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Teased in the back of Mega Man X #5, Udon Entertainment formally announced two new Mega Man X comic projects at San Diego Comic-Con.
The first is Mega Man X: Dawn of Sigma, a one-shot prequel set before the events of the original Mega Man X. According to Udon, the story will explore how Zero joined the Maverick Hunters and introduce a brand-new Maverick.
Udon also announced a six-issue adaptation of Mega Man X2, planned for release later this year.
That's all the details we have for now. More updates soon! (Thank you to Matthew Low for being our eyes and ears at the panel!)
More Zero glazing and Udon counting their chickens before hatching when issues #1 and #2 sold extremely poorly.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you attribute the poor sales to? D:
DeleteHave any data to back that up? Because Daniel Arseneault has already confirmed that the X comic sold very well, breaking the top 200 in print and I believe top 100 when it was released digitally. He also said there was barely any drop-off in sales between Issue #0 and the remaining ones.
DeleteLook, it's obvious you badly want Udon to fail at these comics because of you don't like Matt Moylan, but it's clearly not happening. Most people are appreciative of Udon giving us something to look forward to, and the sales data, plus their willingness to invest in new one-shots, continuing the Archie line, and new series proves it.
Real fans don't put their personal gripes over the brand's success.
Daniel provided an image of the sales of issues 0-2, and here's what it said:
DeleteMega Man X #0
#128
Mega Man X #1
#143
Mega Man X #2
#192
I'm sorry, but your reply and Daniel's is pure cope. Being ranked in the 100s out of 200 isn't selling well. Especially when issues 1 and 2 sales dropped significantly. In what world is 192nd considered selling well? Be so for real
Also, I'm a real fan who sees the flaws of this comic series instead of mindlessly glazing it like a tourist. Cope harder.
DeleteEvery issue of the first X comic series was comfortably profitable. That's why were' doing more! :)
DeleteTop 200 is impressive for a franchise as niche as Mega Man. And the digital sales have been very strong.
DeleteYou can pretend it's for objective reasons like the writing or art style, but you already made known your real reason: You don't like the personal beliefs of one of their employees. I'm sure other fans, even those who may have critiques about some aspects of the comics, are going to appreciate you wanting them to fail altogether.
Who do you think is coping harder, the company that clearly sees sales strong enough to justify printing new comics, or the random person on the internet who constantly wants them to fail but is seeing the opposite happen?
I’d imagine “good sales” are relative here, like with anything else. Opening in the mid-hundreds is good for an indie game made by one dude, not so good for GTA VI. It depends on the budget, which we aren’t privy to (and it’s technically the same with sales; we don’t know the actual units sold or money made).
DeleteFurthermore, I find this trend of sale-analysis on the fandom level kind of… unhealthy and parasocial? I don’t know about you, but good sales aren’t why I’m a fan of anything. Things happen because they happen, and there’s not much we can do to control them from comments on a fan-blog.
Besides, you should be happy if Udon is going through with X2 in spite of bad sales. That means they’re burning through reserves and inching closer to bankruptcy. ;)
except you haven't pointed out any flaws and just seem to mindlessly hate it.
Deletewhat are the actual flaws? being in the top 200 says nothing about selling well, as there are no numbers there. selling well means something different for different comics too.
being in the top 200 is just being in the top 200. could be good, could not be. definitely not bad though. to make a solid claim about that, you'd need to present actual sales numbers, or at least how many other new comics are competing in that top 200 and/or how many new comic releases make it into the top 200.
Ew, it's Matt the chud. You provided no sales data, so you're lying for all I know. Go away and cry some more about DEI and anything Transformers post 1986. Oh, and stop scalping extra limited variants on ebay for 900 CAD, and pay the artists who did artwork for your tribute books.
DeleteMature MMFan, that's not impressive at all. Also, it's not a mere disagreement with Matt the chud. It's basic morals, decency, humanity and respect, he is undeserving of any money from this as he doesn't respect people who aren't like him. Cry harder.
Erik, the writing is bad, the "plot" is rushed, Mavericks get dispatched in less than a page, and Vile's character was butchered. Is that sufficient enough criticism for you? Again, top 200 is not impressive. Stop being delusional and crying when people don't like the same things as you.
Sorry if this more a random piggybacking off of this comment, but I feel like there is a lot of things that the X comics could do better. I have I'd say like... Three major gripes.
Delete1. I think that for all it does covering the events of the game, it isn't really trying to say anything else besides "here is an adaptation of Mega Man X" there are moments in the comic where you can see the potential in how things could have more depth like X attempting to save Storm Eagle and maybe the scene with X crying over Zero dying in Issue 4. But for the most part it's going through the motions, which you know I'll be real there is some stuff I liked in the comic and I think the artwork is fine. But with the X series and specifically the monologue at the end of the first game, there's an opportunity to show the ugliness of battle and have what would be shallow fights between the characters go into X's character and a stronger resolve. I think save for a certain few lines of dialogue, I don't think the comic is particularly bad but it is pretty simple.
2. I think the lack of onomatopoeia/sfx actually disrupts the reading experience in a major way, and whenever it is used it will be the tiniest thing on a page. Characters will be hit by giant robotic fists or have holes blasted through them, and then only the pictures will speak for what has happened. Let's take the opening page to Issue 2, it's X and Spark Mandrill and Spark Mandrill's frozen. No Dialogue, No Sound Effects. Clearly we can see what's going on visually but it feels sooo shallow without onomatopoeia to emphasize what is going on. It's a staple of the medium and you're missing out!
3. Some of the page layouts don't particularly flow well sometimes, with X jumping around place to place in a way that makes the comic feel jittery at points. Major example I can think of right now is that Issue 4 has a scene where X is going into Sigma's flying fortress and you have a big splash page on top and three splash pages on the bottom and its like... When did he get inside? You obviously don't have to show everything but it looks like X is outside for three panels and goes inside on the fourth, there are small instances of this across the comic and I honestly think a lot of it can be mitigated with either an internal monologue or just a little narration box that says "Inside the fortress..." or whatever location you need.
That's my big three major complaints with the comic's presentation, this isn't going into other noteworthy things to talk about here like the delays and the... really bad online PR udon has (for pretty valid reasons) because oh my god that is like cartoonishly dark stormy cloud being over all the otherwise good megaman stuff like gear masters and archie coming back...
p.s they're saying the comic is selling well because its the best their own comics have sold because i don't think ive seen a street fighter comic reach the top 200s thank you for listening to me ramble.
woah this got a crazy reply chain going. i guess i wanted to expand on one point in this which is my first one. in 2012 when i was a kid i was a regular reader of the archie megaman comics, i loved those comics so much and around that time the xander payne arc started. i think that story is a prime example out of many in archie's megaman of adding depth to a story and exploring the characters in interesting ways. xander payne is a soldier who loses his eye in combat and becomes a radicalized domestic terrorist who beyond the emerald spear's goal of keeping the world in a consistent status quo of a no robot world, also had petty aspirations and a disregard for human life. mega man, quake woman and the others have to deal with the action sided part of the plot but doctors light, cossack and lalinde play a very big part of the conversation confronting the themes of this story. it's an excellent four issue story arc and it won the comic high praise as "one of the smartest comics on the market." that is a tagline that was widely used when advertising it.
Deletemy point here is that a comic that was meant for all ages and something that many people i know were reading as kids had that layer of depth in it, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! we got very attached to this and proto man's incredible backstory brought to life. i genuinely believe ian flynn's megaman comics along with hitsohi ariga's work develop a fine standard for what to aspire to and draw from. the xander payne arc isn't a reflection of the reality we see outside our window but those deeply human experiences that comic has is something i hope stays with gear masters and the new run ian's doing.
the only two udon entertainment megaman comics to reach those highs to me are timelines classic, and timelines zero. legends timelines was good fun, i enjoyed that one a whole lot and david did a good job but thats a different story entirely.
@megathosemen Did Xander at least resemble the guy in the first ep of the Ruby-Spears series who said "If Dr. Light hadn't invented robots, none of this would have happened!"
Deleteyes, that's sufficient criticism, in that it's actually criticism.
Deleteand I didn't say that top 200 was impressive, I just said it isn't a bad thing. I don't like the X comics either, though I don't dislike them either. just haven't read them and am not particularly interested. I'm just saying that top 200 isn't a bad thing at all, but it doesn't mean sold well either. you'd need more information to really draw any kind of conclusion there.
nah dont worry i understand what you meant by the top 200 comment, what i gather from it is that its the best sales figures they have seen. though i'll level with you im not exactly pro udon entertainemnt. i can recognize some of these megaman books coming out like gear masters and archie returning have pretty good creative teams. the writers and artists on those two books do awesome work. i feel weary about putting my dollar down on megaman if it means the comics i look forward to get delayed every six weeks on tuesday nights/wednesday mornings right when all the other new titles are supposed to be coming out and my money going into unsavory and schlocky comics that feel upsetting to see in the news cycle.
Deletei hope i've laid this out in the most peaceful way i can put it, everyone at this point knows where the frustrations with udon come from. i think they're pretty valid ones to have, but i'm also not afraid to lay down criticisms of whats out on shelves, you get what im sayin?
@mega_those_men first of, wary. weary is tired. sorry, but this is a pet peeve of mine. people keep saying "you need to be weary of..." and I just think "I'm weary enough as is".
Deleteanyway, top 200 doesn't really tell you anything about sales. you could sell poorly and still make top 200, so long as many other things sold poorly or there aren't much things selling in that period.
if there are 50 new comics in a month for example, getting into the top 200 in that month is pretty meaningless. if there are 400 new comics in a month, then getting into the top 200 is pretty decent.
if there are 200 new comics in a month and all 200 get in the top 200, that's also pretty meaningless as it's the same as saying "it's a new release".
so being in top 200 isn't necessarily impressive without more information. how many other comics are competing? how much raw numbers vs the other comics on the list? are there non-new releases that are beating it? etc.
Erik the Red is pretty spot on in that the current 'top 200' is fairly meaningless. It's simply a relative ranking of how well comics sold that month at a small group of comics shops (about 200 stores participate, out of the 2800 or so direct market accounts).
DeleteIt doesn't take into account all:
- digital sales
- direct to consumer sales (company website, convention sales)
- retailer exclusive variants
- re-orders
- collections
- foreign licensing
Those are all components of making a comic work these days. Still though MMX has done pretty well. The MMX series could easily survive on the comic shop sales alone, or survive a little more tightly on UDONstore.com sales alone. That might not hold forever, so glad to have multiple sales channels for our MM titles.
Thanks for admitting that “top 200” is not meaningful sales proof, Matty boy.
Delete“Profitable” and “sold really really well” are two entirely different claims. A niche licensed comic can be profitable through variants, direct sales, convention exclusives, and collectors without having impressive sales to back it up.
So unless actual numbers are provided, this still doesn’t prove the X comic sold amazingly. It just proves UDON has enough supplemental sales channels to justify continuing it, which isn't saying much.
Oh, and it still remains that the writing is very poor, the plot is paced terribly, characters like Vile are butchered, and references and Easter eggs are shoehorned in as a self-aggrandizing, "Look, I'm a hardcore fan!" from Daniel.
Also, the fact that you guys are consulting Inafune of all people, despite not being at Capcom and not owning Megaman anymore is really telling of the poor writing. Why should anyone in the year 2026 care what that hack thinks? Especially when he's the exact reason why the X series suffers from terrible writing and massive Zero glazing. Now you guys are pretty much perpetuating the same thing.
Damn I really wish I didn't know any of this. I was actually excited for the Archie Mega Man revival.
DeleteLooked into this guy and damn
DeleteVery interested to see where this goes. The X1 Series left a lot to be desired in terms of writing quality, hopefully this one (and dawn of sigma) delivers. I do think that an X1 Prequel as an Idea is definitely stale now. Archie did it (and perfected it) and Day of Sigma was peak. Doing it again just wont hit the same.
ReplyDeleteDay of Sigma was great. It would have been better if it was closer to what happened in the games, though, such as Cain not dying so early. Still quite enjoyable, though.
DeleteTrue, as when I saw Spark Mandrill already frozen and then flipping the page to see him crumble to the ground, I had a moment where I felt like I had skipped a page. Then again, I would guess X1's sales were good enough to warrant a continuation into an X2 adaptation. I'd also like to imagine afterward that Udon would do more X related stuff like reviving the Mega Mission manga they previously announced many years ago.
DeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteReally happy these are continuing!
ReplyDeleteWelp, I've collected every comic in the run so far so why stop now? Udon wants me broke frfr.
ReplyDelete