Mega Man Issue 12 (Archie Comics)


 * Previous Issue: Mega Man #11 ←—
 * —→ Next Issue: Mega Man #13

Mega Man #12 is the twelfth issue in the Mega Man comic book series by Archie Comics, released in April 2012.

Publisher's Summary
''This is it, the grand finale of "The Return Of Dr. Wily!" Dr. Wily has hidden himself in his latest fortress and surrounded himself with killer robots as he plots his counter-attack. Can Mega Man breach the defenses and stop the mad scientist in time? Maybe not alone -- but the Original Robot Masters have got his back! It's all-out robot warfare in the explosive conclusion!''

The Return of Doctor Wily - Part Four: Charge of the Light Brigade
Dr. Wily is cleaning Mega Man's armor (whom, now equipped with a purple scarf, resembles Mega Man?) when his alarms go off. He turns to find the disturbance and sees that the eight original Robot Masters are ambushing his castle. Working as a team, the group defeats his first line of defenses and enter the castle, first by clearing the golden Sniper Joes firing at them with Time Man using Time Slow to freeze time long enough to halt their fire and have Ice Man, Oil Man, Fire Man, Elec Man and Bomb Man wipe the soldiers out, and then having Cut Man take out the enemy while Guts Man pries the gate open. Cut Man then uses one of his puns again when preparing to hold off resistance, which resulted in Guts Man getting irritated enough at the awful puns to pry the gates open, causing him to thank an intimidated Cut Man for the anger boost. Elec Man and Fire Man then lead the charge.

Although Elec Man gets cocky regarding getting through the castle, Fire Man warns Elec Man that Wily has likely taken into account their arrival and prepared defense measures inside the fortress. Just after this warning, they are confronted by Wily's Mecha Dragon, causing Elec Man to apologize to Fire Man for his cocky exclamation. The Mecha Dragon then uses its flame breath on them, causing the robots to scatter. Ice Man and Oil Man then proceeded to argue about who should hide behind Guts Man, with Oil Man citing that the heat will cause his insides to melt due to being made of oil, while Ice Man protested that he can't handle extreme heat, with Oil Man then calling him out by citing that his power was able to take out Fire Man.

Wily then sends in the corrupted Mega Man for good measure. Elec Man is damaged by the dragon but the Robot Masters manage to subdue the Blue Bomber. They use a packet to download the remaining 2% of Dr. Light's antivirus program into Mega Man, restoring his free will. He leads the charge, defeating the Mecha Dragon. However, he then proceeded to express confusion about why his brothers were present and Elec Man was injured, with Time Man explaining that Dr. Wily had corrupted Mega Man's programming, and as Light was not able to remotely upload the anti-virus and the safeguard program in time, he tasked them to rescue him. Mega Man then beat himself up over the fact that he let Wily get away from him when he was right next to him. Cut Man then told him that he shouldn't feel guilty, and also provided him with a program pack that contained support item data that Light had in turn supplied to him, citing that Light thought Mega Man would find it useful. Mega Man agreed, realizing they would help him and his brothers navigate the castle and locate Wily before it's too late while using the Copy Chip to copy the data. Elec Man is then helped out of the building by Fire Man, Ice Man, and Cut Man.

Using a pair of Item-2 fliers, the remaining Robot Masters continue. Time Man, Oil Man, and Guts Man are on one board when they are attacked by the Guts Tank (with the latter being especially incensed at Wily making the tank from his image). The three take it down while Mega Man and Bomb Man go on. Finding themselves in a maze filled with turrets, Mega Man uses Crash Bombs and Bomb Man uses his own attack to destroy the walls and turrets. Out of ammo, Bomb Man stays behind. Mega Man enters the final room where Wily is waiting in an attack ship. Mega Man wants to use all his new weapons but the first, the Metal Blades, destroys the ship in just one set of three blades. He comments on how cool the blades are and opens the ship's casing to face Dr. Wily.

Dr. Wily tells Mega Man that he cannot stand up against technology "from beyond the stars". He transforms into an alien and begins to attack Mega Man as the room around them becomes space. Mega Man quickly discovers the room is a hologram and attacks the projector on the roof. The alien and the fake space disappears, revealing Wily operating machinery. Mega Man pulls Wily down but he activates the castle's self-destruct mechanism and escapes through a trap door. Mega Man quickly flees the building, gathering all the Robot Masters as he passes by them. They manage to escape just in time.

Later, the group has a party at Light Labs. Elec Man is almost done being repaired when Dr. Light reveals he has built a new support unit. When Rock asks what he means, Light whistles and Rush comes charging in, leaping into Rock's arms and licking him affectionately. Auto wonders if he should pack up and head back to his shop, but Light tells him to stay, that Dr. Wily will raise his head again soon. Wily, somewhere else, is setting his sights on the Lanfront Ruins.

Spaced Out
Dr. Wily attacks with Space Invaders. Mega Man initially thinks he's bluffing, but then realizes he's not, and proceeded to give up because "old videogames are too hard to beat."

Characters

 * Rock / Mega Man
 * Mega Man? (First appearance)
 * Dr. Wily
 * Alien (First appearance)
 * Elec Man
 * Guts Man
 * Oil Man
 * Ice Man
 * Cut Man
 * Fire Man
 * Time Man
 * Bomb Man
 * Sniper Joes
 * Mecha Dragon (First appearance)
 * Guts Tank (First appearance)
 * Boobeam Trap (First appearance)
 * Wily Machine 2 (First appearance)
 * Auto
 * Roll
 * Dr. Light
 * Rush (First appearance)

Special Weapons

 * Item-2 (First appearance)
 * Crash Bomber
 * Metal Blade

Locations

 * Wily Castle
 * Light Labs
 * Lanfront Ruins (Mentioned)

Trivia

 * The cover is based on the European Box Art of Mega Man 2.
 * Oil Man's rebuke to Ice Man referred to how Ice Man, despite being an ice-type Robot Master, was stronger than Fire Man and was likewise not weak against fire abilities.
 * Mega Man's comment about how he should have gotten Metal Man's power first was a reference to how Metal Blades were notoriously easy to defeat boss characters with.
 * When Mega Man defeats the alien and pulls Wily out of the projection area, Wily shouted "Pay no attention to the man behind the hologram!" a paraphrase of what the Wizard of Oz's true identity stated when he had, thanks to Dorothy's dog Toto, unintentionally exposed himself to Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion due to the dog pulling away the curtain.
 * The short circuits punchline referenced how older video games were made notoriously hard to beat to ensure longer playtime.