An OG Capcom developer has revealed a previously unknown connection to Mega Man and Marvel Comics.
Akira Kitamura was designer for the first Mega Man, who recently resurfaced to touch base with fans on Twitter.
A few days ago, he shared a nostalgic post about browsing for Marvel & DC superhero comic books as a student in Maruzen. Maruzen is a Japanese bookstore known for bringing over books from the West.
And then, he revealed that the American comics were actually references when he worked on Mega Man.
When asked to elaborate, Kitamura revealed that they only used basic concepts (fire, ice, scissors, rock, electricity, bomb) as design references for their characters. In other words, the Robot Masters were inspired by DC & Marvel characters!
And it was Kitamura’s design ideas that were the basis for Inafune’s illustrations of the Robot Masters. So if you ever wondered about Ice Man and DC’s King Cold, or Elec Man and Spider-Man baddie Electro, you might have been on to something after all.
