Mega Man (Dreamwave Productions)

Mega Man is a comic book from the original Mega Man series published by Dreamwave Productions between 2003-2004. Only four issues were printed before Dreamwave went out of business. The four volumes were also collected into a pocket-sized trade paperback (TPB). Nowadays, the comic is difficult to find.

Story
The story takes place in a fictional setting known as Mega City, formerly known as Monstropolis (based on Monsteropolis from the American manual of the first Mega Man game).

Issue #1
Mega Man (Rocky Light) and Dr. Light are talking in a car. Rocky doesn't want to go to school because he is a robot and not a human, but Dr. Light says that he should go as his independent determination programming matures by interacting with humans. Traffic is slow and they discover that a large robot called Barrage Man is jamming and destroying the Light Perfected Traffic Control System (LPTCS), being the third municipal system created by Dr. Light to be attacked. Mega Man fights against Barrage Man and defeats him, returning the LPTCS to normal.

Rocky is sent to the Mega City Junior High School, where he is bullied by a trio called the Boltz Brothers and befriends Alan and Chelsea. After school Auto takes Rocky and informs him that the Light Automatic Traffic Speed Governor has been overridden and an out-of-control auto chase is threatening the city, which Dr. Light is trying to solve, and Mega Man is sent to stop a bank-robber called Express Man. A mysterious red robot (Proto Man) watches their battle.

Issue #2
Mega City Aerodrome's tower, one of the safest airports from the world thanks to the Light Perfected Air-Traffic Control System, is attacked by Heat Man and causes one airplane to crash in other, making it fall. Mega Man and Rush arrive in time to avoid the jet from crashing, and they face a swarm of Mets. Heat Man leaves angry. In school, the Boltz Brothers pursue Rocky all day and they set a trap for him in the basketball court, fighting against him. The Boltzes' uncle (Dr. Wily) appears and stops their fight. He is a friendly man that tells Rocky he is an old friend of Dr. Light.

Dr. Light pick up Rocky at school and they talk about the differences between human and robots and the independent determination chip in the way back home. When they arrive, several robots known collectively as Multi Man attacks them, destroying Dr. Light's flying car, damaging Auto, and capturing Mega Man.

Issue #3
After hitting the Multi Man he was inside several times, Mega Man manages to escape, but has trouble with the other Multi Men. Proto Man appears and helps him, and they have a long battle against an army of Multi Men. After a while, all Multi Men leave the area, and so does the red robot. Mega Man tells what happened to Dr. Light as they return home.

In the next day, Rocky sees that there will be a student council dance at night and he invites Chelsea. At the party, the lights turn off for a moment, and when they return the DJ robot malfunctions and starts playing an awful and loud music. Rocky transforms into Mega Man and stops him, and soon after returns to normal and takes Chelsea home. Rocky is starting to like school, returning to home very happy, but in his way back he sees Dr. Light's house on fire. Heat Man and other robots are stealing the house, and Mega Man arrives on time to see their transport leaving. The house is completely destroyed with Dr. Light, Roll, Rush and Auto missing.

Issue #4
While searching the house, Mega Man sees the mysterious red robot that helped him before and goes after him believing that he attacked the house. After solving some misunderstandings, they team up and search for Dr. Light.

Dr. Light and the others were actually safe inside car, and Dr. Light visits "Dr. Wiley Robotics" to ask his former assistant Dr. Wiley (Dr. Wily) to stop sabotaging his municipal inventions, knowing that he is the only person that would know the weaknesses of the technology he developed. Wily angrily says that they developed the technologies together and he went out on his own so Dr. Light would not steal his ideas. Light doesn't understand why he left and why he is attacking him, and Wiley replies that he never understood him, sending skull-shaped robots to attack Light. Dr. Light uses a device to destroy Wiley's robots and informs that he notified the police. Unwilling to be defeated by Dr. Light, Wiley transforms his building into a gigantic Yellow Devil-like robot to attack the city.

Mega Man and Proto Man try to stop the robot, but it is immune to their attacks. The two split up, Mega Man going after Dr. Light while Proto Man cuts the giant robot's power and makes it explode. Proto Man then leaves, and Auto, Roll and Rush appear to pick up Mega Man and Dr. Light.

Killing Time
A short story at the end of the last issue. Mega Man X and Zero are fighting against an army of Maverick Reploids in the darker future of the Mega Man X continuity. With Sigma gaining ground and the odds unfavorable to them, "the doctor" (presumably Dr. Cain) agrees with their idea and X travels back in time to ask Dr. Light for help.

The last frame of the comic contained the message "To be continued in MEGAMAN X. Coming soon from Dreamwave!!". The company went out of business before the issues could be printed, alongside four other Capcom comics that were planned to be released (Darkstalkers, Devil May Cry, Maximo, and Rival Schools).

Game characters

 * Mega Man: A robot created by Dr. Light and the hero of Mega City. He is sent to school under the normal persona of Rocky Light (called "Rock" only once in the first issue) to interact with humans and become more like one.
 * Dr. Light: Rocky's father, a kind robotics genius that created several devices to help the world.
 * Auto: A robot that works for Dr. Light as a chauffeur.
 * Roll: Rocky's robot sister. In the first issue she teases Rocky and asks Dr. Light why she doesn't have an independent determination chip like her brother. Light says that her version of the I.D. chip is different and she already is far too independent.
 * Rush: Rocky's robot dog. He can transform to transport Mega Man.
 * Eddie: Eddie has brief appearances in the first and last issue. Dr. Light created him to make coffee.


 * Proto Man: A mysterious robot that assists Mega Man in the battle against Multi Man and the giant Yellow Devil-like robot. In the last issue, Mega Man asks him who he is and how he has the same powers as him, but Proto Man only says that he is a friend and can't tell anything about himself in the moment. He also says Mega Man can call him "Proto Man", but changes his mind and says to simply call him "Jack".


 * Dr. Wily (named Dr. Wiley in the comic): He was Dr. Light's assistant, but left to start his own business and is behind the wave of robotic attacks against Dr. Light's inventions. He is the uncle of the Boltz Brothers. When he first appears in issue three he appears to be friendly and is with his usual appearance. In the last issue he is sarcastic and is with his Mega Man 8 outfit.


 * Heat Man: A robot who was created by Dr. Wily (from Mega Man 2) that attacks with flames. He attacked the Mega City Aerodrome in issue two and Dr. Light's house in issue three.
 * Met: Small robots with yellow hard hats.


 * Cameo appearances:
 * Dive Man, Fire Man, Stone Man, Crash Man, and Quick Man appear on the cover of the first issue. Guts Man appears in an alternate cover.
 * In the fourth and final issue multiple Robot Masters appear inside Dr. Wily's corporation: Guts Man embroiders the entrance, Cloud Man appears as a holographic welcome sign, Cut Man, Magnet Man, Tengu Man, Air Man, Turbo Man, Astro Man, and Ice Man are in display cases. Other character cameos in the corporation include Blader, Moby, and W. Waltz.
 * Beat has a cameo appearance in the last issue as birds flying around Mega Man's head when he hits a billboard.

Original characters

 * Alan: A boy from Rocky's school that befriends him. He is a bit nervous and fears the Boltz Brothers to the point that he says to Rocky that if they attack him, he will run away. He is member of a chess club.
 * Chelsea: A girl that develops a crush on Rocky. She protects him from the Boltz Brothers in the first issue, and is invited by him to dance in issue three.
 * Boltz Brothers: Dix, Dag and Dez are three bullies that have been held back in school several times. They are Dr. Wiley's nephews.
 * Barrage Man: A large robot that can manipulate traffic.
 * Express Man: A robot that can run at high speed.
 * Multi Man: A robot who can create several copies of itself inside his body.
 * DJ Jazzy J4-8950: A DJ robot that was in Rocky's student council dance. He malfunctions during the party and starts playing an awful loud music, and had to be stopped by Mega Man.
 * Steel Devil: The Godzilla-sized Yellow-Devil-esque robot that Dr. Wily unleashes in the final issue. It takes both Mega Man and Proto Man to breach its armor, rescue Dr. Light from within, and destroy it.
 * W. Waltz: A robotic girl who serves as Dr. Wily's assistant in the last issue; designed by artist Hideki Ishikawa.

Mega Man X characters

 * X
 * Zero
 * Mavericks: Vile, Soldier Stonekong, Vanishing Gungaroo, Flame Hyenard, Splash Warfly, Wind Crowrang, Ride Boarski and Snipe Anteator.

Trivia

 * There were three different variant covers for the first issue. The most expensive is the third version, a "holofoil" cover with an image of Mega Man and Rush high above the city.


 * Billboards of P.N.03 and Viewtiful Joe appear in the last issue.


 * Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante, who did the artwork for the final issue of this series, would later return to do the covers for Archie's Mega Man comic.