By [ad_1]
While Super Metroid featured a heated battle against Ridley resulting in the monster’s destruction, the comic book significantly changed his fate.
With this year marking the 35th anniversary of the Metroid video game franchise, Nintendo has finally brought iconic bounty hunter Samus Aran for a new adventure on the Nintendo Switch with Metroid Dread. As one of Nintendo’s most beloved properties and, its main character Samus serving as something of a mainstay in its all-star jam fighting game series Super Smash Bros., Metroid‘s future remains brighter than ever. One of the more curious pieces of Metroid history, however, is a comic book adaptation of the franchise’s most celebrated title Super Metroid that also significantly changed the fate of recurring antagonist Ridley compared to the classic Super Nintendo game.
Created by Benimaru Itoh, who also created the Star Fox comic book adaptation, the Super Metroid comic ran in the pages of Nintendo’s official magazine Nintendo Power from Issues #57-61 in 1994. While the comic book introduced Samus’ origins as a human from the colony K-2L that would eventually inform her longstanding conflict with the Space Pirates that Ridley led — with the insinuation that Ridley murdered Samus’ parents — and her eventual bounty hunter destiny by claiming lost Chozo technology, it also deviated considerably from the events of the 1994 video game. This was most visibly manifested by giving Samus purple hair rather than her usual blonde hair color. In addition to streaming some of Super Metroid‘s story to better fit a five-issue comic book adaptation, Ridley’s final fate is also changed up to set the stage for his eventual return for a vengeance-fueled rematch.
In the 1994 video game, Samus battles Ridley on multiple occasions throughout the game, culminating in a showdown in Lower Norfair, the volcanic region of the Space Pirates’ hideout on the planet Zebes. After being blasted by Samus’ array of advanced weaponry, Ridley makes one last attempt to take down his old foe with him before completely breaking apart and allowing Samus to access the Tourian region of Zebes as she continues to investigate the return of the Metroids. In the comic book adaptation of Super Metroid, Ridley opts to retreat when it becomes clear that he is outmatched by Samus, leaving the bounty hunter to venture into Tourian while Ridley makes his escape, living to fight another day against his armored nemesis.
In the video games, where Super Metroid is one of the chronologically later games in the Metroid timeline, Ridley would survive, albeit in a cloned body, after his confrontation with Samus on Zebes. The 2010 video game Metroid: Other M for the Nintendo Wii revealed that a juvenile clone of Ridley would menace the cosmos before being killed off-screen by Queen Metroid. The 2002 game Metroid Fusion for the Game Boy Advance introduced another clone of Ridley, this time infected by the X Parasite and transforming into Neo Ridley before his eventual destruction against Samus.
Ridley is one of the biggest fan-favorite villains in the extensive Nintendo pantheon, appearing in numerous Metroid games and becoming a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And while the video games’ overarching story indicates that Ridley did indeed perish in his original form facing Samus in Norfair during the events of Super Metroid, the comic book adaptation did provide a possible, if now non-canonical means for the villain to make a return. After all, wherever Samus Aran delves into the cosmos, Ridley and the Space Pirates can’t be far behind.
About The Author
[ad_2]
