Metroid Manga fan translation

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Metroid Manga - Read Metroid manga scans online.

Well, I don't think this got a stateside release, but its said to be canon (though I can't really see how).. So if you want to understand the origins of Samus, why she has a mad-on for space pirates and the origins of Mother Brain, at least that's there.

Way too many liberties taken with Zero Mission there for me to take it seriously beyond he origin element, though.

Real abbreviated version:

Space Pirates destroyed Samus' home and killed her parents.
Ridley is the real leader of the Space pirates
Chozo arrived after the incident, saw Samus and took her in.
To survive the harsh homeworld of Zebes, the Chozo infused Samus with their DNA.
This gave her tremendous athletic ability.
The Chozo also created her Power Suit, Mother Brain and the Metroid.
The Metroid was intended as a weapon against the X parasite, which could consume other beings, mimic them and spread like a virus.
Just after returning with a sample Metroid from the hive they created on SR388, Space Pirates attacked Zebes, killing the remaining Chozo there.
Mother Brain, being a sentient program, became jealous of Samus and the Metroid since they considered them their "children" and not her.
Mother Brain colluded with the space pirates to strike against the Chozo.
And then Samus, genocidal bitch that she is, came in and killed them all for killing her adopted race.

That's the real version, but that's not what the comic here is going to say. Canon-shmanon.

They didn't seem to remember Samus is like 6'3", either, I guess she makes people uncomfortable for that so the manga had to go and make her more petite.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Oh lord. I'm gonna have to wade through this when I have more time on my hands just to see the train wreck.
The version you laid out sounds accurate, although it's been a while since I brushed up on my metroid lore.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

They do pull in guys like Adam Malkovich to make it feel a bit more convincing, but then there's this whole scene with a surviving chozo revealed to in cahoots with the pirates and mother brain. Then they just randomly throw in that Samus has post-traumatic stress disorder, so when she sees Ridley her power suit winks out and he wipes the floor with her.

Riiiight.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Sounds like a load of bullshit to me. I really don't buy in to the new image of Samus they've been crafting. Samus is supposed to be a B.A.M.F. in a powersuit who just happens to be female. Zero suit and everything around that era just kinda messes with it and it sounds like this manga will continue to redefine the character in a way I find unappealing and totally unconvincing.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Well, its just some fans are claiming it as canon.

Nintendo never commits to comments about canon anyway.

The Zero Suit I don't mind, its not like its a prominent feature in the games, just Smash Bros.

This seems to actually get better around chapter 13 and 14. Seems the part I was complaining about was one of those too-Japanese "let's put teenagers in police training in her mid-teens, so she wasn't fully grown yet.

Damn needless exposition, I tell ya..

[Armando]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Way too many liberties taken with Zero Mission there for me to take it seriously beyond he origin element, though.

Narrative was almost as sparse in Zero Mission as it was in Metroid 1, so...

Then they just randomly throw in that Samus has post-traumatic stress disorder

I think a 3-year-old witnessing a massacre would have mental problems, yes.

so when she sees Ridley her power suit winks out and he wipes the floor with her.

Her Power Suit IS mentally linked to her. It's why they couldn't remove it from her in Fusion when she was unconscious, and likely the origin of her Crystal Flash move in Super Metroid (during which her power suit briefly disappears) and her Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash in SSB Brawl (in which she recalls her dismantled suit back.)

And Ridley is hard to kill in pretty much any Metroid game I've played. Arguably harder than Mother Brain. I wouldn't be surprised if she would have lost at that age and lacking all the goodies you get to use against him in Super Metroid.

They didn't seem to remember Samus is like 6'3", either, I guess she makes people uncomfortable for that so the manga had to go and make her more petite.

We've been over this in the Other M thread. The source of that height quotation is the Metroid II manual and it's given in her Power Suit specs. She wouldn't be 6'3" without it. She's also only 14 in the manga if she was 3 at the time of the massacre and the time skip was 11 years long.

I really don't buy in to the new image of Samus they've been crafting. Samus is supposed to be a B.A.M.F. in a powersuit who just happens to be female. Zero suit and everything around that era just kinda messes with it and it sounds like this manga will continue to redefine the character in a way I find unappealing and totally unconvincing.

This manga is old as heck, probably predates Prime and Fusion slightly. The Zero Suit is less revealing than what she used to wear under the power suit; a Bikini in Metroids 1-2 and a Tifa-like blue latex tank top and hot pants in Super Metroid. Also what's a BAMF?

Granted this may not be canon after all, but I haven't seen any major contradictions to the little bits they feed you in Metroid 1-4. I haven't played Prime 2 and 3 so there may be something there, but eh. Prime 1 didn't really touch her backstory much.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Bad Ass Mother Fucker.

Been reading the manga for the last few hours and enjoying it. It actually hits fairly close to what's been established in the games, although they managed to kind of sidestep the whole issue of the Chozo dying out. They were rescuing them from Zebes except now they don't show up? Maybe I skipped a page or something.

I don't remember Metroids being built specifically to combat X, I thought they were just X's natural predators?
It's been too long since I played through those old games.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Narrative was almost as sparse in Zero Mission as it was in Metroid 1, so...

It was sparse in I am Legend. Guy only had his dog and mannequins to talk to for the first hour of the movie. You don't need movies to be extremely talkative for them to be interesting and I've read comics just as silent in narrative.

I think a 3-year-old witnessing a massacre would have mental problems, yes.

As zen as the Chozo are, I would think she had come to terms under their guidance. Particularly in the manga, since seeing the pirates try to kill a little girl for being too short set Samus to break orders, there was just a flash of the incident and she acted. I thought that it was more of a sign that she had already dealt with it, considering disobeying orders was just in her nature.

And Ridley was hardest in Prime. Seems it took the X to do him in for good.

It was like Val Kilmer Batman still not over the death of his parents out of the blue in Batman Forever. Samus and Batman are obsessed with their mission, but they've come to terms with the source of it and its the injustice of that which fuels them.

So a random case of PTSD just doesn't mesh well with Samus. Mental illnesses don't just appear on the spot like that. It does in movies and other entertainment, but that's pop psychology for you.

Also, in the remainder of the manga, she looks pretty damn tall, so I think they are going with the 6'3" at that point.

At any rate, I don't see them sourcing any of this for Metroid Other M, which has a JP teaser site up now. It does seem to be going in a different direction than the other games, but its still a prequel. Samus really needs to stop getting gridlocked in prequel.

Semi related:

kinda NSFWl

I hate how they can make Metroids look cute.

[Armando]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

It was sparse in I am Legend. Guy only had his dog and mannequins to talk to for the first hour of the movie. You don't need movies to be extremely talkative for them to be interesting and I've read comics just as silent in narrative.

Not the point. Zero Mission lets you in on so little that I'm finding it hard to see where you find that the manga takes too many liberties regarding Zero Mission.

Not exactly sure what point you were trying to drive home anyways, since unlike Link, Samus can actually work as a character that speaks or at least has internal monologues. Sure, you COULD make a silent Metroid comic but it'd be much easier to show her origin and early personality if she talks.

As zen as the Chozo are, I would think she had come to terms under their guidance. Particularly in the manga, since seeing the pirates try to kill a little girl for being too short set Samus to break orders, there was just a flash of the incident and she acted. I thought that it was more of a sign that she had already dealt with it, considering disobeying orders was just in her nature.

That's not quite the same as coming face-to-face with Ridley. It's bad enough that Ridley killed her mom directly, he gets bonus terror points for being, well, a gigantic monster. And it's not like she's seen Ridley since. I don't think she disobeyed orders clearly out of habit, otherwise they wouldn't have had to show that she remembered that incident, or that she almost lost herself in rage.

She also may not have told the Chozo what she actually witnessed, since Grey Voice was surprised Ridley knew her.

Also let me just point out again that she's 14. Think about it. She was fidgetty when facing harmless walk-droids in Zebes, you really expect her to stare down Ridley at an age where she should be worrying about acne and boys?

I think you simply need to dissociate what you think Samus SHOULD be with what they want to present.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

I think you simply need to dissociate what you think Samus SHOULD be with what they want to present.

And I don't think that's necessary. We don't let movies get away with such liberties when they're based on books or video games because unlike film and televsion, video games and books are a shared narrative,.. Books ask you to use those words to imagine the characters, their voices and the world around them. Games do it by being interactive, putting you in the character's shoes and Metroid by experiencing the world with no hand-holding.

Of course I'm going to have my own idea who Samus is, I've spent more time in her shoes in the games than I have reading about her elsewhere. I seem her world as a bit more desolate and frightening and her motives a bit more self-centered, though justified.

A manga unfortunately is going to deal with things on the typical anime melodrama level, though on rare occasions like Ghost in the Shell it can rise above that (which is why both are more popular here than in Japan). That's kinda what I was hoping for here since Metroid tends to have a greater western appeal than a Japanese one. My mistake, I guess.

[Armando]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

Of course I'm going to have my own idea who Samus is, I've spent more time in her shoes in the games than I have reading about her elsewhere.

You've spent no time in the shoes of 14-year-old Samus.

A manga unfortunately is going to deal with things on the typical anime melodrama level. Until a game comes out to expand on that (Mother M?), you aren't in a better position to decide what kind of person Samus was before she comes the cold person she is in the games.

So a manga can't have a character suffer from a traumatic childhood experience?

[Ziero]

Re: Metroid Manga fan translation

This manga is old as heck, probably predates Prime and Fusion slightly. The Zero Suit is less revealing than what she used to wear under the power suit; a Bikini in Metroids 1-2 and a Tifa-like blue latex tank top and hot pants in Super Metroid.

I wouldn't really call it a bikini in Metroid 1 (not really sure about 2), but in one it was a legless unitard more or less.

Also, I'm totally gonna have to check this thing out when I get home. I've always liked Samus, but my lack of nintendo systems over the years have prevented me from playing the majority of her games.