Black Arms/Pre-SGW

The Black Arms are a race of aliens who travel from world to world seeking to devour their native inhabitants. One world that they visited was Mobius, where their leader Black Doom made a deal with Gerald Robotnik to create Shadow the Hedgehog, who was intended to serve as the Black Arms' agent to prepare Mobius for their return 50 years later. However, they became embroiled in an interstellar war with another equally violent race, the Xorda, and thus were unable to return to Mobius for a time. The conflict raged across the entire galaxy and reduced at least one world, the Bem homeworld of Argentium, to a ruin of its former self.

50 Years Ago
Visiting Mobius fifty years prior to their conflict with the Xorda, the Black Arms laid plans for their eventual conquest. This involved placing an agent on the planet, for which they contacted Professor Gerald, the primary scientist aboard Space Colony ARK. Cutting a deal with the aliens, he used Black Arms genetic material&mdash;namely that of Black Doom himself&mdash;to create Shadow the Hedgehog, his Ultimate Life form. They then departed, intending to return and use a paralyzing toxin to render the inhabitants helpless so that they could consume them at their leisure. Learning that the Black Arms would return to Mobius in fifty years to conquer it, Gerald modified Shadow from his original purpose&mdash;that of developing a cure for Gerald's ill granddaughter, Maria Robotnik&mdash;to that of defending Mobius from the Black Arms upon their return. Shadow later learned this from Gerald's digital diary, and joined the Guardian Unit of Nations to prepare for their eventual return. (StH: #98, #171, #182, CSE)

War with the Xorda

 * See: Black Arms-Xorda War

The explanation for the delay in the Black Arms' return to Mobius was uncovered by Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Merlin Prower when they traveled to Argentium to rescue Amadeus Prower and his wife Rosemary, Tails' parents. As they were returning to feast on the population of Mobius, the Black Arms ran afoul of the Xorda aliens as both races desired to destroy Mobius for their own reasons. The resources diverted for the conflict prevented the Black Arms from following through with their plans for some time, while the violent conflict reduced countless worlds to wasteland. (StH: #170, CSE)

Black Arms Soldier Types

 * Black Warrior: Standard Black Arms soldiers who are roughly the height and size of an average Human. All possess a muscular build and feature the coloration unique to the species. They are sometimes equipped with Light Shot guns.
 * Black Oak: A larger variant of the Black Warrior, over twice as tall and several times larger. They are physically powerful, able enough to deflect bullets with their forearms, and have rows of spikes lining their backs.
 * Black Assassin: Elite soldiers that resemble the Black Warrior, but wear minimal orange armor on their bodies and have forehead spikes, tails, and red markings on their chests. The only one seen carried a Black Sword, a typical melee weapon of the Black Arms.
 * Black Wing: A smaller variant of the Black Hawk. Eclipse the Darkling was seen carrying one in his introduction.
 * Black Volt: Four-eyed, raptor-like flying creatures with segmented bodies and wings.
 * Black Annelid: Giant burrowing worm-like creatures with six tentacles surrounding a circular mouth. They are able to launch missiles from their mouths. Their flesh is also impervious to bullets.
 * Black Hawk:
 * Death Leech: Black Arms larvae that eventually grow into larger forms. They resemble small blobs and feature a single eye surrounded by spikes.
 * Dark Arms: Black Arms soldiers created by Eclipse in an experiment prior to the second invasion, of which all but four were killed. They greatly resemble Wisps and were derived from that species, albeit their powers are different and only transform a portion of the host's body instead of all of it. The four surviving Dark Arms are Blurk, Cregal, Cyzer, and Rhygenta.

Notable Black Arms

 * Black Doom: The cruel hive-mind of the Black Arms who possesses Chaos Control abilities. He worked with Gerald Robotnik to create Shadow the Hedgehog, who was to be established as their agent on Mobius. Doom planned to return fifty years later to consume the populace, but he encountered the Xorda on his return trip and chose to enter war with them to prevent the former from denying his race their meal.
 * Shadow the Hedgehog: A Black Arms/hedgehog hybrid who was created by Gerald Robotnik and Black Doom. He possesses Black Doom's Chaos Control abilities. Originally intended to serve as the Black Arms agent to help them conquer Mobius, but after learning his true purpose vowed to destroy them if they ever returned.

Appearance
The shapes and sizes of Black Arms can vary widely, with multiple variants including humanoid, birdlike, and wormlike types, but in general they all possess grayish-green, brown, or black skin with crimson markings. Most have yellow or orange eyes without pupils. In general they don't wear any sort of clothing, with the sole exceptions being Black Doom and Black Death, who wear robes, and the Black Assassins who have armor.

Background Information

 * The Black Arms make their sole game appearance in the Shadow The Hedgehog video game. In the game, Shadow had to fight the Black Arms to prevent them from subjugating the earth. They have not appeared physically in any other game since, due to the circumstances at the end of the game.
 * Due to issues with Sega before the reboot, Ian Flynn said that Black Doom and the Black Arms would not be making a proper appearance until they were given the green-light to have them defeat the Xorda and come to Mobius. (1) With the new "Shadow Fall" arc, it appears that the Black Arms are now fair game for the comics with the exception of Black Doom.
 * In SU #59 the creature identified as a Black Volt is actually a Black Hawk. In the Shadow the Hedgehog game, Black Volts are a variant of Black Hawks with gold armor and a projectile launcher.