Nightmare Fuel / Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)

aka: Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog

This thing was once a Creepy Doll; as if it couldn't get any more terrifying.

• This version of Dr. Eggman was done up quite handily as a source of Nightmare Fuel when he first got started; in his debut, his Robotic Reveal was done by having acid melt off his artificial skin, showing the horrific metallized being underneath the bubbling flesh. Then, once his satellite explodes with him on it, we see him alive and well in his current body, having downloaded his consciousness into it, a trait that allowed for a lot of Family-Unfriendly Violence against him. An unkillable, inexhaustible robotic Mad Scientist with the power to turn you into one of his mindless robotic slaves with a mere pat on the back. Before he replaced Prime!Robotnik, he had successfully crushed the Freedom Fighters on his own planet and was ruling it, unopposed, and merely came to Prime!Mobius as a Self-Imposed Challenge.
• The whole process of roboticization. Here's how it works: First, someone is forced to step into an ominous looking device (with most examples in the comics being forced against their will into it), then when the machine activates they see their whole body turn from flesh to metal (with the process also being far from painless), and finally they feel their free will and ability to think for themselves fade away, with Bernie and Lupes forced transformations highlighting the whole horror of the experience.
• The image cover of Sonic the Hedgehog issue #176 shows an enraged Sonic overlooking the destroyed burning remains of what was Knothole village while holding a ruined flag in his hands with an acorn symbol upon it. Scary, emotional and heartbreaking.
• Issue 3 had everyone think Robotnik got hold of atomic bombs and went over the destruction the weapons could cause. While it turned out he had only gotten insecticide bombs, later on Robotnik did get atomic bombs.
• The original Dr. Robotnik had many of these moments, such as when he gleefully tests a matter-vaporizing weapon on a pleading Overlander. The fact that he is usually a childish Butt-Monkey of a villain makes these moments worse, as it jars you into remembering that beneath the Laughably Evil exterior is the heart of a sociopathic monster who will ultimately do anything it takes to stay in power.
• The launch◊ of the first Death Egg is done in a two-page splash panel◊ that fills the entire length of the pages.
• The Knothole◊ Wipeout◊ in Endgame: Director's Cut. Robotnik apparently vaporizes Knothole Village and everyone in it with the Ultimate Annihilator.
  • Sonic and Robotnik fight to the death as the world is erased◊.
• "Whoops Apocalypse"◊ from issue #51, as Sonic is plunged into a VR world where his friends have all been roboticized and turned on him. Made worse by the fact that originally, the culprit would have been Sally, who had really died during Endgame and was replaced with a robot double of her.
• Bernie's roboticization◊. Her husband Jules grabs her and throws her in, and her pained expressions are horrifying.
• From around issue 100 to 118 Robotnik could roboticize anyone with the slightest touch, making just being in the room with him dangerous. Worse is that unless they accept his touch willingly, fellow humans basically turn into metallic statues, a fate that befell Nate Morgan, Colin Kintobor, and Hope's grandmother Agnes.
  • The way it happened to Colin was particularly nasty. Robotnik reveals that all of the Overlanders are dying of illness caused by the contamination of Robotopolis, and only by being roboticized can they be saved. Colin realizes his brother has damned his entire people and tries to attack him... but trying to punch Robotnik doesn't count as "willingly". And this all happens in front of Hope.
    Robotnik: Shouldn't have done that, brother!
• One Zone Wars story had Sonic accidentally kill an alternate, monstrous version of his father while retrieving half of a Chaos Emerald from him. Zonic the Zone Cop revealed himself to be an alternate Sonic, and reminded him that Jules was technically his father too.
• Lupe's roboticization◊ in Sonic Super Special 11. She partially resists◊ it and buys time for her friends to escape, but stays behind◊ with her roboticized husband and children as her mind fades completely.
• Nack shooting Mina in the back with a gun. The kind that shoots bullets, not lasers.
• The fates of the original Freedom Fighters. They went off to save the king, only for Robotnik to reveal that they've been lured into a trap, which was set up by one of their own, Trey Scales (who claims that treachery is "in his nature", since he's a snake). Scales is promptly thrown into the roboticizer with his former teammates and all of them are roboticized and banished to the Zone of Silence, never to be seen or heard from again. If that weren't enough, it's later revealed by Word of God that they were eventually destroyed by Feist.
  • Perhaps the worst part is just why Trey Scales may have done this. In the Official Encyclopedia, it's noted that Trey always wore the official army cap from his homeland of the defeated Southern Baronies, who had been forcibly reintegrated into the Kingdom of Acorn after seeking independence at some point before Robotnik's campaign of conquest. The same source suggests he might have sold out his partners as a final, petty form of revenge for the defeat of the Baronies, placing his own patriotic pride over the survival of his species.
• Robotnik's 'daughter' Mecha had laser eyes and nearly killed Sonic when she first fought him.
• Eggman's Egg Vineyard, also known as the Egg Grape Chamber. Sounds like a goofy name right? Until you're on the receiving end of it. This invention has three separate phases of torture: mind eraser, toxic infusion, and energy drain. essentially sucking the life from living beings and turning it into energy for Eggman to use.^note The "grape" part of "Egg Grape Chamber" comes from the fact that it consists of bubble-shaped cells held together in large clusters, like a bunch of grapes. He ends up killing almost all of Albion's inhabitants using them. Both Naugus and Charmy suffered varied levels of mental damage from this (The former was reduced to a snarling animal until Geoffery restored him with a Chaos Emerald. The latter's mind regressed to that of a child with no memories of his royal heritage until the Cosmic Retcon).
• In issue #60, the Iron Queen vowed to return after her defeat. When she finally did, she took over New Mobotropolis and Nicole.
  • Even in her first appearance she was creepy, with her face being in constant shadow◊.
• During a mission to prevent ADAM's nanties from taking over Mobius, Bunnie is captured and nearly killed by ADAM attempt to absorb her metal limbs in a horrifying fashion. Sonic and Uncle Chuck managed to save her by using logic and convince ADAM that killing Bunnie would contradict his current goal.
• Antoine's evil alternate universe counterpart Patch making a complete mess of Antoine's life and nearly ruining his relationship with Bunnie, then topping it off by poisoning Antoine's father.
• Having the resident badass Anti-Hero Shadow screaming mutely and twisting in pain was somewhat disturbing.◊
• Mina didn't take the Iron Dominion's invasion of New Mobotropolis well. Particularly Nicole being Brainwashed and Crazy. The nightmare she had a few issues after the Dominion's defeat is proof of that.
• After Robotnik recruits the Dark Legion, a rebellious techno-cult of Echidnas who broke away from the rest of their society over their obsession with cybernetically upgrading themselves, once he has restored their cybernetic components, he squashes any treacherous sentiments they may be holding with one simple sentence: "If you or any of your echidna-buddies cross me, you're all going up like a fireworks festival." Complete with a Slasher Smile and the green lighting, Eggman just proved he can still scare if he wants to.
• The cover of Issue #175 showing a diabolic Dr. Eggman holding up a passed out beaten Sonic in chains and Breaking the Fourth Wall while doing do.
• Issue 200. Eggman's mental breakdown after losing one too many times to Sonic. To elaborate, he screams bloody murder to the heavens like a maniac, rips his mustache apart, tries to punch Sonic and bangs his fists on the ground into a tantrum, shouting gibberish before ultimately curling up into a Troubled Fetal Position. Even Sonic looked horrified and concerned for his archnemesis.
• Dark Enerjak. An evil godlike Alternate Universe Knuckles who threw the world into chaos after Sonic was unable to stop him (yep, you read that right.) Anyone who has the misfortune to lose against Enerjak has his/her "Core" (which is basically their soul) extracted from his/her body by him, which he can use to create evil robotic clones of them called Prelates◊. Just look at his body count◊, which includes Sonic, Eggman, even Shadow.
• The Light Mobius alternate timeline, where Shadow conquers Mobius, and becomes progressively more insane. Again, this is Shadow we're talking about. He is capable of dealing some serious one-sided fights as well. And by the end, he's hit a serious Heel–Face Door-Slam, ending with him trying to destroy the entire world and rebuild it, just like Eggman. The worst part? As Shadow the Hedgehog shows, all it takes is a little Sanity Slippage to make him just like this.
• The end of #225 has Eggman literally gunning down Sally before activating his Genesis Wave.
  • Though Sally was saved from that fate when Sonic reversed the GW effects four issues later, she becomes a Robian again after her Heroic Sacrifice, much to Sonic's horror. Eggman just laughs.
    • Her behavior and actions throughout the Mecha Sally storyline, before the Cosmic Retcon, makes her an entirely different and terrifying person, despite being under Eggman's control the whole time. This would affect her in #256 and #257 following said recton, when she and the rest of the Freedom Fighters obtain memories from their previous life.
• The Order of Ixis taking control of Ixis Naugus in Sonic Universe, making him an even more crazy and more dangerous being in the process.
  • There's also the twisted Slasher Smile given by Geoffrey after Naugus possesses his body.
  • Hell, Naugus' whole origin is Nightmare Fuel; he's not even a normal person, he's three people fused into one abomination.
• The Tails Doll manages to be creepy in its familiar form. Must be the dead eyes and the glowing gem that causes bad things to happen.
  • Not to mention the true form of the Tails Doll/Operation: Deadly Cuddles. HOLY CRAP!!◊
• Issue 256: Thanks to Eggman disrupting Sonic's Chaos Control at the end of the crossover, the entire multiverse collapsed on itself, with Mobius Prime (now left nameless, and only is known simply as Sonic's World) and Blaze's world being the only confirmed survivors. Eggman has committed the single greatest act of mass-murder in the comic's history. And then the world breaks apart.
• Sonic gets a face full of the dark energy that's seeping out of the world's core and, with every stressed-out moment from then on, comes dangerously close to snapping. This version of the Werehog may not be as benign as his game self.
• In #262, Sonic and Rotor start drowning◊ because their air necklaces aren't fully charged, and Sonic starts to turn into the Werehog. The Off-Panel◊ is even worse about this as Sonic is his usual self... and still drowns.
  • It gets worse in the next issue, two pages in Sonic tries to make a final stand via Heroic Resolve, about to turn into the Werehog, but the Dark Guardian throws Rotor at him, halting his transformation. The next panel shows Sonic, wide eyed, trying to keep going, then it cuts to him and Rotor floating limp and unmoving in the water.
• The end of Universe #67 gives us a nasty hallucinatory jump scare involving Relic bugging out.
• Issue #265 shows us what the world looks like through the Werehog's eyes. It isn't pretty.
• Phage. She gets one page◊ at the end of SU# 71 and has already guaranteed a place here.
• While the above mention about explosives during the Pre-SGW era wasn't much better, his method for punishing his subordinates in the Post-SGW era is much more sadistic. In "Eggman's Dozen," Eggman shows his subordinates what he'll do to them if they rebel. He shuts off the Foreman's muscles, rendering him unable to move or talk, but can still hear and see, and locks him in a tiny, lightless box for 50 years. Sonic Universe #86 then has him change his mind, using the Foreman as the test subject for a new roboticizer instead.
  • Maw's ability is to inhale◊ his opponents, devouring them utterly. Where they go is never explained. Even Nephthys, one of his fellow Egg Bosses, is horrified when she sees him use this attack.
• Battle Kukku XV, leader of the Battle Bird Armada, apparently has similar bomb-conjuring powers to Bean the Dynamite. When he shows off what he can do with them in Eggman's Dozen, he horrifies his fellow Egg Boss, Abyss the Squid. The panel of him about to use them, complete with one of the creepiest Slasher Smiles in the comic's history — complete with Scary Shiny Glasses to boot — is just that extra bit of overt creep to help the Fridge Horror sink in.
• Scourge is just plain creepy. Having been nothing but a cheesy 80s punk in a leather jacket back when he was introduced back in 1994, he seriously amped up his game — and his intimidation factor — after the long hiatus between his appearances in 2006. He now has razor-sharp teeth and nasty scars on his torso. Sneaking into Sonic's home, he confesses as openly as the rating allows to having murdered his own father as part of a bid to intimidate Sonic's dad. When Sonic and friends meet Patch, the "Anti-Antoine" likewise reveals that Scourge did something to his eye to cement his new identity, with the only words he says being "the patch used to be for show". By the end of the arc, hopped up on Anarchy Beryl, "Super Scourge" (complete with terrifying black and red eyes) starts raving about how he's going to spindash both his own world and Sonic's world in half, just to prove he can, before going on to world after world, destroying everything in his wake until he finally gets the respect he feels that he deserves.
  Scourge: Sonic's dad isn't really a Mobian anymore. My dad simply isn't.
  • The worst part of it is, even as Scourge, he's still Sonic's Evil Doppelgänger. This is the kind of things that Sonic might do if he ever went off the deep end...
    Scourge: All it takes is just one bad day, and you’d be just like me.
• In Issue #195, Scourge went “super” with the Moebius version of the Chaos Emeralds, “Anarchy Beryl.” And he looks terrifying. Using "Anarchy Beryl" has different side effects from the Chaos Emeralds, however. Sonic figured this out.
• Rotor's father, Tundra, stands out even amongst the ranks of the comic's world-conquerors and mass-murderers for just how banal his evil is. He abused and tormented Rotor all his young life for wanting to live a peaceful life as an inventor, rather than a brutal barbarian like the rest of "the Herd". When Robotnik took over, rather than fight, he chose to serve Robotnik willingly and justified this as being in accordance with his Might Makes Right principles. After he was de-roboticized, he ended up voluntarily joining Eggman's forces a second time for the same reason, letting himself be Legionized in order to serve as the Egg Boss of the Artika region. And he doesn't regret what he's done at all.
  • Perhaps the worst part is that he's a Super Genesis Wave retcon character; in the original canon, Rotor's father was the loving Sherman Walrus, who heroically sacrificed his life fighting against Robotnik. So even without meaning to, Eggman's meddling with reality has hurt people.
• Eggman's above-mentioned new roboticizer after the reboot, while never seen, is Nightmare Fuel galore in retrospect. Two years after the series was cancelled, Ian Flynn revealed this "roboticizer" was in fact the Metal Virus, the subject of Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW)'s Zombie Apocalypse story arc. Thought the old roboticizer or Legionization were bad? How about being slowly and painfully turned into a butt-ugly robo-zombie at the molecular level?
  • For an idea of what the Metal Virus could have wrought in the old comic, check out this scene from the new one. Yeah, the Shattered World Crisis was nothing compared to what awaited the Freedom Fighters and the world past Issue #300.
• In 2022 on YouTube, The Adrenaline Dubs channel began voicing the Archie comics, starting with the Countdown to Chaos arc in #252, following the Worlds Collide Crossover and the entire pre-reboot storyline. The brief sequences with each Freedom Fighter obtaining memories of their previous live before the Cosmic Retcon is unsettling by themselves. However, there are two very special cases the AD staff have done to make this especially dark:
  • Bunnie's scene in #255 was expanded, hinting her first moments as a half-robian. Words like "Robotic Freakshow" and "YOU WILL NEVER BE NORMAL" flash in the black screen to emphasize her psychological struggle, added with an unsettling tune and herself crying. That's not including the time in the old universe when she saw Antoine almost killed from an explosion by Metal Sonic. Her optimistic attitude vanished quickly, but at lease she has Antoine to comfort her.
  • And then there's Sally. Man oh man, Sally! The #256 dub has the staff take this up to eleven by adding in an original, nightmarish scene the moment Sally and Amy get their pre-reboot memories.
    • First, Sonic is heard calling Eggman a monster and Eggman himself laughing maniacally. Then, these words are slowly displayed above Mecha Sally's Face Framed in Shadow:
    Destroy. The. Freedom Fighters.
    • Then, there's Sally's fearful plea heard in the darkness.
      Sally: Please... Please stop...
    • Then... Jump Scare! with Mecha Sally's dialog and images of her, and what sounds like the real Sally screaming distorted bloody murder (with her face flashed in absolute horror), along with Sonic's panicked shouts.
    • And finally returns to the comic panels where Sally is processing her old life. Special props to the voice actress "Nudi" for portraying Sally as, at that moment, completely broken. It's truly a horrifying And I Must Scream scene that reminds old readers what the old universe Sally had been through in weeks, helpless in her formerly-roboticized shell that was weaponized and reprogrammed by Eggman, and what the new universe Sally had just experienced in a span of mere seconds.
• The AD drama of "Damage Control", the issue following "Countdown to Chaos", has an extended 'scene' of sorts. Whereas Sonic only has a concerned look on his face from Tails' remark, that the hedgehog may be the only one left to remember everything from the old universe, while everyone else loses theirs after they were just restored, the video shows brief scenes from the older comics playing in his head (from "Endgame" all the way to the Mecha Sally storyline before the second Genesis Wave hit). Think about that for a second: Sonic may be the only person left in the Freedom Fighters, in existence besides Eggman, to remember EVERYTHING from the world formerly known as Mobius, and he won't know if they succeeded in deroboticizong Sally, if they have a way to dethrone "King" Naugus, if Nicole was brought back from exile to New Mobotropolis (from their perspective), what became of Antoine and Bunnie, if they'll ever defeat that universe's Eggman for good, or even what happens after! He will have to live with those memories until he dies, or until they fade as well; whichever comes first. Even a way past cool hero like himself can only handle so much.