Super Metroid (Nintendo Power comic)

:This article is about the Nintendo Power comic series. For other uses, see Super Metroid (Disambiguation).
Super Metroid was a 5-issue comic adaptation of the Super Metroid video game that ran in the Nintendo Power magazine, written and illustrated by Benimaru Itoh, who also illustrated the Star Fox comic that ran in the same magazine. The comic series was featured in volumes 57 to 61, each volume having a different issue.
==Characters==
*Samus Aran
*Ridley
*Armstrong Houston
*Chairman Keaton
*Chief Hardy
*Space Pirates
*Old Bird
*Mother Brain
*Metroid hatchling
==Plot==
Samus awakens from a nightmare, introducing herself to the reader and narrating the events of Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus. Revealing that she had returned the Metroid hatchling over to the Lab Workers at Ceres Space Colony, she then discovers that it has been attacked. She flies there in her Starship.
Upon landing, she discovers that the lab is going up in smoke. She encounters Ridley stealing the hatchling and attempts to stop him, but it is soon revealed by Ridley that he has programmed the Main Computer to self destruct. Samus races to the computer to try and stop the countdown, but fails, and is given 100 seconds to escape.
Along the way, she encounters Armstrong Houston. Both flee the destruction and are attacked by Zebesian Pirate Ships. After dispatching them, they return to Galactic Federation Headquarters to explain to Chairman Keaton and Chief Hardy what happened. Samus concludes the discussion saying that Hardy and his "clowns" won't find anything, and that she will continue to fight the Space Pirates as long as they are around, because she defeated them before. Houston attempts to go with her, only for Samus to discover why he is coming: he wants to collect the bounty.
As she approaches Zebes, she is called by Keaton once again, who tells her that the Pirates are indeed back on the planet. She is angered by the fact, saying that they could have stopped the destruction of Ceres. After finding out she is being stalked by Houston, she lands in Crateria, and discovers that the area is in ruin. As she progresses on, she is attacked by several pirates and fights them. Houston throws her an Energy Capsule, which super-powers her suit and destroys the pirates attacking. Samus then notices him collecting Pirate claws.
Samus states that she understands if Houston left. They are then attacked by several Skrees, which are soon dispatched by Samus. Not concentrating, she runs straight into a Pirate trap - a spear rips right through her shoulder pad. She initially refuses help from Houston, though he states that he knows how to work a trap and pulls the spear out of her suit. They return to their ships, where Samus tells him to go to the Nest rather than Federation headquarters.
They arrive, and meet an elderly Old Bird, who tells Houston that he is a Chozo, and that they created Samus' Power Suit. Meanwhile, Ridley invades Federation Headquarters and captures Hardy and Keaton, taking them back to Tourian. Back on the unknown planet, Old Bird explains Samus' past to Houston while she heals, as well as how her suit works and suggests that she was not concentrating on her mission at the time she was caught in the trap.
Meanwhile, Mother Brain awakens and attempts to convince the grown hatchling (in a failed manner) that she is its mother. Ridley tells her about a plan he has, revealing that he has captured Hardy and Keaton. She orders him to put the plan to work at once.
Meanwhile, Samus senses that they have both been captured and pleads with Old Bird to let her use the healing power of the Power Bombs. He refuses, though she continues to plead, until he finally agrees. They go out into a field and let Samus perform the technique.
Old Bird then warns her to concentrate on her surroundings and not get distracted by thoughts of the hatchling. Back on Zebes, Ridley is seen speaking to the Pirates. He learns that Samus has fallen for the trap and is on her way into Tourian. He then states that Hardy and Keaton will have the privilege of witnessing Samus' complete destruction. Keaton then devises a plan to escape using one of Hardy's sandwiches. Holding it out to a Pirate, he allows it to be taken, and their containment is destroyed. Keaton then remarks that "the Mother Brain must not feed her family very well, for him to be so desperate for one of your sandwiches." The intruder alarm is then heard, signaling Samus' arrival.
Ridley, having sensed that Samus' power has increased, decides to make a tactical retreat, and flees. Samus reaches Mother Brain and seemingly destroys her. Meanwhile, Hardy and Keaton find the hatchling and, mistaking it for a clone Metroid, shoots at it. Mother Brain's body then forms and the fight ensues. Hardy and Keaton find Houston and then see Samus fighting Mother Brain. Samus overhears them and discovers the hatchling. As she mourns its death, she suspects that Mother Brain killed it, and, avenging the hatchling, defeats Mother Brain. They successfully escape Zebes, the comic concluding with Houston attempting to become Samus' partner.
==Inconsistencies with the game==
The comic is highly inconsistent with the game. Below are all examples of different elements.
*Houston, Old Bird, Hardy and Keaton are completely absent in the game.
*Samus never visits the Nest or Federation Bureau Headquarters in the game.
*Samus' hair is violet in the comic, while it is blond in-game.
*Samus has 100 seconds in the comic to escape Ceres; in-game, she has one minute.
*Energy Capsules float in the air and cannot be thrown in-game.
*Spikes never rise out of the ground in the game, and therefore Samus’ shoulder injury is comic-exclusive.
*Samus does not wear a blue jumpsuit under her suit in-game; instead, she wears a black sports bra, thong, bracelets and boots.
*The comic makes no mention of Kraid, Phantoon and Draygon, other Pirate leaders Samus had to vanquish to access Tourian, so how she accesses Tourian in the comic is unknown.
*In the comic, Ridley survives to the point of Samus' arrival in Tourian and makes a tactical retreat; in the canonical game, he directly confronts Samus, and as a result is killed and dismembered in his lair.
*The hatchling is killed by Mother Brain's own attacks in the game, not a gunshot from Hardy, although Samus does still hold Mother Brain responsible in the comic.
==Trivia==
*Nintendo Power Issue #58 states that what they came up with for Samus's appearance in this comic (because there was little to base it off of in-game) was "something between Princess Leia and Ripley from the Alien series."
*Every original character except Armstrong Houston reappeared in the two-volume Magazine Z manga, which was both a prequel to and a partial adaptation of Metroid: Zero Mission.
*The comic is notable for being the first instance in any media to mention Samus Aran's origin on the Earth colony K-2L, which would later be alluded to in the Super Smash Bros. series and some later Metroid titles, as well as revisited in the Magazine Z manga. In this depiction, the Space Pirates raided the nearby colony after conquering Zebes (with it never being indicated that Ridley had any involvement in the raid), and Old Bird found her as an orphan. Samus was given Chozo DNA to augment her abilities, taught battle strategies, and given the Power Suit so that her exterior would be tough like a Chozo's skin to become the protector of the galaxy.
==External Links==
*High Quality Metroid Database Scan
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Category:Comics
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