Highlights
- Dr. Eggman enlists the help of Fang the Hunter, a familiar face in Sonic's rogues gallery, to control the Northstar Islands in Sonic Superstars.
- Fang the Hunter, previously known as Nack the Weasel, finally gets a singular name in the Sonic lore initiative, establishing him as a unified character.
- Despite being relegated to cameos or nothing in previous Sonic games, Fang continued to appear in Sonic comics, keeping hope alive for his return, which has now happened in Sonic Superstars.
In Sonic Superstars, what may appear as a new villain to some players is actually the return of a familiar face. As Dr. Eggman seeks to control the Northstar Islands, he's enlisted the help of Fang the Hunter, a bounty hunter who has done many a job for cash from helping stop Sonic and pals to collecting treasures such as the Chaos Emeralds. He's quite an old member of Sonic's rogues gallery, dating all the way back to the era of the Sega Game Gear.
Back in the day, for English-speaking audiences, Fang was known as Nack the Weasel, and he originally appeared in Sonic Triple Trouble. However, despite this, many other instances of the character would be introduced as "Fang," or even "Jet." It was also not made clear exactly what Fang was, be it a weasel, a jerboa, a wolf, or a mix of the same choices. As part of the recently connected Sonic lore initiative, not only was this finally set in stone, but also simplified to create a unified character to finally return to the spotlight as Fang the Hunter.
Fang the Hunter and His Many Names
Even though Fang has finally earned a singular name in time for his Sonic Superstars return, he was conceptualized as Nack the Jerboa when he was designed by Shinichi Higashi, a freelance artist who would later become a toy designer. However, it was thought that the name "Nack" was too similar to "Knuckles" in Japanese, and it would confuse fans. A contest to help decide Fang's name was held in a gaming magazine in Japan, which led to "Fang the Sniper." Due to the miscommunication between Sega of America and Sega of Japan at the time, though, English-speaking audiences would get the name "Nack the Weasel" despite the change, with one magazine calling him "Jet" by accident.
Games that were primarily handled by Sega of Japan, such as Sonic the Fighters, used Fang anyway, which continued to confuse fans. Once the modern era of the Sonic franchise began, Fang fell into obscurity, not appearing in any other games until Sonic Mania. Even then, he was only a cameo. Just like Mighty and Ray, Fang had quite a number of fans and was a common Sonic character fans wanted to see return.
How Sonic Comics Kept Fang the Hunter Alive Until Sonic Superstars
However, even though Fang had been relegated to cameos or nothing in both mainline and spin-off Sonic titles, the character would continue to appear in other projects such as the Sonic Archie, Fleetway, and IDW comics. All except the latter would refer to Fang as "Nack," and he would often be paired with Bark the Polar Bear and Bean the Dynamite as Team Hooligans, likely due to their shared appearance in Sonic the Fighters. In these comics, the three characters would even receive touched-up modern designs but eventually be relegated to being part of the classic cast.
Still, as the three characters survived the stressful situation with Archie comics where a soft reboot removed half of the series' long-term cast, it gave fans hope that these memorable characters would return someday as it made it clear that Sega was still interested in its ownership of Fang, Bean, and Bark. They would continue to appear in special classic Sonic comics until Sonic Superstars, where Fang would make his proper return with the help of prominent Sonic comics writer Ian Flynn as part of the new Sonic lore team, bringing the situation full circle.
In the Sonic Superstars prequel comic, one of the first things that's established is that every moniker he's gone by has been fake names to avoid the law for his many crimes as a bounty hunter, and it was finally decided that Fang is indeed a jerboa as he was always meant to be. Even the wrong name "Jet" was included in the comic, which was a tongue-in-cheek reference by Flynn himself. With the work done to help Fang fit in with the new Sonic universe seen in many different projects, it sets up the possibility that Fang may be a common face in classic titles, which may mean Bean and Bark aren't too far behind.
Sonic Superstars is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
