Street Fighter Masters- Zangief # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Lately the Street Fighter Masters comics have been all over the place. We were supposed to get one about Guile and one about Elena. We finally got the Zangief one instead. The others are still coming, as far as I can tell, just... whenever. Let's see what adventures await the Red Cyclone.

 

The issue opens with Zangief smashing his alarm clock and starting his morning routine. He keeps reminding himself 'five more days' as he guzzles down some coffee. Rainbow Mika is outside waiting for him and says she's been up since four. Zangief says she looks eager to refine the routine required to reach the ranks of perfection. The first step in their routine is to run. Both of them dash off.

 

As they run, Zangief explains that their strongest muscle is not in their arms or their abs, it's their glutes. This is why he suggests running, running and more running. He says that maintaining stamina will not be easy as they must fight against laziness, which lurks everywhere and tempts them to stop. They will body slam laziness on her face and give the world what it needs, themselves at peak physical perfection.

After running, Zangief and Mika work on gym equipment, lifting all sorts of heavy weights. Zangief goes to lift a weight with huge dumbbells, one Olympic lift a day. Zangief lifts the huge weight but suddenly stops, as he can't lift it above his head. He drops the weight and looks stunned. Mika asks if he's alright, but Zangief is just speechless.

 

Zangief wakes up the next morning and goes through his morning routine. As he looks in the mirror... he appears to be scrawnier than usual. Zangief screams as he wakes from this nightmare. Zangief gets up and marks the calendar. He says his diet is all wrong and focuses on eating more protein, more carbs and more dairy, basically gulping everything down. He steps out and tells Mika there isn't time for words. It's time to ignite the glutes as he speeds off, Mika close behind. He enters the gym once more. 

Zangief lifts several weights before he prepares for another attempt at the Olympic lift. He lifts the huge weight but can't get it above his head. He drops the weight in shock as tears start to flow from his eyes.

The next morning, Zangief is out on the edge of the snowy mountains, reading a book and lamenting his situation. Mike finds him and tells him the tournament is in three days. Zangief says she shouldn't have bothered to find him, for he has finally hit his peak and it's all downhill from here. Mika asks if he's going emo. Zangief doesn't know what emo is but she should now go find a stronger partner. Suddenly someone yells for help.

 

Zangief and Mika find several fire fighters near their overturned vehicle. There's a massive fire over at the Youth Athletic Center, and people will die if they don't get there soon. Zangief reached under the firetruck and is actually able to lift it over his head, at the shock of both Mike and the firefighter.

 

Later on the firetruck drives off as they thank Zangief for the help. Mika was impressed by Zangief and apologizes for calling him emo. Zangief says he can't be mad until he actually looks up the word. Zangief says he was never getting weak but he was too busy working on vain goals. His mind was not fully inspired and it took a heroic act to bring out the best in him. He says intensity without purpose is pointless. Zangief and Mika are ready for the tournament.

Three days later, the big match is here and the opponents are Necro and his tag partner, Pietra (the same lumberjack type woman that Blanka faced in his Masters comic). Zangief and Mika are introduced as well, drawing massive applause. Necro says he wants to make his village proud while Pietra is in it for the paycheck.

 

The fight starts as Zangief and Mika leap towards their opponents. Necro and Pietra kick them both back. Necro claps Zangief's face and Pietra hits Mika with a chop on her head. Necro dodges one of of Zangief's punches and then hits him his own punch as he stretches his arm out to hit him. Pietra ducks under a kick from Mika, and then hits her with a clothesline.

Zangief and Mika are thrown into each other, colliding in flying clotheslines. Zangief asks Mika if she remembers when he said 'intensity without purpose is pointless'. Mika does and Zangief says they'll work on that tomorrow. Today they need intensity. Mika says 'Let's go!'.

Zangief knocks Necro down with a Double Lariat. Mika knocks Pietra back with her Flying Peach. Zangief and Mika grab their respective opponents and slam them into the mat with Vertical Suplexes. They grab their opponents and slam them both with Spinning Pile Drivers 'for Mother Russia. They pin Necro and Pietra for the three count and win the match.   

     

Sometime later, Effie helps Necro walk and tells them they'll get them next time. Pietra is only concerned on getting her second place money. They see the door up ahead slightly open and with a light coming from inside. They see a woman surrounded by energy. She says money is too small an ambition for their skillset, which is why they lost today. She offers them something money can't buy. She tells them to come to their true calling, she invites them to join Vortex.

 

My Thoughts- 

First I want to say I'm not sure if the book was late or it just too me too long to catch up at Alpha Comics to grab a copy. There are ads for Street Fighter Masters- Karin, Elena, another Darkstalkers X Street Fighter crossover, MegaMan X # 0, MegaMan ZX Timelines and MegaMan Legends Timelines. Most of them apparently 'coming soon' in 2025 even though the year was close to over at the time. Not only that but the Karin comic coming out 'March 2025' has to be a typo. At least the MegaMan X one says 'January 2026' but we'll see if that's true.

It was a fun story. It took me a while to find out what upset Zangief so much, until I realized it was the fact that he couldn't lift the dumbbell with the large of weight added to it above his head that caused him to panic. All of this while the big match was approaching.

The match was alright, pretty much Zangief and Mika getting smacked around until the decided to try. Of course the most interesting person was Pietra, the woman we've seen before in the Street Fighter Masters Blanka comic a few years back. She is a member of Vortex, a new villain group introduced in Street Fighter Prime. However rather than already being a member, the comic ends with the leader Xavia recruiting Pietra (and Necro too?) into the organization.

It was a fun read, and it's cool seeing how Zangief and Mika interact. The only thing missing was them mentioning 'Muscle Spirit' since that was a term shared between them a lot in Street Fighter 5. We finally got to see Zangief's house and some of his day-to-day routine.

 

Now we'll wait and see which other Masters comic will come out as hopefully Udon Comics gets their release schedule worked out in 2026.