Iron Queen

"Well then, dearie! You'll have the honor of serving your new Queen 'til the end!"

- The Iron Queen

The Iron Queen (real name: Regina Ferrum), also known as Queen of the Iron Dominion and The Queen, RF, the Grandmaster of the Dark Egg Legion and "The Grandmaster" (often sometimes referred to as "The Grandmistress"), and formerly known as the Bride of the Four Houses, is a powerful, tyrannical empress who uses magitek (combination of magic and technology) and a villainess in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series. She is an Overlander who worked alongside her husband known as the Iron King in the Dragon Kingdom to establish their namesake empire known as the Iron Dominion.

Appearance
The Iron Queen is a beautiful but wicked woman with pale skin, gold eyes and long, dark green hair. She wears a large golden headdress and a red dress/robe with a pattern of pointed black stripes. In her initial appearance, her face was heavily shadowed and her hair was worn down; since her reappearance, her hair is kept in a high ponytail and she gained technologically-themed cuffs on her wrists and ankles. She is often depicted with red eye makeup and green lipstick. When she was younger, she lacked the headdress and wore a similar hooded robe with a hexagonal clasp.

Early Life
Regina was born into one of the cults of people called Technomages in the city of Mega Central many years prior to the Great War. As a child, she was taught by cult leaders how to control electronic impulses. As her skills improved, a young Regina was able to control robots from afar and move them to her will.

Years later when Regina was a young adult, Magitek was made illegal in Mega Central. She along with all other members of the Technomage cult were subsequently arrested and likely executed. However, because of her young age, the High Chancellor showed mercy on her and allowed her to live, though in exile. With no knowledge of any other Technomage sects in the Overlander cities and with the Great War having recently began, Regina wandered aimlessly across the planet.

Realizing she was the last member of her culture, she decided she would both survive through her manipulations and eventually dominate the world. Eventually finding her way to the Dragon Kingdom, she pledged her allegiance to a local warlord, Jun Kun, realizing through him she could rise to power. Since then, the two worked together as warlords in the region.

Rulers of the Dragon Kingdom
Sonic and Tails first encountered the Iron King and Queen during their quest for Ixis Naugus. When they arrived at Stormtop Village, they learned that the Iron King and Queen crowned themselves rulers of the village. When the villagers refused to swear loyalty to either, the Iron Queen set Mount Stormtop on fire for over a hundred days and would not lift the spell until the villagers agreed to bow down to them. Sonic and Tails were told by Li Yuen that only the magical Fan of Fen Xing could blow out the flames on the mountain. When the two tried to retrieve it, the Iron Queen cast a spell on the renegade cyborg named Monkey Khan, to kill Sonic and Tails before they arrived. They managed to free Khan and he joined them in assaulting the Iron King at the cruel monarchs' palace lair. Sonic and the others returned to Mount Stormtop to blow out the flames, the Iron Queen tried to use her magic to stop them but failed and the flames were extinguished. The Iron Queen left the village swearing vengeance on Sonic.

Plans and Rise to Power
At some point, Regina got involved in the Clan Wars, slaying the Bride of Rich Nights and taking the Yagyu Clan as her own personal vanguard. After this, the other 3 clans surrendered to her.

Nearly 2 years later, Regina responded to Snively Robotnik, who was doing a routine checkup on all of the Sub-Bosses around Mobius. After chatting over the Eggnet for some time, the two became romantically attracted to one another and began planning to meet up and overthrow Dr. Eggman. To show her affection, Regina sent Snively a cologne scent from her region of Mobius, which Snively enjoyed but Lien-Da found repulsive. As Doctor Eggman went into a decline and into a psychotic breakdown, and the Freedom Fighters pressed their advances against his ruined capital city of New Megaopolis, Snively and the Iron Queen prepared to take over the empire.

After Sonic finally defeated Dr. Eggman in a one-on-one showdown, Eggman lost his final grip on sanity. Once the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix left, Snively locked Eggman in a padded cell in a straight jacket and headed to the landing bay of the Eggdome to greet Regina, her husband Jun Kun and her Iron Dominion forces who had arrived via their Iron Blimp.

Ruler of the Eggman Empire
Regina's plans were revealed as she learned that New Megaopolis was in ruins and only the Eggdome was operational, calming the Iron King down as he questioned the reason why they took over the Eggman Empire. Dimitri later appealed his case of requiring the removal of the explosives in the cybernetics. As Regina claimed to be unable to remove them, she had Snively give him a briefcase that she said contained microchips that would neutralize the explosives, and though he accepted them Dimitri appeared suspicious of her claims. In a somewhat romantic moment with Snively, she revealed that she planned to crush the Freedom Fighters in New Mobotropolis, dispose of the Iron King and rule the world with Snively. Meanwhile the Freedom Fighters began planning to topple her rule after they were made aware of her takeover by Monkey Khan.

Controlling New Mobotropolis
After Snivley told Regina about NICOLE, she flew to New Mobotropolis and took control of NICOLE, transforming her into Iron NICOLE. With NICOLE under her control, she made NICOLE open up the city where the Iron Dominion overtook the city, and had Iron NICOLE seal the city in a dome to prevent anyone from escaping. But Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Monkey Khan escaped and headed to the Dragon Kingdom to sever the ties to the Four Houses.

Dethroning
Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Monkey Khan would later return in success, and would fight to reclaim New Mobotropolis. Regina ordered Iron NICOLE to shoot them down, but she instead trapped Regina in a nanite sphere and revealed that Sally had freed her from the Iron Queen's control. Worse, with Monkey Khan's announcement that the Yagyu's ties to the Iron Queen have been cut, Lien-Da taking control of the Dark Egg Legion, and Monkey Khan blowing the Iron King away with the Fan of Fen Xing, Regina suddenly found herself all alone against the Knothole Freedom Fighters.

However, she would never go quietly, instead taking over some of the city's nanites and creating a robotic dragon form for herself. However, it was ultimately destroyed by Sonic, and the Iron Queen was taken away. She was then placed in a technology-free stone cell in the Dragon Kingdom.

Return to Power
After Snively launched his coup against Eggman and fled, he came to the Dragon Kingdom to rescue her. However, she refused his rescuing, still angry that Snively ran right back to Eggman instead of staying and fighting when things turned bad in New Mobotropolis. Later, Eggman came to interrogate her, but she refused to answer any of his questions. Suddenly, Snively reappeared with the Iron Oni, vowing to rescue the woman he loved and stand up to Eggman once and for all. Impressed, the Iron Queen aided him in the battle against Eggman.

Despite their best efforts, however, Eggman managed to destroy the Iron Oni with the aid of the Egg Beater and capture both Regina and Snively. Instead of imprisoning them, however, Eggman instead made Regina and Snively the new Grandmasters of the United Federation Dark Egg Legion, demoting Hugo Brass. Regina would see this as a perfect chance to revive her technomancy cult, especially since Eggman had given her access to all the technology she'd ever need. However, she has not yet realized that the "Snively" Eggman reunited her with was actually one of his Infiltrator Series copies.

Powers and Abilities
Since her early childhood, the Iron Queen has had the power to control robotic machines after being taught Magitek, which appears to also work on beings who are partially robots such as the cyborg Monkey Khan. She can also use black magic to propel herself into the air and fly. Apart from her magical abilities, she is also a skilled tactician.

Romance
The Iron Queen is married to the Iron King. While she has been seen to flirt and call him her "love", their marriage was strictly out of benefit. The Iron Queen would later plan with her actual lover to dispose of him.

Regina found actual love with Snively, Dr. Eggman's lieutenant and nephew, while he was performing a routine surveillance check of all Eggman's Sub-Bosses. The two spoke back and forth for days over the Egg Network and became emotionally close, the two scheming together to take over the Eggman Empire. Since she usurped the Eggman Empire, Regina has been forced to conceal her relationship with Snively from everyone else, though when the two are alone together, they are openly affectionate.

Trivia

 * Due to her design, some fans thought she was an Overlander. It was stated in the letters page of "Sonic the Hedgehog #71" that the Iron Queen was a Mobian badger. However, Writer Ian Flynn stated that he considered her an Overlander given her character design, adding that the Iron King and Iron Queen's "titles are purely honorary and not romantic. They're together out of benefit, not out of romance" and that "having a human female wed to a animal character might raise some eyebrows."
 * Writer Karl Bollers listed a number of possible plot points that were meant to be post-issue #134, many of them never seeing the light of day. Among them was one where Knuckles the Echidna headed to Kar Leung for some training under Monkey Khan, during which he would be brainwashed by the Iron Queen, while Khan himself would be brainwashed by Dr. Eggman, resulting in a 4-way battle for power between Eggman, the Iron Queen, Mammoth Mogul, and Rouge the Bat.
 * It was revealed as a spoiler in "FCDS #3" that "RF" is the Iron Queen. This ended the long-time fan speculation that the two were the same character.
 * Some fans have speculated the "F" in Regina's last name stands for Ferrum, which means "Iron" in Latin just as "Regina" means "Queen". It was later revealed by writer Ian Flynn that her last name was indeed Ferrum in a spoiler tease on his forum.
 * The Iron Queen, along with the Iron King, holds the 4th longest non-appearance gap in the comics at 140 issues ("StH: #60-200"), tying them with the badnik Coconuts.
 * Oddly, despite her use of dark magic, the Iron Queen was not tracked down and eliminated by Sir Connery.
 * Her personality and appearance seems to be based on the wicked Disney villainess Maleficent, the tragic sorceress Merlina from Sonic and the Black Knight, and the Bionicle villainess Roodaka personality-wise. She also created a dragon robot, another similarity to Maleficent and also her dragon form.
 * The Iron Queen may have also been inspired by the Mandarin from the Marvel comics. While both evildoers have science/technology-based powers, they have opposite genders.
 * In StH: #209 and #211, Regina states "I hate that hedgehog!" referencing the original Doctor Robotnik's famous line whenever he was defeated by Sonic.
 * Despite being an Overlander, Regina has 5 fingers instead of 4.
 * The Iron Scepter.jpg Iron Queen also constantly wields a magical scepter called the "Iron Sceptre" which harness her Magitek powers, and like the Iron King's Tremor Mace, serves as both her prized possession and her weapon.
 * In Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 60, the Iron Sceptre's early appearance has 2 Power Rings attached beneath the scepter's crystal orb before the rings was broken by Tails who freed Monkey Khan from the Iron Queen's mind control during the battle against her.
 * An art error showing a few times for unknown reasons an object resembling a Hi-Torq 1/2" socket nut attached at the bottom of the staff in the comics including the cover of Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 211.