By Mike Bessler
Staff Writer, Show Stopper

Golden Age comic book hero Airboy made his first appearance in Air Fighters Comics #2, which was published by Hillman Periodicals way back in 1942.  Air Fighters – eventually re-christened as Airboy Comics following readers’ favorable reception to the dashing young air ace – was a signature comic magazine of World War era, presenting a colorful cast of heroes and villains in a cavalcade of high-flying, “shoot ‘em up” war stories.  In the years following World War II, things for the comics industry changed dramatically and sales of most comics slumped with war comics – as well as westerns and crime stories – dipping to unprecedented lows. By 1953, Hillman stopped publishing comics altogether, effectively mothballing the Airboy crew until Eclipse Comics obtained the rights to the characters in the mid 1980’s.

It was mid-1995 when I first discovered the Eclipse run of Airboy.  The find was one of those legitimately serendipitous moments that ultimately changed the face of my comic collecting forever.  A local second-hand book store had packaged bunches of miscellaneous back issues into “grab bags” to liquidate their overstock quickly and I bought two or three of them at a few bucks a piece to read during some down time over the summer.  In the bags I found a typical assortment of Marvel and DC books and a handful of Eclipse Airboy comics, including the first few issues of the series.  I initially viewed them with decidedly low expectations as I had never been much of a fan of independent and non-Marvel/DC stuff up to that point (barring a few obvious exceptions, such as Walt Kelly’s Pogo, Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the like).

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I was fortunate to start my reading right at the beginning with a copy of Airboy #1 and it’s something of an understatement to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the reading experience.  At the time, I knew nothing of the original Golden Age Air Fighters and Airboy comics (although I suppose I should have, considering I had been a comic fan and collector since kindergarten or so), so the “Reborn!” issue was really a crash-course of introduction to several of the main characters including the original Airboy, David Nelson II.

This issue opens with the original Airboy in a dire state of torment.  Although Nelson has matured from a young and impulsive World War II ace into a successful aeronautics tycoon, he is effectively depicted as a brooding shadow of his former self, detached from his friends and family, including his arch-foe turned ally Hirota and nelson’s own son, David “Davy” Nelson III.

By the end of Airboy #1 (“Reborn!”), the original Airboy is assassinated by a band of air bandits leaving Hirota and David to avenge his murder.  Through issue #2 (The Wolf and the Phoenix”) and issue #3 (“Enter – The Heap!”), the team enlists the help of other Golden Age air fighters, including the battle-hardened Skywolf and the former German WWI ace turned swamp creature known as “The Heap.”  A colorful cast of characters (including a blind shaman who is hopelessly hooked on Dr. Pepper and a band of Cold War-era revolutionaries) lead Davy  – now taking his rightful place in history as the new Airboy – and his friends to the Latin American country of Bogantilla to do battle with the people responsible for the death of the original Airboy.  The villains of the tale are an oddly intriguing duo of a Reagan-loving right-wing dictator General Ortista and Golden Age Airboy nemesis Misery.

The ultimate showdown comes in Airboy #4 (“Join the Airfighters”) and Airboy #5 (“The Return of Valkryie”) in which the new Airfighters storm Ortista’s stronghold in Bogantilla to do battle with the bad guys and their minions.  In addition to avenging the death of his father, Davy Nelson frees ex-Nazi turned Airfighter Valkyrie from Misery’s clutches, bringing her back from the depths of limbo.  He soon learns that Valkyrie – who hasn’t aged a day since World War II –  has a storied and complicated past that will ultimately bring all sorts of questions and drama to bear.

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All of the old comic book clichés fit the early issues of Eclipse’s Airboy series.  It’s an action-packed, hard-hitting thrill ride with story and art that practically jumps off the page.  Chuck Dixon’s tremendous writing is marvelously complimented by the artwork of Timothy Truman and Tom Yeates.  I was  – no lie – hopelessly hooked after reading the first five issues of Airboy back in ‘95 and spent the better part of the next year sitting on dusty comic shop floors hunting for back issues.  Because this was just before eBay revolutionized the collectibles market, it took a bit of creativity and persistence on my part to collect the entire 50-issue run and at one point I even purchased a fistful of issues directly from former Eclipse Editor-in-Chief cat yronwode.  At the end of my quest, I had scored all of the Airboy issues and virtually every Airboy spin-off, including the great Skywolf 3-issue mini series (1987) and the Eclipse answer to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Total Eclipse.  As time went on and I got a real job that paid real money, I got into collecting the vintage Hillman Airboy issues from World War II and beyond.  To this day, I am always looking to score Golden Age Airboy issues whenever I hit a comic convention or discover a new shop.

Todd McFarlane obtained the rights to the Airboy cast through the liquidation of Eclipse Enterprises some years ago and resurrected The Heap in 1992 for a short run in Spawn.  In 2009, longtime Airboy writer Chuck Dixon launched a new round of stories of the Golden Age Airboy under the banner of Moonstone Comics.  Further issues are planned for 2010.

Not every great comic book is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars and the Eclipse Airboy issues are still easy to find at great prices on eBay and other comic sites.  The cross-genre appeal of this series speaks to nostalgia buffs, war enthusiasts and adventure fans everywhere.

Eclipse’s Airboy series is truly an under-appreciated gem of the Modern Age of comics and comic fans would do well to discover this for themselves.

By Justin Polak
Co-Founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

And now, the worlds-shattering conclusion to Justin Polak’s look at Worlds of Power: Mega Man 2, only at Primary Ignition.

Chapter 11: Heat Man’s world was like a giant furnace, pulsing with red-hot currents of air. Everything was the color of flame: Mega Man saw nothing but red, orange, and yellow, wherever he looked.

This passage made me laugh pretty hard because it’s almost as if the author said, “Man, it is hard to translate NES graphics into a book, even if it is a children’s book!” I can just imagine a frustrated man with scraggily hair with his hands on top of his head at a loss as to how to describe why even the bricks in Heat Man’s level are as red as the lava itself. With a mountain of crumpled up pieces of paper surrounding his desk, he suddenly looks skyward as he shouts Heat Man’s name in pure rage.

Game Hint: “To challenge Dr. Wily, you must complete all nine missions.  Follow the order in this book for the best results.”

Wait, what?  There are only eight robot masters! Did he miscount? Does he believe that all the Wily levels are all one mission? Now matter how you slice it this hint is TERRIBLE. You mean the game won’t let you go straight to Dr. Wily BEFORE taking on all the robot masters threatening the world? That Mega Man should miss out on thieving their powers to turn them against Wily? Come to think of it, Dr. Light seems to be able to teleport Mega Man anywhere in the world. Why wouldn’t he just put the blue bomber right next to Wily? Going by that theory, if Light can take robots and teleport them anywhere, why wouldn’t he lock on to the eight robot masters and teleport them into the sun? See what this hint has done to me?!

Chapter 12: [describing Heat Man] The Armor surrounded him like a huge box with a lid that could snap shut when he pulled his head inside. He looked like a square turtle.

I will bet you any amount of money that the author drew the same conclusion that the rest of us did about Heat Man: The dude looks like a damn Zippo lighter. I will also bet you that he originally described Heat Man as such in the original draft, but the publisher had the author change it because a lighter’s primary function is to light cigarettes. I think you can connect the dots from here as to why a publisher would be uncomfortable with a Zippo comparison in a children’s book. I still strongly think that describing Heat Man as a square turtle is about as useful as saying that Yoshi is a green horse.

Chapter 13: He was getting used to the beating of the drums. BOOM, boom-boom, BOOM!  BOOM, boom-boom, BOOM! They were louder than ever. “What a great beat,” Mega Man said. “Too bad I don’t have any time to dance.” Then Mega Man saw an Atomic Chicken leaping toward him.

Holy hell that last line came out of nowhere! I actually know what the author is talking about, and I still gave the book a double take when reading that. In fact, I think I might try paraphrasing that line in conversations at my job.

BOSS: Have you finished those reports I gave you this morning?
ME:  Well, no.  Sorry about that, they’ll be done in a few minuets.
BOSS:  WHAT?!  Why?!
ME: Well, the system was down, so I had to manually reconfigure the network.
BOSS:  Go on…
ME: I opened to door to the network room.  Then I saw an Atomic Chicken leaping toward me.
BOSS: …clean out your desk and get the hell out of here.

Chapter 14: Right in front of him was a mean-looking robot with flames shooting out of the top of his head. He was about three feet tall, and he was wearing a tuxedo. It was Hot Head.

I guess the robot being three feet tall is accurate assuming Mega Man himself is a few inches shorter than that. This means full grown humans are roughly that tall in the Mega Man universe, as well as basically everything humanoid.  In other words, yeah, there is no way Hot Head is that short. Don’t even bother asking me where the tuxedo bit came from. I know in early video games limits concerning graphics sometimes caused a player to unintentionally view character sprites as something completely different. For example, I thought the Like Like’s in the original Zelda were a stack of pancakes! Look it up and see for yourself! However, there is no excuse why a Hot Head would be viewed to be wearing a tuxedo. With my vast Mega Man 2 knowledge and astute observations, I am again wondering why I am single.

Game Hint: “To kill Wood Man, watch out for his shield and use Heat Man’s Atomic Fire.”

Yes!  As far as I’m concerned this is the ONLY way to destroy Wood Man. Oh sure, you can be all boring and use the Metal Blades like everyone else.  Or you could feel an insane rush of power and obliterate Wood Man in one shot using a fully charged Atomic Fire, assuming you are playing on Normal. Difficult requires two shots. Either way it’s funny as hell, and it will turn you into a man, even if you are a woman.

Chapter 15: The next beam was frozen in a second. Mega Man grinned. He was safe. Mega Man kept on climbing down, activating the Time Stopper whenever he needed to.

No! You can’t do that, and reading that just pisses me off! As I made perfectly clear earlier, I love Mega Man 2 to death!   One of the few flaws I find in the game is that the Time Stopper is a one shot deal. Once you activate it, the power stays on until it runs out of energy. I know that the author played through the game, or at least saw someone play through the game. The jerk probably got stuck on the laser beam sequence in Quick Man’s level, so he used the Time Stopper. He should know that you can’t stop the power once it starts! I know I sound crazy!  As pointed out before, this kind of crap always happens when video games are imported into other media, like a movie or something. This inaccuracy drives me crazy as much as basically everything in the Street Fighter movie did. The Super Mario Bros. movie basically shut my brain down and put me in a coma.

Chapter 16: Suddenly, Mega Man heard a train behind him. “A train? What’s a train doing on top of the castle?” He turned to look. It wasn’t a train. It was a dragon. A very big dragon. Breathing fire.

That’s a pretty accurate reaction to every Mega Man 2 player’s first time encountering the dragon boss at the end of the first Wily level. Also, I imagine something that big would sound like a freight train or something akin to that. It doesn’t breathe fire until you stop and battle it, but that short and simple description of the scene does a great job in capturing the panic inducing situation. Pat yourself on the back, author!

Game Hint: You need to freeze time to beat Quick Man.

I take it back! No! Asshole, you already used Time Stopper to bypass the laser sequence in Quick Man’s level! I don’t care what you said, jerk face!  You now have no choice but to best Quick Man by using power shots or Crash Bombs! Plus, if you did have Time Stopper, it would only take off half of Quick Man’s health! AAARRRRGHHHH!!!!

Chapter 17: Then he laughed out loud. “Paging Doctor Wily!” he yelled. “Paging Doctor Wily! This is Mega Man, and I’m on my way!”

Ouch, what a terrible line. I believe I cringed reading that part as a child. To me, it sounds like a set up to a joke on Scrubs that J.D. would make in one of his many bizarre fantasies. The scene would show J.D. dressed as Mega Man trying desperately to find his mentor, Dr. Cox, dressed as Wily. As soon as he tracks him down, Cox escapes out of a window via flying saucer. If the show were still on, I would totally send that idea to Zach Braff. He would act all bored, say the joke sucks, and use it anyway.

Game Hint: To get to Heat Man, use the C weapon to cut through the wall.

No, author. That part of Heat Man’s level isn’t that hard. You don’t need Crash Bombs to avoid using the disappearing blocks to jump over a high wall. Sure, it makes that part easier, but the timing to use the blocks to your advantage is very easy to spot. The hint almost sounds like you absolutely have to use this power or there will be no chance to even make it to Heat Man. Also, why is he now describing the weapons as they appear on the pause menu? We would be smart enough to figure out how to select Atomic Fire and Metal Blade, but not Crash Bomb? What the hell, man?

Chapter 18: Mega Man turned to leave Guts-Dozer’s Garage.  He could see now that it wasn’t going to be so simple to get to Dr. Wily.  This castle really was full of booby traps.

Oh? So it took a giant tank resembling one of the robot masters from the first game to finally convince you that Wily’s Castle is full of traps? Mega Man turning into a human has made him dumber than I originally thought.

Game Hint: When you see an Air Tiki, avoid his horns.

Also, the author is dumber than I thought. You mean I should AVOID the horns instead of ramming right into them, causing Mega Man to fall to a quick death? Thanks, bro!

Chapter 19: “Oh, no!” he yelled. “Not you again!”  Air Man stood in the center of the room, hurling tornadoes at Mega Man. Dr. Wily had created a backup clone of each robot.”

Wow, Mega Man is really afraid of Air Man in this novel. Obviously, he wipes the floor with Air Man and the rest of the robot masters, but I just don’t get the big deal about Air Man. I’m guessing that, oddly enough, the author had trouble against him while playing the actual game. I don’t get it. I have played every version of Mega Man 2 out there and Air Man is always the first boss I choose to go to!  I never had any trouble beating him, but I guess it’s a different story for other players!

Game Hint: Use Air Man’s whirlwinds to defeat Crash Man, but watch out for his bombs.

Alright, another good hint. Crash Man can be bested by Air Man’s power in a couple of seconds if you use this strategy. I know I’m once again being nitpicky, but I’m pretty sure most players have figured that being hit by bombs is a bad thing. Since just about every video game from that era had bombs in them, people from my generation fear video game bombs more than explosives in the real world.

Chapter 20: Dr. Wily had created a mirage to scare Mega Man, but Mega Man had destroyed it with the Bubble Lead.

Even in the novel it sounds lame that Wily’s last measure against Mega Man is bested by a weapon that is made from Bubbles. That has always bothered me, but you have no choice but to use Bubble Lead, seeing how nothing else will work against it.

Game Hint: To get to Heat Man, use the C weapon to cut through the wall.

Nope, I didn’t make a mistake. One of the game hints is twice repeated for no reason! Or is it? I really think that the author really hated the disappearing blocks in Heat Man’s level! I guess he just couldn’t get the timing right to climb over the wall!  What pretentiousness! I bet he figured that if he couldn’t do it, no other player could!

Chapter 21: Mega Man had turned Dr. Wily over to Dr. Light for justice.  The evil genius was still begging for mercy, but Mega Man knew that Dr. Light was planning to put him into prison for the next billion years.

This is the only instance in the entire novel where something makes more sense than the game. In the actual game it is implied that after Mega Man wins against Wily in the game, he lets Wily go granting his pleas for mercy. Mega Man simply walks off in the distance, pondering his decision. Considering Wily tried to take over the world twice with robot masters and terrifying technology, you would think that the mad scientist would be thrown into a maximum security prison! Nope! In the games, Wily doesn’t get jailed until the end of Mega Man 6! Granted, at the end of Mega Man 3 he was thought to be killed, but the fact that it takes six plots to take over the world to get jailed is ludicrous. I hate to think what the crime rate is like in the Mega Man universe!

After seventy three pages of sheer adventure, the Mega Man 2 novel comes to a close. For the time, I will admit it was a good book for children, despite the problems I had with the novel. Upon doing further research I found out two important details.

First, it turns out that this book was written by a girl!  No wonder it seemed that she sucked at the game at times! I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Don’t send me hate mail!

Secondly, several NES games were turned into the “Worlds of Power” book series. Mega Man 2 is one of the two Jr. Edition books. Maybe the books that weren’t Jr. Editions were more professionally written.

Well, thanks to I-Mockery.com, I have tracked down this passage from the Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest novel:

Chapter 7 “Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun”

Tim Bradley lifted the sword that Simon had given him just after they’d arrived at the inn. He would have preferred a gun. However, Simon Belmont had informed him not only of the fact that there were no guns in Castlevania, but that even if they were imported from another dimension, they wouldn’t work here. Gunpowder didn’t explode in Castlevania. “Things work on magical principles here, Timothy,” Simon had explained. “And also on the moral laws of good and evil. This is why I am very good, and Dracula is very bad.”

I guess at the end of the day, I got off real easy.

TITLE: A Nightmare on Elm Street
STARRING: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker
DIRECTOR: Samuel Bayer
STUDIO: New Line Cinema
RATED: R
RELEASE DATE: April 30

By Seth Miller
Staff Writer, Part-Time Ninja

When it comes to horror movies, I’m a fanatic of only two types: zombie films and the Nightmare on Elm Street films. The first movie that ever scared me was the original Nightmare on Elm Street and I have been a fan ever since; so let’s just say that when I heard about the remake, I was less than happy. I have a like or burning hatred relationship with these horror movie remakes; liked the Friday the 13^th remake, wish I could get the time I wasted on the Halloween remake back.

This remake falls into an area closer to hate, but there was a little bit I liked.

The plot for this film is the same as the original with very few changes. Kids start having nightmares about Freddy Krueger, the kids start dying, find out why Freddy is killing them, confront Freddy and try to kill him. The modern updates to the story either get tired after awhile or are very perverted.  They change Freddy from a child murderer who gets killed after avoiding prison to a pedophile who gets killed by a vigilante mob without being charged by the police. This is supposed to create some sort of sympathy for him, like the audience will ignore the fact he molested kids, and it adds a really creepy, sexual vibe to the finale that is just wrong.

The only other update that stood out was the updated knowledge about sleep deprivation and its effects on the body like dreaming while awake; it’s used as an excuse for Freddy to pop up every 10 minutes and essentially yell boo at the audience. This works once, loses its effect afterwards, and is overused in this movie.

The most obvious comparison that has to be made is how Jackie Earle Haley does as Freddy Krueger compared to Robert Englund. While he lacks the dark humor of Englund, Haley really does come off as a homicidal boogeyman that will kill you no matter what you try to do to stay awake. It is a welcome return to the horrifying monster of the first few movies before he became more comedic than scary. That and the way the film displays how crappy it is to go for days without sleep are the only things I like.

The problems with the updated story, the fact that the characters have zero depth, and Freddy’s master plan to get the kids to remember all the horrible things he did to the teens are small problems compared to the fact they turned Freddy into your generic slasher movie monster. In the original movie, when Freddy trapped you in a dream he stretched his arms like Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four and sucked people into beds to turn them into a blood & bone geyser. All Freddy does in the remake is taunt his victims in a growly voice for a couple of minutes before he just stabs them; he has power over people’s dreams, can kill these teens in a million different ways, and all he does is stab them.  And if they try to do something creative, the effects are bad or it is just ripped off from the original.

This remake has its moments, but it lacks any of the creativity of the original and ends up another forgettable slasher movie. I recommend this movie only if you are very bored or want to keep the hatred for these classic horror movie remakes burning. I’m going to go with the latter.

Rating: 3/10

By Justin Polak,
Co-Founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

Yesterday, Primary Ignition‘s own Justin Polak dove into the novelization of Mega Man 2. Today, he makes his way to the murky depths, looking for submerged bubbles of awkwardness.

Clearly, if I examine every single detail of this book, this article will go on for ages.  Therefore, from here on in I will pick out one part from each chapter on what I find absurd or interesting, give you my feedback and critique game hints that the author inserted throughout the book.

Chapter  1: “My latest invention,” [Dr. Light] said proudly. “The Robo-Transometer XZ-4000, With Cloning Capability.” He led Mega Man to the door. “Please step inside,” he said. ‘This won’t hurt a bit.  And when I open the door, there’ll be two of you.”

Now that actually sounds interesting. Maybe this will be some sort of creative way to have Mega Man have a set of lives like in the video game! If that turns out to be true, then props will definitely go to the author!

Chapter 2: The Robo-Transometer swung open, letting in a stream of light. Mega Man stirred. His head hurt…Mega Man blinked and looked again. He couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t a robot anymore.

Yes, you read that right. Two chapters in, and the author decided to arbitrarily make Mega Man a human! Joy! Damn it, my idea would have been so much cooler!  Dr. Light even ends up explaining that he must have pushed the wrong sequence of buttons which caused the accident to happen in the first place.  Just what the hell did Dr. Light invent? Better yet, why don’t they just make Mega Man a robot again since this machine can apparently rearrange matter itself!  Or trick Dr. Wily to step inside the machine and turn him into a pickle!

Chapter 3: Then Mega Man saw a huge tower with a big W on it.  Dr. Light had told him to watch for the tower.  The W stood for Wily.  Mega Man knew he must be getting closer to Metal Man’s secret lair, in the center of his empire.

More like a couple of feet from the lair. But hey, this book is for children who are obsessed with Mega Man, so I guess that could be forgiven. What can’t be forgiven is the, “W stood for Wily,” bit. That even pissed me off as a kid. Thanks, book! I never would have guessed!  What’s even more annoying than that is Dr. Light sent off Mega Man on his quest to stop Wily as a human. They both kind of just shrugged their shoulders and moved on. So just about every damn paragraph constantly reminds you that Mega Man is now human, and his ears hurt from the noise level in Metal Man’s stage.

Chapter 4: This was the most gigantic robot Mega Man had ever seen! It was ten times his size, towering high above him on massive legs. Its feet were the size of a small car, and its legs were like silos. ‘That must be Mr. Big,’ said Mega Man. “Doctor Light warned me about him. He’s one of Flash Man’s helpers.”

So the rock promoter from the Wayne’s World movie is not only a robot, but is programmed to kill Mega Man? That’s actually pretty cool! No, wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right…ah, I got it! The enemy that the author is trying to describe is, in fact, called Sniper Armor. It’s the vehicle that some Sniper Joes use in a few levels. With knowledge like that, I often wonder why I am not constantly swimming in an ocean of ladies.

Game Hint: “To kill Air Man, carefully jump the tornadoes to get close to him.”

Chapter 5: “…And Flash Man was no problem. These superrobots of Doctor Wily’s aren’t so tough if you know how to fight them,” said Mega Man, boasting a little.

Surely this statement won’t come back and bite Mega Man right on his fresh, human ass! Oh, and the only other thing that happens in this chapter is that Mega Man gets attacked by a Croaker and falls down a waterfall. Boy, it’s a good thing he isn’t a robot anymore!

Chapter 6: This time Mega Man couldn’t move quickly enough to dodge it. The now huge, heavy bubble rolled right over him, squashing him flat…Bubble Man gloated. “Got you, Mega Man!” he laughed. “Doctor Wily blorble will be proud of me!”

Now that’s just insulting. The first, and I believe only time that Mega Man is in any real danger is against Bubble Man of all robots!  Mega Man has two weapons when facing Bubble Man in the book, the Time Stopper and the Metal Blade. I don’t care if Mega Man is still used to being human, any idiot knows that you charge into Bubble Man with Metal Blades equipped! Dr. Light was practically screaming at Mega Man (they communicate with each other presumably through Mega Man’s helmet throughout the book) to equip the damn weapon. It’s just sad to read.

Game Hint: “Use the jet ski to get over the lava.”

Aside from the problem that if you never played Mega Man 2 before you would be slightly confused as to where the author is talking about, this is a good tip. Plus, when the player reaches the spot in question, it is obvious where the hint is referring to. There is a section in Heat Man’s level where you must control Mega Man, jumping from one disappearing block to the next, in order to avoid instant death from falling into a lava pit. The, “jet ski,” which is known as, “Item-2,” in the game will let the player easily bypass that section of the stage. Even I do it most of the time despite my badass skillz.

Chapter 7: Then, Mega Man heard what sounded like a weather report “…high winds? Gales? Hurricanes likely?  Tornado warnings for all areas? Sounds like stormy weather ahead!”

Obviously, this is in Air Man’s stage. I actually like this part, and before I re-read it after getting the book back as an adult, it was the only section I remembered word for word. Why? Because it’s actually creative!  In fact, there are a few sections in the book where the author does a good job of painting a picture for the reader. Not only does it remind you of the scenery within the video game, but it sets a definitive tone of what lies ahead. Granted, the weather in the video game’s version of Air Man’s level is nice, but since the weather report doesn’t actually came into play, I’ll let it go. Too bad the writing isn’t always this consistent.

Chapter 8: Oddly enough, there isn’t anything worth noting in this chapter! I will note that despite how melodramatic the author describes the battles leading up to Air Man, the book does describe Air Man’s level in frighteningly accurate detail…in comparison to the previous chapters of the book.

Chapter 9: [describing his Defeat of Air Man] “Oh, he was just full of hot air,” said Mega Man modestly.

Oh, really? The scariest robot you have ever seen was easy enough for you to make a pun that James Bond would be proud of? Yeah, yeah, I’m being nitpicky at this point, but the chapter was a whopping two pages in length, so the book is not giving me enough to work with! Dr. Wily threatened Mega Man over the news beam, and trash talk worthy enough for Saturday morning cartoons spilled out of Wily’s mouth, but it’s nothing you haven’t heard before in children’s media.  Hopefully, the next chapter will finally have something truly intriguing in it…

Chapter 10: The robots were mostly helmet. They looked harmless…at first. Then their helmets popped up, and their weapons popped out, aiming straight at Mega Man with deadly intent.

Awesome!  I never have seen a Neo Metall hyped up in such astronomical proportions! The Neo Metall is a variant of the often reoccurring enemy first encountered in Guts Man’s stage in the original Mega Man. It’s the yellow construction helmet that, as the book described, pops up and fires at Mega Man. As far as the original series goes, they aren’t a threat at all, despite that they charge at you if you haven’t easily destroyed them after avoiding their shot. If I had read this book before playing Mega Man 2, I totally would have freaked out upon encountering this enemy!

Game Hint: “Use the Metal Blade to cut right through Flash Man.”

Gee, thanks.  Anyone who would be interested in acquiring this book would already know that Flash Man can be dominated by Metal Blades! I think that’s the first thing you learn when you first take on Mega Man 2!

Return to Primary Ignition tomorrow for the epic conclusion of Justin’s look at World’s of Power: Mega Man 2.