Summary The story begins with a top secret file marked "#R" being opened by an unknown user. The document says that before an era of terror dawns upon mankind, the writer of the document has left behind the greatest warrior in known history. The document continues, saying that this warrior would not seek out conflict even if the world ultimately ends up being a peaceful one, but should such an era of conflict come, the warrior may become a savior that the world needs. The file ends with saying should this warrior obtain upgrades built specifically for him, he would likely become the ultimate weapon. The monitor displaying the file is then closed, and narration continues the message, saying that the world now needs this warrior.

In a city shopping district, civilians are fleeing when a clown Repliroid goes on a rampage. People are screaming that it has turned "Irregular" as the rampaging clown Repliroid fires its retractable arm towards a group of people, calling it a game of hide and seek. The clown Repliroid's hand is shot by an unknown responder who reveals himself as the Irregular Hunter called X, who declares that he will defeat the clown Repliroid, but is quickly kicked off a ledge. X falls towards the streets below, but is saved by a hovering patrol car driven by his senior Zero. The clown Repliroid corners a young girl and her dog, who crushes it with its arm as blood splatters on its face. X reaches the clown Repliroid, ordering him to stand down, but as the clown Repliroid turns its head 180 degrees while asking if X would dare open fire on his own kind. X hesitates, but a buster shot fired by Zero flies right past his head, decapitating the clown Repliroid. Zero declares that as hunters it is their "Job" to hunt down Irregulars, and that they are prepared to fire at their own kind.

After the encounter, X is told by Zero to be more careful of his surroundings (not the first time) as they have no flight abilities, though he says it won't be an issue if he knows a technique involving kicking upwards against a wall that even a Special A Class hunter can't pull off easily, afterwards dismissing it as some legend. The two come across the young girl crying for her dog, who was killed by the clown in the previous encounter. Zero mentions how humans are illogical as crying won't change a thing, but is suddenly shocked that X started to cry as well, unaware that he had the ability to do so. X starts sympathizing with her as Zero stares at how unusually human X is, and receives a call to return to the hunter's base.

Upon returning to the base, X, Zero, and several other hunters are shocked to find the damaged remains of Special A-rank hunter Kyle. Sigma walks towards them, revealing himself as the one took down Kyle. One of the hunters says that Sigma did it because Kyle opposed him, and that it is time to rise up against the humans that have kept them as nothing more as subordinates. Other hunters start rallying this idea, saying that they should rule because of superior knowledge and power. Kyle reawakens screaming, and is held down by X as he says everyone is acting strange. Kyle is shot several times in the chest, and dies. X turns around to the shooter, and sees that it was Sigma who fired several shots from his fingers. Sigma says that he is a traitor who chose mankind over his own brethren. Sigma pushes his still-burning fingers against his face, creating scars on his face. With this new face, Sigma leads his rebellion as he announces that mankind are their true enemy as they are weak and imperfect.

X rushes across the battle-torn city. He finds a human survivor being attacked by several Repliroids, telling them to stop. He is told by one of them that he can have this one, and realizes that the survivor was the young girl from earlier that day. Another Repliroid says he'll do it, but X pushes it aside as he watches. His left hand switches to his Buster, and fires several shots. Two of the attackers are taken down, while the remaining one shouts at X in confusion as X proclaims that they're the ones in the wrong before defeating him. X picks up the injured girl, now with a clear conviction that those with strength exist to protect human lives.

Shortly afterwards, X rushes across the Central Highway while taking down threats left and right. He notices how the highway is being broken apart as he is ambushed by Crushers which get taken down quickly. A Bee Blader swoops down and gives chase to X, who attempts to go underneath it but is struck back by several Ball De Voux which emerge from under the Bee Blader and unroll themselves, standing upright. X fires at their legs, but does no damage. X rushes to a nearby car, jumping on it and shoots the Ball De Voux units through their heads. The Bee Blader proceeds to fire its machine guns at X as he zig-zag jumps through the gunfire, releasing a charge shot that grazes the Bee Blader's neck. With the Bee Blader's neck loosened it becomes unable to fire accurately as X fires a finishing shot through the bottom of its main body. The Bee Blader crashes down onto the highway, destroying the ground underneath X. X shouts that he won't die so easily as he jumps off the falling debris and scales a highway pillar upwards to safety.

After landing on his feet, X then realizes that he just pulled off the technique that Zero mentioned before. Suddenly, a large shadowy figure stands behind X while saying it's the first time he ever seen this "Triangular Kick" technique in-person. Sensing a horrible presence, X turns around and sees that it's Vava in his Ride Armor. X immediately fires a charged shot at Vava, seemingly destroying him. Vava asks if he's finished, and his Ride Armor punches X, knocking him down. Vava aims his shoulder cannon, and appears to fire a shot at the unconscious X.

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Commentary And so the look into Iwamoto's Rockman X adaptation begins. With things just started, I would like to get this out of the way first: When I first got my hands on the first volume as a child back in the mid-90s, I remember not liking this adaptation at all as it was such a massive visual departure from the vivid cartoon-like designs. Having only really known of the X series as video games (and definitely not helped by a narrow reference pool at the time) I went into it expecting a straight retelling of the first X game. It was only much later (after I came across more volumes and became able to read Japanese) that I became able to judge this adaptation a little better and by its own merits.

From the writing and early 80s~90s shojo-like art style that differs greatly from the games, I felt that Iwamoto's adaptation isn't just aimed at fans who just want to relive the video games in a drawn format, but to also expand on certain elements of the known story at the time. A lot of the original character designs look more like they belong in other franchises like Guyver or Super Sentai, which I personally found a little jarring at times especially after know more about design motifs surrounding the X series (though to be fair not that much is known from the games at the time this was published, and all things considered original characters so far weren't given that much focus anyway). Though perhaps what I (and probably many others) felt stood out the most was how inconsistent X's visual design looked, though I would chalk this up to Iwamoto not having a finalized drawing style for X at the time. Having read through the rest of his published work on the series (including his artwork for the Irregulars Report novel), thankfully his art style for X and the other characters does improve greatly.

So far in this first chapter, X is established as a good-hearted but somewhat naive hunter, with Zero being the experienced senior who has a firmer grip on their job and responsibilities. Though the two don't interact that much, Zero saving X's life not once but arguably twice while on duty establishes a junior-senior officer dynamic (Zero driving a flying patrol car making this even more apparent). Sigma's revolution is shown explicitly as an uprising among common-minded Repliroids, implying there could have been some pre-existing tensions in relations between humans and Repliroids, complete with Sigma shown giving himself his signature scars from the heat of his finger guns. Considering this was published before X4 (1997) and the Day of Sigma animated short (2005), this makes it the very first interpretation of Sigma getting his scars over his eyes.

Another interesting bit is that X's wall jump is referred to as a "legendary" technique complete with being known as "Triangular Kick" (based on how it's written in Japanese), though perhaps the strangest part is that X is shown using this technique supported with round jump thrusters in his back. Personally I felt the addition of these rear thrusters being the most off-putting as it downplays the implausibility of this technique (but thankfully this becomes downplayed the the point of never being shown again as the story goes on). Another minor note about X is that unlike his game design, according to the manga covers (and figures) this X's hands are given the same blue color scheme as his upper arms and legs for whatever reason.

Either way, this first chapter of Iwamoto's Rockman X manga has a decent start by showing some background story take place followed by more familiar action elements from the game.