Mega Man: Fully Charged

Mega-Mini and Suna.

Coming out of nowhere, the first issue of BOOM! Studios' comic book continuation for Mega Man: Fully Charged is already a big seller!

The back of my mind wonders if BOOM! will attempt to bet the comic book license for Mega Man and do something like reprint and revive the Archie Mega Man comic, but it's a fool's dream...

Second issue came out a couple of days ago. Pretty much same tone as the first one, and it actually ends up setting up an interesting premise. Dr. Wily is also introduced as initially an ally, but we know that never lasts. He's Bert's grandpa in this continuity. Also, Nanagem takes on the name Daini and Chaotique joins Skull Man's army.

Cool!

Third issue was okay. I was surprised to see Mini back already and we are already seeing some nastiness from Dr. Wily.

The best part is definitely the ending, though. "Call me Zero."

I get the feeling this is the sort of story they wanted to tell with the show but were unable to.

I don’t think anyone was expecting that.

Makes you wonder how well the show would have been received had the Sgt, Night stuff been replaced with what appears to be a prequel to a version of Mega Man X. They seem to be implying Aki will become X by the end of the series.

Yeah, and it makes me wish more cancelled cartoons got the chance to do that. Not just a continuation, but more leeway that they'd gotten from a network.

I had to go back to re-read the "X Protocol" stuff. I completely missed that.

Well...previews for issue 4 hit and my hype is now gone.

Zero is apparently a costume Suna is wearing. And all the hype goes down the tubes. I genuinely thought they were going to try to make this X, but now it just seems like a bizarre Easter Egg.

Edited by Beatman1 on Oct 30th 2020 at 12:41:13 PM

Yeah, I saw, and it's disappointing. Both the event itself and the fact they'd reveal it already. I still have some hope on the whole X Protocol plot actually going somewhere, but no longer as pumped thanks to the Zero reveal.

[headwall]

When I saw ish 6's previews for Mega Man battling "<spoiler>" I was sure that's who it'd be. XD

Edited by lalalei2001 on Oct 31st 2020 at 8:49:21 AM

Considering the summary for Issue 5 I genuinely could have seen Aki and Light reconciling and the issue ending with the reveal of Aki becoming Mega Man X. Don’t see that happening now.

Apparently, the whole Suna being Zero development was a plan they had for the cancelled second season.

Issue 4 of the comic hit and well You can tell the comic writers wanted to use Bass, but had Namagem/Daini running around, so they pretty much ended the issue by making him Bass in all but name, down to the obsessive need to prove himself superior to Mega Man and going to work for Dr. Wily to pursue that goal.

Edited by Beatman1 on Dec 1st 2020 at 1:09:03 AM

Same issue: Until this newer version of Daini is given a name, I'm calling him Cracked Skull. Also, I wanna know what's supposed to be different about Aki after his "upgrade", is it just that he doesn't change form using a Schematic? seems like such a big thing to just do and not bring up or show off in the next issue, especially when Daini gets something so drastic...

Edited by Shilz on Dec 3rd 2020 at 5:01:00 AM

The final issue came out today and they definitely want to do more.

Mega Man beats Daini but refuses to kill him, and then Wily shows up, full on flying saucer Wily with a Wily Machine. The kids all beat him, but after doing the classic Wily begging bit, he escapes. He also points out that he has the schematics of Mega Man and Daini, which he promises to use to create a replacement for both Mega Man and Daini. Although Daini refuses to join the Light family, it’s clear he’s not the cold blooded killer he patterns himself as..

So it feels like this issue promises a sequel While getting things as close to the actual games as possible given the setting. Dr. Wily is the new Big Bad, Mega Man’s brother is a wild card rather than an out and out antagonist, etc.

Wow, sounds cool!

Issue 6 was better than 5, which was just a long, long fight. There's TWO fights, but it's still not as monotonous. Unfortunately, I don't think the first "fight" against Daini was necessary, since it was just repeating what happened in 5. The second one was better and more climatic, but it feels pretty rushed. I also didn't like that Dr. Wily just reverted to his usual self by the end. It felt like they were doing something new with him, so him embracing his usual schtick of mustache-twirling villainy and mercy-begging felt offputting. I did enjoy the art overall, though.

I overall liked this series and found it an improvement over the show it's based from in many ways. Not many cartoons get a chance to continue their stories via a comic or another form, so this was a nice surprise. I thought the first issue's success would've changed some minds to extend this series to more issues, but oh well.

I'm honestly surprised there were no more sequel hooks besides Wily getting away and taking possession of Aki and Daini's schematics. Was Protocol X just the upgrades the former received? It's not really mentioned again.

Here's an interview with comic book artist Stefano Simeone. It has some exclusive art as well.

I actually feel like Issue 5 was the best issue, and that it had the best pacing. The rest felt rushed, which, yeah, miniseries, but I feel like they could've taken more time.

I also feel like the thing ending basically the same exact way the show did, just now with Wily out there I guess was kinda disappointing.

I feel like they either should've broken up issue 5 with an additional subplot OR finished the entire fight and then set up the final showdown against the Wily Machine as the ending. It just feels exhausting to drag issue 5's fight onto the start of issue 6 and THEN do another fight right afterwards.

As for the latter, Daini's relationship with Aki has improved a bit. He's less homicidal towards him than he was at the beginning, at least. I guess they also didn't want to blow their wad in case they got the chance to do more stories.

Not sure if it's getting a sequel (although I heard it sold well) but there's A blatant sequel hook for Bass. If Daini is the Ruby-Spears Protoman at this point, then the ultimately disproven rumor was the Ruby-Spears show would have Protoman make a permanent Heel–Face Turn, only for Wily to replace him with Bass.

I hear the first issue sold really well, enough to get a second print variant cover, but nothing was said after that - which makes it feel like the rest of the series didn't meet the same expectations.

There's also a really odd amount of silence about the miniseries in general, like, aside from the artists talking about having worked on it, nobody has said anything about the processes behind it happening. It just... came out of nowhere. Which I'm not against, it's just super abnormal to have such a disconnect in this day and age. If we get more, then it would probably drop in much the same way.

Yeah, that happens. A lot of comic series just last six issues, and even then, they can still get cut short to three. At least there was some post-series content. Usually, that doesn't happen.

The entire TV series is now available to buy on Amazon.

Edited by SonicWind on Jun 5th 2021 at 1:40:47 PM