Ridley (Metroid)
Ridley appears a few times in the "" comics from 1990. In these comics, he looks almost exactly as he appears in the NES version manual and is depicted as an individual of a full-fledged species of identical creatures, an attribute he employs to impersonate a judge of the same species as him. "Nintendo Power" featured two "Metroid" adaptations. The "Super Metroid" comic follows the plot of the video game of the same name over the course of sixty pages, while the "Metroid Prime" comic does the same across eighteen pages. In the "Metroid" e-manga created by Yoshio Sakamoto, Samus first meets Ridley as a child as he leads the attack on her home colony of K-2L. As Ridley observes the destruction of the colony, Samus approaches him. Her young mind overwhelmed by the carnage but having recently been taught by the Chozo elder Old Bird that even unsightly creatures can be decent, she tries to befriend him, desperate for assurance that everything will be all right. Ridley appears to display a moment's pity toward her before abruptly revealing his true nature by preparing to annihilate her, out of either bloodlust or mercy. Samus' mother Virginia, however, arrives in the nick of time amidst the confusion of the Pirate raid and pushes her daughter out of the way of Ridley's fiery breath, dying instantly in the process. This memory scars Samus for life, and she summarily vows to avenge her parents and destroy Ridley and all the Space Pirates.
Characters in the Metroid series
The Metroid larva is chronologically the last Metroid of its race following the events of "" and "". Samus describes how a Metroid larva hatched from an egg and immediately imprinted upon her, believing her to be its mother. She brought the larva to Ceres Space Colony, where scientists learned that they could harness its power. Just after she left the colony, she received a distress call and returned to find the scientists dead and the larva stolen. The Baby Metroid is used as the driving theme of the game as Samus tirelessly searches through Zebes and eventually the Space Pirate's base on Tourian for her Metroid hatchling. Once encountering the enlarged Baby Metroid in Space Pirate clutches, it attacks Samus and nearly drains all her energy. During the final battle against Mother Brain, the Baby Metroid comes to aid of Samus by recharging her energy, but Mother Brain destroys it in retaliation. Samus avenges its death by destroying Mother Brain with an extremely powerful weapon given to her by the Metroid. After a planet-wide self-destruction, Samus for once mourns the death of a Metroid.