The Shortfuse Story ▸ Fleetway's Iron Man

hey folks short fuse the cybernic if you've not heard of him i don't blame you in the 1990s the uk was graced with sonic the comic an awesome comic book that followed the adventures of sonic tails amy and knuckles in their eternal struggle against the evil dr robotnik it was published by fleetway and its most popular character is probably the evil version of supersonic who has since had fleetway bestowed on him as a nickname in truth though the british comics just like the archie comics the idw comics french comics and various manga volumes introduced a whole pack of new characters separate from the games who exclusively appeared in the world of fleetway's sonic the comic one of the more popular original characters was the armored warrior short fused the cybernic best described as sonic the comic's answer to marvel's iron man with a high-tech and indestructible suit of armor short fuse made an immediate impact on readers of sonic the comic and would go on to grace multiple covers and have dozens of pieces of fan art showcased in the comics pages i'd go so far as to say short fuse was probably fleetway's most popular original character in the 90s but who exactly is short fuse how did he get his armor is he a goodie or a baddie strap in as i attempt to answer all of those questions and take you through the entire somewhat tragic story of short fuse the cybernic the very first short fuse story is from issue 45 in a strip titled enter the cyber nick we get introduced to shorty the squirrel a passionate resident of emerald hill zone with a real temper shorty is arguing with another critter at the start of the story who claims that robotnik is an okay guy mid-argument a raid on emerald hill zone is initiated by robotnik's trooper robots who round up shorty's friends and take them on board their ship shorty manages to escape and infiltrates the ship hoping to save his friends inside we get to see the badnik making process and robotnik and his sidekick grimer can be seen hooking up unconscious animals inside the shells of badniks it really drives home how horrible robotnik is the brave shorty the squirrel has seen enough he dives out of cover and attempts to destroy robotnik's lab but unfortunately he's a pretty puny little animal he's easily apprehended by robotnik admiring shorty's spunk robotnik decides to stuff him into the shell of the first ever superbadnik called a cybernick a more powerful variant of the usual badniks the first part ends with the horrifying face of shorty as he's wired up inside this cybernic shell the story continued in issue 47 which features shorty right there on the cover we pick up with robotnik explaining that unlike normal badniks there's no way to release animals from a cybernic so shawty will be trapped in his armor forever once the process is complete the final step of the transformation is to blast shorty with some sort of device to brainwash him making him subservient and mindless when this is done shawty is tasked with his first mission to lead an assault of his former home of emerald hill zone shorty obliges leading a band of badniks there when they arrive though schulte blasts the badniks into oblivion freeing the animals inside who are incidentally his former buddies as it turns out he managed to resist the brainwashing process and postulates that it might have been a mixture of his own rugged determination and the damage he did to robotnik's lab that allowed him to retain his own consciousness the final part of this origin story opens up with a furious robotnik making his way to emerald hill zone after learning of shorty's rebellion he wants to deal with the cybernic himself when he gets there he finds shorty who puts up a good fight shorty has the ability of flight can fire off blasts from cannons in his arms and has great defense due to his chunky robotic armor robotnik does have a contingency plan a small device that he uses to short-circuit shorty's armor the device is incredibly effective but just as robotnik gets the upper hand good old sonic turns up to smash robotnik and save the day shorty crushes the device eradicating his one weakness the story ends with sonic extending an invite for shorty to join the freedom fighters but declaring himself a loner with a personal vendetta against robotnik shorty declines and flies off giving himself the new nickname short fuse the cybernic the next short fuse story was a one-off titled knuckles versus the cyberknick taking place shortly after the events of sonic and knuckles the story starts with short fuse chasing a badnik to the floating island enraged at the sight of robots invading his island home again knuckles lashes out and attacks short fuse the two scrap a little while short fuse tries to explain to knuckles that he isn't on robotnik's side knuckles is finally convinced when short fuse helps to dispatch some bad knicks the two share a handshake before short fuse takes off to mobius this story was worth a mention because as loners with short tempers i think knuckles and short views are quite similar next up we have the rampage of metternick in this story robotnik unleashes his newest creation mechanic on the citizens of stone tower zone mechanic is a giant godzilla-style robot dinosaur who starts laying waste to the zone while robotnik smugly watches on a monitor mechanic is so big that even when sonic turns up to help he finds himself powerless to stop him short fuse also arrives on the scene to help he agrees to team up with sonic and the freedom fighters and they launch a combined attack short fuse flies into the air and launches sonic at mechanic's head but disaster strikes the fierce mechanic seems to incinerate short fuse with his flame breath of course in part two of the story it's revealed that short fuse is in fact not burnt to a crisp he gets his wits about him enough to save sonic from being eaten a cocky sonic and angry short fuse exchanged some heated words with sonic arrogantly refusing to accept that short fuse saved him from certain death sonic forms a genius plan to bring down the hulking dinosaur he asks short fuse to fire his blasters in a single spot short fuse's blasters heat up mechanics ankles allowing sonic to spin dash through the heated metal and tear mechanics inner wirings to shreds bringing the menace to an end as usual short fuse ends the story by bidding everyone a jew and flying off now next up we have one of short fuse's most substantial solo adventures a really important story titled cybernick strikes back off on his own adventure short fuse goes and finds more of robotnik's goons to destroy he strikes a group of trooper robots and frees their mobian prisoners one of the prisoners is another beloved fleetway character called techno the canary who would go on to be a close friend of amy's short fuse explains his backstory to techno something that would become a bit of a recurring joke in the comics techno reveals that she's an engineer and short fuse reveals that he already knew that and freed her specifically so that she could develop him a bomb to blow up the highly pollutant chemical plant zone the duo head to tecno's secret lab she tells short fuse that she used to be one of robotnik's top engineers but she was caught stealing materials and was ordered to be enslaved techno agrees to help out by making a bomb but also says that she can help to upgrade short fuse's armor it's made of a super metal called mega tau kind of like adamantium or vibranium a substance that techno actually helped to create this is the result of techno's improvements this is kind of like short fuse mark ii with the red and black details what a massive improvement the two go to chemical plant zone and plant their bomb with a five-minute countdown one of the comics main baddies turns up on robotnik's behalf to ruin their plans the shapeshifter metamorphia metamorphia proves to be quite the formidable foe matching short fuse's abilities with her various different hideous forms the two end up fighting until the bomb timer reaches zero and explodes part two of the story ends with the cybernic sinking into the waters below the zone with heaps of debris crushing him fearing he may drown short fuse uses his jet boots to free himself and assuming that metamorphia took techno to robotnik heads to robotnik citadel the story ends with short fuse going full badass he storms into the citadel decimates all of the robots and successfully rescues techno robotnik now facing defeats actually eggs short fuse on daring short fuse to fire a shot at him and finish him off short fuse refuses to end robotnik why well in his own words you'll suffer more if i let you live each time i triumph over your badniks you'll remember one thing you created me which makes you responsible for your own defeats the story ends with short fuse and techno flying off techno offers short fuse to use her lab as his secret base but ever the loner he declines the offer and goes off on his own now you'll have to excuse me for retreading some material here but short fuse next appears to take on commander brutus another of robotnik's creations that went rogue man robotnik shaw had a knack for creating robots that wanted to kick his ass short fuse and sonic are the two main protagonists who tried to stop brutus when he leads an army of badniks in an assault of metropolis zone if you want to hear more about that please check out my video on commander brutus for the purposes of a profile of short fuse however it's worth mentioning that the mighty commander brutus actually gets the better of short fuse every time they clash proving himself to be the strongest of robotnik's creations short fuse does prove useful in the struggle by freeing freedom fighter johnny lightfoot after he's been roboticized by brutus as it turns out neither short fuse nor sonic is responsible for ending brutus's onslaught but dr robotnik is like i said check the video if you want to know more about that there's a period of time in the comic where sonic disappears from mobius into the special stage for quite some time during this period short fuse actually decides to briefly join the freedom fighters he first joins the team in issue 89 after helping amy tails and johnny take on a troop of badniks short fuse realises he'd be a really big asset to the freedom fighters in sonic's absence but kind of like the incredible hulk in the original avengers short fuse is destined to clash with some of the other members of the freedom fighters in the next issue tensions are already starting to build between short fuse and amy the de facto leader of the freedom fighters in sonic's absence some information fed to the gang by one of robotnik's agents leads them to attacking a gaggle of troops short fuse is really hasty to get stuck in and start destroying some robots so he charges in without anybody else's consent which really annoys amy by the way british comic fans does this panel remind you of anything anyway the robots were hiding a secret weapon called vermin who is actually another cybernick vermin has been engineered to be even stronger than short fuse when the two fights vermin uses his tail to inject a computer virus into short fuse's armor incapacitating him vermin looks like he'll be able to take down all of the freedom fighters but amy rose manages to fend him off by shooting an acidic fruit just above him which oozes all over vermin and forces him to flee fortunately techno is able to assist short fuse and get rid of the computer virus but his actions have already alienated amy short fuse remains part of the freedom fighters for a couple more stories in a christmas issue he destroys a heat ray satellite put into orbit by robotnik and then a few issues later the gang end up disturbing a monstrous dragon from its slumber when expanding their secret underground base amy noting that the gang were the ones who disturbed the dragon in the first place has to step in to stop short fuse aggressively going on the attack the whole dragon problem is resolved peacefully in the end but the freedom fighters emerge from the story worried about short fuse's temperament things really come to a head in the story boiling point when on a covert mission to liberate some mobiums from chemical plant zone short fuse spots his old adversary vermin and flies into a rage charging into battle early and without consenting with his team again the results of this are nearly disastrous as johnny lightfoot nearly falls into a vat of acid before he's saved by tails short fuse is tough enough to force vermin to retreat this time but he gets chewed out by amy for his actions he was rash aggressive and quite callous saying that he valued defeating vermin over saving johnny the argument is enough to see short fuse officially leave the freedom fighters to continue on his own this is where things get kind of bizarre there's a world-altering storyline in the comics in which evil supersonic unleashes an electromagnetic pulse that effectively destroys all of robotnik's robots rendering him defeated short fuse being a creation of robotniks was also affected by the blast he falls into hot lava and solidifies into a rock statue he's discovered months later by the freedom fighters when he's freed he's dismayed to find that robotnik has finally been defeated leaving him purposeless and still trapped in his armor in lieu of being a hero to save the world short fuse tries his hand at a few normal jobs working as a window salesman a fry cook and an actor in a commercial they don't leave him very fulfilled short fuse very conveniently finds some purpose when sonic's help is requested on a faraway planet via a mysterious portal with no sonic there to respond short fuse offers to hop through the portal to help instead making it seem to his friends like he disappeared from mobius without a trace techno cares about short fuse deeply and when pondering his whereabouts develops a piece of rather creepy technology that her and amy used to locate him they're transported far away to an alien spacecraft where they see him and he proceeds to attack them has short fuse finally gone bad he's been enslaved by an alien emperor dark visor remind you of anyone he's attached some sort of device to short fuse's chest and turned him into a mindless war machine the device is a little creature called a controller crawley kind of like a brain slug from future armor once removed short fuse is back to normal again darkfire's shape is attacked by the shape of another race of aliens who have been in a centuries-old war with darkvisor's people everyone crash lands on a planet inhabited by peaceful aliens and short fuse amy and techno get to act as intermediaries in bringing peace to the centuries-old conflicts between dark visor and the other aliens at the conclusion of the story short fuse resolves that he's gonna stay on this planet far far away inhabited by a race of benevolent aliens short fuse has a belief that they might be able to free him from his shell his alien adventures come to an end a few issues later when he returns to mobius for christmas as it turns out the aliens have successfully installed a release program on his armor meaning that shorty can take it off and put it on at will heroically though he has to sacrifice this perk quite soon afterwards when doing battle with arch nemesis vermin so vermin is on the attack once again and short fuse encourages vermin to use his piercing tail he positively dares vermin to stab him again vermin obliges but this time around the armour's release protocol installed in short fuse is transferred to vermin popping out the rat inside and allowing short fuse to blast the armor rendering it useless vermin is finally defeated but this means that short fuse is once again trapped in his shell okay so short fuse makes his final appearance in issue 174 in a tense showdown with robotnik so at this point robotnik is menacing mobius once again and he's using a machine that grants him his wish to empower himself at the detriment of planet mobius robotnik has grown in size and power and mobius is wilting and dying sonic is struggling to deal with the titanic threat and short fuse arrives with blasters ready to help but robotnik proves too strong and easily overwhelms everyone techno advises short fuse to try hooking himself up to the wish granting machine that robotnik used to suck up mobius's life force short fuse does and manages to reverse the flow of the energy revitalizing mobius while shrinking robotnik the sheer power of all of this is too much for the cybernic to take however and shorty's armor blows up in the process shorty is once again free free for good after a long and arduous battle against robotnik shorty the squirrel is free and short fuse is no more that was the last we'd see of short fuse in the comic he had a uniquely vulnerable personality and some really cool abilities a great combination short fuse was pretty much the sole creation of lou stringer one of the comics greats stringer shared some early concept art of the character on twitter a few years back showing a more tubby and squirrely design for short fuse i'm glad they continued to work on the design because short fuse's final look with the red and black details is iconic one detail that stringer has confirmed after the comic ended is that techno and short fuse have a little soft spot for each other but it was never made too explicit in the comic in case it alienated younger audiences hmm that's quite funny it's kind of the opposite of what happened over in the archie comic books but looking back there were plenty of subtle signs that techno and short fuse had a little thing going on talking of archie in 2004 short fuse makes a little cameo in the background of a single panel as sonic explains about the de-robotisation of mobians at the hands of a race of aliens that's a really cool nod i believe a couple of other characters including techno also made small cameo appearances in the archie comics too short fuse amy and techno could travel between different dimensions so it's not out of the question to suggest that the universes of fleetway and archie were linked in some way but that's just crazy head canon sonic the comic ended its run in 2002 but it's unofficially continued as an online comic written and illustrated entirely by fans short fuse received a new suit of armor over there if you're dying for a little more shorty the squirrel what do you think of this short fuse mark iii the one thing that's surprising is despite being the most requested fleetway character for me to cover there isn't really any cool fan projects out there involving short fuse there doesn't seem to be any short fuse mods for anything for example including sonic roboblast 2 which has mods for pretty much every sonic character when you search google for short fuse he's only the second result a man can only hope that short fuse will get his day in the sun at some point in the future thanks for joining me for this one it was incredibly nostalgic for me if you want more sonic videos or more fleetway videos specifically check out one of these handy playlists thanks for watching and hopefully i'll see you next time

Channel: Johnny Vector

Views: 31,455

Keywords: shortfuse, shortfuse the cybernik, shortfuse fleetway, fleetway sonic, fleetway sonic the comic, shorty the squirrel, shorty the squirrel sonic, shortfuse sonic, short fuse, short fuse sonic, shortfuse sonic the comic, british sonic, british sonic comic, shortfuse vs sonic, fleetway, fleetway super sonic, cybernik, cybernik the robot, vermin the cybernik, vermin sonic, vermin sonic the comic, vermin fleetway

Id: 5J5TPsCJFQs

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022