Novas Aventuras de Mega Man

The girls (post being captured and stripped),"Slasher",^[1] X and Mega Man

Novas Aventuras de Mega Man (New Adventures of Mega Man) is a late-90's Brazilian comic featuring the Blue Bomber, Mega Man, and some of his supporting cast and enemies. This is where the overlap between this continuity and that of the games ends.

It has been thirty years since Dr. Wily took over the world, or at least Brazil, and most of the population is either dead or enslaved. Mega Man and Roll were unable to prevent this, since they spent those thirty years in power-up capsules. Dr. Light is deceased, meaning that the two must fend for themselves in this hostile place.

Thankfully, they quickly make an ally in X, their younger brother who has gone into retirement for unknown reasons, and soon the three of them are officially back in action. Unfortunately, things are only going to get worse from there…

That was the easy part. Unfortunately, this comic had so many retcons and continuity issues that sorting everything out is a bit of a chore. There's also plenty of artwork gaffs, since few of the artists chosen to draw for this comic retained many details from the past issues. Novas Aventuras de Mega Man was produced a bit differently than most other comics - the writers would produce a script, then have fan artists draw it, and whoever's was the best would be selected for that issue. (It should be noted that only one artist, Rogerio Hanata, illustrated more than a single issue; also, artists would eventually write the scripts as well.)

The publisher went under before the comic was completed, leaving many story threads dangling; the same fate befell another series detailing events post-Mega Man X4, prior to the release of X5.

Detailed summaries and scans of this series can be found at O Ácido Cinza, provided by one Rodrigo Shin; an overall summary of the convoluted plot and characters can be found here, at the Mechanical Maniacs. And now, a translation of the entire series by the Optical Internet Translation Gang is available here.

Not to be confused with the Archie Comics Mega Man comic book.

Tropes used in Novas Aventuras de Mega Man include:

• Animation Bump: Issue #4 has some of the best art in the comic, particularly with Roll and Dr. Light.
• Animesque: Depending on the artist.
• Armed with Canon: What the whole deal with Princess boils down to — one writer wanted to use her to literally take over the comic, only for another writer to fire his ass and write Princess out.
• Art Shift
• Artificial Human: “Project Lazarus”, initiated years before the main events of the comic, involved kidnapping homeless girls from all over Brazil and turning them into robots for a variety of horrible purposes. Roll was among them.
  • Kalinka was implied to be one as well, since she witnessed her father’s death thirty years ago, yet her age didn’t match this claim. Presumably, this would’ve been brought up again later had the comic lasted long enough.
• Ax Crazy: Princess, at least in the one issue in which she has any prominence (which is the same one where she’s kicked out of the comic). The reason she crossed over into the series’ dimension (long story) was, essentially, to kill everything that wasn’t her and her robotic pet.
• Big Bad: Wily.
• Brain Uploading: Early on, Roll’s body is temporarily destroyed, and her brothers are forced to move what’s left of her to... a washing machine. She is most displeased, but at least she’s not totally helpless in this state.
• Canon Foreigner: Tons. Most notably are Nastenka (Kalinka’s robot bodyguard and friend), Princess, the rebels, Holzenbein and its forces, and the various robots that impede Mega Man, Roll and co. ’s progress.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The early issues are relatively light-hearted (with the exception of #4), but later on... well...
• Chivalrous Pervert: For all of X’s questionable behaviour around Roll and Nastenka, he’s not a bastard. The same can be said of Mega.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Towards the end, Kalinka just sorta... goes poof. Considering that most of the last issues were one big fight, it might not be unreasonable to assume that she just stayed out of it.
• Cliff Hanger: The ending.
• Clothing Damage: Roll suffers this quite a bit, except for the last few issues where she's almost completely naked.
• Concept Art: Some is seen from both the games and the Ruby-Spears cartoon. Roll takes her design from the latter.
• Cultural Posturing: While everyone in the comic loves Brazil something fierce, Princess is the most Egregious example; her introduction (on a fake talk show) includes a rant about how there need to be more comics about Brazilian characters.
• Cultural Translation: Did you know that the first eight Classic-series games took place in Brazil? And that everyone in the cast’s always lived there?
• Cut Short: Sure would’ve been nice to see how this thing would’ve concluded.
• Darker and Edgier
• Deadly Change-of-Heart: Two of them occur in rapid succession... sort of. The first (Protoman forcing X and Slasher back onto his side) is quite delayed, though Slasher was working more with Protoman than with anyone else. The second is something of an odd case: Protoman is offered the chance to rejoin the Six; Wily slams the door by kicking the Six to the curb.
• Defector From Decadence: Dr. Light was one of the scientists involved with Project Lazarus; he wanted no part of it.
  • Protoman was part of “The Six”, the original replacements for all of the world’s robots and Wily‘s present allies, but abandoned them at some undetermined point. Oddly, he was allowed in the group despite not being one of the said replacements, the “Neo-Mavericks“.
• Everyone Calls Them The Six: Because none of them except Proto have actual names.
• Everyone Is Related: Okay, Mega Man, Roll, Protoman, and X were a given, but Slasher/Bass and Zero?
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Subverted with Princess.
• Fan Disservice: Most of #4, and for good reason — all of the Project Lazarus victims were underage.
  • Roll is rendered almost completely naked in issue #12. This is made scary by the circumstances in which it happened, and she's missing half her face due to a buster shot.
• For the Evulz: At one point, Mr. Holzenbein sacrifices some poor girl in a Voodoo ceremony(?) for what the comic admits is pretty much no reason.}}
• Four Is Death: Mega Man's group is attacked by four powerful robots in #10.
• Gainax Ending: Grey aliens interrupt the final fight scene in the last issue.
• Godiva Hair: Kalinka has this while naked. Roll... doesn't.
• Heel Face Turn: The circumstances of Protoman’s are vague at best; was he planning on overthrowing Wily, or did he really snap?
• Heroes Want Redheads: Red-haired (or pink-haired) Nastenka becomes X's love interest. (Maybe because the previous one was Roll...)
• Hostile Show Takeover: The other thing this comic is famous for (besides Roll spending a fourth of it stark naked) is Princess, a character whose creator outright admitted was supposed to kill off everyone else and become the new main character. He got found out and fired, and in Issue #5 Princess is kicked out of the series unceremoniously.
• Hotter and Sexier: For a comic based on Mega Man, there sure are a lot of naked women.
  • ...many of which are underage and/or presented in decidedly un-sexy situations.
• Idiot Hero: Both Mega Man and X, to various degrees. To X's credit, he's the only one to wonder why Kalinka still looks like a teenager if she witnessed her father's death thirty years ago.
• In Name Only: For starters, there’s Roll’s backstory, and Bass’s goddamned name. (Here, he’s called “Slasher”. For some reason.) This was deliberate, as the writers and editors believed that the comic would be more interesting if it told its own story, rather than just adapting those of the games.
• La Résistance: Some human rebels show up in issue #11.
• The Man Behind the Man: Apparently, the aliens.
• The Mole: X and Slasher were on Protoman’s side the entire time. To their credit, by the time they meet Mega Man and Roll, they’re no longer willing to be on his side. Proto wasn‘t too happy about that.
• Ms. Fanservice: Roll, Kalinka, and Nastenka, particularly post-issue 12.
• No Ending: Due to the publisher folding before it was over.
• Non Sequitur Episode: #5’s race is ostensibly to raise enough money to repair Roll’s body, but it feels rather... random.
• Older Than They Look: Kalinka, possibly.
• Outside Context Villain: Actually, we don’t know if they would’ve been villains or not, but the Greys would certainly qualify if they did.
• Poor Communication Kills: The best explanation for why Wily abandoned the Six to their fates. If they’d just told him that they weren’t trying to join Proto...
• Series Continuity Error / Continuity Snarl: Plenty of smaller ones to go around, but the most notable one has to be #12. The actual events — Roll fleeing from her pursuers, even though she was knocked out at the end of #11 — isn’t too bad, if you assume that she recovered in-between issues. However, her reflections during #12 directly contradict what she (and the reader) have learned only a few issues prior (for example, the manner in which Dr. Light died). You could almost assume that much of #12 was Roll dreaming, but in the point at which the “dream” ends, one can see that X and “Slasher” are trussed up along with Mega Man, Roll, Kalinka, and Nastenka, even though not only are they free in #13, but they’re revealed to be traitors.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Kalinka’s name is rendered as “Karinka” here; Dr. Light/Right is Wright, and for a good chunk of time, Wily is Willy.
• Trippy Finale Syndrome
• Wham! Episode: Issue #4, which reveals Roll's backstory.
• The Worf Effect: Poor Slasher.
• You Didn't Ask: X knew much, much more than he let on, but never shared this info with his allies. There was a supposedly good reason for this that was never revealed, so it’s probably safe to assume that the info -- the exact details of Dr. Light’s death -- had traumatized him. Slasher, on the other hand, is forced to remain vague, as Proto doesn‘t want the others knowing of their plans just yet.

1. ↑ The comic was released before Bass' official name was known