Udon Street Fighter # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

Vega was sent after Ryu and Ken and went to attack Eliza. Ken arrived in time to save his wife from the Spanish Ninja. The couple wonder what Shadaloo wants with Ryu to the point that they're willing to kill for it. Elsewhere, Guile and Chun Li are working together to find leads on Shadaloo as well and run into Charlie. Charlie, once thought dead, is now calling himself Agent Shadow.

Chun Li calls out Charlie's name as he's holding onto an unconscious Guile. Charlie says he's Shadaloo Agent Shadow. He says he has found his second objective, Chun Li, and throws Guile to the side. He says his objective is to exterminate her and he gets into his fighting stance. 

Chun Li dodges a punch from Agent Shadow and she tells him that if he switched sides, he should be prepared for the fight of his life. Chun Li dodges another punch and hits him in the back. She goes for a leg sweep and them shoves him back. Chun Li then kicks him hard enough to send him into the air. Then she flips into the air and hits Charlie multiple times with the Tensho Kyaku. As Charlie lands, Chun Li runs off to tend to Guile. Charlie gets up and says the damage was minimum.

Charlie takes off his glasses and says he'll initiate the second attack sequence. He fires off a Sonic Boom at Chun Li. As Chun Li leaps over it, Charlie hits her with a Flash Kick. Chun Li hits the ground and Charlie grabs her by the throat.

Guile tosses Charlie's old dog tags back at him, as he catches them. Guile asks if he should be more careful with them. Agent Shadow sees the dog tags with the name Charlie Nash engraved into them and he flips out. He tosses Chun Li back and fires off another Sonic Boom that breaks some of the walls in the surrounding alleyway. He takes this chance to run off.

Guile helps Chun Li up who asks if Charlie was his best friend. He says he is, and he's alive.

Elsewhere, Charlie is looking at his military dog tags. He notices one of Shadaloo's cameras and punches it out. Bison and his men notice this and determine the experiment with Agent Shadow should be dealt with. Bison wants to send Agent Killer Bee after him since he trusts her abilities. One of his men informs him that they're currently unaware of Killer Bee's whereabouts. Bison finds it odd but he stands up and says he will have to deal with Shadow, Chun Li and Guile with his own hands. 

Elsewhere The Killer Bee is unconscious and being watched over by Rose. The fortune teller says the Shadaloo agent is lucky she found her. She thought she was another one of Bison's mindless puppets but she now senses something within her, the potential to be human. Rose says they have more in common than she'll ever know, which is why she decided to save her from Bison's grasp and give her a second chance.

Rose looks at her tarots and draws the death card. She tells Killer Bee not to fear, since death is part of life and the precursor to rebirth. Rose says rebirth is what she's offering her, a chance at a new life and her own destiny. She will start her life with a new name, not a Shadaloo codename, but a real name. Rose converts the tarot into energy and inserts it into the agent's forehead. She says that from now on the Killer Bee is dead.

The next morning, Sakura and Kei are in front of a run-down looking martial arts dojo. Sakura found out online that Ryu was one of the best fighters in the Shotokan style and he was the winner of an international tournament two years ago. Sakura was able to find this dojo belonging to the best Shotokan fighter in the world, so he must know Ryu. 

Once inside, they meet Dan Hibiki who asks if they came to learn from the best fighter in the world. Sakura says she's looking for Ryu and asks if he knows him. Dan says Ryu and his goody-goody master kicked him out of the dojo because he wanted to use the fighting style to seek revenge. Dan says he wanted to avenge his own father, and cries out 'FATHER!!!'. 

Kei whispers to Sakura that maybe they should leave. Dan says anything Ryu can do, he can do better. If they want to train with the best, his lessons are normally 5000 yen a class, but they're free if they can beat him a fight. Sakura is excited and asks if he's serious. Dan says he never jokes around but warns that no one has ever challenged the fist of the powerful Dan Hibiki. Sakura socks him in the gut as she thanks him for the opportunity.

Dan says that was a good punch for a beginner, but he will see how well she can defend herself. Kei winces as Sakura beats the crap out of Dan. Sakura asks if she did good and Dan says she has potential but lacks technique and offers to show him one of his. 

Dan fires off a Gadoken at her, and Sakura braces herself. The fireball fizzles away before it can even make contact. Dan says his fireball could use a little more work. Sakura then hits him with her flower kick. Dan hits the ground and says he's tested her enough and her classes will be free. Sakura asks if he let her win.

Kei says this guy doesn't look like the type that Sakura should be taking lessons from. Sakura agrees. Kei then asks if Dan stopped moving. Sakura says 'uh-oh'.

At Central Hospital, Chun Li and Guile are let out. Guile asks how Chun Li is doing, and she says she got 20 stitches, her first ever, but they should scar alright. She says if her father saw her now she'd say her job is making her restless. She asks about Guile's ribs and he says he'll be fine, he's stopped counting stitches and scars long ago. He says if it weren't for Charlie, stitches would have been the least of his problems.

Chun Li asks Guile what happened to Charlie and how he could still be alive. Guile says he'd never switch sides. He doesn't know what happened, but he knows Charlie would rather die than serve Bison. 

Just then Eliza walks by and noticed Guile. Chun Li asks if they know each other. Eliza angrily says she's the sister-in-law and Guile left her sister and her daughter behind to chase the ghost of one of his military friends. Guile says it's none of her business. Eliza says Julia is her sister which makes it her business. She says the worst part is she still love him and it hurts her to see Julia break her heart over a 'loser' like him. Guile says he doesn't expect her to understand but he did what he had to do. 

Eliza says it's a lousy excuse and asks what he's doing in town that's more important than being with his family. He says he came to see her friend Ryu. Guile says he might be involved with a crime syndicate and needs to know what Eliza was doing with him that night in San Francisco. He says if they're involved with Shadaloo, they should tell him now.

Eliza asks what Guile knows about Shadaloo and tells him one of their agents tried to kill her and her fiancé just to get to Ryu. Guile asks if Ryu isn't working with them and Eliza says they don't know anything about Shadaloo. She says Ken left to check it out and should have been back hours ago. Guile wonders what Shadaloo wants with Ryu and says they should warn him. 

Ken arrives at Gouken's dojo and panics when he sees the hole in the wall of the second floor. He rushes in to see Ryu sitting in meditation, staring out of the hole. He's glad to see that he's alright and asks about the hole in the wall. Ryu says he might think he's crazy but he had a nightmare. Ken says leave it to Ryu to not only sleepwalk but to sleepfight. 

Ryu asks what happened since Ken is acting as if he's surprised to see him alive. Ken says it's a long story but a guy from Shadaloo named Bison is after him and they're no longer safe in the dojo. He'll explain more on the way. Ryu says he's heard the name Bison before and remembers it being at the Street Fighter tournament. Ken says whoever he is, they've already killed while trying to find him. Ken says they might be safe in the abandoned sanctuary in the west, when he suddenly gets a call. Eliza is calling him and mentions Interpol agents. Ken wonders what's going on and asks to speak to one of them.

Sakura and Kei take Dan to the hospital. The nurse recognizes him and asks who he fought with this time. As Sakura and Kei carry Dan along, they walk past Guile, Chun Li and Eliza, who mention Ryu over the phone. Sakura manages to overhear it.

Ken tells Guile they'll be at the Miyazaki Sanctuary. Guile says they'll be there soon. Guile tells Eliza to stay behind since she isn't in any condition to go anywhere. He tells her that they won't let anything happen to Ryu and Ken. He tells her to let Julia know he hopes to rekindle things with her soon.

As Eliza heads back to her room, the doctor finds her and is happy to have found her. After she complained about nausea, the doctor ran some tests on her before clearing her and the results came in. Eliza says she's feeling better and asks if there's bad news. The doctor says it's nothing bad but there's something she should know.

Ken tells Ryu they should go as the Shadaloo agents are on their way to the dojo. Ryu tells him to wait as he feels a powerful ki approaching. He says it's a dark warrior spirit that feels familiar. Ken asks if it's Akuma. Ryu suddenly dashes to the dojo door and slides it open. Sagat has arrived.

Street Fighter- Charlie's Black Operation

Charlie is called in for an unofficial meeting with his superior. He needs him to do something that might cost him his career and also cost Charlie his life. There's a soldier out there that the military refuses to admit exists. Charlie asks if he means the pilot brought down behind enemy lines. He thought it was just a rumor.

General Brandt explains they couldn't admit that they had a reconnaissance plane in enemy territory. Charlie says they covered it up. Brandt admits that he covered it up. The enemy has the pilot and they can't rescue him, at least not officially since it means they went against the treaty. Charlie asks if this means they abandoned one of their own. The General admits he did and may God forgive him. Charlie says he hopes God does, because he never will.

The general gives Charlie the pilot's coordinates and reminds him that this is a Black Operation, so if he gets captured, his country will abandon him. Charlie says he'll go and bring him back. The General says to give him his dog tags on his behalf.

Charlie fights his way through enemy lines and finds the captured pilot, who we see is Guile. Charlie asks if he's alright and Guile says he'll live. Guile is impressed and asks Charlie where he learned to fight like that. Charlie helps him walk and says to stick with him and he'll teach him a few things. He also says Guile forgot his dog tags and he should be more careful with those.

My Opinions- 

Things are starting to come together and the main characters and starting to meet up. An interesting fact revealed in 'All About Capcom' several decades ago was the fact that Eliza and Julia are sisters, making Ken and Guile brothers in law. Guile's story in the original SF2 was Guile abandoning his wife and kid to get revenge on Bison for killing Charlie. It's cool that we got to see Eliza's perspective on it since now we know she's Julia's sister.

We also get to see Sakura and Kei continue their search and run into Dan. Dan acts as cheesy as we can expect, and his Gadoken is as weak as ever. For some weird reason the art seems to really suffer during this section. I'm not 100% sure what happened during this scene, but the art on the pages before and after are just fine... so was this some random back-up artist they brought in to meet deadlines?

What happened to artwork here, Udon??

I'm eager to see what happens next as not only is Bison headed towards the heroes, but now Sagat showed up on Ryu and Ken's doorstep. 

The back up story was also cool as we see how Charlie first met Guile. Another interesting fact from All About Capcom is that Charlie actually was the one that taught Guile the Sonic Boom and Flash Kick. We also get to see what Guile meant when he told Shadow Charlie to 'be more careful with his dog tags'. In a certain way, this also explains why Guile is so driven. Charlie once saved him from certain death, and Guile probably feels guilty that he couldn't do the same. 

Other than the fate of Shadow Charlie, I'm also curious what will happen to Cammy now that Rose undid her brainwshing. 

One last thing I wanted to mention about the Mexican version of the comic is the extra advertising on the back page. Mister Bison wants to rule the world!! Who can stop him!! 

I know that to this day we still don't know what the M in M. Bison stands for, but I'm sure it's not gonna be Mister. I just found it kinda funny how Mexico went with Mister Bison. We all know the whole M.Bison, Balrog, Vega story by now. While technically speaking, the M. stands for Mike when the name was attached to the Boxer, when the name went over to the Dictator, they never revealed what the M would stand for now.

The surprising thing is that Mike Tyson himself never even knew about Balrog til around 2019 when someone showed him a picture. Even though we'll never know how would he or his managers would have reacted back in the days when he was the World Heavyweight Champ, nowadays he took it in stride and doesn't really mind.