By Mark Rodriguez
Bison has been defeated by Charlie as he sacrificed himself to take him out. The Killer Bee has been given a second chance at life by Rose. Akuma defeated Ryu and Ken but spared them in hopes that Ryu will face him at the second Street Fighter tournament. Ryu starts to travel the world in hopes of finding a way to defeat Akuma, with his new pupil Sakura following behind. What will happen now?
In this case I got the American and Mexican version of this issue. One thing to note right off the bat is that American one is a 'supersized' issue and the Mexican one isn't. I'll also go over the differences and what made the American one 'supersized' in comparison to previous issues.
The issue opens in the French-German border aboard a speeding train, as MI-6's Delta Red has been sent to protect the prime minister from terrorist attack. Cammy is shielding the prime minister from gunfire, telling him that she will get him out of there. Luwanda can't get a clear shot due to all the civilians onboard the train. Ginzu will hack the doors and Luwanda will shoot out the lights. Cammy will use her night vision and go with Colonel Wolfman. McCoy will stay and cover Luwanda and the prime minister.
Like clockwork, Luwanda takes out all the lights and Ginzu locks the doors. Cammy and Wolfman hop on top of the train and swing in through the windows of the next car up. They both take on the terrorists. One of them opens fire but Cammy uses her Cannon Drill to spin right under him. Cammy hits him with a Thrust Kick so hard it sends him through the train car ceiling. Cammy is about to declare victory when she notices the cars behind them have been disengaged. Cammy asks if Ginzu did that and Wolfman says he didn't. Cammy asks herself what if the prime minister wasn't the target?
Cammy makes a run for it and leaps off the train car, and uses her Cannon Drill to make it across to the car in front of them. Cammy busts in through a door in the ceiling and sees one of the Shadaloo Dolls holding a hostage at sword-point. The Doll recognizes Cammy, but she gets knocked out before anything else is said.
Cammy realizes that this woman looked at her as if she knew her. Cammy unties the hostage and says he is safe with her, since she's with British Intelligence. She then hears a sound and looks outside to see a helicopter getting the away. She notes that the helicopter has the Shadaloo symbol.
Elsewhere in San Fransisco, Ken is training in a barn, beating the crap out of a 'Foreverlast' punching bag until it gets kicked in half. Ken scoffs at the 'Foreverlast' label as he tosses the broken punching bag onto a pile of other broken punching bags. Eliza tosses him a water bottle, which Ken catches. Ken asks her what's cookin' and Eliza says maybe a bun or two. She says that twins do run in her family, making Ken spits out his water. Eliza says it's too soon for ultrasound, but they should make weddings plans while she can still fit in a wedding dress. Ken says his bachelor days are truly over.
Eliza asks how his training is going. Ken says it's fine but it's hard to gauge without some solid competition. Eliza says she knows he means Ryu and wonders if there's any way to talk him into training with him in the barn since they both intend to defeat Akuma. Ken says Ryu is set on this world tour of his, wanting to challenge as many different fighters as he can. He says after Akuma beat them both, he can't blame Ryu for trying something different. Eliza says Ryu must be going through a lot and wonder how one even starts getting over something like that.
Eliza recalls that Ryu was an orphan trained by Gouken, but his master was murdered by Akuma. After being chased by Sagat, interpol and Shadaloo, he finally got to face Akuma, only to be defeated. Eliza hopes Ryu knows that wherever his journey takes him, she hopes he knows he's not alone.
Ryu and Sakura are walking to the airport until Sakura asks for a break. Ryu says if she's serious about her training a leisurely stroll like that should be a trifle. Sakura asks how this will help 'kick people's asses' and says they can get to the airport by bus. Ryu says she should know that martial arts is more than just 'kicking people's asses' and this will help build character. Sakura ponders what Ryu says and notes that he's walking barefoot. She takes off her shoes and also walks barefoot.
Meanwhile at Lt. Wolfman's flat in London, Wolfman congratulates Cammy on her quick thinking. The attempt on the minister was a diversion from the real target. The man Cammy saved was a world-leading genetic scientist, the type a lot of dangerous individuals would want in their bio-weapons division. Wolfman says Cammy has been a part of MI-6 for such a short time, and she's already become an indispensable member of the team. Cammy says she also can't imagine her life without them.
Cammy feels that her life began when they found her in Italy. She couldn't remember anything or knew what to do next. She says fate must have had a good idea when the British Embassy was suddenly attacked in front of her. She doesn't know if it was the sound of the explosions, the smell of burning concrete, or the sight of masked men charging in with machine guns... but something in Cammy clicked. She rushed in towards them.
Cammy fights against all of the men all by herself, taking them down as a one-woman army. Colonel Wolfman arrives, telling the Delta Red that they have 30 terrorists on their hands, only see to see that Cammy had already taken them all out. Wolfman asks the young woman to identify herself. The woman doesn't know who she is.
Back to current day, Wolfman explains that Commander Watson and MI-6 were so impressed with Cammy they overlooked her amnesia and non-existent past and trained her to form part of Her Majesty's biggest anti-terrorist team. Wolfman says he's afraid that someday Cammy will wake up and leave them to rejoin her family in some fishing village in Greenland. Cammy says her memory is still as foggy as ever, but she mentions it looked like the girl they captured on the train recognized her. McCoy tells everyone that dinner is ready and Cammy decides to tell Wolfman later.
Dinner is served and McCoy brings in the food. Luwanda grabs and tosses the meat and uses the kitchen knife to chop it into steaks in mid-air. Everyone is impressed except for McCoy since the knife landed and stabbed itself onto his brand new serving platter.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Chun Li looks at a photo of herself with her father, as she pays respects to his grave. Chun Li practices a stance and charges energy between her palms. She thrusts her hands outwards and charges up a huge energy ball, the Kikosho. As the energy dissipates, Chun Li tells her father that she misses him.
Chun Li gets a call from Guile who was checking in. Chun Li had taken some time out to clear her head but she's back in the field. Guile asks if there has been any sign of Bison. Chun Li says no, but even if Bison died in that fall, it didn't mean that Shadaloo died with him. She won't be done avenging her father's death as long as the Shadaloo Crime Syndicate exists.
Guile meanwhile is busy on a more delicate assignment than he's used to. Chun Li says they all have their burdens to bear and asks for an update on his meeting. They end the call and Guile's wife Julia shows up.
Elsewhere somewhere else in Hong Kong, Fei Long is surrounded by several men. Fei Long says he'll take them all on, the question is will they fight one on one or all at once. The leader sends his men after Fei Long. The martial artist defeats them all and asks why they killed his teacher. The movie director calls to cut and print.
The director tells Fei Long that he did great and to bring the same intensity the next day. He says 'Legend of Fist' will be his greatest film yet. Fei Long says he always brings his best. Before he heads out, the director says he shouldn't leave through the front due to the mob of fans outside and should leave through the back entrance. As Fei Long leaves, the manager has a suspicious look.
As Fei Long heads out, several card arrive full of dangerous-looking men, alongside a group that was already there. Around the corner more men show up, some jumping off the fire escape with weapons. Fei Long wipes his nose and tosses his shirt into the air. He confidently calls them 'autograph hounds' as he's prepared to show them that his martial arts skills are not just for show.
Elsewhere a bald man with goggles walks on pushing a cart with surgical equipment as he enters a secret room with the Shadaloo symbol upon its door. The man looks for something and finds Bison's hat. He says it's almost time for him to wake up.
Street Fighter- Lesson Learned
We start in Master Gouken's dojo, five years ago, we see a younger Ryu and Ken getting ready to train. At this point, Ryu still has his white bandana while Ken has his long ponytail.
Ryu tells Ken that his problem is he rushes too much into learning new techniques when he hasn't mattered the forms he's already been taught. Ken says it's not his fault he's the fastest learner in the dojo. Ryu says it takes months or even years to master even the simplest techniques. Ken says that Ryu takes himself too seriously and has no style.
Ryu says that substance wins over style every time. Ken says that having both is even better. Ryu fires off a HadoKen, which Ken jumps over. Ryu leaps at him and starts spinning towards him with the Tatsumaki_Sempukyaku. Ken leans backwards to avoid it, but one of Ryu's spinning kicks cuts his ponytail off. Ken is angry that his hair was messed with and knocks Ryu back with a flaming ShoRyuKen that knocks his bandana off.
Ryu is impressed since he's never seen a flaming variation of the ShoRyuKen. Ken says he shifted the focus of his chi to his fist at the last second, and he's been working on it for a while. Ryu says he never would have thought of that. Ken says Ryu has to be more adventurous or he'll never grow into anything more than what he's being taught. Ken says martial arts is like any other art, everyone needs a style of their own.
Ken apologizes for the headband and gives Ryu the red bandana he was using to tie his ponytail up, since he won't be needing it anymore. He says it might serve as a helpful reminder. Ryu asks what the reminder is for. They both walk off as Ken says it's a reminder to not take himself so seriously.
Cheap Shots- Saikyo Dojo
The story opens with a kid named Bryan running from some bullies. Dan, Bryan's karate teacher, leaps in and shows the boys back. Dan is ready to rough them up but offers one of them a free shot. The meanest of the bullies socks Dan in the stomach. Dan plays it off, but feels the pain internally.
Dan sees that the kids might be trouble, so he beats them up. However one of the bullies' larger and more muscular older brothers shows up asking what happened. Dan reminds Bryan of the first thing he learned.... when facing a beat-down, it's better to run than get burned. Dan and Bryan run the hell away as the big guy chases after them.
My Thoughts-
Well, first things first. Let me go into what made the American version a 'super-sized issue'. The comic celebrates not only Street Fighter's 15 year anniversary as of 2004 but also the success of Udon's first six issues, which will be collected into trade paperback form. The first six issues is considered the 'pilot' before they start the real story.
Other things include the winners of an art contest, pictures of several fans Street Fighter collections (though I did see some SNK characters sprinkled in there). This time the Cheap Shots story, which is usually a one page gag was actually three pages long.
Credit to Jana Schirmer, especially for sneaking Kyosuke in there. That's one way to have Rival Schools representation.
When I look at both books, the only thing that made the American version 'fatter' were the extra art and fan pics, the Cheap Shots that always gets left out for some reason, and all the ads. The Mexican version has no ads except for the last page or so.
As for the story itself, the main focus is on Cammy and her new life with MI-6 Delta Red. It goes into how she became a member of the team and how she's adjusting. Of course the big deal was running into one of her former teammates who recognized her. I also like the irony of Cammy starting the issue protecting the Prime Minister... while her first animated appearance in the Street Fighter II movie was her killing the British Minister.
While on the topic of the back up story, there was one panel where Ryu tosses his fireball at Ken and I can only assume Ken jumped over it. It also looks like Ken shoved the fireball downwards, but I haven't know many characters to have the ability to push or redirect a ki attack with their bare hands (Rose still uses her psycho-powered scarf, not her bare hands).
The comic also brings in Fei Long, a very popular Street Fighter character. When it comes to the games though, his last appearance was in the Street Fighter 4 games. I'm not sure how true the rumors are, but it's been said that Bruce Lee's family no longer want characters based on his likeness to appear in future games. That just makes no sense considering that as recent as Tekken 8 we still got Marshall Law running around and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with him. We can still hope for Fei Long to be future Street Fighter 6 DLC. I only bring it up because seeing him in this comic reminds me of the days of Alpha 3 and Street Fighter 4 games when he was seemed a lot more prominent.
I don't have much to say about the Cheap Shots story except that is the first time that I recall seeing the kids actually interact with a Street Fighter character rather than playing the game on the Game Boy Advanced.
When it comes to the Mexican version, there isn't anything too crazy when it comes to the translation. One thing to note is the different units of measurements between countries, so Eliza says 'she already put on ten pounds' in the American version and the Mexican version says 'she gained five kilos'. Ten pounds is 4.5 kilos, so close enough.
The more interesting bits were regarding Luwanda's British slang and phrases. In the American version she said 'bugger' in regards to not being able to get a clear shot. The Mexican version just went with 'maldicion' which pretty means 'damn'. She later on says 'easy-peasy' and the Mexican comic went with 'calmantes-montes' which is an expression I never heard before while in Mexico.
Calmantes-Montes literally translates to 'calming/soothing mountains' but can be used as way of saying 'chill out', 'keep calm', or it can even be 'take it easy' which sort of ties into 'easy-peasy'. The thing is, Luwanda isn't trying to keep her buddies calm, she's boasting that the mission will be easy. I'd imagine the guys at Mundo Viz didn't go with something like 'que facil/how easy' or 'sera facil/it'll be easy' instead. Minor nitpick and all that, but that's what make these articles fun.
There are also two fan letters in the Mexican version. One guy asked if they plan to bring in the Darkstalkers comics since Udon also makes those... and it went unanswered. The next one asked how often the comics come out, to which Mundo Vid said it was a monthly comic. I found it funny how that first one went ignored. Like, why even print it, lol.
Overall we're off to a good start as now we get into Cammy leaving her life as a Shadaloo Doll behind and embracing life as a MI-6 agent. However as we know, her past will soon return to haunt her. Let's see what happens next issue.
Looking back, this is the last issue of Udon's first run where I have both the American and Mexican versions. It will be the Mexican versions from issue 8 to issue 14 from here on out.
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