Archie Mega Man Issue 24


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 * This issue takes place between Sonic the Hedgehog #247, Sonic/Mega Man Free Comic Book Day 2013 and Sonic Universe #51

Archie Mega Man Issue 24 is the twenty-fourth issue of the Mega Man comic series by Archie Comics as well as the first part of the Sonic/Mega Man crossover, Worlds Collide.

Solicitation
The crossover event of 2013 starts here! The Mega Man/Sonic the Hedgehog epic kicks off with a bang as the Blue Blur and Blue Bomber meet for the first time! And considering how hard they're fighting each other, it might be the last! Why are the heroes trying to take each other down? Drs. Eggman and Wily know, and they're loving every minute of it! You cannot miss this historic first meeting of two of the biggest video game icons in the entire world! Get in on the ground floor with all-new cover art by the legendary Patrick 'SPAZ' Spaziante, and choose your favorite hero with the 'Team Sonic' and 'Team Mega Man' variant covers!"

Story One

 * Kindred Spirits.

In Mobius' Green Hill Zone, Sonic and Mega Man are engaged in a running battle. Sonic's superior speed has Mega Man pushed to his limits, though he's able to fire with his Mega Buster. Sonic is impressed, but not enough to stop fighting, and reiterates his superior speed with a Spin-Dash attack into Mega Man. As each combatant recognizes how formidable his opponent is, they are unknowingly observed by the shadowed figure of Tails Man, who is transmitting footage to Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily. The two are gleefully observing the battle, each rooting for the other's nemesis to crush their own. Pouring glasses of champagne, the pair toast their new battle station, their success in capturing five of the seven Chaos Emeralds, and the seemingly imminent destruction of their respective enemies. The scene then changes to Wily's base a number of weeks ago, where Wily is trying to get Ra Moon to modify a Met so that it will cook rice. Flash Man enters with the blue Chaos Emerald, which he found in the jungle outside. Immediately intrigued, Wily believes it to be a sapphire, though Flash Man reports that it's actually a beryl of some sort. Ra Moon wishes to analyze it, sensing its power, but Wily blows him off to examine it himself. He plugs it into a device to analyze it, and the machine's monitor lights up with blinding energy.

On Mobius in the Death Egg Mark 2, Eggman sends out a conference signal to all his forces, and berates them for their failures in both conquering Mobius and finding the lost blue Chaos Emerald. He is then shocked when a hologram appears of a confused Dr. Wily looking into his monitor, with the Chaos Emerald visible on screen. Eggman is initially furious at having his signal hacked, only for Wily to lay claim to being Earth's greatest robotics genius. Eggman is about to contradict that claim with his own, when the reference to Earth catches his attention, prompting him to ask what year it is in Wily's world. Wily responds that its the Year 20XX, and an apologetic Eggman then informs him that he (Eggman) is the greatest robotics genius on his own world. Wily is initially confused, as Eggman isn't quite what he imagined a space alien would look like, but is then informed that he's dealing with an alternate reality. Intrigued by the prospects of an alternate universe, Wily asks if Eggman has had any experience attempting to use machines to bring about a new world order. Sensing a kindred spirit, Eggman replies in the affirmative, and then asks if Wily has to deal with any young upstarts. The two doctors quickly decide that they need to meet, and Eggman proposes a means of doing so.

Sometime later, the pair of doctors greet each other in a new Zone created by Wily's manipulation of the Chaos Force through Eggman's guidance. Complimenting each other on their success, they then look upon their new creation, but end up arguing over whether or not to call it the "Skull Secret Zone" or the "Egg Pocket Zone." As they argue, inspiration strikes, and they compromise by dubbing it the Skull Egg Zone. Taking advantage of the Zone as a place to hide from their foes and be able to accomplish hours of work in what passes for mere seconds back in their home realities, the pair combine their resources-from Eggman's Egg Swats and Eggman Empire to Wily's Robot Masters and Ra Moon-to create a brand new weapon with which to conquer both dimensions. The result is a new flying fortress, which briefly leads to another argument-in the form of rock, paper, scissors-as Eggman wants to christen it the "Death Egg Mark 3" while Wily wants to call it the "Wily Flying Fortress." A series of draws leads to another compromise, and the doctors celebrate their new Wily Egg.

Using the Wily Egg, the pair then prepare the next phase of their plan: to rewrite the reality of their home dimensions according to specific programming. Gleefully anticipating the new status quo-in which the heroes will remember nothing about their previous existences while the Skull Egg Zone will allow the doctors to retain all their knowledge, which will allow them an advantage. At Eggman's invitation, Wily activates the Cosmic Reset Button, sending the Genesis Wave across both their home worlds. After a brief dizzy spell, the pair realize that the process has indeed been successful, allowing them to alter reality. Wily then declares his intent to bring all of his Robot Masters back using the properties of the Skull Egg Zone, which Eggman agrees to while also proposing an even more ingenious strategy. Back on the altered Mobius, Tails is preparing to take a trip with Sonic, only to receive a knock at the door. He goes to open it, only to find the farthest things from his hero: Metal Sonic v3.0 and Wily's newest enforcer, Bass. The pair quickly subdue the Fox and take him back to the Wily Egg, where he awakens inside a Roboticizer with the two doctors looking on.

Eggman and Wily inform Tails that they've had difficulties with sending their minions from one world to another without making sure that they have a native from each, hence Metal Sonic's partnership with Bass. However, they have now come upon a possible solution, which Tails is to be a test subjective of: combining Roboticization with Robot Master technology to create a robot capable of traveling between the worlds freely. Tails is confused by their complicated language, which disgusts the pair of mad geniuses, who then inform him of their intention to turn him into a Robot Master. One transformation process later, Tails man emerges, and Eggman introduces Wily to the first of their Roboticized Masters. Wily is impressed, though somewhat disappointed by the lack of personality, which Eggman claims is a bonus due to the lack of backtalk. Wily then suggest that they could turn others of Sonic's friends into Roboticized Masters to as to assist Tails Man in his mission: to locate the remaining Chaos Emeralds, which have been scattered by the Genesis Wave. Agreeing, the pair deploy Bass and Metal Sonic again with some new targets in mind.

Some time later, in an altered Mega City, Mega Man's brother Proto Man is surveying the city when he hears a terrified yell and spots police cars racing towards the First National Bank. Overhearing their reports of armed suspects, Proto Man rushes to the scene and enters the bank just in time to catch the vault door, which has been yanked off by a mysterious figure. The culprit and his four associates then enter the vault, which houses the silver Chaos Emerald. A sudden tune draws their attention, and its source is revealed to be Proto Man, who is confused to realize that his new enemies are neither humans with weaponry nor typical robots. Speaking for his fellow Roboticized Masters-expanded to include Knuckles Man, Rose Woman, and Shadow Man-Tails Man introduces the group to Proto Man, and informs him that they will destroy him.

Short-Circuit
Sonic and Mega Man greet each other with a friendly handshake, as the two express how they're looking forward to taking on their respective adversaries together. Suddenly, Orbot interjects their meeting by reminding them that they must first follow the crossover by-laws, which says that the heroes have to fight each other first. Slightly upset, Mega Man promises Sonic that he'll try not to shoot him too hard, as Sonic reassures him that he's handled worse. Eavesdropping from nearby, Doctor Eggman and Dr. Wily voice their pleasure at having a few issues of peace.

Key Events

 * In a reset world, Sonic gets embroiled in a battle against Mega Man.
 * It's revealed that the blue Chaos Emerald that disappeared after the Genesis incident had ended up in Mega Man's world, specifically, in the jungle where Dr. Wily was hiding out.
 * Wily came into contact with Dr. Eggman when the emerald allowed him to tap into the video conference Eggman was having with his DEL Grandmasters.
 * The two decided to team up to take over both of their worlds, and defeat their respective blue arch-enemies. They start by building the Wily Egg and the Skull Egg Zone.
 * Metal Sonic and Bass kidnap Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow, who are then turned by the two doctors into the brand new Roboticized Masters.
 * The Masters are sent to attack the Mega City Bank, where they are confronted by Proto Man...

Background Information

 * This issue has a total of three variant covers. The Team Mega Man variant cover features artwork of Mega Man and Doctor Wily on one side and Sonic and Doctor Eggman on the other, with the Sonic and Eggman side faded out. The Team Sonic variant has the same artwork, only reversed and this time with Mega Man and Wily faded out. The background artwork for the Sonic variant resembles Green Hill Zone from the the very first Sonic game on the Genesis, while the circuit board background on the Mega Man variant appears to be the same one used for the cover of Mega Man #5. These two variants where sold exclusively through comic stores, while a third variant cover, a convention-exclusive, sold at the 2013 San-Diego Comic-Con, features a simple illustration of a pair of Sonic's sneakers sitting next to Mega Man's helmet on a white background, along with a coloured in version of the "Worlds Collide" logo.
 * This is the first Archie Sonic-related publication to have more than two covers, as well as the one with the most covers overall.
 * Quake Woman, a character who appears exclusively in the Archie Mega Man comic series, appears on the cover. Writer Ian Flynn has explained this is merely a cameo, and that the character, like all other comic exclusive characters from both books, will not have any role in the actual story.
 * The following characters that appear on the cover do not show up in the issue itself: Silver, Espio, Vector, Charmy, Roll, Rush, Dr. Light, Guts Man, Air Man and (as mentioned above) Quake Woman. Knuckles, Amy and Shadow appear, but only in the forms of Knuckles Man, Shadow Man and Rose Woman respectively. On the raw artwork, Rouge and Omega can also been seen in the top right corner, but have both been blocked out by the title on the actual cover. One can still make out Rouge's legs if they look closely behind the fade next to the title.
 * When Dr. Wily is first presented with the Blue Chaos Emerald, he initially thinks it's a sapphire.  This could be a reference to how some of the Chaos Emeralds are sometimes mistaken for other gemstones (of the normal seven, only one is green, which is the normal coloration of a real-life emerald).
 * The Short-Circuit strip refers to the common trope most associated with crossovers, in which the two main heroes from the respective series' begin a crossover by battling each other. This occurs in the beginning of this issue, and-as in other crossovers-is undoubtedly caused by a misunderstanding between the pair deliberately orchestrated by the villains.
 * While building the Wily Egg, Eggman remarks that he's built a few battle stations in his day, referring to various creations like the original Death Egg and Egg Fleet. Wily responds that he has a flair for internal defenses, referring to the trap-laden levels in the Mega Man games.
 * Although the company has stated that there will be no Comic Exclusive characters in the crossover from Sonic and Megaman's universe, they somehow got away with using the Egg Swats, robots only seen in the Sonic Comics, help Wily's robots in building the Wily Egg.