By Mark Rodriguez
Back when the only thing we knew about Street Fighter's characters and story were limited to the games and the SNES instruction manuals, Malibu Comics tried to cash in on the success of the hit arcade game and make a comic. However the comic was so bad, Capcom told them to cut the cord on the third issue, and here we are. Oh, and also special thanks to the Sci-Fi Valley Con for letting me find this copy and in such good condition too.
Sagat wants a rematch against Ryu, but the World Warrior has turned down his every challenge. This gets Sagat to the point where he must make Ryu fight him, and he does so by attacking Ken with extra help from Balrog. Ken's bloody clothes, gloves and his scalp have been sent to Ryu, who screams in horror at the fate of his friend.
Back when the only thing we knew about Street Fighter's characters and story were limited to the games and the SNES instruction manuals, Malibu Comics tried to cash in on the success of the hit arcade game and make a comic. However the comic was so bad, Capcom told them to cut the cord on the third issue, and here we are. Oh, and also special thanks to the Sci-Fi Valley Con for letting me find this copy and in such good condition too.
Sagat wants a rematch against Ryu, but the World Warrior has turned down his every challenge. This gets Sagat to the point where he must make Ryu fight him, and he does so by attacking Ken with extra help from Balrog. Ken's bloody clothes, gloves and his scalp have been sent to Ryu, who screams in horror at the fate of his friend.
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| E.Honda VS Evil Aquaman??? |
This issue starts off with the narration telling us that while the
Street Fighters might all be rivals, they all feel it when one of them
goes down. We start in the Brazilian jungles as Blanka receives the news
that Ken is presumed dead. Blanka growls angrily (and drops his reading
glasses... yeah, he has those in this comic) at the news. Some
villagers make fun of Blanka, despite being warned not to... and one of
them even steps on his glasses. Blanka gets enraged and goes electric,
while beating the crap out of them.
In the snowy Siberian wilderness, Zangief is fighting with two bears. He has lost his prestige with the fall of the Soviet Union and wishes to regain some of that by winning the Street Fighter tournament. After he defeats the bears, he feels he should have been the one to defeat Ken in a fair fight. He will seek out and get revenge on Ken's killer.
In India, Dhalsim is meditating in a temple, unable to maintain the balance between his beliefs in yoga and the call to combat due to Ken's death. Dhalsim angrily destroys some of his statues and spits out a Yoga Flame in rage. He decides to seek justice. He will meditate and destroy Ken's killer.
In a local bar, we see Guile, who is Ken's top rival for best American Street Fighter. He's also angry about his rival's death and feels that even if Ken has slowed down some, it must have taken more than one guy to take him down. A random dude passes by and accidentally splashes Guile's hair with some beer. Guile angrily grabs him by the arm since no one messes with his hair. The guy's friend smashes a chair on Guile's back.
Guile kicks him away. Just then a bunch of tough guys start to crowd around Guile. Guile busts a Flash Kick on the big guy in front. Guile easily takes down all the punks (and his shirt suddenly changed from green to white on that one page). After the fight, Guile seems to have figured out who did this. The bar owner asks who's going to pay for all the damage. Guile says compared to what he faced in Desert Storm, a few broken tables and chairs is house cleaning. Then Guile destroys the bar with a Sonic Boom to show him what real damage is and punches the bar owner out. WTF Guile.
Anyway, Guile SOMEHOW figures that Bison, the guy that killed his friend Charlie must be somehow behind this, so now he's going to make him pay. Guile's attack doesn't go unnoticed. Balrog is watching and tells Bison what he saw. He's eager to fight him sometime, but in the meantime he hasn't seen any signs of Ryu contacting the other Street Fighters.
Bison is keeping Sagat busy fighting and training before the guilt of what he's done takes over. Ken's body is missing since Sagat and Balrog left him for dead, but the boxer can't imagine who would take Ken's corpse, with the possible exception of Sheng Long. Bison says he sent some of his assassins to poison Sheng Long's food. He might be so powerful that he survived, but at least he'll be out of the game for a while. Balrog is surprised Bison took it as far as to poison Sheng Long and wonders if he should get somebody to taste his food.
Elsewhere, Cal Denton, AKA The Ferret, a member of a superhero team called the Protectors from one of Malibu's comics, is relaxing from being poisoned from one of his adventures. He has the misfortune of sitting behind Honda, who is crushing him with his weight. Cal takes Honda's newspaper and sees the news about Ken being killed and having his body stolen. Honda snatches the paper before Cal could read about Haggar's wrestling comeback (lol). Cal says the Street Fighters aren't so tough and his friend, the Ferret, could take them down. Honda says the Ferret should pay him a visit and gives him his business card.
Later on, in a run down Asian neighborhood in LA, Cal goes as the Ferret and sees that Honda is actually a sumo wrestler. The Ferret and Honda introduce themselves and start to fight in front of Honda's American students. The Ferret jumps into Honda with a dropkick and then hits him with rapid punches, claiming the fight is over since he's a professional superhero. Honda then jumps up and does the Butt Crunch.... on Ferret's foot. As the Malibu hero jumps up and down like a Ninja Turtle from Turtles in Time, Honda leg-sweeps him.
Ferret goes for a flying kick that Honda blocks. The sumo then grabs him and hits him with a few headbutts. Ferrets says it feels like his head is full of bricks, and then tries to punch him in the gut, but it's rock solid too. Ferret jumps on top of Honda and tries like to ride him like a horse. Honda however goes with the Flying Headbutt, with Ferret in front of him and slams him against the wall. Honda quickly grabs the Ferret and gives him the sumo bear hug. He then kicks him away and smacks him around with the Hundred Hand Slap. Honda's students applaud as Honda wins the fight.
Honda thanks Ferret for the fight and feels ready to take on whoever attacked Ken. Ferret feels lucky to be in one piece and asks him if he'd like to meet his friend Amazing Man.
In Japan, a woman named Nida is serving the poisoned Sheng Long some tea. She came to train with him, but found him poisoned. She also didn't tell him about what happened to Ken so that the stress wouldn't make the poison work harder against him. Sheng Long says he will train Nida when he is well, but she fears that day will never come. She trains in secret and also wants to become a Street Fighter. As she trains, she says that Ryu must defeat whoever killed Ken and then face her.
In the snowy Siberian wilderness, Zangief is fighting with two bears. He has lost his prestige with the fall of the Soviet Union and wishes to regain some of that by winning the Street Fighter tournament. After he defeats the bears, he feels he should have been the one to defeat Ken in a fair fight. He will seek out and get revenge on Ken's killer.
In India, Dhalsim is meditating in a temple, unable to maintain the balance between his beliefs in yoga and the call to combat due to Ken's death. Dhalsim angrily destroys some of his statues and spits out a Yoga Flame in rage. He decides to seek justice. He will meditate and destroy Ken's killer.
In a local bar, we see Guile, who is Ken's top rival for best American Street Fighter. He's also angry about his rival's death and feels that even if Ken has slowed down some, it must have taken more than one guy to take him down. A random dude passes by and accidentally splashes Guile's hair with some beer. Guile angrily grabs him by the arm since no one messes with his hair. The guy's friend smashes a chair on Guile's back.
Guile kicks him away. Just then a bunch of tough guys start to crowd around Guile. Guile busts a Flash Kick on the big guy in front. Guile easily takes down all the punks (and his shirt suddenly changed from green to white on that one page). After the fight, Guile seems to have figured out who did this. The bar owner asks who's going to pay for all the damage. Guile says compared to what he faced in Desert Storm, a few broken tables and chairs is house cleaning. Then Guile destroys the bar with a Sonic Boom to show him what real damage is and punches the bar owner out. WTF Guile.
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| where's the American flag tattoos on his arms? Both arms are missing them!! |
Anyway, Guile SOMEHOW figures that Bison, the guy that killed his friend Charlie must be somehow behind this, so now he's going to make him pay. Guile's attack doesn't go unnoticed. Balrog is watching and tells Bison what he saw. He's eager to fight him sometime, but in the meantime he hasn't seen any signs of Ryu contacting the other Street Fighters.
Bison is keeping Sagat busy fighting and training before the guilt of what he's done takes over. Ken's body is missing since Sagat and Balrog left him for dead, but the boxer can't imagine who would take Ken's corpse, with the possible exception of Sheng Long. Bison says he sent some of his assassins to poison Sheng Long's food. He might be so powerful that he survived, but at least he'll be out of the game for a while. Balrog is surprised Bison took it as far as to poison Sheng Long and wonders if he should get somebody to taste his food.
Elsewhere, Cal Denton, AKA The Ferret, a member of a superhero team called the Protectors from one of Malibu's comics, is relaxing from being poisoned from one of his adventures. He has the misfortune of sitting behind Honda, who is crushing him with his weight. Cal takes Honda's newspaper and sees the news about Ken being killed and having his body stolen. Honda snatches the paper before Cal could read about Haggar's wrestling comeback (lol). Cal says the Street Fighters aren't so tough and his friend, the Ferret, could take them down. Honda says the Ferret should pay him a visit and gives him his business card.
Later on, in a run down Asian neighborhood in LA, Cal goes as the Ferret and sees that Honda is actually a sumo wrestler. The Ferret and Honda introduce themselves and start to fight in front of Honda's American students. The Ferret jumps into Honda with a dropkick and then hits him with rapid punches, claiming the fight is over since he's a professional superhero. Honda then jumps up and does the Butt Crunch.... on Ferret's foot. As the Malibu hero jumps up and down like a Ninja Turtle from Turtles in Time, Honda leg-sweeps him.
Ferret goes for a flying kick that Honda blocks. The sumo then grabs him and hits him with a few headbutts. Ferrets says it feels like his head is full of bricks, and then tries to punch him in the gut, but it's rock solid too. Ferret jumps on top of Honda and tries like to ride him like a horse. Honda however goes with the Flying Headbutt, with Ferret in front of him and slams him against the wall. Honda quickly grabs the Ferret and gives him the sumo bear hug. He then kicks him away and smacks him around with the Hundred Hand Slap. Honda's students applaud as Honda wins the fight.
Honda thanks Ferret for the fight and feels ready to take on whoever attacked Ken. Ferret feels lucky to be in one piece and asks him if he'd like to meet his friend Amazing Man.
In Japan, a woman named Nida is serving the poisoned Sheng Long some tea. She came to train with him, but found him poisoned. She also didn't tell him about what happened to Ken so that the stress wouldn't make the poison work harder against him. Sheng Long says he will train Nida when he is well, but she fears that day will never come. She trains in secret and also wants to become a Street Fighter. As she trains, she says that Ryu must defeat whoever killed Ken and then face her.
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| WHO THE HECK IS THIS NOW??? |
Of course that day will never come... and the comic ends with Malibu
comics apologizing to the fans for ending the comic so suddenly and
delivers an epilogue for some of the characters of 'what could have
been' had the series continued. Wow... it has to be sad to even print
out that Capcom didn't like the adaptation they obviously put some work
and effort into. I also like how they added Capcom's address there, I
guess to know where to send your hate mail. Anyways, here they are in a
nutshell.
Balrog- He's an evil boxer working for Bison... yeah, we knew that already....
Blanka- Swore to avenge Ken's death since, alongside Ryu and Chun Li, he was one of the few people that taught him how to read.
M. Bison- Bison's plot will eventually have brought in evil twins of all the Street Fighters (this is actually a very clever way to pit, for example, Blue Chun Li VS Red Chun Li, or White-gi Ryu VS Grey-gi Ryu). It raises the question whether the Balrog, Vega and Sagat working for Bison are the real ones, and if not, where are the real ones?
Chun Li- Chun Li must avenge her father's death, as well as Ken's death and also deal with her feelings for Ryu. A fan asked why she's a cop. Len Starezewski (the writer) answered that Chun Li needed legal clearance for her investigation, and also needed a day job... some other way besides fighting to earn money and have a life... like Ken becoming an actor.
Dhalsim- He joins the other Street Fighters in the fight against Bison.
Guile- Wants revenge on Bison for the deaths of both Charlie and Ken.
Honda- Starts a Street Fighter program to test out new fighters. He recently tested himself out against The Ferret.
Ken- Unknown to everyone, he actually survived, but is in very bad shape. Bald and in recovery he is living under care, but we'll never see him return to help the others take down Bison.
Nida- A new character, a Filipino woman that lost her father during a drug bust due to an evil Ryu look-alike. Unlike most Street Fighters, she trains with weapons and wants to get revenge on Ryu.
Ryu- He eventually organizes the other Street Fighters to get revenge for Ken's death, and also gets his bloody rematch against Sagat. Ryu and Guile also would have had a limited partnership in all this.
Sagat- Even though he was bitter enough to kill Ken to get to Ryu, he still has some honor and is wracked with guilt. Bison knows this and tries to keep him fighting to get his mind off it. Sagat might be able to reach redemption.
Vega- Recently joined Bison's ranks, still unclear as to what plans Bison had for him.
Zangief- Is also angry at Bison since he feels his chance to defeat Ken in the tournament was stolen from him.
As for this issue itself.. well... either they knew the end was coming, or they figured it was issue 3 and about time to show the rest of the cast, as this issue brings in the rest of the Street Fighters, all of them pissed by Ken's apparent death. The scenes were pretty weird, especially Guile just being a douche. Dude. The guy spilled some beer on you by accident. He wasn't purposely looking for a fight. That didn't justify destroying the bar on purpose and socking out the owner when he complained. What the hell dude???? Our hero ladies and gentlemen.
As for the Ferret... oh man... what a lame-ass. Back then, other comic companies were trying to make their own superheroes and compete with DC and Marvel. Most of these guys looked like Cable or Wolverine rip-offs. It seemed every team had some sort of Cable-ish guy as the leader. And as for Ferret.... he looks like Aquaman, with claws, Wolverine stripes on his outfit and Nightwing's mask. I'm not sure if he had any super powers, besides the fangs and claws, but I guess since he looked normal as Cal, he must sprout them whenever he's the Ferret. He's a member of a team called the Protectors and their series lasted 20 issues and it seems the Ferret had a few one-shots too. I know this is a Street Fighter comic, so of course Honda had the home field advantage but wow, at least let the dude put up more of a fight. And then Honda does the Sumo Butt Crunch on his foot? Way to make a lame guest star look even lamer. I'm sure Ferret fans (all 3 of them) must not have liked his scene here, and this sure didn't exactly make me say ' wow, this guy is awesome, I gotta get me some Ferret and Protector comics now!!' Honestly a complete waste of time.
And there you have it. As cheesy as these comics were, I do feel somewhat sad that it ended after 3 issues. I missed out on issue 3 since this was around the time I moved to Mexico, so I always assumed it lasted at least a little longer than just 3 issues. At the time this was the ONLY Street Fighter comic out there and the game was still red hot due to SF2 Turbo and SF2 Special Champion Edition for the SNES and Genesis. With Super Street Fighter 2 around the corner, I wonder how Malibu would have fit the New Challengers into the story somehow. I assume I would have been disappointed had I bought issue 3 way back then and seen that last page. It would take years before Udon would start making a somewhat ongoing Street Fighter series.
I guess the biggest loss was the idea of the evil twins, granted if Malibu was smart enough to dress them up with the Champion Edition and Turbo colors for an extra homage. I would say so as they've been trying to cram every reference from the games as is. The idea of Nida trying to kill Ryu over what a fake Ryu did is interesting, and since Cammy was still months away, she would have been a good female character besides Chun Li. An evil Ken confusing everyone before the real Ken healed up and came back would have been good too. The Ferret thing was just weird and it made me wonder if other Malibu characters would have made cameos in future issues. Who knows? Chun Li might have appeared in an issue of the Protectors too. Oh what could have been, right?
Balrog- He's an evil boxer working for Bison... yeah, we knew that already....
Blanka- Swore to avenge Ken's death since, alongside Ryu and Chun Li, he was one of the few people that taught him how to read.
M. Bison- Bison's plot will eventually have brought in evil twins of all the Street Fighters (this is actually a very clever way to pit, for example, Blue Chun Li VS Red Chun Li, or White-gi Ryu VS Grey-gi Ryu). It raises the question whether the Balrog, Vega and Sagat working for Bison are the real ones, and if not, where are the real ones?
Chun Li- Chun Li must avenge her father's death, as well as Ken's death and also deal with her feelings for Ryu. A fan asked why she's a cop. Len Starezewski (the writer) answered that Chun Li needed legal clearance for her investigation, and also needed a day job... some other way besides fighting to earn money and have a life... like Ken becoming an actor.
Dhalsim- He joins the other Street Fighters in the fight against Bison.
Guile- Wants revenge on Bison for the deaths of both Charlie and Ken.
Honda- Starts a Street Fighter program to test out new fighters. He recently tested himself out against The Ferret.
Ken- Unknown to everyone, he actually survived, but is in very bad shape. Bald and in recovery he is living under care, but we'll never see him return to help the others take down Bison.
Nida- A new character, a Filipino woman that lost her father during a drug bust due to an evil Ryu look-alike. Unlike most Street Fighters, she trains with weapons and wants to get revenge on Ryu.
Ryu- He eventually organizes the other Street Fighters to get revenge for Ken's death, and also gets his bloody rematch against Sagat. Ryu and Guile also would have had a limited partnership in all this.
Sagat- Even though he was bitter enough to kill Ken to get to Ryu, he still has some honor and is wracked with guilt. Bison knows this and tries to keep him fighting to get his mind off it. Sagat might be able to reach redemption.
Vega- Recently joined Bison's ranks, still unclear as to what plans Bison had for him.
Zangief- Is also angry at Bison since he feels his chance to defeat Ken in the tournament was stolen from him.
As for this issue itself.. well... either they knew the end was coming, or they figured it was issue 3 and about time to show the rest of the cast, as this issue brings in the rest of the Street Fighters, all of them pissed by Ken's apparent death. The scenes were pretty weird, especially Guile just being a douche. Dude. The guy spilled some beer on you by accident. He wasn't purposely looking for a fight. That didn't justify destroying the bar on purpose and socking out the owner when he complained. What the hell dude???? Our hero ladies and gentlemen.
As for the Ferret... oh man... what a lame-ass. Back then, other comic companies were trying to make their own superheroes and compete with DC and Marvel. Most of these guys looked like Cable or Wolverine rip-offs. It seemed every team had some sort of Cable-ish guy as the leader. And as for Ferret.... he looks like Aquaman, with claws, Wolverine stripes on his outfit and Nightwing's mask. I'm not sure if he had any super powers, besides the fangs and claws, but I guess since he looked normal as Cal, he must sprout them whenever he's the Ferret. He's a member of a team called the Protectors and their series lasted 20 issues and it seems the Ferret had a few one-shots too. I know this is a Street Fighter comic, so of course Honda had the home field advantage but wow, at least let the dude put up more of a fight. And then Honda does the Sumo Butt Crunch on his foot? Way to make a lame guest star look even lamer. I'm sure Ferret fans (all 3 of them) must not have liked his scene here, and this sure didn't exactly make me say ' wow, this guy is awesome, I gotta get me some Ferret and Protector comics now!!' Honestly a complete waste of time.
And there you have it. As cheesy as these comics were, I do feel somewhat sad that it ended after 3 issues. I missed out on issue 3 since this was around the time I moved to Mexico, so I always assumed it lasted at least a little longer than just 3 issues. At the time this was the ONLY Street Fighter comic out there and the game was still red hot due to SF2 Turbo and SF2 Special Champion Edition for the SNES and Genesis. With Super Street Fighter 2 around the corner, I wonder how Malibu would have fit the New Challengers into the story somehow. I assume I would have been disappointed had I bought issue 3 way back then and seen that last page. It would take years before Udon would start making a somewhat ongoing Street Fighter series.
I guess the biggest loss was the idea of the evil twins, granted if Malibu was smart enough to dress them up with the Champion Edition and Turbo colors for an extra homage. I would say so as they've been trying to cram every reference from the games as is. The idea of Nida trying to kill Ryu over what a fake Ryu did is interesting, and since Cammy was still months away, she would have been a good female character besides Chun Li. An evil Ken confusing everyone before the real Ken healed up and came back would have been good too. The Ferret thing was just weird and it made me wonder if other Malibu characters would have made cameos in future issues. Who knows? Chun Li might have appeared in an issue of the Protectors too. Oh what could have been, right?
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