Licensing Tragedies: The Mega Man Comic
I don’t know if I can properly call Dreamwave’s Mega Man comic a “Licensing Tragedy.” It’s more like a licensing misfire accompanied by wasted potential. Either way, its mediocrity made my soul sad.
The Mega Man comic had four issues published through 2003 and 2004. It was illustrated by Mic Fong for its first three issues before duties were passed on to Patrick Spaziante (“Spaz,” who has illustrated the covers for the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series for many years). The art was passable, though Mic Fong’s character designs rarely ventured far beyond Anime Cliches 101 (when humans blush, the blood doesn’t elevate above their skin. It just doesn’t). The comic’s writing, however, was a flat tire. Brian Augustyn was the series’ chosen scribe. Augustyn’s work can still be found in non-offensive Ninja Turtle storybooks sold at supermarket check-outs. Now you have a good idea of the safe, oatmeal-flavoured plot that was dished up for gaming’s favourite robot.
Augustyn gave Mega Man two identities, basically forcing him to go to school and foil unruly robots at the same time. Juggling school and a secret identity while unmasking the antics of Old Man Peterson is a lot of fun if you’re Hannah Montana. But the fun thing about being a battle-ready robot is that you can say “Fuck school forever” and fly off to do battle with other robots who can basically lob nuclear bombs at you. Nobody wants to associate Mega Man with a classroom.
It’s easy to understand why Augustyn stuck him there, though: it doesn’t take much effort to write about schoolyard bullies with a single mission (harass the new kid), or lunchroom robots that go out of control and start lobbing mashed potatoes everywhere, or awkward teenage romance. Half the comic’s story wrote itself just by being set in a school. Augustyn made a couple of half-hearted attempts to focus his remaining energy on interesting issues, like a robot’s place amongst the naked pink monkeys who program them. More often, he penned and introduced boring new Robot Masters for a series that has well over a hundred of the buggers to choose from. “Express Man?” That’s just not right.
I have to admit, the comic took some interesting turns before the project (and Dreamwave) died: Protoman made his gloomy self known to his blue brother, Wily showed homicidal tendencies towards Dr Light, and Mega Man X even popped in to see his older (but littler) brother, and tell Dr Light that “ONLY HE” would be able to “SAVE THE FUTURE!!!” And so on.
Alas, that’s all behind us. Mega Man has gained some American longevity through translated manga (with more coming), but who knows if he’ll ever be an original property here ever again. Seems to me that if Sonic the Hedgehog can exist in comic form for so many years, Mega Man should have been capable of the same.
Tags: capcom, comic, dreamwave, licensing tragedies, mega man, nadia oxford, sonic the hedgehog
John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself. 
Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.
Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.
Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines.
Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.
Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.
Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.
Why do robots need to go to school anyway? If I was a robot I’d be all like “Bitch, just program me or whatever. I’ma go explode a robot with a pair of scissors on his head.”
I was only vaguely interested in this comic because of the promise of a Megaman X arc that would follow it. When DW died it took this and nearly the far more interesting Transformers comic with it. Thank goodness for IDW.
Weird; I’ve been getting rid of some books, and I just gave all of these to a friend the other day.