Maverick

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A Maverick, known in Japan as an Irregular (イレギュラー), is a classification of robot in the Mega Man series. First appearing in Mega Man X, the term is used extensively throughout the X era, Zero era, and ZX era, coming to generally mean any robot whose behavior is dangerous or disregards the laws of society.

In the Games

X era

The term Maverick was introduced in Mega Man X. The Japanese game manual says it was originally used for defective Reploids whose abnormal behavior threatened the safety of humans or fellow Reploids. This begat the formation of the Maverick Hunters, an organization dedicated to neutralizing or otherwise controlling Maverick activity.

However, the term gained political connotation when Mavericks began to organize into factions. Groups led by Sigma, such as his initial Maverick Hunter rebellion and the Doppler Army, exercised their free will to stage genocidal campaigns aimed at wiping out humanity, and were thus branded Mavericks. Later, Repliforce staged a coup d'état against the humans to build their own independent Reploid nation - despite not outright seeking to harm humanity, they were branded Mavericks as well. The political basis of the term also came into question by Lumine and the new generation Reploids, who believed that they were simply evolving along nature's course, so the term Maverick no longer applied to them.

Stage Select bosses

This section lists every boss found on Stage Select screens across games in the Mega Man X series. These kind of bosses are all simply called Mavericks. There are consistently eight Stage Select bosses per game, all based on different animals or plants.

Mega Man X

In Mega Man X, the Stage Select bosses are eight former Maverick Hunters in Sigma's rebellion.

Launch Octopus	Chill Penguin	Armored Armadillo	Flame Mammoth	Storm Eagle	Boomer Kuwanger	Spark Mandrill	Sting Chameleon

Mega Man X2

In Mega Man X2, the Stage Select bosses are five former Maverick Hunters from Sigma's initial rebellion, plus three new recruits.

Wire Sponge	Morph Moth	Flame Stag	Magna Centipede	Overdrive Ostrich	Bubble Crab	Wheel Gator	Crystal Snail

Mega Man X3

In Mega Man X3, the Stage Select bosses are eight members of the Doppler Army.

Blast Hornet	Blizzard Buffalo	Gravity Beetle	Toxic Seahorse	Volt Catfish	Crush Crawfish	Tunnel Rhino	Neon Tiger

Mega Man X4

In Mega Man X4, the Stage Select bosses are five members of Repliforce, plus three agents of Sigma.

Web Spider	Cyber Peacock	Storm Owl	Magma Dragoon	Jet Stingray	Split Mushroom	Slash Beast	Frost Walrus

Mega Man X5

In Mega Man X5, the Stage Select bosses are eight Reploids who own parts for the Enigma and Space Shuttle missions.

Crescent Grizzly	Volt Kraken	Shining Firefly	Tidal Whale	Spiral Pegasus	Spike Rosered	Dark Necrobat	Burn Dinorex

Mega Man X6

In Mega Man X6, the Stage Select bosses are the eight Nightmare Investigators working for High Max, created by Gate.

Commander Yammark	Rainy Turtloid	Shield Sheldon	Blizzard Wolfang	Blaze Heatnix	Infinity Mijinion	Metal Shark Player	Ground Scaravich

Mega Man X7

In Mega Man X7, the Stage Select bosses are the eight members of Red Alert.

Soldier Stonekong	Splash Warfly	Tornado Tonion	Vanishing Gungaroo	Flame Hyenard	Ride Boarski	Snipe Anteator	Wind Crowrang

Mega Man X8

In Mega Man X8, the Stage Select bosses are eight rioting new generation Reploids.

Optic Sunflower	Gravity Antonion	Dark Mantis	Bamboo Pandamonium	Gigabolt Man-O-War	Earthrock Trilobyte	Avalanche Yeti	Burn Rooster

Zero era

In the Zero era, the term Maverick maintains its definition. However, it is used by the dystopic Neo Arcadia to discredit any Reploids its agenda requires, such as when Copy X began branding random Reploids as Maverick in order to execute them to slow an energy crisis. Neo Arcadia also used the term to demonize rebels such as the Resistance, who sought freedom from its tyranny. Zero himself, the protagonist of the story, is frequently called a Maverick by his enemies for defending his allies from the dictatorship.

ZX era

In the ZX era, humans and Reploids became nearly indistinguishable, resulting in the term Maverick temporarily falling out of popular usage. Instead, it was more commonly used to describe the wild Mechaniloids influenced by Model W, which would evolve on their own and terrorize anyone who dared explore the Outlands. These wild Mavericks would sometimes even attack Innerpeace, as Model W sought negativity from humanity in order to awaken. Some servants of Model W, such as Prometheus and Pandora, were capable of exercising leadership over these Mavericks to further Model W's evolution.