Maria Robotnik/Pre-SGW

Maria Robotnik was the granddaughter of Professor Gerald Robotnik and cousin to Dr. Eggman. Maria had a rare but terminal disease called Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. In order to save her life, Professor Gerald agreed to the President of Station Square's proposal to create immortality and took Maria to the Space Colony ARK. He managed to make a potential cure with the help of Black Doom, but Maria was shot in the back by a soldier when trying to escape the ARK when the project was terminated.

Life on the ARK and Death
Maria suffered from the rare but terminal Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, which Maria's grandfather, Gerald, had hoped to make a cure for the disease through his creation of Shadow the Hedgehog, an immortal life form that would allow man to live forever. Maria befriended Shadow shortly after his creation, and was also friends with Abraham Tower aboard the Ark. (StH: #98, CSE)

Before Project Shadow was completed, Station Square's military decided to use Project: Shadow as a weapon. When Maria spotted a military team's ship that was sent to Space Colony ARK to retrieve both Gerald and Project: Shadow, Gerald ordered Maria to take Shadow to an escape pod and escape with him. Although she got Shadow on board the escape pod, Maria was shot in the back and killed. (StH: #98)

Legacy
Following Shadow's release by Dr. Eggman, the ultimate lifeform operated without knowing his true purpose. Believing his role was to exact revenge against G.U.N. for killing Maria, Shadow acquired a Chaos Emerald from Station Square's bank to help Eggman achieve this objective. It wasn't until over a year later that Shadow discovered a holographic diary of Professor Gerald's which would tell him of his purpose in life. While inside the diary, he met up with a holographic representation of Maria that led him to another hologram of Gerald. Gerald revealed to Shadow that he was to be the protector of all life on Mobius and defend them from the Black Arms when they returned in fifty years. Then the diary began to degrade into nothing and Shadow was forced to leave, but not before saying goodbye to Maria and saying he would hold her in his heart. (StH: #98, #171)

Personality
Maria was a kind, gentle soul, a caring and thoughtful person, always giving support to her friends when they needed it. Though young, she had a strong sense of righteousness, a trait which she passed on to Shadow, who was her best friend before her death. Maria and Shadow care for each other. Maria could have been a sister or mother figure to Shadow. Maria was also shown to be fond of her grandfather, who cared greatly for her, and her death was met with much anger from Professor Gerald.

Background Information

 * When Maria first appeared she was was portrayed with a white dress and brunette hair. Later her hair was changed to blonde and her dress was changed to blue so she resembled her game counterpart more.
 * In StH: #158, Dr. Eggman claimed to Shadow that Maria was his half-sister as opposed to his cousin. This was later explained by writer Ian Flynn as an attempt to simply make the loss seem much more personal to Eggman, thereby winning Shadow's alliance much more effectively. Whether this is a retcon or Eggman simply lying to Shadow remains unknown, but further indications of Eggman lying are that he said he was an infant when Maria died, but he wasn't even born when this happened. It is most likely the latter event since Flynn (who took over as writer of the book two issues later) has been trying to make the comic's continuity closer to that of the games, and would therefore leave Maria as Robotnik's cousin.
 * Maria's last name was confirmed as Robotnik on the Sonic Universe Blog.