Retro Re-Read October 20th 2024
Megaman #4(2003) from Dreamwave Publishing
Writer-Brian Augustyn
Artist-Patick Spaziante
Colorist-Anthony Washington
Back-Up Story Colorists-Sigmund Torre, Jong-Im Lee & Stuart NG
Letterer-Paul Villafuerte
We have reached the conclusion of the Dreamwave Published Megaman comic series and while good it is also bitter sweet. I did a little digging after reading this issue because the main and back-up stories set themselves up for more issues. It seems that there was a planned Megaman and Megaman X comic to follow up the events of this title but Dreamwave went out of business before they could ever be published. Seemingly the titles did get worked on so somewhere in the universe there might be some early drafts and concepts out there.
For this issue the first thing that stands out is that they changed up the art team. I immediately noticed the change, and recognized Spaz’s art. Honestly it was a huge improvement in just about every way. For those that don’t know Patrick Spaziante is one of the most known artist that did work for the Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog line, and later went on to be a cover artist for Archie even doing some of the Archie Comics Megaman covers. His work in this issue is on par with everything I’ve seen him do at Archie. Spaz’s style is a perfect fit for a comic series like this and he adds so much to the title as a whole. It would have been nice to see what he would have done with future issues to play with, especially if he got to do more Megaman X work. But more of that after I recap this issue.
We meet up with Megaman as he looks over the burnt down lab of Dr. Light hoping to find some clues. That is when he see Proto-Man again, who later in the issue introduces himself as such for the first time, and goes after him. After a quick spat between the two they decide to team up to find Dr. Light. We then jump over to Dr, Wily who has Light captured and tells him all about his evil plan. That is when Dr. Light destroy Wily’s robots with the simply press of a button forcing Wily to go to plan B. Going back to Megaman and Proto-Man, the find Dr. Light in Wily’s labs but before they can enter Wily transforms the lab into a giant robot that makes it’s way to Mega City. The two team up to take down the giant robot and save the city. Proto-Man disappears after refusing to tell Megaman where he came from, I assume we would get that information in a future issue that never came out, and Megaman is reunited with his family.
This then takes us to the back up story which brings up deep into the future of Megaman X. X teams up with Zero to fight some Mavericks, evil robots, in order to save their city. The two see that there efforts are failing so come up with a plan B which is to jump X into the past to seek to change the future altogether. X finds himself in the past which is sometime after the events of the main story asking Megaman and Dr. Light for help. It ends with a TBC.
This was by far my favorite issue because it was just straight action throughout. The art change was a welcome surprise as well. I thought Spaz’s art was much better and was a better fit for the world of Megaman. What is disappointing about the issue is what I discussed above. The fact that we never got the sequel to this book really sucks. The team here built up a cool surprise that could have been a really great story for the Megaman world. Unfortunately we will never see that. Altogether I thought the series was a lot of fun and would recommend to any Megaman fan out there. For me I am just happy to finally have a complete Megman comic collection.
Join me next week as we dive into the legendary comic series JSA vs. Avengers to celebrate the comic Omnibus DC Versus Marvel!
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