Mega Man (Archie Comics)

Mega Man is a comic book series produced by Archie Comics based on the famous Capcom series Mega Man. It ran for 55 issues before being put on indefinite hiatus in 2015.

The series is also notable for the artistic liberties taken with various characters. Shadow Man of Mega Man 3 and the Stardroids of Mega Man V are both featured as creations of Ra Moon, the primary antagonist from Super Adventure Rockman, and all are featured as foes of a group of robots based on Mega Man 8 character Duo. Mega Man and Proto Man's Japanese names-Rock and Blues-are adapted as the names for their civilian forms. Several Robot Masters also appear in the series earlier than they did in the games.

At the end of every issue is a short comical section known as Short Circuits.

Publication History
The comic book series was first announced by Archie Comics during the 2010 New York Comic-Con. Originally slated for a spring 2011 release, CEO Jon Goldwater later estimated a May 2011 release, which was confirmed on the official website.

Writer Ian Flynn and artist Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante, who worked on many stories for Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, are involved with the production. Ian Flynn is in charge of the script for most of the issues and Spaziante provides covers and penciling for subsequent issues, working alongside letterer John Workman and colorist Matt Herms. Chad Thomas who drew a few designs for Archie's pitch to Capcom and provided the variant cover for the first issue will also be the artist of a future story arc.

Residents of Canada and the US who had pre-ordered a subscription received free copies of a poster autographed by Spaziante.

Story Arcs and Graphic Novels
The comic's storyline is divided into graphic novels each consisting of four-issue story arcs.

Arc 1: Let the Games Begin!

 * Main Article: Let the Games Begin! (Issues 1-4)
 * This first arc is an adaptation of the first Mega Man video game, Mega Man. The benevolent scientist Dr. Light creates a series of Robot Masters to help mankind, but they are stolen by Dr. Wily in an attempt to take over the world. Dr. Light's helper robot Rock volunteers to be converted into a fighting robot, becoming Mega Man in order to stop his robot siblings along with Dr. Wily's ambitions.

Arc 2: Time Keeps Slipping

 * Main Article: Time Keeps Slipping (Issues 5-8)
 * This arc features an original story with elements from Mega Man Powered Up. Although Dr. Wily is stopped by Mega Man and jailed, federal agents investigate Dr. Light's connection to the Robot Master incidents while sinister figures watch from behind the scenes. Additionally, Time Man and Oil Man make their debut in this story arc.

Arc 3: The Return of Doctor Wily

 * Main Article: The Return of Doctor Wily (Issues 9-12)
 * This arc is an adaption of Mega Man 2. Hiding out in his new base, Dr. Wily has constructed eight new Robot Masters and has challenged Mega Man with the threat of the city's destruction.

Arc 4: Spiritus Ex Machina

 * Main Article: Spiritus Ex Machina (Issues 13-16)
 * An original arc that takes elements from Super Adventure Rockman and Mega Man 3, Mega Man must battle against the anti-robot group Emerald-Spears while Wily searches the Lanfront Ruins and discovers Ra Moon. Characters from Mega Man 4 like Dr. Cossack, his daughter, and Pharaoh Man make their first appearances, along with Archie-created Dr. Lalinde and her own Robot Master, Quake Woman.

Arc 5: Rock of Ages

 * Main Article: Rock of Ages (Issues 17-20)
 * An original arc comprised of five separate stories. The first two part story, "Proto-Type", explains the origin of Blues (a.k.a. Proto Man) all the way up to the present. Within those two separate issues are two separate smaller stories- the first one, "Construction Derby", introducing Concrete Man, who aids Guts Man in construction, and the second, "Cold Feat", dealing with Guts Man attempting to help Ice Man with glacier research. The fourth story, "Roll With It", features Roll, Quake Woman, and Splash Woman saving the day from a disaster. The fifth story, "Rock of Ages", takes place in the near future and has Wily managing to steal the Time Skimmer and sending Mega Man on an adventure through time, revealing moments from the adventures he supposedly had up to that point and will have from Super Adventure Rockman to Mega Man 10.

Arc 6: Breaking Point

 * Main Article: Breaking Point (Issues 21-23, 28)
 * An original arc comprised of four separate stories, three of which are holiday themed. The first story, "Countdown", marks the return of the Emerald Spears group on New Years Eve. The second story, "Cold Crush", takes place on Valentine's Day and expands on Ice Man's romantic interest in Roll while Roll tries to get Mega Man and Quake Woman together. The third story, "For the Bot Who Has Everything", tells the story of Break Man (who is actually Blues) attacking Mega Man on his birthday. This leads into the Sonic and Mega Man crossover, "Worlds Collide". The fourth story, "The Return", takes place right after the crossover and is a prelude to a new four issue story arc.

Arc 7: Blackout: The Curse of Ra Moon

 * Main Article: Blackout: The Curse of Ra Moon (Issues 29-32)
 * An adaptation of Super Adventure Rockman, in which Mega Man, Rush, and three of the Mega Man 1 Robot Masters must journey to the Amazon and work to counter the effects of Ra Moon's EM field to save Roll's life. Along the way they first battle and then join forces with the restored Mega Man 2 Robot Masters and Break Man in order to contend with the Mega Man 3 Robot Masters under Ra Moon's control.

Arc 8: Redemption

 * Main Article: Redemption (Issue 33-36)
 * Following up on the events of Blackout, Redemption starts with "Unplugged," in which Dr. Wily helps repair a critically damaged Mega Man before being taken into federal custody for his past crimes and suspicion regarding the recent blackout. The follow up stories "Shadow of Ra Moon: Wayward Son" and "Fear Itself" feature Mega Man leading an expedition back to the Lanfront Ruins to verify Dr. Wily's account of being manipulated by Ra Moon. The two stories also feature Shadow Man being inducted into Wily's force of Robot Masters and Break Man-the future Proto Man-confronting Quake Woman regarding her familial relationship with her creator. The final story "A Chance at Redemption" sets the stage for a Mega Man 3 adaptation, with Wily's second set of Robot Masters stealing Gamma's Energy Elements. This arc also featured the two-part short story, "The X Factor", which served as a prequel/adaptation to future comic stories based on the Mega Man X franchise.

Arc 9: Dawn of X

 * Main Article: Dawn of X (Issues 37-40)
 * An arc focusing on further development of the Mega Man X storyline in the comics. Mega Man, Pharaoh Man and Bright Man are tricked by Dr. Wily into battling an old robot called the Wily Walker. Meanwhile, the leader of the Emerald Spears, Xander Payne uses a prototype Time Skimmer to travel forewards in time to the world of Mega Man X, where X and the Maverick Hunters also have to deal with the Wily Walker. This arc is considered to be a prologue for the Worlds Unite crossover.

Arc 10: Legends of the Blue Bomber

 * Main Article: Legends of the Blue Bomber (Issues 41-44)
 * The first half of the long-awaited adaptation of the Mega Man 3 game. After getting info from the police about the whereabouts of half of the Wily/Ra Moon-created Robot Masters, Mega Man and Rush head for a group of mining asteroids in space to defeat them and reclaim the Energy Elements they stole at the end of "A Chance of Redemption". Then they must head back to Earth to deal with the remaining half. Little do they know that Dr. Wily is preparing something that could lead to their downfall.

Arc 11: The Ultimate Betrayal

 * Main Article: The Ultimate Betrayal (Issues 45-48)
 * The second half of the Mega Man 3 adaptation. With his cover as a "reformed" mad scientist blown, Dr. Wily crams all eight of the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters into the body of his new creation, the Doc Robot, steals Gamma and the eight Energy Elements, and destroys Dr. Light's lab. Realizing his mistake of trusting Wily in the first place, Dr. Light sends Mega Man to Wily's new castle to deal with him.

Worlds Collide
This arc takes place during Archie Comics' crossover event with their Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Universe series as well as Mega Man. The story ran for four months and released three parts of the arc at a time (one part for each respective comic per month) for a total of twelve parts as well as a prelude counting as part zero. The twelve issues are split into three acts, each act consisting of four issues.

Act 1: Kindred Spirits

 * Main Article: Worlds Collide Vol. 1 - Kindred Spirits
 * The first four issue story arc of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man crossover, Worlds Collide. This act explains how Dr. Wily met Dr. Eggman, and has both doctors tricking Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man into believing that the other is responsible for a crime done by their doppelgangers Metal Sonic and Copy Robot. And while the two blue heroes are fighting, Eggman and Wily are capturing Sonic's friends and turning them into a combined form of the Robot Masters from Mega Man's world and the Robians from Sonic's world: the Roboticized Masters.

Act 2: Into the Warzone

 * Main Article: Worlds Collide Vol. 2 - Into the Warzone
 * The second four issue story arc of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man crossover, Worlds Collide. After realizing they were tricked, and finding a way to de-roboticize the Roboticized Masters, Mega Man and Sonic travel with some allies to Wily and Eggman's base in the Skull Egg Zone, a pocket dimension that has linked both worlds, and features aspects from the games of both series. The evil doctors have captured Dr. Light, and have sent the Roboticized Masters to destroy the heroes. The blue heroes and their pals must fight all the Roboticized Masters, plus Copy Robot, the Genesis Unit and Shadow Man.

Act 3: Chaos Clash

 * Main Article: Worlds Collide Vol. 3 - Chaos Clash
 * The third four issue story arc of the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man crossover, Worlds Collide. As the battle in the Skull Egg Zone gets fiercer, Mega Man and Sonic gather their allies and prepare an all-out assault on the evil doctors' base, a combined form of Wily's Wily Star and Eggman's Death Egg, the Wily Egg. The only things standing between them and saving both of their worlds, are a huge army of Robot Masters (the ones from Mega Man 2 through 10, Mega Man & Bass, Mega Man: The Wily Wars and the first four Game Boy games), the last of the Roboticized Masters Rouge Woman, the fierce Chaos Devil, their rivals Metal Sonic, Bass and Treble, and the deadly Egg-Wily Machine X.

Worlds Unite
Worlds Unite is an upcoming crossover between the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man published by Archie Comics. It is the second crossover between the Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man comic series, the first being in 2013 with Sonic &amp; Mega Man: When Worlds Collide. This crossover will feature the Mega Man X and Sonic Boom universes in addition to the classic Mega Man and mainstream Sonic universes. Also, characters from other Capcom and Sega properties will make appearences. It is scheduled to start in May 2015. Just like the first crossover, Worlds Unite will be divided into twelve parts, and split into three acts.

Act 1: Deadly Fusion

 * Main Article: Worlds Unite Vol. 1 - Deadly Fusion
 * The first four issue story arc of Worlds Unite. Thanks to the Genesis Portals that have been popping up since the end of the last crossover, the villainous Sigma has escaped from the world of Mega Man X and into the Lost Hex in Sonic's world, and plans multiversal domination. To do this, he abducts Dr. Wily from Mega Man's world, and enslaves him, Dr. Eggman, and the Deadly Six, a group of villainous Zeti that inhabit the Lost Hex, and has them capture the blue heroes of their worlds. The heroes are then converted into soldiers and sent to the other blue hero's world to wreck havoc. So, while Quake Woman and the combined forces of the Light Robot Masters and reformed Wily Robot Masters have to deal with the newest member of the Roboticized Masters, Sonic Man, Mega Man, converted into the Eggman robot M'egga Man, is forced to fight Sally Acorn and her Freedom Fighters. Silver the Hedgehog manages to alert X, Zero and Axl about Sigma's plans, and they go through a Genesis Portal to assist the other heroes, but they end up taking a slight detour to the wacky and not-so-serious world of Sonic Boom, where they meet up with Sticks the Badger, Fastidious Beaver and Comedy Chimp.

Act 2: Broken Bonds

 * The second four issue story arc of Worlds Unite. De-roboticized by each other thanks to some coding the evil doctors snuck in, Mega Man and Sonic witness the first phase of Sigma's plan come to fruition, as their worlds merge into a singular reality. With no other options, the heroes of all four worlds form a truce with Xander Payne, who saw the events during his time-travel fiasco in the Dawn of X arc, and the evil doctors, who escaped from Sigma's grasp with help from Xander, to take on Sigma's army of Mechaniloids. But he uses the Deadly Six to take control of all the robotic members of Mega Man and Sonic's team. Meanwhile, after falling into a Genesis Portal during the assault, Sticks ends up in the action-filled world of Capcom's Street Fighter, where she requests help from world warriors Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Guile.

Act 3: Allied Forces

 * The final four issue story arc of Worlds Unite. Moved into a colossal body, Sigma begins the final phase of his plan, as he sends his army of Mavericks (the ones from Mega Man X1 through X8 and the Game Boy Color games) to merge more worlds so he can absorb their energy, and become god of the multiverse. With time running out, Mega Man, Sonic, X, Sticks, Ryu and all their allies gather heroes from eleven other worlds throughout the Capcom and Sega library of franchises, including Skies of Arcadia, Breath of Fire, Alex Kidd, Viewtiful Joe, Billy Hatcher, Okami, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Golden Axe, Monster Hunter and Panzer Dragoon, to fight against Sigma's army.