I am a grand overthinker, which probably contributes to my insomnia--but I digress. We've already seen Dreamwave's 4-issue "series", Mr. Shin's excellent summaries of NAdM, and heard those rumours about a cancelled Marvel series based on Ruby-Spears MM. (It either never existed or was vaporware. I believe Mandi's already taken that rumour down)
I recently relocated my Archie Sonic comics so that I could actually read 'em (a flimsy pile on the corner of a cluttered desk set against the wall? Not terribly conductive to anything), and seeing how there's been no "real" MM comic series (NAdM is interesting, yes, but ye gods...THE PLOT) and that only the .EXE manga was brought to the U.S...you can see where this is going, don't you?
An Archie adaptation of Megaman could go one of several ways:
1.) A straight adaptation of the games--like Ikehara, only super-condensed.
2.) A more...interesting take on Megaman, like what they did with Sonic the Hedgehog.
3.) A continuation of Ruby-Spears Megaman, hopefully utilizing some or all of the points established therein (don't look at me like that).
HOWEVER--as much as I'd like to theorize, I have one major beef with Archie: they're way, WAY too kiddie-oriented. The thing is, I can't name a single mature Archie production. "Mature" meaning "competence in both storytelling and character execution". "Kiddie-oriented" meaning "desperately trying to appeal to the 'tween' audience without realizing that some of 'em have brains".
Look at the rampant character and story derailment present in their Sonic series. Now compound that with Capcom's glorious canon track record, and you've got a horrific mess of a comic that couldn't find its own ass with both hands and a road map. Now, I'm not saying that it would be inevitable, because I do have SOME faith in Archie (I like their Sonic X). But, I've sat through enough Sally the [sonic slicer] and two-second "epic battles" to know that the chances of their MM being good aren't that great.
But stepping away from the Archie bashing...Let's talk about Option 2. The tone and settings of the comic, plus how much the characters look like themselves, all depends on when it was made. 1997 onward, it'd be pretty in-line with the games (and probably with the acid trip settings of MM8). By then, the tone of Classic MM had been firmly established.
1987-1996 is a different story. Archie could have taken far more liberties with MM then, since everyone else short of Capcom of Japan did anyway. I keep imagining elements that children of that era who weren't total shut-ins (like me) would find intimidating and challenging, like junkyards with huge "KEEP OUT" signs (Surely I won't wake up to find half of me in a Doberman's mouth!). Unfortunately, that time period leaves the project vulnerable to massive amounts of TOTALLY RADICAL. Remember the 90s? Remember those brightly-colored posters featuring kids who could easily be the disciples of Flava Flav? Now superimpose Megaman in there. Not so pretty, huh? In mild doses, TR could simply be cheesy and a fond reminder of the 90s. Heavy doses, you get the poor man's Wayne's World. With robots.
I could elaborate on Option 3, but it's getting late and I don't want my computer licensed revoked AGAIN. Anyone care to discuss?