Metroid (Magazine Z manga)

:"Metroid Manga" and "Metroid (manga)" redirect here. For other uses, see Manga (Disambiguation).
Metroid is the name of a two part origin manga series that takes place from Samus Aran's childhood up to the story of Metroid: Zero Mission.
Written by Koji Tazawa and illustrated by Kenji Ishikawa, the series was first printed in Magazine Z and later adapted into Metroid: Volume 1 (7 chapters, published November 21, 2003), Metroid: Volume 2 (9 chapters, published May 21, 2004), and an E-Manga remake of the first two chapters with color, sound, and animation. This was hosted on the Kodansha website, with a link to it on the Metroid Official Site. While never officially released overseas, the manga has been unofficially translated by the Metroid Database.
The manga elaborates on Samus's past before she became a Bounty Hunter and describes a few events in Metroid: Zero Mission. The story re-introduces many characters from the Super Metroid comic in Nintendo Power, and expands on elements leading to the (at the time) last game in the canon, Metroid Fusion. Major plot elements from the manga would later become relevant in Metroid: Other M.
== Plot ==
=== Chapter 1: Invasion (January 2003) ===
thumb|K-2L, the colony where Samus spent her early childhood.
The manga opens with Samus completing a mission as a bounty hunter, after which she goes home, where she reflects on her job and says that both her in and out of the suit are different versions of herself. As she drifts off to sleep in bed, she starts thinking about the past. The Galactic Federation colony K-2L is introduced next, where the energy-rich mineral Afloratite is mined. A three-year old Samus is shown to live on this colony, along with her parents Rodney and Virginia. Two Chozo named Old Bird and Gray Voice visit the colony to borrow some Afloratite for free, which they secretly intend to use for the development of the Metroids, but this causes a row. Samus then runs into Old Bird on accident and he helps her to catch a creature, which she names Pyonchi. Afterwards, the Chozo leave K-2L empty-handed and the Zebesian Space Pirates led by Ridley notice K-2L after tracking the Chozo. They proceed to attack the colony to obtain Afloratite. Ridley lands near Samus, who tries to befriend him, but he kills Virginia instead. Meanwhile, Rodney fights off the Space Pirates with a welding laser inside one of K-2L’s main buildings. Rodney detonates the entire building by igniting the Afloratite, also severely wounding Ridley in the process. After the attack ends, Old Bird and Gray Voice return to K-2L and encounter Samus, the colony’s only survivor.
=== Chapter 2: Destiny (February 2003) ===
Samus and Pyonchi are taken to the Chozo’s home world of Zebes after they discovered them on K-2L and decide to keep them there, as there was no-one else left to care for Samus. Samus is introduced to Mother Brain and infused with Chozo DNA to allow her to survive in the harsh environment of Zebes. Eleven years pass and Samus is shown training under Old Bird and Gray Voice. The latter notes that she doesn’t invest her emotions in her training and that she needs to be the best warrior she can be so she can become a protector of the galaxy like the Chozo. Samus runs away after Gray Voice’s speech and sees some pretty Iono Feria after sitting on a cliff-top. Old Bird then approaches her and comforts her, after which he leaves and Samus discovers many more Iono Feria nearby gathering around flowers. The Chozo and Mother Brain meanwhile discuss the progress of the Metroids’ cultivation, which has been progressing slowly. After the meeting, Samus brings back some of the flowers and Gray Voice recognizes them as off-world Badger Clovers. He proceeds to burn down the flower field, as the flowers are poisonous, and they discover Pirate bodies from a previous attack on Zebes underneath. The Iono Feria then attack Gray Voice and Samus with weapons they had absorbed from the Pirate bodies, and Samus manages to save Gray Voice from the onslaught. She separates the weapons from the butterflies, sparing them, but Mother Brain burns them all down per earlier orders from Gray Voice. Out of rage, she destroys the robots used to burn the Iono Feria. Due to this, Old Bird realizes that the Chozo cannot build Samus’s heart for her, and so tells her she needs to become independent to build it on her own so she can become the true proctor of the galaxy.
=== Chapter 3: First Battle (March 2003) ===
This chapter opens with a meeting of the Galactic Federation High Council on the planet Daiban. The congressmen discuss the growing threat of the Space Pirates, who have taken over two hundred countries on various planets. Chairman Vogl pleads to expand the military capabilities of the Galactic Federation, but he is rebuffed by Keaton who does not want to involve the common man in a war against the Space Pirates. After the meeting, he discusses the Space Pirate threat with Old Bird and Gray Voice. Afterwards, they check on the progress of the Metroids’ development, seeing this as their final service towards peace in the galaxy. Meanwhile, on the planet Jigrad, Samus and two of her colleagues in the Galactic Federation Police, Kreatz and Mauk, survey one of the locations taken over by the Space Pirates. They see the Pirates are using slave labor to build a gaudy building and abusing their workers. After one of the Pirates threatens to kill a young girl named Damara for being too short to work, Samus springs into action and starts fighting the Pirates. Mauk and Kreatz join in, defeating the Pirates. Samus then is on the verge of killing one that landed near her, but is stopped by the crying of Damara. This outburst brings Samus back to her senses and makes her arrest the Pirate instead. In the aftermath, Kreatz, Mauk, and Samus’s commanding officer, Chief Hardy, scolds them for disobeying their orders (which were to just collect reconnaissance). Samus also takes a few moments to bond with Damara, thanking her for making her stop her attempt on the Space Pirate’s life. Meanwhile, general Adam Malkovich of the Galactic Federation Army arrives, commenting that his battleship had gone to waste due to Samus’s actions.
=== Chapter 4: Threat (April 2003) ===
A week has passed and Jigrad has been placed under the rule of the Federation Police. Samus, Kreatz and Mauk are brought in by Hardy and Adam to start questioning the Space Pirate they had captured a week prior. As they are about to enter the tower where the Pirate is held, a broadcast to the whole Galactic Federation starts. In it, Chairman Vogl declares the victory on Jigrad historic and claims that it proves the Pirates can be beaten. As the broadcast ends, it is shown that the Chozo of Zebes also have been watching from Tourian. All the Chozo from Zebes who had traveled across the universe had gathered on Zebes once more, at the behest of Old Bird. He explains that even as the Chozo are dying out, they have failed to bring peace to the galaxy and that the Federation might be their last hope to attain it. Old Bird also explains that he discovered an evil greater than the Space Pirates on the unnamed planet SR388, in the form of a "specific parasite”. He shows a recording of the planet, which shows one of the parasites devouring a Hornoad and replicating it in a more monstrous form. Old Bird explains that with the use of these parasites, which he dubbed X, that the Federation could easily be used to overthrow the galaxy. He also denies the suggestion of the Chozo Platinum Chest to inform the Federation, as knowledge of X’s existence might allow evildoers to infiltrate the Federation. After this, Gray Voice enters the room with an infant Metroid, a new life-form which Old Bird and Mother Brain had bio-engineered to combat the X. As Old Bird finishes his speech, alarms go off because a large object approaches Zebes’s planetary protection shield. It turns out to be the Space Pirate Mother Ship, which is encroaching on the planet.
=== Chapter 5: Crisis (May 2003) ===
The Space Pirate Mother Ship uses a micro black hole to break through Zebes’s defenses, after which Ridley initiates the next phase of his attack. Meanwhile, the interrogation of the Space Pirate prisoner, who is dubbed P-1, begins. Samus asks P-1 what the Pirates’ objective is, but the Pirate instead starts to sow dissent among the interrogators by pointing out that the alien species Kreatz and Mauk belong to have long been oppressed within the Federation in various ways. P-1 also emphasizes how weak the colonists of K2-L were to get under Samus’s skin, until Adam points out the Pirate is avoiding the subject. He asks P-1 again what the Pirates’ objective is, and he answers that Jigrad was merely a distraction. After this, Adam and the others are informed that the Pirates attacked Zebes. Samus then pleads to Hardy to let her go to Zebes, as she was raised there and knows the planet the best. Hardy replies that the Federation Army was already deployed and that it was out of the Police’s jurisdiction now. Samus still sneaks away to go to Zebes because she doesn’t want the Army to torch all of Zebes and kill potential survivors. Adam confronts her and tells her she has 48 hours to get the job done before the Army would foray. Samus then enters the ship and finds Kreatz and Mauk, after which they head to Zebes.
=== Chapter 6: Infiltration (June 2003) ===
Samus, Kreatz, and Mauk arrive on Zebes and find it a charred wasteland. They also discover a Space Pirate corpse with a strange smell that seems to have its energy extracted. Samus then sees Pyonchi and the group is ambushed by Space Pirates, after which Pyonchi leads them into a cave, where the Pirates are attacked and killed by Skrees. Following this, the group discovers a recording left by Old Bird, which explains the attack of the Space Pirates on Zebes and reveals that they made the Metroids "to preserve galactic peace". Mauk wonders if the Pirate corpse they saw earlier had been attacked by a Metroid. The recording also says to pass the Chozo’s wish for endless peace on to their child, Samus, and mentions there are prisoners. The recording then vanishes and with the new information, the team decides to split up. Kreatz, Mauk, and Pyonchi go to find the prisoners, while Samus heads for Tourian to find Mother Brain and break the deadlock on Zebes. Samus leaves Pyonchi with her colleagues and heads for Tourian, while pondering if the Space Pirates knew about the Chozo’s involvement with the mobilization of Federation troops. When she arrives, she finds Tourian crawling with Pirates and is about to fight, until Gray Voice stops her.
=== Chapter 7: Impact (July 2003) ===
In Tourian, Gray Voice and Mother Brain reveal that they have the Space Pirates under their control and order them to leave. Mother Brain then explains the Pirates are a subordinate species that are genetically coded to follow the strongest master, which at this time happens to be Mother Brain. The supercomputer then suggests Samus join the Space Pirates, at which Samus balks. Mother Brain continues by explaining the Chozo were once a great race with a successful civilization, but that old age meant they could no longer reproduce and caused a decline in their civilization. They put their remaining time in helping other races prosper, and so helped found the Galactic Federation. They also created Mother Brain to accelerate the consolidation of the galaxy into one society, which Gray Voice backs up, and claims her title as successor of the Chozo, inheritor of their culture and knowledge. As such, Mother Brain was working on discarding the useless Chozo and gathering youthful partners to bring order to the universe. Meanwhile, Pyonchi leads Kreatz and Mauk to the prisoners, as Kreatz wonders how things are going for Samus because there are only 10 hours left. Back in Tourian, Mother Brain claims she also created Samus’s Power Suit and that Samus was brought to Zebes and given Chozo DNA to convert her into a bio-weapon. Samus vehemently denies that Old Bird ever looked at her like that and shoots Mother Brain’s container in anger, but all her shots bounce off due to a defense system. As this happens, Ridley enters the room and asks if Mother Brain was joking about Samus being the Pirates’ new comrade.
=== Chapter 8: Scar (August 2003) ===
Ridley kicks Samus around and declares that she is worthless for the Space Pirates, causing Samus to suffer a PTSD attack. This causes her to lose her Power Suit, with Ridley recognizing Samus as the girl from K-2L and subsequently gloating that he had to eat human flesh to regenerate himself from the Afloratite explosion. Gray Voice scoffs at this, as he, as one of the Pirates’ leaders, will not overlook Ridley’s behavior. Ridley responds by saying he will only grant respect if Gray Voice actually gets his hand dirty by killing Samus. Meanwhile, Kreatz, Mauk and Pyonchi arrive at Tourian and see Space Pirates infusing their comrades with Chozo DNA. They also spot the imprisoned Chozo, one of whom had helped to bring Mauk’s people into the Federation. They form a plan to rescue the imprisoned Chozo, but then spot Samus and wonder if she got caught. Gray Voice then explains he cannot attack Samus due to a mental guard on all Chozo that makes them incapable of violence, to which Ridley says the Chozo cannot become Pirates. Gray Voice says the Chozo can provide leadership instead and that Samus can still join the Pirates. Ridley then declares the other Chozo useless now that their technology has been stolen and so sarcastically welcomes them to the Space Pirates.
=== Chapter 9: Counterattack (September 2003) ===
Ridley starts by attacking Platinum Chest with his tail, with Gray Voice telling him he can do what he wants. Kreatz and Mauk witness the subsequent slaughter, and call the ship they used to come to Zebes out of standby mode. The ship turns on and Mauk and Kreatz direct it to activate its attack mode and then direct it to Tourian by letting it focus attacks on heat signatures. The ship launches several missiles as a result. Meanwhile, Ridley is on the verge of killing Platinum Chest, but then the missiles hit the pods the Space Pirates were using to infuse their kin with Chozo DNA. This causes the procedure to go south and Ridley to balk in confusion, before he concludes that Samus had taken friends with her. Gray Voice rebuffs him by saying Samus would do no such thing as a lone wolf operative and that she likely planned the explosion ahead of time. He then directs the other Chozo to fix the broken infusion chambers and prepares the Space Pirate troops to mobilize due to the Federation Army’s approach. He leaves that last matter to Ridley, who gladly obeys his command. Ridley leaves and Gray Voice calls Samus pitiful in her PTSD-induced state, before leaving himself. Kreatz and Mauk then reveal themselves and meet Platinum Chest and Samus, the latter of which begs to be killed.
=== Chapter 10: Phoenix I (October 2003) ===
Samus continues to suffer a PTSD attack, to the confusion of Kreatz and Mauk who wonder if something happened between Samus and the Pirates. Platinum Chest explains that her memories of the K-2L massacre, which had been repressed deeply inside her, likely came back. A scene is then shown of Samus’s PTSD, with her as a young girl witnessing Ridley slaughtering both of her parents. The Chozo try to comfort Samus, calling her their child and saying she paid them back well after she was entrusted with their mission. They allow her to cry and release the pain from her heart, for they are her family, which she promptly does.  Meanwhile, Ridley flies over the Zebesian landscape while receiving all kinds of messages from the Space Pirates about them being attacked and things going south. Ridley wonders where Gray Voice is and then hears a message that the prisoners escaped. Kreatz and Mauk are shown fighting the Space Pirates while leading the Chozo to safety to the space port. The Pirates inform Ridley of this, but Kreatz steals one of their communicating devices and tells Ridley false recon about their number per an alarmist strategy. However, the group is led into an ambush in a pass and are attacked from behind. Kreatz and Mauk are at a loss, but Samus jumps into battle and swiftly defeats the attacker behind them. She has snapped out of her PTSD attack and declares that protecting the protectors is her duty.
=== Chapter 11: Phoenix II (November 2003) ===
After repelling the Pirate attack, Samus explains that the group should move through Brinstar because it would soon start raining acid. She also explains that she is back to her senses after Kreatz, annoyed at the lack of explanation, calls her out for it. Samus also apologizes for making Kreatz and Mauk worry, after which the latter two jokingly ask if Samus is really back to her senses because she otherwise would never say sorry. Gray Voice looks on from a distance as this exchange occurs and ruminates that Samus is the only thing that was left of K-2L, a young woman blessed with love. He then channels his power and whisks away in a blinding light to summon his Power Suit, causing Samus’s suit to resonate. Gray Voice proceeds to attack Tourian in his old Power Suit, while Mother Brain and a Space Pirate discuss how to deal with the escaped prisoners. Gray Voice shoots the entrance to Tourian to pieces and explains he betrayed Mother Brain because he did not think his fellow Chozo expendable. He shoots at Mother Brain and manages to pierce her Zebetite-fuelled defenses, but it causes him great pain due to his mental block. Gray Voice explains that he specifically wants to take out Mother Brain, declaring her a defective product of the Chozo. Mother Brain imprisons him by moving walls around him, but Gray Voice breaks out with his weapons, which are so old that they are not in Mother Brain’s database. He continues to attack Mother Brain, saying that the other races of the galaxy and Samus are the Chozo’s successors, not Mother Brain and the Space Pirates. He also claims Mother Brain abhors life and is jealous of Samus, at which Mother Brain balks.
=== Chapter 12: Phoenix III (December 2003) ===
Samus, Kreatz, Mauk, and the Chozo prisoners near a Chozo ship that had been prepared by the Chozo. This leads Samus to ask if Gray Voice had planned to betray the Chozo from the start, which Platinum Chest somewhat confirms, but he also says the Chozo had not counted on being rescued. Samus also realizes she can hear Gray Voice’s thoughts, which Platinum Chest chalks up to the fact that Samus was infused with Gray Voice’s DNA. Upon learning of this fact, Samus tried to go back for Gray Voice, but she is stopped by the others, as she will be needed to defend the unarmed Chozo ship. They also notice the Space Pirate Mother Ship in the sky as they approach the Chozo ship, meaning the Federation Army must be close. Meanwhile, Gray Voice continues to fight and taunt Mother Brain, before Ridley swoops in and attacks, angered at Gray Voice’s betrayal. A fight commences between Ridley and Gray Voice, the latter taunting the former by calling him a beast that does nothing but steal from others. Ridley rebuffs him by saying Gray Voice is a beast himself, a bird that cannot fly, and piercing the Chozo with his tail. Meanwhile, the Chozo ship flies into Zebes’s skies and is chased by several Space Pirate vessels. They can barely escape their pursuers, while Gray Voice stumbles into the open air of Crateria near a Chozo Statue. Ridley follows him and Gray Voice fires one last blast at the Space Pirate vessels in the sky, ensuring the Chozo ship can escape. He then dies at the Chozo Statue, asking Samus to fight for everlasting peace as his final request, as Ridley fires a blast from his mouth causing the surrounding rocks to collapse. The Chozo ship then leaves Zebes’s orbit, but cannot warp and the Pirate Mother Ship is in its path. Just then, a fleet led by Adam’s Special Ops Battleship VIXIV IV warps in and starts attacking the Space Pirate Mother Ship. As this happens, Platinum Chest says Samus has done good work, but Samus thinks the sacrifices that were paid were too great and vows to continue the fight as much as she can for Gray Voice’s sake.
=== Chapter 13: Hunter (January 2004) ===
This chapter opens a few years after the last one, explaining that the Space Pirates grew in number after the mission to Zebes and they have waged war against the Federation ever since. A grown Mauk is shown investigating a space station after receiving a distress signal, only finding zombie-like corpses of the people who lived on the station with a peculiar smell, without a single Pirate corpse being present. Meanwhile, at the Galactic Federation Hall on Daiban, Keaton, soon to become the new Chairman of the Federation High Council, discusses three recent Space Pirate attacks with Adam. Keaton thinks Mother Brain is sending them a message with those attacks and concludes the Federation needs to be strengthened. People head to the coming public celebration, with a disguised Samus meeting Damara and some other children about to enter the Federation Academy. She tells Damara to keep her chin up and then goes on her way. The celebration commences afterwards, with Vogl handing over the chairmanship to Keaton, and Keaton receiving some flowers from Damara as thanks for being accepted into the academy. As this happens, Samus quickly maneuvers through the crowds and heads for Keaton, defeating the Federation Soldiers guarding him in the process. She then tells Adam to throw her the flowers, after which they morph into a Space Pirate creature part of a special unit meant to assassinate Keaton. Samus then activates her Power Suit, standing in front of Damara as she does so, and kills the Space Pirate.  She then ruminates to herself that in the years since Pirate activity increased, she had become a bounty hunter.
=== Chapter 14: Trust (February 2004) ===
Mauk and his crew are flying through space, having found Ridley and the Space Pirate Army, being led by a new Mother Ship. The Space Pirates spot them, but let them be, because Ridley is after much larger prey: Adam Malkovich, who destroyed the previous Space Pirate Mother Ship. He also has a new trump card, Metroids cloned from a sample they stole from SR388. Meanwhile, Keaton brings Samus into the Federation Hall and asks Chief Hardy to brief her. He explains that a survey team discovered ravenous creatures on the uncharted planet SR388 that had killed 80% of the planet’s animals. This team was killed by these creatures as well, which Samus immediately recognizes as the Metroids created by the Chozo. She explains what she learned on Zebes about the Metroids to Keaton, Adam, and Hardy, from which Keaton concludes that Mother Brain knew where the Metroids were. He also explains that a second team was sent to SR388 later to capture the Metroids, but they were attacked and killed by Space Pirates. The Pirates escaped, having stolen a Metroid, and now threatened the whole Federation. Keaton also explains that Mother Brain survived the attack of the Federation Army because she was protected by Zebes’s environment and had transformed the planet into a fortress. Vogl had been forced to search for a diplomatic resolution, but this only allowed the Pirates to become more active. Meanwhile, a  student is bullied at the Federation Academy by his senior peers for being an out-planet hick from Jigrad. Damara tries to stand up to them, but receives verbal abuse herself for being weak and a top-student, but Pyonchi tackles the student. He was there at the time because Samus, Keaton, and Adam are headed for a military research lab. Inside, Samus is given Missile and Bomb data by Adam, after which Adam smirks and tells her to remember she is not only a warrior, but also a lady outside of that. She angrily rebuffs him by saying that after she was forced to flee from Zebes, she decided to be a warrior. Keaton then says to be careful on her mission to Zebes. Samus says in response she accepted the job because she knows Zebes well and that with her, a free agent, taking on this “Zero Mission”, the problem will fly under the Federation’s radar and not become bigger. She then leaves the research lab and sees Damara playing with Pyonchi, before heading off for her mission.
=== Chapter 15: Tooth and Nail (March 2004) ===
At the Federation Academy, a lecture is held about the ongoing status of the Space Pirate conflict, where it is explained that the Police has failed to re-establish order on many of the afflicted planets and that the government had started to hire bounty hunters to help maintain order. The guy who bullied Damara says in response that he is in for war and that the history of civilization is that of war, blood, and sacrifice. Damara rebuffs him by saying that not all things are initially built for war like planes, but he responds by saying those were built out of greed instead. Meanwhile, Mother Brain ruminates on her plans with Ridley, communicating remotely. The plan is for the Pirates to fight the Federation into submission, after which she will let both the Pirates and Federation races be reborn as “true intellectual beings” with Mother Brain at the top.  Samus then arrives on Zebes and immediately starts fighting its local wildlife, which Mother Brain has gained control over. She fights off several Skrees, but has trouble against the Charge Beam Beast and Kiru Giru imago. In the end, she tricks the Kiru Giru into killing the Charge Beam Beast and then kills the Kiru Giru. Mother Brain summons Kraid, Ridley’s comrade, and he proves to be too much initially, as Samus is crushed by him. Samus managed to stun him from below using Bombs however, killing him afterwards by shooting Missiles into his mouth. While all this fighting is going on, Mother Brain has discussions with Samus via a mobile camera, but Samus rebuffs her plans at every turn, saying that the people of the galaxy can be better and struggle for a better future. After Kraid’s defeat, Samus stumbles away and collapses in exhaustion however, and collapses as a silhouette looks over.
=== Chapter 16: The Successors (May 2004) ===
Samus awakes and stands up, seeing the figure of Gray Voice before her. He says that he does not want Samus to make the same mistakes he made, to which Samus apologizes and wonders if she had truly been acting like the successor of the Chozo, though she still wants to protect those she holds dear. Meanwhile, Adam’s fleet is shown engaging the Space Pirate Army in  battle, though Ridley and his Mother Ship retreat to Zebes to fight Samus. Adam realizes this as Ridley leaves, and says he will not let Samus die, as she must return alive; as a lady she should never forget the people waiting for her. On the planet Jamoru, Mauk is shown engaging the Space Pirates in battle. After a while, Kreatz comes to his aid, the two fighting the Pirates together and discussing Samus’s mission on Zebes as they do so. On Daiban, Keaton tells Damara to come inside because of the ongoing red alert, though Damara wants to wait for the people fighting out there for them. Keaton ensures her that he will call her when Samus comes back however. Back on Zebes, Samus tells Gray Voice the things she did while gone and asks if she was mistaken about being strong. Gray Voice comments that Samus has grown taller and passes on the Varia Suit to her after activating the Item Sphere of a nearby Chozo Statue. Samus claims the suit and Gray Voice fades away, revealing himself to be nothing but an apparition. Ridley then ambushes Samus and a battle commences, as Ridley vows to erase Samus from the world due to being his nightmare. Samus declares him the nightmare of the galaxy and manages to defeat him after using the Wave Beam and Ice Beam. Ridley is defeated at last, after which Samus enters Tourian and is confronted by the Metroids. She vows to take both them and Mother Brain out for the sake of the people of the galaxy, and the manga ends on Samus running towards Mother Brain, surrounded by Metroids.
==Inconsistencies==
While the content of the manga would be acceptable on its own, there are quite a few inconsistencies between it and the main story of the Metroid games which hurts its standing as a canon source. First, the events that take place in the year 20X5 and lead up to the first Metroid game have some major differences between the manga and the games. In the manga, the Federation sends a survey team to the uncharted planet SR388 to scope it out. The survey team discovers the presence of the Metroids and is subsequently killed. A second team is then sent to capture the Metroids, but is attacked by the Space Pirates, who steal their Metroids and use them as weapons to attack several planets. In response, Chairman Keaton, Chief Hardy, and Adam Malkovich send Samus to Zebes, which is known to be the Space Pirate base, to keep the mission off the books from the wider Federation.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 13. In the games, as specified in various manuals and the introduction of Metroid: Samus Returns, the Federation only sends one team to SR388. This is the survey team that explores the planet and subsequently discovers the Metroids. This team also captures a specimen and is subsequently attacked by the Space Pirates. The Pirates take the Metroid back to base and start cloning it in preparation for an attack on galactic society."On a routine mission of the planet SR388, the crew of a Galactic Federation vessel discovered a new airborne life form and gave it the name “Metroid”. [...] Several Metroid specimens were gathered so that survey vessel crew could take them to Galactic Federation Headquarters for further examination.
As the crew sped towards headquarters, they were ambushed by space pirates from the planet Zebes." -Super Metroid manual."In Cosmic year 20X5, a Galactic Federation exploration vessel discovered an unknown organism on SR388. The hovering creature was a Metroid, an entity that exhibited frightening parasitic, energy-absorbing properties." -Metroid Fusion manual."A Galactic Federation team discovered an unknown life-form on planet SR388. While they were able to successfully obtain a living sample, their research vessel was attacked by Space Pirates during their voyage home." -Introduction of Samus Returns After this, the Federation launches a desperate search for the Space Pirate base, discovers that Zebes is the base and then attacks the planet, but without success. In the manual of Metroid, the search and attack were both performed by the Federation Police"After a frantic and desperate search, the Federation Police finally discovered the pirate stronghold, the Fortress Planet Zebes, and quickly launched a full-scale assault. " -Translated from the Japanese manual of Metroid., and in the manual of Metroid: Zero Mission, the attack is instead performed by the Federation Army."After a frantic and desperate search, the Federation Police finally discovered the space pirate stronghold, the Fortress Planet Zebes, and the Galactic Federation Army quickly launched a full-scale assault." -Translated from the Japanese Metroid: Zero Mission manual. After the attack fails, Samus is sent in by the Federation to stop the Pirates’ operations. In the manga, the Pirates had already performed several attacks with Metroids at that point and the Federation was aware of the location of their base, making the search unnecessary. There is also no attack of the Federation Army in the manga’s final chapters on Zebes. There is an attack several years beforehand in the manga, though this falls outside of the relevant time frame.
The timing of when certain details are learnt about the Metroids’ nature by Samus and the Federation differs between the manga and the games. In the manga, Samus learns of the existence of the Metroids and their artificial, Chozo-made nature during her first mission to Zebes, which takes place shortly after the Space Pirates have taken over the planet and years before her Zero Mission. During that mission, she discovers a recording of Old Bird, where he reveals the existence of the Metroids and that the Chozo made them for peacekeeping purposes.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 6. Later, during the final chapters of the manga and leading up to the manga’s adaptation of the events of Zero Mission, Samus tells this information to Keaton, Hardy, and Adam. In the games, these pieces of information are learnt much later by Samus and the Federation. In the Japanese introduction of Super Metroid, Samus explains that she first learned of the Metroids’ existence during the events of the original game.“It was during that battle [referring to the events of Metroid] on the planet Zebes that I learned of the existence of the Metroids.” -Translation of the Japanese introduction of Super Metroid In the Japanese manual of Super Metroid, it is also explained that Samus and the Federation both discover the Metroids’ artificial nature only after studying the Baby from SR388.“Furthermore, the end of the report heavily suggested the Metroid to be an artificially created life-form primarily for peaceful applications” -Translation of the Japanese Super Metroid manual. This is reiterated in the Japanese manual of Metroid Fusion.“As a result of studying the baby, it was concluded that the outstanding energy-related special qualities of the Metroids would be extraordinarily beneficial to all mankind, and brought to light that they were an artificially created life-form originally intended for some sort of peaceful applications.” -Translation of the Japanese Metroid Fusion manual.
The details of Samus’s time serving in the Galactic Federation is different between the manga and the games.  In the manga, Samus is an officer in the Federation Police, serving with the aliens Kreatz and Mauk under their CO Chief Hardy. In this time, she also has a few interactions with Adam, though not many.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapters 4 and 5. After her first mission to Zebes, Samus decides to become a bounty hunter to carry on the legacy the Chozo had bestowed on her.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 12. In Fusion and Other M, it is instead explained and shown that Samus was a soldier in the Federation Army whose CO was Adam"Adam Malkovich. A general in the Galactic Federation Army. Not only a trusted confidant but also my former superior officer. Yes, there was a time when I was enrolled in the Galactic Federation Army." -Samus in Metroid: Other M and that her colleagues were all human (see for example Anthony Higgs). The Army and Police are considered distinct branches of the Federation in the games in both English"The Galactic Police and Galactic Army struck against this aggression, but the pirates’ attacks were powerful, and it was impossible to catch them all in the vast reaches of space." -Metroid: Zero Mission manual and Japanese, each with their own separate jurisdictions and tasks, and this divide is present in the manga as well.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 4. Samus also has a strong bond with Adam, which stands in contrast to their minimal interaction in the manga. Of note also is that in the manga, Adam never utters his famous phrase “Any objections, Lady?”, which he used to say quite frequently to Samus according to herself in Fusion and Other M. Finally, in the games, Samus instead left the Army and became a bounty hunter due to the death of her close friend Ian Malkovich, whose death she blamed on Adam.Metroid: Other M.
The details of the Space Pirate attack on K-2L differ between the manga and the games. In the manga, Ridley attacks a young Samus and her mother, Virginia Aran, while Samus’s father Rodney Aran fights off Zebesian Space Pirates inside a building. He then detonates the Afloratite stored inside, blowing up the entire compound and wounding Ridley severely. In the aftermath, Old Bird and Gray Voice come to K-2L and discover Samus and Pyonchi wandering around in the open air.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 1. In the games, the events of K-2L are shown in the Japan-exclusive endings of Fusion. These endings depict a woman clutching a young Samus, while a man fights off Ridley and Zebesian Space Pirates in a building of some kind.Japanese Metroid Fusion ending image obtained when completing the game in Normal Mode in over 4 hours. These people, presumably Samus’s parents, act differently than in the manga: for example, Samus’s father never encounters Ridley in the manga. Old Bird’s discovery of Samus in these endings is also different, as he alone finds Samus inside some sort of structure rather than open air.Japanese Metroid Fusion ending obtained when beating the game on Normal Mode between 2 and 4 hours. This scene in particular has more in common with the Super Metroid comic’s depiction of the K-2L attack.Super Metroid (Nintendo Power comic), Chapter 3: Samus' Story.
The events of Metroid: Zero Mission differ between the manga and that game. The last few chapters of the manga adapt this game, and has Samus arriving on Zebes with the Missile and Morph Ball Bomb upgrades beforehand, as they were given to her by Adam.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 14. She then fights several bosses in quick succession after each other: the Charge Beam Beast, Kiru Giru imago, and Kraid. The former two are fought at the same time. After this, Samus discovers an apparition of Gray Voice, which grants her the Varia Suit from a Chozo Statue.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapters 15 and 16. In Zero Mission and Metroid, Samus obtains the Missile and Morph Ball Bomb upgrades on Zebes and the aforementioned bosses are each fought separately, separated by notable amounts of time and each in a different area of Zebes. She also obtains the Varia Suit on her own, as no apparition of Gray Voice ever appears.
Certain aesthetics associated with the Galactic Federation differ between the manga and the games. The uniform worn by Adam throughout the manga is different from a similar uniform he wears in the flashbacks of Metroid: Other M and ending images of Metroid Dread, which is said in concept art to be the formal dress of high-ranking Federation military officials."Clothes of a Federation Military High Official." -Translation of Other M concept art by the Metroid Database. A similar uniform is worn by commander Alex Miles in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, although it is a power suit version. In the manga, the logo of the Galactic Federation is shown as part of the broadcast in chapter 4. This logo is different than the Federation logo introduced in Other M, which was also shown to be the Federation’s logo in the past. This logo is also prominently featured in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, and also has minor appearances in Samus Returns and Dread.
The details about the creation of the Metroids in the manga and the games differ greatly. The concept that the Metroids are artificial in nature was first introduced in Super Metroid’s manual"It is said that Metroids are life forms created by an ancient civilization." -Metroid enemy description from the Super Metroid manual., before being expanded in Fusion where it was said they were made to curb the spread of the X Parasites."While it has come to light in recent years that the Metroids were created by the ancient Chozo civilization, it is not common knowledge that they were created for the purpose of driving out the X parasites." -Metroid Fusion manual. These surface details are consistent with the manga, where the Chozo of Zebes are shown monitoring the progress of the Metroids’ cultivation from the first chapter to the fifth chapter, where the Space Pirates attack. The inconsistency comes from the fact that Chozo in the manga are not shown to live on SR388, while Metroid’s manual states that a civilization existed on the planet in the past."It is suspected that the entire civilization of Planet SR388 was destroyed by some unknown person or thing, and there is a strong possibility that the life-form just discovered was the cause of the planet’s destruction." -Metroid manual. Metroid II: Return of Samus's manual also states an ancient civilization that built the bird-men statues on the planet (鳥人の像 “Statue of Bird-Man”, 鳥人族 being the Japanese term that the word ‘Chozo’ is derived from) and the game’s remake"This is a relic of an ancient civilization. This statue holds the “Item Sphere”." -Metroid II: Return of Samus manual, Samus Returns, shows in Chozo Memories that the Thoha Chozo, who lived on SR388, made the Metroids.Samus Returns, Chozo Memories 1, 4 and 5. Not only does the manga never allude to Chozo living on SR388, in the first chapter it is stated the X are proliferating on the planet alone, meaning at that time there are no Chozo on the planet. The X were also hunted near extinction by the Metroids in the Chozo Memories and this happened around the same time the Thoha civilization perishedSamus Returns, Chozo Memories 6 and 11., so the first chapter can not come after the memories, since the X are still going strong. The Metroids are also in development in the manga’s first chapter, so this is not after the Thoha perish as shown in the Chozo Memories. It is also not possible the Thoha are supposed to settle on SR388 later in the manga, as the Metroids would already be on SR388, while in the Chozo Memories it is shown the Thoha only become aware of the X Parasites and create the Metroids in retaliation after settling on the manga.
The details around Samus’s Chozo DNA infusion differ between the manga and the games, particularly Metroid Dread. In the manga, Samus is infused with Chozo DNA from Gray VoiceMetroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 11. to allow her to live in the harsh conditions of the planet Zebes. Old Bird and Gray Voice are the only ones to oversee this operation.Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 2. Mother Brain also alludes that this was done to turn her into a bioweapon,Metroid (Magazine Z manga), chapter 7. though this is framed as a lie or delusion from her by the manga’s story (Gray Voice in particular calling her out as a “defective product” later on). In Dread, it is shown that Raven Beak and five other Chozo oversaw Samus’s DNA infusion. It is suggested that their purpose for the DNA infusion was to turn Samus into a mighty warrior, with no mention being made about Zebes’s environment."Your Thoha genes must have slowed down the process. They were the only tribe capable of controlling the Metroids. Though you possess their DNA, you are not a Thoha. Your physical prowess suggests that you must also possess Mawkin DNA." -Raven Beak posing as Adam in Metroid Dread.
A last contradiction is Other M stating that Zebesian Pirates being incapable of working intelligently as a sapient species unless led by Mother Brain despite the manga featuring them actively and strategically attacking Galactic Federation-controlled planets long before they met the Chozo's central computer. However, it should be noted that this also contradicted other games that depicted the Zebesian Space Pirates being quite capable of working intelligently as a sentient species even after Mother Brain and Ridley's defeat, such as the Zero Mission post-game. Other species of Space Pirates unrelated to Zebesians, like the pirates from the Pirate Homeworld, are actually smart enough to strategize on their own (such as the High Command in the Prime series), and in some cases they even express disagreement with the decisions made by their superiors.
== References in the games ==
The designs of Old Bird and child Samus that are used in the manga are featured in Japan exclusive endings of Metroid Fusion and a flashback of Metroid: Zero Mission. These designs are introduced in the manga's first chapter, which was released in January 2003, a month before the release of Metroid Fusion in Japan. Of note is that Old Bird and child Samus first appeared in the 1994 Super Metroid comic. The appearances of Old Bird in the Fusion endings seems to be influenced by his depiction from this comic as well, given his purple color scheme (when a pure gray color scheme isn't used) and his lack of a shirt in one ending.Japanese Metroid Fusion ending obtained when completing the game on Normal Mode, under 2 hours with 100% items.
The design of the Galactic Federation Council used in the manga returns in the introduction of Samus Returns. This design features a set of circular tribunes floating around a square platform with a holographic projector in the middle, all floating above a planet. The gesture the man in the middle platform makes in Samus Returns is also similar to the gesture Chairman Vogl makes when addressing the Council in chapter 3 of the manga.
The name of the military flagship piloted by Adam Malkovich in the manga, named the "VIXIV", is reused in the backstory of Metroid: Other M. The designs and full names of the ships differ: in the manga the full name of Adam’s ship is "Federation Army Special Ops Battleship VIXIV IV" and in Other M it is "Flagship of the Galactic Federation Army VIXIV". The name in general is a reference to the video game X, which features a ship of the same name and which was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto."He just suddenly called up [Yoshio] Sakamoto-san, who was the director on the game" -Dylan Cuthbert. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20190210151024/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/dylan-cuthbert-star-fox-game-boy-hacking-feature-interview
Samus having PTSD regarding Ridley, as infamously demonstrated in Chapter 17 of Metroid: Other M, was originally depicted in the Magazine Z manga. Because the manga at the time was not known to the public, it also sparked controversy with the game due to having no known basis for Samus panicking at a foe she defeated multiple times before with little problem.
Although Samus having Chozo DNA itself was alluded to as early as the American manual for Metroid Prime, the opening flashback to her receiving the DNA in Metroid: Other M was derived in part from her pose when being infused with the DNA in the manga as a toddler. The same scene is recreated in a flashback in Metroid Dread.
In Metroid Dread, a fresco in Ferenia illustrates an encounter between Mawkin Chozo Soldiers and Zebesian Space Pirates. The latter are shown alongside a symbol that appears to be the silhouette of a Zebesian Pirate Ship, specifically as depicted in the manga.
Some other concepts that made it into the games that are often attributed to being invented by the manga, such as the Metroids' artificial nature, the attack on K-2L, Samus being raised by Chozo and Samus having Chozo DNA, were not invented by the manga and were alluded to earlier in things like Super Metroid's manual, the 1994 Super Metroid comic, Super Smash Bros. Melee,"This intergalactic bounty hunter's full name is Samus Aran. Clad in a Power Suit made by the Chozo race and infused with their enhanced blood, she cleared the planet Zebes of a Metroid infestation. Samus is an orphan, the sole survivor of a Space Pirate raid that destroyed an Earth colony named K-2L." -Samus Aran Trophy, Super Smash Bros. Melee and the North American manual of Metroid Prime."Deep below the surface of Zebes, the Space Pirates researched Metroids for many years, even as a young girl orphaned by their raid on the neighboring planet K-2L was growing up among the Chozo. Trained as a warrior and infused with Chozo blood, Samus Aran donned a Chozo-made Power Suit and cut a swarth through the Space Pirates' operation" -Manual of the original North American version Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube.
Paul Tozour's Metroid Tactics pitch was intended to feature a story set before Metroid, taking place after Samus leaves the Chozo and first joins the Galactic Federation during their early battles against Space Pirates, which would have chronologically overlapped with the manga's storyline. It is unknown whether Metroid Tactics would have incorporated elements of the manga, or if it would have ignored and retconned the manga's story.
==Gallery==
Metroid ch01 Cover.jpg|Metroid: Volume 1
Metroid ch08 Cover.jpg|Metroid: Volume 2
Metroid v1 00.jpg|Metroid E-manga
Metroid poster from Kodansha.png|Poster from Kodansha.
==External links==
*Scans and translations by Metroid Database
==References==
ru:Metroid (манга 2002 года)
it:Metroid (Manga del 2002)
Category:Manga