To think that all it took for me to get back into Sonic was the IDW Comics and my shark lady Yvette.

So we have comeback full circle with me drawing my favorite Sonic character; Shadow the Hedgehog.

It’s been I want to say roughly over 10 years since I’ve actually drawn Shadow.

With the Anti-Eggman Unit AU still fresh in my mind and the fact I’m having fun with it, I had to get to Shadow eventually.

I always enjoyed the direction Shadow’s character was heading in the Archie Sonic Comics.

Him being more mellowed, seeing Rouge and Omega as true friends, and him working for G.U.N. to make the world a better place.

Shame that Sega devolved him down to a generic edgelord now…

Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t mold Shadow into my own image of him.

For Shadow’s design I wanted him to look like he was all about business first and getting the missions finished.

At first, I was going to give Shadow a more tactical gear outfit, maybe something a normal G.U.N. Trooper would wear.

But as I thought further I wanted Shadow to dress “formally” so I gave up with this.

I don’t know if it was a mix of watching a speedrun of Resident Evil 4 and listening to James Bond on in the background, but I actually really like this look for Shadow.

Giving him the dark blue waistcoat and pants with the pinstripes on both look

Fantastic on Shadow.

Maybe it makes him look oddly mobster like, but hey, Shadow can pull this off well.

Also on one small note, I like the way Shadow’s physical appearance looks.

I made him look a little more “gruff” with the way his hair and fur sticks a bit more up than usual.

Bio:

Born on the ARK roughly 50+ Years ago, Shadow the Hedgehog was created via a “partnership” between Gerald Robotnik and Black Doom.

Shadow’s existence was discovered by G.U.N. and the ARK was “shut down” via eliminating all who were involved with Project Shadow and knew about the Black Arms.

While Shadow the Hedgehog escaped via an escape pod hurdling towards Earth, his pod was discovered while he was unconscious inside.

He was sealed away on Prison Island for the next 50 years, where his DNA structure would be studied from time to time.

Shadow would be awakened one day by Gerald’s nephew, Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik and would use Shadow for his own plans of destruction.

Shadow however would remember the true purpose of his creation, and at the last second of the Final Hazard plan, he would team up with Sonic the Hedgehog to stop the Biolizard.

Shadow’s body would once again end up falling into Earth’s orbit, and while seemingly his death assured, Shadow would be able to save himself with Chaos Control at the very last second.

On Earth, Eggman’s robots would discover Shadow’s battered body just barely clinging to life.

Eggman would put Shadow’s body into a healing tank deep in a hidden base for the next 2 years, and would have Shadow be guarded by the last of the E-Series robots; E-123 Omega.

Rouge the Bat would discover Shadow sometime later and escape the base with Shadow; and unexpectedly, Omega would follow them, being promised to get revenge on Eggman for wasting his abilities with guard duty.

With the combination of being in the healing pod and the impact from his crash, Shadow memory was greatly fragmented, causing him amnesia.

He could only remember Maria Robotnik, Rouge herself, and his name.

Rouge would spend a year with Shadow, trying her best to jog his memory, but sadly, she couldn’t get him to remember much at all.

During the Metal Overlord incident, Shadow and Omega would accompany Rouge to gather information on Eggman’s disappearance.

They’d come to find “Shadow Clones” later to be discovered to be androids.

Seeing this wasn’t healthy on Shadow’s mind, as he started to question if he was even real.

While Omega confirmed multiple time Shadow was indeed real, he still felt uneasy.

A year later, the Black Comet would pass by Earth and the Black Arm would invade the planet in order to find the Chaos Emeralds for their “promise from Gerald”.

Shadow would side with G.U.N. and defend Westopolis and later join up with Sonic and his friends to gather the Chaos Emeralds before the Black Arms could.

The crew would eventually find their way to the Black Comet itself to face off against Black Doom as Shadow would handle him personally.

Playing dirty, Black Doom would abuse the fact Shadow has Doom’s blood in his veins, would constrict and torture Shadow’s body from the inside out.

When all hope seemed lost, a message of Gerald Robotnik would be broadcast worldwide.

In the message, Gerald would explain he never trusted the Black Arms and created the Eclipse Canon in order to destroy the Black Comet when the Black Arms would eventually show up.

Finally, Gerald would tell Shadow everything that happened was his fault and not Shadow’s, but hoped he’d forgive him and protect human and mobian life from anything that would threaten them.

Getting up in a rage and finally putting his past behind him, Shadow used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to reach his super form to destroy the Black Comet with the Eclipse Canon.

Using the last of the Chaos Energy, Shadow would restore most of the damage caused by the Black Arms.

This heroic display would earn Shadow the respect of The G.U.N. Commander Abraham Stone, as he offered a hand to Shadow to join G.U.N. as one of their agents.

Shadow would agree, but only on the condition he’d be able to fight alongside Rouge and Omega.

For the past 10 years, Shadow as been working alongside G.U.N. protecting the world for Eggman’s schemes and whatever else gets in his way.

Now the leader of the Spec-OPs team, The Anti-Eggman Unit, Shadow sees this as a perfect way to keep tabs on “The Good Doctor” and to send out his handpicked teammates to deal with him.

Personality:

While he comes off as rather aloof and blunt with his words, Shadow the Hedgehog has finally developed a more well-rounded personality.

When on missions, Shadow is very straight laced and matter of fact.

Doing everything in his power to get the job done and protect those who can’t protect themselves.

Shadow is often known to head straight into the enemy lines in order to provide as a distraction while the rest of his team makes moves to sneak around the chaos.

Yet, Shadow always makes sure to stick just close enough, so should something go wrong, he can save his teammates at a moment’s notice.

Shadow’s softer side can be seen with his teammates in the Anti-Eggman Unit itself, as he has trained those outside of Team Dark himself.

With Yvette the Shark, Shadow is happy to have a protégé that is as equally powerful as he is.

Yvette’s Hydromancy always kept Shadow on his toes, and let him discover new ways to push Yvette and himself.

And for both Whisper and Tangle, as he is able to pass down his combat skills to mobians with no Chaos Powers.

But most importantly, being able to help Whisper get past her trauma, as he is someone that knows those feelings all too well.

He is thankful for Omega, as for a robot that was designed to outclass him with supreme firepower, he is glad that Omega is using his hatred for Eggman to do the right thing.

And finally, Shadow is thankful for Rouge, for out of everyone he has known, she has always looked out for him no matter what has happened.

Rouge even telling Shadow in private “If the world should ever turn its back on you, know that I’ll always be by your side”.

It puts Shadow’s mind at ease knowing he has this support system to fall back on when things get too rough for just himself.

Also, while rare, Shadow is known to tell jokes every once in a while; his sense of humor is rather dry and deadpan, but for those who get his jokes, they tend to crack up.

Weapon:

MAG SA-2 MK2 (Model SHADOW) “Empress”.

When starting out in G.U.N. Shadow did not have any particular gun that he liked to use in mind, but he always had a liking for pistols.

He normally used a Beretta-92, fondly calling it “Matilda”.

But thanks to the more dangerous missions Shadow got sent on, Matilda could only take so much punishment before she broke.

Shadow’s replacement gun was a custom weapon made especially for Shadow in mind.

Part of the “Future Weapons” G.U.N.’s RnD team created the MAG SA-2 a hybrid Magnum/Degale that was powered by a Black Chaos Drive.

This gun was extremely powerful, highly experimental, and had no real combat data.

Shadow was tasked to use “Empress” as they called her, and push her to her limits.

Empress’ Black Chaos Drive core makes its bolts insanely powerful, Shadow often having to place Empress on “Stun” in order to not cause major damage to his targets if they are needed alive for capture.

For heavy combat, Empress can go semi-auto with shooting 3 bolts at once at a rapid pace.

Empress can also be charged by holding down its trigger; the longer held down, the stronger the bolt fired can be.

While looking mostly like a modern semi-auto pistol, the hammer on the back of Empress can be slammed and mashed to fire more quickly in both single fire and burst fire.

The only downside of Empress is that while never having to reload, it must cool down if it overheats.

The revolver itself will pop open and take roughly 4 seconds to be ready for use again.

In a more desperate mission Shadow ignored this warning as Empress MK1 got so hot that the Black Chaos core “went nuclear” and exploded most violently.

The new Empress is much less prone to overheating.