Udon Street Fighter # 8

 By Mark Rodriguez

Cammy has been given the chance of a new life alongside her team with MI-6 Delta Red. Without any memories of her past as Killer Bee, a recent mission had her run into one of the Shadaloo Dolls who recognized her. Elsewhere the movie star Fei Long just wrapped filming when he suddenly surrounding by several men trying to take him out for real. What will happen next?

 

The story opens with a flashback as Cammy, as Killer Bee, wraps her legs around a guard and snaps his neck. She then charges towards other armed gunmen. Weaving in between gunshots, Cammy punches one of them and kicks the other so hard his neck is snapped. Cammy grabs the second man's gun as the first tries to get back up. Cammy aims the gun, point blank, and shoots the first man in the head. As Cammy tries to enter the restricted area the guards were protecting, she suddenly has a strong headache.

 

Cammy awakens floating in a fluid-filled capsule, alongside another woman in her own capsule. The Shadaloo scientist watches on as Bison enters the room. Bison smiles evilly and the scientist pressed a button. Cammy is hit with electric shocks, waking her up in present day. Cammy is breathing hard as she has awakened from her nightmare and she calls us Colonel Wolfman.

Cammy tells him she had a dream, and up til now she has never had a dream she remembered. She also never had any idea of she was before she was discovered but the dream felt familiar to her. She had the same feeling when she encountered the woman they captured on the train. She feels there has to be a connection. Wolfman says if that woman has a clue about Cammy's past, MI-6 will find out. He tells her that she sounds tired over the phone and to get some rest. Cammy looks in the mirror, looking at her scar.

 

At the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, Chun Li is seeing the chief, who says she has shut down more Shadaloo operations than all of his men combined. This is why he wanted to entrust with case with her. Chun Li when it comes to Shadaloo, she's ready, and asks what they're up to now. The chief says they're into show business which confused her.

The chief explains that Shadaloo has had ties with the Hong Kong underworld. They recently discovered that several movie studios were actually front for larger Shadaloo-related gangs. They're all in on it, from talent scouts, directors, producers, even some movie stars. Chun Li asks if this means they she's been Shadaloo agents accepting movie awards at the Oscars. The chief says at least half a dozen of them that they know of.

The chief tells Chun Li to be careful since lives were already lost on this mission. He says their last agent was onto something big but he was killed before he could turn in a report. Before he died, he said one thing to the paramedics on the scene. "Get Fei Long".

Later on, in another part of Hong Kong, Fei Long is surrounded by armed men. The leader says Fei Long is rude for not answering Xiayu and Yanyu's request to star in their next biggest silver screen blockbuster. Fei Long says his agent already told them that all the money in the world wouldn't convince him to star in that flop. The man cracks his knuckles and says they weren't planning on using money to convince him. As the men start to close in on him, the leader says that Fei Long has been fighting with stuntmen for too long and it's time they remind him what real pain feels like.

Fei Long asks if pain feels 'like this' as he kicks the leader so hard he is sent crashing into a car's windshield. The others are shocked. The man tells them to stop staring and to kill him.

Fei Long easily fights off all of the attackers. As he fights, he says the men are too reckless. He says a  great man once says 'when fighting one has to be formless, shapeless like water. If you put water into a cup it becomes a cup. If you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. If you put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash." Fei Long whips out a pair of nunchucks and tells the gang to 'Be water, my friends." 

Fei Long uses his nunchucks to take down the remaining men with amazing speed and accuracy. The only conscious man was the leader, still sitting on the car's hood. The man desperately whips out a switchblade. Fei Long wags his finger and the man drops it and makes a run for it. As he leaves he says that Fei Long is a dead man and Xiayu and Yanyu will take care of that.

 

At the MI-6 HQ, Wolfman and Cammy look over the belongings on the woman they captured from the train mission. Wolfman asks if any of the items ring a bell. Cammy looks at the long red arm protectors feel familiar as she tries one on. She asks Wolfman for a few minutes alone with the woman sine it's possible that she might know something. Wolfman tells her to follow him. 

As they go seven floors underground, Wolfman says the woman hasn't been cooperative and it took twelve men to restrain her, and she hasn't said a word since. Wolfman says maybe Cammy will have better luck getting information out of her. As Wolfman leaves, the woman mutters under breath, asking Cammy if they are completely alone. Cammy says they are. The woman salutes, calling herself Agent Satsuki  'reporting to Agent Killer Bee'.

 

Cammy is confused by the salute and being called Killer Bee but decides to play along. She orders Satsuki to stand 'At Ease' and asks what she called her. Satsuki says she is 'Commanding Doll Officer Killer Bee' and asks if she was using a new alias for her deep cover mission. Satsuki thinks that Cammy is trying to infiltrate MI-6 and Delta Red and thus her capture in Germany was necessary to not blow her cover. Satsuki apologizes for interfering in her mission and says she was not informed of the reason behind Cammy's disappearance.

Cammy asks for any information regarding Shadaloo since her current mission kept her out of the loop. Satsuki tells her that Commander Bison took severe damage on his trip to Japan, but thanks to the same technology that Cammy obtained for the secret weapon, he is currently in recovery. 

Satsuki adds that the weapon's potential levels have exceeded the expected projections and will soon exceed the capacity of the world's nuclear weapons. Shadaloo's enemies that still rely on traditional weapons will be annihilated. Cammy asks if the weapon is complete. Satsuki says it's almost complete after Cammy assassinated Professor Rodmonovic's team and stole the experimental designs. Shadaloo is currently working on getting a functional prototype. Cammy is in horror, pondering on the team she murdered and asks herself who she really is.

Meanwhile in Toba, Japan, Kei was living with her grandparents and checking the mail. After glossing over bills and junk mail, she finds a letter from Sakura. In the letter, Sakura explains that, at the time she wrote the letter, she is at the train station with Ryu in Thailand, and they already used two rolls of film. She asks Kei a big favor. Her folks would clearly never let her go to this training trip with Ryu, so she told them she was spending her summer vacation with Kei and her grandfolks in Toba. 

She sent an extra letter she hopes that Kei will send to her parents, saying how Sakura is having fun fishing and swimming with her and whanot. She hopes Kei can send that letter over and thanks her in advance. Kei clutches her fist since her friend is at it again.

Currently still in Thailand, Ryu and Sakura are walking along. Sakura is eating a local snack called Satay and offers Ryu some. Ryu says he's not hungry but his stomach says otherwise. Ryu accepts and eats some as Sakura notices a large Budda statue in the distance. She tells Ryu to smile and takes a quick pic of him still eating.

Sakura sees a crowd and wonders what the fuss is about. Ryu says it looks like a fight. Sakura is excited since they came to Thailand to see the toughest Muay Thai fighters. Ryu said he came to see one in particular. Sakura asks if he's a friend of his. Ryu says not exactly, but it's someone that pushed him as a fighter than he ever experienced before. 

We see some opponents already defeated, and the fighter, covered by a purple cape, asks who is next to challenge the King of Muay Thai. The man senses something and tosses his cape away. Ryu and Sakura look onward as he main reveals himself to be Adon. Adon tells Ryu that they meet at last.

 

Back Up Story

A year before current events, Sakura is in a hurry as she overslept and it late for school. As she speeds down the road on her bike, a limo suddenly stops in front of her. We see someone open the limo door as Sakura yells that they almost ran her over.

Karin Kanzuki steps out of the limo and reintroduces herself as she was promised a rematch. Sakura says she said to wait until after exams. Karin says those are just excuses since Sakura knows she only won the first time out of luck. Karin charges at her, telling Sakura to defend herself. Sakura gets in her stance and tells her to make it quick. Karin leaps towards her saying it will be as quick and painful as possible.

 

Sakura dodges Karin's kick and spins with one of her own. Karin catches her first and tosses Sakura, who manages to flip in the air. Both girls land on their feet and Karin calls Sakura annoying. Sakura socks Karin in the face and then kicks to off her feet as he shoe flies off. Sakura celebrates her win as her shoe comes back down and bops her on the head. Sakura rubs her head and sees her watch, realizing she's late.

Karin's assistant, Ishizaki, helps Karin to her feet and says he has a first aid kit ready. Karin tells him that the fight had just begun as she sees that Sakura is already speeding away on her bike. Karin angrily mutters Sakura's name.

My Thoughts-

First off, kudos to Fei Long for quoting Bruce Lee's famous quote about 'flowing like water'. It was quoted almost word for word so I had to find the original interview to make sure I got it right. It's funny that, at least in Udon's canon, Fei Long himself looks up to Bruce Lee despite being Street Fighter's Bruce Lee.

The main focus was on Cammy as she is slowly trying to piece together parts of her past. I thought the agent she knocked out was Juli (from Street Fighter Alpha 3 and later games) but it was actually another Doll named Satsuki. All of the Dolls, except Cammy, were named after months, and Satsuki is the Japanese name for May. However, despite its spelling it's actually pronounced 'go-gatsu' which means 5th Month if translated literally. 

Satsuki appears in that split second intro in Alpha 3 where all the Dolls appear and leave with Juni and Juli staying behind to fight you. She makes a more notable appearing in Street Fighter V's Shadow Falls story mode, but her hair is black and styled differently.

 

We also get to see Adon finally make his appearance. I kinda forgot about him for a moment, since similar to Fei Long, he hasn't returned for the Street Fighter 5 and (as of yet) Street Fighter 6 era. Even though the comic ends with him saying 'they meet at last', I hope they acknowledge that they both should have crossed paths in the first Street Fighter tournament somewhere. In the original game, Adon was the second to last fighter before taking on Sagat himself. The Alpha games mostly have Adon be angry that Sagat lost him title and thus he set his sights on both Ryu and Sagat.

 

The back up was a short look at Karin's one-sided rivalry with Sakura. Kei did mention that Sakura kept getting into fights with her before she met Ryu. It's funny seeing how Karin is seething with sheer hatred for Sakura, since she did eventually mellow out over the years. She seemed very friendly and humble in Street Fighter 5, especially during the Shadow Falls story mode. However, Sakura wasn't in it since she was introduced as DLC too late to be part of the story, so we never got to see them interact in cinematic fashion. The art was kinda odd, but then again a lot of the back up stories go for different types of overly stylized art.

Since I only own the Mexican version of this one, I missed on whatever the Cheap Shots joke was about. There weren't any odd translations or anything. The only thing that stood out to me was Sakura using the actual English word 'yummy' when describing the Satay. I rarely heard the actual word 'yummy' said in Mexico and would most hear more common phrases for something yummy like 'delicioso', 'rico' or 'sabroso'. 

As for Satay, deeply marinated chicken on skewers and covered with peanut sauce does sound tasty. Sakura might be onto something there.

 

The fan letters were mostly fans being happy with the series, and funnily enough, some asking if the title can come out more than monthly, as if Mundo Vid has any control over how soon Udon publishes their books (but hey, it could have been a kid asking that). Another fan specifically said they loved the series and asked if we'd be seeing characters from Street Fighter III Third Strike, which we now know they would eventually get to. The one fan that stood out to me the most said that Street Fighter was one of the few games, anime, manga and comic he was into. He added that he was also a fan of Love Hina and Dai No Daiboken AKA Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. This anime was very popular in Mexico at the time (alongside Dragonball, Sailor Moon and Saint Seiya) and since the Latin America dub renamed the main character Fly, the anime was called Las Aventuras de Fly over there.

The last thing that I noticed was this real cool Spawn ad on the back cover, as it seems the hellspawn was  hitting Mexican comic shops around that time.