Metal Sonic is Sonic's BEST Villain!

February 22, 2025

Metal Sonic is my favorite Sonic character in the entire franchise. With that out in the open, let me talk about why he's the best antagonist!

By the by, when I talk about Metal, I'm only referring to the regular ol' blue guy we've seen since CD (which I consider v3.7 to be a part of). Shard, Metal Sonic Kai, Metal Sonic v2.5/3.0, and Ancient Gear are all irrelevant here unless I say otherwise! (DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEA I LOVE THEM TOO BUT I'M TALKING ABOUT METAL SONIC FROM THE MAINLINE GAMES)

So, what makes him so great to me?

First off, he is SO MUCH MORE than a "Sonic clone"! Some people may know this already (I love y'all) but I want to talk about his emotional depth in the recent IDW comics, Archie Comics, and of course, the classic Sonic OVA. The thing I love the most about him is the growth he's shown-he's not just an antagonist. He's a character struggling with his own identity!

And yeah, we have those kinds of characters already; Shadow being the main one, but even he is shown to be indifferent to Metal.

Shadow's story focuses on emotional growth and self-discovery. He's already halfway there in most of his story shown. But Metal is still dealing with being under Eggman's control, and it's so COOL how it gives his self-perception that complex layer. He doesn't do what he does because he's a "bad guy" in the traditional sense of wanting power or status. OR EVEN JUST TO WIN AGAINST SONIC. To Metal, Sonic stole everything from him.

Eggman never gave him the chance to question that identity—he was programmed with it. For Metal, it's not about proving himself to Sonic. It’s about proving to himself that he’s right in believing he’s the true Sonic. That’s what makes him such a compelling villain—because in his eyes, he’s not the villain at all. That makes his entire existence tragic! This perception for Metal was never challenged—until he was forced to confront the reality that no one else sees him that way. No matter how many times he proves himself, no matter how fast he is, how strong he is, how perfectly he mimics Sonic’s abilities, no one accepts him as Sonic.

But the multiple dialog have shown over and over that the people who understand this KNOW he can become something greater than Sonic because he can be someone else with his own identity instead!

Metal’s path seems doomed by his very design. He’s locked in an endless cycle of trying to be someone he’s not, and in that, he’s become his own worst enemy.

But other than that, literally his design is fucking awesome.

He's sharp, he's sleek, you really get that "efficiency" feel of his character! Dude is built like an airplane. The sharpness helps him move faster and fly with ease, like LOOK AT HIM!!!!

He has what Sonic has AND MORE. Sharp claws, spindash, flight, teleportation in some cases, speed, strength, beams from his own stomach, force-fields, MULTIPLE FORMS, he doesn't even need a float in the Olympic Games to swim in water events unlike Sonic! The only reason Sonic can beat him is because of that one main quality: His lack of freedom. Sonic adapts in every situation, we still see him to this day getting his ass handed to him and he still gets back up. Like I haven't seen a single instance of him giving up in a fight. It's probably protagonist armor, idk, but Metal is unfortunately stuck trying to be him while he already is himself.

Over and over, SEGA has shown to be aware of how powerful Metal's story can be. They've already had versions of him defy their doctor and make their own lives for themselves and find their purpose, but I think it would be a great thing to bring this to the forefront of their audience to get rid of the whole "Metal Sonic is a lazy villain" image they built on him over the past couple of years.

None of this is even mentioning him in the IDW comics.

If you haven't already, please, read The Metal Virus comic yourself. It's way more brutal than people give it credit for. This is what spawned a series of mini-comics called Sonic The Hedgehog Annual 2020, which is where Metal Sonic's comic that I've referenced comes from. It's called "Metal Sonic In Reflections". I can't share every page here about Metal but he has been portrayed AMAZINGLY in IDW.