Located on the Middle Grounds Comics website
, Akuma TH's Comics are one of the longest-lasting sprite comics, having been started in 2001 and is still going to this day. This series was originally focused on the Red Hedgehog called Akuma the Hedgehog (no, not a hedgehogified Akuma) and his adventures but turned into a story focused on a Massive Multiplayer Crossover World featuring old characters in new situations and new characters interacting with each other. Features numerous spinoffs focusing on other aspects of this universe, along with alternate universes.
This webcomic provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: TJ accidentally sees Jenny Wily getting into her bath naked because its in the villain's base.
- Action Girl: Kari, Akuma's main rival is just as dedicated to prove her worth as a fighter as Akuma is. However Akuma doesn't want to fight her one-on-one yet due to making a promise to Kari's now deceased father, at least until she is no longer fighting with anger.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Ministry has Android 17 and Julie-Su working for them, despite being an anti-hero and full hero in canon.
- Adaptational Wimp: It's revealed that Dr Wily was the real creator of the Cossack Robot Masters, and that the robots Dr Cossack actually made were rather weak.
- Anti-Villain
- The Undertaker is driven by an ambition to gain great power, works with villains like Dr Eggman, but has a code of conduct, tries to avoid attacking the innocent, and sometimes does good deeds purely out of altruism, such as rescuing Cosmo the Seedrian.
- Jenny Wily is either this or an Anti-Hero. She tries to cause havoc with Robot Masters and has some interest in world domination, but doesn't harm people and ultimately wants to prove her and her father's superiority over Mega Man and Dr Light.
- Arch-Enemy
- Silver Fox and Subrosian(aka Mighty the Armadillo under a new name), mainly on Silver Fox's end; having been defeated Subrosian he feels humiliated that a single being best him where the armies of his world had failed.
- Doc Robot is this to Jenny Wily. He killed Dr Wily and competes with her on a scientific level.
- Sonic eventually becomes this to the Undertaker, having used the factor of unpredictability to give him his first defeat.
- Art Evolution: As time passes the sprites and texts become more developed, owing to the author's improvement as an artist, there are also have been sprite improvements from the author's fans that have supplied voluntary themselves which the author approved himself to implement into the comic.
- Author Avatar: Akuma the Hedgehog started as this for the author, being a more exaggerated representation. Later on The Pixelated Penguin, who also tends refer to himself as Akuma TH, serves the role of being a more in-character avatar.
- While Akuma the Hedgehog has multiple versions of himself spread throughout the comic due to an event in the comic, such as a math solving super hero that goes by the name Mathman, the author has debunked the Pixelated Penguin being part of the split and mainly exists from the creation of the Scratch Universe.
- Author Powers: Early on in the strip Akuma was the Author Avatar and had author powers, however he stored it away so he could have proper challenges. This power later manifested into Overseer Akuma.
- Blood Knight: Like his namesake, Akuma lives for a good fight.
- Cain and Abel: Kilo, who's modeled after Fox McCloudnote , is the no good pirate older brother to the heroic Tails.
- Cannibalism Superpower: The Sprite Eater was capable of replicating sprites that it had eaten in the past to be used offensively, along with copying their powers.
- Crossover: Characters from other comics on the MG Comics website sometimes show up in the comic. One of the antagonists in the comic, Silver Fox, was originally from a fanfiction where Dr Robotnik from the SATAM continuity roboticized Tails the Fox, only to rebel and become a greater villain.
- The Dragon: Dr Eggman serves as the Undertaker's second in command within the Ministry, and is put in charge of operations while the Undertaker is gone.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The early comic had a number of stereotypes with sprite comics; an Author Guest Spot, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Sonic being considered stupid and Pallette Swaps. Over time it became more story and character-focused.
- A good chunk of the early arc have been rewitten and [[Retcon Retconned]], which the author has made remakes strips to fit the current Akumaverse worldbuilding.
- Elseworld: The "Twist of Fate" subcomic is a homage to this that deals with What If? and alternate universe stories, starting with "what if Bowser kept the arranged marriage instead of letting Sonic and Wendy Koopa date?"
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Evil Sonic and Amy have the concept of karma explain to them, they get the gist of "do bad things and bad things happen to you" but assume all that means is "do enough good deeds to counter-act your bad deeds and then you can go back to being a bad person". They're rather confused when this doesn't happen.
- Evil Knockoff: Doc Robot creates a knockoff of Bass called 4T, who's a mildly discolored copy that's also able to change his size due to being part Yellow Devil.
- Fan-Created Offspring: TJ (son of Amy Rose and Tails the Fox) and Jenny Wily (daughter of Dr Wily). Inverted by Lily Koopa, who is the canon Koopaling's mother.
- Fusion Dance: Akuma ends up merging with his Evil Knockoff Shin Akuma, who becomes a Super Mode of his.
- Generation Xerox: TJ (short for Tails Junior) looks just like his dad Tails, and is even more of a genius than he is.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Dr Wily tries to leave the Ministry, only for Doc Robot to declare this non-negotiable and kill him.
- Heel–Face Turn: Bowser ends up reforming. Surprisingly so does SATAM Robotnik due to teaming up with the Freedom Fighters against Silver Fox and being saved at the last moment.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Evil Sonic and Amy were able to run amuck in their own universe, but once they enter the Akumaverse misfortune soon finds them.
- Last Of Her Kind: Cosmo is the last apparent survivor of her own universe, as she narrowly escaped its destruction.
- Legion of Doom: The Ministry, a Villain Teamup led by the Undertaker out of his ambitions to become the strongest fighter out there.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Practically any series that the author likes co-exists in the same 'verse.
- Ms. Fanservice: Julia Robotnik is an attractive woman in a form-fitting red dress, which Eggman uses to win a science expo.
- Moral Guardians: William Right of the Right To Censor shows up to censor any NSFW content in the strip, and will destroy any unedited NSFW copies.
- Palette Swap: A number of early characters were this, or ones that have been around since the start such as Akuma being a Super Sonic colored like the Street Fighter character. Eventually Akuma and others would gain more distinct appearances.
- Pet the Dog: The Undertaker is a power hungry figure looking to increase his strength and is mostly out for himself, however he sometimes does charitable things for the sake of it; for example he saves Cosmo from having to pull a Heroic Sacrifice. Sadly this doesn't stop Dark Oak's destruction, but it's the thought that counts.
- Planet Eater: Sprite Eaters are the Sprite Comic equivalent, who usually show up to already dying/dead worlds and end its misery. However the one who attacked this comic was malicious and invaded prematurely.
- Power Copying: This is the Undertaker's basic power, which he refines as the comic progresses.
- Powered Armor: Tails uses an armor based on Samus' for combat.
- Primal Scene: How Tails "got" The Talk from Sonic sometime between the first two Sonic games.Woman: "So that's why you're called the fastest thing alive..."Sonic: "Shut up!"
- Related in the Adaptation: Bowser and the Koopalings are biological family, though admittedly this was before it was established Bowser Jr is Bowser's only child. We even meet their mother, who doesn't exist in canon.
- The Rival: Being a fighting series there are many cases of this, with the biggest one being between Kari and Akuma.
- Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: Evil Amy dresses in a black Stripperific costume compared to the regular Amy's costume.
- The Soulless: The Undertaker is immune to his own soul-seeking attacks because he doesn't have a soul. Other than that, it doesn't affect his personality.
- Super Mode: In addition to his Super and Hyper Forms, Sonic achieves an even higher form of Doma Sonic to compete with Akuma. Other characters get super forms, and Sonic works to better refine his new forms rather than achieve even greater ones.
- Tournament Arc: One of the earliest stories in the comic was a tournament for the Chaos Emeralds.
- Truly Single Parent: Jenny Wily was created by Dr Wily as a test tube baby.
- Unknown Rival: Ashura considers Shadow his greatest rival and believes he should have his position in the games. Shadow would rather just ignore him.
- Villainous Legacy: The Sprite Eater creates the Undertaker, who serves as the main antagonist from then on.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Amy and Tails end up in a void for what seems like a brief time, but was for them years. Enough they ended up falling for one another and having a kid.
- You Killed My Father: The Undertaker has beef against Akuma for killing his father, the Sprite Eater. Jenny Wily has similar beef for Doc Robot doing this to her as well, and him making rip-off designs of her dad's Robot Masters certainly doesn't help.
