Mega Man 1: Let the Games Begin!

Mega Man Volume 1 - Let the Games Begin! is the first Graphic Novel (the comic's definition of trade paperback) of the Mega Man comic book series by Archie Comics. It collects the entire "Let the Games Begin!" four-part story arc based on the first Mega Man game, plus extra content such as the Villain variant covers, sketches and special features.
 * This article is about the graphic novel; you may be looking for the game Mega Man.
 * —→ Next Volume: Mega Man 2 - Time Keeps Slipping

Direct Market On-sale: 9/14/2011 112 pgs, $11.95 US, Full-Color

Publisher's Summary
"MEGA MAN - VOLUME ONE "LET THE GAMES BEGIN." Mega Man is the hit new action-adventure series from Archie Comics! Dr. Light wanted to build a better tomorrow with his new Robot Masters, but the evil Dr. Wily reprogrammed them to take over the world! Now it’s up to one little robot to save us all — Mega Man! Collects Mega Man #1-4 plus variant covers, exclusive sketches and special features!

Free Comic Book Day 2012
Archie Comics reprinted Issue 1 for the Free Comic Book Day 2012 using a fully inked and coloured version of Chad Thomas's variant sketch cover.

Part One: Trouble Get!
The story begins with Mega Man trying to infiltrate Wily Castle. He doesn't want to fight, but he must do so to stop Dr. Wily. Mega Man uses the Super Arm to open the door and throws it at the Big Eyes, destroying them. Inside Wily Castle, Mega Man is attacked by the Yellow Devil and they prepare to fight, Mega Man thinking how things came to the current situation. The story then starts from the beginning, with Rock and Roll helping Dr. Light prepare for his speech. Dr. Wily appears backstage, demanding that Dr. Light allows Wily to give the speech alongside him. Dr. Light declines, causing Wily to react a bit more hostile. As Dr. Light heads to the stage to begin his speech, Wily begins to plot. Later that night, when Rock and Roll get Dr. Light to bed, Wily enters the lab secretly. He then takes the six Robot Masters: Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man and Elec Man. In the morning the group sees the news about Dr. Light's Robot Masters are attacking the city, followed by a broadcast by Dr. Wily, demanding that everyone surrender to him immediately. Feeling hopeless, Dr. Light sulks in regret. Rock, feeling like he has to do something, tells Dr. Light that he wants to become a battle robot. Reluctant but proud, Dr. Light starts to convert Rock into a fighting robot. Upon hearing the name the Mega Buster, Rock's new weapon, he decides to name himself Mega Man.

Short Circuits: Rock is upgraded into Bad Box Art Mega Man.

Part Two: Weapons Get!
Mega Man is teleported to the city, where two soldiers are hiding in fear of him, debating on whether or not to attack him, when they overhear him talking to Dr. Light on the radio inside his helmet. Dr. Light sends him to fight Bomb Man first, which he does, and obtains his Hyper Bombs. He is then teleported to Guts Man and realizes that he has to use bombs to win. He does and gains the Super Arm power. With each weapon and victory, Rock is becoming more sad, which both Dr. Light and Roll pick up on. When asked, Dr. Light says that it's because Mega Man is going against his nature to help and is defeating the reprogrammed robots instead. In his "pun-derful" battle against Cut Man, Roll talks to Mega Man over the headset and tells him that he's helping, not hurting, and his sacrificing everything for the world is good, not bad. Feeling better, Rock defeats Cut Man and obtains the Rolling Cutter.

Short Circuits: Dr. Wily uses Cut Man for trivial things.

Part Three: Power Get!
Rock takes on Elec Man, who has based himself in a power plant and is routing electricity to metal areas as traps, which Mega Man avoids. As Elec Man is talking with Dr. Wily, Mega Man appears and disrupts the call before defeating him and obtaining Elec Man's Thunder Beam. Dr. Wily tells his drones to be on standby to recover the bodies of the inactive robots. In his assault against Ice Man, Rock is more aggressive, and even more so against Fire Man. Dr. Light has been working on a new weapon and, with the defeat of Fire Man, quickly teleports Rock home and traps him in a box of magnetic waves. Mega Man accuses Dr. Light of betraying him and tries to break free of the box with every weapon he has while Dr. Light watches silently. When he becomes tired, he notices Roll is watching. She begins to cry and runs from the room, leaving him feeling guilty. Mega Man tells Dr. Light that he wants all of his weapons taken away after the battle is over. Dr. Light gives Mega Man a new weapon, the Magnet Beam, and teleports him to Dr. Wily's fortress.

Short Circuits: Mega Man imagines a power-mad Roll.

Part Four: Finale: Showdown Get!
Mega Man infiltrates Dr. Wily's fortress and is attacked by the Yellow Devil, a large yellow blob that reconfigures itself upon defeat. Rock is able to defeat it with a shot to the eye and moves on to another room where he is confronted by the six Robot Masters, revived and healed, all at once. He manages to talk half of the group into letting him by and returning to Dr. Light so that they can be reprogrammed again, and the six begin to fight each other. Seeing an opportunity, Rock moves on to a room where Dr. Wily creates a copy of Mega Man to fight him, one that includes all of the Robot Masters' powers. Rock is first matched attack for attack, but realizes the copy doesn't have the Magnet Beam, which he uses to get out of the copy's reach so he can think.

The Robot Masters enter the room ominously and gang up on the Mega Man copy, defeating him easily while Rock looks on from above. Mega Man jumps down when the fighting is done, perhaps to correct them on their mistake, when they say that their programming said they had to destroy one Mega Man--which they did. They can't defy Dr. Wily outright, but let Mega Man go forward to fight him. Dr. Wily attacks from a squid-like machine, taunting Rock for being a lowly helper robot. Rock attacks with all his weapons, weakening the machine's defenses until he runs out of ammo. Wily laughs until Mega Man jumps off of some debris and destroys the machine with his Mega Buster. He then helps Dr. Wily out of the rubble only to run into the Robot Masters, who are commanded to fight, but deny him, saying their mission was complete. Mega Man, Wily, and the Robot Masters leave the facility where Rock is able to get in contact with Dr. Light and announce his victory. Roll is ecstatic and runs off to find parts to repair and reenergize the robots, while outside the house, Time Man mentions to Oil Man that Dr. Wily activated them for a reason and that time was of the essence.

Short Circuits: Rock and Dr. Light discuss future adventures while several characters look on.

Game Differences

 * There were a lot of things featured in the comic that didn't actually appear in the game, such as Mega Man progressively getting cockier as he copies the Robot Master's weapons.
 * The Robot Masters destroy Copy Robot instead of Mega Man destroying it. In fact, Mega Man can't actually defeat the Copy Robot himself unlike in the game.
 * The Robot Masters not only survive, but are also had their initial programming restored, while in the game, it is implied that they were all destroyed.

Trivia

 * Beside the reprint of issues 1-4 and their Short Circuits, the graphic novel also includes:
 * Mega Man's character concept sketches by Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante, Chad Thomas and Tracy Yardley!; and
 * character profiles of Mega Man, Dr. Light, Roll, Dr. Wily, Guts Man, Cut Man, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Fire Man and Elec Man.
 * The name of this arc, as well as the graphic novel compilation, does not have an exclamation point at the end, although the arc has been known to use the exclamation point at the end in various sources.


 * The first issue's cover erroneously dressed Roll in her Mega Man 8 outfit, even though in the story proper she's wearing her first costume. This was fixed for the cover of the Graphic Novel of this arc.
 * The cover also features Rush, but Rush is neither mentioned nor seen in the first arc.


 * In issue 1 there are a few cameos from other Mega Man series when Dr. Light is unveiling the Robot Masters, such as Ripot, Plum, Chest, Neige, the Kattelox TV Reporter and the Police.


 * Before the unveiling in issue 1, Dr. Wily says to Dr. Light, "I forgot that "Light" makes "Right"." In Japan, Dr. Light is known as Dr. Right.


 * In issue 1 when Dr. Wily is reprogramming Guts Man, there is a misspelling in his tablet: "compltete".


 * Short Circuits #1 sees Mega Man getting a conversion that made him resemble Bad Box Art Mega Man.


 * The Unknown Soldiers from the Capcom game Forgotten Worlds make an appearance in issue 2.


 * In issue 3, a portion of the dialogue between Dr. Light and Mega Man is taken nearly verbatim from the lyrics of the song "The Message From Dr. Light" by The Megas.


 * Bass, Treble, Proto Man and Rush make an appearance in Short Circuits #4.