Novas Aventuras de Megaman, low-res pixel style!
This infamously bad Brazilian comic is possibly my favourite Megaman-related work after the Zero games. Besides being an interesting take on that series, its sheer craziness and wild inconsistency in art, tone, and pacing make it a fascinating train wreck. The attempts to shoehorn in Brazilian pandering, the first editor’s plans (stated in the comic itself) to derail the plot and have his own character take over, the fact that characters’ outfits will change from issue to issue… well, mainly Roll, hence my bonus picture of almost every costume she wears in chronological order. Not only does the comic get basic facts about the series plain wrong, but it amusingly takes inspiration from the Ruby Spears cartoon, before introducing both dark themes and goofy undermining of characters like X.
The whole comic revolves around Roll, which gives us a couple of atmospheric issues that focus on her past and her thoughts. This is my favourite Roll; smart, brave, taking initiative, overcoming hardship. It’s too bad this is undone by the editors and artists sexually objectifying her constantly. It’s also got complex motivations for the villains but unfortunately they’re never explained and I lost count of the number of plot threads or issues that are completely unaddressed by the time of the spectacular ruin of a non-ending, which introduces both aliens and voodoo magic. Basically, it’s “so bad it’s good” and I love it.
Roll, Megaman/Rocky, Karinka (the overtly communism-espousing Kalinka mysteriously non-aged after 30 years), Nástenka (Karinka’s robot bodyguard), Megaman X/Xizinho/Xis (this comic and nicknames), Slasher (it’s actually Bass, they just call him that), Protoman (I thought the bare skeletal arm he has in the early issues looked cool), Zero, Édouard/Maurice, Celina, Alan, and Otto (the human faction… one of them has the wrong name and hair for one issue), Princess (the would-be story hijacker), Dr. Willy/Willie/Wily (just inconsistency), one of “the Six” “Neo-Mavericks” (one of the villainous factions), Holzenbein (the plutocrat/voodoo practitioner, heads yet another faction)
More information: go here or here. These folks have translated the whole run into English.
