cookie no doubt and likewise very intelligent, but his leadership only goes so far with commanding his forces than actually aiding them in the heat of battle, only really jumping in if he can blindside his target. Otherwise, he'll in no way employ teamwork, abandon those he deems useless, and is more then willing to literally throw his forces at his enemies if they're not attacking fast enough. His strategies essentially amount to Attack! Attack! Attack!, even when it would be detrimental to his allies, shown as such during the Zeti Hunt arc when Zazz is attacking Sonic but is clearly getting worn down. Zavok, however, doesn't tell him to pull back until he's eventually too thrashed to continue.
• Genius Bruiser: Downplayed. Zavok is a brute with incredible strength, but is not dumb, knowing to be patient and how to play Doctor Starline's vanity to get what he wants. The downside is that, as smart as Zavok is, he's not savvy with machines.
• Fastball Special: Zavok does this with a mass of Zombots when he goes giant, hurling them at Angel Island to invade the remaining heroes.
• Hidden Depths: Shows a surprising amount of respect to Starline during the Bad Guys mini-series, acknowledging his potential and encouraging him to try to leave Eggman behind. While much of it was lip service to further his own plan, he no less had a point. Starline takes this advice to heart.
• The Juggernaut: This version of Zavok is not easy to stop. He rises unscathed from the burning wreckage of the Faceship and redoubles his assault with only the Zombots, survives a beatdown from Super Sonic with only minor injury, and when the heroes retaliate, he just keeps coming until Silver finally pins him down with his psychokinesis. Only Tails' Zeti-Zapper gadgets subdue him for an extended time period, and those are disabled when the Zeti return home; Zavok vows even that trick won't work twice.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In Issue 25, he enslaves Sonic's Zombot-ified allies for use against the remaining survivors, if only to rub Sonic's losses in his face. It initially works out, but when the Metal Virus is destroyed, the resulting heroic Big Damn Reunion leaves him badly outnumbered. After Zavok ignores Cream's warning to back off, she sics Cheese on him; Tangle, Whisper, and the Chaotix follow that up with a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown before Silver finally immobilizes him.
• The Leader: As in the games and other media, he is the leader of the group. Master Zik has the seniority and trained him, but it is still Zavok who leads the group.
• Near-Villain Victory: At the climax of the Metal Virus Saga, he compromises Angel Island using Sonic's own Zombot-ified friends and quickly wipes out all the remaining heroes except Sonic, Silver, Whisper, Espio, and Rouge. Sonic very nearly becomes a Zombot himself before he and Silver finally go Super, purging Sonic's infection and turning the tables on Zavok.
• Nightmare Face: While in his giant form, his face takes on a hellish, demonic look, adding to the Body Horror of said form.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In the final issue of Bad Guys, he tells Starline point-blank that his plans failed because he's no better than Eggman, making the exact same mistakes and falling prey to the exact same vices he previously criticized the doctor for. Starline even acknowledges he's right.
• One-Winged Angel: He activates his "full power", turning gigantic while supercharging himself with his Chaos Emerald in issue 28.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Zavok is arrogant, cruel, and sadistic but even he makes a point to avoid Stupid Evil.
  • When the Deadly Six take over Eggman's Faceship, Zavok opts to let Cubot and Orbot serve him freely as he lacked the technical know-how to run the diagnostics and find Eggman, and controlling the Badniks removes their ability to do complicated tasks.
  • One of the things he admonishes Starline for in the final issue of Bad Guys is his tendency to cruelly discard his allies once he thinks he has no more use for them. While Zavok is a Bad Boss himself, he knows better than to outright get rid of his allies and potentially create new opposition.
  • Later on, when he is confronted by Eggman, he chides his plan to level his own base with him in it, which Eggman shrugs off as replaceable collateral damage.
  Zavok: Such a waste, and I hate waste.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Zavok is a Zeti with pride forged in combat. When teamed with Dr. Starline they trade viewpoints on the usefulness of Badniks.
  Starline: "Machines are efficient, tireless, and unquestionably loyal. When programmed properly. Traits I thought you'd hold in high regard."
  Zavok: "At the cost of flexibility, passion, and ingenuity. Robots are fine tools, but only that. Strong warriors will do everything a robot can do and more."
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivers one to Starline in the final issue of Bad Guys, pointing out how he's no different from Eggman.
  Zavok: It's over, Doctor. Even before today, you were always a failure. You're not fit to become Eggman's successor. Your planning was sloppy. Your discarding of your comrades, needlessly cruel. All of it compounded by your unearned sense of pride. (Beat) On second thought, all that makes you exactly like Eggman. (Evil Laugh)
• Smarter Than You Look: In the Bad Guys comic, Starline sees him as a brutish warlord who only has strength. But not only does Zavok see through Starline's flattery, but he finds the right things to say to make Starline question his own resolve and dedication to Eggman. It works.
• Villain Cred: Though he despises Starline for his attempt to control him and the other Zeti, Zavok admits that bringing the Six in and trying to control the virus was a solid plan.
• Villain Has a Point: In the final issue of Bad Guys, he dishes out a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Starline, pointing out that for all his plans and hopes to be Eggman's Superior Successor, he's no different from the doctor and keeps making the same mistakes and falling to the same vices. True to Zavok's words, Starline never truly learns his lesson, which eventually costs him his life when he pushes his luck too far.
• Villain Respect: After yet another defeat from Sonic, Zavok mocks the hedgehog for his concept of mercy and promises to destroy him the next time they meet. Sonic boasts that even if the Deadly Six do return he can just beat them again; which elicits a chuckle from Zavok and he admits that he can respect that.
• Villainous Breakdown: He completely loses it once Rouge brings down the Faceship near the end of Issue 28, with his subsequent rampage lasting well into Issue 30. His dialogue is more or less composed (for him) until the latter issue, however, at which point he had lost all of his amassed power.
  Zavok: No. I will not suffer humiliation from Sonic again! I will never accept defeat! I have lost the Metal Virus and the Zombot horde. I have lost the power of the Chaos Emerald… So I will tear this world asunder with my bare hands!
• Villainous Friendship: While he rules the Six through fear and intimidation, Master Zik is the only one Zavok treats respectfully and is open to advice from.
• World's Strongest Man: He is described as the most powerful being on the Lost Hex and is the most dangerous of the Zeti, having ascended to leadership of them by virtue of his strength and intellect.
• Would Hit a Girl: He tries to strike Cream and Vanilla down with his claws, electrocutes Whisper by shorting out her Cool Mask and her Wispon, and slams Tangle backwards against a set of blast doors until she goes limp. Being the Bad Boss that he is, he's even willing to hit Zeena, at one point threatening her just for speaking out of line.

Zeena

Zeena

"If you're going to make me get my hands dirty, I'm gonna have some fun with it!"

A vain female Zeti, who prefers to be flattered than to fight on her own.

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• Dark Action Girl: Narcissistic as she is, Zeena is no pushover in combat.
• Defiant to the End: After being thrown to the Zombots, she's last seen snarling furiously at the horde as they grab her and pass on the virus, rather than begging or pleading.
• Devoured by the Horde: When Gemerl breaks free of Zeena's control, he, furious that she hurt Cream, doesn't hesitate to throw her to the Zombots, which promptly swarm and infect her.
• Fatal Flaw: Incredibly vain and will look down on others, at the risk of underestimating her opponents. Sonic counted on this for Germel to beat her despite her Zeti ability to control machines. Thanks to Cream, he was able to.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Bits of the Metal Virus can be seen on Zeena right after Cream grabs her Chaos Emerald. This means she was infected even before Gemerl threw her to the Zombots, and along with an earlier panel showing Cream clutching her arm in pain, hints at Cream's own infection before she reveals it.
• Green and Mean: Her whole top half is green, and she's Obviously Evil.
• Hartman Hips: As her profile pic shows, she has an impressive set of these.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Zeena ends up defeated as the energy tethers she was using to try and control Gemerl end up used against her when he ties her up with them, giving Cream time to get her emerald and lose her power over the Zombots. She also gets infected by Cream from that brief moment of contact since Zeena had forced Cream to be exposed to the virus just moments before.
• Kick the Dog: Her treatment of Cream is downright malicious. She literally kicks her at one point.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: An subverted meta example: early drafts of Issue #27 had her do this to Cream, but Sega thought this story idea was too harsh and vetoed it. It was compromised via silhouette.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A threefold example:
  • By tormenting Cream and holding her up for the Zombots to infect, she sets herself up for a desperation attack from Cream, which passes the infection on to her.
  • After trying to control Gemerl with her energy tethers, he uses Deadly Dodging to wrap her up in them. Not to mention that Zeena hurting Cream, whom Gemerl swore to protect, means that the robot is in no mood to show mercy to her.
  • By surrounding herself with Zombots to act as her royal servants, Zeena leaves herself with nowhere to run when she loses her Chaos Emerald - and thus, no longer has a way to control the horde that's now closing in on her.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Cream's first blow to her doesn't do much, if any damage, but Zeena still freaks out over it.
• Narcissist: She takes over Sunset City and effectively forces the remaining citizens to praise and worship her.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Zeena, though much more downplayed than Zomom, is given more of a comedic role with vanity and general laziness. However, her confrontation with Cream shows her crueler side, and when she has to get up and fight she can be quite formidable. It was Zeena, after all, who stole the Cacophonic Conch from Starline and freed them.
• Oh, Crap!: When Gemerl and Cream manage to get the Chaos Emerald off Zeena in Issue 27, she loses the power that came with it and finds herself at the mercy of Gemerl, who was very displeased by Zeena hurting Cream earlier. The look on her face says it all before he grabs her by the hair, swings her around and throws her to the Zombots.
  Zeena: Get off me! Don't you dare!
• Pragmatic Villainy: Zeena initially objects to their invasion plan as she doesn't want to walk into a potential trap again. Zavok intimidates her into going along with it anyway.
• Sadist: She takes great delight in tormenting Cream during their fight, siccing Gemerl, her best friend, on her before trying to throw Cream to a Zombot horde, dragging it out and taking sick pleasure in Cream's pain and pleas for her to stop.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After she and the citizens she oppressed are cured, Zeena storms off in a huff, wanting nothing to do with people who won't obey her whim.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the only female member of the Deadly Six.
• Underestimating Badassery: Zeena underestimates Cream and Gemerl. While she can control the latter, he isn't a common Eggman robot, he has sentience and manages to resist her control several times and ward off the Zombots coming after him. Likewise Zeena figuring Cream was Just a Kid and a "goodie goodie" turned out to be a major mistake on her part. Cream, while admitting she hates violence, isn't afraid to attack her head on and it's her interference that ultimately costs Zeena her emerald and control of the Zombots. In fact, Sonic was counting on Zeena not seeing Cream as a threat.
• Whip of Dominance: Zeena tends to use her energy tethers in a whip-like fashion for attacks and to wrap around targets that she then puppets around in "dominance". She also makes a point of using her Zombots as servants.
• Would Hurt a Child: When they fight, Zeena hijacks Gemerl and directly orders him to attack Cream, eventually kicking her, grabbing her by the ears, and gleefully dangling her above the Zombot horde. Gemerl soon puts a stop to it, but not before one of the Zombots scratches Cream's right forearm and infects her.

Zor

Zor

"Wriggle, struggle, write and cry. You can't escape. You'll soon be mine."

An apathetic, brooding Zeti with a passion for all things somber.

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• Baddie Flattery: After Whisper and Silver defeat Zor and leave him at the mercy of the Zombot horde, Zor can't help but be impressed.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His "fight" with Silver and Whisper is almost entirely against the former, whom he bombards with energy clones without ever landing a hit. Meanwhile, Whisper gets into position and, just as two energy clones grab Silver, she destroys them and knocks off Zor's Chaos Emerald with a single trick shot. Silver then crushes Zor's mech, unceremoniously dropping him to the ground for the Zombots—which Zor never bothered making use of against the duo—to attack.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He's nonplussed when Silver demands to know how he can be so warped, turning the question right back on the future psychokinetic.
  Silver: You're seriously messed up! How can you be this way?!
  Zor: Tch. How can you be so disgustingly heroic and selfless?
• Face Death with Dignity: Though he initially panics when Silver and Whisper leave him to the Zombots, he realizes that it actually fits with his love of all things macabre, and lets himself be taken by the horde.
• Icy Blue Eyes: They pair well with his cold demeanor and calm sadism.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming:
  "Nothing else quite pleases me as an unanswered mercy plea. The crying, screaming, frantic wails as all light of hope flickers and fails."
• Nightmare Fetishist: As Zor hides from the angry mob behind a tree, he gleefully thinks that he should not be enjoying himself like this but his desperation and loneliness combined with being surrounded by fear and hatred and himself slinking in the shadows was something he found just as enjoyable as terrorizing the world with Zombots.
  • Earlier he expresses joy at the idea that the actions of the Deadly Six lead to a bleak future and considers his impending infection by his own horde due to Silver and Whisper abandoning him to be "perfect".
• Self-Duplication: Just like in the games, Zor can use his powers to create energy clones of himself.
• Too Kinky to Torture: In Issue 28 he gets excited when he's about to get infected by the Zombot horde. And in Issue 43, when he gets electrocuted by Tail's gadget...
  Zor: O exquisite agony... I struggle against the pain... only to be consumed by beautiful darkness.
• Villains Want Mercy: Played With. After his powers are crippled and he's left surrounded by the Zombots, Zor calls Whisper and Silver out for leaving him to his Zombot horde instead of saving him like he thinks heroes should. Though by the time the Zombots get to him, Zor gleefully accepts his impending grim fate.
• Warrior Poet: Occasionally speaks poems, such as when spreading the Metal Virus, or briefly during his fight against Silver.
• Weak, but Skilled: Downplayed. Zor is the physically weakest of the Six (save for perhaps Master Zik) but he compensates with his energy abilities. However, even with those abilities, he is still the weakest; losing to Silver and Whisper with little effort and being unable to land a hit on Sonic.
• Would Hurt a Child: Zor openly states that he intends to turn a child into a Zombot and make his father watch.

Zomom

Zomom

"I'm gonna chew you EXTRA HARD before swallowing!"

A simpleton Zeti who's obsessed with filling his belly with all kinds of food.

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• Acrofatic: Zomom, as in the games, is quite limber for someone of his size and girth.
  Amy: "How is someone that big that fast?!"
• Bald of Evil: The only completely bald Zeti, with his lack of hair being accentuated by a multitude of horns, much more than the other five.
• The Brute: Zomom and Zazz contribute to the group mostly through their physical power.
• Dumb Muscle: While Zomom is a massive powerhouse, he is the dumbest of the bunch and easily distracted, especially if it concerns food. When Tails and Amy confront him during the Zombot Saga, Tails manages to get him to back off by stating he could have his food that he "dropped" somewhere, giving the two time to come up with a strategy. While he doesn't take long to figure out he's been tricked, he's stopped simply by dropping a town's gate him when he goes into a berserker rage. He also easily falls victim to Dr. Starline's Hypno Ray whereas Zavok would No-Sell it, showing how much weaker Zomom's mind is compared to his boss'.
• Extreme Omnivore: Downplayed with Zomom. When Amy strikes him with her hammer he attempts to eat it and he threatens to chew her and Tails "extra hard" when eating them. However, Zomom's normal diet isn't anything out of the ordinary (for the most part).
• Faster Than They Look: Amy was surprised by how fast he could move.
• Kevlard: He's practically speared by having a gate dropped on his torso, but while it hurts and pins him he's otherwise fine. When he eventually breaks free, his only gripe is that the imprint on his stomach makes him look like a waffle - which, in turn, makes him even hungrier.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Zomom is the most openly comedic of the group. He spends his time during the invasion eating and making the survivors cook for him instead of doing his job and infecting them. Zomon also repeatedly threatens to turn them all into zombies if they don't cook fast enough. Tails even tries to approach him and they speak neutrally until the idea that he needs to relinquish his power comes up and he shows himself to be an especially violent mood swinger.
• Laser-Guided Karma: While invading Restoration HQ, Zomom creates a hole in the doors to the base's control room. He's subsequently Shot in the Ass by Whisper through that same hole.
• Oh, Crap!: Zomom is defeated by having a gate dropped on him by Tails and Amy, which likewise incapacitates him. As the two grab his emerald and skedaddle he yells for them to come back with it, stating he needs the emerald to control the Zombots. Only to realize that he's stuck with a mob of them heading right for him.
  Zomom: Hey! Get back here! Without that I can't control the—! … oh.
• Shout-Out: After realizing Tails tricked him, an angry Zomom does a spin on the phrase "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!"
• Ungrateful Bastard: While he's caged up after the Metal Virus is gone, the people Zomom terrorized are nice enough to feed him as long as he behaves himself. He still isn't satisfied and demands all the food in town when Zavok and Zazz come to rescue him.
• Villainous Glutton: Zomom's appetite is his chief character trait. He forces an entire town to give him food under threat of death.

Zazz

Zazz

"I've never had to think this much before! It's killin' my killer mood!"

A not-so-bright Zeti, who wishes to attack anything he can through brute force alone.

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• And Then What?: While attacking civilians in Riverside in Issue #30, Zazz realizes he has no idea what to do next once he's destroyed everyone. The thought of not knowing what to do with himself drives him to return to Zavok.
• Ax-Crazy: Zazz gets a kick out of violence and destruction far more than any other member of the Deadly Six.
• The Brute: Zomom and Zazz contribute to the group mostly through their physical power. Zazz was even signaled out by Sonic as a danger because of his brute strength.
• Epic Fail: The outcome of his fishing attempt in Issue #41.
• Made of Iron: Espio sneaking up on him, then pummeling him in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown? He shakes it off, remarks that Zavok's pummeled him far worse, and prepares to keep fighting. However, Espio already stole his Chaos Emerald during the beat-down. Sonic in Issue #43 wins by dizzying Zazz, and even that doesn't keep him down for long.
• The Nose Knows: Zazz has a heightened sense of smell allowing him to grab Espio when the latter tried to invisibly sneak up on him.
• Oh, Crap!: Gets this reaction in Issue #41 when, after not seeing Zavok for a while, Zazz suddenly sees his boss looming over him.
• Purple Is Powerful: Zazz has purple coloration, and his method of attack results in a lot of property damage.
• Sadist: Once he arrived Earth, Zazz's bloodlust led to him putting innocent folks to fight the Zombots in an arena because it was fun. He grew bored once everybody turned into a Zombot.
• Sole Survivor: Aside from Zavok himself, Zazz is the only Deadly Six member to not get Zombotified, thanks to Espio's quick and stealthy maneuvers allowing him to nab the Chaos Emerald before Zazz could sic the Zombots on him.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Sonic notes that Zazz is a berserker who relies solely on brute strength. Espio wins by using superior skill and tactics. It is also suggested Knuckles could have beaten Zazz as he is both Strong and Skilled.

Master Zik

Master Zik

"Humor an old man and beg for mercy? It's been so long since I crushed the enemy under my own heel."

The oldest member of the Deadly Six. A wise man who trained Zavok in everything he knows, but can still fight his own battles.

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• The Dragon: Master Zik is the second in command of the Deadly Six, no doubt due to his seniority. Zik is the only person who can change Zavok's mind about something, and he provides a more strategic logic to Zavok's more direct approaches.
• Evil Old Folks: The eldest of the Zeti by far and one that shaped the fundamentals of villainy for the group.
• Graceful Loser: When free from the Zombot virus, he quickly makes his escape instead of resuming the fight, even admitting that this was the Babylon Rogues' victory.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Master Zik is the shortest of the Zeti and shorter than all of the protagonists.
• The Older Immortal: According to the games the Deadly Six are all over 100 years old save for Master Zik who is 1,036. Ian Flynn confirmed that the comics incarnations are the same ages.
• The Social Darwinist: Expresses this philosophy in Issue #41, though he admits in the same sentence that he's willing to make exceptions if need be.
• Villainous Friendship: He has a closer relationship with Zavok than the rest of the Six, being his mentor and trusted confidant. In return, Zavok treats Zik with great respect and takes his council seriously.

The Babylon Rogues

The Babylon Rogues as a whole

Wave (Left), Jet (Center), and Storm (Right)

Introduced in: Annual 2019

A trio of Extreme Gear-riding thieves. They are Jet the Hawk, the leader of the three, Wave the Swallow, the strategist and mechanic and Storm the Albatross, the muscle.

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• Anti-Villain: They're a rowdy group of thieves and vandals but they've got a high set of standards and try not to hurt or kidnap anyone. Wave in particular tends to voice the more moral alternatives.
• The Artifact: The trio sport their Riders designs, even though all the characters in the Riders games sans Eggman and Amy wore different outfits fitting the style of extreme racing. This is rather justified due to audience familiarity and them working with the Extreme Gears at all times.
• Cast Herd: Like Team Dark, the Babylon Rogues are never seen separated from one another. Being the leader, Jet has the most focus, with Wave and Storm following him.
• Cool Airship: They travel in one when not riding their Extreme Gear. It came in handy when the Metal Virus consumed everything on the ground.
• Enemy Mine: Amy recruits them to help steal the Chaos Emeralds from the Deadly Six to stop the Zombot plague.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While they don't mind thieving and stealing from others, they try to avoid hurting innocents if possible, to keep them from looking like violent thugs. Though Jet has to be chided by Wave to keep this mindset.
• Honor Before Reason: Played for Laughs. When Tangle and Whisper turn up to thwart their theft/accidental kidnapping, Jet first challenges them to a race to return the goods. Wave angrily reminds him they're not kidnappers and tells him to just give Jewel back. Jet argues that it makes them look incompetent, but he eventually concedes.
  • Comes up again when they're asked to assist in stealing the Chaos Emeralds by the Restoration. Jet doesn't agree to help even after Wave points out that they won't be able to eat, refuel, or have anyone to steal from if the Metal Virus continues to spread. Storm sides with Jet, but does mention that he likes eating.
• Last Stand: They put up an Old-West style one against the Zombots after Wave and Storm lose their Extreme Gear and Jet sends his back with Zik's Chaos Emerald. Compared to the other survivors (whose own Last Stand against their Zombot friends and Zavok at Angel Island almost results in their defeat), the trio apparently fare much better, considering they ultimately avoid infection.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Whisper holds a grudge against them for endangering Tangle and Jewel in the 2019 Annual, even after they help save her friends from the Metal Virus. She is especially unfond of Jet, as the 2022 Annual shows.
• Out of Focus: Jet and his gang don't appear that frequently in the series, and have no protagonistic role like they had in their debut game series.
• The Rival: They are rivals to Team Sonic when it comes to Extreme Gear racing. Outside of that, however, only Jet's rivalry with Sonic is consistent in this incarnation. Wave's rivalry with Tails and Storm's with Knuckles have yet to be seen in this series.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Tangle and Whisper jump off their ship to rescue Jewel, they find out too late that Tangle reclaimed the jewelery they stole. Rather than try to get it back, they decide it's not worth it after the headache of arguing on how to deal with Jewel and move on.
• Uncertain Doom: We never see if they become Zombots or even infected after their Last Stand, though Issue #30 implies they made it out without being infected.
• Underestimating Badassery: In Issues 26 and 28, they're tasked with fighting Zik and getting his Chaos Emerald. Sonic tries to warn them that while Zik may be old, he's still formidable, but the group brush off the concern. When they confront him, however, Zik quickly takes control of their boards and uses them against the three, distracting Jet enough that he doesn't notice Zik has got Wave and Storm surrounded by Zombots until it's pointed out to him. Luckily, Zik himself underestimates his opponents and pays the price. While retreating after the Metal Virus is destroyed, Zik admits that the Rogues earned their victory.
• Villainous Friendship: They may squabble and clash but the trio are very close and loyal to each other.
• Wild Card: Not on Eggman's side, nor the Resistance; they're just in it for themselves.
• Would Harm a Senior: They have no problem attacking the elderly Zik. Granted, Zik is far from innocent and puts up quite a fight.
  Storm: I ain't afraid to hit an old man!
  Sonic: (Deadpan) Stay classy.

Jet the Hawk

Jet the Hawk

The leader of the Babylon Rogues, Jet is a prideful jock who wishes to prove he's better than Sonic.

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• Appeal to Flattery: When Amy calls the group in to help steal the Chaos Emeralds from the Zeti, Jet initially refuses. Sonic manages to convince him by appealing to his ego and claiming him as "the Legendary Wind Master".
  Jet: Well, if that's the case, who am I to deny the world their savior? Come on! Tell me what I can do that Sonic can't!
• Combat Hand Fan: Like in the games, he wields a pair of Bashosen fans during melee combat. In Issue 28, he uses them to create a gust of wind that blasts Master Zik off his perch, leading to the Zeti's defeat.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Jet complains about this after the Zombot threat is over with, citing he nearly got infected and yet didn't get an ice sculpture like Sonic at the celebration festival. Wave and Storm are just happy to be invited and enjoying the festivities.
• Green and Mean: While not as ruthless as, say, Zeena or Surge, he's still among Sonic's rudest and most egocentric rivals.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: He goes through various degrees of Humiliation Conga in nearly all his appearances. And every time, his downfall is his own fault due to his pride, stubbornness, and impulsivity.
• Kick the Dog: He wastes no time teasing Sonic about his Metal Virus infection upon first seeing it. Sonic takes it in stride, but naturally isn't amused, especially since The Virus has overcome his Super-Speed by then.
• Motor Mouth: He can be a real chatterbox due to his penchant for bragging. In the 2022 Annual, his yapping annoys Whisper to the point where she screams at him to be quiet.
• No One Gets Left Behind: After they've beaten Zik, Jet learns the Zombots destroyed Wave's airboard and Storm has disabled his by using it as a club. Wave tells Jet to leave her and Storm behind and deliver the Chaos Emerald to Sonic, but Jet refuses. So, he ties the Emerald to the back of his airboard and sends it through the Warp Topaz portal, then stands with his teammates, saying they'll show the advancing Zombots a thing or two until Sonic purges the Metal Virus from the world.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Gives one to Master Zik before blowing him off his perch and into Storm's fist, allowing Wave to grab his Chaos Emerald before the Zeti is grabbed by the Zombots.
  Jet: We're the Babylon Rogues. We don't beg. We don't give up. AND WE DON'T LOSE!
• Small Name, Big Ego: His Fatal Flaw, as noted by Jewel. Jet prides himself on being the best and fastest when in the grand scheme of things, he's mostly a small fry with some amount of skill and his group is a nuisance at best. Sonic gets him to help during the Zeti/Zombot situation by feeding his ego of being a master thief.
• Sore Loser: His reaction when Tangle and Whisper thwart his team's heist of Jewel's gem collection; when faced with losing a fight to Zik and his teammates to the Metal Virus; and after losing a beach tournament to Sonic, Tangle, Whisper, and Jewel.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Calzones. To the point where when one of Whisper's Wisps steals his calzone, he calls her a calzone poacher, and even after she saves his life from a robot attack, he insists that she owes him a calzone.

Wave the Swallow

Wave the Swallow

The mechanic of the Babylon Rogues, Wave is the creator of her team's Extreme Gears.

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• Clothing Damage: Her goggles' lenses are broken during her team's fight with Zik, as she falls off her board face-first after he hijacks their Extreme Gear. She fixes the glasses off-screen at some point before Issue #31. Oddly, Adam Bryce Thomas' artwork for Issue 28 shows Wave's goggles undamaged, whereas Priscilla Tramontano draws them busted in both Issues 26 and 30.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • In the first annual, Storm accidentally abducts Jewel whom he thinks is a gem. When Tangle and Whisper arrive demanding Jewel back, Jet tries to save face by challenging the two to a race. Wave insists they just let Jewel go since as they are thieves not kidnappers.
  • While she doesn't hesitate to steal artifacts from Knuckles during the Misadventures arc, she shows a hint of respect towards his ancestors' culture in wanting to keep the artifacts undamaged; Jet, by contrast, only feels the same about their ancestors' artifacts.
• Evil Genius: In line with her game appearances, she rivals Tails and Eggman as a technician.
• Irony: Her sportsmanship in the Endless Summer one-shot is remarkable, considering she was the one to play dirty in her debut game (when she bombed Sonic's airboard so Jet could win).
• I Warned You: While surrounded by Zombots after the team's attack on Zik goes awry, Wave has this to say:
  Wave: Jet, before it's too late...I told you the direct approach was a bad idea!
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the sole female member of the Babylon Rogues.
• Women Are Wiser: She points out to Jet and Storm that helping the heroes stop the Metal Virus is in the Rogues' best interests as well since they can't steal, eat or refuel their ship if the entire world is infected with the Metal Virus. Storm is only really concerned about eating and Jet is initially dismissive of her concerns until Sonic appeals to his ego. She's also the only one of the Rogues willing to share a beach with the heroes in the Endless Summer one-shot; when the egos of Jet and Sonic put the kibosh on that notion, she declares an impromptu tournament to defuse the confrontation.
• Wrench Wench: Wave serves as the team's mechanic.
• Wrench Whack: She uses a giant wrench as a weapon, just like in the games.

Storm the Albatross

Storm the Albatross

The muscle of the Babylon Rogues, Storm is a thug-ish simpleton who is loyal to Jet's leadership.

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• The Brute: The biggest and most physically powerful of the Rogues.
• Dumb Muscle: In the 2019 Annual, when Jet finally decided to release Jewel and told Storm to "Toss her out," he took it literally and threw her off of their ship, much to Jet and Wave's horror. He's also not fully convinced that she isn't "a talkin' gem".
• Improbable Weapon User: Fights off a horde of Zombots by using his Extreme Gear as a blunt weapon. Unfortunately, this damages it enough that he can't ride to safety.
• Manchild: When the Rogues successfully obtain the Echidna relics, he plays with them as if they were a pair of dolls, much to Jet's anger, not wanting him to damage them.

The Starline Empire

The Starline Empire as a whole

The territory that Starline occupies from Dr. Eggman and the few allies he partners with. Eventually, the Empire consists of himself and his two creations, Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami "Kit" the Fennec Fox.

After being discarded by Eggman at the height of the Zombot rampage, Starline continued in secret to abscond with his former boss's technology and secure access to a forgotten base. Housed in a temporary headquarters under Eggman's nose, Starline has used his expertise and guile to plot his revenge against the Restoration, build forces to service his needs, and store equipment swiped from Eggman's many hordes.

With Starline getting crushed to death after his defeat by Eggman, and both Surge & Kit going off to do their own thing (and later join Clutch's organization), the Starline Empire is effectively dismantled.

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• Corrupted Character Copy: Whilst the trio of Starline, Surge and Kitsunami are clearly evoking an Evil Counterpart to Team Sonic, it's only in the broadest sense of being a trio made up of a superfast spined mammal, a multi-tailed fox, and a monotreme; the species and personalities are all very different to Team Sonic. Surge the Tenrec is a bloodthirsty, aggressive egomaniac, contrasting the chill, laidback Sonic. Kitsunami the Fennec is submissive and, whilst smart, lacks most of the supergenius technological and scientific skills Tails has. Finally, Dr. Starline is a platypus, and whereas Knuckles the Echidna is The Big Guy of Team Sonic, he is the Starline Empire's leader and is The Smart Guy.
  • This ends up fully Deconstructed in Issue #3 of Imposter Syndrome when Surge and Kit learn of their origins and realize that this trope is in full effect, with their whole existence meant solely to be a replacement to the official heroes, and they end up going off the deep end because of it.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Each one of them serves as one for Dr. Eggman, Sonic, and Tails respectively.
• Driving Question: Who were Surge and Kit before they became Starline's enforcers? Where did they come from? Did they volunteer to help him or were they kidnapped? Were they abandoned by their families or did people try to find them? All these questions about their past are what drive the duo to try and destroy the heroes and the status quo after learning Starline erased all data of their background for his own purposes. In issue #67, Clutch claims he has some information relating to these questions, as Starline was a frequent customer of his. Promising that he will give them the answers they seek if they join his organization, Surge and Kit come under his employ.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Like the rest of Sonic's Rogues Gallery, Starline never holds more than a shallow understanding of the Blue Blur and/or his friends, and it is on this that Surge and Kit's personas are based.
  • Surge and Kit themselves provide a tragic example: Surge rejects Sonic's ideals as naïve, Holier Than Thou grandstanding, while Kit can't understand why he'd be bothered with out of kindness rather than necessity.
• Evil Versus Evil: The whole purpose of Starline's faction is competing with Eggman for world domination, culminating in a 2v1 match between Surge, Kit, and Metal Sonic and a showdown between the evil doctors. After Starline's death, Surge and Kit go on to become among the biggest non-heroic thorns in Eggman's side.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief:
  • Surge is the fighter, being most powerful at close range and easily resorting to violence.
  • Kit is the mage; with his intelligence, his water working best at long range, and being very versatile.
  • Starline is the thief, having no power on his own and relying on his wits and items such as the Tricore.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Their status as Unknown Rivals to Sonic, Tails, and Eggman evolves into a dark, effective global threat over the course of only two arcs (even if Starline only achieves such in death).
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Surge's and Kit's eyes glow electric-blue and hot-pink, respectively, when their powers are active.
• Hydro-Electro Combo: Based on Sonic's fear of water and Tails' fear of lightning, Surge and Kit wield electrokinesis and hydrokinesis, respectively; Kit additionally has limited cryokinesis.
• Kill and Replace: Starline made Surge and Kit with the express purpose of pulling this on Sonic and Tails.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: On one hand, we have Surge, a Hot-Blooded punk who is the counterpart to the male Sonic. On the other hand, we have Starline, a Sissy Villain, and Kit, who is more rational and has ears resembling long hair.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Eggman's Bad Boss tendencies and refusal to heed Starline's advice cause Starline to lose faith in his idol and eventually plot to usurp him. However, Starline himself treats Surge and Kit even worse, which of course drives them to rebel and conspire against him, hijacking his Evil Plan for themselves to that end.
• Naïve Newcomer: The trio's shared Fatal Flaw. Starline's knowledge of the game cast stems more from research than firsthand experience, allowing said characters to catch him off-guard whether he's prepared for them or not. Likewise, Surge and Kit are Well-Trained, but Inexperienced and were barely any match for Metal Sonic, Sonic, or Tails when first encountered, even though the latter three had no idea what was happening.
• Our Clones Are Different: Imposter Syndrome introduces Surge and Kit as if they are robotic clones created by Dr. Starline to serve as his minions. They demonstrate some extreme amounts of independence from their source, having separate names, memories, powers, genders, and even species from their source characters. It's then subverted when it is revealed that they were not created at all, but were rather brainwashed by Starline and modified with cybernetic implants, Fake Memories, and the Metal Virus to make them believe they are his creations.
• Punny Name:
  • Surge & Kit can be a play on "Surgical Kit", a set of medical tools and how Starline enhanced them.
  • Surge & Kit's names when put together reference the word "circuit," either referring to how they're enhanced cyborgs or part and parcel of Surge's electric powers.
• Spanner in the Works: More than once, albeit unintentionally so in Starline's case.
  • Eggman's Metal Virus scheme was poised to succeed even after he lost control of the Zombots, only for Starline to break ranks and get the Deadly Six involved. Left unable to flee the planet as intended, Eggman and Metal Sonic are forced to help cure the world after punishing Starline's blunder by firing him.
  • Eggman's Eggperial City scheme was also going well until Starline, Surge, and Kit conquer the place and lure Sonic, Tails, and Belle there. After killing Starline, Eggman sends Metal Sonic to keep Sonic's group trapped, but Kit, separated from Surge, helps them escape, with Surge's antics thereafter forcing Metal to give up. The Restoration and their allies subsequently learn about the city and ultimately destroy it in Urban Warfare, the first post-Eggman's Legacy Saga arc.
    • On another note, Eggman also tries to capture Surge for his own gain and almost succeeds because subduing her wore out Sonic and Tails. However, Kit, who rejoined Surge prior, rains on the doctor's parade once more and saves the heroes in the process, though he leaves both sides for dead afterward.
  • All compounded, their very existence being the by-product of Eggman's Mean Boss tendencies played a large part in finally breaking Sonic's All-Loving Hero code around Eggman, something the latter exploited with smug complacency beforehand. By the time of Urban Warfare Eggman's plans have been so wrought by their meddling, and Sonic left so fed up and disgusted with the doctor, that Eggman realises he may actually be fighting for his life now.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: An unintentional example, according to Ian Flynn on the BumbleKast. Sonic and Tails respectively have a fear of water and lightning, with Dr. Starline managing to design the power sets of Surge and Kit to play on those fears.

Dr. Starline

Dr. Starline

"Trust me, dear Doctor. I made my career out of studying you."

Introduced in: Issue #11

A shadowy platypus scientist interested in the retrieval of Dr. Eggman, employing Rough and Tumble to help do so. He succeeds, bringing the mad doctor back to his normal self, joining him as his assistant for his latest scheme for world domination. However, things soured when he ends up fired due to a mistake he made with the Deadly Six, prompting him to try and surpass Eggman in conquering the world. His efforts to do so fail, and he ultimately dies in a building collapse upon defeat.

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• 0% Approval Rating: Starline is unanimously reviled by the end of his life, arguably even more so than Eggman. Like his one-time idol, he's a smug, devious, sociopathic Control Freak who doesn't miss a chance to Kick the Dog, only Starline takes it a step further with torture, live experimentation, and greater willingness to kill. Most of his allies join him solely because he manipulates them into doing so (via Blatant Lies or Mind Control) and quickly turn against him when the jig's up. The one time he gets shown any pity is when Belle witnesses his death.
• Abusive Parents: He ends up being a sort of parental figure to his creations, Surge and Kit, which frustrates him. Surge keeps wanting his approval whilst Starline thinks of the pair as only a couple of experiments; frequently messing with their minds to get them to heel. When it's clear that the duo's minds are resisting his safewords, he puts on a faux-fatherly air of concern, all the while Gaslighting them into doing what he wants.
• Achey Scars: A close-up panel in Issue 25 shows that Starline's hand has suffered burns and scars received from first testing his Warp Topaz, before he was able to master it.
• Achievements in Ignorance: The leftover machinations of his multiple failed schemes in life stockpiled and posed greater collateral damage for both sides as time went on, most especially with Surge and Kit still being left rampant, and his coup exposing Eggperial City to the heroes. As a result, Starline unwittingly left himself with quite a Villainous Legacy after his death, and both Sonic and Eggman reassessing him as a much more dark and creditable threat than they initially figured.
• Admiring the Abomination: He's a fanboy of Eggman and all his evil deeds. For a more specific example, his reaction to Eggman unleashing the Metal Virus on Windmill Village is to tear up and call it beautiful.
• Aesop Amnesia: Even after realizing Eggman is not as great as he thought and getting fired by him, Starline still remains a fanboy of the doc, seeking to prove to Eggman that his way of world conquering is better. It eventually evolves into him forming his own faction to beat both Sonic and Eggman.
  • Happens once more in Imposter Syndrome #2 where he shows that he hasn’t totally given up on Eggman being won over by his tactics and want to join him when he notices the Egg Cave still has the action figure of himself.
• All for Nothing: His whole character arc is pretty much a "Shaggy Dog" Story. Inevitable as Eggman's return was, Starline never personally benefits from enabling it, and his efforts to help Eggman instead hinder him while at the same time merely inconveniencing the heroes. Only when he's dead does Eggman finally give Starline the credit he longed for (specifically upon finding out what he did to Surge and Kit), and mainly to stroke his own ego (and by Eggman's own admission, he would never stoop to showing that sort of reverence to his face in life anyway), cementing once and for all the sheer pointlessness of Starline's actions.
• All Your Powers Combined: Starline's new glove is equipped with the Tricore which allows him to use the powers of the strength, flight, and speed Power Cores.
• Always Second Best: Compared to Metal Sonic, his rival for Eggman's affections and respect, Starline comes up short in more ways than one.
  • Although Starline began the process of curing Eggman's amnesia, he was unable to finish the job on his own (much to the impatience of Rough and Tumble). The mere sight of Metal Sonic, however, snapped Eggman back to normal on the spot; being Eggman's favorite minion certainly helped, whereas they'd only just met the newer villains.
  • Whereas Metal Sonic is nigh-unstoppable in combat, Starline is a borderline pushover in every direct fight he gets into, with even his own creations (both rookies in their own right) being too much for him to handle.
  • In his Neo form, Metal Sonic was a capable strategist and nearly succeeded in his endeavors; even in defeat, he still achieved his goal of finding Eggman and bringing him back. Starline, on the other hand, merely reuses Eggman's past schemes (which even Eggman himself knows better than to do), and they blow up in his face almost as soon as he enacts them.
• Arc Villain: Being the one responsible for Zavok's jailbreak, Belle's problems, and the creation of Surge and Kit makes him the central antagonist of the Eggman's Legacy Saga.
• Armed Legs: Starline's heel spurs can generate electric charges powerful enough to tear through Moto Bugs. They are also loaded with a powerful neurotoxin, which can incapacitate opponents twice his size in a single dose; a double dose, according to him, is lethal to the unlucky victim.
• Ascended Fanboy: As he stated, he made a career of studying Eggman. Once Eggman get his memory back and sees how useful he is, he enlists Starline into his ranks much to Starline's glee.
• Asshole Victim: Brutal as his defeat and subsequent death may have been, Starline had revealed himself as such a manipulative, egotistical bastard that no one besides Belle mourns his fate. Even Sonic is unfazed when he hears the news.
• Back from the Dead: Subverted. He seemingly reappears before Surge in Issue #53 shortly after she escapes Eggperial City but he, himself, suggests he may only be an hallucination brought on by her overuse of the Dynamo Cage. Other people being completely unaware of the Starline image confirms this suggestion.
• The Bad Guy Wins: He manages to score a solid victory at the ends of Bad Guys, where he steals a sizable chunk of Eggman's territory and starts his own faction, and Imposter Syndrome, where he ultimately usurps control of the entire Eggman Empire. Unfortunately for Starline, his true victory is one he never lives to savor.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • He wanted to study under Eggman, his idol. When he got to live out that dream, he realized Eggman wasn't as grand as he initially thought.
  • He also wished Eggman would plan ahead more often and set up contingencies in case his plans go south. He ends up regretting it in Issue #50, where Eggman defeats him by coming Crazy-Prepared like Starline wanted.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Forms one with Eggman and Zavok from Bad Guys to Issue #50.
• Big Bad Wannabe: In the end, Starline has far too many flaws to be an effective villain, let alone a competitor to Eggman. For all his criticism of Eggman's short-sightedness, Starline is even worse in this regard and fails to learn from his mistakes enough to truly be anything more than a Loony Fan desperately trying to ride his idol's coattails. It's best highlighted in the 50th issue, where Starline's entire power base is thoroughly dismantled, his creations soundly beaten by Sonic and Tails, and he himself utterly trounced and outplayed by Eggman, resulting in his abrupt, unceremonious end.
  Surge: Being a Mad Scientist wasn't bad enough. He had to be a wannabe influencer, too.
• Boring, but Practical: Eggman constantly wastes his time with complex plans and elaborate over-the-top schemes to defeat Sonic, which always fail. Starline nearly kills Sonic on his first try using simple misdirection and a bomb, only failing thanks to Silver putting up a force field.
• Broken Pedestal: His tenure with Eggman sees him slowly slipping out of his villain-worship toward the portly megalomaniac. Starline confides in Orbot that he assumed Eggman always lost because Sonic was just that powerful, but is beginning to realize the cause is Eggman's inability to plan for or adapt to the long-term. He's dismayed when Orbot confirms that it's usually either that, or being blinded by his hatred of Sonic and self-destructing. Eggman's inept handling of the Metal Virus leads Starline to realize that even Neo Metal Sonic's earlier failures were brought on by the robot having absorbed Eggman's bio-data, leading to the exact same failures in the exact same places. Even though his still respects Eggman after their falling-out and longs for them to rule together, it's clear that his faith has been shaken. It all comes to a head in Issue #50, where after repeatedly failing to get Eggman on his side, Starline finally snaps and tries to kill him.
  Starline: I got lost in his pageantry—in his showmanship. I was inspired by Eggman's legend. The man simply doesn't measure up.
• Canon Foreigner: The first major comic-original antagonist to appear.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Starline loves doing the Classic Villain tropes, be it monologuing, giving the heroes a Sadistic Choice, or betraying his allies just for the hell of it. Of course, these idiotic tendencies led to his downfall many times.
• Cartoony Tail: Not the typical furless, beaver-like tail Evan Stanley wants to avoid. Still, his tail is quite short and thin for a platypus, as Stanley wanted it to be a big Sonic-style echidna's tail due to platypuses and echidnas both being monotremes.
• Caught Monologuing: He needs to hear himself talk, and often records it; Surge says in Imposter Syndrome #3 that he even makes a vlog over what he has for breakfast. This has bitten him in the ass more than once.
• Character Development: Over the course of the Bad Guys mini-series, Starline goes from a Loony Fan obsessed with proving himself Eggman's equal to a competent villain determined to prove himself Eggman's superior. It doesn't stick, though.
• Co-Dragons: Starline is more or less Eggman's personal assistant and is very intelligent in his own right, but Metal Sonic is more suited for direct combat, making them this. He gets fired at the start of Year 3 after his plan to bring the Deadly Six into the fold falls through.
• Combat Pragmatist: In his first encounter with Sonic, he tried to kill Silver and him by tricking the two into entering one of Eggman's old bases and claiming a code he gave would allow them to enter the base when really it'll activate a bomb. It's only foiled cause Silver got a barrier up in time. But shows that Starline will take any advantage given to him.
• The Consigliere: He tries to offer Eggman more pragmatic advice for how he could succeed, but Eggman often doesn't take his suggestions to heart.
• Continuity Cameo: Doctor Starline was mentioned directly in Sonic Twitter Takeover #7 as the reason why Eggman never lets a fan work under him as a henchman. While the Sonic Twitter Takeover series is considered to be non-canon, an acknowledgement of Doctor Starline outside of the comics lines up with recent shifts in continuities and cameos, such as Tangle's and Whisper's appearances in Sonic Forces: Speed Battle and the former's mention in Sonic Frontiers.
• Crazy-Prepared: Contrary to Zavok's belief, Starline isn't nearly naive enough to think the Zeti won't betray him at the first opportunity. And thanks to his penchant for collecting memorabilia from Eggman's schemes, he's acquired the Cacophonous Conch to keep them under control. It ends up subverted when he didn't account for the fact that the conch only worked as long as his lungs lasted, meaning as soon as he had to take a breath, the Six just swipe the conch from him. And he had no backup plan for that, either.
  Starline: Take note, Eggman. This is how you do it.
  • Arguably, this is also a Fatal Flaw as his constant need to cover all his bases only leads to new problems being created for him (the Conch plan goes nowhere as mentioned above, making Surge and Kit to be on equal strength with Sonic and Tails only leads to the two imposters snapping and becoming willing and able to betray him once they stumble upon the tapes he made about their creation, his plan to kidnap Tails only gets him buried under his own avalanche and tips everyone off to his return, etc.)
• Creative Sterility: For all the bragging about his intelligence, Starline never accomplished anything on his own merits. While it's possibly justified by his impatience in meeting his end goals, ALL of his plans, bases and technologies rely on stolen and repurposed Eggman tech. The only confirmed thing that he invented himself were his Heel Spurs and hypnotic glove, and even those are vastly inferior to what Eggman can design. And while Surge and Kit are his inventions per se, it's doing the inverse of what Eggman does. Namely put machinery into animals and try to force them into compliance. Even then he still needed Eggman's tech to even make them viable threats. This ended up causing his downfall. By constantly stealing Eggman's tech, the old doctor eventually took notice of his missing property and prepared countermeasures for all of them in the case of them being used against him.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • When Surge and Kit rebel in Imposter Syndrome #3, Starline electrocutes the latter and poisons the former in self-defense. Between their Healing Factor and greater numbers, though, it's a losing battle and he's soon overpowered, with Surge knocking him out as Kit restrains him.
  • Starline's final showdown with Eggman in Issue #50 starts out evenly-matched, but increasingly becomes an outright Curb-Stomp Battle in Eggman's favor, as he knew about Starline's activities since Bad Guys and prepped accordingly. Once Starline is out of tricks, Eggman makes short work of him.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: In the first issue of Bad Guys, Starline gets caught sneaking around one of Eggman's factories. He tries to warp away only to remember that he doesn't have the glove powered by the Warp Topaz anymore.
  Starline: Drat. Force of habit.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: His so-called "Tricore Blast" Limit Break. After the Egg Robo is crippled, Starline uses this on the Egg Emperor knowing it's the same power that defeated it before. The drawback of this move is that it uses all of the Tricore's power. Eggman is aware of this and utilized the Egg Emperor to bring it about, knowing Starline would go for it once he'd been backed into a corner. After that, it all goes to hell for the platypus.
• Death Glare: Gives off a stone-cold one at the end of Issue #24 as he warps the Deadly Six to the Faceship.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Starline deconstructs the Big Bad Wannabe, Loony Fan and Only Sane Man tropes. Starline has admired Eggman for a long time and had long wanted to be Eggman's apprentice. But as the Metal Virus arc progressed, Starline slowly began to realize that Eggman was not the genius he made him out to be. Eventually, Eggman fires him when his misguided attempt to help Eggman results in the Deadly Six controlling the Zombots, but even afterwards, he still attempts to prove himself Eggman's equal by forming his own team comprising of himself, Zavok, Mimic, Rough and Tumble. However, as Zavok later points out, for all his talk of being Eggman's successor, he ended up making the exact same mistakes as Eggman such as not thinking his plans through and callously disregarding his allies. Starline himself concedes that Zavok has a point and by the end of the Bad Guys mini-series, gives up on being Eggman's equal and decides to be Eggman's superior. However, Imposter Syndrome shows that he still hasn't learned his lesson. Seeing his action figure in Eggman's Egg Cave is all it takes for him to want to be Eggman's partner again, showing his obsession with Eggman is still there. Also, his attempts to keep Surge and Kit in line with the Hypno Glove backfire as they end up building a resistance to it, allowing him to eventually turn on him and manipulate him for their own plans. Throughout the series, he sees himself as the smartest man in the room and constantly criticizes Dr. Eggman for being short-sighted and impulsive despite possessing many of his flaws and not being as smart and rational as he thinks. For every contingency plan he makes, there are other things he neglects which cause him to lose despite considering himself smarter and saner than everyone else.
  • He takes the Big Bad Wannabe trope the other way round in death. Despite being virtually a luckless No-Respect Guy throughout his living attempts to conquer, he ends up leaving quite a Villainous Legacy afterwards, due to the vulnerability left over on Eggman's forces and the ongoing detail with Surge and Kit still being rampant forcing both sides to team up (carnage that ironically leaves Eggman impressed by the late doctor at long last and Sonic and Tails disturbed). Surge and Kit themselves, despite having bested Starline and deeming themselves Eviler than Thou, are clearly still traumatised by his experiments on them (with even Surge fearing and hallucinating Starline). By Ian Flynn's own admittance, while Starline was designed to be a very flawed and almost pitiful villain, he was still an utterly contemptable and evil being that committed some of the darkest atrocities of the comics' Rogues Gallery, something which being a laughing stock and undermined lackey to Eggman only exacerbated, as Tails lampshades when dealing with his posthumous Who's Laughing Now?.
• Dehumanization: He treats Belle, Surge, and Kit as mere items and not much else, even referring to the formermost as "it" at one point. While Belle is indeed a machine and Surge and Kit half so, they're still thinking, feeling people—a fact Starline blows off entirely. Even his idol Eggman, an actual human being, seems to be more of a prize than a person in Starline's mind.
• Despair Event Horizon: In Issue 50, after seeing all of his planning and victories come undone, he completely loses all hope and breaks down. As a result, he's lost in his own despair to not notice the crumbling building, or he is aware but has lost his will to live.
• Didn't Think This Through: A trait he shares with Eggman.
  • For all his genuine smarts and competency, Starline failed to account for the glaring weakness that the conch only worked as long as his lungs lasted, effectively making it useless once he needs to catch his breath. It's deliciously ironic that he criticizes Eggman for being shortsighted when he himself didn't have any backup plan in case he lost the conch. Additionally, outright defying Eggman's orders in front of Metal Sonic didn't go over well either. He continues this streak in Bad Guys, where he tries to steal an Eggman base without realizing that he's been locked out of the security after being fired or having a well thought-out escape plan in mind when it inevitably goes south, thinking he still had the Warp Topaz until it was too late. He also records himself admitting that he will dispose of his teammates once he acquires a sizable chunk of Eggman's territory for himself. Starline didn't seem to account for Mimic's spy background nor Zavok's intelligence and sure enough, they hack into his computer and discover his true intentions, which turns his entire team against him.
  • This comes back up in Imposter Syndrome. Despite creating an effective duo in Surge and Kit, Starline didn't think about constructing artificial memories or false backstories to give the two emotional investment in his plans, resulting in them having nervous breakdowns when they start questioning why they want to do anything. He also fails to give them any long-term plans beyond Surge's desire to kill Sonic and Kit's dedication to Surge, risking the inevitable And Then What? scenario.
  • In "Chao Races and Badnik Bases", he sets off an avalanche that threatens the entire White Park Grand Chateau as a means to distract Sonic and Shadow, successfully at that. And then he decided to enter said chateau to try to kidnap Tails, where the heroes beat him up enough to waste his time as Tails triggering Belle's kick reaction boots him straight in front of a window. That the avalanche is about to hit. Everyone else is safe since the building is built to withstand them, meaning he not only didn't do any research on this but all he did was bury himself with his own ultimatum and tip everyone off to his return.
  • In Imposter Syndrome, he modified Surge and Kit to adapt to and resist any potential obstacles in their way. He never once considered that one of those obstacles would be his Hypno Ray that acts as the only Restraining Bolt for them. Also, he never thought in implementing any Betrayal Insurance besides said Hypno Ray. Once he's deprived of it, he has no way of forcing them into obedience.
  • Likewise that high healing he gave them backfires when he tries to take them down by force when they discover what he did to them.
• Dirty Coward: Starline prefers to run and hide when confronted, rarely engaging in direct combat and mainly in self-defense whenever he does. He also begs Surge and Kit for mercy when they overpower him, and Eggman even calls him this trope early in their battle while demanding he Face Death with Dignity for once.
• Discard and Draw:
  • He loses access to his Warp Topaz at the end of the Metal Virus arc and when Bad Guys starts up he's added spurs to his boots that have a multitude of abilities. From allowing him to fire electric blasts from his kicks to administering sedative.
  • Later in the mini-series, he gains a new item, the Tricore, which allows him access to speed, partial flight and super strength.
• The Dragon: He becomes Eggman's for Year 2's Metal Virus story arc. While Starline shares the spot with Metal Sonic, he works more closely with Eggman as his new apprentice. Come Year 3, however, Eggman ousts him from the spot once he goes against his wishes.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • His artificial personalities for Surge and Kit are how he truly views Sonic and Tails: A volatile punk with an unchecked ego and a Shrinking Violet sycophant who's unable to function properly without his partner. Being a sociopath, Starline misses the parts that make Sonic and Tails beloved heroes, namely their selflessness and friendly personalities.
  • His whole devotion to Eggman and gaining his approval can be interpreted as another total misinterpretation of personality. He idolises Eggman for his cruelty and unapologetic confidence, so surely should have known what an uphill battle it would be to ever get someone of his ego to recognise him as his equally brilliant peer. Even Eggman himself admits such upon his death, he in fact does respect Starline's level of intellect, but it wouldn't be him to ever tell that to his face. Commending a fallen rival he trounced is fair game, however.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Despite numerous humiliations and put downs leading up to his demise, the remains of Starline's efforts via hijacking Eggman's base and Surge and Kit's rampage left him unintentionally with quite the Villainous Legacy afterwards, even forcing Sonic and Eggman to team up against it all. He became the feared threatening mastermind that even his idol is openly impressed by, albeit all too late for him to savour it. As Eggman also notes however, he was always impressed by Starline's intellect, but saying such to his face just isn't how he rolls.
  • Starline's legacy itself was compounded by multiple oversights by himself and his enemies on both sides. Starline frequently looked down on his adversaries, especially Eggman, for not planning for the long-term. Indeed, the reason Starline's plans got so far is because neither Eggman or Sonic bothered to monitor his actions, preferring to work on the here and now, and not realising until it was too late that crushing Starline was far from the end of it. Starline has his own Villainous Legacy and Post Humous Villain Victory thanks to no one, himself included, heeding his warnings.
• Epic Fail: Starline really never stood a chance of beating Eggman. After months of planning and preparations, his whole plan ended up failing in a matter of minutes, to the point that Eggman defeated him on his own with his bare hands, without any mechas or robots on hand.
  • To put this in perspective, compared to Eggman, Zavok, and Metal Sonic who are arguably IDW Sonic’s biggest villains, Starline comes up short. Zavok took over the Metal Virus plan and successfully ruled the world for a bit. Later on, he reformed the Deadly Six and managed to terrorize a few towns. Eggman created the Zombot virus, nearly claimed victory when Sonic stumbled in one of his testing facilities, and very nearly successfully conquered the world. Neo Metal Sonic revived the Egg Fleet, pillaged a couple of towns with said fleet, and took over the Master Emerald and Angel Island. Starline, after striking out on his own, only managed to steal two Eggman bases and kick out Eggman for an hour or two at most. Immediately after this, not only was he immediately thwarted, but Sonic and Tails defeated his magnum opus creations effortlessly and without even knowing what was going on. For all of Starline’s meticulous planning and ploys, he only managed to sit on Eggman’s throne for a moment and lost control of his scheme the moment he enacted it. In terms of Sonic villains, games or IDW, Starline has got to be one of the least effective villains.
  • Starline was slightly better at villainy while working under Eggman, getting him all seven of the Chaos Emeralds as essentially a job audition, almost killing Sonic with simple misdirection and a bomb, and wisely attempting to convince the Doctor to actually test the Metal Virus and develop an emergency antidote before just unleashing it. However, even then he ended up attempting to control the Zeti through the Cacophonous Conch and horribly failing, all with no backup plan to speak of. Essentially, the chaos of the latter portion of the Metal Virus arc is largely due to Starline's sheer incompetence, a fact Eggman notes and tosses the platypus off of Angel Island through a portal for.
  • Deconstructed in the end, when all the remains of Starline's failed coup actually leave a very lasting amount of collateral damage. Eggman's base is still hot wired against him and Surge and Kit become the Big Bad for both sides for the following arc, with Starline even coming back to haunt the traumatized Surge via Dynamo Cage-induced hallucinations lest she forget he was the one who made her the threat she is. Surge is even implied to stop Sonic's heart for a bit at the end of the Overpowered Arc, meaning Starline indirectly led to accomplishing something only equaled by Mephiles's sneak attack. Starline actually managed to turn around all his backfires and become a very real and effective threat, albeit by complete accident and in death.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Even after having his sense of forgiveness tested greatly throughout the comics' run, Sonic maintains some degree of moral code against even his most despised enemies. Starline however, having remorselessly restored Eggman and caused the chain reaction that started the Metal Virus plague, is vocally and utterly exempt to any sympathy from Sonic, with him even coldly shrugging off both of his apparent demises (the second one real). To punctuate this, even Tails and Belle, who hate Starline equally and have a more grounded All-Loving Hero code, couldn't help feeling a bit of pity for him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Much like his idol, Starline seems to have a real problem understanding what makes the heroes so effective together. While he has definitely come closer to dissecting their companionships compared to Eggman, he still misses the mark by a wide margin. This is more than evident in the Imposter Syndrome mini-series when he vocally ponders on the flaws in Surge's and Kit's personalities and wonders if Belle is different because her code was made from scratch instead of being directly copied like with the former; not for a moment does he consider that it was because Belle was raised in a loving environment by a caring father-figure. This is even more apparent in how both Surge & Kit lack the virtuous traits their counterparts have, namely Sonic's sense of restraint and Tails' own self-worth.
• Evil Genius: He's definitely a more intelligent villain than Rough & Tumble and made a career out of studying Eggman.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: He repeatedly meddles with forces well beyond his control, with predictable results.
  • Starline apparently expected to personally gain from restoring Eggman to normal, when in fact Eggman is a thankless Bad Boss who cares only about his own ambitions. Indeed, Starline's failure to understand his own idol was a key contributing factor in his downfall.
  • When gets sick of Eggman's refusal to develop any safety precautions to the Metal Virus, Starline goes behind his back and recruits the Deadly Six to bring the Zombots under control, planning to use the Cacophonous Conch to keep them under control. Sadly, Starline's entire plan to control them hinged on the Conch, and they promptly snatch it out of his hands the second he lets his guard down.
  • Repurposing the Metal Virus to make Surge and Kit near-invincible doesn't pan out so well, either; Starline's Hypno Ray was his only failsafe if the duo rebelled, and once they develop a resistance to it, he's screwed.
• Expy: Starline is meant as one to previous Sonic comic villains Dr. Zachary and Dr. Finitevus. Though he's not an albinistic echidna, he is a monotreme, and he functions in the exact role as his predecessors; a manipulative, smug secondary villain who serves as a Mad Scientist, one with a total absence of any noble qualities.
• Failure Is the Only Option: In the end, there was no scenario where Starline's master plan would end well for him. Even if he'd managed to beat Eggman, Surge and Kit would've killed him anyhow, and if that didn't work, Sonic and Tails would just defeat them like they did in the real outcome of the story and go on to defeat Starline, too.
• Fatal Flaw: Several, and failing to get over them costs Starline his life.
  • Pride. For a rookie villain, he's even more arrogant than Eggman and has a bad habit of biting off more he can chew. More than once, he challenges or tries to manipulate opponents well above his league without coherant backup plans. He is so sure of his own importance and intellect that he refuses to heed outside advice under the assumption that he knows better. His hubris and inexperience lead to several cases of him Underestimating Badassery.
  • Evil Gloating. His own penchant for monologuing has come back to bite him several times when someone overhears him or finds his recorded mission and research logs. Surge points out that he needs to hear himself talk.
  • Overreliance. Starline never carries out his plans by himself, instead relying on stolen Eggtech and/or other villains to do his bidding. Damningly, he takes his proxies for granted anyhow and often double-crosses them once their purpose(s) are fulfilled. Inevitably, of course, his proxies get fed up his abuse and turn against him.
  • Sociopathy. Starline's egomania and callousness are so complete that how Sonic and company tick is totally beyond him and he hardly values the proxies he so relies on, even deliberately handicapping them to keep them under his thumb. His sheer disregard alienates what precious few allies he has, and him basing Surge and Kit on his twisted opinion of Sonic and Tails prevents the former two from reaching their full potential.
  • Obsession with Eggman. Try as he does to deny it, Starline remains (even if unconsciously) enamored with Eggman's legacy to the end, using him as example for his schemes. His theft of Belle's emotional data was done partly out of admiration for Eggman's work. And sure enough, Eggman himself takes advantage of this flaw by using Starline's knowledge against him, goading him into exhausting his most powerful options, and then simply overpowering him.
• Foil: To Dr. Eggman. While both are Evil Geniuses, Starline has the Pragmatic Villainy Ivo sorely lacks in his goal to crush Sonic. Conversely, the platypus has a fragile ego, lacking Eggman's determination and refusal to quit. The latter results in a Villainous BSoD and his death when all his plans come undone.
• Furry Reminder: One of his Multi-Tool Heel Spurs' functions is to inject neurotoxin to render someone unconscious. This is reminiscent of how male platypuses have hind ankle spurs which inject venom powerful enough to paralyze smaller animals, but cause excruciating pain to humans.
• Gave Up Too Soon: Starline is left so broken by his effortless defeat by Eggman in Imposter Syndrome (after a long list of defeats and humiliations beforehand) that he lets himself be taken by debris falling around him, deeming himself a complete failure in his dying words. Ironically, Overpowered, the arc directly afterwards, shows all the collateral damage of his sabotages taking a much greater toll, even getting a Posthumous Villain Victory via Surge and Kit. While it doesn't really negate his downfalls beforehand, had he tried to hold on, he might have at least witnessed his legacy be impactful at long last, with Sonic and Eggman finally acknowledging him as a genuine threat.
• Gone Horribly Right: In Imposter Syndrome, he did a bit too good a job upgrading Surge and Kit, as they gain a resistance to his hypnotic glove and turn against him, their rapid healing and powers rendering him unable to beat them.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of the comic's fourth saga, and it's a major part of his Villainous Legacy. By loosing Rough, Tumble, Mimic, Surge, and Kit in the first place, trading with Clutch, and accidentally betraying Eggperial City's existence to the Restoration, Starline continues to be Sonic and Eggman's bane long after he's kicked the bucket.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Wears a snazzy tuxedo jacket and shirt, but no pants.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Starline's entire character arc is that for every base he tries to cover, several more slip beneath the cracks in his vision. Trying replace an original without understanding why said original is loved only leads to a flawed execution, and treating other people like crap and using them without caring about them means that they'll have no regrets about trying to betray you later down the line. During his fight with Eggman, all of his carefully-made plans go up in flames in a few minutes, proving that one can be Crazy-Prepared and still fail.
• Hated by All: And for good reasons. Between his hubris, callousness, and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, he manages to earn the wrath of everyone who knew him, good, bad, and neutral. Tellingly, he's one of Sonic's few enemies that the Blue Blur genuinely hates (upon learning Starline died, Sonic's only reaction was an almost apathetic "Big oof"), and while Eggman respected his intellect, he never liked him enough to tell him so. After he dies, no one mourns him except for Belle and Kit, and even their pity evaporates once the shock of it all wears off.
• Hate Sink: While he initially comes off as the Only Sane Man between him and Eggman, Starline gradually reveals himself to be an utter bastard fully willing to backstab everyone he works with and completely bereft of the few redeeming qualities Eggman has, all while being nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is. After helping spread the Metal Virus and boastfully ruining Belle's life among other things, it's fully clinched with The Reveal that he ruthlessly experimented on and brainwashed Surge and Kit—even killing and reviving them multiple times—to turn them into Super Soldiers, reducing them to mentally-broken and unstable wrecks, all to fulfill his delusion that he can "control" the cycle of conflict between Sonic and Eggman and prove his methods superior to the latter's. His brutal defeat and subsequent death were well-warranted indeed.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Pulls this in the Chao Races and Badnik Bases and Zeti Hunt arcs, replacing Clutch in the former and the Zeti in the latter. He himself later falls victim to this trope in a way: immediately after his death, Eggman and Surge take over as the main threats of the story.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Ironically, Starline himself is the reason for his inability to be a effective villain. He's short-sighted, incredibly arrogant, overestimates his own capabilities, and his personality and idiotic decisions ends up pushing away the few allies he has.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In Issue #35 he sets off an avalanche that risks destroying White Park Grand Chateau in order to distract Sonic and Shadow. Come Issue #36, the building is shown to be built to withstand avalanches and the guests are evacuate to a safer area. Starline, however, attempts to fight the heroes within the Chateau and is buried by his own avalanche.
  • In Imposter Syndrome, Starline tries to hypnotize Surge into submission. His plans to get her and Kit to heel are thwarted, and in turn, he winds up being hypnotized by his own glove. This allows Surge and Kit to manipulate him the same way he manipulated them.
  • In both Bad Guys and Imposter Syndrome, he makes a habit of making recordings of his treacherous plans, thinking no one will be able to hack into them. Only for his allies/subordinates to manage to do so (Mimic in the former story, Kit in the latter) which ultimately result in them turning on him.
  • The main traits he programmed into Surge and Kit—a rabid hatred of Sonic and a slavish desire to support Surge, respectively—while helping motivate them into fighting Sonic and Tails, ultimately backfire hard come their actual showdown with them in Issue #50. Surge's temper means that she ends up tossing out her training due to being Blinded by Rage when she actually comes face to face with Sonic, causing her to be able to be outmaneuvered by the Blue Blur. Kit, meanwhile, is so dependent on Surge that he freaks out once separated from her, and his Extreme Doormat nature means he can be caught off-guard by genuine compliments, which Tails uses to get the upper hand.
• Horrible Judge of Character: His idolization of Eggman led him to believe that the mad doctor would be willing to share ruling the world with him, not realizing that Eggman is a self-centered sociopath that would rather take over the world alone and callously dispose of anyone else.
• Horrifying the Horror: While Surge and Kit were yet another exercise in Evil Is Not a Toy for Starline and they ended up outliving and far surpassing him in threat level, it is made apparent afterwards that Starline's conditioning of them was utterly traumatizing. When Surge starts hallucinating images of the deceased Starline taunting her, she goes into a Freak Out and begs for him to leave her alone.
• Humiliation Conga: Suffers this in Issue #25 after his plan to control the Zombots via the Zeti backfires, and again in Issue #50 near the end of his battle with Eggman.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Subverted. While Starline initially appears to have slightly more common sense than Eggman, as the series goes on, he's revealed to suffer from the exact same flaws as his idol. He's equally short-sighted, thinks too highly of himself while underestimating his enemies, and resorts to stealing a chunk of Eggman's territory to form his own faction and only does so by the skin of his teeth after Zavok almost hijacks it from him. It's made abundantly clear that for all of Starline's genuine intelligence, he wouldn't be anywhere without Eggman.
• Hypno Ray: The Bad Guys mini-series reveals he has one in his glove capable of making people suggestible or simply putting them to sleep. By programming in an inherent weakness to the hypnotic ability, he can also keep Surge and Kit in line by knocking them out with it, causing them to completely forget what they were doing. Notably, he calls this a "reboot."
• Hypocrisy Nod: Starline is shown to be not so different from Eggman with his own lack of foresight, arrogance, and overconfidence. In Bad Guys, he acknowledges these mistakes and strives to do better at different points chastising himself for falling into those traps of confidence.
• Hypocrite:
  • He repeatedly criticizes Eggman for his lack of foresight and shortsightedness in developing the Metal Virus, but Starline proves to be just as shortsighted, or at least very inexperienced. He brings in the Deadly Six to handle the Zombot situation, planning to use the Cacophonous Conch to keep them under control. A good plan... except he didn't account for the glaring weakness that the conch only worked as long as his lungs lasted, effectively making it useless once he needs to catch his breath, and he didn't have a backup plan in the event he lost it.
  • He also criticizes Eggman's obsession with Sonic, even though Starline insists on helping Eggman succeed (even if it is by showing him how to do better) even after the Doctor betrayed and abused him.
  • In Imposter Syndrome, he mentions the whole "Sonic Cycle" of Eggman and Sonic routine and how the world won't evolve otherwise without his intervention. Yet he 1) was the one who helped bring back Eggman in the first place by kidnapping him while he was amnesiac in the hope of rejogging his memory and thus contributed to re-establishing said cycle and 2) essentially trying to create the dynamic to his liking with his creations, apparently failing to see it just as another world domination ploy that isn't too different from Eggman himself.
  • Also in Imposter Syndrome, Starline didn't create and implement a failsafe or safeguard for his newest creations, Surge and Kit, spiralling out of his control and he believes that either he will solve the problems at a later date or the problems will eventually sort themselves out...just like how Eggman acted when he was losing control of the Zombots.
  • Another self-destructive trait of Eggman's he criticized was the latter's tendency to lose his cool in Sonic's presence—yet Starline conditioned Surge to be exactly the same way, which likewise prevents her from beating Sonic. Starline himself was also temporarily blinded by a grudge against Zavok, as he blamed the Deadly Six for his falling-out with Eggman.
  • At one point, Starline expresses disappointment towards wasted potential at the hands of Sonic and Eggman (due to the latter duo's flaws despite their strengths and skills). However, thanks to his own twisted methods (brainwashing, brutal training, verbal abuse and gaslighting), he prevents Surge and Kit from using their potential to the fullest.
  • He despises Eggman's cruelty towards him, which causes him to temporarily wash his hands off the doctor, yet Starline expects Surge and Kit to put up with his callousness and cruelty towards them.
• Insufferable Genius: He's arguably worse than Eggman when it comes to this trait. Starline always sees himself as the smartest man in the room, not even realizing the obvious major flaws in his plans (that Zavok would not be willing to work with him, making Surge and Kit resilient to any attack, not having a backup plan for losing the Cacophonic Conch, etc.). And every time, his arrogance causes his schemes to backfire.
• Internal Deconstruction: Starline's whole arc can be defined as watching Eggman's Joker Immunity through the perspective of a villain who has none. Starline initially idolises the doctor for his persistent rivalry with Sonic, though becomes irked by his suicidal arrogance in strategy and focus on the hedgehog, and wasteful apathy of his seemingly endless artilery, aspects that, without awareness of the series' status quo, leads Starline to find Eggman incredibly feckless. Ultimately, Starline becomes disillusioned and attempts to overthrow the doctor, only to fail to make that change and be Killed Off for Real, deemed a forgettable nuisance. Poetically, it is only after Starline gains immortality in a very different way that Eggman's status quo with Sonic starts to become more dubious In-Universe.
• Irony: Of the tragic and cosmic types.
  • Starline is determined not to make the same mistakes as his idol, and also to break the endless cycle of villainous plots and heroic day-saving. Unfortunately, thanks to SEGA's mandates about the comic's plot, we know he is doomed to fail and that Eggman and Sonic will continue dancing some variation of their old dance forever.
  • Tying into this, most of Starline's actual successes over both Sonic and Eggman were after his demise. His most fundamental achievement was chaining off the events that finally caused Sonic to break his All-Loving Hero code around Eggman, shaking the doctor's complacency a great deal. In a way, Starline did prove Eggman's morality in a blatant way, just not how he wanted or in a way he could be around to savour.
  • He loses respect in Eggman due to his lack of foresight regarding the Metal Virus, prompting him to take matters into his own hands. Starline himself suffers the same lack of foresight by recruiting the Deadly Six and not having a backup plan in the event they managed to bypass their Restraining Bolt.
    Zavok: What was that about a "lack of foresight"?
  • In Bad Guys, he then tries to gather a team to carve out a chunk of the Eggman Empire for himself, fully intending to betray and cast them aside once they'd fulfilled their usefulness. Whilst going on and on about how he isn't making the same mistakes as Eggman. If this wasn't enough, he puts Zavok, who had already betrayed him once, on the team.
  • He bemoans Eggman's irritability in Sonic's presences and hates Metal Sonic for being Eggman's favored minion. Yet, over time, his creations come to mirror his ex-idol and rival personality-wise due to how he himself conditioned them: Surge proves to be as Blinded by Rage as Eggman is (if not more so) when fighting Sonic, while Kit's Undying Loyalty to her and increasingly icy demeanor match Metal Sonic's own coldness and devotion to his master.
  • Early on during their collaborating, Eggman made bluntly clear to Starline that Sonic is his and his alone to kill, haughtily adding that Starline was unlikely to be able to do such anyway. As noted below, Starline's creation Surge seemingly beats Sonic to such brutality that she briefly stops his heart, meaning that in death, Starline did manage to kill Sonic before Eggman, if only temporarily.
• Jerkass: To call him an absolute, Grade A+-certified douchebag would be putting it mildly. Suffice to say, the rest of the cast has every reason to hate his guts, and his ignoble demise was well-deserved.
• Karmic Death: He constantly criticized Eggman for his shortsightedness and his inability to learn from his mistakes, but is ultimately defeated by his own shortsighted actions and Eggman showing him that he can learn from prior experiences just fine...but chooses not to. Starline ultimately dies with the full knowledge that he never stood a chance against his idol despite his own intelligence.
• Keystone Superpower: He has a number of gadgets, but most of his power comes from the Warp Topaz and later the Tricore. His first test run of the latter even provides the trope page image.
• Killed Off for Real: He gets crushed to death by the rubble of the base crumbling around him in Issue 50, with Ian Flynn confirming his fate shortly after its release, intending it to be the end of his story. Though not his involvement...
• Knight of Cerebus:
  • Downplayed in life. Starline borders on Laughably Evil at times and, overall, was never an effective villain. On the other hand, several of his acts are among the evilest any villain has yet committed in the comic, and its Darker and Edgier Tone Shift arguably began with his Establishing Character Moment.
  • Played straighter after being defeated by Eggman and crushed by a rock, where he's a true Greater-Scope Villain and the effects of all his past endeavours are treated with genuine horror and seriousness. As it turns out, he also scarred Surge and Kit so badly that the former hallucinates Starline himself sadistically mocking her, naturally with very little of the buffoonish vulnerabilities his living counterpart had.
• Lack of Empathy: Starline has no sympathy or care for anyone but himself and his plans. When Eggman unleashes the Metal Virus on Windmill Village, his only reaction is admiration for Eggman's cruelty, and when listening to Belle's Dark and Troubled Past, the only thing he cares about is the data he's getting from Belle's emotions and advanced AI systems as she details what happened to her, and how he can apply it to his projects. He also doesn't care for Surge and Kit's wellbeing, constantly manipulating them to carry out his own plans the way he wants them to.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After being directly responsible for Eggman's return to villainy, nearly killing Sonic and Silver with a bomb, and making the Metal Virus situation even worse by bringing in the Deadly Six in a doomed-from-the-start attempt to control them, Starline gets what's coming to him when Eggman has Metal Sonic Neck Lift him, forcibly takes his Warp Topaz, and tosses him through a portal to parts unknown, firing him in the process. Sonic in particular openly states that after everything Starline has done, he's just fine with what Eggman did to him.
• Loony Fan: He's fanatically devoted to Eggman. When Eggman fires him and sends him away, Starline's still enamored with him and felt that at the end of the day, Eggman really is the genius that Starline thought he was. As he strikes out on his own, Starline's grand plans are to have Eggman succeed and acknowledge him as an equal after taking over the world with Starline’s own methods. He breaks away from this at the end of the Bad Guys mini-series, but still finds time to gush about some of Eggman's technological advances while appropriating them for himself. When he finds the Egg Cave during the Imposter Syndrome miniseries, he slides back into this mindset.
• Mad Scientist: Made a career of studying Eggman, having not only a similar amount of scientific knowledge to handle his robots, but also just the same amount of sociopathy and lack of morality.
• Mirror Character: He surprisingly becomes one to Eggman's grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, in death due to his Villainous Legacy. Both were scientific masterminds who, following a Sanity Slippage, conducted live experiments as their ultimate weapons to commit revenge. Gerald, however, prior to GUN's betrayal, was a benevolent scientist who Eggman openly revered, and his masterminding the Earth's destruction via Shadow and the Biolizard after his execution leaves the Doctor with a Broken Pedestal. Starline by contrast was an undermined and ultimately exterminated flunky of Eggman that was evil to the core from the beginning, and his unintended posthumous carnage via Surge and Kit actually leaves Eggman amused and reevaluating him as a satisfying opponent to have thwarted.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Whatever his motive is, bringing back Dr. Eggman certainly doesn't point it in a positive direction.
• My Death Is Only The Beginning: A rare mostly accidental case. Starline's coup against Eggman ended on a pitiful whimper and his Undignified Death, all met with resounding apathy from everyone else. However all his leftover machinations; a rampant Surge and Kit (who are still traumatized and haunted by Starline's memory), Starline hacking Eggman's bases for himself, as well as exposing Eggperial City to the heroes, all leave Starline a lingering thorn in everyone's side, and circumstances that may be closest to Sonic and Eggman meeting their gruesome end. Ironically in doing so, Starline finally makes the two recognise him a valid and dangerous adversary, too late for him to relish it.
• Mythology Gag:
  • His concept is a reference to Wechnia, a glitch character from Knuckles Chaotix; they share the same white-and-red color scheme, echidnas and platypi are both monotremes, and Starline's name essentially describes the row of *s that comes up while playing as Wechina in-game.
  • Dr. Starline was created as a spiritual successor to Sonic's various white-furred echidna foes — namely Dr. Zachary and Dr. Finitevus. In particular, Starline shares many design cues with Finitevus, possessing a Warp Topaz gauntlet that allows him to teleport, similar to the Warp Rings that Finitevus would use.
  • His narrative role - being torn between worshipping Eggman and wanting to overthrow him, while being intensely hated by Belle (noted on her own page as an Expy of Hope Kintobor) — set him up as filling the void Snively left behind.
• Necessary Drawback: His Tricore allows him speed, high jumps, and super strength, but he can only use one at a time and has to manually switch out the powers. If he's dealing with a more trained opponent that can get around all three faster then he can switch, that becomes a problem, even more so if his opponents outnumber him. Surge exploits this when Kit and she turn on him, distracting him enough for Kit to get the drop on him.
• Never Found the Body: Eggman leaves him for dead in his collapsing lair and he's last seen despairing at his loss. Belle's reaction suggests that he was crushed under the debris but the reader never actually sees what becomes of him.
• Never My Fault:
  • Partially why he gets fired is his refusal to accept responsibility for him messing up the Metal Virus crisis by bringing in the Deadly Six and refusing to work with the heroes to fix it, essentially committing the exact same mistake he just made a few minutes earlier. Eggman understandably chucks him through a portal after that.
  • In Bad Guys, Starline blames Eggman and Zavok respectively for costing him the Warp Topaz and his position as Eggman's assistant.
  • In Imposter Syndrome, he claims that the code he stole from Belle wasn't enough to keep Surge and Kit emotionally and mentally stable. It was actually his mistreatment towards the two that caused them to act out in various ways.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • While bringing in the Deadly Six bit him in the ass big-time, it ultimately worked out for the best, considering once they escaped to Angel Island, Eggman freely admits that he had given up trying to manage the Metal Virus and intended to just evacuate to another planet once the entire world was infected. By bringing in the Zeti and inadvertently screwing them both over, Starline ensured that Eggman would be forced to help Sonic and co. stop the Six and the virus.
  • During his coup against Eggman, Starline lures Sonic, Tails, and Belle to Eggperial City so Surge and Kit can kill them. This backfires horribly, since the trio escape after his death and the city's existence soon becomes public knowledge, prompting the Restoration to destroy it in the Urban Warfare arc. What's more, Starline's own creations ensure that the heroes escape with the intel, with both Kit and Surge taking turns interfering with Metal Sonic's attacks on Sonic. Eggman, Metal Sonic, Orbot, and Cubot are almost killed when the city falls, too. This fiasco, the knowledge Eggman is responsible for Starline's conditioning of Surge and Kit in the first place, and the ensuing showdown in Urban Warfare finally infuriate Sonic enough to break his All-Loving Hero moral compass with Eggman, leaving the doctor to his fate in the exploding Eggperial City as he begged for mercy, and completing Starline's posthumous revenge against his ex-idol.
• No-Respect Guy:
  • NONE of the heroes or villains takes Starline seriously or even consider him a threat. They all see his acts of "villainy" as a annoyance at best or a minor setback at worst. Ironically, it is only following his death that many of them start to acknowledge his capabilities due to the Villainous Legacy he left behind.
  • Discussed and Deconstructed in the "Overpowered" arc, where Sonic, Tails and Eggman are left dealing with all the collateral damage of Starline's scheming in life and are taken aback when they discover the darker machinations he had committed. It is implied none of them were ever oblivious to the fact that Starline could be a very cunning and dangerous villain on a good day, though as Eggman lampshades, he was so thin-skinned and "clingy" that he obsessed over making them and others sing his praise and deem him his superior, which he should have known was never gonna happen.
    Eggman: Dr Starline possessed one of the finest minds I've ever encountered.
    Tails: (...)If you had just told him that while he was alive, none of this would have happened!
    Eggman: I know that! But I would never do such a thing.
• Not Good with Rejection: He does not take Eggman's refusal to listen to him well even before their falling-out, which itself costs him a number of mental health points. Being written off for good after Eggman defeats him sends Starline clear over the Despair Event Horizon.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Zavok mocks Starline after outgambitting his attempted betrayal; noting his sloppy planning, cruel disposal of allies and his detrimental pride. Realising, an amused Zavok adds that perhaps Starline could be a perfect match for Eggman after all.
  • Despite both being on opposite sides of the coin in most other regards, and initially aspiring for one of the two very different personas of Eggman, the doctor wearily dismisses both Belle and Starline due to their personal obsessions with him and ultimately taking his own vices and apathy towards them so personally.
  Eggman: Why are you both so blasted clingy?
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Under his tenure without Eggman, Starline was largely treated as a joke and got outgambitted repeatedly. His penchant for long term plans however meant he still often made many of the steps he wanted despite these humiliations. He continues this even in death, with it taking until the Overpowered arc for both the heroes and Eggman to realise how much damage Starline caused in what were seemingly swift defeats in their favour.
• Number Two: He's become something of an apprentice for Eggman, wanting to learn from him. He ends up losing the position after he refuses to hand over the Warp Topaz.
• One Degree of Separation: Issue #67 reveals that Starline was a frequent customer of Clutch, where he had purchased plenty of robotics and scrapped Eggman technology for his plans, which is how the Opossum also came to know of his creations, Surge and Kit.
• Only Sane Man: He soon becomes this when Eggman shows the depth of his refusal to work out a contingency to the Metal Virus: not only does has he not made a vaccine, he sees no need to; his plan for infection is just avoiding touching the Zombots. When Starline objects and brings up more concerns, Eggman just blows him off as nitpicking his methods.
  Starline: [seething with rage] It's not nitpicking! It's common sense!
  • Over time though, it becomes obvious that he only thinks he's this when he is, in fact, just as flawed as the people he criticizes.
• Out-Gambitted: Twice, in fact: by the Zeti in Issue #25, and by Eggman in Issue #50. In both cases, he plans for every contingency he can think of, but his opponents anticipated his every move in advance.
• Phlebotinum Overload: A risk of using the Warp Topaz irresponsibly, according to him. In his early tests, exposing the stone to any energy source stronger than a light, controlled charge caused extreme reality distortions. He balks at Eggman's idea of hooking it up to the Chaos Emeralds. Starline is proven right when the combined energy of all seven Emeralds causes the Warp Topaz to go critical, blasting itself (and Sonic) to the Sol Dimension once it finally overloads.
• Posthumous Villain Victory: As noted under Villainous Legacy, the collateral damage of all his schemes means Starline posthumously gained the notoriety and respect he longed for despite living and dying a Big Bad Wannabe. In so doing, he also gets the last laugh on Eggman, Surge and Kit during the Overpowered arc, all of them left worse off than they were prior to his defeat; Sonic and Tails themselves are left beaten down and seething over all the livelihoods they failed to rescue from Starline, now seeing him as a dark and unnerving character rather than merely a contemptable nuisance.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Starline prefers to be very thorough with his experiments, conducting enough experimentation on his projects in order to have sufficient data samples to work out from. This directly contrasts him with Eggman, who just hastily implements his plans the instant his experiments show the results he wants. Best displayed when they test the Metal Virus. Starline objects to Eggman deploying the virus after he's conducted the bare minimum of tests on it, not out of any moral grounds, but because he had literally just created the virus and they should run more experiments to be sure there's no unforeseen effects.
  • Subverted later on, as Starline's thoroughness turns out to be one of his biggest flaws: he's so detail-oriented that he fails to see the big picture with his experiments. He puts Surge and Kit through round after round of traumatic testing without bothering to think of the long-term effects on their psyches and loyalty, and his meticulously-plotted coup against Eggman totally fails to account for the possibility that Eggman might react differently against a foe that isn't Sonic. This turns out to be one more reason why he's inadequate to Eggman, as while Eggman's plans tend to blow up at the finish line, Starline's are ultimately doomed from the start.
• Psycho Supporter: Claims to have made his career studying Eggman, and is ecstatic to return the doctor to his former glory. He loses his respect for Eggman over time.
• Psychotic Smirk: His default facial expression, along with the occasional Slasher Smile.
• Red Right Hand: Starline is adamant against Eggman's idea to pair the Chaos Emeralds with the Warp Topaz. Metal Sonic and Eggman eventually steal the glove from his hand, revealing a burned, mangled limb from his frequent usage of the gemstone.
• Sanity Slippage: Not that he was particularly sane to begin with, but Imposter Syndrome #3 shows that Starline really went off the deep end after being fired and thrown out by Eggman. He's largely back to normal by the time of his next chronological appearance, but the rejection is clearly still a sore point for him and continues to influence his plans.
  • Come Issue 50, having all his meticulous planning prove completely useless against Dr. Eggman leaves Starline a broken, raving mess.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • In issue 25, Starline refuses to let Sonic and Eggman use the Warp Topaz to fight the Deadly Six and opens a portal to depart Angel Island, stating he'll find a solution to the Metal Virus outbreak on his own and they can thank him later. Before he can leave, however, Metal Sonic promptly restrains him, allowing Eggman to take the Warp Topaz by force and fire him before throwing him through the portal.
  • In Issue 4 of Bad Guys, after barely escaping the wrath of his former teammates that he had planned to dispose of. He doesn't bother trying combat Zavok despite having the Tricore, just barely staying out of his sight, and more then a little worried to fight Mimic as he headed back to the base's main terminal. The good news is that Mimic decided the partnership had ended and left for his own devices. The bad, he had likewise cut the dummy broadcast that Starline had set up to distract Eggman, meaning Eggman and a squadron of Badniks were headed right for the base they were in. Starline stays long enough to reprogram the Eggman base he needed to be under his control and quickly got of dodge.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: He dies in disgrace immediately after all his plans go bust. As a final insult, Eggman finally gives Starline the praise he longed for upon learning how Surge and Kit came to be.
• Sissy Villain: With his eyeliner, dapper suit, and purple color scheme, he's easily the most effeminate looking man in the comic, and his fondness for Eggman borders on romantic.
  • Word of Gay from Ian Flynn has noted that the fans ultimately drove this interpretation of the character to the fore, as initially his antics were meant to be as flamboyant and compatible with Eggman as possible, without any plans of turning him effeminate.invoked
• Slasher Smile: In Issue 44, he gives a giant, borderline deranged one over all of the data he's acquired from Belle's story and AI, reinforcing that under his smart and crafty exterior is a Mad Scientist who's just as psychotic as Eggman himself.
• Small Name, Big Ego: His biggest flaw and the reason he failed at being a villain. Starline really believes that he is a criminal mastermind who can do no wrong and will outdo all of his enemies, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. His actions and plans verge on Stupid Evil territory sometimes, he can't do anything by himself, and no one respects or fears him. His incredible hubris in thinking that he can usurp Eggman only led to a humiliating defeat and death.
• Smug Snake: Starline is quite smart and crafty, but not as much as he thinks he is, with his short-sighted decisions consistently backfiring and ending with him humiliated or outplayed by his competition. Notably, he constantly underestimates Sonic and Eggman and thinks he can outsmart them both despite the gulf in experience they have compared to himself.
• Snap Back: The moment he enters Eggman's Egg Cave, he immediately slips back to worshipping the doc's work and plans to go back to his original motivation of being Eggman's equal in villainy, effectively hitting the Reset Button on his Character Development.
• The Sociopath: Dr. Starline is utterly lacking in empathy, unable to fully understand the bond between Sonic's friends that helps them succeed—Even his former admiration of Eggman was moreso for the latter's achievements than his person. He has the ambitious goal of taking over the world, and is willing to commit countless atrocities with no remorse in order to achieve it. He uses manipulation and lies to get other villains to work with him (when not using outright mind control), seeing them as nothing but pawns to help him get what he wants. He is phenomenally self-centered, viewing himself as Eggman's superior despite having many of the same flaws. He is quite short-sighted and impulsive as well, unable to learn from his own mistakes despite trying to avoid Eggman's.
• Squashed Flat: After his defeat, the Absurdly Spacious Sewer he and Eggman fought in collapses and crushes him to death.
• Squishy Wizard: He had a comparable intellect, but without the Warp Topaz or the Tricore, he's just a regular being. Unless his baubles are active, he's not very resilient, either, with Eggman (who's not much of a hand-to-hand fighter himself) taking him out in one hit after forcing him to use up all his other tricks.
• Start My Own: After getting fired by Eggman, Starline is seeking to build his own faction to conquer the world.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Starline knew Surge and Kit were unstable, but decides against giving up on them, believing he spent too much time and effort in their creations to start over. This bites him in the ass when they escape his control entirely. Starline ultimately dies before the two can unleash their revenge, however, with the heroes and Eggman taking the brunt of his machinations instead.
• Sycophantic Servant: Downplayed. While Starline hangs on Eggman's every word and reveres him; this is seldom used to show him as pathetic. He's also not above questioning the Doctor's ideas but it's all done respectfully.
• The Unfettered: States that he worked tirelessly to locate Eggman, even forgoing sleep and other distractions in order to fulfill his goal.
• Thinking Up Portals: Appears to be one of the applications of the Warp Topaz, a gemstone he's spent years studying and has affixed to the back of his glove. Naturally, he uses it during his fight with Sonic and Silver. Eggman's confiscation of the Warp Topaz deprives Starline of this ability, forcing him to replace it with the Tricore later on.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When he talks with Orbot, he's told Eggman never really plans ahead and just acts in the moment and on his pettiness when it concerns Sonic. Starline's expression just screams this especially after Eggman disregards anomalies in the Metal Virus and the Zombots start ignoring his orders.
• Token Competent Minion: He and Metal Sonic served as this for Eggman up until Starline's defection from Eggman's side. Starline is responsible for finding Eggman and came within a hair's breadth of killing Sonic and Silver.
• Too Dumb to Live: For all his intelligence, Starline's chronic obsession with Eggman leads to him repeating his one-time idol's mistakes in more or less the same places. Surge and Kit are living proof of how little (if at all) he understood his enemies or the powers he tampered with, resulting in his death when he pushes his luck too far.
• Toothy Bird: Or beaked animal, at any rate. Dr. Starline has a full set of expressive pearly-whites that real adult platypuses don't^note baby platypuses have some teeth, but they lose them when they mature.
• Tricked-Out Gloves: Starline harnesses the power of the Warp Topaz using a glove he wears on his left hand. After having the glove taken from him during the Metal Virus arc, he replaces it with a glove that can hypnotize people. During Bad Guys, he upgrades the glove with the Tricore, an orb which grants him super speed, super strength and flight.
• Underestimating Badassery: One of his main flaws. Starline really overestimates his skills thinking he can take his enemies head on. After his failed attempt to manipulate other villains and kidnap Tails, he took a more subtle approach to his plans, only to fail as soon as he revealed himself again.
  • Played With with his first encounter with Sonic. On the one hand, he fails to predict exactly how fast Sonic is until he warps the hedgehog to the opposite side of a mountain and gets blindsided by him mere moments later, despite having researched on Eggman and thus his past failures (though this is likely a lack of personal experience since he never saw it up close until now). On the other hand, he fully acknowledges Sonic as a powerful threat and that the otherwise brilliant Eggman's failures was just because Sonic was that good. (According to Orbot, he's half-right. The other reason for Eggman's failures is his impulsive nature and irrational hatred of Sonic.)
  • Done again with the Zeti, but he has the Cacophonous Conch, allowing him to keep them under control. Unfortunately for him, the Deadly Six anticipated this maneuver.
  • And done a third time in Imposter Syndrome, as he finds out too late that Surge and Kit have built a resistance to his Hypno Ray.
  • And done a fourth time with Dr. Eggman himself. When he launches his grand scheme to overthrow Dr. Eggman and take control of the latter's empire, Starline doesn't account for the possibility that Eggman would have resources to employ even after the Eggnet and his Badnik horde were hacked...or for the fact that even as he was studying Eggman's tactics and gadgets, Eggman was studying him, and had countermeasures in place for his Tricore and Hypno Ray.
• Unknown Rival: Imposter Syndrome reveals that he holds a degree of jealousy and resentment towards Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic will always be the one at Eggman's side instead of Starline but also that, as Eggman's greatest creation, it's the one Badnik that Starline singles out as needing to surpass to prove himself. Metal Sonic, for his part, doesn't think of Starline as anything other than one of many enemies that Eggman orders him to go after (and prior to that, another cohort to comply with) and Metal's real rivalry will always be with Sonic.
• The Usurper: After Surge and Kit defeat Metal Sonic, he announces to Eggman that he has returned and hijacks the Empire for his own with his virus. It doesn't last long, as Eggman evades capture and summarily comes back with a vengeance.
• Undignified Death: After causing so much harm in his bid to earn Eggman's approval, Starline ends his life a broken man and completely disregarded by the person he admired so much (with exception of making note of Starline's inventions to counter them), realizing that all of his planning and actions were for naught. He never even realized that his creations had planned on betraying him even if he had somehow beaten Eggman.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ironically, while all of Starline's attempts at being a villain and conquering the world failed spectacularly, they unintentionally caused a chain of events that led to much bigger threats than himself being released in the world at large.
  • He restores Eggman's memory and is instrumental in his return to villainy, which leads to Eggman unleashing the Metal Virus after very little testing and plunging the planet into a robotic Zombie Apocalypse. Later, he tries to bring in the Deadly Six to control the Zombots, using the Cacophonous Conch to keep them in line...only for them to swipe the conch the second he lets his guard down and take over the Zombot hordes for their own plans, which of course just makes the situation even worse.
  • Him breaking out Zavok, Mimic, Rough and Tumble allowed four of the most troublesome villains in Sonic's world to run loose again. Zavok subsequently reunites with the other members of the Deadly Six, allowing them to terrorize the world again; much later, Clutch employs Rough, Tumble, and Mimic to harass the Restoration.
  • His whole training regime for Surge and Kit made them dangerously unstable both mentally and emotionally. Accessing his recordings of their creation ultimately made them snap and and go Omnicidal Maniac on him and the rest of the world, becoming a much bigger threat to the heroes than Starline ever was.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • He's adamantly against having Eggman use the Warp Topaz to stop the Deadly Six and Zombot outbreak, let alone hooking it up to the Chaos Emeralds, since hooking it up to too much power could result in a Phlebotinum Overload. Come Issue 29, Starline is proven right when Super Sonic and Super Silver's usage of it to transport the Metal Virus to the sun causes it to go critical, eventually blasting itself and Sonic to the Sol Dimension, which also gives Sonic a brief case of amnesia.
  • While most of the Rogues Gallery loathes and mocks Starline to his face, they frequently acknowledge that his plans were actually rather clever on paper, and don't consider it beneath themselves to adopt his strategies and resources as their own on several occasions. The Zeti are inspired to take over the Zombot army in All or Nothing, Mimic is inspired to pull off his own coup in Bad Guys, and Eggman wants to covet Surge as a weapon during the Overpowered arc.
• Villainous Breakdown: Gradually happens during his fight with Eggman in Issue #50 and fully cemented upon the realization that try as he might, he never stood a chance against his idol and is soundly defeated by him. This breaks him so completely that he doesn't even notice the collapsing building around him.
  Starline: I planned everything out. Down to the smallest detail. I had every advantage. Accounted for every contingency. And I still lost. I did everything right. He destroyed all that effort in minutes. I'm a failure. An utter, disgraceful failure...
• Villainous Legacy: Despite being dead, he still caused irreparable damage over the course of his arc. Most notably, he thoroughly ruined the lives of Belle, Surge, and Kit, orphaning the former and irreversably corrupting the latter two; Belle openly concedes that her father is gone during Starline's final moments, and Surge sadly tells Sonic that she and Kit can never truly be free from Starline's influence due to how he conditioned them. He also posthumously sealed Eggperial City's fate by exposing its existence to the Restoration, and indirectly set up The Last Straw for Sonic's All-Loving Hero scruples around Eggman, thus screwing the doctor over one final time. Adding other one-off dilemmas leftover by Starline like the Warp Topaz returning and almost warping the whole planet to oblivion or Clutch employing Surge and Kit via his business connections with Starline, it seems neither side can quite rid themselves of the platypus' lingering stench.
• Villain Protagonist: Of Bad Guys.
• Villain Respect: He acknowledges Sonic as an incredible foe, calling him the "hero across time and space" and the "only being alive" able to stand up to Eggman. Of course, part of this is because he believed Eggman always lost to him because Sonic was just that good. He's half-right in that regard; while Sonic is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with, Eggman usually loses because he's His Own Worst Enemy.
  • Despite his Eggman's falling-out in Issue #25, Starline still holds his former idol's work in high regard.
• We Can Rule Together: Even after getting fired, Starline believes he and Eggman can rule the world as "equal minds". It proves to be a gross miscalculation on his part.
• We Have Become Complacent: This is actually a recurring factor in why his plans tend to backfire. His initial attempt at taking over Egg Base Sigma goes south because he didn't consider that Eggman would lock him out of the Eggnet after firing the platypus and his only escape plan was to use the Warp Topaz... which he forgot that he lost. And later, his attempt at breaking into Tails's house goes nowhere due to the fox reinforcing his security after the Zombot crisis, a fact that Starline also didn't bother to consider.
  • Once he takes Eggman's throne, he immediately assumes any trick Eggman will try to pull won't work thanks to his hijacking virus, forgetting that Eggman is just as skilled in manually controlling his mechs.
• Weak, but Skilled: His physical abilities are nothing of note, but his tactics and usage of the Warp Topaz led to him nearly killing Sonic twice in their first encounter had Silver not saved him both times. After losing that, he's forced to use his heel spurs as a main offense. And use of his hypno trinket if the opportunity ever presents itself. He later makes a new device called the Tricore powered by speed, flight and power orbs. This gives him their abilities to keep on par with the heroes though he's still rather clumsy in his use of them and likewise has to recharge it. When he has nothing left, Eggman (who isn't exactly a physical fighter himself) is easily able to overpower him.
• Who's Laughing Now?: An odd posthumous case. Following Starline's Undignified Death, pretty much everyone is quite willing to forget his wretched existence. However, the collateral damage of all his scheming, such as Surge and Kit still being rampant (and Surge still being traumatised by Starline) and him hotwiring Eggperial City during his coup, leave Sonic, Tails and Eggman on the defence and forced to team up against his final in-death barrage, all the while discovering the truly dark level of his scientific mind. In life Starline was a No-Respect Guy to both sides; in death, he was the dreaded Greater-Scope Villain he aspired to be.
• Would Hit a Girl: He's rarely seen doing so since he'd rather flee than fight, only going head-to-head with the female cast twice. When Surge and Kit rebel, though, he doesn't hesitate to painfully kick the former in the back with his poison spurs before trying to hypnotize her again.
• Would Hurt a Child: He had no qualms whatosever about doing live-experimentation on Kit—who, for the record, is Just a Kid roughly Tails' age—and even electrocutes the poor fennec when he and Surge finally rebel. Starline no doubt would've done the same to Tails if he'd successfully captured him and Rouge (after brainwashing the latter to attack him).
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • A non-fatal example in Issue #25. Tired of his actions making things worse, Dr. Eggman steals Starline's Warp Topaz and has Metal Sonic chuck him through the portal Starline was going to use to make his escape. A build-up story in an annual heavily implies that Eggman always intended to double cross Starline and leave himself the sole survivor of the Metal Virus, though his attempts to keep him in the dark about his after-plans only ended up causing Starline to believe he was incompetent and botch the whole scheme, and Eggman in turn to take the more upfront approach with this trope.
  • His scheme in the Bad Guys mini-series is to manipulate the other villains into helping him get what he wants, then dispose of them. Naturally, this gets turned on its head when Zavok and Mimic see through him. Once they've gotten him to give them what they want, they turn on him.
  • After rebelling against Starline, Surge and Kit initially spare him and follow his Evil Plan anyhow...albeit only so they can hijack it later on. Had Sonic and Tails not defeated them first, Starline would've been next on his creations' hit-list along with Eggman.

Surge the Tenrec & Kit the Fennec

Surge the Tenrec & Kitsunami "Kit" the Fennec

Surge the Tenrec (Bottom) and Kitsunami "Kit" the Fennec (Top)

After being fired by Eggman and amassing his resources to create his own Empire, Dr. Starline created two enforcers to assist him for his "Operation Remaster" scheme. The two were poised to replace Sonic and Tails by replicating their dynamic and power sets, though with Starline's own touches. While they were associated with Starline up to a point, after he was defeated, the two strike it out own their own before eventually coming under Clutch the Opossum's employ.

See their folders in Clean Sweep Inc.

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