Tumble the Skunk is a character that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog IDW Comics. He, along his brother Rough, serve as Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline's incompetent hired muscle at the start of the comic series.
Appearance[]
Tumble is a broadchested tall brawler, standing at around the same height as Vector the Crocodile and towering above his brother. His eyes are surrounded by dark rings. He wears his hair tall, and from a distance it could be confused for the tip of his tail.
His tail is a stump however, having lost it in an undisclosed accident, that traumatised Tumble. As a result whenever weaponry is being handed out, Tumble often goes for tail based prosthetics.
Personality[]
Tumble is largely a dumb brute, utilising his power to bully those weaker than him. He throughly enjoys rhyming with his brother however as part of their introductions, often penning new rhymes to try out whenever confronted by Sonic and his friends.
Whenever talk of his tail comes up, Tumble tends to get very depressed over it, and tends to be jealous of both Tangle the Lemur, for her long flexible tail and Tails who has two. When his prosthetic tail is destroyed, Tumble quickly becomes too depressed to continue fighting.
Whilst mostly viewed as a bumbler, Tumble is a proficient fighter when teamed up with his brother Rough, easily able to overcome Dr. Eggman's mechanical T-rex with their combination attack which even managed to earn the respect of Zavok.
Whilst only truly loyal to his brother, Tumble shared a mutual respect friendship with Zavok during their time together during the events of Bad Guys, even attempting to pen him into their introduction songs, which is the highest respect the skunks could give another.
Tumble is also quite superstituous, being afraid of curses and the supernatural as seen when he was worried about Eggman's abandoned pyramid.
History[]
During the events of the Eggman war, Rough and Tumble managed to save Barricade Town from invading badniks. However, rather than doing so for heroic reasons, the pair of skunks became the new dictators of the town, taking resources from their Wispon distribution center, treating the townsfolk as their personal servants and mistreating them in petty bullying ways.
Sonic and Knuckles arrived and engaged the skunk brothers in combat, ultimately liberating the town after a brief battle with the skunks being sent to prison for their efforts.
They were soon liberated by Dr. Starline using the Warp Topaz, and were hired to help kidnap the amnesiac Dr. Eggman in exchange for Starline creating weapons that would help them get revenge on Sonic. They agree, and successfully kidnap 'Mr. Tinker', Dr. Eggman's reformed good self, with Tumble simply picking him up over his shoulder and carrying him off.
Rough and Tumble witnessed Starline perform a series of painful proceedures that, combined with Eggman seeing Metal Sonic restored him to his previous evil self. Eggman didn't think highly of the skunk brothers, but after hearing how much they hated Sonic, he agreed to uphold Starline's deal and build them some Eggman tech that would help defeat Sonic.
Upon recieving their new weaponry, Rough and Tumble engaged Sonic and Tails, with Tumble becoming outraged that Tails got to have two tails whilst mourning the loss of his own. During the fight Sonic broke Tumble's robotic tail and caused him to breakdown and lose his will to fight whilst Tails took care of Rough. After this loss they were returned to Eggman via Starline's Warp Topaz and demanded better tech to destroy Sonic. Eggman, annoyed by them, hatched a plan to use the two as his new testing subjects.
For their next encounter with Sonic, Rough and Tumble were given 'Back Up Backpacks' and told to use it if Sonic got the upperhand again. Confronting Sonic and Amy this time, the pair fought but were overwhelmed. In order to compete they activated the backpacks which dropped a metalic liquid known as the metal virus onto them and transformed their DNA into Zombots, zombie robots who could infect others with mere touch. During combat Sonic touched the skunks and became infected. To prevent them infecting Amy or anyone else, Sonic knocked the pair into an inescapable pit.
After the Metal Virus was overcome and reversed by the combination of Super Sonic and Super Silver, Tumble and Rough, now no longer infected, were rescued from starvation by the efforts of Tangle and Tails which only upset Tumble more thanks to their tails and his own personal issues.
Having learnt absolutely nothing, Rough and Tumble tried to take over Barricade town again, but the villagers now armed with Wispons defeated them and sent them to a high security prison, which was also holding Zavok and Mimic the Octopus. Dr. Starline once again appeared to break them out, and the skunks became furious at him blaming him for their Zombot fates, but Starline, having been burnt by Eggman himself, suggested a team up to get revenge on Dr. Eggman. The skunks still refused, but Starline won them round by simply offering to make them new weapons which immedietly changed their tunes.
After Starline releases Rough, Tumble, Zavok and Mimic from their cells, they form an uneasy alliance with Rough and Tumble beating up the guards who attempted to apprehend the escapees, and the group casually walk out of the facility.
Trivia[]
- Tumble has worked for nearly every major antagonist in the series, working for Dr. Eggman, Dr. Starline, Zavok and Clutch the Opossum at various points.