Wily Robot Masters

The Wily Robot Masters are a group that appear in the Mega Man comic series, and the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs, published by Archie Comics. They are Robot Masters who have acted in service to Dr. Albert W. Wily, some having been built by the doctor himself while others were merely designed by him or reprogrammed to do his bidding.

Worlds Collide
Prior to launching the second Genesis Wave with Dr. Eggman, Dr. Wily had created a number of Robot Masters that served as his minions. These Robot Masters joined him the Skull Egg Zone to help construct the Wily Egg, from which the Genesis Wave was launched. Almost immediately upon his home reality being altered, Wily became aware of a multitude of other Robot Masters he had employed in the altered timeline and eagerly began making plans to recreate them as part of a Robot Master Army. However, he and Eggman first developed a new team of robots combining Robot Master technology with Eggman's Roboticization process: the Roboticized Masters. In order to gather subjects, Wily deployed one of his Robot Masters-the powerful Bass-alongside Eggman's Metal Sonic.

Yet another Robot Master, Copy Robot, was deployed by the Doctors in order to capture the Chaotix for Roboticization. He also joined Metal Sonic in tricking Mega Man and Sonic into battling one another. When the heroes and their allies entered the Skull Egg Zone, Copy Robot met them with the Genesis Unit-yet another trio of Masters-backing him up. The Robot Master Shadow Man also teamed up with his Roboticized Master namesake to challenge the heroes. Despite their victories in these battles, however, the heroes had yet to meet the full brunt of the Wily Robot Masters: the army sent out as the first line of defense for the Wily Egg.

The vast majority of the Wily Robot Masters participated in the battle outside the Wily Egg, alongside other Robot Masters associated with Wily at one point over time. The Mega Man Killers and Bass waited for the heroes inside the Wily Egg, the latter assisted by Metal Sonic and Treble. The interior forces were defeated, but the army outside nearly succeeded in destroying the heroes until the Light Robot Masters arrived to back them up. When the Super Genesis Wave washed over the battlefield, all combatants disappeared, and Super Armor Mega Man subsequently returned all the Robot Masters-the Wily Robot Masters included-to their proper places in space and time.

Trivia

 * Of all the Wily Robot Masters featured in Worlds Collide, only DWN 009-024, 28, 65, and 67 had been adapted into the Mega Man comic series by the time of the crossover.
 * Though almost all of Wily's Robot Masters bear a DWN (Doctor Wily Number) designation, not all of them were created or designed by Dr. Wily:
 * Numbers 25-32 were created by Dr. Cossack.
 * Numbers 41-48 and 73-80 had unidentified creators in the Mega Man video games.
 * Bass' designation stands for Special Wily Number, the Genesis Unit are known as Wily Wars Numbers, and the Mega Man Killers are designation as Mega Man Killer Numbers.
 * Plant Man has a secondary serial code, "DAN-001", in the Archie comic series, which refers to his creator Dr. Pedro Astil.