Classic Video Game Adaptation Awesome

I was going to do something special but then life got in the way. It happens, and it's not like this is my job, just something I do every Wednesday for fun.

I was never sure if I would do manga or not, but it turns out, yes, I will.

And I've got an unofficial "awesome females in comics" theme going this month, so I thought I'd continue.

The Metroid franchise is a meandering game series of exploration and massive damage starring the quintessential cool video game bounty hunter Samus Aran. Her most recent outing, Metroid: Other M was at best mixed. It didn't have the exploration, it was too linear, it wasn't that good a game, it told its story clumsily for the most part, and it turned a cool, philosophical stoic tough chick into a shellshocked, emotionally traumatized puppet too easily subjugated by someone she highly respected who isn't even her superior officer and should be grateful she's there to rescue him . . . er, that aside, we're not here to talk about the games, we're here to talk about "The Metroid Manga" by Ishikawa Kenji.

"The Metroid Manga" is a misnomer, it seems to be titled Metroid, but it's never been officially translated to english, so there may be more to it than that. In fact, there have actually been several mangas about the Metroid series, but "The Metroid Manga" is probably the most famous--or infamous. It's also the best in terms of story quality, but we're not here for story quality, we're here for awesome.

Samus Aran, in this manga, was orphaned by a space pirate attack on her home colony when she was only 3 years old, and then raised by the Chozo, bird aliens with an advanced society but which are rapidly dying out as their time has passed. The Chozo live on a planet called Zebes (with two syllables, as far as I can tell) with an environment inhospitable to humans. So the Chozo, who look like this: (oh, and it's a manga, so read right to left)

Manipulate Samus genetically and give her the power suit.

Or should I say The Power Suit.

The Power Suit is important for a number of reasons, but the main one is that the first time you play Metroid, she's covered head to toe in it and only if you beat the game in a relatively fast time do you even see her out of it, and find out that she's female. It was a big surprise to gamers in the mid-80s, especially considering the way most females were treated in video games at the time (as either very shallow love interests in need of rescue with maybe a bit of fan service thrown in or as kid sisters or old grannies, i.e.: family members to the male protagonist). It's still pretty progressive. If you don't believe me, play a Dead or Alive game. Or Bayonetta.

Anyway, back to the manga. The story of the manga is pretty simple, basically about how Samus got to the point at the beginning of the first Metroid, as an intergalactic bounty hunter looking to take out the Space Pirates who have taken over the former Chozo planet, Zebes. You see, in this comic, she has a personal stake in it, since the pirates killed her parents. And . . . everyone else on the colony she came from.

Yeah, "cut them to bits" is mostly accurate. That's Ridley, the field commander of the Space Pirates. Here's a better picture of him, with 3 year old Samus for size comparison.

Actually, that's a little small for Ridley. He's a space dragon, and Samus' most persistent foe. She's thought she's killed him 6 or 7 times, now.

Because of the massacre of the space colony, Samus kind of has a freak out when next she meets Ridley, about a dozen or so years later.

Now, Other M tried to make a similar point, that Samus doesn't like it when confronted with Ridley. There's just one problem with that. Actually, there's a few, and they all have to do with timing. In Other M, had already confronted Ridley several times and had grown, and matured, and developed. She's in her early-to-mid twenties in that game. In comparison, in this manga, she's about 17 or 18, this is the first time she's seen Ridley since the original attack, and she's been having self-confidence issues throughout the manga up to this point (a chip on her shoulder because of her traumatic and tragic backstory, mainly, that she tries to hide by being a bit cocksure and arrogant. I like these bits of characterization, because due to character development, they change).

So, yeah, at this time, it makes perfect sense for Samus to not react well here. She gets her butt handed to her and only barely makes it out alive.

Some things happen, plot develops, it's not that great. But again, we're not here for the plot, we're here for the awesome.

Later, a good deal later, during the plot of the first game, in fact, Samus returns to face Ridley. Now, she no longer is suffering from self doubt, and has gotten a few suit upgrades (as per the game). Now, she is no longer who the same person who suffered a panic attack at seeing him.

1, 2, 3. Awesome.

Then she goes off to destroy planets, dimensions, maybe even galaxies. She's not gonna stop. Samus Aran is unrelenting.

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; I've never beaten anyone on the count of three. Oh well.