Countdown to Archie’s Mega Man, Day 4: The Mega Man Animated Series

To date, Mega Man‘s biggest excursion into the mainstream (mind, the video game industry wasn’t quite the same then as it is today) came to be in 1994, thanks to the animation company Ruby-Spears Productions*.   Together with Capcom Productions, they were able to create a highly-successful animated series which ran for three seasons**, and even had a line of action figures from Bandai America.
Originally, plans were for the cartoon to be very faithful to the video games, and a short animated promotional reel even showed characters and action which looked like it came right out of the games (and did a better job of it than even the video game-themed Captain N).  But then, somewhere along the way, something happened, and everything changed.

During development of the series, a decision was made to make the characters taller and more muscular, seemingly to appeal more to an American audience who had yet to fully-embrace the Japanese styles of anime and manga.  New designs gave characters more muscles and definition, and more “realistic” designs than those seen in the art for the games.  Plus, Mega Man and his sister, Roll, were aged up to be teenagers with attitudes who wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to blast another robot (with a vacuum cleaner arm, in the case of the latter).  Meanwhile, Rush became a transforming robotic Scooby-Doo.

Stories were your typical episodic affair, with the events of one episode rarely (if ever) having any effect on subsequent stories.  As such, events from the games were never used or referenced, with most episodes’ plots being of a fairly generic nature, and most Robot Masters appearing in a “Monster of the Week”-styled capacity, with no explanation.

Fortunately, fans of longer, serialized stories with potential long-lasting effects have something to look forward to in the coming weeks, when Archie’s Mega Man #1 begins to arrive in mailboxes (you remembered to subscribe, right?), comic shops, and newsstands all across the continent.  There, you will get to witness the story of how a simple tool-using robot makes a bold decision to stand against his own kind in defense of humanity.

But, how will this decision affect him as the battle wears on?  Instead of just shooting everything around him with no remorse, how will the consequences of fighting the innocent victims of Dr. Wily‘s reprogramming weigh upon his robotic soul?

From the very first issue, you will get to see how the story behind the original Mega Man video game is adapted and expanded upon, and how this robotic world of the future will grow.

Oh, and no worries: these robots won’t be musclebound bundles of 90’s-styled teenage attitude, either.

Check back tomorrow for the final part of our retrospective, as the Blue Bomber ventures north for what might be best described as “a learning experience.”

* Fun fact: Ruby-Spears also produced a cartoon based on the Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, which longtime Archie readers may remember also had a comic book published by Archie Comics.

** Technically, the third season only lasted for one episode before Capcom pulled the plug on all of their animation projects at the time.

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