In the comics, Dr. Robotnik not only once roboticized Sonicbut Knuckles the Echidna volunteered to become a robot to beat him, leading to an absolutely epic battle between the two friends.

Beginning in issue #39, Sonic mentions that the best chance of defeating Robotnik is to get himself roboticized, and even though his plan is vetoed by the Freedom Fighters, Robotnik successfully beats Sonic by turning the hedgehog into a mechanized robot that very day and unleashes his new creation on Sonic's friends. When their last hope of defeating Mecha Sonic is dashed upon Knuckles' initial defeat at the beginning of the Sonic & Knuckles: Mecha Madness special issue, the same Freedom Fighters who rejected Sonic's aforementioned idea agree to roboticize Knuckles using an older version of the Roboticizer they had swiped from Robotnik before.

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During the epic face-off, Mecha Sonic appears to win when he delivers a calculated punch that sends his mechanized foe flying in the air in a trajectory that will land him in an area of Dr. Robotnik's city that will destroy him in the ensuing explosion. But Mecha Knuckles quickly creates a magnetic field that forces Mecha Sonic to attach to him as they both barrel towards their doom. Mecha Knuckles would have undoubtedly been destroyed if not for two things; Sonic's true self took over at the last second, compelling the hedgehog to take the full brunt of the explosion, and Knuckles the Echidna's older technology making him weaker. Sonic survives the fight and was able to retain some semblance of his mind before his roboticization because of the power he received after collecting his one billionth ring in issue #35.

Both this unexpected victory and storyline shocked readers at the time for a number of reasons. Throughout the beginning of Archie's now discontinued series, both Sonic and Knuckles frequently battled each other over common misunderstandings. But every confrontation always ended in a draw, including their epic clash in the monumental Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles special issue when a zone filled with more than enough rings and Chaos Emeralds for the two to transform explodes due to the amount of energy their super forms generate, cutting the fight short. But when Mecha Sonic and Knuckles collide in the aptly named Mecha Madness special issue, there is a clear victor.

Additionally, the fact that Sonic is roboticized is actually a feat on its own as the process of roboticization serves as the villain's most lethal weapon against the Blue Blur and his friends for a massive chunk of the series. Sonic struggles with the Roboticizer's effects on a personal level in the early issues as Robotnik successfully turns his Uncle Chuck, his parents, and his dog into robots. Even though they mostly returned back to normal, Sonic's father Jules is never restored to his normal body. Sonic is also haunted by one of his worst failures throughout the entirety of the series when he saves Bunny Rabbot but only after her roboticization had already begun, forcing her to live as a partial robot for years.

With this background, it's no surprise why IDW's rendition of Archie's roboticization known as the Metal Virus serves as the reboot's best and most thrilling saga. Instead of being an actual machine like the Roboticizer, the Metal Virus is a synthetically concocted plague that transforms life into metallic zombies called and even partially affects Sonic the Hedgehog like how the Blue Blur is fully transformed in Mecha Madness. Even though Archie's Roboticizer is later destroyed, the series continued to introduce new ways in which Dr. Robotnik could turn lifeforms into robots. Hopefully IDW will do the same.

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