Roboticized Masters

This group exists primarily or exclusively within the Archie Comics continuity. Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity.

Roboticized Masters
Drs. Eggman and Wily with eight Roboticized Masters, from Sonic Universe #52.
Appearances
First appearance	Mega Man #24
Overview and statistics
Members	Knuckles Man (formerly) Shadow Man (formerly) Rose Woman (formerly) Tails Man (formerly) Silver Man (formerly) Espio Man (formerly) Vector Man (formerly) Charmy Man (formerly) Blaze Woman (formerly) Rouge Woman (formerly) Sonic Man (formerly) M'egga Man (formerly)
Alignment	Evil
Status	Defunct
Resident location and/or bases	Skull Egg Zone Wily Egg
Associations and equipment
Equipment and/or weaponry	Special Weapons
Allies	Eggman Empire Dr. Eggman Badnik Horde Egg SWATs Metal Sonic Dr. Albert W. Wily Wily Robot Masters
Enemies	Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Man Proto Man Rush Amy Rose Blaze the Cat Miles "Tails" Prower Knuckles the Echidna Silver the Hedgehog Team Dark E-123 Omega Rouge the Bat Shadow the Hedgehog The Chaotix Charmy Espio the Chameleon Vector the Crocodile

The Roboticized Masters are a group that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs, and the Mega Man comic series, published by Archie Comics. They are a group of Roboticized individuals, who have been modified with Robot Master technology from Mega Man's World.

The concept was a collaboration between Drs. Eggman and Wily as a means to possess minions who could travel freely between their respective universes. Derived from Eggman's roboticization technique, the subject is turned into a robot based on Wily's design.

History

Worlds Collide

Four of the Roboticized Masters attack, from Sonic Universe #51.

After Drs. Eggman and Wily joined forces, they conceived the idea of the Roboticized Masters, and put the idea into action after firing the Genesis Wave. Due to the difficulties of sending their operatives from one world to another, they decided to create a group of minions who combined elements of both worlds and thus could travel freely between them. Having Metal Sonic and Bass kidnap Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Amy and transformed into their Roboticized Master forms. The group was then sent to rob the Mega City Bank, where they where confronted by Proto Man. They quickly overwhelmed their opponent, only for Proto Man's robot brother, Mega Man, to join the fight. After a brief confrontation-during which Mega Man learned that the Masters could be briefly stunned by his charged Mega Buster shots-the group escaped to Mobius with Mega Man in pursuit. They managed to escape and return to the Wily Egg, with the exception of Tails Man remaining behind to observe a battle between Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man.

The Chaotix trio were later captured by the Copy Robot when looking for the whereabouts of Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. Later, when Silver met with Sonic, Copy Robot capture him as well. Later all four of them, along with Blaze the Cat, were converted into the newest Roboticized Masters: Vector Man, Espio Man, Charmy Man, Silver Man, and Blaze Woman. However, the group lost a member when Tails Man, who had followed Sonic and Mega Man back to Mega City, was restored to normal after Sonic and Mega Man. Shortly thereafter, having retrieved the final Chaos Emerald, the remaining Roboticized Masters were deployed against Sonic and Mega Man's team, which included Tails, Proto Man, and Rush.

The Roboticized Masters' forces were soon divided as Proto Man left to find Dr. Light, while the Roboticized Chaotix were restored to normal thanks to the Sonic Shot Tails made by combing Sonic's Spin Dash properties with the Mega Buster. The remaining Roboticized Masters, who had been sent after Proto Man, were further divided: Silver Man and Blaze Woman were recalled to the Wily Egg, Knuckles Man and Rose Woman remained on the hunt, and Shadow Man was teamed up with his Robot Master namesake. Shadow Man was subsequently restored to normal as well, followed shortly by Silver Man and Blaze Woman. This left Rose Woman and Knuckles Man as the last Roboticized Masters, and the pair were given clearance to self-destruct as a means of terminating their enemies. Fortunately, they were similarly restored to normal following a brief battle. A new Roboticized Master soon created: Rouge Woman, the Roboticized form of Rouge the Bat. She was deployed alongside the Robot Master Army to defend the Wily Egg, but was quickly restored to normal by Sonic and Mega Man.

Worlds Unite

Sonic Man and M'egga Man begin their attack, from Sonic Boom #8.

When the villainous Sigma forced Eggman and Wily to work together under him, the doctors convinced Sigma to have Sonic and Mega Man captured and enslaved by turning them into the Roboticized Masters Sonic Man and M'egga Man. Hoping to double-cross Sigma and make his plans theirs though, the doctors transformed their nemeses into lethal robot warriors while secretly programming them to de-Roboticize each other upon sight. Each Roboticized Master was then sent to the other's world upon conversion to deploy Sigma's Unity Engines. In Mega City, Sonic Man was confronted by the Light Robot Masters, eight reformed Wily Robot Masters led by Quake Woman, and Break Man. At the same time, M'egga Man faced off against the Freedom Fighters, Knuckles, and Gemerl in Mobotropolis. Despite the resistance, the duo easily defeated their respective opponents, before activating the Unity Engines. As their worlds came together, the duo appeared before each other and prepared to fight as their secondary programming kicked in. After an intense battle, the two cured each other, and the Roboticized Master ceased to be once again.

Trivia

• The Roboticized Masters represent a combination of themes from the Sonic and Mega Man franchises: the Roboticization process from Sonic, and the Robot Masters from Mega Man.
• All of the Roboticized Masters' names come from the name of their organic forms, rather than being derived from their abilities like most Robot Masters.
  • Rose Woman is the only Roboticized Master whose name is not taken from her organic self's first name.
• Each of the Roboticized Masters has a designation of "EWN-00X", ending in a number determining their placement in the group. This is a further nod to the Robot Masters, who all have a similar designation in addition to an actual name. Presumably, the "EWN" designation refers to "Eggman Wily Number". Knuckles Man, Shadow Man, Rose Woman, Silver Man, and Blaze Woman are listed (though not specifically) as being part of the group EWN-001 through EWN-005, while the Chaotix are listed through EWN-006 through 008. Tails Man was not identified by a particular number.
• Of the ten Roboticized Masters from Worlds Collide, four-Rouge Woman and the three Chaotix-did not appear in any of the Mega Man issues of the crossover. Rouge Woman only appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog #250, while the Chaotix Masters appeared in Sonic Universe #52 and Sonic the Hedgehog #249.
• The "Short Circuits" for Mega Man #27 featured "Big Man", a Roboticized Master version of Big the Cat, as a "Failed Concept" for Dr. Eggman and Dr. Wily.
• Of the heroic/anti-heroic Sonic characters featured in more than cameo roles in Worlds Collide, the only ones who did not become Roboticized Masters at any point are Sonic and Omega.
• Sonic Universe #52 featured the Roboticized Masters depicted on a screen resembling character selection screens from the Mega Man games. A blank question mark square was included, foreshadowing the creation of Rouge Woman.
• Eight of the Roboticized Masters-Tails Man and Rouge Woman having been excluded-appeared on the convention variant cover of Sonic the Hedgehog #250.
• Vector Man shares his name with another Sega character of the entirely different game "Vectorman."
  • In fact, Sonic makes a reference to this in Sonic the Hedgehog #249, saying that the robot reminded him of a trash collector.
• At one point, Sonic tries to recommend new names for Charmy Man and Espio Man, only saying "Blast" before getting cut off by Charmy Man's attack and "Sting" before getting cut off by Espio Man's attack. These are be references to Blast Hornet and Sting Chameleon from the Mega Man X games.
• Artist Lamar Wells drew a picture similar to a Mega Man Level Select screen prior to Part 6 of Worlds Collide's release.

References

Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide