Superman is back on the air! My Adventures with Superman season two has debuted and the show looks to continue remixing classic Superman expectations in a fun new way. I loved season one and I’ve been eager for more.

But the first season’s success put an idea in my brain. Superman as a character has been under and misrepresented in his own stories for a while. He’s supposed to be the big blue boy scout! And films and video games keep mucking that up! My Adventures with Superman proves you can tell modern nuanced Superman stories while keeping Clark as a bumbling goodie two shows, and I think there’s another blue hero that time forgot who needs the same treatment.

Is this a thinly veiled excuse to talk about one of my favorite video game characters? Darn tootin’ it is, so let’s dive into why Mega Man is the hero our world needs!

But not the Mega Man you might be thinking of.

The Mega Men

Capcom debuted the Mega Man franchise at the end of 1987, and in the 37 years since we have had no less than five different characters bear the title of Mega Man across all of the video games. These five Mega Men are, in order of the their debut: Classic, X, Volnutt, .EXE, and Star Force.

This series got its start featuring a future filled to the brim with robots bearing incredibly straightforward names. Fire Man shoots fire, Ice Man freezes things, and Mega Man is…mega. It was definitely the 80’s. Given this, most people still associate Mega Man with robots, but it turns out not all Mega Men are robots.

The first three, Classic, X, and Volnutt, are robots. Probably. It gets a little muddy with Volnutt. But in the early 2000’s the games started getting experimental with their reboots and the following two Mega Men mixed things up.

MegaMan Battle Network features MegaMan.EXE, a living computer program. And he was followed up by Mega Man Star Force, the subject of today’s lesson and the first of these five Mega Men to be a flesh and blood human.

Most of the time.

Geo Stelar is a human kid in the future who teams up with an alien named Omega-Xis, whose name is pronounced Omega-Sis in English media because of some translation quirks. The two of them fuse together and morph Power Rangers style into the fifth Mega Man! Granting Geo use of all of Omega-Xis’ weird alien powers.

And those powers are fascinating because Omega-Xis isn’t just an alien, he’s from a species made entirely of living radio waves.

Very Brief Science Lesson

Being made of radio waves gives Omega-Xis’ body the properties of radio waves, and by extension giving Mega Man powers based on the things radio waves can do. And if you know anything about how radio waves work you would know this should create an incredibly overpowered superhero.

Radio waves are one form of electromagnetic radiation, the type of thing that visible light is. This means that they behave similarly to light, namely in that they travel at the speed of light. Remember that part for later.

What differentiates radio waves from light is that they have a lower frequency and a bigger wavelength, and this changes the rest of their properties dramatically. Radio waves are invisible, being even lower in frequency than infrared light. They can also travel through objects that light can’t. Light can’t get through anything opaque, but a radio wave can easily pass through a normal wall.

These differences between light and radio are why we use radio waves for wireless communication. Every wireless device broadcasts radio waves that travel at light speed to their destination, and are then absorbed by an antennae or receiver. They do this fast, invisibly, and through solid objects, allowing you to transmit and receive information from anywhere in the world.

So to reiterate, radio waves are: Invisible. Intangible. Can travel at light speed. And can interface with electronic devices.

And Mega Man has the powers of a radio wave.

The Real Man of Tomorrow

He also has the standard superhero requisites of super strength and durability, I don’t want to forget those. This Mega Man has survived fights with planet busting robots, dragons, and meteors. But its his radio wave powers that really intrigue me and give him so much potential!

Moving at light speed, Mega Man can circle the entire circumference of Earth in 0.0134 seconds. And his short lived anime has shown he’s able to adjust the frequency of his body to become invisible and intangible at will. He can be anywhere at any time, and you wouldn’t even know he’s there unless he wants you to.

The glorious cherry on top is his ability to interface with anything wi-fi enabled. These devices literally absorb and emit radio waves, so he’s able to just zip inside of any device to control it from the inside! And once he’s read all your emails, he can leave at his leisure and be on the other side of the Earth before you ever knew he was there!

The Star Force iteration of Mega Man is the ultimate hero of the modern age, the perfect tool to keep corrupt politicians and CEO’s in check. No maniacal overlord could stop him from spying on them or leaking all their misbegotten deeds online. The only reason he isn’t the most powerful being in his home universe is because he’s fighting other aliens with the exact same powers.

Can you imagine the story potential for this type of character? Outsmarting both super and cyber villains with this unique mix of powers? He can go toe to toe with any busted comic villain by day, and by night he can unravel twisted conspiracy webs via ghostly espionage. Capcom managed to create one of the most interesting and powerful heroes I’ve ever seen, but they haven’t used him in any games or media since 2009! Other than as an unlockable character in one side scrolling mobile game.

Capcom has infamously underused the Mega Man franchise for fifteen years now, it’s time to give the blue boy the spotlight again. If Superman can finally get a good adaptation, then so can Mega Man. Even Sonic is somehow getting good movies right now, it’s the era of the blue boys and Capcom needs to join the party.

If they won’t, I will. Be sure to catch my new series Giga Guy, starring Ben Schwartz, only on HBO Max this September 31st.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you had fun and learned something! If you liked this then maybe you’ll like some of my other articles too. And make sure to come back for more quality edutainment!

Mega Man is the property of Capcom. Superman is the property of DC Comics. All images and references to any and all intellectual properties made in fair use.