SWATbots are the robotic foot soldiers of Dr. Robotnik in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series. They are the primary units of Robotnik's army and could be found everywhere in Robotropolis and all other territories in the Robotnik Empire.
Description[]
In the Archie comics, SWATbots were lean humanoid robots with dome-shaped heads. They sported a grey-and-white colour scheme, had a horizontal optic visor and spikes jutting out from their heads, shoulders and ankles. They could be found patrolling the streets of Robotropolis, guarding Dr. Robotnik's facilities or patrolling the city's airspace in hover-pods. They were armed with wrist-mounted laser blasters but would often carry laser rifles as well.
Later in the comic's run, Dr. Eggman would create a new line of SWATbots to accompany his Shadowbot soldiers. These new models had elongated heads, slender bodies and were black all over. They carried laser rifles and other similar weapons.
History[]
First Robotnik War[]
Following the Great War, Dr. Robotnik created the SWATbots to serve as the automated police force of the Kingdom of Acorn. Secretly, however, he was plotting a coup d'état, intent on seizing absolute power for himself. What the citizens believed were there to protect them would serve as Robotnik's tools for swift and total domination of the kingdom. When the coup occurred, the SWATbots stationed throughout the kingdom began rounding up all citizens for roboticization.
For the next ten years, the SWATbots served as the backbone of Robotnik's military forces, occasionally supported by a variety of different Badnik models of unconventional design. Wherever anyone went in Robotnik's empire, SWATbots would be a common sight. As the Freedom Fighters continued to oppose Robotnik's reign, SWATbots would see a sharp decline in success, leading to Robotnik developing new robots to combat the growing resistance.
As the SWATbots abilities to stop the Freedom Fighters dwindled, Robotnik began putting them to other uses, primarily as a labour force. When Robotropolis was essentially destroyed by Mecha Sonic and Mecha Knuckles, Robotnik had the SWATbots rebuild the ruined city. When Robotnik went onboard the Death Egg and left Snively in charge of Robotropolis, the latter changed the priority of the SWATbots from defending the city to acting as his personal servants and reshaping the city as he saw fit.
Second Robotnik War[]
Following the death of Robotnik, the First Robotnik War came to an end with all SWATbots being scrapped as the Freedom Fighters worked to reclaim Robotropolis. Unfortunately, a new conflict would arise as Dr. Eggman - an alternate version of Robotnik from another dimension - arrived on Mobius Prime to finish what his predecessor had started. Eggman claimed Robotropolis for himself by seizing control of the old Robotnik's roboticized workforce and sending his army of Shadowbots to drive out the Freedom Fighters.
Eggman's control of Robotropolis would not last, however, as the city was destroyed in a nuclear attack carried out by the United Federation. The Eggman Empire's seat of power was then moved to the abandoned Overlander city of Megaopolis, which Eggman rebuilt into his new capital. Following the invasion of the alien Xorda, Eggman declared open warfare against the rest of Mobius, building a new army of SWATbots to carry out his conquest. These new SWATbot models would remain in service for the better part of a year before being replaced by Eggman's new Badnik foot soldier: the Egg Pawn.
New employment[]
Despite three years having passed since the death of their master Dr. Robotnik, some of the original SWATbot models continued to exist, sparse throughout Mobius. Most, along with a few functioning Badniks, became employees of Mammoth Mogul when he took control of the Casino Night Zone. They served as the casino's bouncers, escorting the Destructix out after they "confessed" to using Mogul's bar for their mercenary operations.
See also[]
The following is a list of robots from other Sonic the Hedgehog media that share the SWATbot name.
- Swat Bot - Robot soldiers created by Dr. Eggman that appear in the game Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.
- Swatbot (SatAM) - The animated counterpart to these robots from the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series.
- SWATbots (Sonic Underground) - The military police robots of Dr. Robotnik's empire in Sonic Underground. They came in two distinct models and were far less effective in comparison to the Archie and SatAM models.