Street Fighter Masters: Chun Li

 By Mark Rodriguez

Udon started making these character-specific one-shots some time back. We already saw the ones for Blanka and Cammy. Now it's time to see what adventures Chun Li will face.

"Fury of the Blue Jade" opens with Chun Li and a girl named Xuiying at a water-themed amusement park in Beijing. Xiuying is scared of the water slides since she heard on the internet about people dying in them. Chun Li offers a safe ride and says they can go together once Miao Ying gets back. Xiuying thinks ten people probably died on that water slide already and Chun Li thinks she needs to monitor her internet habits. 

Miao Ying accidentally steps on a smartphone and the owner, Wong Who, is angry. Not caring that she's a child, he tries to attack her. Chun Li sends him flying out of the water with a Kikkoken. 

Moments later, Tonfa arrives with the rest of the kids and Chun Li decides it's time to head out. The kids ask Tonfa if she also fights, and she says she used to judge professional fights. The kids are impressed with Chun Li's skill and Miao Ying in particular wants to get strong enough to protect her friends. Cammy shows up to visit Chun Li.

Tonfa thanks Cammy for recommending her to Chun Li, and Chun Li says she has been a great help for the orphanage. Cammy wants to talk to Chun Li alone, while Tonfa will take the kids for ice cream.

Moments later, Chun Li tells Cammy about how things have been going with the kids in the orphanage. Cammy tells Chun Li some news she didn't want to have to bring up. She has discovered that Bison is still alive.

Chun Li is furious and Cammy explains that Shadaloo is being rebuilt as they speak. Sixty million in gold bullion was stolen from a holding facility just outside of Tianjin. They discovered that the damage caused to the building was caused by Psycho Energy. Cammy explains that the gold was seized from an old Shadaloo hideout. Chun Li says interpol has a database on known Shadaloo associates, so she will investigate. Cammy wants her to promise that if she finds Bison to request back up and not to try take him on alone due to her personal vendetta. Chun Li begrudgingly agrees, but she secretly clenches her fist so hard it causes the nearby glass of water to shatter.

Three days later, Chun Li has exhausted her list of contacts without finding a single lead. She checks her phone and finds a guy named Mu Yung, who has dealt with Shadaloo items in his shop before. Chun Li arrives at his shop and questions him on any unusual items he might have seen lately. When she mentions gold, he nervously denies knowing anything about it. 

Chun Li grows suspicious and says she will have to shut the store down as they investigate. Mu Yung says he has done nothing wrong, and as he slams his hand on the counter, a gold bar with the Shadaloo symbol falls out of his jacket. Chun Li wants him to talk and Mu Yung nervously points to the right as he claims to not know what she's talking about.

Chun Li notices a woman dressed in black, the seller, trying to act unassuming. It seems Chun Li walked in as the seller was still dealing with Mu Yung. Chun Li confronts her and grabs her arm, and the woman tosses her across the room. The woman gets on her motorcycle and drives off, assuming Chun Li is just a regular cop. We notice that Chun Li had planted a homing device on the woman's arm.

Later on, Chun Li dresses up in her trademark outfit from the Street Fighter tournaments. Miao Yin walks in to show her a Blue Jade she purchased from an antique shop that made her think of her. Chun Li ignores her and steps out, consumed by her own need for vengeance. Miao Yin senses something is wrong and wonders if she will ever see her alive again.

Later on, Ed is packing the gold bars in a truck, thinking that Falke shouldn't have wasted time trying to move the gold in Beijing and they should go to Shanghai. Chun Li then arrives and kicks Ed to the ground. She demands to know where Bison is. Just then Falke blasts her with energy from her staff, sending her to the ground. Chun Li realizes that the energy was Psycho Energy.

Ed explains that they were tortured and experimented on, infused with Psycho Energy in preparation to be Bison's vessels. Falke says they're taking the gold as severance pay for what they had to endure. Chun Li calls them liars and blasts them both down with a Kikkoken. Ed tells Chun Li that no one will ever control them again. 

Chun Li flies into Ed and knocks him down with her Lightning Kicks. Ed is down and begs for mercy. Chun Li swings her foot towards him, determine to finish him off, when Falke stands in the way to take the hit for him. Chun Li stops herself and realizes Ed and Falke aren't acting like Bison's brainwashed soldiers that would only risk their lives for him but not each other. Chun Li realizes Cammy was right and she lost perspective. 

Chun Li walks off, thinking to herself that she will not become Bison's instrument of destruction. Ed is confused because it didn't seem that she believed them. Falke says Bison got in her head as well.

Later on Chun Li explains what happens to Cammy. Cammy thinks she left a big window for Ed and Falke to clear out, as if she was ok with letting them get away. Chun Li is upset that she lost control and thought she was over her vendetta against Bison. Cammy says Shadaloo was destroyed and Bison was thought dead, and even though Chun Li lost her family, she gained a new one with the orphanage. Chun Li never thought of it that way and Cammy says she's become a mama hen.

Chun Li notices that Miao Yin is still distraught from earlier and she goes to comfort her. She hangs out with her and appreciates the Blue Jade that she bought for her. Chun Li discovered the greatest victories are the ones where she didn't need to fight. 

My Thoughts-

Pretty good story. Most people know by now that Bison was responsible for the death of Chun Li's father, whether directly by his hand or sending someone to do it. Here we see Chun Li lose all control over the thought of Bison somehow returning. Even with Ed trying to talk his way out of a fight, she just wasn't having it. It's good to see that she was able to come to her senses before taking the fight too far.

The story seems to take place some time before Street Fighter 5 kicks off, since Cammy just found out that Bison has returned. Chun Li had already started seeking a new purpose in life after Bison's defeat in Street Fighter 4 and has started working at the orphanage which we see in the later games. Ed and Falke are kind of out of place, since Ed didn't break away from Balrog and run off with Falke until after Bison's defeat in the Street Fighter 5 story. Street Fighter 5 finally finished bridging the gap between Street Fighter 2 and 3, but Ed's plot with Falke came very late into the game to see it flesh out more. We'll see how Ed's story continues as he will soon be added to Street Fighter 6.

Udon once again digs into the Street Fighter and Final Fight well. We got a cameo from Wong Who earlier in the story. He's one of the fat dudes that run around in the original Final Fight arcade. There were several types of these heavy runners, and Wong was the one wearing green.

He was also chilling at the water park, but due to all the angles he was drawn in, it seems to be implied he was naked? At a public water park?

We also had the unexpected appearance of Tonfa. She was one of the 'Judgment Girls' from Street Fighter that appear whenever a match ends in a Double KO. I'm actually surprised that Mu Yung was made up for the comic and they didn't just use another Final Fight bad guy.

The art style is kinda odd. I wouldn't say it looks bad persay, but it's pretty stylized and it seems all the women, especially Chun Li have very round heads and puffy faces. It looks off when Ed and Bison are drawn more game-accurate than Chun Li, Cammy and Falke. Also I know Chun Li has some eye shadow, but whoever did her make up really overdid it in this issue. 

I do like the extra regular outfits that we see Chun Li and Cammy in. Some of them should have been DLC for the games.

Overall a fun read, and I like seeing Chun Li settle into her new role as a 'mama hen' as she helps run the orphanage. I'm surprised Li Fen wasn't one of the kids though. Like the other Masters comics, the final pages do include several artworks of The Strongest Woman in the World from all of her games.