Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik


 * You may be looking for the article on Dr. Ivo Robotnik (from Sonic the Hedgehog issues 0 - 50)

Dr. Eggman (aka Dr. Robotnik, Robo-Robotnik or Robotnik Mach II) is a version of Dr. Ivo Robotnik from another zone. He first came face to face with Sonic the Hedgehog of the Mobius Prime reality when he was attempting to assemble the Giant Borg battle machine. After his body was destroyed in this encounter, Robo-Robotnik's consciouness was transported back to his zone on board a vacant space station. He managed to rebuild himself using a piece of the Giant Borg, after stealing its location from his Mobius Prime counterpart's memory. After defeating the Freedom Fighters in his zone, Robo-Robotnik discovered Dr. Ivo Robotnik had died in the Mobius Prime dimension. He decided to travel back to the Mobius Prime reality to "fill the void" in both his and Sonic's life, effectively filling the despot dictator's role after his death. Since then, Robo-Robotnik was deroboticized by the Bem, becoming Dr. Eggman, and acting as the primary antagonist in the Mobius Prime reality.

Origin
Early in 3235, a Robotnik counterpart from an alternate reality appeared on Mobius Prime, calling himself "Robo-Robotnik." In his native zone, this Robotnik had succeeded in crushing the Freedom Fighters along with the royal family, essentially conquering Mobius. However, rather than kill Sonic and his cohorts once he captured them, Robotnik transformed each into cyborgs with half robotic/half biological faces. This proved a mistake when the cyborg Freedom Fighters retained their sentience and rampaged through Robotropolis. In a last-ditch effort to save himself, Robotnik turned his own Roboticizer on himself, becoming Robo-Robotnik. This new Robotnik was apparently so dangerous that the Cyborg Sonic fled his native zone to seek help from Sonic Prime, especially now that Robo-Robotnik was seeking out the Giant Borg machine; a device which could threaten every Mobius in the multiverse. (StH: #19)

Coming to Mobius Prime
With the help of Evil Sonic, Robo-Robotnik succeeded in discovering the Giant Borg's location. He piloted the Borg by himself, wreaking havoc until he was struck down by thousands of alternate dimensions' versions of Sonic, each arriving from their own zone to pummel the Borg to pieces. The scattering of the Giant Borg seemingly destroyed him, leaving him nothing more than a severed robot head. Unbeknownst to anyone, he survived by transferring his digital mind to a derelict space station, where he remained in stasis. (StH: #19)

A short while later, the Dr. Ivo Robotnik of Mobius Prime was seemingly vaporized by E.V.E., a machine that was designed to kill Sonic, but ended up turning on Robotnik instead. Rather than dying, Robotnik was actually sent to Robo-Robotnik's zone, where he met his robot counterpart onboard the space station. Robo-Robotnik appeared on a monitor and explained that the space station was still incomplete, keeping him mired in space until his/its systems run down. In response, Robotnik Prime convinced him that even if they failed in this zone, by sending him back to his own zone, they both still stood a chance. (StH: #21, #22)

This meeting inspired Robo-Robotnik, and while he assisted Robotnik Prime in returning home, he stole his memory regarding the location of the Giant Borg's piece hidden in his own zone. He used this piece to construct an artificial body for himself, and proceeded to bombard the planet with nuclear weapons, wiping out the Royal Family and the Freedom Fighters. (StH: #22)

With all of his enemies killed in his zone, Robo-Robotnik found himself with nothing to do. He soon learned of Robotnik Prime demise, and decided to take advantage of the death of his "other self" by ruling Mobius Prime in his stead. After conspiring from the shadows for several months onboard a group of satellites he brought with him from his own zone, Robo-Robotnik -- wearing a skin disguise to fool everyone into thinking he was Robotnik Prime back from the dead -- eventually revealed himself after luring Sonic and the Freedom Fighters to his satellite in space. Sonic fought Robo-Robotnik on an assembly line, which ended with the latter being doused with acid, removing his disguise and exposing his deception. (StH: #72, #74, #75)

Birth of Doctor Eggman
The Freedom Fighters enlisted the help of Snively to blow up the orbital platform with Robo-Robotnik in it. With his body destroyed, Robo-Robotnik transported his consciousness into a new robotic body, which was hidden half a mile below the newly rechristened city of Robotropolis. With his new body he took on the new name: Dr. Eggman. (StH: #75)

While in this robotic body, Eggman underwent a process which made it so he had the ability to roboticize anyone with a mere touch. He used this on numerous people, both Mobians and Overlanders, including Colin Kintobor (the Mobius Prime counterpart of his brother), Nate Morgan, and Snively. Unlike Mobians however, the roboticized Overlanders became nothing but metallic statues unless they desired to become roboticized, as in Snively's case. He also had the ability to have his coinsciousness transported to a new body each time his current one was destroyed, a technique he was forced to take advantage of on numerous occasions. (StH: #100, #105, #110, #116, #117)

Shortly after an encounter with the Fearsome Foursome, Eggman found himself captured along with Snively, Sonic and Tails by an alien race known as the Bem. Eggman and Snively were transformed back into flesh and blood, and forced to battle for their lives against a roboticized Sonic and Tails in order to prove whether or not flesh is superior to metal. After losing to Mecha Sonic and Mecha Tails, both Eggman and Snively were sent back to Mobius in their organic forms. Additionally, they are unable to re-roboticize themselves due to an side-effect of the Bem's deroboticizer. (StH: #118)

After the Bem
Not long after this, Mobius was attacked by another alien race called the Xorda. The Xorda had attacked Mobius over twelve thousand years ago when the planet was still known as "Earth", and had thought all intelligent life had been wiped out. When the Xorda encountered ships carrying Overlanders, the descendants of humans, they returned to Mobius to find the planet still inhabited. When the Xorda attack Eggman's forces, he realized the Xorda posed a legitimate threat, and asked for an alliance with the Kingdom of Acorn. With the help of Sonic and Sally, the Xorda ship was forced to retreat. Unwilling to leave the job unfinished, the Xorda left behind a device called the Quantum Dial intended to destroy the entire world and solar system. Sonic successfully prevented the device from going off, but was teleported to another side of the universe in the process, leaving everyone to believe he died. (StH: #124 #125)

Now unopposed, Eggman seized the opportunity to re-conquer sections of Mobius which were lost after the original Ivo Robotnik's death, thereby creating the Eggman Empire. He struck a deal with the Dingoes, providing weapons and other support for them in return for their allegiance and becoming his enforcers on Angel Island. With the Dingoes now an ally, he successfully conquered the Floating Island and maintains control of it to date. His robot legions were controlled by a sentient computer named A.D.A.M. (short for Autonomous Digital Assault Microbe), prior to A.D.A.M.'s betraying his 'father' and subsequent destruction. Eggman also changed his main base of operations from the nuclear wasteland of Robotropolis (which was destroyed in a nuclear strike by Station Square) to New Megopolis. (StH: #110, #130, #169)

Most recently, Eggman launched a large-scale offensive against the Kingdom of Acorn, using his massive Egg Fleet to inflict heavy damage via aerial bombardment, effectively destroying the entire Kingdom and Freedom HQ. During this attack, he managed to capture the entire population (bar Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy), transporting them to his Egg Grape Chambers to be used as a source of fuel for his city. He also engaged in a one-on-one duel versus Sonic wearing his newly created power armor called the Egg Beater, thrashing Sonic physically and psychologically before he departed. Eggman came to regret his decision when the four survivors launched a rescue mission that foiled his plans and liberated the prisoners. The Mobians were subsequently transported to New Mobotropolis when NICOLE altered the programming of the Egg Beater to transport them there, as opposed to the Egg Grape Chambers. In retaliation, he redeployed his Egg Fleet (lead by Snively) to attack the city's shield while he fought Sonic in his Egg Beater. The combined might of Sonic, the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix proved too much for his power armor, resulting in its destruction and causing Eggman to flee. (StH: #175, #176, #177)

When Dr. Eggman learned of the return of Enerjak, he accepted Sonic's proposed temporary alliance so that the two could defeat the chaos demigod. Arriving at New Mobotropolis during Enerjak's attack there, he successfully had the Egg Fleet transport him to the last Egg Grape Chamber. Keeping his end of the bargain, Eggman withdrew from New Mobotropolis with the captured Enerjak, saying he wanted the place kept tidy for when he decided to return and destroy it. However, Eggman underestimated Enerjak's power, and was shocked when the demigod escaped captivity and destroyed not only his Egg Fleet but the vast majority of New Megaopolis. Following this, Eggman withdrew to his bunker with Snively and the recently arrived Dimitri to plan. (StH: #180, #181, #182, #183)

Following the defeat of Enerjak, Eggman accepted an alliance proposed by Lien-Da for the remaining Echidnas loyal to her to become the new Dark Egg Legion in exchange for robotic enhancements. Eggman agreed knowing that he'd already given the title of Grandmaster to Dimitri, despite Lien-Da only allying under the terms that she would be the Grandmaster. (StH: #184)

Sometime later, Eggman sent Metal Sonic to attack Freedom HQ, only to discover that it was under the control of Scourge the Hedgehog and the Suppression Squad. Metal Sonic was just about to leave when Eggman heard Scourge say he was planning to take over the areas that the Eggman Empire had conquered, causing him to have Metal Sonic attack Scourge. When Sonic arrived, Eggman realized that Metal Sonic was outnumbered and built a duplicate of Scourge, Metal Scourge, to help. While the doctor was watching the battle from the Eggdome in New Megaopolis, Dimitri came to him and demanded to know why he had not yet built a new Badnik army to help the Dark Egg Legion. Eggman revealed that he had planted bombs in the cybernetics of the Legion's members, causing Dimitri to realize just what he had gotten himself into and leave. Eggman presumably continued to watch the fight between the two hedgehogs and his robot duplicates until the latter were both destroyed. (StH: #191, #192)

Abilities
Eggman's most well known ability is his masterminded plots and schemes which only fail due to Sonic and his friends. He is a remarkable scientist and engineer, as evidenced by the armies of robots he's created. He is an incredibly skilled pilot: able to swoop missiles and lasers in his Eggmobile with skill rivaling that of Tails. Eggman used to have the ability to roboticize someone with a single touch, as well as transfer his consciousness between robotic bodies, enabling him to survive "death".

Personality
Eggman has shown himself to be far more sinister than his Mobius Prime counterpart. As opposed to simply wiping out Knothole from the get-go, Eggman decided to "have fun" with his Mobian enemies and take the time and resources to engage in "war games". Eventually he grew tired of this, and decided to use the Mobians as a source of fuel for his capital city via the Egg Grape Chambers. When his mechanical "daughter" Mecha asked if there wasn't a far more efficient and easier method to powering his city, Eggman responded "Where would the fun in that be?"

Like Robotnik, Eggman is also arrogant, and egotistical, both of which may be his biggest weaknesses. He has a habit of frequently putting "Egg" into the names of numerous inventions and places (Egg Fleet, Egg Pawn, Egg Lobster, and Egg Grape Chamber to name a few). When Hunter was capturing Echidnas en masse, a crudely designed Eggman face was seen above each capture. As a matter of fact, the Egg Pawns needed only a mustache to have Eggman's face. Meanwhile, Eggman has the annoying habit of thinking that his plans are foolproof, even when the flaws are quite obvious, (Metal Scourge done on the fly, Egg Grapes needing retooling for Enerjak, telling Dimitri about the explosives, etc.) and not realizing that there may be a problem until it's too late. As Snively has openly admitted, "The big guy is loosing his marbles."

Background Information
Dr. Eggman's current look was introduced to coincide with the version of of Robotnik in the Sonic Adventure videogame. Although primarily known as Eggman in the comics, he is sometimes still referred to as Robotnik to prevent newer readers from getting confused.