Whoever thinks that Samus was this independent lone-wolf alien killing machine doesn't really care about the character. They haven't been paying attention.

Now granted, I haven't played Other M and, in fact, I've played very little of the Metroid series (My only experiences are Super Metroid and Metroid Prime 1 & 2) From that little, even I've seen her as a sympathetic character. I've never got the sense that she was a generic, mute, rogue figure. She's normally abandoned in space, so there's no need for her to talk. But Nintendo has always added little touches like her reflection in her mask to show that she is a very human character.

Lastly, complaining about Metroid being sexist because she follows a man's orders and was once a teenager kind of makes you sexist for going out of your way to see it in that perspective. She obviously has military (or similar) background and therefore would understand why a chain of authority is necessary. And honestly, most environments like that are male dominated. How would it have been better if she decided not to follow orders? It would've seemed more out of character to just blindly go against authority without cause. As for the teenager thing, that was already stated in the article.