Mega Man #55 and Possible Reboot...?

[Oakie620]

Also, looking at the panel of MM6 and I can't help but wonder.
Plant man has a sad face, does that mean he doesn't want to fight? is it MM3 all over again? Isn't Wily supposed to, you know, brainwash or reprogram them so they're more willing to fight Megaman?r

From what I understand, the way it works is that they don't alter their brain or anything. They still have the same memories, and relationships, but when their programming is altered, they are forced to obey it, even if they hate it. So if Plant Man's programming was altered to "Obey Wily, and destroy Mega Man", he wouldn't like it, but he wouldn't have any choice but to obey it.

I know, that's what I'm bothered about.
I already wrote this before, but it frustrated me Wily in the comic isn't doing anything about the robots unwillingness to fight. It's totally interfered with their objective of fighting Megaman, and making even his own creation to willingly get on Light's side. They don't have to be 100% loyal, but he could have at least altered their programming so they will be more willing to or fit to fight Megaman like the MM1 adaption, where all the Light Numbers as enemies were eager to fight. All the robots excluding the 1st DLNs were willing to and enjoying fighting the heroes in World Collide, and right after the MM3 adaption Quickman refused to be reprogrammed with a different personality to "be happy about his new job he doesn't want to do" so it's not that Wily doesn't have a choice.

Dr. Wily certainly could. He could remove all traces of personality, and build faceless automatons which blindly follow orders instead. But he doesn't want to; at the end of the day, he genuinely loves robots. He admits this to Ra Moon, saves Light Numbers from expiration, and willingly distributes the cure to Roboenza despite suffering yet another defeat. One quote attributed to Wily in the cancelled Rockman Online even states: "(...)the birth of humanoids is simply humanity’s first step to becoming gods".

While he doesn't take kindly to insubordination, Dr. Wily doesn't think of his robots as only servants in his campaign to take over the world; they're practically his children, similar to how Dr. Light treats his own creations. Hitoshi Ariga even plays on the theme in Gigamix, establishing the belief that robots need souls as the reason Dr. Light and Dr. Wily came together in the first place. This is why, even when Dr. Wily reprograms other robots to do his bidding, he maintains their original personalities.

That's the real tragedy of the classic series; if Wily's ego hadn't led him astray, the scenario that comes to pass in Mega Man ZX could've happened centuries sooner, without all the wars and destruction.

wilyhappy.jpg

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'm pretty sure it's impossible for Wily to actively alter personalities. The robot masters personalities are all stored on their I.C Chips. It's a reason why they can't be recreated if the chips were taken. Those I.C Chips contain everything that makes the robot master a robot master. If it's gone, they just wouldn't be who they are.

[Oakie620]

I'm pretty sure it's impossible for Wily to actively alter personalities. The robot masters personalities are all stored on their I.C Chips. It's a reason why they can't be recreated if the chips were taken. Those I.C Chips contain everything that makes the robot master a robot master. If it's gone, they just wouldn't be who they are.

That's a moot point. Dr. Wily could feasibly alter or even replace the IC chips if he felt so inclined. The possibility is even alluded to in Gigamix. He definitely has the expertise and the means to go that far, but he still doesn't, which goes in line with his professed love for robots.

[Uwaaii]

Dr. Wily certainly could. He could remove all traces of personality, and build faceless automatons which blindly follow orders instead. But he doesn't want to; at the end of the day, he genuinely loves robots. He admits this to Ra Moon, saves Light Numbers from expiration, and willingly distributes the cure to Roboenza despite suffering yet another defeat. One quote attributed to Wily in the cancelled Rockman Online even states: "(...)the birth of humanoids is simply humanity’s first step to becoming gods".

While he doesn't take kindly to insubordination, Dr. Wily doesn't think of his robots as only servants in his campaign to take over the world; they're practically his children, similar to how Dr. Light treats his own creations. Hitoshi Ariga even plays on the theme in Gigamix, establishing the belief that robots need souls as the reason Dr. Light and Dr. Wily came together in the first place. This is why, even when Dr. Wily reprograms other robots to do his bidding, he maintains their original personalities.

That's the real tragedy of the classic series; if Wily's ego hadn't led him astray, the scenario that comes to pass in Mega Man ZX could've happened centuries sooner, without all the wars and destruction.

wilyhappy.jpg

I don't think Gigamix is credible as evidence, since it's another adaption based off the games. Don't forget he "saved" the 9th DLN to throw Light in jail and plan out another world domination. And as for the ending of MM10, there must have been some intent of paying off his debt of getting saved so there wouldn't be any trouble later. But true, those and in several other situations game shows that canon Wily isn't a completely bad guy.

Which brings up another point: I don't feel any good side in Archie's version of Wily.
Yes he did save Megaman in the Ra Moon arc, but it was to get dismissed for his crime since he immediately betrayed after that. And getting angry at Eggman for almost killing Light? More like "I need him alive to prove him wrong", or else he wouldn't try to wreck havoc around the world with his robots. I only heard this from spoilers but he also throws Mr. X in a portal or something to take his identity. Other than that, he's portrayed as seeing robots as mere tools. MM3 arc proves that. Forcing the 2nd DWNs to hand over their IC chips to throw it all in Doc Robot? Sparkman and Needle man? The fact that he is forcing robot who have no will to fight to kill each other is not loving his creations. You can say that to game wily too, but he has his good and humorous "evil yet somehow impossible to hate" attitude to neutralize that. The archie version doesn't. Even as a joke, we see robots constantly complaining about their function and appearance. It's like everyone except Shadowman either hates him or only obeys because they're forced to. And even that Shadowman seems to be working under him just because he's his "master". Maybe forcing Plantman to fight is part of Archie's characterizing Wily as a purely evil guy who treats his robot terribly, but it still makes me feel off because he should be smarter than making a robot who doesn't want to fight keep his personality and will. Yeah I think I'm over-exaggerating this part, but that's how I see him.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible for Wily to actively alter personalities. The robot masters personalities are all stored on their I.C Chips. It's a reason why they can't be recreated if the chips were taken. Those I.C Chips contain everything that makes the robot master a robot master. If it's gone, they just wouldn't be who they are.

I think Astroman was rebuilt based on stolen "data", but even if that's true it shouldn't stop him from making them willing to fight. As I said earlier, the MM1 arc had the Light numbers be evil, and in the MM2 arc Megaman was turned evil by corrupting with malicious data.

We don't see that much characterization in the game, but in powered-up the robots were reprogrammed so they were willing to fighting even their best friend while keeping their original personality. Other games portray robots who wreck havoc for fun, robots who fight to prove something, robots that are tricked or threatened, robots who used to be nice but their modification altered their personality, and robots who's just doing their job and fighting only because someone got in their way. The 9th robot masters chose to get modified to be useful for humans again, but instead get reprogrammed to attack them. And seeing Mega man not realizing that until seeing the memory circuit, the robot masters most likely showed hatred and hostility instead of their concern about being scrapped or their desire to be useful anymore. King was shown attacking humans by his own will because he was built so he would think like that. When King started to sway from Mega man's words, Wily raised his brainwashing level so he would go back to being the bad guy. King only snaps out when Megaman defeats him and he's about to explode. So in the game the robots act either by changed into "evil" or by their programmed personality and will. There is not one robot who retain their will and personality while being forced to do something they don't want to.

All this can be solved by saying "calm down, this is the Archie's interpretation of the games" but...man, it's really hard to explain this feel. It just feels wrong.

[Penguin God]

Putting all the MM2 Robot Masters in Doc Robot proved that Wily was more incredibly irresponsible and bad about thinking things through than totally callous to his robots as people. He's still a jerk, even with his good side and passion.

[Mavrickindigo]

So, now that the series is unofficially over, what would you like to see next?

Please give us a "Lost Blue Bomber Tales"

[Gauntlet101010]

I finally feel like I can look in this topic now. I avoided it all this time and it turns out it wasn't even necessary.

Wily as a not-so-bad-guy... well, I can't help but remember that in the X series he helps Sigma cause untold destruction on the world. Like ramming that colony into the planet. Spreading around a virus that makes robots go berserk and kill people. At some point the man just totally looses his marbles. As for him loving robots, he really doesn't have much compunction about stealing and reprogramming them. I think less than half of his forces are robots he actually made himself. The rest are stolen and reprogrammed. Him actually caring about his robots really seemed to be Ariga's deal in the Gigamix exclusively.

As for what I'd like to see next ... if we're doing pie in the sky whishing I'd love to see a Quint miniseries taking place after World 2 on the assumption that Quint's still alive and stuck in the past. What would a reprogrammed Megaman do in that situation?

But, uh .... the comic not being on hiatus and making a swift return with it's current storyline intact? Going into the events of Megaman 4? I mean, that's what I wanna see. Don't think that'll happen, but ...

[Candescence]

Considering Ian's last word recently about #55, I honestly think that, if nothing else, a reboot isn't happening. Ian is pretty much the guy in charge of writing the stuff with Archie's game licenses, if Archie and Capcom were planning to actually reboot the comic, I'm pretty sure he'd know well in advance - comics take a long time to plan out and make in advance, after all, and Ian said he doesn't know squat about what's happening with the MM comic, and I don't think he'd lie about this sort of thing. So if nothing else, I doubt a cartoon-centric reboot is on the cards.

Now, that leads me to the next question of why the 'hiatus' is happening at all. I'm honestly gonna go for the simple answer and say it's the result of Archie trying to cut down on costs after their more recent financial screwups, and licensed titles will inevitably be axed before their in-house projects (especially the Archie Reboot, which seems to be a pet project of the guys in charge). It doesn't help that the comic just wasn't doing that well sales-wise outside of the crossover events. Though I wonder if that's also a side-effect of the bizarrely insular nature of how comic books are sold and advertised (while digital downloads are a big improvement, it's astonishing that comic books are literally the only commercial art form these days that isn't advertised everywhere (to my knowledge, comic books are only advertised in other comics) and isn't available in pretty much most mainstream stores (only speciality stores that don't advertise either and only cater to existing comic fans), and I'm pretty sure that hasn't changed in recent years), you'd think Mega Man would be a work well as an all-ages mainstream comic.

If and when Mega Man comes back? Who knows. Probably when Archie actually starts getting its act together properly on the financial side of things.

[Mavrickindigo]

I think the most intriguing part about all this is that this very forum is still in the section for active projects that Ian is working on. It hasn't been moved over to the "former projects" sections, like "Sonic Boom" has.

[EvilEddie]

That would be admitting it isn't coming back, which nobody seems to want to do at this point.

Except the people that wrote the letter that came with the last issue that is.

[Gauntlet101010]

Even if the issue was available for download early on this month, it hasn't been very long since it arrived in stores. We'll see if the forum's around for much longer.

[Meliden]

Even if the issue was available for download early on this month, it hasn't been very long since it arrived in stores. We'll see if the forum's around for much longer.

In hindsight, that's not going to be a very good gauge.

[Mavrickindigo]

When's the new show coming out? 2017? I'm guessing we'll see a trailer or something around e3 time, perhaps.

If we see that, and this thing hasn't moved to the "previous projects" thing, I can assume there's something up Archie's sleeves.

[Astrobot7000]

Well there's also the point that the forum is ending very, very soon. Why bother moving the category if the forums is just going to close anyway and then the whole thing will be a "former project."