Sojourner

Sojourner is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. He is a mobian echidna who is the son of Spectre and father of Thunderhawk. As a member of the Brotherhood of Guardians following his tenure as Guardian of Angel Island, he has fought many times against the Dark Legion during Knuckles' time in the position. Following Dr. Eggman's greatest offensive against the island, in which Sojourner battled alongside several other members of the Brotherhood to defend the Master Emerald, he was studied by Dr. Finitevus, and then banished to the Twilight Zone.

Appearance

Sojourner is a red echidna of average height and build. He wore a dark green, open chested vest, a yellow ribbon on one of his dreadlocks, and spiked guardian gloves. Alongside his son and several-grand's down grandson he sported a beard though considerably less prominent. A noteworthy part of Sojourner's attire was a square metal-plate on his forehead between his eyes. The purpose of this plate was never explained, though other Guardians (notably Harlan, Jordan and Mathias) also had markings on their foreheads.

History

Member of the Brotherhood

Little is known about Sojourner's tenure as Guardian of the Floating Island. What is known is that he was the first Guardian to redirect the Brotherhood's focus to different regions around Mobius.^[1]

The Queen Alicia Incident

During the Great War, Queen Alicia Acorn and her infant son Elias were sent to Angel Island to avoid being captured by the invading Overlander hordes. As their ship approached the island however it was shot down by aerial Overlander ships. After it crashed, the Brotherhood arrived on the scene first. Sojourner discovered among the wreckage the baby Elias. Sabre, who was in charge of the mission, told the arriving Overlanders everyone had died in the crash. Following the Overlander withdrawal from the island, the Brotherhood took Alicia and Elias to the safety of Haven where the dying queen was put into cryo-sleep.

When the issue came up over whether to inform King Max of his wife and son's survival, Sojourner decided it was best to keep it a secret for the time being, stating "If the Overlanders discover we withheld the facts from them, that will force their hand into taking action, upon which we would be forced into taking action, and getting dragged into a war we have no interest in whatsoever". Thus, for the next several years, the Brotherhood raised Elias, with Sojourner actively teaching him and acting as a father figure. When Elias was old enough, the Brotherhood left him in the care of Colonel Sommersby at the Royal Compound.^[2]

Fighting the Dark Legion

During the Dark Legion's attempt at rigging the Echidnaopolis elections, a task force was dispatched to take over Haven. Due to its defenses being sabotaged by Moritori Rex during his impersonation as Tobor, Sojourner, Thunderhawk and Sabre were completely caught off guard and captured by the Dark Legion. However, the three were rescued by Locke and Spectre.

When Princess Sally Acorn went to the Brotherhood of Guardians to propose and alliance against Robo-Robotnik, Sojourner carried on a friendly conversation with her prior to the meeting's beginning.^[3]

After Hunter managed to disable all of the Brotherhood's monitors and fail safes, Sabre and Sojourner investigated the problem in one part of Haven while Locke and Thunderhawk investigated another. Sojourner looked into Haven's main circuit board but found no problem with its hardware.^[4]

Sojourner was present with the rest of the Brotherhood after Knuckles retrieved the pieces of the Master Emerald.^[5]

Following the return of Mathias, Sojourner participated on the Brotherhood attack on the Grand Conservatory to put an end to the Dark Legion's attempted takeover of the Floating Island. However, he along with the other Brotherhood members were caught in a trap and banished to an alternate zone when the Dark Legion Battle Cruiser fired the Quantum Beam.^[6]

Sojourner and the rest of the Brotherhood were returned to Mobius when Chaos Knuckles undid the effects of the Quantum Beam. When the Brotherhood rummaged through the ruins of Haven, Sojourner believed there to be evidence as to who was behind its destruction. His son Thunderhawk soon pointed out that it was obviously the Dark Legion.^[7]

Last Stance and Captivity

During Sonic's year long absence, the Eggman Empire launched a full-scale offensive against Angel Island with assistance from the Dingoes, who allied with Eggman in exchange for technological and military assistance. During their invasion, Sojourner along with the rest of the Brotherhood defended the Master Emerald from being captured. The battle drained them of most of their energy, and they were believed to have been killed in the fight.^[8]

Having been badly weakened from their battle with Eggman's forces, Dr. Finitevus had no problems holding the Brotherhood captive. From there, Finitevus performed numerous studies on each member of the Brotherhood in order to understand their relationship with Chaos energies. Once he felt he learned all he could, Finitevus dumped the Brotherhood and Moritori Rex into the Twilight Zone, leaving them for death.^[9]

Personality

Sojourner was known for speaking his mind when the time came to it. When the issue came up over the Brotherhood's use of excessive technology despite the Echidna's ban of it, Sojourner was quick to mention that the Brotherhood were hypocrites. Sabre disagreed, stating that their technology simply allowed them an "even playing field" with the Dark Legion, and that the technology was not meant to be banned forever. Sojourner replied saying there was no proof that their ancestors meant for technology to come back, but before the debate could finish, he, Sabre and Thunderhawk were captured by Dark Legionnaires. Sojourner seemed to have the least amount of discontent for the Dark Legion among the Brotherhood members.

Relationships

Friends/allies

• Brotherhood of Guardians (relatives)
  • Knuckles the Echidna
  • Locke the Echidna
  • Sabre
  • Spectre (father)
  • Thunderhawk
• Elias Acorn
• Fire Ant Council
  • Archimedes
  • Deo Volente
  • Semper Fiedis
• Kali-Ka (mother)
• Sally Acorn
• Wanda-Ra (wife)

Enemies

• Dark Legion
  • Dimitri
  • Dr. Finitevus
  • Lien-Da
  • Moritori Rex

Trivia

• Sojourner was typically depicted as averaged aged in most of his appearances, though in Sonic Super Special #14 he was depicted with wrinkles and much older.
• In the letters page of Knuckles the Echidna #21 a fan asked a question about listing Knuckles' relatives in order up to Hawking. The response was: "The father of Knuckles is Locke. Locke's father is Sabre. Sabre's father is Athair. Followed by Athair is his mother Janelle-Li, the first and only female Guardian, and daughter of Thunderhawk. Thunderhawk's father was Sojourner, who was child of Spectre. Tobor the father of Spectre, and the son of Hawking." Evidence to support this appeared in the comics in Knuckles the Echidna #29 when Spectre gave a role call introduction to Princess Sally stating that his son is Sojourner and Thunderhawk is his grandson. It was not until the Sonic Data Banks that this was changed around to Sojourner being the son of Thunderhawk. As to reasons why this change was made nobody is quite sure, although this was most likely due to poor editing. Confusion once again arose in the letters page of Sonic the Hedgehog #193. When asked the order of birth, the editor responded: For the record: The order goes Spectre, Sojourner, Thunderhawk, then Janelle-Li, Athair, Sabre, Locke and Knuckles, for those of you keeping track at home.". When asked about this, writer Ian Flynn responded: I'm going to have to go over it all again to see if there's a nuance somewhere that can nail it down. We will eventually be setting it in stone. Officially. In print. That's more official than what's come before.^[10] Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia included a complete Knuckles family tree, which listed the order as Spectre, Sojourner then Thunderhawk.

External links

• Sojourner at Mobius Encyclopaedia, the Archie Sonic wiki.

References