Tear Jerker / Mega Man (Archie Comics)

• Issue 22 has Mega Man, Roll, Ice Man, and Quake Woman trapped and separated underground in an Arctic ice cavern. Mega Man eventually finds Quake Woman, who is crouched in a Troubled Fetal Position, in the midst of a full-blown PTSD panic attack.
• Issue 28 of the comic. Roll takes a Charged Shot fired by Break Man meant for the more armored Mega Man. The reactions of Rock, Cut Man, Guts Man, and Bomb Man are bad enough... but you actually see through Blues' helmet and see him looking on in horror.
• In issue #35 of the comic, Break Man goes to talk to Tempo about the meaning of "family" and dealing with the whole Death of Personality that occurs when a Robot Master's personality core has to be repaired/replaced. The whole scene is emotional due to the subject matter and the full disclosure of just how different Tempo is after her emotions were restored. What takes the cake, however, is when asked if he simply cannot bring himself to forgive Dr. Light over a what-if, Break Man finally snaps and screams "HE REPLACED ME!" at her as he smashes a nearby picture of his creator; enhanced by how his eyes can very briefly be seen through his visor. Oh, Blues...
  • Dr. LaLinde's Armor-Piercing Response to Break Man afterward, having heard the entire exchange from outside. After hearing Blues angrily declare himself "replaced" as Dr. Light's son, Noelle bursts in and asks him whether or not he considered that a major reason Rock and Roll were created was for his sake, in the hope that he would eventually return. Absolutely taken aback by it, Break Man warps away without a word.
  Dr. LaLinde: BLUES! Did you stop to consider that he built a brother and sister for you? So that when you came home, as he always hoped you would... you'd never be lonely again?
  • Tempo and Dr. LaLinde's heart-to-heart after Break Man flees the scene. Dr. LaLinde breaks down in tears when she sees that Tempo now knows what she used to be like before her terrible accident, and was not only scared that Blues would hurt her, but also of what Tempo would think of her upon having seen the Awful Truth. Tempo makes it clear that she doesn't hold any of what happened against Noelle and comforts her creator, vowing that they can "help fix each other".
• Another one comes in the confrontation with Needle Man. After Mega Man breaks sequence a bit by copying Needle Cannon before beating the Master and tries to use it on him, Needle Man is not just angry, but mortified that he'd do that. When Rock insists that he doesn't want to hurt him or his brothers and asks why he doesn't just give up, we get the heart-rending response; he simply can't. Needle Man deduces that Mega Man's vague programming of "help people" allows him to be more than what he was intended, while the MM3 Masters have one very specific goal they don't have the leisure of defying without Copy Robot, like the first generation of Masters did. Something Needle Man in particular very clearly doesn't like:
  Needle Man: NO! You were built to "help people". You get a nice fuzzy definition to work within. We weren't given that! "Fight Mega Man! Destroy Mega Man!"... IT'S ALL WE'RE GOOD FOR!
  • After finally incapacitating the Robot Master,◊ the fight ends with a black-on-red silhouette of Mega Man solemnly putting a Gemini Laser right between Needle Man's eyes. At his request.
  Needle Man: I freaked out over the needles... so of course, you use the piercing laser.
  Mega Man: I'm sorry. This isn't what I wanted.
  Needle Man: It's never about what we want. We're just tools, kid. So do your job. Take the shot.
• The scene in Issue 44 where Spark Man — the last surviving Robot Master of the MM3 line in this continuity — breaks down in tears over his fallen brothers is just downright heartwrenching. Even worse is how it leads to the vengeful Spark Man confronting Mega Man over him defeating them — by this point, he's reduced to screaming at him hysterically and attacking in a blind rage, even threatening to murder Roll as well as Rock out of sheer grief-induced madness, on the basis that if he must be alone, then so will Doctor Light.
  Spark Man: You think that excuses anything?! I'm already losing eight of my brothers to the plan. That can't be helped — we were built to serve! But the others — my line of Robot Masters... THAT'S ALL ON YOU!
  • And then when Mega Man does put him down, Spark Man tearfully apologises and assures his opponent that he never would have hurt Roll, stating that "no one should ever have to lose their siblings". And although Mega Man had every reason to still be angry with him, he stays with and comforts Spark Man as he dies.
• If not for the crossover with Sonic, Archie would have canceled the Mega Man comic due to low sales.
• When Mega Man mentions that Wily was killed by falling debris after the fight with Gamma, Light looks absolutely devastated. Even after Wily attempted to conquer the world at least four times, tried to kill both his remaining children after already taking one of them, and even destroyed his home and laboratory purely out of spite, Light was still deeply saddened by Wily's apparent death. It's obvious that before all of this, they were not only coworkers, but great friends...
  • Similarly, Doctor Light's breakdown upon Mega Man returning home and finding out that Wily had betrayed Light and taken Gamma after threatening to murder Roll;
  Mega Man: (embraces Roll) It'll be okay, as long as you two are fine.
  Dr Light: ...I am not fine. I am a fool. A naïve, gullible... FOOL!
  Mega Man: D-Dad?
  Dr Light: I just handed the most powerful piece of machinery in the world to a madman completely devoid of any scruples! (bursts into tears) But what else could I do? I couldn't let him hurt my children! I already lost one to him, I can't lose any more! No! I'll just lose my Robot Masters! And Gamma! And my designs! And my hopes and dreams! AND THE WORLD CAN PAY THE PRICE! (Beat) ...he was my friend. I trusted him. Because there is good in everyone. Isn't there? Am I that deluded..?
• Surprisingly, the Doc Robot. Like in the games, it can use all eight weapons from the Mega Man 2 Robot Masters. However, instead of fighting eight Doc Robots with a weapon each, Mega Man fights just one. With all eight personalities of the 2 Masters. They're clearly angry with Mega Man about being left in this state and want to kill him, but the more they're forced to co-operate and fail as a result of clashing morals and fighting over who gets the honor of doing what, the worse their mental states get. It gets to the point where they nearly fry themselves out of frustration and sheer agony, and the fight ends with Mega Man yet again solemnly performing a Mercy Kill as the eight Robot Masters accept their defeat once again.
  Doc Robot: (glitching through its multiple personalities) Please. Mercy. Please. Rebuild. Stop. IDIOT! Wily.
• After Mega Man saves them, half of the Wily Robot Masters — Quick Man, Crash Man, Metal Man, Heat Man, Needle Man, Magnet Man, Gemini Man, and Top Man — would not be content with a new life, and resent the idea of losing their free will via reprogramming. So, by law, they are decommissioned. Rock and Roll are both in tears at this, and Dr. Light tells them of the harshest lesson:
  Dr. Light: (solemnly, as he embraces them) We can't always save everybody... and not everybody wants to be saved.
• Rock's reaction to Concrete Man and Guts Man casually talking about their inevitable decommissioning is absolutely heart-breaking. Guts Man's attempts to reassure him by telling Rock that he's Doctor Light's son — and is thus liable to remain active for as long as the good doctor lives — only worsens the situation.
  Guts Man: (putting a hand on Rock's shoulder) You don't have to worry about it, tho'. You're Doctor Light's son. That function lasts as long as he does, and then you become his legacy.
  Rock: (knocking Guts's hand away) I'm not worried about me! I'm worried for you and all the Robot Masters! Every life is precious!
  Guts Man: We ain't alive, tho'. We're just "life-like".
  Rock: (on the verge of tears) That doesn't matter to me! I HATED fighting and damaging you!
• Issue 54 proves Blues just cannot catch a break. First, Wily blackmails Blues into kidnapping poor little Kalinka. Then, a visit to Lalinde reveals that Wily was lying all along. Blues' core is fine.
  • Kalinka's situation as well. The little girl is kidnapped by a complete stranger at a playground, and is last seen all on her own, huddled up in a dark room so that Wily can ruin her father's reputation.
• Issue #55:
  • Dr. Light sees the entire timeline of the main Mega Man continuity and laments that his contributions will lead to nothing but constant war, with future generation paying for his mistakes. He brushes this aside, believing that such things are inevitable and that there's nothing to fear as long as there people like Rock are around. The irony is that it is his fault, but not only because of what he built. As the backstories for Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero were fleshed out, it's revealed that many of the problems of those series are the result of Dr. Wily's inventions being misused. If Dr. Light hadn't stood up for Wily after the Ra-Moon incident, that would've been it. Wily would've been imprisoned, with no secret Robot Masters to bail him out. No Bass, no Roboenza, no Zero. Even Xander Payne, who would eventually imprison and bankroll Wily as Mr. X following the events of Mega Man 3 might've let him rot. Dr. Light doomed the world, not because of his genius, but because of his compassion.
  • Though, to be fair, he isn't entirely wrong. Even if Wily going to jail would have been the end of it, there's no guarantee that the events that followed wouldn't have happened anyway, as Wily could have possibly made more contingency plans in the events of his capture. Or not to mention, that it's possible that some people might be inspired by Wily to their own hand at world domination. And it's entirely possible that problems that occur in the X and Zero series would have occurred anyway but just from a different source. So in the end, even if Light didn't stick up for Wily, the world was doomed the moment Wily showed how even the most peaceful of technology can be misused.
  • The Short Circuit of in which Mega Man characters from virtually all media (including the Ruby-Spears cartoon, Mega Man from Captain N: The Game Master and the bad box designs from Street Fighter x Tekken, European version, 9 and 10) and games (save Battle Network) join in on giving the comic a send off via singing Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again. It's very sweet as it is silly.