Mega Man # 24- World's Collide part 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Sonic and his crew were out to stop Dr. Eggman's plans and also rescue Mecha Sally and turn her back to normal. Meanwhile, Megaman is trying to stop Break Man from wreaking havoc. In both worlds, Eggman and Wiley agreed to cross over and meet up, and the ensuing Genesis Wave erases everything right in the middle of what both Megaman and Sonic were doing!

'Kindred Spirits' begins in the Green Hill Zone of Sonic's world with Mega Man and Sonic fighting and chasing each other. As you'd expect a fight between these two would go, Sonic would dodge most of Mega Man's shots, but Mega Man is also to take a Sonic Spin Dash to the chest and keep on kicking. As they fight, a robot is hovering overhead and broadcasting the fight to Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily who are dancing for joy to see their enemies fight each other.

The mad scientists toast each other as their plans work perfectly, and they are also almost done collecting all the Chaos Emeralds. They head off for their hideout as Mega Man and Sonic continue to fight it out.

We flashback to some weeks ago, in Dr. Wiley's hidden base somewhere in Mega Man's world. Dr. Wily is trying to use a machine called Ra Moon to make a rice cooker out of one of his robots. Flash Man comes in bringing in a huge gem of some sort that he found, that catches the attention of Ra Moon and Wily. Wily places it into his scanning devices and it starts to glow intensely.

In Sonic's world, Eggman is yelling at his minions at his base for failing to help him rule the world and for failing in finding the Chaos Emeralds. Just then his monitors show him Dr. Wily, and the gem Flash Man found, which is indeed, a Chaos Emerald.

Eggman asks Wily who he is, and of course, Wily calls himself the greatest robotics genius on Earth. Eggman is intrigued when he mentions Earth and asks him what year it is where he is. Wily says it's the year 20XX  (it's funny how they literally say 20XX) and Eggman says he's the greatest robotics genius of his world. Eggman explains the concept of alternate universes to Wily, and see how they both want to rule the world with machines and have young heroes that stand in their way. Eggman insists that they should meet.

Later on in a whole other dimension created from the Chaos Emeralds, Wily and Eggman finally get to meet. Wily wants to call this world the Skull Secret Zone and Eggman wants to call it the Egg Pocket Zone. They both compromise and call it the Skull Egg Zone. In this zone, time works differently, being seconds where it would be hours in the real worlds. They get their robots to build a new base for them, with Wily working on the design while Eggman works on the internal defenses.

Soon the new fortress is built, with Eggman wanting to call it the Death Egg II and Wily wanting to call it the Wily Flying Fortress. They both compromise again and call it the Wily Egg. 

Later on in the Wily Egg, the doctors prepare to use the Chaos Energy to rewrite history to their liking. Since they are in the Skull Egg Zone, they will be unaffected but to everyone else, the world will always be the way they rewrote it. With the world retconned, Wily wants to resurrect all his Robot Masters, but Eggman says he has a better idea.

Later on, in the reset Sonic world, Tails is chillin' in his house ready to meet up with Sonic... when suddenly he gets knocked out and captured by Bass and Metal Sonic. Tails wakes up in a test tube in front of the two evil scientists. Wily explains that they can't send something from one world without a native of the other, which is why they couldn't send Bass to Sonic's world without Metal Sonic....so they want to combine Eggman's roboticization process with Wily's brand of robotics. Eggman and Wily then turn Tails into a Roboticized Master, which Wily calls Tails Man.

Wily notices Tails Man doesn't have much personality, and Eggman says they get less sass that way. Wily says that they can turn the rest of Sonic's friends into robots, and Eggman agrees that it will mess with his head and also give more enemies for Mega Man to fight. Wily sends Bass and Metal Sonic to get more victims, and Eggman has work for Tails Man. 

In Mega Man's reset world, Proto Man is now a hero, instead of being the villainous Break Man, and heads towards the First National Bank where a robbery is being committed. He finds himself face to face with the Roboticized Masters, out to steal another Chaos Emerald. Aside from Tails, now Knuckles, Rose and Shadow have also been captured and turned into robots!

My opinions

This is a great way to start this crossover, and the most fun comes from the villains crossing over and getting along. As usual, Sonic and Mega Man have the typical misunderstanding and fight it out, though the reasons they're fighting are still unknown. As for Eggman and Wily, after seeing so many villains team up, already thinking of ways to double-cross each other... it really seems that Wily and Eggman get along and enjoy each other's company, complimenting each other's genius at every opportunity. 

I guess the only thing I can nitpick is how nothing seems to relate to what we saw in issue zero at all. But I suppose due to the bad guys resetting the world, it explains why the characters are no longer doing what they were doing before and now in entirely new situations. The most dramatic change is Break Man the mystery villain turning into the heroic Proto Man. I do like how they added the Proto Man whistle theme from the games as a way to alert the Roboticized Masters of his arrival. And speaking of which, wow. What an epic idea. In the games Robotnic was all about turning animals into mindless robots.... but to turn Sonic's friends into Robot Masters... that is just epic. As epic as that Wily Egg. It's all so cool, right down to their obsession with skulls and eggs. Sonic and Mega Man take a back seat to the bad guys, but we do get to see them fight it out a little, and it is important to get some backstory on how this crossover took place. We have to see what else happens.

I do think it's funny how they turned Shadow the Hedgehog into Shadow Man. I wonder if Wily's own Shadow Man will get jealous. LOL

And the funny part is... they actually do address this later on. LOL 

Also might I add that the Wiley Egg is perfectly bad-ass and perfectly mix both scientists' bizzare obsessions with skulls and eggs. I want that to appear in a Sonic or Megaman game.