Behind every good villain there should be an equally good, if not better henchman. Yes, with every 'Master' there should be a 'Torgo'; clowns that make the dark side fun! For as much as a hero is only as good as their villains and vice versa, so to is a villain only as good as their flunkies! Now, call me a heretic, call me an uncultured swine, call me a fool! (they're all true) But I have always preferred the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog over the much beloved "SatAM" incarnation of the series. I know. I'm scum and I admit that, and while I could explain my reasons as to why, how even as a child I always felt the series was too dark and pretentious for a concept as overtly silly as one that stars a neon blue rodent that jogs at mock voiced by Steve Urkel... it would all be a lie! In truth I just found Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's rogues gallery to be the absolutely height of entertainment and in a lot ways, I still do. Blessed be the art direction of Milton Knight and the voice of the late Long John Baldry.
Sadly, I feel that Scratch, Grounder and the occasional Coconuts were the perfect chemistry to compliment Dr. Robotnik; a chemistry that has never be fully replicated, despite their attempts to do so with characters like 'Orbot' and 'Cubot'. I'm not sure what it is about the old egg but Robotnik just begs to have set underlings to give him grief and while I may not have cared much for it, Snively did do a fine job of that so I'll give him credit where credit is due. (Yes, I know Snively was a much more important character in the comics who eventually succeeded Robotnik and was a legitimate villain but I'm not talking about that version) Still, in the end, Robotnik will always be best as a grumbling old man with a robotic rooster, monkey and a tunneler tank 'thing' in tow and if that's wrong and it's just my nostalgia blindness talking then hey, I don't wanna be right!
