Warning: spoilers ahead for Sonic the Hedgehog #50!
Fans were already anxiously awaiting the highly anticipated face-off between Sonic the Hedgehog and his cyborg replacement Surge the Tenrec, but the twisted confessions Surge unloads upon her opponent just set her up as an even more disturbed individual than even Dr. Robotnik (aka Dr. Eggman) himself.
During her debut, what intrigued readers about Surge was how her creator Dr. Starline modeled her after Sonic, programming the tenrec to espouse his attitude and raw personality. But Surge eventually came to resent her creator, and although she decided to carry out his wishes in destroying Sonic, the cyborg concluded that she would destroy everything, most especially Dr. Starline.
This was dark enough by itself, but Surge later confirms she has a specific reason to target Sonic, as revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog #50 by writer Ian Flynn, artist Adam Bryce Thomas, colorists Matt Herms, Heather Breckel, Reggie Graham, and letterer Shawn Lee. Surge resents having been made into a cyborg mostly because of how much Starline can manipulate her and since every aspect about her current predicament only sheds negative light on what her life must have been like before becoming a cyborg – a memory she can’t recall as a victim of amnesia. In her eyes, it’s all Sonic’s fault because he could have easily killed Eggman and Starline or, if some moral code has been preventing him from finishing them off, could have at least given up and let them rule the world. She believes that by prolonging their conflict, he prompted her creation, and wishes to eradicate him in return.
Obviously, Surge’s desire to destroy everything is disturbing, but what’s even worse is that this excessive solution is the only viable option the tenrec believes she has. Even though Surge resents having been made into a mindless monster, she doesn’t see any possible life outside of her current predicament. Sonic even gives her a chance to start anew during their battle, but the concept of trying to find herself in a world that has, in her eyes, rejected her is so implausible that she refuses his offer. Because she can’t continue living as a cyborg slave to Starline either, Surge concludes she has no other choice but to eradicate everything.
It’s also intriguing that, as essentially a third party to the war between Sonic and Eggman, she views Sonic as the ultimate problem, not Eggman or Starline. She obviously reveres power, as she believes Sonic has the capability to overpower both evil doctors, which is why she blames him for not eliminating them. But it’s also interesting that Surge thinks that Sonic’s obsession with freedom is the true culprit behind her suffering, not the evil tendencies of Eggman and Starline. Essentially, she espouses the belief that freedom should bow down to evil if the powers that oppose it can’t or won’t utterly destroy said evil. Even though she herself has lost all freedom and hates Starline for taking hers away, she views Sonic’s pursuit of it as the ultimate sin.
Dr. Eggman might have always endeavored to rule Sonic’s world and enslave the planet’s inhabitants, but Surge is an anthropomorphic critter like Sonic the Hedgehog who’s the victim of Eggman by extension, and yet is choosing to destroy the one hero who can free her from her own torment – all because that hero had the audacity to fight for what she herself desires.