Archie Megaman Comic - Holy Shit!, ...a four-color Blue Bomber once more?

Words can't describe how I feel right now...

http://www.themmnetwork.com/2010/10/08/arc...c-book-at-nycc/

Archie Comics is going to release a new Mega Man comic book in the near-future with "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Sonic Universe" scribe Ian Flynn at the helm. Just to make it even sweeter, Pat Spaziante (who drew the last issue of the Dreamwave series) will be involved in some way.

This is really good news for two reasons. One, Ian Flynn is (presumably) more familiar with the franchise than Brian Augustyn was. And two, Archie has better distribution than Dreamwave ever did, or UDON has right now. That means you will likely see Mega Man comics in drugstores, grocery stores, etc. etc.

It's a good time to be a Mega Man fanboy these days.

This post has been edited by Raijin on Jun 24 2011, 01:49 AM

I'm curious to see how this turns out.

I mean, I see the Sonic Comics in stores all the time, and I honestly think that those comics are mediocre at best. Despite this, I think that a Megaman series has a lot of potential.

I wonder how they'll handle this? What kinds of stories can you write in a Megaman Universe? What kinds of personalities will the characters have? Will they make up new robot masters, or will ones from the old series be returning (I'm personally hoping for Crashman or Burnerman to make a cameo).

My God, the posibilites are endless!!!

Let's hope they get this right, though.

Well. THIS is a pleasant surprise. I had talked about an Archie MM before, but never thought it would actually happen.

It'll be aimed at kids, and I don't expect anything mindblowing, but this still makes me excited! More classic Megaman is always good news.

I wonder what the first new unofficial Robot Master will be ....

Sonic's comic use to be aimed at kids. Then it got all weird in my opinion. I may check these comics out, though.

This kind of reminds me when the Ninja Turtles had some Archie comics. Time to break out my plastic Comic book covers!

The cover's been posted. It looks great.

I liked the old TMNT series and this does make me think of it too. Hopefully it'll do as well.

I hopeso as well. I mean, I use to like Sonic Archie, before it became a generic drama.

Ninja Turtles Archie comics were a fun read in the day. Looks like I have to find a comic store again for these comics. At least one of out bookstores sells comics.

Since it's Archie, I don't think you have to rely on just comic stores--I've seen issue of StH for sale at Kroger's and Publix.

There's also been a preview page released, courtesy of Newsarama, that depicts Megaman fighting with the MM1 weapons (presumably against Cutman). I just hope they picked Cut and Guts (look closely at one panel) for recognition's sake and not because they're going to retread the games.

The art style reminds me heavily of the poster-art that came with the Complete Works series.

http://protodudesrockmancorner.blogspot.co...-man-comic.html

So, yeah. While there will be original stories, the comic will mostly be ANOTHER adaptation of the games. Let's hope they can make it interesting.

So, we can expect some oridgonal characters, but they will not overshadow the main characters.

We can also expect the series to follow the path of the games. Hope they make this part interesting, 'cause it could make for a good read!

Also, Robot Masters will not be killed off. So, what happens to them? More importantly, will any of them make 'Heel Face Turns'?

It'll be interesting to see where this series goes?

Sounds great to me! Although some of the more interesting concepts only come up in later games. Gotta wonder if Protoman will really be saved for the MM3 adaptation or if he'll show up sooner, like in ll other adaptations.

They've got a couple issues out now. What's everybody's thoughts on the current approach? I thought it was about time we revived this subject. There's a review by Chris Sims at Comics Alliance today that made me think of it, since it says a lot about it better than I could.

If you haven't checked out the comic yet, at least check out the review here, which has a good analysis of the first two issues. Basically, like the Archie Sonic comics, Megaman is shaping up to be a pretty appealing all-ages story with some surprisingly deep themes sprinkled in.

The review is from the perspective of a nostalgic MM fan though, and a thing about this book that I think works against it for the more hardcore fans like us is that it's too close to the original material. That may sound counter-intuitive, since fans love faithful reproductions (and maybe it's just me that doesn't), but the plots of the games have never been very meaty on their own, and over the years we've already had our share of retellings of Megaman 1. From various fanfics, mangas, cartoons, sprite comics, even that godawful live-action movie, we're already pretty accustomed to dramatizations of Megaman becoming a fighting robot and going through the Sinister Six's stages in weakness order. I thought the Dreamwave Megaman comic had the better idea in telling a different story with all-new enemies, it helped give that project its own identity. I'm hoping the new MM comic will transition to something more like that after this initial storyline.

Aside from that, a thing I didn't like about issue 2 was the robot master dialogue, which is composed of about 30% terrible puns. Except Cutman's scene, whose pun content was closer to 100%. Those pages were downright painful, and they're only halfway through the first game.

The whole thing is aimed at younger readers overall, so I can't criticize it too much for predictable plot and dumb dialogue. Besides, once you get past that, it's still a fun read with great art and cute references for the longtime fans. I'm going to keep picking it up and I certainly hope it lasts longer than the Dreamwave version did.

Two issues in isn't the easiest way to tell if something's gonna be great, but do far so good, I say. It's fairly predictable to most of us who are already familiar with MM1, but that will last about 4 issues. After that it seems liek they're getting into MM Powered Up's characters. And MM2 hasn't really been retold in a variety of ways like MM1 has, so that'll be nice to see too.

I ended up reading the second issue during a trip to Indigo's the other day. It struck me as being okay, but not decent.

Then again, if it's aimed at a younger audience then that may explain some of the writing. I hope once they get this first story arc out of the way they'll do something unique, though.

I'm liking it so far, though #2 felt pretty damn rushed. Hopefully the next few issues and story arc won't suffer from pacing problems (too badly).

You know, I had this ancient-ass thread on what a theoretical Archie MM would be like, and I think it had a lot to do with how it could deviate from the games and become its own entity (memory is fuzzy). Then it turns out the writers are incredibly wary of the purists. >.> I dunno; should I still hope that it'll go completely in its own direction at some point?

I think their plans are to follow the games. But it looks like they'll pepper it with different adventures too. It's way too early to say.

I think the comic is merely taking shape. I get that the origin story is overdone, but you've got to start somewhere. And since this series appears to be trying to stay faithful to the style and essence of the games, its a good sign that they're giving it the respect it deserves. If and when things truly do start to deviate, it's not a completely alien universe like Archie's Sonic, which was built on a short-lived 18 year old cartoon that had nothing to do with the games, forcing them to write insane plots with the intention of fusing the two.

Hopefully they'll do it right this time, if need be, by reversing that process: Keeping to the origins and mixing in peripheral influences. It's a much more organized way of doing things and it keeps the story and characters from being so desperately unrecognizable.

Megaman has a whole lot more coverage now than Sonic did then. Plus they have at least 10 games to go through before needing to use their own characters.

But can you imagine what it would be like if the MM TV show was adapted into a comic and kept for this long? Sizzling Circits!

They'd have to get rid of all the zeerust/'90s after a while. :(

But seriously, this reminds me of that "Marvel RS-MM" rumour that was apparently going around for a while. Hopefully, one day someone will find something on it?

Issue #3 has some nifty surprises in character development, though the fights with the Robot Masters are still much too short. Overall, story is already starting to come into its own as a very distinct variation on the series. All that was great enough, but then...
DR. LIGHT QUOTES THIS SONG'S CHORUS ALMOST WORD FOR WORD I'M DEAD SERIOUS

Megaman's character development seems rushed to me. There's no need for it to go so quickly!

The RM fights are about what i expected. No longer than anything seen in the mangas. Maybe longer fights would be better, but they'd just clog up the story and get very repetitive. Successful game structure =/= good story structure.

An arc thus far seems to be situated into 4 twenty page issues so I don't know. It's rushed but they're still just starting out. There's a lot to establish before they can get to the good stuff and it'll take some more issues before they find their rhythm. It actually somewhat reminds me of Ariga's earlier chapters, before he found his style.

The good news about the short Robot Master fights is that judging by #6's cover, the Sinister 6 end up becoming Rock's allies. That taken into consideration, I guess burning through them isn't so bad. They might still get ample character development. There needs to be better pacing for the next arcs, though. If Rock keeps getting by without a scratch then it'll get boring.

I just mean that we've seen Rock get both depressed and then get slightly corrupted in only two issues. Hi sbeing depressed could have easily been the theme for this first arc, with slightly corrupted being the theme for MM2. With 10 (mainstream) games to go through, they don't need to rush to make him accept his role.

Well see, they're following the games more-or-less exactly, and any deviations beyond mentioning Proto early would be unacceptable. 8D

...seriously, I hope they fix the pacing issues soon. I like the comic, and I honestly wasn't expecting it to have Mega start sliding towards "WHO'S A MAN AND A HALF" territory, but yeesh. The only upside is that if they get all the mainstream games out of the way this quickly, they'll be able to start telling their own story (Timeman arc notwithstanding)...assuming they don't just skip to X. >.>

I hope they don't just follow the same format for every game. 10 games at 4 monthly issues each plus maybe one-shots for cases like Wily Wars, the GB games, etc. would take at least 4 years, and the formula would get old well before then. Rather than "get the games out of the way quickly" (for a long-running comic series definition of "quick"), I hope they transition to more original stories as the meat of the series, with some re-imagined scenarios to cover the game plots every now and then, hopefully without getting too predictable.

Basically, you want the series to be somewhat close to the games, but not so close that you lose the ability to tell some potentally interesting stories.

In any case, having the first set of robot masters become Megaman's allies sounds like a pretty cool idea, just so long as they get characterization beyoun the punning that I've seen from them thus far.

Well, I just received and finished #4. Kinda hoped the Copy-bot might get some lines...


edit: Speaking of whom, can we consider him to be a distinct character (different continuity and all)? He does have some physical traits to set him apart from the other versions of Copy-Mega, but he says nothing and only tussles with Mega for a couple of pages before the RMs rush in and gang-bang him.

It's a bit disappointing that Copy MM didn't get any lines, but it does fit the game. In the game he's more mindless, copying whatever weapon you happen to have at hand. And besides, Ariga did Copy masterfully.

Which brings me to the "is he a seperate character." Which I wondered about with the MM Group pic, the MM Matchign game, and the soccer project.

I say yes. BUT this copy MM, the Copy Rockman from the Megamix, and Megaman ? from Powered Up are all just variations of the same character. That is the Copy Robot from MM1. Of all of those I think Megaman? is the most visually distinct, so I choose him to stand for them all.

Anyways, back to MM#4, I really liked how the 1 numbers got around their programming. It's nice to see how this version of MM treats robots.

Got my copy of #5 a couple of days ago; this new arc is looking fairly promising right now.