Skull Man

"Now! Let's get ready to rumble!"

- Skull Man

Skull Man (スカルマン) is a Robot Master created specially for combat with balanced offense and defense by Dr. Cossack while he was working for Dr. Wily in Mega Man 4. He attacks with shots from his arm cannon, and can generate a skull-shaped energy shield called the Skull Barrier for protection. Skull Man only moves or attacks when Mega Man does the same; however, he doesn't move if Mega Man only jumps, instead firing his buster. His weakness is the Dust Crusher, due to how the fragments from the projectile can get easily lodged in his internal mechanisms.

Much like Ring Man before him, Skull Man was made solely for the purpose of fighting. With this in mind, he is a good strategist, and is meticulous in his attention to detail, particularly with planning his combat methods. However, he having only been taught to fight, he lacks skills in other areas and tends to be socially awkward, often alienating others by acting in bad taste. Befitting his morbid theme, Skull Man is also a huge fan of horror movies.

Mega Man 4
Skull Man is one of the eight bosses. Interestingly enough, he won't attack until Mega Man moves or shoots. He won't move if Mega Man jumps, though. He attacks by firing his arm cannon. His shots can be avoided by jumping high so the first shot either misses or Skull Man shoots it high, missing Mega Man, then avoiding the rest of the projectiles. Then, he jumps at Mega Man (which can be avoided by moving out of the way) and activates his Skull Barrier, making him invincible to almost everything. Afterwards he will run in an attempt to tackle Mega Man. The player should quickly move out of the way or jump over him to avoid it. He won't repeat the pattern until Mega Man moves or shoots again.

His attack pattern may be triggered differently depending on what Mega Man does. If Mega Man moves, he'll start by firing his arm cannon. If Mega Man shoots him, he'll start by jumping at Mega Man.

His weakness is the Dust Crusher, although it can't pierce his barrier. It defeats him in seven hits. The only weapons strong enough to pierce his barrier are the Ring Boomerang and Rain Flush, although the Ring Boomerang deals one damage and the Rain Flush two damage. He is also immune to the Pharaoh Shot.

Mega Man III
Skull Man is one of the four bosses fought in the Wily Castle. His strategy is similar to Mega Man 4.

Mega Man's Soccer
Skull Man is a balanced player. A team of eight Skull Mans is one of the eight team bosses in the Capcom Championship mode, and one Skull Man joins Mega Man's team after his defeat. Skull Man's team in Tournament mode is formed by three Skull Mans, Ice Man, Bomb Man, Air Man, Bubble Man, and Gemini Man. In League mode his team has three Skull Mans, two Bomb Mans, two Flash Mans, and one Proto Man.

Rockman Strategy
Skull Man is featured in Rockman Strategy as a recurring antagonist, appearing twice over the course of the game. He first appears as an ally of Luna, and then later protecting the Wily Capsule.

Other appearances

 * Skull Man has a cameo appearance in the museum stage from Mega Man 7, in the background of the room that Mash appears.
 * Skull Man appears in the opening scene from Mega Man 8.
 * Skull Man appears in the CD database from Mega Man & Bass.
 * Skull Man appeared in an event from Otoranger.

Mega Man &amp; Bass CD data
* Kodawari, from kodawaru, has multiple meanings related to feelings. In general it could be translated as "strong feelings", but also as fastidiousness, nitpicking, fussiness, to take special care over something, obsession, and similar meanings, like upādāna.

Rockman Complete Works data
戦うためにつくられたセントウ用ロボット. 攻撃のタイミングがいやらしいので弱点武器はかならず使おう！

Mega Man Legacy Collection text: A battle robot made just for fighting. It's hard to time your normal attacks against him, so be sure to use the weapon that plays on his weakness!

Stage enemies
Enemies in Skull Man's stage in Mega Man 4 and Mega Man III.
 * Battonton
 * Imorm
 * Shield Attacker
 * Skeleton Joe
 * Skullmet
 * Super Ball Machine Jr.
 * Togehero

Damage Data Chart
Amount of damage in units that Skull Man receives from each Special Weapon in Mega Man 4.

*For the Mega Buster and Pharaoh Shot, the first digit is when the weapon is fired normally and the second is when it is fully charged.

Mega Man Megamix
In the manga, Skull Man was created by Dr. Cossack specially to fight against Mega Man after Kalinka was kidnapped. His Skull Barrier is a set of six skull-like discs that appear from the mouth of his shoulders and creates an electromagnetic field around himself. With the Skull Barrier active, Skull Man can attack foes without worrying about avoiding attacks and taking damage, but a drawback is that his mobility is restricted while the barrier is in effect. In terms of additional weaponry, Skull Man also has a Buster in each radius, and sixteen Shotguns hidden in his ribs. Though Skull Man represents the culmination of Dr. Cossack's skills, he was purposely created to look like the complete opposite of Cossack's ideals, and thus his existence is more like a nightmare than anything else.

In the story The Grim Reaper of Resurrection, Skull Man was deactivated by Dr. Cossack after the events of Mega Man 4, but is later reactivated by Dr. Wily. Angry for being deactivated, Skull Man goes to Dr. Cossack's Citadel equipped with a scythe and disguised with a robe to resemble a Grim Reaper, and proceeds to destroy it with the aid of Reggae and a group of Skeleton Joes, capturing Dust Man, Pharaoh Man and Drill Man in the process. He later locates Dr. Cossack while he was giving a TV interview, and captures him during the broadcast. Mega Man saw this on TV and goes after Skull Man to rescue Cossack, receiving some help along the way, but Skull Man also captures Kalinka and Roll. Mega Man later locates Skull Man and fights against him with the help of the other seven robots Cossack created.

Dr. Cossack figures that Skull Man's feelings were hurt from being deactivated, and treated like he was just a weapon without emotions. Skull Man is happy that he realized this, and after being defeated, he asks Cossack to never create any fighting machines like him again before running out of energy. Skull Man also has a few appearances in Mega Man Megamix vol. 3, where he is mentioned by Dive Man.

In Mega Man Gigamix vol. 3, in the final battle against the Stardroids in space, Skull Man's ghost appears to scare Pluto and talk with the injured Ring Man. Pluto refers to Skull Man as a "monster" (obake in Japan), which angers Ring Man, and gives the robot the motivation to destroy the Stardroid.

Mega Man (Archie Comics)
Skull Man also appears in the Mega Man series from Archie Comics, appearing some time before the Mega Man 4 adaptation in the Worlds Collide crossover. Like many of the Robot Masters, he appeared as part of a time-cloned army to oppose the small force led by Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog. During the course of the battle, he had the misfortune of being attacked by Rush, undoubtedly due to his bone motif.

Other appearances
Skull Man also appeared in the manga Rockman 4, Rockman World 3, and Rockman 4Koma Dai Koushin. He also had a cameo appearance in the comic Novas Aventuras de Megaman with his "Grim Reaper" appearance from Mega Man Megamix.

Trivia

 * His weakness to the Dust Crusher is in reference to the fact that items made of bone and ivory require a modest, clean, and stable environment to remain intact, lest their composition is compromised by foreign residues that get them to deteriorate and conditions that get them to lose their value and form. The term "Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust" also comes to mind, as proper burials and religious ceremony do so to respect the dead and lay their corpses to rest, with many beliefs in reverence that all living things go back to the earth when their time has come.


 * Possibly because of his comparatively macabre theme, Skull Man is the only Robot Master from Mega Man 4 to never appear in the Mega Man animated series.


 * Interestingly, his AI is not programmed to act until the player moves horizontally or shoots.


 * During the development of Mega Man 4, Capcom scrapped his stage and restarted from scratch, as they were so impressed by the fan-submitted design.


 * When the player reaches Dr. Cossack's Citadel, a skull theme is not seen anywhere in it. It is also interesting to know Skull Man is the last in the line of Dr. Cossack's Robot Masters. This may be hinting that Cossack would have been "motivated" by Wily to build Skull Man.


 * Skull Man's bad taste and dislike of feelings may stem from the fact that he is based on the living dead. Reanimated creatures, such as skeletons and zombies, tend to lack any sense of emotion.
 * Skull Man's name is derived from a shonen manga of the same name, created by Shotaro Ishinomori, which inspired his more well-known Kamen Rider series.