The Roboroach (comic book series)

The Roboroach is an El Kadsreian manga series written and illustrated by Akira Hisashi. The series follows science assistant Masyuo Kentaro who uses his boss' experimental suit that grants him the abilities of a cockroach. The manga was first published by Exclamation Comics in 1987 and still running to this day.

The Roboroach has been adapted into a live-action film in 1994 and an anime adaptation in 2000.

Plot
In a robotics laboratory in El Kadsre City, scientist Rei Madoka is experimenting with an armored suit that grants the wearer abilities of insects. For her operation, she uses a cockroach as the source of the suit's powers and chooses her assistant Masuyo Kentaro as her test subject for the suit. Unaware to them, members of the terrorist group Spectre Squad have taken over the lab, searching aimlessly for the suit. This revelation causes Madoka and Kentaro to escape the lab with the latter still wearing the suit.

In order for both of them to prevent further exposing the suit, Kentaro runs into his former engineer friends, Megumi Ochiai and Tsutomu Ezume. There, Madoka explains everything to them and decided to work with her in improving the suit. Kentaro, on the other hand, decides to use the suit to help people in need as the superhero Roboroach.

However, though, the suit is still into the attention of the Spectre Squad and its leader, Hiroshi Namiyo, who plans to duplicate the suit's process and use it for their own evil deeds. Later on in the story, Namiyo eventually creates his own suit, the Beetle Buster, using a Stag Beetle as the source of its powers.