The character of Hope Kintobor is C-List character in the book who's history, use and creation itself is debatable to long term fans of the comic. there are those that like her those that dislike her and those that don't care one way or another. She was created some time ago during a phase of the comic when it was just coming off the Sonic Adventure adaption and was trying to build up a storyline again. Here I will discuss how the character has been used or misused depending on your opinion as well as how other characters have indirectly affected the course of the character.

1. Use of Hope.

2. Nate Morgan and the reason for Hope's creation.

3. Maria Robotnik and the path Hope's charcter has gone.

Use of Hope
Hope first appeared in issue 91 of the Sonic the Hedehog Archie comic book in the aptly named story Crash. Here two spaceships filled with Overlanders (a human like species that evolved on Mobius alongside the Mobians after the Gene Bomb) had crash landed outside Robotropolis. The leader of this faild expedition was none other that Colin Kintobor, he was Robotniks brother, Snively's father and as fate would have it Hope's stepfather. He and his family were amung those on the ships and with their arrival began a suprisingly interesting storyline that graced the comic for over a year.

The Overlanders having been at war with the Mobians for years were quick to dismiss Sonic's warnings and take Robotnik up on his offer of sanctuary in his city. The focal point of this subplot was that Hope was the only one amung them who noticed something off about her Uncle and tried in vain to convince her father of this. It all culminated in issue 105 when her family was roboticized and she and the other Overlanders left the city. Now this was an interesting storyline that had a definate end to it. Hope had a good role in the story and her existance in the comic could have ended right there, except it didn't.

Her creator Karl Bollers decided to have the girl stay in Knothole, in a very moving story in issue 108, and then proceded to do nothing with her. That's right after a very compelling story in issue 108 entitled "A Girl Named Hope" the aforementioned character didn't have a speaking role in the comic until issue 125 and that was just to move the plot along. Now it is very well possible that when Karl first started the storyline he intended for Hope to dissapear into Limbo along with the other Overlanders at the end. Given that the storyline ran for a year alot of things could have been changed at the last minute. It just seems starnge to me that he would go to the trouble of keeping the character around and that not use her for anything. There is keeping a character around becuase you have a plan for them and then there is doing just for the heck of it.

As a matter of fact for the rest of Karl Bollers time as a writer of the comic the character would never again be important to the main story. All other writers who use her prominently were other writers Romy Chamon, Ken Penders, and Ian himself. Fortunately they all did excellant jobs with the character and kept her from falling into obscurity. It just seems unusual that the man who created the character would not use her after going to the effort of having her stay with the main cast.

Nate Morgan and the reason for Hope's creation.

Please note that for these last two sections thess are purely theories I have based on what I have observed. I don't nor do I pretend to have inside knowledge of the comic.

The characters of Nate Morgan and hope Kintobor may never have met but it seems that their fates were intertwined. It may have not been obvious at the time but with his death in issue 100 it seems that Hope was created for a purpose, to replace Nate Morgan as the human charcter in the cast. One thing that is essential in comics these days is for their to be characters for the readers to be able to relate to. The cast of the comic had been doing a great job for years with that. But it seemed in the early years the editirs may have felt the readers needed a human character they could identify with.

Karl Bollers obliged he also seemed to be a fan of the SatAM show becuase the charcter he used was none other than an old concept from the intial Series Bible of the show that never made it in Nate Morgan. The character had been conceived for the cartoon but had never actually been used. Karl did so and it seemed the readers had someone to identify with, except the character didn't quite catch on with a number of fans. I can't speak for the majority but most of the fans I have communicated with weren't to keen on old Nate and most didn't identify with him at all. In retrospect an elderly scientist may not have been the ideal choice for a character readers of a kid's comic book could identify with the fact that whenhe arrived Rotor a character long time readers liked also went away may not of helped matters either.

I won't pretend to know the exact reason that it was decided to kill Nate off. But the fact that he was disposed of around the same time Hope was due to come live in Knothole seems rather suspicous to me. The fact that Hope fits the model of a charcter the intended readership could identify with far better then the previous human is also telling.

Maria Robotnik and the path Hope's charcter has gone.

Their is one more character that has had an even more direct role in Hope's path a character who unlike Nate Morgan their is no question as to the influence she had. I'm sure everyone on this forum knows who Maria Robotnik is so I won't bother giving a detail introduction. The connection between the two characters was first established in issue 125 whe Shadow the Hedgehog ensemble darkhorse of the Sonic franchise immediatly noticed the similarities between the two girls.

This may or may not have been a coincidence but logic would dictate it was. Given how far in advance the storyline Hope was introduced in was must have been planned and how Sega gave Archie virtually no info on Sonic Adventure 2 until the last possible moment it is unlikely Bollers had Maria in mind when he created Hope. They were just two Sonic characters created by different people in different countries who both happened to be young white human girls with blonde hair and blue eyes "who were introduced the same year". Hey stranger things have happend, Doom Patrol and the X-Men, Swamp Thing and Man Thing.

Either way the revelation that Hope was essentially identical in appearence to Maria may have saved the charcter from obscurity or doomed her to repetativeness depending on how you look at it. On one hand this essentialy attched her to Shadow the second most popular character in the franchise, essentially securing her continued use in the book and in a prominent role.

On the other hand the character had been stuck in a position of being the girl who looks like Shadows dead friend and who'm he creepily stalks. Ian has stated that he had intended to expand the charcter beyond that if he got the chance. I have faith he can do that, if the charcter is alive that is. Never the less Ian has taken seemingly obscure character from the past before and maken the interesting, I believe if he decided to bring Hope back he can do the same with her.