We've finally reach the end of the road metaphorically speaking,arriving at the end manga wise and the beginning time line wise. It's been a long road with some nice paved roads with a small interlude on a dirt road filled with oil slicks and whatnot. Reading this manga a few week back is what inspired me to write again for better or worse. In some respects I do owe it that,on the other hand it's not that good so I do not owe it that much.
The Metroid manga was released as a
tie-in of sorts to promote the remake of the original Metroid,Zero
Mission. As mentioned previously it does take quite a few cues from
Nintendo Power's(god rest its' soul) Super Metroid comics. Expanding
heavily on Samus' back story as well as Mother Brain and the Galactic
Federation to some extent. It is considered the canon back story that
most games are supposed to be drawing from even if it contains/causes
contradictions for some of the games. I'd say more but it involves
Other M and I'm not opening that can of worms.
The plot as mentioned is a more
detailed account of Old Bird's story from the Super Metroid comics
giving us more insight on the Chozo's culture and how Zebes became a
pirate stronghold. They give Samus and Old Bird more of a connection
with him being her rescuer after Ridley's attack on Samus's colony.
They also introduce the character of Grey Voice,who despite having a
much important role in the second half,gets downplayed in the section
concerning Samus' childhood. So once he does pull a big damn hero
moment it lose some of it's impact. Mother Brain is introduced as the
control computer of Zebes and gets a generic AI gone rouge
personality. The story bring up some more ties to Metroid Fusion with
the Chozo's discovery of the X-parasite. The Chozo decide to not tell
the Federation about The X because they'd just screw it up. I'd give
them more crap about that but knowing the Federation's track record
it's probably for the better.
The Galactic Federation is in it's
infancy here with the Space Pirate problem being a major issue that
they spend about a chapter or so debating. It is sort of like the
Phantom Menace senate scenes except much shorter They've redesigned
Chairman Keaton in to a more of a wise old man and Hardy into a buddy
cop police chief. The characters aren't that bad just one note which
extends to most of the Federation characters. Adam Malkovich also
makes his manga appearance here and again I am not going into Other
M. He doesn't do much and it's baffling why Samus ends up trusting
him so much. They get like two minor scenes together and she and him
are great partners after that.
Samus herself has some fairly
interesting growth here going from hotheaded young person to a
strong responsible adult. The Chozo saddle her with heavy
responsibility and the weight of that plus being slightly outcast
develops her lone wolf personality. She struggles to deal with her
past and ends up confronting it and finally accepting her destiny.
This is also where they bring up Samus' PTSD with Ridely...and she
overcomes it. It's a really great scene that is handled well and is a
big turning point for Samus. That's all I'm going to say about
it,moving on.
The plot itself is not really that bad
overall it suffers from poor characters and everyone is just boring
outside of Samus and Gray Voice. The story itself is presented well
enough and flows really well till the end where it decided to tack on
some weird direct prologue to the original game. It brings up a
plot hole regarding the acquisition of Samus missiles and bombs. The
whole section is rushed and feels out of place.
The art for the book is great and a bit
meh at the same time. The alien races all look like something George
Lucas would turn down for being to silly and are really generic. The
Chozo look awesome even if their own version of the power suit is a
tad ridiculous. The pirates and Ridley are on par with the penguins
from Samus and Joey is terms of terrifying designs. On the other end
of the spectrum young Samus is one of the cutest things I have seen
in my life.
In the end this really is not that bad
a manga just okay. It is lacking anything to make it stand out or be
enjoyable like Samus and Joey.As far as canon goes we could get
worse, they could have made the Echos manga canon. It is not worth
checking out unless you really need a Metroid fix or want to see a
bird man kick some serious ass.
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