Black Doom: The Most Wasted Villain in History

Never has the problem so clearly lay in the writing, ’cause it definitely doesn’t lie in the creative ideas.

CONTENT WARNING!

This post contains sensitive material that may not be suitable for all readers. The material in question includes:

- Bad language
- Frightening imagery
- Graphic violence
- Mentions of homophobia
- Mentions of racism

A Couple of Unlikely Reminders
A (Pathetically) Short History
The Careful Magic of World-Building
The Costly Risk of Hating Your Audience
Taking the Black Hawk's Reins

A Couple of Unlikely Reminders

In 2014, I’d been eagerly awaiting a new title in the Saints Row series after realizing how much of an obnoxious departure Saints Row: The Third started to feel like. Then, when I was finally graced (or cursed) with one, it took what was once a cartoony gangster RPG with memorable characters and spiraled it out of control into an ’80s nod-riddled clusterfuck of superpowers, aliens, simulated worlds, dubstep guns, and the Rem Lezar-inspired tentacle bat that still looms over me like death over a cancer patient. In the tradition of making villains decreasingly interesting since Saints Row 2, the main cast’s rivals devolved from a fractured East Asian crime family to a stuffy Belgian businessman and an angry luchador to the most generically written alien warlord in the history of fiction. Then again, wasn’t the more grounded 2022 reboot SO much worse than that? Remember how BORING it was? After all, Zinyak from Saints Row IV was clearly a very memorable extraterrestrial villain, a true competitor to the Predators and Xenomorphs alike, but… something about him, his… highly unmemorable design, dialogue, and motivation… which is, of course, to say there simply wasn’t motivation… caused me to start missing another such antagonist I’d grown up with well before any of that.

Then, the original Destiny came out, which was an experience I greatly enjoyed and ended up spawning several expansions. One of these was The Taken King, which featured a harrowing giant named Oryx as its antagonist… and the moment I saw his design, I fired up an image search, leading me to a treasure trove of memes and visual comparisons involving the very same villain Zinyak reminded me of. Thus, I felt an immediate desire to express my frustration and disappointment that this nightmarish villain from my childhood had been more or less forgotten compared to Saints Row IV‘s egregiously unimaginative bad guy, the results of which were an entry in the ancient “Scariest Childhood Characters” video on my now-deleted second YouTube channel and an entire character analysis video on my modding channel (feel free to watch it here, but it was written, narrated, and edited by a radically different, less thoughtful, and admittedly more stupid me.)

Now, fast-forward to modern-day me, with my raw but more refined writing skills having been acquired, and although I remain just as disappointed by this villain’s forgotten place in his franchise, I do realize his disappearance from the memories of others hasn’t quite occurred without reason.

A Pathetically Short History

So, seeing as the ghostly, wrinkly, tattered-cloaked, jewelry-adorned demon in the heading image might very well be the most well-designed character in history, his anything-but-checkered history in not just any franchise, but the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, no less (yes, the very grim science fiction saga of a blue Japanese Speedy González defending his fellow animals from a mad scientist modeled after Teddy Roosevelt), might feel decidedly lackluster. The truth is, Black Doom was an otherworldly dictator introduced in the oh-so-beloved character study that was Shadow the Hedgehog, reintroduced briefly in the Archie comics, and then vanished off the face of the Earth for good. Before getting into the specific issues with the character and the writing behind him, we should establish some context for his limited history, for what that’s worth.

At the start of Shadow the Hedgehog, the titular antihero overlooks Central City and ponders his missing memories since his heroic sacrifice at the end of Sonic Adventure 2 and his mysterious return in Sonic Heroes. That’s when an ominous red storm cloud surges overhead, forming a swirling orifice above the skyline. Nasty, animalistic alien creatures with scaly gray and red hides drop down and unleash total anarchy on the streets. Just when Shadow turns his back and scoffs at how pathetic the now-terrorized humans are like a true hero, he’s greeted by a rippling hologram of the same warlord pictured above. Black Doom orders him to deliver the seven Chaos Emeralds expressly to him. Shadow figures he may be able to use the Emeralds to recollect his memories by following the warlord’s instructions. Why not?

Whether or not he goes through with this, the last story reveals Black Doom’s true secret plan: to use the Chaos Emeralds to teleport his army’s home, the Black Comet, past Earth’s atmosphere and drive its sinewy crimson roots into the planet’s crust. In his words, humanity’s forever unable to control their harmful tendencies, so for the sake of his own race, he plots to release a specialized nerve gas into the atmosphere, which will paralyze all of mankind and allow the Black Arms to convert them into a food source. He then reveals that he aided Shadow’s creator, Gerald Robotnik, in Project Shadow using a sample his own DNA, for which Gerald promised him the Chaos Emeralds in return by using Shadow as an agent to collect them. Even after Sonic and friends (who are all somehow on the Black Comet at this point) are paralyzed by the nerve gas (which is somehow spreading aboard the Comet), Shadow chases Black Doom to the deep inner sanctum of the Comet, where a message from Gerald telling Shadow to destroy the space rock using the Eclipse Cannon—the weapon of mass destruction aboard the Space Colony ARK—is broadcast on Earth as well as the Comet. Shadow transforms into his super form and defeats Black Doom’s final form, Devil Doom, before using Chaos Control to zap the Comet into space and the Eclipse Cannon to blow it into a thousand fragments. I hope that was enough for you, ’cause you can kiss those hideous invaders goodbye!

Not me, though. I have some cautious objections.

The Careful Magic of World-Building

In case you forgot, I started off this post talking about the alien dictator whose grand plan was to trap the U.S. president in a test simulation version of the last game’s setting (probably because it was a DLC expansion that was lazily converted into a standalone sequel) while he goes on to blow up the planet because giving villains motivation is pointless when glossed over with ’80s callbacks. Meanwhile, the Black Arms are driven by their need for permanent residence, the preservation of their society, and the pity they direct towards the race they’re attacking. That being said, you can argue they deserve at least some further attention and longevity compared to the Zin from… whatever Saints Row IV turned out to be (to be fair, it’s admittedly fun enough to play, but at this point, a poor story and characters are enough to dampen an entire experience for me.) If so, I’m inclined to agree with you, so let me get into what I think is neat about these barbarians and the critical yet long-since-abandoned piece of a fan-favorite character’s backstory.

Stunning physical designs for Black Doom and his tentacled messenger Doom’s Eye aside—not to mention the almost paranormal tyrant’s booming voice that I guess only the voice actor for Goku could produce once layers of filters are applied—he’ll actually provide the player with swaths of information regarding the Black Arms’ classes, weaponry, and related entities as his dark missions are completed. See, there’s a plethora of classes in the Black Arms’ hierarchy, including the Black Warriors, Black Oaks, Black Assassins, Black Wings, Black Hawks, and golden-armored Black Volts, as well as bloodsucking larvae, fire-breathing plants, and burrowing multi-jawed worms that utilize targeted projectile launchers embedded in their throats.

“Our miniature worms track down their prey by detecting their vital signs.”

– Mr. Scientist all of a sudden.

In fact, you also have plenty of smaller details that add just a minor touch of insight into their ways of life without much vocal explanation. First off, most of their weapons have some kind of organic or even fleshy component to them—take the crimson rifles carried by the Black Assassins and referred to as “refractors”, which amount to light-streaked phalluses only Clive Barker would be twisted enough to envision—which give off biomechanical H.R. Giger fumes. Furthermore, the interior of the Black Comet itself looks more like the digestive tract of a moon-sized space worm than the depths of a celestial rock formation, being filled with rivers of some iridescent acid and waving tentacles that are hazardous to the touch. Meanwhile, dark towers with pale “window lights” serve as futurist architecture within the bladder of a miles-long maneater. Similar elements can be seen all over the Earth-based levels, including esophagus-like streams of a writhing gelatinous substance, humongous modified plant life, and glowing magenta fruits that are each the size of Shadow and powered by a lone yellow seed. According to Doom’s Eye, these fruits are symbols of his army’s conquest and will cover the whole planet once humanity has been dealt with.

Considering how often I find myself bothered by the game’s grungy teenager-aimed writing among other general annoyances, I’ve spent the rare times I’ve returned to this game admiring its environmental design. In fact, Black Comet aside, the Earth-based stages are well-designed in their own right, featuring intricate segments like the wide-open desert stages (Glyphic Canyon and Sky Troops) and the Tron-inspired Cyberspace stages (Mad Matrix and Digital Circuit). Beyond great vocal tracks like “Waking Up” and “Never Turn Back”, as well as… well… not-so-great vocal tracks like “Almost Dead”, equal creativity went into the background tracks for these stages, like the somber background music for G.U.N. Fortress, The Doom, and Lost Impact that sound far too thoughtful for the game you’re playing. It’s this level of creativity that I still find myself dazzled by with the Sonic games I grew up with and, if paired with better and more mature writing, had the power to save this game altogether. However, for anyone who’s found it hard to appreciate it, I can understand why in retrospect.

The Costly Risk of Hating Your Audience

Well, maybe, the wording of “hating your audience” is a little strong, but this is a section about the game’s writing, and that’s basically the vibe you get from it. I’ll be saving most of my feelings toward Sonic games in general and how the best ones are executed in ways that work as opposed to those that aren’t, but case and point, you don’t want things to get too dark. The Adventure games, for instance, knew how to introduce turbulent backstories of death and destruction while maintaining the same lighthearted spirit a game featuring… well… multi-colored animals with superpowers fighting a mustachioed roboticist should probably have. In fact, both the music and the execution of the action complimented the tone: the action was just intense and well-paced enough that it was fun in an innocent way, and the soundtrack never got too grim unless it needed to—for every Red Mountain act two theme and “Throw it All Away”, there’s an Emerald Coast theme and “Escape From the City”. A Sonic vocal track should have lyrics like “Trust me and we will escape from the city,” and “I know with some luck that I’ll make it through,” but probably not “Hopes drown in this big of blue” or “The world is made of broken things”. All the same, a children’s character comparable to Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat should never get involved in absurd, anime-style sword fights to the sound of hardcore metal music.

With that, we get into the topic of Shadow the Hedgehog. Now, if the intent is to aim a Sonic game at an older audience (which is actually debatable given how much censorship was implemented to avoid even a T rating, as you can hear about in detail on my beta content post here), then you could argue trying something more violent and psychological was warranted. However, the problem is that it doesn’t feel aimed at a more mature audience. It feels aimed at a slightly older audience that isn’t a whole lot more mature than the audience of the previous games. It’s not written tastefully, but instead in a way that panders to the very breed of button-pushing teenage edgelords you hear all the time on Twitter and 4chan… well, at least in the case of whoever has the brass balls to step anywhere near 4chan, a category of users I am in no way a member of. I’m convinced the majority of 4chan is an online embodiment of the “In the Flesh” sequence from Pink Floyd – The Wall.

Strangely enough, the way Shadow’s written at the start includes an equal balance of story inconsistencies and discomforting dialogue, like his sudden hatred of Sonic as well as his memory of Maria’s fatal gunshot that he didn’t even recall in Sonic Adventure 2. Granted, I could go on and on with general writing issues, but probably the most wasted character aside from Black Doom is the G.U.N. Commander. Clearly, Sonic Team was attempting to give him a legitimate arc, but aside from having no clear reason to believe Shadow was responsible for the ARK incident, his crass and unnatural dialogue borders on being physically painful to listen to.

“I will avenge those whose blood is spilled!”

– The words that keep me awake at night.

I mean, it’s confusing enough that he calls Maria “the only family I ever knew” only to go on and say that “worst of all, I lost my family,” as though they’re somehow separate, but we’ve already strayed way too far from the initial topic. Overall, Black Doom’s writing tends to suffer from the same problems as that of other characters like Eggman and the Commander, but the most apparent issue I’ve come to notice is that his motives are barely even hinted at before the last story. Until the big reveal, he comes off as painfully generic at times, like in his speech to mankind before the Eclipse Cannon destroys Central City—instead of anything thoughtful or menacing, he chooses to declare things like “You humans are so pathetic,” and “This planet is MINE!” that really take away from any potential nuance.

Then again, I do think you can give him a higher, almost benevolent purpose and a vile, borderline fetishistic desire for mankind’s suffering. On the other hand, if you just wanna depict him as a heartless enigma of a character, too much about him is developed for that to work. In general, though, these aliens are the most interesting part of the game in spite of the poor writing, so a deeper backstory on why they’re seeking a new home and energy source would be warranted, especially thanks to brow-raising details like the one he reveals to Shadow before Sky Troops: his transportation of the floating temples to Earth over two thousand years prior. That detail, among others, implies some previous contact with Earth or humanity. Granted, calling them the best part in the game isn’t the best compliment to Shadow, considering the player’s unintentionally left hoping he’ll side with Black Doom in the end, which I highly doubt was the writer’s intention. It’s not like he’s a blank slate anymore, after all. He actively hates humanity now.

Taking the Black Hawk’s Reins

While I don’t despise modern Sonic games, I have become increasingly cynical about the overly formulaic and cookie-cutter format of the boosting gameplay first introduced in Unleashed. As mediocre as Forces was, at least it deviated from that with Classic Sonic and the customizable avatar, the latter of which I thoroughly enjoyed and has never been seen in the franchise before. I’m also in the same camp as those who take issue with the depictions of characters like Tails and Shadow in these games, with Tails’s character growth in Sonic Adventure having been tossed out for some unknown reason and Shadow being the same inconsiderate rebel Shadow the Hedgehog turned him into (then again, some people seem to like him in ’06 and onwards, a viewpoint I can’t side with or understand for the life of me.) Unfortunately, I’ve heard on numerous occasions that SEGA has placed strict limitations on how writers are allowed to work with certain characters, hence why Shadow hasn’t been given any heart or meaningful character development since the Archie and Fleetway comics. It doesn’t help that characters I have zero interest in like Cream, Silver, and Blaze are given the spotlight because fans always seem to love them, although I can at least give the IDW comics a bit of credit for making Silver relatively likeable and distinct compared to how he was portrayed in ’06.

Why mention this? Well, because the chances of layers to Shadow’s backstory and/or personality being peeled back are near zero at this point, not to mention the Black Arms have only appeared a couple times in the comics and been briefly mentioned in Frontiers (I’ve only read about this, as I have no genuine interest in playing Frontiers), I presume neither an official retelling of Shadow the Hedgehog or a more in-depth glimpse into the history of the Black Arms are ever going to be seen in the future. So, as Stephen King said about Maximum Overdrive five seconds after his last coke fix, “If you want something done right… you ought to do it yourself.”

So, in that very spirit, when I’m not writing these posts or issues of ElectroNuke, I’m working on these exact projects in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog: The Recollected Cut and Black Comet, respectively. The former amounts to a Choose Your Own Adventure book that totally restructures the story and rewrites the dialogue from scratch. Meanwhile, the latter functions like an Old Norse saga and sci-fi allegory to climate change and the exploitation of indigenous peoples. In simple terms, think of these as more effortful attempts to bring a gritty, mature tone to the Sonic series. Meanwhile, The Recollected Cut is an attempt to make Shadow a more sympathetic protagonist who’s more in the spirit of how he was depicted by the end of Heroes, as well as turning Black Doom into a more complex and threatening antagonist, giving the G.U.N. Commander a stronger arc with more logic behind it, and generally clean up the overall dialogue and story structure.

Black Comet, on the other hand, is a standalone prequel, and while I don’t expect IDW to have their own Black Label like DC, that would be the best division for this graphic novel. Fifty years before Shadow the Hedgehog, Black Doom is revealed to have been Z9, the son of Emperor Black Fate on the distant planet Nigerheim. Because of its distance from any nearby stars, it relies on a mineral within its mantle called negronite to stay warm. Meanwhile, the United Federation has just discovered that Chaos existed beyond the stuff of legend, so they were rushing to build their defenses out of a suitable material. G.U.N. invades Nigerheim for the sole purpose of negronite mining, during which Z9 is brought aboard the Space Colony ARK. There, he meets Maria and assists Gerald with Project Shadow, but he returns home a week later to find his planet starting to freeze over and his father dead. He seeks revenge on his killer, the previous G.U.N. commander, while planning to collect the Chaos Emeralds with Shadow’s help, fend off the human army, and take Earth as their new home. The story draws heavy from Old Norse culture and mythology—many liberties were taken from Robert Eggers’s The Northman—so, without spoiling anything, it’s implied that Z9 will be gifted with a form of spiritual ascension as a reward for the glory he carries into battle.

Like I said, I don’t consider either of these to be anything beyond hobbies. In fact, even as Black Comet in particular is being completely reworked as I speak, it’s always remained as little more than a world-building exercise. However, in the portfolio tab of this blog, I’ll be adding my final draft of Black Comet, which will be followed by The Recollected Cut once that project’s finished.