Street Fighter Masters- Akuma VS Ryu

 By Mark Rodriguez

One of Akuma's long-term goals has to always fight the strongest opponent possible. He has always seen this in Ryu, which is why he hopes he'll eventually succumb to the Satsui No Hado and become his perfect rival. Though always hinted at, we rarely see Ryu and Akuma actually fight it out to the fullest. Let's see if this happens in this issue.

Ryu is meditating under a waterfall, contemplating the fact that while his inner struggle was over, there is now an emptiness within him. He thought that this void would be filled with peace and fulfillment. Ryu's quest to realize his potential uncovered a hidden darkness within him. He was able to hold it back until he found out that Akuma had murdered his master Gouken. At this point Ryu's desire for revenge sparked the Satsui no Hado. 

While Ryu tried his best to overcome the Killing Intent, he eventually learned to accept it and regain the balance between the two sides of his nature. Once he was able to control it, he was finally able to defeat Akuma. He thought his battle was over, but it seems to be just beginning.

Akuma arrives, and Ryu says he spared him because he was hoping he would find the truth. He asked Akuma if he has. Akuma tells him he has found more, the path to supreme power by surrendering oneself completely to the Satsui no Hado, only allowing darkness within one's heart. Ryu says Akuma has learned nothing and sends boulders flying his way with telekinesis. 

Akuma uses his Tatsumaki Senpukyaku to smash the boulders into pebbles and says Ryu has grown complacent. He says that Ryu's balance of his light and dark aspects had left him unable to master either. Ryu kicks Akuma back and says balance has surpassed the power of the sum of its parts. He then fires off a one-handed HadoKen towards Akuma.

Akuma stomps the ground so intensely, it not only nullifies the fireballs but also sends Ryu flying back into the waterfall. Akuma says he has gained abilities only possible by making the final irrevocable choice, being completely unified with the Satsui no Hado will full body and soul. 

Ryu gets back up and says Akuma has forgotten how he was defeated before with the combination between his light and dark side. Akuma launches a powerful fireball, the Sekia Goshoha, towards Ryu. Ryu charges forward, dodging the blast and hitting Akuma in the face with his Shin ShoRyuKen.

Akuma says he did not forget his last defeat, which made him dig deeper into the secrets of the Dark Hado. Ryu charges up another fireball and says whatever secrets Akuma might have found were all lies. Akuma performs his Demon Armaggedon move while Ryu fires off his Hashogeki. When both techniques collide, suddenly both warriors find themselves within a black void.

Ryu asks where they are. Akuma says they are in an area out of space and time, where his rebirth occurred. This is where he purged what was left of his humanity and reached his final evolution. He emerged once he had shattered all barriers between himself and the Satsui no Hado. Ryu says Akuma has emerged too soon. Akuma moves his foot and the ceiling collapses over Ryu.

Ryu flips out of the way of both the falling debris and Akuma's attacks. Akuma says Ryu would think differently had he seen the things he has seen. Ryu grabs and tosses Akuma, asking when his need for revenge will end. Akuma says this battle about control. Ryu says Akuma is defined by his loss of control.

Ryu shoots another fireball at his opponent. Akuma says his only failing was not finding an opponent powerful enough for him to prove that only he controls the Dark Hado. As he says this, Akuma teleports through Ryu's fireball and gets in his face. Akuma grabs Ryu and uses the Shun Goku Satsu on him, the Raging Demon. Ryu's light side seems to have been expelled from him and the World Warrior drops to his knees.

Akuma says that Ryu has used the Satsui no Hado before. The version of Ryu, purged from his light side, is what Akuma must destroy. He tells Ryu to face him, the way the Satsui no Hado intended for them to. The man before Akuma tells him that 'Ryu is not here' and he is the darkness without light. Ryu has now turned into Kage, and he calls him the One True Hado, as he fires a one-handed fireball towards Akuma.

Kage and Akuma fight, as the shadow warrior asks if this was what he was seeking. Akuma says this was exactly what he wanted, the warrior without Ryu's compassion. He says once he destroys him they will know who the one true master of the Satsui no Hado will be. Akuma slams Kage to the ground and raises his arm as he charges up his Sekia Kuretsuma. Kage leaps out of the way as the energy blast hits the ground where he once laid. Kage says that Akuma was still once human, while he has never known such frailty.

Kage swoops down, saying he was Ryu's Killing Intent in its unadulterated immaterial form. He grabs Akuma's face into the ground as the impact leaves a giant 'Ten' symbol around them. Kage says he is that desire incarnate, and Akuma will never be as close to the Killing Intent as he is. 

Akuma gets back up and says his past is irrelevant, just as Kage will be once he destroys him. Kage says it will take a thousand lifetimes to defeat him. Akuma says if it takes eternity to claim the Satsui no Hado, that is a price he is willing to pay. Akuma and Kage continue to fight as everything fades to black.

Ryu wakes up at the dojo where Gouken had once fallen, but he no longer feels the Satsui no Hado within him. Gouken appears as a spirit and says he knew that someday he would have purged himself of the Dark Hado in one way or another. Ryu asks if this is the end, and Gouken tells him that this is a new beginning. Ryu asks if there is still more about the Satsui no Hado that he doesn't understand. Gouken says to leave that pursuit to Akuma. Akuma is lost forever since the Dark Hado can have no master.

Gouken says enlightenment does not come from trying to balance light and dark, or order with chaos. He says there is a secret power that supersedes all of that. Gouken says that this is the power of Nothingness.

My thoughts-

Pretty good issue that digs into Akuma fully losing himself to his own madness. It seems that Akuma is now trapped in a void as he seeks something impossible to overcome, while Ryu has finally been purged of his inner darkness, hopefully permanently. There's not much else to bring up except we see a lot of cool moves, and the art style has this colored sketchy look to it that makes it stand out. It was nice to see Kage make a cameo, and I assume this would explain why we don't see him in Street Fighter 6. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Akuma's goal was always to get Ryu to fully succumb to the Dark Hado and fight him going all out that way, but this goes more into why. It also seems that over the years, the opponent he sought after wasn't so much 'Evil Ryu' but the living embodiment of the Killing Intent in the form of Kage. It's ironic that when Akuma used the Raging Demon to purge Ryu out of Kage, he ended up helping Ryu get rid of his inner darkness, while at the same time dooming himself to sink deeper into his insanity. 

The only that kinda bugs me is how this comic (as well as the Chun Li VS Ryu comic) shows that Ryu is able to use telekinesis, which we can assume he learned while training under Oro after or during the events of Street Fighter 3. While it makes sense, storywise, I don't remember a game showing Ryu actually using telekinesis. Maybe they should incorporate it into one of his intros or cinematic super moves if they don't want to add that new mechanic in actual gameplay. Maybe Udon got some early notes that Ryu was going to have this in Street Fighter 6 but dropped it after the fact? 

On thing the comics should get into (if they haven't already seeing as there are countless Udon comics I missed) is how Ryu started tapping into electricity for his moves. Lately Ryu has more electric-related attacks, similar to how Ken has become more fire-based. 

Overall a good read, and interesting artwork. This is also one of the cases where the internal art matches the comic book art, though I'm sure there were variant covers.