Street Fighter Unlimited # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

The adventures of the World Warriors continue on. Following a battle against Oni Akuma and Gill in which Bison was killed and Ryu succumbed to his Evil Form, Ryu is now battling with the darkness within. He trains a bit with Sagat but Ken advises him to seek the one that knew their master almost as well as he knew himself. Elsewhere, Chun Li has been captured by Vega! Now what will happen?

The story opens with Gill and his followers as he monologues about the beginning of the universe and the imperfection of man. As he speaks several meteors are headed straight to Earth. Gill says the prophecies have declared him to be the world's savior and he destroys the meteor into pebbles. The cult followers of the Secret Society hail their Lord Gill. These meteors were most likely summoned by one of Gill's super moves to display some of his power.

Guile talks to Cammy about Chun Li's disappearance just as they both had information about Shadaloo to share with her. Guile says he was following leads on a cult called the Secret Society where he fought someone he thought was Bison, but turned out to be Twelve in disguise. Cammy mentioned she ran into several Twelves and captured a similar being named Necro, but he escaped and all info about him has mysteriously disappeared as well. Guile says he know that Balrog is currently in charge of Shadaloo's legit operations after Bison's downfall, but they're not buying it. Guile knows just the way to get to him.

Guile and Ken arrive in a limo as they had arranged a meeting with Balrog. Mel wishes his father luck, while Eliza questions them since the last time Guile and Ken worked together they were almost killed. Ken has Sean take Eliza and Mel shopping to avoid any other questions and then step inside the building for some business. Balrog is surprised to see them and says he can do business with them, unless they want to settle personal scores instead.

Guile asks Balrog what he knows about the Secret Society and Balrog claims to know nothing and is running a strictly legitimate organization. Ken says he has bought off all of Balrog's stocks and subsidiaries and is now his boss. Balrog's had enough and is ready to fight. He activates steel bars that separate Guile from the action and starts to fight against Ken.

As they fight, Ken easily knocks Balrog around saying that it barely feels like a real fight and says the boxer got soft with his new cushy job. Balrog says he still remembers how to fight down and dirty and hits Ken with the Dirty Bull (headbutt to the face, stomp to the foot and a powerful punch to finish it off) and Ken is sent flying through a pillar. Balrog says he misses beating up real people instead of punching bags. Ken counters with his own Super, the Shippu Jinraikyaku, a series of spinning kicks that turns into a fiery tornado.

Balrog isn't done yet and hits Ken with a headbutt, following by his Violent Buffalo, a series of punches that sends Ken flying. Balrog says he's gonna finish him off... and then quotes Clubber Lang by saying he'll visit Ken's wife and show her what it's like to be with a real man. Ken blocks Balrog attack and says 'You just had to go there, didn't you?'

Ken attacks Balrog with his other spinning kick super, the Guren Senpukyaku, which sends Balrog crashing through the window, despite Guile saying they need him alive. Ken forgot that they were fighting on the top floor, but luckily Cammy was hanging out and manages to catch the boxer. He asks Balrog if he's ready to talk and he finally agrees.

Balrog tells the gang that he really does just work with finances. He takes whatever money the Secret Society gives him and makes sure it's all legal as he sends it over to Vega and his company. Cammy asks about Vega, but he says he just knows that Vega runs S.I.N and Shadaloo's technology, but doesn't know much other than that. Cammy asks about Chun Li, and Balrog says he has no clue but Vega might know. Ken says they can use his jet to go to Spain but he won't be coming along. He almost killed Balrog and feels he'll do even worse if he ever sees Vega again. Guile understands and says he has other muscle he intends to use for their visit to see Vega.

Gill is visited by his secretary Kolin who informs him that everything for ready for his plans, as well as the machine he wanted. They go to see it and it's a giant machine in the shape of two hands cupped together. Gill says the device will help mold the new world in heaven's image. Kolin asks what they can use to power the device. Gill says he has several options as they watch a screen with the battle between Evil Ryu and Oni.

'A Couple of Misfits' starts off with Armored trucks driving down a barren path containing Necro. As they ask about his powers, the guards sees a girl dressed in red walking towards them, and they quickly steer the vehicles out of her way to avoid hitting her. The truck in front falls on its side, while it's too late for the second one to stop and it runs right into the girl. However the girl doesn't even budge and the truck is what ends up being demolished instead. The woman flips on top of the vehicle and sees Necro, who recognizes her as Effie. It seems Urien sent her to get him.

A guard opens fire and Effie dodges the bullets. Necro frees himself and attacks the guards telling them that they should have just stayed in the truck. Necro says he would have taken it easy on them since it was nothing personal, but he couldn't forgive them for putting a girl in danger. After the guards are defeated, Effie hugs him. Necro asks if one of the trucks will still run and Effie says they won't need one. She has a motorcycle ready and they drive off as Effie says Team Necro rolls in style.

It's a good little story, following up on what Cammy said earlier and explains how Necro got away if he does return in the main story. All we know about Effie is mostly how she appears whenever Necro either wins or loses in the game, and that they're a good team based on the SF3 endings. Maybe we can know more about her, though she reminds me a bit of Harley Quinn. She also looks slightly less psychotic looking than the actual games. I don't know. It's the big crazy eyes she has in the games that make her look batshit insane.

Also in case you're wondering, this story was a bit longer than the previous story with Haggar, so there was no extra funny strip this time around. I do hope it appears from time to time.

My opinions on the main story-

The story continues as Guile, Ken and Cammy work together to find out what happened to Chun Li. It's kinda funny seeing Balrog being all cleaned up and running business.... but I bet he was pretty much bored out of his mind the whole time. The fight between him and Ken was pretty good and evenly matched as both of them kept getting back up no matter how powerful their moves were. This was also the perfect chance to show off the newer Supers for both Ken and Balrog that were added in the more recent updates of Street Fighter 4. Balrog's Dirty Bull and Ken's Guren Senpukyaku were their new Ultras in Super Street Fighter 4, and Ken started using the Shippu Jinraikyaku in SF III and SF Alpha 3 before it became more common. It's always a treat to see these moves in action and even though Balrog didn't exactly yell out his move, just seeing Balrog stomp on Ken's foot told me this was the Dirty Bull.

I do have to say, they did capture Gill perfectly since he does have an insane Messiah Complex. Pretty sure one of his Supers summons meteors.... so did he bring about meteors large enough to destroy the planet (rather than just win a fight) and then destroy them all himself just to please a few followers? Geez dude, overkill much? What if your fireball missed?

Great issue overall. Good art, good fight between Ken and Balrog, and it's always cool to see Balrog in a million dollar suit. And you just have to score points for having quote Clubber Lang, AKA Evil Boxer Mr. T. The next issue promises Chun Li, so let's see what she'll do.

Finally, it looks like all the covers interlock to form a huge fight scene. I have no control over which cover variants I'll get at Bent Wookie but I'll try to keep getting these kinds to do my best at making the full poster. The only question is... is this hinting that this will be a mini-series, and it'll end when the poster is complete? Since the series is called Unlimited instead of being titled after a specific game... I really do hope they continue on with Street Fighter 5's story when they're done with Gill.