Udon Entertainment has decided to release a series of one-shot comics for each series in the Mega Man IP (other than Battle network and Star Force), and Mega Man Timelines #0 acts as a prelude to the first of the releases, Mega Man Timelines #1. It takes place during the original (classic) series and goes over Mega Man's battle with Wind Man, Cold Man, and Skull Man respectively in flashbacks.
Each section of the comic was drawn by a different artist. This means that each section looks different as well. Thankfully, the separate styles are able to flow together well enough to not make the switches jarring while also showing each artist's individual style. I am also happy to say that all of the art in this comic is high quality. The colors are saturated and pleasing to look at, the characters look accurate but not stiff, the fights are fairly dynamic, and the panel composition is easy to read.
The comic begins with reviews of three food trucks in Boing-Boing park that are run by the titular robot masters. When the day ends we see Wind Man closing up shop while reminiscing about his battle with Mega Man. There is then a cut to said battle, where Mega Man has to keep Wind Man from terrorizing the city. After some exchanged blows and dreadfully corny puns, Mega Man wins the fight by throwing a ramen bowl in his foe's face. The scene cuts back to the food trucks, where Cold Man is now the focus. In his flashback, he is trying to freeze over a zoo to help penguins he saw . As you might of guessed from the previous sentence, Cold Man is not the brightest in the bunch and the comic proceeds to drive that point home. After some of this and some more corny puns, Mega Man defeats Cold Man via distracting him by offering to eat shaved ice with him. Now back to Boing Boing park, Skull Man asks for Cold Man to extinguish his burning truck. He then tells of his encounter with Mega Man, where he kidnapped Roll on her birthday. Mega Man comes to the rescue, but gets chased down by Skull Man's Skeleton Joes. While this is happening, Roll is able to break herself free and defeats Skull Man with a pizza slice and the corniest pun of them all; "Rest in Pizza!". The last portion of the comic is back in the present with Mega Man suddenly being flung into a truck by Bounce Man. This leads to the end of the comic with the three former foes coming to Mega Man's defense.
As mentioned earlier, the artwork is well drawn and generally nice to look at. I also appreciate that the fact that the story takes place in a unique location rather than rehashing the setting and plot of Mega Man 1 again. The use of underutilized characters such as Cold Man. Some of the jokes were surprisingly funny like Skull man burning his truck and then having it frozen over.
I really wished we could have stayed at the primary setting of the food trucks as I feel it to be more original and compelling than seeing Mega Man take down foes that we have already seen fight in the games. This is not to say that having Mega Man fight is a innately bad idea, I just do not like the way that it was done. It wouldn't have felt so stale if these fights were part of a larger narrative or if the character writing or jokes were more compelling. As it is now however, it came off as somewhat of a nothing burger. The puns were also some real groaners. I know they were made to be corny on purpose, but it was executed in a way that I liked. Having the vast majority of the comic take place in isolated flashbacks made the world feel flat too.
Putting this comic through the Trash-O-Meter places it comfortably in the status of "Not necessarily". While not anything particularly special, Mega Man Timelines #0! is also not a particularly offensive read either. It's nice to look at, but it does not really do anything all that compelling with the source material. I would have added an analysis section to this review, but I really just had nothing to say about this comic on a deeper level.