Mega Man FCBD & Timelines Thoughts
May. 3rd, 2025 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ixajawFinally, the new Mega Man Timelines Free Comic Book Day preview is out! I've been waiting for this. My poor LCS has had to listen to me ask about it over and over again, since I almost always work on Saturdays and therefore typically miss these, at least AT release, and I absolutely did not want to miss it.
The issue felt very short but it IS basically a teaser for the Timelines anthology, so that's not a negative. In fact, that's arguably proof of it working, as I desperately want more!
So apparently Wind Man, Cold Man, and Skull Man work at Bounce Man's amusement park, working the food stalls. Their quality varies (Skull Man is... trying. Arguably trying harder than Cold Man), but they seem to enjoy their new lines of work. While there, they all reminisce how they got there, and more specifically, about their fights with Mega Man, and how those fights changed the course of their lives. The fights themselves have a very lighthearted, comedic tone, and since the RMs are the ones telling the stories Mega Man himself is more incidental than a driving force. It does go out of its way to show him using the environment and ingenuity to his advantage, so there's still some characterization going on for our Blue Bomber, but he's not the focus, really. Which is totally fine! Again, it's a teaser.
Issue ends with them wondering where Mega Man is now, who then is unceremoniously dropped on their heads. Why? He's fighting Bounce Man, of course! And it ends with them jumping into the fray to help out. All in all, very sweet.
Art is colorful, dynamic, and expressive, which I really enjoyed. I wish there was an ongoing Mega Man comic with this sort of art. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any scans online of this so far, and I have no idea how to make good quality ones, so I might update this post later if I get ahold of some. There is one page without text available, but just look!
At the end there is, of course, an ad for the actual Mega Man Timeslines issue, which is clearly going to be based on MM11, given that it shows the MM11 RMs and the fact the issue ends with him fighting Bounce Man. It IS the most recent game in the classic series, and honestly a game I really enjoyed, so I'm not hard up about it. Previous Robots have had other series to flesh them out a little (Archie, various manga) but if I remember correctly MM11 only got a one-shot where he fought Fuse Man? Show them some love!
After that, there's an add for all 5 issues of Timelines: Classic, X, Zero, ZX, and Legends. I'm sort of baffled ZX got a spot and Battle Network DIDN'T. I'm aware its very explicitly an alt continuity. It would be a perfect time to flesh out what sort of adventures Patch (Lan and Mayl's kid) would get into, since he's never been used like... ever. They went out of the way to establish his existence and the fact he has his own Megaman, and then NEVER. USED. HIM. That timeline skipped straight to Star Force. They have a perfect way to continue the MMBN series, and with smartphones being ubiquitous nowadays there's no reason not to have them in the Mega Man world's 'current day'... but no. ZX.
I have gripes with the Zero series (it inherently puts the X series in a losing position, even as an alt timeline which Capcom has repeatedly said it is, in a 'one of many possibilities' kind of way), but I understand why people enjoy it. It has cool moments, cool characters, fun gameplay. Never really met a ZX fan, though. And tbh, the art on the A cover isn't doing it for me.
Ending with Legends does make sense, though. I don't think I've ever actually played a Legends game, so I have no real attachment to it (it's on my bucket list, don't worry), but I am intrigued.
And of course... the X one looks very, very good!
I do wonder how long these are going to be. I fear standard floppy length won't be long enough to fulfill me, since each series is getting one issue each, but we'll just have to wait and see. I do hope that they're all excellent and that we keep getting Mega Man comics.
The issue felt very short but it IS basically a teaser for the Timelines anthology, so that's not a negative. In fact, that's arguably proof of it working, as I desperately want more!
So apparently Wind Man, Cold Man, and Skull Man work at Bounce Man's amusement park, working the food stalls. Their quality varies (Skull Man is... trying. Arguably trying harder than Cold Man), but they seem to enjoy their new lines of work. While there, they all reminisce how they got there, and more specifically, about their fights with Mega Man, and how those fights changed the course of their lives. The fights themselves have a very lighthearted, comedic tone, and since the RMs are the ones telling the stories Mega Man himself is more incidental than a driving force. It does go out of its way to show him using the environment and ingenuity to his advantage, so there's still some characterization going on for our Blue Bomber, but he's not the focus, really. Which is totally fine! Again, it's a teaser.
Issue ends with them wondering where Mega Man is now, who then is unceremoniously dropped on their heads. Why? He's fighting Bounce Man, of course! And it ends with them jumping into the fray to help out. All in all, very sweet.
Art is colorful, dynamic, and expressive, which I really enjoyed. I wish there was an ongoing Mega Man comic with this sort of art. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any scans online of this so far, and I have no idea how to make good quality ones, so I might update this post later if I get ahold of some. There is one page without text available, but just look!
At the end there is, of course, an ad for the actual Mega Man Timeslines issue, which is clearly going to be based on MM11, given that it shows the MM11 RMs and the fact the issue ends with him fighting Bounce Man. It IS the most recent game in the classic series, and honestly a game I really enjoyed, so I'm not hard up about it. Previous Robots have had other series to flesh them out a little (Archie, various manga) but if I remember correctly MM11 only got a one-shot where he fought Fuse Man? Show them some love!
After that, there's an add for all 5 issues of Timelines: Classic, X, Zero, ZX, and Legends. I'm sort of baffled ZX got a spot and Battle Network DIDN'T. I'm aware its very explicitly an alt continuity. It would be a perfect time to flesh out what sort of adventures Patch (Lan and Mayl's kid) would get into, since he's never been used like... ever. They went out of the way to establish his existence and the fact he has his own Megaman, and then NEVER. USED. HIM. That timeline skipped straight to Star Force. They have a perfect way to continue the MMBN series, and with smartphones being ubiquitous nowadays there's no reason not to have them in the Mega Man world's 'current day'... but no. ZX.
I have gripes with the Zero series (it inherently puts the X series in a losing position, even as an alt timeline which Capcom has repeatedly said it is, in a 'one of many possibilities' kind of way), but I understand why people enjoy it. It has cool moments, cool characters, fun gameplay. Never really met a ZX fan, though. And tbh, the art on the A cover isn't doing it for me.
Ending with Legends does make sense, though. I don't think I've ever actually played a Legends game, so I have no real attachment to it (it's on my bucket list, don't worry), but I am intrigued.
And of course... the X one looks very, very good!
I do wonder how long these are going to be. I fear standard floppy length won't be long enough to fulfill me, since each series is getting one issue each, but we'll just have to wait and see. I do hope that they're all excellent and that we keep getting Mega Man comics.
