Webcomic / Two Evil Scientists

1 Following

Two Evil Scientists is a long-running Sprite Comic that has been updated since 2004 and has enjoyed a somewhat more than modest fanfare. Initially starting out on keenspace (now comicgenesis) the comic was moved to smackjeeves where it became one of the longest running comics on the site. The comic takes a somewhat lighthearted idea and makes it work; pitting together the characters from both the Mega Man series and the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Rather than solely focusing on the exploits of the heroes of these series however, the comic, as its title implies, has a heavier focus on the two main villains (Dr. Albert Wily and Dr. Ivo Robotnik) from these series. The author makes use of the many similarities between these series to make for an interesting comic.

Years after Two Evil Scientists was created (not to mention after suffering its Schedule Slip), Capcom, Sega, and Archie Comics would create an official crossover between their flagship franchises with Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide. As far as we know, none of them are aware of TES, but it nonetheless features some striking similarities.

The series has not been updated since January 2011, with no word from the writer.

With Smack Jeeves having closed down on December 31, 2020, the comic’s website has been archived here and here. It also has a PDF here.

Includes examples of:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Ashura is able to run on the air simply by not looking down!
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed, a lot, but Mega Man is a lot more prone to being rude than he is in canon. He's still The Hero, but he's also something of a Snark Knight.
• Affably Evil: The titular duo, as in canon.
  • The Metal Devil also counts, politely walking away when Roll tells him that Sonic and Mega Man are out looking for him. He ALSO greets the duo with a polite hello when they show up.
• Alternate Timeline: With a twist. Two super villains from alternate timelines are competing to make their timelines a reality. Also Quint and the Time Skimmer.
• Answer Cut: A common sight in the comic. As an example, Sonic wonders what effects killing Zero before he met him will have on the timeline. Cut to Sage Harpuia and Ciel announcing to the other Guardians that they're getting married.
• Antagonist Title: Guess who the main villains of the comic are. Hint: they're two evil scientists.
• Anti-Villain: King, during his initial arc. He genuinely wants to make a utopia for robots, his plan just involves world domination.
• Arc Villain: The comic uses this a lot. While Eggman and Dr. Wily are the most prominent and recurring, Two Evil Scientists spends a hefty amount of time using other villains. As some examples...
  • Shadow and Bass are the primary antagonists of Antihero Annoyances and Maria's Emerald.
  • Metal Sonic takes center stage in Rise of the Metal Devil. He eventually retakes the spot after usurping Eggman and Wily again with Copy Robot.
  • Joe and Buzz take over as the main threats of The Renegades.
  • Vile serves as this for the Sonic X arc, while the Commander of the Ark and the Gizoid serve as this for Mega Man's Ark. Quint serves as the Greater-Scope Villain of the arcs.
  • King serves as this for the All the King's Men arc, though Omochao turns out to be the true antagonist. He later reprises the role as the main villain of Love and War, only for the Gizoid to retake the title. Again.
• Art Evolution: A minor example with this comic, which starts the use of new, more smooth speech bubbles.
  • Mega Man also eventually has blue eyes, and Bass gains red eyes.
  • A MUCH more noticeable example is the comic's original incarnation on comicgenesis, which often used more primitive and clunky edits compared to the latter iteration on Smack Jeeves. As for some examples, Roll uses her original outfit as opposed to her Mega Man 8 look, with the same going for Wily, Metal Sonic uses his Neo form, his Fusion Dance with the Yellow Devil is blue over yellow, and Eggman's eyes are generally less emotive.
• Ascended Extra: Downplayed with Blue. He goes from a minor cameo character to a somewhat more important supporting character during the latter half of Gemerl's arc.
• Back from the Dead: Mega Man and Sonic... twice. They both get killed off during the comic's first arc, only to be brought back by a literal plot hole. It happens again after their Heroic Sacrifice in the Rise of the Metal Devil arc.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: The comic's humor is often reliant on lampshading various tropes associated with both franchises, as well as the general plot of the comic. Crosses over with Affectionate Parody and Self-Deprecation.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The titular duo serve as the most prominent and recurring villains of the comic, and from start to finish, are the biggest dangers the hero face. However, post-1500, the two split up... only to be thrown into another partnership with their successors, Eggman Nega and Dr. Weil.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Once Eggman Nega and Weil show up, they more or less render the previous duo to Demoted to Dragon. While they CLAIM to be partners with their respective scientist, it's clear that they're the ones with the actual power.
• Big Bad Wannabe: King. While he serves as the Arc Villain twice, he's upstaged both times, with Omochao being behind his actions the first time, and the Gizoid ultimately giving him a massive My God, What Have I Done? moment.
  • While the titular characters ARE genuine threats, they're just as prone to letting their creations upstage them as they are in canon. Metal Sonic ESPECIALLY makes fools out of them.
• Big Brother Instinct: Bass may technically be Cream's younger brother, but he nonetheless acts like her older sibling.
• Big Damn Heroes: Happens a lot.
  • Proto Man's tendency to be this is lampshaded by Mega Man during the Robot Master Chaos arc, noting that he usually shows up in time to save him. While it looks like it's going to be a subversion, he winds up being sent rocketing by a blast from Napalm Man, crashing straight into Gemini Man and knocking him out.
  • Gets played more straight when Samus helps to rescue Cheese from Red, and when Eddie crushes Joe and Buzz using Big Eddie.
• Big Little Brother: Bass to Cream. While he's generally treated as the older of the two, he was built after she was born.
• Brain Bleach: Dr. Light in the shower.
  • Or the fact that he built a fully functioning artificial penis for Mega Man X before he even finished the designs for his other systems. Did I mention that he keeps it in his pocket? Yeah, there's a reason he's a mad scientist.
• Brick Joke:
  • : During the first arc, Eggman and Wily set their fortress on self-destruct, only for it to fail, and the automated voice telling them to reset the charges next time. When the former tries doing it again during the Final Showdown (or not arc, it turns out he forgot to reset the charges. Again. It comes back again when Miranda tries to self destruct on Mega Man.
  Sonic: Huh. Guess that gag CAN work a third time.
  • Later on, Light informs Wily about X, which leads to the latter lampshading the common plotlines used with the X series in web comics. Light reassures him that X will be little more than a plot device and not an actual character, except within the inevitable time travel storyline. When Sonic's sent flying into the future, and meets Zero face to face...
  Sonic: Oh great. The inevitable time travel storyline.
  • The Big/Auto fusion.
• B-Side Comics: The author, MC Ryan's Mega Girl (on hiatus, or dead) and Chrono Crossover (now ended) feature characters that have at one point appeared in the main comic but use storylines far different from the main comic.
• Came Back Wrong: Bass, likely as a Damaged Soul. It later turns out that this was part of Robot Wily and Egg Robo's Gambit Roulette Earlier King.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Eggman and Wily are Evil Geniuses. And they're proud of the "evil" part.
  Eggman: Then all you have to do is take out the losers while they're still weak from the battle!
  Roll: That seems pretty underhanded!
  Wily: We're evil.
• Cast Calculus: Characters that tend to fit the same roles in both series are always paired together: Mega Man/Sonic, Shadow/Bass, Amy/Roll...
  • Of course, sometimes it's rather hard to pull this off. The closest thing to Rouge is Treble.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The comic initially starts off rather goofy and joke heavy, and while it remains comedic, the plot slowly gets more intense over time.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Nack the Weasel, who continues this behavior in a side story Spin-Off, Chrono Crossover, which has ended.
• Conqueror from the Future: Eggman Nega and Dr. Weil. The two are from Alternate Timelines, and are competing to alter the past to cause events to play out in their favor.
• Continuity Porn: The comic, especially in its later arcs, LOVES referencing plot beats and bringing back previous characters from canonical Sonic and Mega Man games.
• Composite Character: Copy Robot, once he shows up, utilizes Mega Man?'s scarf, and a triangle protursion instead of the actual Mega Man's square one.
• Crossover Punchline: At one point, the president notes how Sonic and Mega Man aren't the only heroes in the world, wondering why only they regularly fight back against Eggman and Wily. Answer Cut to...
  Spider-Man: It's against my contract.
  Wolverine: Union rules.
  Spawn: Court order.
  Superman: I just don't want to.
• Crossover Ship: Crosses over with Crack Ship, but Dr. Wily and Vanilla's relationship winds up becoming one of the most integral plotlines in the comic. A significantly less crack variation ocurs with Buzz and Blue's Beedra.
• A Day in the Limelight: Most characters have at least two storylines devoted to them.
• Deadpan Snarker: While the comic takes place in a World of Snark, there's one character who is the KING of quips. Surprise, it's Sonic.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: You could count the number of characters that have been Killed Off for Real on one hand. More often than not, the characters that die are robots, so they'll just be rebuilt if they get killed.
• Death Is Cheap: Zero's appearence at the start of the comic lampshades his inability to stay dead within the actual franchise. Mega Man and Sonic's deaths are also cheap, with them literally walking through a Plot Hole to return to life.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Ryan frequently invokes and lampshades this when commenting on the comics.
• Double Entendre: While Amy is prepping Roll for her first time in battle, they way she phrases it sounds like she's talking about the first time she got laid. Just for an added joke, Roll's first opponent? Plant Man (vines and all.)
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with with Dr Wily-while he does care for his ex-girlfriend Vanilla and daughter Cream the Rabbit, he cares more about world domination than their lives. This costs him his relationship with both.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The titular scientists once used their robots to save orphans form a burning building. Why? Because they're evil, not heartless!
• Everybody Knew Already: It's difficult for Mega Man to hide his identity from the rest of the cast.
• Evil Costume Switch: Upon returning to being a villain after Comic 1000, Wily changes his costume from his Mega Man 7 outfit to his Mega Man 8 design.
• Evil Duo: The Two Evil Scientists themselves... obviously.
  • More recently, Wily with Eggman Nega and Eggman with Weil. And then there's Metal Sonic and Yellow Devil, Metal Sonic and The Copy Robot, and likely Robot Wily and Egg Robo
• Ex-Big Bad: Well, more so Ex-Arc Villain, but Joe and Buzz go from the primary villains of The Renegades to being more neutral. They even wind up pulling off a Heel–Face Turn!
• Explosive Leash: Eggman has a tendency to install bombs in the heads of his robots to make sure that they don't rebel.
• Faux Affably Evil: Eggman Nega and Dr. Weil. Their politeness is as skin-deep as it is in canon.
• Filler Strips: Never in the main comic, but it has entire other comics devoted to doing that.
  • Before the Out of Continuity comic, a few of the filler series, namely the two Christmas ones, were in the main comic and were later moved there.
• Fusion Dance: Merged forms, consisting of a Sonic character and their closest counterpart from the Mega Man series. The list is as follows:
  • Mega Hedgehog (Sonic and Mega Man)
  • Proto Echidna (Knuckles and Proto Man)
  • Turbo (Tails and Rush)
  • Badass (Shadow and Bass)
  • Trouble (Rouge and Treble)
  • Metal Devil (Metal Sonic and Yellow Devil)
  • Glitch (Ashura and Quint)
  • Rosy (Amy and Roll)
  • Rabbot (Cream and Tango)
  • Doppelganger (Metal Sonic and The Copy Robot)
  • Cadillac (Big and Auto)
  • Hip Hop (Froggy and Eddie)
• Gambit Pileup: A result of having many characters. Usually, either one of the scientists will turn on the other, or one several of The Dragons will turn on them.
• A God Am I: Many of the villains have delusions of grandeur. Perhaps the most notable are the commander on the ark, Doppelganger, and Gemerl after being exposed to the super emeralds.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Cream turns out to be one, her father being Dr. Wily.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Bass constantly flips between working for Wily and being an Anti-Hero.
• Ho Yay: Invoked here, where Kalinka asks if Gemerl having Maria's soul makes her a lesbian.
• Idiot Ball: How does Sonic bite the dust for the first time? He checks the Mega Buster and sets it off.
  Mega Man: Robotnik has made hundreds of attempts to kill you, and all he had to do was wait for you to pull a boneheaded move like that.
• Interspecies Romance: Dr Light (and later Dr Wily) with Vanilla, the latter becoming more important. Mega Man also has a crush on Amy, though he loses it later on, only for Amy to finally reciprocate. Sonic gets a crush on Ciel around the same time.
• Incompatible Orientation: Joe turns out to have a crush on Buzz. His Dying Declaration of Love ultimately results in a Flat "What".
• Kamehame Hadoken: While not used, it references one of the trope namers while using the other here.
• King Mook: Joe and Buzz upgrade themselves into being these for Sniper Joes and Buzz Bombers, respectively. Notably, Buzz is a Palette Swap of Blast Hornet.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Bass has made it quite clear that if anyone wrongs his sister, they will suffer... slowly.
• Lame Comeback: In this strip. Even lamer when the one who said the comeback actually went through with it.
• Lampshade Hanging: Knuckles and Proto Man sum it up pretty nicely after they find the Chaos Emerald Shadow was looking for:
  Proto Man: "And we just happened to find [a Chaos Emerald] on your little treasure hunt?"
  Knuckles: "Stranger things have happened!"
  Proto Man: "A lot of it has happened recently too."
• Last-Second Word Swap: In this strip, Bass changes "fuck" to "funny hats" after Cream walks in. Provides the current trope image, too.
• Love Triangle: For a while, there was one with Amy, Mega Man, and Sonic. Quint's first role in the story was an attempt to remove Sonic from the equation, leaving nothing in between Amy and Mega Man.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Cream surprises Dr. Wily by revealing she's his kid.
• Mad Scientist: In the current time alone, there's 5: Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Dr. Eggman, Dr. Cossack, and Tails. Out of all of them, Dr. Light is the most disturbing. Case and point: he built a robotic penis for X. He's still a hero, nonetheless.
  Tails: But you're a good guy?
  Dr. Light: So? Being mad and evil aren't the same thing!
• The Man in Front of the Man: King's Mysterious Benefactor? Turns out to be Omochao using an upgraded Doc Robot as a vessel.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Downplayed, as the focus is primarily on the cast of Sonic and Mega Man, but it's clear that the world of the comic incorporates many different franchises, with Metroid and Pokémon being the most prominent.
• Mauve Shirt: Hauser and Fairborne, the two G.U.N. Agents who went with Shadow, Rouge, and Vanilla to "rescue" Cream from Bass.
• Meanwhile, in the Future…: While Sonic and Mega Man are trapped in the future and past respectively, it keeps jumping back between them.
• Morality Pet: Cream to Wily and Bass. It encourages the former to at least try to not be evil, while the latter's willing to go to hell and back for her.
• Mundane Utility: The titular scientists used two of their shapeshifting robots to pose as Amy and Roll and babysit for Wily's daughter Cream. This bites them in the ass later on when the two robots decide to betray them partly because of being used mundanely.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Mega Hedgehog destroys the Master Emerald, the only thing powering Doppelganger's massive army. Too bad it was also the only thing preventing the Death Egg from crashing into the populated city below it.
• No Fourth Wall: It's smashed right open when the titular villains note that Sonic and Mega Man die in the 5th comic (they get better), and never, not once, gets rebuilt.
• Non-Action Guy: Dr. Light lampshades his status as this during the heroes' breakout from the evil scientists' lair.
  Dr. Light: It's times like this that I hate being a decrepit old scientist.
• "Not Really Married" Plot: Late in the story, it's revealed that Wily and Vanilla's marriage wasn't actually valid because Eggman lied about getting ordained online. Since Wily was currently in jail for trying to take over the world again, Vanilla (who was only willing to stay with him because she didn't believe in divorce) decides to cut her losses and leaves him to rot.
• Off with His Head!: Happens to Silver, or rather, Metal Sonic when Roll comes across him.
  • It also happens much earlier on during the battle between Knuckles and Shadow Man.
  Knuckles: WHAT THE HELL!?! I THOUGHT HE WAS A ROBOT!
  Shadow Man: Don't worry, it's just red mech fluid.
• Oh, Crap!: Robot Dr. Wily gets a fantastic one right after he brings Bass back to life.
• One-Man Army: Doppelganger is a rather literal example, if he has enough power.
• Plot Hole: Used by Zero as a plot device to bring Sonic and Mega Man back from the dead. Twice.
• Quest for Sex: The reason why Wily tried to take over the world in the first place? One night with Vanilla.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Bass's sprites are eventually updated to color his eyes red, and he's noted to be the person with the highest kill count of the comic.
• Related in the Adaptation: Cream is Dr. Wily's daughter. Yes, you heard that right.
• Running Gag: The first arc features, no less than three times, a Mega Man character waiting for a Sonic character to show up, only for the Sonic character to attack them. (Or, in case of Shadow and Bass, for the Mega Man character to attack the Sonic character.)
• Schedule Slip: In-Universe: An entirely new comic was devoted towards this called Waiting for Ryan.
• Self-Made Orphan: Bass plans on fully making himself this once he comes back... badly.
  Bass: Patricide is a long standing tradition in video games.
• Shoot the Hostage: Quint scores a double hit.
• Shout-Out: G.U.N. agents Hauser and Faireborn have the same last names as Duke and Flint.
• The Slow Path: How Mega Man got to the X era, after the events of Mega Man's Arc.
• Sprite Comic: One of the many to be made in the mid-2000s.
• Straight Gay: Joe. Not much indication is made of it before he has his Dying Declaration of Love to Buzz, either.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Joe and Buzz. Sonic and Mega Man could also count, with the latter being the straight man to Sonic's wise guy.
• The Starscream:
  • Metal Sonic takes after his characterization in Heroes, and tries to usurp the doctors twice.
  • Bass, unsurprisingly, takes on this role whenever he's working for Wily. The old coot even notes just how common it is for him to do it.
  Dr. Wily: Bass, you've betrayed me! Again!
• Super Mode: The Chaos Emeralds, as usual, grant this ability.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Amy and Mega Man. It starts out as being solely on the latter's half... only for Amy to return his feelings long after he's stopped.
• Villains Out Shopping: Eggman has his own restaurant for a while.
• Villain Protagonist: Eggman and Wily, the titular "Two Evil Scientists," though they also often serve as the strip's primary antagonists.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dr. Weil sees himself as this. Anyone whose played his home series knows just how much of a liar he is. King is one before his reprogramming by Dr. Cossack.
• Wham Line: During the events of the Antihero Annoyances arc, Proto Man and Knuckles come meet a truck driver who had his truck stolen by Rouge. After getting enough information from him, they head back to the lab, which elicits this response:
  Truck Driver: Those two guys weren't that bad... though I still can't wait to kill them.
• Wham Shot: Related to the above mentioned wham line. Upon the truck driver meeting up with Knuckles, Rouge, and Proto Man at Club Rouge, the latter asks him just how he got there, to which he replies that he zipped over at supersonic speeds once he realized where they were going. Cut to him transforming.
  Knuckles: Who do you think you are, Sonic... the... Hedgehog?
  Metal Sonic: No, but you're close!
  • Happens again at the start of Sonic X. Ashura asks Quint where he put the real Sonic and Mega Man, to which the latter responds that they're in a place where they can't ruin his plans. Cut to Sonic waking up... and immediately seeing Zero's first design.
• World of Snark: Perhaps unsurprisingly for a Sonic fan work, basically everyone sends out quips on a rapid fire basis. Even the Mega Man characters becoming a lot more prone to sarcasm.
• You and What Army?: Happens during the midway point of The Renegades. Buzz says the line, to which Joe lampshades.
  Joe: There'd better not be a bunch of your friends behind us, because that's one of the oldest gags in the book!
  • They then deliver a Curb-Stomp Battle to the heroes.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When Bass comes to Dr. Wily asking for... "special equipment", he calls him "Dad", which tips Wily off that something's up.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: While Quint isn't completely devoid of comedic elements, he's a genuinely Tragic Villain. Compare that to Ashura, who is the stupidest person alive. Case and point, he nearly blows his own cover to Roll and Amy, almost immediately.