MEGAMANMEGAMAN
Real Name: Nathan "Nat" Cooper
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Unrevealed
Group Membership: Laboratory subjects of the Stranger (formerly)
Affiliations: Overmind (used as pawn by him); served unwillingly as companion to the Protector
Enemies: Nova (Richard Rider), Quasar (well, he was going to fight him), Stranger, Allen and Clara (ex-wife and her new boyfriend)
Known Relatives: Roger "Caps" Cooper (nephew); Clara (ex-wife)
Aliases: entity (the name the Protector used for him)
Base of Operations: currently unknown; formerly the Stranger's Laboratory World; formerly Earth @ 1 million years in the future; formerly New York City
First Appearance: Nova I#6 (February, 1977)
Powers: Megaman has a variety of abilities enabling him to manipulate the environment around him. He can generate winds, fires, earthquakes. He possesses some degree of superhuman strength (enhanced human) and durability. He has no facial features, or anything else, on his head. He apparently sees, hears, and speaks by other means, presumably telepathically. He apparently has no need to breathe or eat.
History:
(Nova I#8 (fb) ) - Nat Cooper accompanied his nephew, Roger (aka Caps)
on a camping trip. They followed an unnatural glow to a black lake in a
cave. Caps rushed forward to get a closer look and inadvertently
knocked his uncle into the lake. Nat caught fire in the strange lake,
and Caps, afraid to touch the water and suffer the same fate, rushed
away to get help. When he returned, Nat was gone, apparently dead, and
the police ruled it an accident.
Nat, however, did not die. He apparently vanished and lost
consciousness. When he revived, apparently a million years had passed,
and he encountered the last essence of life on Earth. However, this
creature, which came to be known as the Protector, was far from human,
and existed in a bizarre form reminiscent of a model of a molecule. The
Protector found Nat and healed his wounds. However, never having seen a
person before, the Protector had no knowledge of facial features. Nat
had been severely burned in the lake, and when the creature remade him,
it made him without any facial features, or ears, or hair. Fortunately, it did seem to understand that Nat needed pants!
The Protector gave Nat great power, enabling him to manipulate the
environment around him in order to survive the hostile environment that
had become of the Earth. The Protector was apparently feminine, and
sought Nat to be its companion. Nat was understandably angered by his
situation, and had no interest in anything to do with the Protector.
However, he was powerless to escape her.
Finally, after six months, during a sandstorm, Nat saw his chance.
Using the powers given to him by the Protector, Nat trapped her in a
solid glass sphere and then dove back into the black pool, and somehow
returned to the modern era.
(Nova I#6) - Nat, now calling himself Megaman, blamed Caps for his misfortunes and sought revenge. Megaman captured Caps and tied him up in a sewer tunnel which was in the process of being flooded.
(Nova#8-9) - Nova learned of his friend Caps' fate
from the Computer Prime of the previous Nova(Rhomann Dey)'s ship. He
returned to Earth and saved Caps (apparently just minutes before
Megaman, who later claimed to have regretted his actions and returned
to save Caps himself, only to find him gone). Megaman later returned
for Caps, who assumed he would try to kill him again, and fled for
help. Nova attempted to fight off Megaman, but he set Nova's house on
fire, with his parents and brother trapped inside, enabling him to
escape (with Caps) while Nova saved his family.
Megaman explained to Caps how he had blamed him initially, but had since gotten over it. He convinced Caps to go to his wife, Clara,
on his behalf and explain what had happened. Clara didn't believe Caps,
and he soon found that Clara had moved on to a new man, Allen.
When Megaman saw this, he was furious, and he attacked Allen. Caps
called the police for help, and Nova picked up this call and arrived to
fight off Megaman. After an inconclusive battle in a nearby funhouse,
Megaman was horrified to see the Protector appear before him again. She
was delighted to have found him, and brought him back to her future, to
stay with her forever and ever.
BTS - Megaman somehow returned to the modern era, but was captured by the Stranger, who brought him to his laboratory world for study.
(Quasar14-15-BTS, 16) - During the Overmind's attack on the Stranger, Megaman was one of those freed and sent to attack the Stranger's allies. Megaman was one of several former prisoners being transported to the site of the struggle between the Overmind and the Stranger's forces. Dr. Spectrum (of the Squadron Supreme) was the transporter, but in mid-flight he regained his own mind as the Overmind withdrew his influence to focus his full power againt the Stranger. Spectrum then dropped Megaman and the others, leaving them to fend for themselves. Many of the Stranger's former prisoners escaped after this struggle, but Megaman's fate is unrevealed.
Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Sal Buscema.
I'd guess that the lake was some sort of time warp. Of course, as in most stories, time proceeded linearly for Megaman, so that after six months in the future, he returned to his past six months after he had left it.
So what happened to the Protector? Or Megaman for that matter. I think he should team-up with the original Fusion, Sphinxor, the Sky-Walker, and the rest of the MIA characters from the stranger's world and get involved with the Thunderbolts or anyone else, written by Kurt or Fabian. Let them know if you'd like this, too.
In 2008 we thought Megaman had finally returned in
the pages of Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #3, but to our surprise
the script revealed that was instead just the Faceless Man. What the...!? That is even more obscure than Megaman.
--Markus Raymond
Clarifications: Megaman has no known connection to:
The original, engimatic Stranger @ X-Men I#11 has no known connection to:
The Protector has
been described as the last essence of life on Earth. While it is not
even remotely humanoid, it still maintains several human emotions,
including the desire for companionship. It possesses energy
manipulative powers, greater even than Megaman's, and can heal and
empower others, as well as manipulate its environment. Its full powers,
abilities, and limits are undefined. It has a feminine personality.
--Nova I#8 (8(fb), 9
Appearances:
Nova I#6 (February, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Sal Buscema (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)
Nova I#8-9 (April-May, 1977) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Sal Buscema (breakdowns), Frank Giacoia (finished art/inks)
Quasar#14-16 (September-November, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike
Manley (pencils), Dan Panosian & Keith Williams (#16) (inks), Len
Kaminski (editor)
First Posted: 12/03/2001
Last updated: 08/02/2002
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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