Final Fight # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Mad Gear gang has kidnapped the Mayor's daughter Jessica to try to buy his services. The mayor Mike Haggar and his friends Cody and Guy decided to take matters into their own hands and started a rampage against the Mad Gears. After a run in with Edi E and Lucia, they were informed where to find Bred, who drove off with Jessica. Meanwhile Bred had already dumps Jessica off at the main hideout of the leader of the Mad Gear gang! 

 

"Breakdown" opens with Bred showing off his new car to Abigail and naming all its features. Abigail says it's a tiny car and asks why he didn't get a truck. Bred says trucks are for work, while cars are a symbol. As Bred goes on and on about his car, Abigail is grabbed and pulled aside. Bred turns to see Abigail knocked out. Cody asks Bred to tell him where he took Jessica or they'll beat up his best friend. Bred says he barely likes Abigail. Cody says he meant his other best friend. Cody, Guy and Haggar smash Bred's car to bit as the Mad Gear member says 'OH, MY CAR!'.

 

Bred tells the trio that he took Jessica to Belger. Haggar says Belger is an industrialist and he donated heavily towards his political opponent during the election. Guy asks how Belger is connected to the Mad Gear. Bred says that Belger IS the Mad Gear and owns the gangs, the police and the politicians before Haggar. Belger owns half the city. Guy says the gang was bigger than he thought and asks what the plan is now. Cody says just like always, they'll bust through the front door.

Once they arrive at Belger's building, there are too many armed guards lurking around. Cody jokes that they should send a sternly written postcard instead. Guy doesn't like the joke and points out the guns. Cody says they're the dream team, calling himself the toughest brawler in Metro City joined by CWA's greatest legend and the Master of Bushinryu Ninjitsu. Guy says he's not the master but a student. Cody says it's just something one says, just like Sagat is called the God of Muay Thai and you have King Rasta Mon but they're not literal kings and gods. Haggar sees something and tries to alert his friends.

Suddenly Rolento jumps in and kicks Guy back, saying he will get promoted after taking them down. Before Cody can help, Poison wraps her whip around his neck. Hugo Andore smashes through a wall and grabs Haggar saying he will become champ after he takes out the current champ.

Poison pulls on the whip, choking Cody, as she digs her heel into his back. She says Cody must be the boyfriend, and he should ditch the 'blonde arm-candy' and go for a real woman. Cody pulls a knife and cuts the whip to get free. Poison says Cody must not be a fan of the whip, but most boys love it. She pulls out some handcuffs. Cody takes a few swings at her, and Poison dodges and manages to cuff both his wrists. 

Rolento fights with Guy and is too fast for him. He says Guy doesn't have what it takes for the new world order and he should go back to boot camp. He leaps towards Guy and throws grenades at him. The explosion blasts Guy back and also causes a smokescreen. Guy hits the ground and suddenly a shuriken hits the ground near him. Guy says he doesn't need help and gets back to his feet.

Poison throws some kicks and Cody has enough of her. Cody runs from Poison and Guy runs from Rolento. They both run towards each other and decides to switch partners. Cody hits Rolento with a double axehandle punch and Guy hits Poison with a flying kick to the face. Both Mad Gears are down. Cody and Guy agree that they're a good team but now they have to help their third teammate. They turn to see Haggar putting Hugo in a torture rack before dropping him to the ground. 

 

Haggar says he's tried of dealing with the middle men and wants to talk to the boss. Cody says they still need a way into that fortress. Haggar says they have Cody's original plan, the front door. Moments later, the guards are caught off guard by seeing a tractor headed towards them, being driven with Haggar with Cody and Guy along for the ride.

Inside, Jessica hears the loud rumble sound and says her father arrived. Belger hears the guards over the radio and how they're all taken out. Belger sends some of his men to go help them out. Jessica asks Belger if he's worried yet. Belger says his penthouse is the most secure in the state and it would take a small army to get in. More loud sounds are heard and Jessica says it sounds like her father remembered to bring his small army.

Haggar smashes through the door and tells Belger to let his daughter go and he'll be able to walk out of there under his own power. Belger says he assumes he means in cuffs, but he owns the police, the courts and even has the governor on speed dial. Belger grabs Jessica and pulls out a crossbow. He kicks his desk towards Haggar and the Mayor just smashes right through it. Haggar says he can't buy off everybody. Belger shoots some arrows at him and Haggar dives out of the way. He says everyone has a price and Haggar should just name his. Jessica says Haggars are fighters and her father will never join the Mad Gear.

Belger agrees that Jessica is as stubborn as her father, so he'll make a noble corpse instead. He fires off an arrow that is about to hit Haggar in the eye... but Cody manages to punch it right out of the air. Haggar and Cody confront Belger. Belger says he knows Jessica is his price and aims his crossbow at her head. He says if they move any closer, Jessica will get it. Cody says they can't move... but one rule about storming a castle is to always bring your ninja. 

Guy drops from the ceiling and jump kicks Belger. Cody jump kicks Belger as well, and sends him crashing through the penthouse window. As he falls, Belger fires some shots towards his chair. The chair explodes, knocking Hgarra towards the now busted open window. Both Belger and Haggar fall out the window now. Belger says if the Mad Gear falls tonight, the Mayor will fall with them.

 

My Thoughts- 

So that's one hell of a cliffhanger. They knock Belger out the window like the classic arcade game, but to throw in extra stakes, Haggar is thrown out too. I was surprised this happened so quickly in issue three of a four-issue series. Clearly they'll somehow rescue Haggar next issue but that won't take 20 or pages. What will the remaining 15 or so pages be about?

Another thing that catches the eye is that this issue goes back to a regular comic book format where you read left to right, and not having to turn it on its side and read from up to down like in the last issue. I still wonder why they did that because whenever they collect this in a trade, which they will, it'll be weird to have the flip the book sideways during one-fourth of the story. 

 

I'm also surprised with how Abigail, the second-to-last boss of the game, was done away with so quickly as part of a gag. We were waiting for the 'Oh, My Car' joke the moment  Bred made a big deal about his fancy new car. I just didn't want it to be at the expense of a 'boss battle' against Abigail. Damnd, Sodom, Edi E and Rolento got their spotlight, poor Abigail was reduced to a joke. This can't be about Poison, Rolento and Hugo being featured heavily in Street Fighter, since Abigail was in Street Fighter 5.

On a similar note, due to all the rushing around, while we saw Cody and Guy deal with Poison and Rolento... Haggar pretty much defeated Hugo off panel. As for the other two, we got Rolento speaking in his expected military speak as he does in the Alpha games, and Poison being overly flirty with Cody.

Poison was portrayed as having a crush on Cody in the forgotten fighting game Final Fight Revenge. In that version of events, she framed him and got him locked up. Other games would elaborate that the canon reason Cody was arrested is because he got obsessed with fighting and didn't stop after rescuing Jessica. As for this comic, it's kinda hard to tell if Poison is just being playful during the fight or really has a thing for him. The way she hugged him rather than attack him while he's cuffed makes me wonder how things would have gone if Cody pretended to have chosen her over Jessica. Would Poison legit try to convince Cody to join the Mad Gear as her beau? 

 

So we pretty much breezed through the game's 5 stages in 3 issues, all the way up to Belger's defeat. I'm curious what issue 4 will be about since it sounds like we're going to enter uncharted territory. Maybe more stuff involving Lucia, Maki and Zeku? We'll find out as we head into the final issue!

I first got this issue as part of a blind box from Third Eye. At the time it was perfect because I already owned 1 and 2, and issue 4 was still yet-to-be-released at the time. It bites that I lost that one, but I'm glad I found another copy thanks to Hipcomic.