As Megaman's 30th birthday is a few days from now, I'd like to talk about one character in the Megaman X series that somewhat intrigued me. Some think he's not an interesting character. Others think he's the patron saint of trying too hard according to The Gamer.com. Here's what I started to think when I first ran into this character.
He's a freaking reference to Bass from Classic Megaman. Both are colored black, have scars and they play almost like. Both can't run with a gun. If you played the rather frustrating Megaman & Bass game, you may be familiar with how to play as Bass. Both characters can shoot at multiple directions while they can't move while firing their weapons. Difference is Axl doesn't double jump. Instead, it's his hover move that makes navigation easier for him.
What was amazing to think was how Axl was introduced as a playable villain in Megaman X7 while Bass was introduced as a new villain Megaman 7 (a game that was released after Megaman X3. both characters are master infiltrators of sorts. Axl may have been created to the Bass X even if Zero was Dr. Wily's final creation and Bass was merely the template. Though take note that there's no official word that Dr. Wily created Axl. Both characters are also immune to Evil Energy for a reason. Bass didn't go berserk and Axl is somewhat immune to the Maverick Virus.
I guess the whole reason why was to make a parallel comparison in some way. The Classic Megaman trio (though unstable as it was) is Megaman, Zero and Bass. Bass started off as a villain in Megaman 7 but ends up as a neutrally aligned character for most of his later appearances. Axl starts off as a playable villain and ends up as a hero after that. Both Protoman and Zero acted as the secondary sidekicks though the latter had stronger plot material. Axl was probably created to create a third counterpart to create the Megaman X version of that trio.
In comparison though, I find Bass a more interesting character than Axl. Bass was written not only as a prototype for Zero but also as Megaman's possibly most dangerous foe and ally at the same time. Axl started off as an anti-villain but ended up teaming up with X and Zero far too easily. I think Axl should have stayed a bit more as a rough on the edges guy rather than have him too easily cooperative in Megaman X8.
Axl was never a villain. It's made perfectly clear that Axl, despite his actions with Red Alert, wanted to be a Maverick Hunter. Red Alert was a vigilante group, hunting down Mavericks just like the Maverick Hunters, just not by law. They only became villains due to the manipulation of Sigma.
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