Mega Man #38

By Ian Flynn, Jamal Peppers and Matt Herms

The battle for the future (and the past) continues! This month, we get more panels of Mega Man X than ever before! While not as consistent as past issues have been, it’s still enough to keep us hanging on.

In the future, Mega Man X and Dr. Cain have activated that nasty Wily Walker and it’s headed towards the city. This has been a great way to tie things into the story of the past Mega Man. Flynn uses this time to show readers how this future society operates, including further demonstrating the roles of X and his fellow robots. The only issue here is a lack of interesting dialogue between characters. That’s a bummer, considering how dialogue has been a strong point for the series.

In the past, Mega Man has managed to survive his encounter with the Wily Walker, although stopping the robot menace has come at a great price. This is solid stuff, but then Wily starts talking and it becomes a problem. For the past few issues, Wily has been experiencing a crisis of conscience. It’s been one of more interesting character developments of the series. However, in this issue, he reverts back to a villainous caricature. You almost expect him to twirl his mustache and tie a girl to a set of railroad tracks. Where’s the inner turmoil? Let’s hope this is a Mulligan and Wily’s character arc will continue.

Jamal Peppers is once again on pencils, although this time with a lesser effect. To be fair, most panels look great, but there are a few places that look rough. It almost seems like a new style was being tried out, though that doesn’t make much sense. Why change things up now and why only a few panels?

Even with a few hiccups, there’s nothing major enough to spoil the entire experience. Mega Man is still one of Archie’s finest, so don’t let these few nitpicks scare you away. We can’t wait to see how the rest of the X crossover plays out.