Isaac is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. He is a mysterious robot of the Alpha 100 Series, resembling a golden copy of E-102 Gamma.

Concept and creation

In early plans for the "The Good, the Bad and the Unknown" story arc, E-102 Gamma was set to appear as an antagonist. For unknown reasons, however, Gamma was later removed from the arc, and the character of Isaac was seemingly created to replace his role. This was evidently a late change, as an early cover for Sonic the Hedgehog #148 still depicts Gamma, and the solicitation for Sonic the Hedgehog #147 references "E-102" instead of Isaac. As a result of the late change in characters and the fact that artwork of Gamma had already been drawn, Isaac was chosen to resemble Gamma so that some of the existing artwork could be recolored.

Appearance

History

Past

Isaac was created in the distant past by Professor Niven Clarke and was subservient to Dr. Ivan Kintobor. Activated when the Xorda aliens launched their first assault on Mobius, he monitored Kintobor while he was in stasis in his bunker. He is an Alpha 100 Series Mechanoid built over 10,000 years ago. He has a head of Development Team, Doctor Ivan Kintobor, a hardware designer Professor Clarke and software programmer Dr. Niven. Around this time, the Xorda sent an emissary to Earth to forge an alliance. Instead, Ivan Kintobor and his team of scientists captured the emissary and dissected it. Isaac's power matrix was created with adapted Xorda technology, which had been appropriated from the emissary. In retaliation, the Xorda bombarded the planet with Gene Bombs, though Kintobor programmed Isaac to ensure his survival in the "post apocalyptic environment".^[2]

The Good, the Bad and the Unknown

Isaac was rediscovered in 3237 after Shadow stumbled upon the base he was located in. Believing Isaac could provide him with answers about his own origins, Shadow released Isaac from his air-tight chamber and together they soon learned of Isaac's origins from the facility's computers.^[3] Not long afterwards, Sonic and the Freedom Fighters arrived at the facility to discover the cause of a massive earthquake originating from there. Eventually, Metal Sonic also arrived on the scene. The four became engaged in a four-way brawl, while the rest of the Freedom Fighters continued to explore the compound.

After Sonic discovered the nuclear missile residing in the base, Isaac had the facility's defence systems destroy the Freedom One so that they had no means to escape. However, Sonic managed to disarm the nuclear missile before fleeing the base. After Sonic and the Freedom Fighters were rescued by Jules and Sir Charles Hedgehog, Isaac checked the status of the facility before asking Dr. Ivan Kintobor for his next orders.^[4] (StH: #146, #147, #148, #149)

Dark Legion rogue Dr. Finitevus was later revealed by Rouge the Bat to have stolen some of Isaac's data. However, Isaac's data had become quite corrupted over time, to the point that he didn't even realize that he was guarding Kintobor's corpse. Because of this, much of the info held by the robot is dubious in terms of accuracy.^[5]

Relationships

Friends/allies

• Doctor Ivan Kintobor (creator)
• Doctor Niven
• Professor Clarke
• Shadow the Hedgehog

Trivia

• Isaac is named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov, just as his creators (Clarke and Niven) are named after science fiction authors Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven.
• Head writer Ian Flynn has listed Isaac on his list of deceased characters, indicating that Isaac would not be returning.^[1]

References

External links

• Isaac at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.