Shadow IDW:Another Maria.
By now, its pretty much agreed a lot of people dislike Shadow's characterization in the Idw comics, even more so with the big need for him to be Sonic's "Bitter Rival." Character mandate.
But let's take a moment and just appreciate?
Despite this restriction, the Idw Team has not only made him have relevant goal making his appearances in the comics have PURPOSE, despite Shadow's lack of telling anyone what that seemingly random puprose is. But also they have, Evan in particular from what i can tell, have painted this beautiful picture of the inner person shadow is despite his outward exterior.
Let me explain a bit. And Imma cry a little with this.
Shadows Goal: to protect the planet from threats, but specifically, to protect the planet to keep a promise to the one person he loved the most.
Maria. Thats why he showed up to fight mettalix. What other reason would he have to? To prove he was the strongest? No, that wouldn't be true even if he told you that was what it was. He's shown he doesn't "seem" to care about others, so whats the matter if mettalix destroys some stuff here or there.
Yet how come shadow shows up whenever there is a major threat or seemingly new rising up danger similar to eggman? Why did he try to take out Mr.Tinker?
Shadow was tasked with protecting the planet, but thats a big ask, and something he doesn't quite know how to do. He himself was created for more than being a weapon, but since his release in sa2 it was all he came to know.
In shadow the hedgehog he had to annihilate the whole black arms species because they wanted to consume the planet. And while they where trying to eat the planet and the people in it, having to obliterate them, especially knowing one them is technically your dad, probably lingers in his mind a bit. He probably thinks about it. Maybe it bothers him.
To Shadow, the only way to deal with a threat is to take it out- merely avoiding thee problem leads to nothing but more trouble, and more heartache.
Which leads me to number 2 😢😢😢😭:
He doesn't want another Maria. For him, letting a threat go on to threaten someone else or something he holds dear is the worst crime. Think back. He tried running away from the Gun soldiers with Maria. In all the sequences he was running away with her, not fighting. In the hero story of Shadow the hedgehog on the ark, Maria asks you to save the scientists, which leads me to believe that canonically, shadow didn't actually fight on the ark, just evaded. But look what happened. His best friend got shot and died, because he ran away. Because he let the threat live. He probably wonders if its because he didn't fight.
Take the latest issue. He goes straight for Starline instead of outright releasing tails or rouge (who has already practically released herself mind you). This previous experience comes back into play, maybe even doubling because of how tinker turning back to eggman unleashed the virus which shadow couldn't stop. If you look closely, hes almost losing himself when Starline gets away.
Only Rouge's words of wisdom pull him out of his rage filled trance. Perhaps she knows that all that killing would weigh on him even more. Yeah, even if he did take out one person, to take out another? And another? All that guilt piling up on his conscience.
But yeah I think they did a nice job on how he's constantly battling with whta he thinks his promise means and what he should do so he can still sleep at night and have a healthy life going forward.
Obviously this could be different from how they may see it or be writing it towards, but this is kinda how I perceive it/like to think they are keeping in mind.
(Edit: I made this a little while back and forgot to post it/work on it so I kinda forgot anything else I was gonna write)
Anyways, these are my thoughts :)
