UGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Okay, let’s use this to cover both Sonic/Megaman crossovers so I can have some positivity in here. First up is Worlds Collide.
I’ll be honest, I was skeptical when Worlds Collide was announced. I mean, they were touting so many characters appearing in there, and so much action, and only twelve issues to do it in. That sounds like a recipe for a disaster.
In the end, it was...decent enough. It ultimately did have some pretty blatant pacing issues (some of the roboticised masters presences were very short, most obvious being Rouge Woman, and the solution to deroboticisation was kinda weird), and ultimately a lot of characters ended up as fight scene filler (the only important characters on Sonic’s side were really the Triple Threat, Rouge and the Chaotix, although Mega Man’s side had the same sort of ratio so it was balanced).
But overall I’d say it was a fun ride. The interactions between the heroes’ group and between Eggman and Wily were fun, as were the random team-ups like the one with Pogo Man Proto Man. And the fight scenes were energetic and allowed the characters to both entertain and show off their personalities working off whatever opponent they had, so it avoided becoming monotonous for the most part. It even pulled a shocker on the audience by even having the Sonic cast roboticised at all, let alone in such numbers. And of course it couldn’t have come at a better time; the old universe was basically a shell because the current storyline had half its cast ripped out the fold, plus future avoidance would have only become more and more difficult. Worlds Collide provided a great opportunity to have a very clean cut away from that and start afresh without worrying about all the legal dances. It’s no wonder Archie have promoted it so heavily as an essential story, it sold really well for them, and apparently warranted enough attention to get a full reprint as late as January this year (Worlds Collide was nearly three years ago!).
So we’ve got the first one out of the way, now it’s time for...*sigh*...Worlds Unite.
When Worlds Unite was announced, even with Worlds Collide under the belt. I was still not exactly on board with the second crossover. For one, the timing of it was all wrong, we were in the middle of the Shattered World Crisis and just about gathering speed, the last thing needed was a giant speed bump less than two years in. For another, the emphasis was on how much bigger the crossover would be, what with the additions of Mega Man X and Sonic Boom, so it was just as likely to be doing too much as the first one.
And then it was confirmed that it would still be only 12 issues long.
On paper, you can’t do this concept justice in twelve issues, and unfortunately they didn’t. The first third was okay-ish, but still fell short in some key areas. Sonic and Mega Man’s turn through their roboticisation was so short considering how powerful you’d expect them to be, and the writing was so dry, most of it was exposition and plot driving instead of opportunities to let personalities bounce off each other. Mega Man X arguably gets too much focus in comparison to the other segments, what with Sigma hyped up as being worse than either Eggman or Wily, and the whole start of the story being kicked in by the Maverick’s mission. It also tries for shock value, this time by indicating that Shadow is killed in an explosion (oh, the rest of team Dark don’t matter, Sonic?), which would both be a pretty lame way to kill him and obviously not going to have an effect given the mandates would not allow him to actually be killed off, so we know that’ll be reversed.
And then you get to the second part, and it just dies on its feet. After part 5 (which actually does touch some of that interaction stuff), it’s basically one giant, unending battle sequence which shifts between fighting Sigma’s forces and unwilling allies being controlled by the Zeti (who end up as very generic flunkies to Sigma, and never appear again after their defeat at the end of the second third). The art is bad, the writing is lifeless, nobody really gets a chance to do anything aside from Eggman and Wily having two panels (they’re criminally underused here) and Sigma getting to be oh so powerful by gaining a new form and putting them at square one. But what did Sticks find during the kerfuffle? The next clunker.
So, along the way of going through this massive jumble between four continuities, we have another wrench thrown in the works; this is also a SEGA and Capcom crossover with various famous franchises! One problem; there were mandates in place that meant that they could only appear in the final third. This meant that the final part was a huge rush job. The meeting of the heroes with the various SEGA and Capcom reps takes place over two issues with each getting three pages to meet the current heroes and join them in destroying the Master Engines. Not only is this rushed, it’s repetitive when it has to be done twelve times. And their overall contribution? Another dry, boring fight scene where they get their backsides handed to them, ultimately being pointless. And then things are fixed by Sonic and Mega Man going super to defeat the body of Sigma, there’s a slight panic but then it’s solved for good by Xander or whatever his name was. This means that Worlds Unite’s events didn’t happen except it formed something called the Nexus. It’s an obvious sequel hook, but I hope we don’t revisit it any time soon.
So yeah, terrible pacing (somehow both too slow and too rushed), bad art in places, the unbalanced focus (Sticks I’d give a pass because she’s the only one who can rep Boom), the terrible utilisation of nearly everyone, the dull writing, and other problems on a smaller scale drive this into being a story I really dislike. Ironically, the Battle Books, which at first seemed like cash-ins, were actually the best things about the crossover because the writers were allowed to have freedom in writing, so I definitely think the problems can be blamed as much as control from above as any creative choices.
Okay, now I really need to head to bed.
