Mega Man #12
Story By: Ian Flynn
Art By: Ben Bates
Review Score : 8.5/10
Issue twelve marks the end of the third arc in the Archie Comics series . Dr. Wily has reprogrammed Mega Man as his servant and Dr. Light sends his Light Brigade out to go save Mega Man and take down Wily in the process. I’ve always been a huge fan of Mega Man since I was a kid and I have to say I’m really enjoying Flynn’s work on this series with the original 8 Robot Masters from Mega Man 1. They all continue to have their own unique voice and Flynn’s managed to make you care about more characters than just Megaman himself. I laughed to myself a few times reading this issue . Whether it was Ice Man and Oil Man hiding behind Gutsman arguing over which one of them would have to take a shot at the Robo Dragon , or Gutsman hating Cut Man’s terrible puns and one liners there’s enough characterization here to make a compelling case for these 8 robots to have their own book.
Flynn manages to nail all story beats from Wily’s Castle in Mega Man 2 . Every Boss makes it on the page and drawn with awesome detail by Ben Bates. His style has really grown on me though it definitely helps seeing his artwork improve month after month. Characters pop off the page and the action moves very fast from page to page but you never feel confused by whats happening . This is a great looking cartoon in comic book form. Oh and special mention must go to the cover which is a straight homage to Mega Man 2’s Euro cover for the Nintendo even down to the Spaziante logo at the bottom in that old school Nintendo font.
I definitely didn’t expect to enjoy this book as much as I did . However I’m going to go even further and say this arc has been the best yet and I hope this quality continues its positive trend. If you’re looking for a fun book you and a young one can read or if you’re a fan of the character you definitely should be picking this book up . It’s really a nice example of how the video game medium and comics can benefit one another.
Mike DeVivo
Follow me on Twitter @pandasandrobots
