Mega Man: Issue 24

Mega Man: Issue 24
Publication Date: April 2013

Here we are at the first part of “Worlds Collide,” the Sonic/Mega Man crossover that would take up the entire middle section of 2013. For Sonic fans, it came at a really bad time. The Mecha Sally story arc was just about to be resolved, when this massive plot-interrupting event happens. We assumed we’d have to wait five months to see this plot finally concluded, to see our beloved princess returned to normal. (Superhero comic readers have to put up with this kind of bullshit all the time.) Little did we know, the entire “Sonic” comic line would be rebooted after the conclusion of the crossover. But there I go bitching about the reboot again. Let’s talk about part one of “Worlds Collide,” as published in issue 24 of “Mega Man.”

Or should that be “When Worlds Collide,” since that’s what the story is called inside this actual comic? I never would have taken Ian Flynn for a George Pal fan. Anywho, part one is subtitled “Kindred Spirits.” Sonic and Mega Man awaken in the Green Hill Zone, neither aware of how they got there. They immediately begin to fight. From their combined Egg-Wily base, Dr. Wily and Dr. Eggman watch gleefully as their plan begins to unfold. In flashback, we see how the two evil geniuses came together, how they zapped both worlds into the Genesis Zone, and how they turned Sonic’s friends into their soldiers.

“Worlds Collide” begins with the money shot. Sonic and Mega Man are already fighting in the first page. I hope the people who bought this book to see that were satisfied just by the mere sight of the two icons attacking each other. Because the rest of the comic book is devoted to setup. We see pretty much every detail of how Eggman and Wily came together. The effects of the first Genesis Wave blasted the Blue Chaos Emerald across dimensions into Wily’s laboratory. After accidentally making contact with Eggman, the two went about creating a pocket dimension, where they could combine their forces and prepare their latest master plan. Opening your big crossover event with a tedious rundown of how everything happened was not a great way to generate reader interest.

So that opening is a tease and the rest of the book is devoted to tedious plot mechanics. That’s not the only tease in the book. It turns out, Eggman and Wily’s machinations have blasted both Sonic’s world and Mega Man’s world into the Genesis Zone. This means the crossover is not actually about the versions of the characters Sonic and Mega Man readers are invested in. (More damning, for me personally, it means the Freedom Fighters won’t be appearing at all.) Instead, we’ll spend the next five months reading about thin representations of both series’ most commercial heroes, set in versions of their worlds generically resembling the classic game series. This is, simply put, a cowardly move. Instead of rewarding the faithful readers, it’s targeted at the casuals who are not regular readers of either book and are picking up the crossover strictly for novelty.

This decision is both lazy and problematic from a writer’s perspective too. Lazy because Flynn doesn’t have to worry about being true to either series’ continuity. It’s a problem because now we don’t actually care about any of the characters. Sonic’s friends are imperiled here, captured by Eggman and Wily and turned into the Roboticized Masters, mindless foot soldiers. But it’s not Tails – beloved sidekick and boy genius that we’ve been reading about for over twenty years – that’s in danger. It’s some generic representation of Tails, made up of all the components of Tails that Sega and the wider Sonic fanbase can agree upon. I imagine the Mega Man cast is marginalized in the same way. So there’s no tension here because we simply do not care about what happens to anybody.

For all the blatant ways this crossover is already a failure both narratively and creatively, there are some minor joys to this comic book. Yes, I do get a cheap thrill seeing Sonic and Mega Man rumble, even if it’s only for a few pages and is completely lacking in tension. Upon meeting, Eggman and Wily immediately become good friends. This is shown in a few cute panels were they argue about naming their shared inventions or play rock-paper-scissors to determine things. I don’t know if Robotnik has ever been showing having a friend before, so seeing him bond with Dr. Wily over their mutual status as mad scientists is kind of cute.

The artwork is provided by Jamal Peppers. Peppers has worked on both Archie’s Sonic and Mega Man comics, so he was a decent pick to pencil the first part of “Worlds Collide.” Peppers has done some great work on Sonic before but maybe the presence of the Mega Man cast threw him off. His work here looks indistinguishable from Tracy Yardley’s artwork, to the point that I assumed Yardly drew this one at first. The action is pretty solid though and he makes both characters look like they can coexist with each other. The designs for the Roboticized Masters are really goofy too, though I doubt Peppers had anything to do with that.

So “Worlds Collide” is off to a rough start. Sadly, these are problems you can’t blame so much on pacing or cast interaction, stuff that can change or improve issue to issue. The problems are inherent to the way Flynn decided to bring these two universes together. Is he really expecting the cool crossover factor to propel this entire story, instead of plot or characters or things like that? If so, “Worlds Collide” has a large obstacle to overcome if it'll become properly entertaining. [4/10]