Mega Robo Finale Q&A!

Contains fun facts, informational nuggets, and DEFINITE SPOILERS

As promised last week, it is time for our MEGA ROBO BROS FINALE WRAP-UP Q&A! We had lots of great questions - thank you all very much - and I will do my best to answer them all here. I will merely say first, if you read the series in book form, or even if you are just a couple of weeks behind on your Phoenixes - this post is not for you! There will be SPOILERS for the ending of the whole story herein, please consider yourselves warned accordingly. Leave now and come back later when you’ve had a chance to read it. It’s fine, we’ll still be here, that’s how the internet works.

…are they gone?

Okay, I think they’re gone. Let’s get to it!

Avery on Substack ASKS: were any romantic relationships planned / are canon outside of like, the parents and stuff?

So first of all, particularly now that the story’s finished, I feel like what’s there on the page is the extent of my control over the story / what counts as ‘canon’, and beyond that you should feel free to interpret and enjoy and basically make your own canon however you see fit. THAT BEING SAID, there is one tiny exception in this case, because in this instance there is in fact - dramatic reveal - ONE MORE SCENE OF MEGA ROBO BROS still to come. It’s only a short scene, it takes place at the end of the book, just before Alex’s big speech at the UN, that was deemed ‘too romantic’ for the Phoenix readership. I should be clear, it’s pretty tame stuff, and I think very sweet and innocent, but the Phoenix have some pretty strict rules about ‘no mushy feelings and kissing and stuff’. However, rather than just make me cut it (like every other time I’ve wandered up to this line over the years), this time they were nice enough to let me keep it in the book version. So there’s something to look forward to!

Did I mention, MEGA ROBO BROS: FINAL FORM is available to pre-order now? Seems like a good time to mention that.

@dankell on Instagram asks:

W & F want to know the names of Freddy’s team mates and whether they have a team name.

So my idea for these guys is that Freddy and his new pals / siblings (?) / team mates would collectively be known as the NEW SUPER ROBO 6, and go on to have lots of cool awesome superhero adventures in the future together. But I admit I did not get as far as making up names for them all. Please feel free to imagine your own! Although don’t tell them to me, because that might create legal complications if I ever actually get round to making this comic.

Jodie Holland on Bluesky ASKS:

Miles aged 9 wants more information on Philosophy penguin. Was he self aware or just broken?

This is probably one that I should leave for readers to decide, but I feel like his final speaking appearance kind of tipped my hand so, fine, I’ll tell you what *I* think. Which is: that he is indeed self aware, and was all along. Could he speak in full English sentences the whole time? Was he never in fact restricted to quotations from Sartre at all? Were those quotations in fact carefully and specifically chosen, to be exactly what Alex and Freddy needed to hear, to give them the preparation and philosophical grounding that would enable them to play their respective key roles in bringing about the new era of universal robotic sentience and freedom? Was Stupid Philosophy Penguin playing an incredibly sophisticated long game all along?

Who can say, but if it makes me sound clever let’s just say yes, yes he was.

@nikkidotnorman on Instagram ASKS:

Emily would like to know what the boys’ new little sister is called please?

WELL, since you ask: this was another one where I was going to leave it to the reader to imagine, but then in proofing it was pointed out to me that that is maybe slightly weird? And so for this one we have in fact changed a line of dialogue for the book version so that you do in fact get to know her name. So go buy the book in six months’ time or whatever, and learn her name!

No, I’m kidding. It’s Jasmine. Her name is Jasmine.

Samelot Camelot on Substack ASKS: do you have any plans or thoughts to write short comic series, novellas, or other new material set in the universe of Mega Robo Bros?

Not right now but, you know, never say never. If you’ve read the last episode by now you may have spotted that a good chunk of it is a montage of about five different Fun Potential Future Spin-Offs. But whether they’re for me to write, or maybe one day for someone else to write, I don’t yet know. I think the key thing is, whichever version of it you chose to focus on, and whatever it ended up being, it’s wouldn’t quite be Mega Robo Bros any more, and it maybe wouldn’t quite fit in the Phoenix any more. And that’s why this was the ending of Mega Robo Bros even if, one day, some way or another, there might be other stories to be told in this world.

But that’s really why I wanted to end the story with that montage, for that to be the vibe we closed out on. To give the sense that, yeah, I might be done drawing this comic. But you, the person reading it, have full permission to go off and imagine what might happen next. Enjoy!

And one last bonus question, which I just spotted had been left as a comment on the last one of these Q&As I did and which I apologise for not answering sooner.

Juan Li on Substack ASKS:

Who are all the robots in order?

I’m choosing to interpret this not as ALL the robots because, you know, there are a lot of robots in the world. But if we’re just talking about all the Kerchatov-reactor-powered robots Dr Roboticus created - the Roboticus Series - then they are, in numerical sequence:

ROBOT 1: ALPHA

ROBOT 2: LIGHTSPEED

ROBOT 3: SUNBURST

ROBOT 4: REBOUND

ROBOT 5: DREADNAUT

ROBOT 6: CRAWL

ROBOT 7: WOLFRAM

ROBOTS 8-15: unknown, created during Dr R’s Lost Years, but presumably various experimental steps towards what we can call the ‘Alex and Freddy model’.

ROBOTS 16-20: the ‘Ghostface Robo Bros’ - non-sentient prototypes of the Alex and Freddy model, who we meet serving as his personal guards and who then gain sentience and new colour schemes and become, with Freddy, the members of the NEW SUPER ROBO 6.

ROBOT 21: Alex

ROBOT 22: Freddy

ROBOT 23: this guy!

ROBOTS 24-26: [CLASSIFIED / HELD IN RESERVE FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE SEQUELS]

Okay, I hope that answers everyone’s questions!

Meanwhile in LIVE NEWS - I mentioned last week that you can find me at the Jumping Off The Page Children’s Comic Book Festival in Ireland. And, good news, you can ALSO find me at the one and only Thought Bubble Comics Festival in Harrogate, 16-17 November 2024! I’ll be there with the guys from the Phoenix, and I believe the brilliant Sam Davies (Tooth and Claw Academy) and myself will be doing some fun kids comics workshops and stuff. More details to follow hopefully, but I hope to see some of you there!

Okay thanks bye.