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Knuckles the Echidna has a TV show. I still cannot believe this is a thing I can say. A comic book? Sure! A video game? Of course, he’s a game character! But an entire big budget TV series, debuting during his 30th anniversary, is far beyond anything I would have imagined possible. Yet here we are, mere days away from this show’s debut, and we at Sonic Stadium think that’s worth celebrating. So we’ve gone ahead decided to devote an entire week to Knuckles! For the next week, we’ll be celebrating the character, his legacy, and his hot new TV show. We’re going to start things right with a little retrospective of the last 30 years of Knuckles! Retrospective Guardian of the Master Emerald and Angel Island. Treasure hunter. Last of the echidna. Enemy, rival, and eventual friend of Sonic. Tough, resilient, and famously gullible to Dr. Eggman’s tricks. Knuckles is a character with a pretty neat legacy. Once one of the most popular Sonic characters, Knuckles has remained a core part of the franchise even 30 years after his debut, and is now enjoying something of a renaissance. Let’s take a look at how we got here! Part 1: Genesis When Knuckles was being designed back in 1993, Sonic’s established game cast was still quite small. Tails had only just been established as Sonic’s sidekick in Sonic 2, and the likes of Amy, Mighty and Ray were still on the horizon. Knuckles’ designer, Takashi Yuda, initially conceived him as “a partner or teammate for Sonic,” and an additional playable character for Sonic 3. At some point during development, Sonic Team settled on him being Sonic’s rival, a first for the franchise. Like many early Sonic characters, Knuckles would go through many designs from many different artists within SEGA. According to SEGA Technical Institute Director Roger Hector, dozens upon dozens of characters were designed, “some based on animals, or collections of animal parts. Some were completely made up and didn't resemble anything you've ever seen.” Eight of these character designs would eventually become candidates for Knuckles’ final design. The only known concept art from Knuckles' design process. Sonic Team would rely heavily on market research of American children to choose the final design. The design with the dreadlocks won out, thanks to its popularity with American middle school and high school students. This design was initially more “reptilian,” like a dinosaur, and according to Naka “he almost stood out too much even.” Knuckles’ dinosaur origins stemmed from the popularity of Jurassic Park, which came out during Sonic 3’s development. Knuckles’ long tail (among the many features he has that real-life echidnas lack) is a remnant of his more reptilian origins. US market research would even determine Knuckles’ iconic red color scheme. Naka wanted a purple color scheme, while other development staff wanted green or red. Red eventually won out thanks to its popularity with American children. We don't have concept art for Knuckles' more reptilian design or alternate colors, so here's images of the Sonic Manga's Anton Veruca, and Archie Sonic's Thunderhawk (scaly purple Knuckles) and Green Knuckles. Thus, by April of 1993, Knuckles’ design was basically finalized: The earliest known design and profile of Knuckles, nearly finalized. Knuckles would finally make his debut with the US release of Sonic 3 on February 2, 1994. The game was famously cut in half to ensure that SEGA could meet its marketing obligations to McDonalds, which had the effect of staggering Knuckles’ debut as a character across 10 months and two games. In Sonic 3, Knuckles made his debut as an antagonist, tricked by Dr. Robotnik into thinking Sonic threatened the island and the emerald he guards. He introduces himself to the player by punching Sonic out of his typically invincible superform at the start of the game, before going on to bully him and Tails with tricks and traps throughout the adventure. Needless to say, Knuckles made a heck of a first impression on players at the time. Knuckles’ introduction and story would be completed months later on October 18, 1994, with the release of Sonic & Knuckles. Here, everything came to a head as Sonic and Knuckles finally fought, Robotnik betrayed Knuckles and stole the newly introduced Master Emerald, and Sonic and Knuckles became allies. More importantly, Knuckles also finally became playable. Knuckles introduced a relatively expansive moveset to Sonic’s gameplay. Knuckles’ ability to climb and glide allowed him to get around Sonic 3 & Knuckles’ zones in a unique way, encouraging exploration of the large levels. Some areas were even built exclusively for Knuckles’ moves, and were only playable in his story, which acted as an epilogue to Sonic & Tails’ Sonic 3 & Knuckles campaign. These games would see Knuckles quickly become the most popular Sonic character. (Concept art and box art sourced from Sonic Wiki. Information regarding Knuckles' creation was taken from interviews linked in this section.) Part 2: The Golden Age In an interview conducted by SEGA Saturn Magazine just a year after Sonic 3’s release, in February of 1995, Yuji Naka confirmed that Knuckles had become the most popular Sonic character, adding “he’s cool but has a bit more of a ‘bad boy’ image to him compared to Sonic.” Knuckles quickly became a common sight in Sonic games and media. Knuckles would return as an antagonist (again tricked by Dr. Robotnik) in Sonic Triple Trouble just a month after Sonic & Knuckles’ release, in November of 1994. Just five months later, in April of 1995, Knuckles would get his very own game: Knuckles’ Chaotix. Released exclusively for the 32X, SEGA’s ill-fated hardware add-on for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, it served as the closest thing it ever got to a Sonic game. Knuckles’ Chaotix is also sort of notable for a variety of milestones in the Sonic franchise: it was its first 32-bit console game, its first game to feature polygons, and its first game to really incorporate cooperative play as a genuine gameplay mechanic. Perhaps most notably, it was the first Sonic character spin-off game built from the ground up, and also gave Knuckles a supporting cast in the form of the Chaotix. Unfortunately, future games wouldn't keep the Chaotix as part of Knuckles' own group of friends, though the comics did run with the idea. Knuckles’ Chaotix was built around a bungee system: two characters must work together using the bungee linking them to build momentum and make their way through the game’s vertical-oriented levels. Chaotix would receive decent ratings in its day, though these days is mostly seen as divisive at best. While the game is built around classic Sonic mechanics, it is nevertheless very much an oddball amongst 2D Sonic games. Knuckles would also become far more prominent in Sonic’s comic books. Knuckles debuted in the UK-exclusive Fleetway Sonic the Comic series in its June 1994 Sonic Summer Special issue. Knuckles started getting his own strip in November 1994, in the issue 39 story “Carnival Night Chaos.” Knuckles would soon become one of its mainstay strips. On May 29, 1996, Fleetway would publish its only Sonic character spin-off book: the Knuckles Knock-Out Special 48-page one-shot. The cover for Sonic the Comic's Knuckles Knock-Out Special Pages from Knuckles' first Sonic the Comic strip. Knuckles would see even bigger things in the US’s Archie Sonic book. This version of Knuckles would also debut in June of 1994 in issue 13, which acted as the comic’s Sonic 3 adaptation. The comic was co-written by Mike Kanterovich and Ken Penders, beginning the latter person’s decades-long association with the character. Beginning with Archie’s Sonic & Knuckles 48-page special, released in May of 1995, Ken Penders began writing his first solo stories for the character, “Fire Drill,” and “Lord of the Floating Island.” After Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles began to appear far more often in the comic, featuring prominently in every Sonic Special released afterwards. The Knuckles Chaotix adaptation, released in October of 1995, would set off a storyline that would see Knuckles appear regularly in Sonic’s monthly comic via back-up stories, which began to set-up the comic’s echidna lore, and culminated in a three-issue Knuckles mini series, released from April 1996 to June 1996. The cover for the first issue of Archie Sonic's Knuckles mini series The first three pages from Archie's Knuckles the Echidna #8 Clearly, this mini series did well, and Archie itself saw Knuckles as a popular character, because this mini series was only the start for Knuckles-centric Archie comics. The following year, in February of 1997, Archie launched what was to be a second Knuckles mini-series, “Knuckles: The Dark Legion.” But the comic did well enough that Archie instead decided to expand it into a monthly series. This monthly series would last for years, ending in November 1999 with issue 32. These days, the Knuckles comic is known for being a bit weird, even by Archie Sonic standards. I wrote a bit about the comic a few years ago, which you can find here. Despite its cancellation, the story from the Knuckles comic would continue in the pages of Archie’s monthly Sonic book for years, culminating in his death, rebirth, and loss of powers in Archie Sonic’s 125th milestone issue (because Archie Sonic can be weird). After this, Sonic’s space adventure and a one-year timeskip, Knuckles and the Chaotix would be moved to Knothole and integrated into the comic’s main cast. Just as Knuckles made the leap into comics, he also took his first steps into animation. Sonic the Hedgehog - The Movie (1999) OVA (Full and 1080p HD) 2.mov Knuckles teams up with Sonic and Tails after saving them from Metal Robotnik at the end of the first part of the Sonic OVA Knuckles made his animated debut in the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA, made by Pierrot and released in two parts on January 26 and March 22 of 1996. The OVA was the first piece of media to really lean on Knuckles’ treasure hunting side, using that as his main occupation as opposed to being the Master Emerald’s guardian. It also introduced Knuckles’ cowboy hat, an accessory that has since found its way into everything from the Archie comics, to Sonic Forces Mobile, to even the upcoming Knuckles TV series. Knuckles would make his American animation debut in DiC’s final Sonic cartoon, Sonic Underground. Underground ran in syndication from August 30 to October 22 of 1999, and Knuckles would make four appearances across 40 episodes. This Knuckles does live on a floating island, and does protect a chaos emerald, and is even tricked into fighting Sonic in his first appearance. But this is where the similarities end, because this iteration of Knuckles also got a dinosaur pet named Chomps, and is notable for having one of his Archie Sonic relatives, Great Grandfather Athair. Knuckles would appear again in a three-part story arc, “Chaos Emerald Crisis,” which would see Knuckles working with the Sonic Underground to get a chaos emerald away from Dr. Robotnik and prevent the destruction of Mobius. He was voiced by Brian Drummond, who would eventually return to Sonic in Sonic Prime as Dr. Eggman. Knuckles and Chomps, from the episode Friend or Foe? A bunch of screenshots from Friend of Foe, Knuckles' debut episode, aside from the last one. That's Athair, from the episode No Hedgehog is and Island. In many ways, this period was a golden age for Knuckles as a character, and it would culminate in 1998 and 1999 with Sonic Adventure. Here, Knuckles would make the transition to 3D alongside the rest of the core Sonic cast. Knuckles could now freely glide around in 3D, climb on just about anything, punch enemies, and (after obtaining the shovel claws upgrade) dig for hidden items in the dirt. His versatile movement options and lack of a homing attack meant he couldn’t have Sonic’s gameplay, so Sonic Team instead made use of his other occupation as a treasure hunter. Since Knuckles’ moveset was a natural fit for exploration, his gameplay centered around exploring large 3D areas and hunting for Master Emerald shards. Sonic Adventure debuted a new look for Knuckles Knuckles could now climb, glide, dig, and punch in 3D While Sonic gets top billing, in many ways Sonic Adventure is more Knuckles’ story than anyone else’s. The history of the echidnas and the Master Emerald played a central role in the game’s plot, driving events throughout the game. Knuckles' ancestors, Chief Pachacamac and his daughter Tikal, were introduced. We got to see the Knuckles clan's ancient, Mayan-inspired culture for the first time, and how that culture ultimately met its end in the jaws of Perfect Chaos. We got our first look at echidna history and culture. After Sonic Adventure, Knuckles’ position in the Sonic franchise would begin to change. Increasingly, he would become just another one of Sonic’s friends, as the role of rival and the franchise’s overall focus would begin shifting to a certain black hedgehog. Angel Island would not even feature in the next Sonic game, despite Knuckles still gathering Master Emerald shards. Things were about to change for the red echidna. Part 3: The Streamlining Age With the release of Sonic Adventure 2 in June 2001, it quickly became apparent that Sonic’s dark, edgey rival Shadow was the new hotness in the Sonic series. Even so, Knuckles still got his share of attention in that game: he got his own treasure hunting rival in Rouge the Bat. He even got some cool new abilities, like the Drill Claw, a move that sent him diving straight down and drilling into the dirt. Knuckles would make his return to 2D in Sonic Advance, released in December 2001 in Japan and February/March 2002 in the US and Europe. This game would also feature a new level set on Angel Island, and introduce a new robot Knuckles, Mecha Knuckles. Sonic X, which debuted in Japan in April of 2003, would become the first Sonic cartoon to feature Knuckles as a core cast member. Knuckles would even get his own solo episode, where he worked with the human Hawke to find a chaos emerald. Sonic X, being an adaptation of the Adventure era games, would also be the first show to feature a game-accurate Angel Island. Angel Island Zone, Mecha Knuckles, Knuckles and Hawke, and Sonic X's Angel Island But it was also around now that things began to change. With the release of Sonic Heroes, a new status quo for Knuckles took root in Sonic's big console games. The game would forgo any mention of the Master Emerald or Angel Island, instead depicting Knuckles as just another one of Sonic’s friends, adventuring with him and Tails for no reason in particular beyond stopping Dr. Eggman. This streamlining of Knuckles’ lore would come to define this era of his character. Heroes also introduced a new three-character team system, with Knuckles taking the role of the power character in Team Sonic. As a result, his traversal moves were mostly removed in favor of combat moves, since Heroes also introduced the Sonic franchise’s first combat system. This made him equivalent to characters like Big and Omega instead of Rouge. His climbing move was completely removed, while his glide was turned into the “triangle dive,” which was more of a slow fall than a glide, though it did allow the team to float on air currents. Switching to Knuckles would put the characters in a horizontal formation, and allow him to punch with and throw Sonic and Tails, and do the triangle dive to float on currents. (Screenshots from Sonic Wiki) Knuckles would continue to appear in Sonic’s GBA entries. 2003’s Sonic Advance 2 gave him increased speed along with the other characters, while Sonic Advance 3 let him team up with characters outside of the Chaotix for the first time. Though unlike Chaotix, partner characters could affect the primary character’s moves. This means Knuckles could alter other character’s movesets and vice versa. Both games would visit Angel Island, with Sonic Advance 3 even giving the first 2D depiction of the modern Master Emerald shrine during its final boss. Released in June 2004, Sonic Advance 3 would be the last time Knuckles would be playable in a 2D Sonic platformer for over a decade. The Master Emerald shrine in Sonic Advance 3. (from Sonic Wiki) The Holy Summit location and Arenas from Sonic Battle. (Images from Sonic Wiki) For the next few years, Knuckles would appear in spin-off games either to hang out with Sonic and friends, or get the Master Emerald back. In Sonic Battle, which was released around the same time as Sonic Heroes, Knuckles guarded the Master Emerald in a place called “The Holy Summit.” His story focused on him wanting to train the battle robot Emerl, Sonic Battle’s main character, while also gathering some emerald shards. In the end, Knuckles is tricked by Dr. Eggman, who lures him into a trap that Emerl needs to rescue him from. Because some things just never change. Shadow and Knuckles teaming up in Glyphic Canyon (Image from Sonic Wiki) In Shadow the Hedgehog, released in November 2005, Knuckles would get a small role as a partner character for Shadow in a few levels, where he would fight the Black Arms and assist Shadow in that level’s hero mission. Sonic Riders, which came out a few months later in February 2006, would give Knuckles some extreme gear, a new look, and another rival in Storm the Albatross of the Babylon Rogues. Later that year, in November, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 would release, and it would mark Knuckles’ last playable appearance in a mainline Sonic title for over a decade. And unfortunately, he’d go out in a bit of a whimper. Knuckles would again appear as just one of Sonic’s friends to help him and Tails on an adventure. He’d appear in a few levels as an amigo character and gain a new move called the “screwdriver” where he’d spin through the air to attack enemies. Unfortunately, this iteration of Knuckles is notoriously glitchy, and one of his key moves, climbing, is basically broken. Attempting to climb in Sonic 2006 would often result in Knuckles sticking to the wall, making it difficult to get around his areas. Knuckles punching, gliding, and doing a screwdriver in Aquatic Base. (Images from Sonic Wiki) Knuckles would get a few more playable appearances in some spin-offs after this, including story modes in the 2.5D platform racers Sonic Rivals 1 and 2, which were released in November 2006 and November 2007. He would spend both of those games trying to get the Master Emerald back. In March 2009, Knuckles would appear as “Gawain” in Sonic and the Black Knight, where he’d lose a duel to Sonic and attempt to off himself. Knuckles would continue to regularly appear in most mainline Sonic games as an NPC. Sir Gawain battling Sonic in Sonic & the Black Knight (Image from Sonic Wiki) Oddly enough, Knuckles would be dealt a very different fate in spin-off media. In the Archie comics, Knuckles would make regular appearances, with him and his family being a major focus in Ken Penders’ Mobius 25 Years Later stories. While Shadow’s presence in the book would expand significantly, Knuckles still got a four issue story arc dealing specifically with him and his home, “Return to Angel Island,” a definite highlight from that era of the book. The story would see Knuckles return to his home after a year away in order to protect the Master Emerald. It concludes with him getting his powers back and having a falling out with his dad as he decides to leave the island to continue the fight against Dr. Eggman from Knothole. After Ian Flynn took over, Knuckles would get more solo stories and story arcs. He would briefly turn into the chaos-powered villain Enerjak, which would lead to the death of his father and cause him to return to Angel Island. He’d get another story arc in Sonic Universe which dealt with that arc’s aftermath. In the midst of all of this, Knuckles would get one more game that really dealt with its lore, a turn-based RPG for the DS from the US RPG developer Bioware: Sonic Chronicles The Dark Brotherhood. It would notably take inspiration from the Archie Sonic comic continuity...and unfortunately lead to its demise. The cover and some pages from Return to Angel Island Part 2. Featuring writing by Karl Bollers and art by Jon Gray. Sonic Chronicles would not only feature Angel Island heavily in the plot and as a location, it'd also significantly expand on echidna lore. A rival faction to the Knuckles clan, the Nocturnus Clan, were introduced. It's revealed that they had waged a war against the Knuckles clan and were winning, which spurred Pachacamac to attempt to take the power of the chaos emeralds, leading to the events of Sonic Adventure. The game also introduced new echidna characters, including villain-turned-ally Shade, and the power-hungry ruler of the Nocturnus, Imperator Ix. The technologically advanced Nocturnus seemed to draw heavy inspiration from Archie Sonic's technophile Dark Legion echidna faction. They were trapped in the Twilight Cage a pocket dimension analogous to Archie Sonic's Twilight Zone, which served as the Legion's prison. And Shade herself was a female Nocturnus who would eventually turn on her own people. In broad strokes the similarities were definitely there, though in the details they were quite different. A map and some scenes featuring Angel Island. (From Sonic Wiki) Some images of Knuckles, Nocturnus enemies, Shade, and Imperator Ix from Sonic Chronicles. (From Sonic Wiki) Nevertheless, these similarities were enough for longtime Archie Knuckles writer Ken Penders to launch a lawsuit against Archie and SEGA. This was in spite of him admitting years earlier that SEGA owned everything (and he even hoped they might use his work one day), something I distinctly remembered when he launched it. The exact details of the lawsuit and its results are complicated, muddy, and shrouded in secrecy. But one thing is clear: it immediately led to the erasure of all Archie Knuckles lore from the comic's continuity in a hard reboot. One of the final story arcs of pre-reboot Archie was meant to again deal with the comic’s Knuckles lore, though unfortunately the results of the Ken Penders lawsuit would force the comic arc to change its direction after the first issue, sending all of the Knuckles comic cast to the Twilight Cage dimension off-panel. Post-reboot Knuckles would get a couple more Sonic Universe stories, as well as a a couple new friends: Relic the Pika and her robot Fixit. Since Knuckles no longer had his large supporting cast to fall back on, these two characters could watch the Master Emerald while Knuckles went off to do other things. Unfortunately, Archie Sonic’s cancellation at the start of 2017 would cut this iteration of the character’s story short. The spin-off brand Sonic Boom, which launched in 2014, would basically completely rewrite and redesign Knuckles as a character, amplifying certain qualities while erasing others. He was made larger and dumber, and stuff like the Master Emerald and Angel Island were nowhere to be found. Knuckles’ new look and personality in Sonic Boom was...divisive to say the least, but for fans of the cartoon he was also the source of some of the best humor and many of its most popular memes. In Sonic Boom’s games, Knuckles mostly had the same abilities as the rest of the cast, though he could burrow and climb in Rise of Lyric, and borrow and punch in Shattered Crystal and Fire and Ice. I could post a bunch of images showing Boom Knuckles. But I think this video is all I really need to include. 2017 would see the return of Classic Knuckles, the Master Emerald and Angel Island in Sonic Mania. Sonic Forces, released in November of that year, would continue to move in the opposite direction, making Knuckles the leader of an anti-Eggman resistance. Here, he'd sometimes talk about how war is bad: On the whole, this era of Knuckles represents a significant change in the character’s place in the franchise. With the cast expanding and the games going elsewhere, including Knuckles and all his elements became increasingly unfeasible. Unfortunately, Sonic Team’s method of streamlining him to make him easier to include involved simply ignoring important aspects of his character, rather than writing developments that would allow Knuckles to leave Angel Island whenever he wanted to. But things for the character would soon be set to change again, as he made his debut on the silver screen. Part 4: Renaissance Knuckles would return to comics in April 2018 as IDW’s Sonic comic launched, picking up where Sonic Forces left off. The comic’s first story arc soon brought the action to Angel Island, where Neo Metal Sonic had used Knuckles’ absence to take over Angel Island and the Master Emerald. After Neo Metal’s defeat, Knuckles resumed his position as guardian of the Master Emerald, finally bringing both of these elements back into the game canon. Several years later, in April 2022, Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hit theaters, and Knuckles made his theatrical debut. Voiced by Idris Elba, this version of Knuckles was humorless and lacked an understanding of idioms, which genuinely made him one of the best aspects of the movie. Much like his game counterpart, Knuckles is the last of his kind and is tricked by Dr. Robotnik into fighting Sonic. Unlike him, however, he has no Angel Island, and he’s hunting for the Master Emerald, not protecting it. Knuckles and Sonic would eventually bond over their mutual history of loss of parental figures (because this Knuckles also has a dad), and team up to take down Dr. Robotnik. For more about the movie, you can check out our review here, but suffice to say Sonic 2 was a box office hit, and it brought Knuckles back into the public eye in a way the character hadn’t been in decades. And this would also be reflected in the games, where Knuckles would see a massive resurgence , especially as playable character. Later that year, Sonic Frontiers gave Knuckles his first character development in...well, decades. Each of Sonic's core friends had experiences in the game that encouraged them to make a change in their lives, and for Knuckles it meant leaving his island and seeing in the world. While...technically he'd done that for awhile already, this at least seems to set up Knuckles actually developing into a character who was ready to leave his island and see the world, rather than just doing it so that he could be in more games. With Ian Flynn at the helm writing the game's dialogue, Knuckles actually got a decent little story in Frontiers. Knuckles even got to be a big part of the game's marketing, featuring in a cool little animated short created by Powerhouse Animation that is all about how he found himself on Frontiers' Starfall Islands: In September of 2023, nearly two decades after his last 3D game appearance, Knuckles would debut as a playable character in not one, not two, but three games. Knuckles became playable in Sonic Frontiers via the game’s Final Horizon DLC, marking his first time playable in 3D since Sonic 2006. A month later, Classic Knuckles was amongst the playable characters in Sonic Superstars. Then finally, in December, Knuckles appeared in yet another 3D platforming adventure, Sonic Dream Team, this time as part of the core content. An extended look at Knuckles' Frontiers gameplay. With these games, it’s clear that SEGA’s approach to Knuckles’ gameplay style has changed, especially in 3D. As opposed to his 2000s playstyle, 3D Knuckles now plays much closer to Sonic. He can do a homing attack, even during a glide, and he can boost. He even got his spindash back in Final Horizons, alongside some (admittedly disappointing) punching combat moves. Making Knuckles play more like Sonic means Knuckles no longer needs to be limited to more exploration-centric gameplay styles in 3D, and can be played in the same kind of platforming challenges as Sonic. This was one aspect about Sonic Dream Team that I really appreciated in my review, because it allows a game to focus purely on Sonic’s gameplay style. Unfortunately, in other ways, modern Knuckles has been nerfed. The character can now only climb on specific surfaces in Final Horizons and Dream Team, significantly limiting the useful of the ability. Gliding has also been given a significant downgrade, one that feels like an overcorrection of how overpowered it used to be. In all three games, Knuckles basically starts dropping like a rock after a few seconds, making it far less useful than it should be. In Final Horizons, its turning radius was also awful upon release, though they did correct this later in a patch. Classic Knuckles also got to come back this year, getting his first proper in-game 3D model along the way. As stated before, his glide does lack oomph, though aside from that he plays like one would expect Classic Knuckles to. If you pick him at the start of the game, there's even a fun little cutscene that depicts him leaving the Master Emerald to figure out what Dr. Eggman is up to. Finally, game Knuckles also made a return to TV in the Netflix cartoon Sonic Prime. At least...sort of. Regular Knuckles would make a few appearances throughout the show, while the bulk of the screentime would be given to his Shatterverse counterparts. The most prominent (and probably the most fun) is Knuckles the Dread, an on-again-off-again side villain who takes Knuckles treasure hunting hobby to an...unhealthy extreme. He's also the only iteration of Knuckles in the show to get any sort of character development. Him sort-of sharing a name with our website's founder is a fun little bonus for him. As of this writing, we are now days away from the next big Knuckles milestone: his very own TV limited series. Along with Sonic Prime, it’ll be the second TV show Knuckles has been in in as many years. Going by early reviews, it sounds like it’s at least as good as the movies that spawned. But with Shadow again set to take the spotlight in Sonic 3, and be the main new feature of this year’s Sonic game, Sonic X Shadow Generations, I can’t help but wonder if the good times for the rad red are nearing their end. Only time will tell on that, but for the moment I’m just happy to be seeing Knuckles in the spotlight again. At the moment, Knuckles is getting at least one more thing: a comic thing from IDW. It could be a one-shot, or a mini series, but either way, it’ll be the first comic Knuckles has had to himself since the Archie Sonic days. Which, for a character with such a robust comic book legacy, feels like a good place to leave things on.