Non-bird speculations about Surge's character and narrative inspirations under the cut. Slight spoilers too.
So Surge the Tenrec, huh? She's a hell of a character! At time of writing, issue 56 has Surge flat out tell Sonic that she deeply resents him both for existing and for not killing Eggman in any of the multiple chances he's had during their extended battles for the planet, since both factors are ultimately what led to Dr. Starline kidnapping and forcefully cyborg-izing the likely innocent girl that Surge likely once was. Yes, the same happened to Kit, but I want to focus on Surge for the moment. Surge is infuriated and traumatized by the fact that whoever she was effectively no longer exists, and now all that's left is a sentient weapon that's only allowed a single desire by her programming: the violent death of Sonic the Hedgehog. She's a very, very tragic character...but perhaps not a very original one.
Yes, I know, Surge was made mostly so that IDW could have their own version of Scourge the Hedgehog, an Archie-original character that served a similar role as the tempermental dark reflection of Sonic. They're both green, angry, their names are almost the same, the comparisons are undeniable. And I don't deny them at all. Surge is absolutely the IDW Scourge. But it's the subtleties of what makes them different that got me to thinking about this.
Quick refresher, Scourge wasn't a copy of Sonic, but rather a Sonic from an alternate dimension. Before he turned green via the Master Emerald (I don't know and I'm too afraid of Archie Sonic to read it), He just looked like Sonic with sunglasses and a leather jacket. He was literally "What if Sonic but evil" personified. Frankly, his origins are nowhere near as deep as Surge's...but I believe I have an idea of who's is.
For those who don't know, Ian Flynn is the current head writer of IDW Sonic, as he once was at Archie, but he also wrote a short-lived adaptation of another video game series: MegaMan. Now, the entire run of Archie MegaMan didn't happen until all but MegaMan 11 was released, so Flynn had decades worth of source material to plan for and pull from. Even sticking to the Classic series (MegaMan fights eight Robot Masters and then Dr. Wily) gave him almost 20 games' worth of material. It's a pretty safe bet that Flynn probably had some fairly fleshed out plans for arcs he could have taken the more significant characters through if not for the series' premature cancellation. But the character I think matters here is Bass.
Bass, in the Classic MegaMan series, i a Robot Master introduced in MegaMan 7 to serve as the ultimate counter to the blue bomber. This black and gold robot was built by Dr. Wily for the sole purpose of not just matching Megaman blow for blow, but exceeding and destroying him. To that effect, Bass is a very aggressive and anger-driven sort, nothing like the kind and patient Rock Light. And if the parallels between Bass and surge aren't obvious enough, then let me point out that Bass also has a purpose-built canine sidekick.
Despite being introduced rather late into the classic series original run, Bass was and still is one of the most popular characters in the entire franchise. So popular, in fact, that he even appeared in the Archie comics a couple of times far before the series got to 7. In fact, so ahead of 7 that the comic never made it to 7 before getting cancelled! I'd put money on Ian Flynn having some idea of what he wanted to do with Bass but never getting to put those plans into motion...unless he did.
My theory is that, since the MegaMan comics tended to put a fair bit of depth in their bigger characters and Flynn is clearly not afraid to write his characters pre-traumatized, the plan could have been for Bass to, either immediately or over time, grow to resent the specifics of his creation. Bass is a very proud character, so it wouldn't be hard to imagine he'd feel his potential unfulfilled by being pigeonholed into only being meant to fight one guy, made worse when that one guy proves harder to beat than expected. Who's to say that that resentment couldn't grow into full-on hatred over time, and he'd eventually hate Wily and Rock for making the circumstances what they are around his existece? Even in the games, it's shown that Wily and Bass aren't exactly on great terms. Bass regularly rebelled against Wily for his own reasons...and this could be one.
Ultimately, there's no way to know if this is true or not unless Ian Flynn himself says so, but I do think that it's possible. Writers are always finding ways to reintroduce old ideas into their current works. Again, Surge is just Scourge but for IDW. All I'm saying that the character of Bass can easily be adapted into a resentful child who strives to be more than just a replacement for this blue jerk and hates the blue jerk and also his creator. Maybe Flynn thought the same, and when he couldn't make Bass that angry child, he took a chance to make a new angry child, only with a much much worse origin...
