Proto Man/Archie Comics

This article is about Proto Man's appearance in the Mega Man comic book series by Archie Comics.

History
Proto Man was the first Robot Master created by Dr. Light, with the assistance of Dr. Wily. His original name is Blues, much like the original name of his brother Mega Man is Rock.

Early appearances
Before Proto Man's actual appearance in the comic, he is mentioned in the second issue, Dr. Light saying "Blues?!" when a Sniper Joe appears in front of Mega Man, mistaking him for Proto Man. In the same issue, shortly after this event, Roll asked Dr. Light who Blues was due to overhearing Light's exclamation, although Light hastily changed the subject. In issue 3, while Dr. Light is comforting a sobbing Mega Man, he states that he built Rock in his image and loves him dearly, and that "he didn't want to lose another one of his beloved creations," with a panel (flashback) of him glancing at Proto Man.

In the eighth issue of the comic, Proto Man is seen watching Rock, Roll, and Dr. Light from the window. He was not wearing his helmet or visor, and his brown hair was covering his eyes. He makes his first, brief appearance in issue #15 when he is shut down by Ra Moon when near the Lanfront Ruins. In issue #16, Dr. Wily repairs and upgrades him. Proto Man agrees to work with Wily out of debt, but uncomfortable with his previous name of Blues or Wily's suggestion of Proto Man, the two compromise and he goes by Break Man. Rock also uncovers Blues' name in Light's database, prompting Light to reluctantly inform him about Blues' past and possible demise, leading to the Proto-Type arc below.

Proto-Type
The story arc Proto-Type shows that Blues is an advanced fighting robot created by Dr. Light (with Dr. Wily's assistance) as part of a military contract. Dr. Light created Blues to be human-like and intended to keep him, while the future Robot Masters line would be used as weapons. Dr. Light was enthusiastic with his creation and took him to several places of the city, including a museum and a park, to give him culture, and he gave Blues a yellow scarf and shades during these days. One night, Dr. Light heard Blues whistling a tune he made himself.

When Dr. Light had to show the results of his research to the military, Blues is taken to a live-fire exercise to show his combat abilities. At first Blues goes well, but suddenly something wrong happens with him and he is damaged. Dr. Light panics and asks to stop the test. When analyzing Blues, Dr. Light discovers that there is an imbalance in his power generator. He has never been put under this kind of strain, and as everything about him is unique and experimental, he requires a tremendous amount of power, and the output demand was pushed. The military sees potential in Dr. Light's work, and they decide to continue funding his research, asking him to create a simpler model that would require less power. This leads to the creation of the Sniper Joe series.

Back in Light Labs, Blues' recharge finishes and he awakens hearing Dr. Light and Wily discussing. He enters the room and they say Blues' power generator is flawed and the imbalance will eventually destroy him if it is not fixed. Dr. Light must redesign his core to save him, but by doing it there is a chance that his personal coding will be erased, making him lose all his personality traits. Later in the same night, Blues listens Dr. Light talking with Dr. Lalinde in a computer about him and hears Dr. Light say "Honestly, it would be easier if I did rewrite that rebellious streak out of him...". However, Dr. Light didn't mean it and planned to repair him the next day, but Blues is sad with what he heard and leaves Light Labs carrying a bag full of E Tanks. Dr. Light never heard of Blues again, and as time passed he believed that he perished because of his flaw.

Blues decided to live what is left of his life on his own terms, and would rather die tomorrow as Blues than live forever as someone else. He has no regrets, but he feels lonely as he doesn't get along with other robots because their programming isn't as human as his, and he has no place with humans due to being a combat robot. While wandering the world, Blues always used his powers to help those in need, even if it reduced his lifespan due to the energy used. As the years passed he ran out of E Tanks and his power reserves receive less energy each time he recharges by "napping".

Realizing his time is running out, he decides to return to Light Labs hoping that Dr. Light still loves him and will forgive him. When he arrives, he sees Dr. Light hugging Rock and Roll (the scene from issue 8), and leaves crying, thinking he was a fool to return. His time almost up, Blues stops sulking and decides to find a place to perish, this being his last choice. In a TV news he sees the Lanfront Ruins in the Amazon Rainforest and decides to go there. With his remaining power he goes as close as he can to the Temple of the Moon while thinking of the choices he made, and passes away while whistling his tune. Blues is found by Dr. Wily's Robot Masters and is repaired by Dr. Wily, awakening inside the Temple of the Moon and leading to his name change to Break Man shown in issue #16.

As Break Man
In Mega Man's birthday, Wily incites Break Man to fight against Mega Man in issue #23 and uses the opportunity to continue his and Doctor Eggman's scheme. (He didn't want him around when he finished his plan because Blues kept bothering Wily because of his conscience.) Break Man goes to the recently renamed Mega City and manages to defeat Mega Man, Rush, Cut Man, Guts Man, and Bomb Man. After the battle, he decides to leave, but Mega Man grabs his scarf and tries to remove his helmet, asking why he attacked him. Suddenly, a white light envelops them.

See Worlds Collide Below

Blackout
When the light was gone, the damage done by Break Man was undone, and he continues his fight against Mega Man. During the battle, he accidentally shot Roll when she intercepted one of his attacks meant for Mega Man, when she temporarily stopped the fight to tell Mega Man that Break Man's true identity is Blues. Shortly after Ra Moon spreads his improved electromagnetic wave over the planet to disable all machines, except for the Robot Masters that were repaired or built by the alien super computer. Angry with what happened, Break Man gives Dr. Light a drive with data that allowed him and Pedro Astil to create a special coating to protect their robots. He teleports back to the Temple of the Moon, and inside he is attacked by Ra Moon. Dr. Wily appears and calls Break Man, explaining that Ra Moon betrayed him and may be controlling his Robot Masters, except for Break Man as he repaired him without Ra Moon's help, and he asks if the E.M. immunity installed on him isn't having any hiccups. Wily tells Break Man to avoid fighting Ra Moon alone and protect him while he creates a new robot, Ra Thor, to destroy it. Break Man later reported to Wily about Mega Man, Cut Man, Bomb Man, Guts Man, and Rush's presence, as well as his former Robot Masters apparently being on Ra Moon's side due to shooting them down. As Wily is unable to determine whether they actually were on Ra Moon's side or still on his side (as his Robot Masters had a bone to pick with Mega Man as well, and thus doesn't prove conclusively for either side), Break Man is dispatched to find out if the Robot Masters are still loyal to him or if they are now loyal to Ra Moon, and supply a report to him about it. Break Man then appears before Mega Man, Cut Man, Guts Man, and Bomb Man, as well as Wood Man, Quick Man, Air Man, and Crash Man some time after they drove away Shadow Man, and explained to them what had occurred, including Ra Moon's betrayal of Wily, and also supplied them with information regarding a less guarded route directly to the Temple of the Moon, with Mega Man, Rush, and Guts Man (who do not trust Break Man) deciding to go down the path, with Break Man staying behind to aid in repairing his fellow Robot Masters (with Bomb Man and Cut Man reluctantly aiding him). Unbeknownst to him or the other Robot Masters, however, one of Snake Man's Search Snakes overheard their conversation, resulting in Ra Moon not only finding out about the secret passage, but also dispatching Needle Man and Snake Man to ambush them within the tunnels.

He later participated in the battle against Ra Moon, although a setback occurred when Ra Moon took over Wily's trump card against the computer, Ra Thor. Break Man then requested that, in the event that he doesn't make it out alive in the battle, that Mega Man apologize to Roll for his injuring her, before Mega Man told him that they will make it out alive. Break Man later supplied advice to Mega Man to use his copy chip and variable weapons system to defeat Ra Thor, and eventually finished him off with his shield after a salvo of everything in Mega Man's arsenal managed to weaken the robot. When Ra Moon deactives the second generation of Robot Masters and sends Ra Devil to attack them, Break Man fights against the remaining five Robot Masters while Mega Man faces Ra Devil. Break Man is not able to fight against the five alone and is apparently knocked out, and when Hard Man is about to finish him, Hard Man returns to normal due to Mega Man's destroying Ra Moon.

Unplugged
Break Man stayed behind with the other Wily Robot Masters in the aftermath while Wily and Dr. Light's Robot Masters return to Light Labs to deliver Mega Man back to Dr. Light, and repair him. They repair each other, and at some point, Shadow Man runs away from them. Break Man and the other Robot Masters proceed to give pursuit around the time Mega Man departed for Lanfront Ruins to find proof of Wily's innocence. He and the seven third generation Robot Masters discover Mega Man's presence, alongside Drs. Light, Cossack, and Astil, Rush, Plant Man, Pharaoh Man, and Roll. He was briefly overjoyed at Roll's survival before stopping himself. He also came up with the idea to use Mega Man as bait for Shadow Man to expose himself. The plan worked, and after subduing Shadow Man, they offered him a place among Dr. Wily's forces. He then temporarily left while the rest regrouped at the still-under-construction Wily Castle to ask Quake Woman what it means to have a family, after overhearing her refer to Dr. Lalinde as "mom," although he primarily wanted to ask why she continued to trust Dr. Lalinde after she sabotaged her personality.

He, alongside Quake Woman, later saw a video file of what Quake Woman was formerly like before her quarry accident. Break Man wasn't happy with the answers, eventually angrily stating that Dr. Light "replaced" him (referring to his creation of Rock/Mega Man and Roll) while smashing a picture near Quake Woman. Dr. Lalinde, having overheard the conversation in fear of him hurting them, appears to talk with him, asking him whether he ever considered the possibility that Dr. Light may have actually created Rock and Roll so he'd have siblings and thus wouldn't be alone. Without a word, he teleports away. In Issue 36, Break Man managed to supply his old access codes for Light Labs to Flash Man. This resulted in Flash Man, after using the Time Stopper on all but Dr. Wily to give Dr. Wily a status update on the development of his castle and the successful recruitment of Shadow Man.

Legends of the Blue Bomber
On Dr. Wily's orders, Break Man set out to relieve the recreated second line of Robot Masters of their weapon data and I.C. chips, and despite objections obtained them without struggle from most of the line. Quick Man, however, resisted fiercely until Dr. Wily ordered him to surrender to Break Man. Although Break Man doesn't directly appear in Issue 43, he is mentioned, as Dr. Wily is calling in Break Man to hurry up with delivering the weapon data and I.C. chips as he realizes time is short just as Auto walks in on him. Ultimately, he does arrive with the chips in Issue 44, also bypassing the then-recently-enacted lockdown due to the security codes installed on him meant for when he decided to return to Light Labs, thus allowing Wily to complete the Doc Robot due to being in the room when the lockdown was enacted. He then joins Wily and the fully operational Doc Robot in confronting Dr. Light and Roll in their main command center, where he looks away from Dr. Light.

Betrayal
In Issue 45, Wily, having anticipated Mega Man would be returning to the lab, had Break Man posted outside. After sighting Mega Man, he then proceeded to shoot Mega Man and Rush down (although not before whistling his characteristic tune), with Break Man telling Mega Man that Dr. Light isn't available due to seeing "someone else." Break Man then proceeded to duel Mega Man, clearly getting the upper hand, although he is eventually convinced to spare Rush as well as the IC chips containing Mega Man's brothers. However, when he is questioned regarding why he is doing this, Mega Man lets slip Break Man's true name of Blues, thus angering him. However, before Blues could attack Mega Man, Light Labs blows up nearby. Break Man then calls Dr. Wily, with Wily confirming he and Gamma made it out. However, Break Man was more concerned for Roll and Dr. Light, with Wily telling Break Man that they were safe in Gamma's hangar, as he wasn't a monster. Break Man expressed relief that they were safe before being ordered by Wily to finish Mega Man off and return to his castle. However, Mega Man overheard the exchange and expressed anger. Break Man, unwilling to fight Mega Man while the latter was damaged, supplied the access codes to Wily's castle and told him to get fixed up by Dr. Light. True to his word, Mega Man proceeded to teleport inside Wily Castle 3, with Break Man waiting for them.

Break Man will fight Mega Man in Issue 46.

Rock of Ages
Sometime later, Proto Man joined Dr. Light's forces, and also was present when Mega Man recovered from his time traveling experience.

Worlds Collide
One day in the far future, Proto Man stands on top of a building when he notices some police cars heading for a bank. When he gets there and finds that the bank is attacked by four Roboticized Masters to steal a Chaos Emerald, Proto Man fights against them alone until Mega Man appears to help him. This was due to the second Genesis Wave launched a long time ago by a past incarnation of Dr. Wily and his new partner, Dr. Eggman. Proto Man returns heavily damaged, although he does report to Dr. Light his readings on the Warp Ring used by the Roboticized Masters upon returning to Light Labs, resulting in Light creating a copy, also teleporting Mega Man and Sonic to the former's world. Because of his distrust of Dr. Light, Roll insists to let her help repair him.

He later aided Sonic, Mega Man, Rush and Tails (the last having reasserted his identity upon being defeated as Tails Man) in entering the Skull Egg Zone to locate Dr. Light, who had been abducted by Bass and Metal Sonic during the duel between Sonic and Mega Man. Proto Man then scouted ahead and dragged several of the Roboticized Masters in his pursuit to locate Dr. Light, as well as to divert the Roboticized Masters from fighting the others, leaving only the Roboticized Masters Vector Man, Espio Man, and Charmy Man to fight against them. He eventually joined up with the reformatted identities of the aforementioned Roboticized Masters (Vector the Crocodile, Espio the Chameleon, and Charmy Bee, respectively) to investigate the entrance to the Skull Egg Zone. After all Roboticized Masters were restored, Proto Man, alongside the Chaotix, informed Mega Man of finding the entrance to the Wily Egg, although they required a password to access it. Despite not cracking the password to the teleport system before the time-cloned Robot Master army, commanded by Rouge Woman's arrival, Proto Man nonetheless fought off the Robot Masters, also staying behind to hold them back while Mega Man and Sonic rushed to save Dr. Light and stop the evil scientists.

After Shadow the Hedgehog saved Dr. Light from a fatal fall from the Wily Egg, Proto Man, after making sure Light was alright, lent Light his helmet to communicate with Mega Man, although he told him to "make it quick" as they were in the middle of a war zone. Proto Man and Knuckles the Echidna later accompanied Dr. Light to save Mega Man and Sonic when they ended up captured by Eggman and Wily, with Knuckles and Proto Man proceeding to fight the two doctors in their mech, the Egg-Wily Machine X. They managed to trash the machine to a large degree, in large part due to Wily and Eggman's backstabbing sabotages to each other's systems, although they were eventually brought down by Wily and Eggman doing a full system restore via the Chaos Emeralds. The doctors tried to finish them before they are taken by the Super Genesis Wave, but the two are saved by Sonic and Mega Man, in super forms, who proceeded to fight the mech. Presumably, Proto Man got sucked into the vortex from the Super Genesis Wave, and returns to his original form when Super Mega Man undid the changes with Chaos Control.

Short Circuits
Proto Man has appeared in some of the Short Circuits mini comics present in the end of Archie's Mega Man comic. In issue 4 he has a short appearance with Rush, Bass and Treble. In issue 5 he reads the script of issue 2 and gets happy that it mentions a robot with shield will appear, believing that will be him. He is disappointed when he discovers the robot was a Sniper Joe. Later he reads the script of issue 5, which has a robot with scarf, but it is revealed to be Oil Man. In issue 9, Dr. Light is introducing his newest 'robotic breakthrough', a hamster that can recharge its own battery by running on a wheel. Rock questions the intelligence behind the invention while Blues stands there and states that it's the reason he doesn't want Dr. Light messing with his power supply.

He also appeared in issue 18, where he told Bass that he'd better get comfortable and motions to an E-tank machine to Bass's right when Bass discovers that at least a full year passed of the Mega Man comics, and they are just barely past Mega Man 2. Besides his appearances as Proto Man, he also appeared in issues 23 and 28 as Break Man, the former taking a Union Man-approved 15 minute break (to Mega Man's irritation, as it happened just as he was supposed to fight him) and the latter comically implying that his Proto Buster had "broken" the storyline for four months.

Trivia

 * Proto Man's hairstyle in all of his unhelmeted appearances are based on his Mega Man 8 form, the sole exception being the Short Circuits comic "Mariachi", where he possessed the hairstyle from Mega Man 3 and the Rockman Complete Works version of his appearance from Mega Man 5.