Mega Man Adventures Volume 1: The Archie Run Is Finally Treated Like It Mattered
The classic Archie Mega Man run returns in brilliant form
Udon's Mega Man Adventures Volume 1: A Hero is Built reached stores on July 21, two months later than the May 26 date that sat on Amazon listings all spring, and it gathers Archie's first twelve Mega Man issues into a 296-page case-bound hardcover priced at $59.99. At first glance, sixty dollars (in this economy?!) is a lot to ask for reprints of comics that came out in 2011. However, chasing the same material through the out-of-print Archie digests will cost you more than that on eBay, assuming you can even turn up all three of the trades that cover this stretch, and what you get for the trouble is a stack of thin paperbacks that have been off retail shelves for more than a decade. Compared to that, a premium, deluxe hardcover treatment seems like a bargain (and indeed, you can pick it up on Amazon right now for ~$48 instead of full price…)
The Zoop campaign that preceded the book is an interesting piece of the broader story. Udon announced the deluxe edition on October 28 and opened the campaign three weeks later on November 18, setting a funding goal of $5,000, which for a licensed Capcom property is close to a rounding error. According to the campaign page, it finished at $56,100 from 590 supporters, better than eleven times the target, with 609 deluxe bundles claimed. Protodude over at Rockman Corner got Udon on the record early saying they were testing the platform rather than betting the book on it, and that both editions would print no matter how the numbers landed, which drains some drama out of the total but also explains why the goal was set so low. Anyone who committed in the first 72 hours paid $55 and got a gold metal card illustrated by Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz on top of it, which means the deluxe tier landed five dollars under the retail hardcover's cover price while also including the foil treatment, nine character cards with new bios written by Ian Flynn, and a folded poster a little larger than a school poster board…not a bad deal! (I’m currently on the hunt for that promo metal card myself…)
The twelve issues break into three arcs. Flynn adapts the first game in #1 through #4. Then comes an original story running through #8, after which the eight Robot Masters of Mega Man 2 finally turn up in issue #9.
Those opening four issues follow the 1987 game's shape and then keep going past its ending. Rock volunteers to be rebuilt for combat after Wily hijacks Light's industrial Robot Masters, and the fights take up less page space than what comes after them, where a helper robot has to sit with what he just did to machines he used to work alongside. The second arc springs Wily from prison, puts Dr. Light in federal custody, and introduces agents Roslyn Krantz and Gilbert Stern, who treat sentient robots as a policy problem instead of a punchline. Time Man and Oil Man appear here, both pulled from Mega Man Powered Up, and Wily gets a line about the last two robots being more "powered up" than the rest that lands as a wink for anyone who put hours into the PSP remake. A real pacing objection exists and readers raised it at the time, because the supporting cast expands faster than twelve issues can service, Rock is carrying more emotional weight than the page count can pay off, and the Mega Man 2 arc has to launch eight Robot Masters and Proto Man while also closing out a fortress plot. Flynn's answer is to trust that kids can handle ambiguity, which is why the last page of issue #8 works as well as it does: Proto Man standing over the Mega Man 2 lineup, with a piece of Rush's unfinished head sitting off to one side.
Three artists split this material, and the bigger page gives each of them room the original comics never did. Patrick Spaziante draws the first arc with the poster-ready energy he brought to Archie's Sonic covers for years. Chad Thomas takes over for issues #5 through #8 with rounder, more elastic figure work, and Ben Bates handles the Mega Man 2 arc with the tightest storytelling of the three. Rick Bryant inks the first two issues before Gary Martin takes the chair from #3 onward and holds it for most of the run. Blown up this large, you can actually see what the two of them do differently, since Bryant keeps a thinner and more nervous line while Martin lays down heavier blacks that push the figures forward. Matt Herms colors it all in the register of NES box art, saturated primaries and hard color holds with almost no gradient work, and at this size the palette hits you before the panel borders do. John Workman letters throughout, and fun fact: Workman also lettered Walt Simonson's Thor in the eighties, which is where the DOOM DOOM DOOM of Mjolnir hitting pavement came from.
That has nothing to do with Mega Man.
Anyways, set the hardcover next to a standard floppy and it stands about an inch and a half taller, and that inch and a half is most of the argument for buying this edition over hunting down the singles.
Timing helps too, because Udon's Mega Man line is having its best stretch since it picked up the license. Daniel Arseneault and Hanzo Steinbach wrapped their five-issue Mega Man X series on August 5 with X against Sigma, closing an adaptation that began with the Mega Man X Timelines one-shot back in the summer of 2025. Mega Man: Gear Mastersarrives September 23 from Tavis Maiden and Ryan Jampole, built around Dr. Light retrofitting Mega Man with a prototype Double Gear system that Wily wants back. Udon has admitted that Capcom asked them to adjust something in Gear Masters because it conflicted with information coming in Dual Override, which tells you how closely the comics are being steered toward the game. Capcom revealed Mega Man: Dual Override at The Game Awards on December 11, 2025, with a 2027 release that lines up with the franchise's fortieth anniversary and puts nine years between it and Mega Man 11. Capcom's own figures put the series past 43 million units sold as of March 2025.
Whether you had a soft spot for the Archie run the first time around or you're just looking for something on the shelf that a seven-year-old can pull down without supervision, this is an easy recommendation. It's the rare all-ages licensed comic that respects both halves of that description, and the hardcover finally presents it at a size where the art can breathe. What I don't know yet is whether the remaining three volumes get the same deluxe treatment, or whether Zoop was a one-time experiment that Udon walks away from now that it's proven the demand. Volume 2 has already been previewed with Proto Man front and center and a deluxe tier planned. More to the point, Udon used Volume 1's July release to announce that the Archie series is coming back from its decade-long hiatus with a new issue #0, numbered as chapter #56, which starts the Mega Man 4 arc Archie set up in 2015 and never got to publish.
All in all, if you’re someone who loves Mega Man and comics (such as myself), it’s a great time to be a fan! You can find Mega Man Adventures Volume 1 on Amazon or any major retailer, but make sure you check your local shop first!
Mega Man Adventures Vol. 1
Fifteen years after these issues hit the racks, A Hero is Built finally puts Spaziante, Thomas, Bates, and Herms on a page big enough to hold them.
