Final Fight # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Mad Gear gang has kidnapped the mayor's daughter to try to control the new mayor, Mike Haggar. Just like the original arcade game, Haggar, Cody and Guy fight their way through the gang until they make it to their boss Belger. Also like the arcade, the battle ended with Belger being knocked through his high-rise window. However in this case, not only do we have a whole other issue to go through, Belger also took Haggar along for the ride as now they're both falling out the window! What will happen next? 

 

"Takedown" opens with Belgar and Haggar falling out the sky rise window. Belgar tells Haggar that he managed to save his daughter, but now they're both going to die. Haggar grabs onto Belger and says they're not going to die. Haggar says he spent years professional wrestling, and to survive in the ring, you need to learn how to take a fall.

Meanwhile, Bred is still upset about how his car was destroyed earlier. Abigail shows him his monster truck and tells him that he should forget about his car and get a truck instead. Bred considers it but he loves his car too much. He says maybe someday he'll love another car as much and tells Abigail to treasure his truck because it can go at any moment. Just then Haggar and Belger smash through the monster truck. Abigail now feels the same way Bred does.

Jessica, Cody and Guy check on Haggar, who is somehow still alive. Haggar says Belger is still alive as well and will now stand trial. Damnd says they've been wanting to get rid of Belger for a while but he was too well protected. Now the Mad Gear can govern themselves as 'one big family' and the heroes will now get front row seats at their first family reunion. The entire gang shows up and start to surround Haggar, Cody, Guy and Jessica as they stand on top of the smashed up monster truck.

Even Cody admits there's an awful lot of Mad Gear gang members and asks Guy is they can still win. Guy says they will fight til the end, but sometimes they have to swallow their pride and ask their help. Guy tosses a shuriken through the air and his master Zeku catches it. Zeku says the Bushin-Ryu clan sticks together and Maki says she knew they needed their help. Cody asks Guy if he knows them and Guy says his Japanese family decided to Haggar accepts their help. Just then Lucia also arrives with the police force backing her. Cody says they might have a chance. Haggar says there's always a chance and they'll never give up.

Haggar grips a steel pipe. Poison, Rolento and Sodom get ready. Hollywood grabs his molotov cocktails. Lucia, Maki and Zeku get into their stances. Damn says 'somebody has to say it' and yells "FIGHT!!!!" as all hell breaks loose. 

Cody tries to get Hugo's attention but he gets mostly shrugged off. Lucia says if he wants a first date and wants to get noticed, you have to show them something special. She then hits Hugo in the face with her Fire Spinner attack. 

Poison is choking out one of the cops and brags about it to Roxy. Roxy is busy as Jessica angrily approaches her. Jessica grabs her in a suplex causing a huge impact on the concrete. Lucia remarks to never mess with the champ's daughter and Cody knows it.

Sodom fights with Maki and uses some broken Japanese. Maki is confused since he pretty much said he wants soy sauce. Sodom says he has studied the language of his ancestors for years. Maki says he should have studied longer since the kanji on his chest says 'phony'. Sodom disagrees and Maki sends him flying back with a kick as she says it actually says 'big fat phony'. As Sodom lays defeated, one of the cops asks Maki if the kanji really says that. Maki says it doesn't say anything and calls Sodom a poser.

Guy tells his master Zeku that calling for help must mean he's out of the running for the title of Bushin-Ryu Master. Zeku says asking for help shows he has humility and accepts that he still has a lot to learn. Rolento leaps in attack but Zeku jumps out of the way and lands on his shoulder. Zeku tells Guy that even a master will always be a student for life. Guy says he understands as he kicks Rolento and sends him flying.

Damnd tells Haggar that they got off on the wrong foot. They can split the city, with the Mad Gear keeping the East side. He adds that the Mad Gear could also serve as bodyguards, butlers or chauffeurs. He asks Haggar what he really wants. Haggar says he wants him to shut up as he punches the hell out of him and then does a double-axehandle punch, smashing him into the ground.

Haggar holds up the defeated Damnd and calls out to the Mad Gear gang. He says they crossed him so he took down their leader Belger in a day, and then took down their second leader Damned in ten minutes. He asks them who wants the job next. The gang members run off.

As everyone regroups, Zeku tells Guy that a large Mad Gear member with a mohawk was seen a nearby vendor of automobiles. Guy knows it's Abigail. Cody says they can take of it. Jessica tells Cody that they won and he's already leaving. Cody says he'd love to stay, but he can't. Not while evil still stalks the streets. He says Jessica won't be safe until every last Mad Gear member is taken care of. Haggar tells Jessica that there will always be forces that threaten their home and there is no 'Final Fight'. Haggar says as long as people still care about Metro City, they'll always be around for another round.

The story ends as it began, with some kids playing the Final Fight arcade. They beat the game, but they pull out some more quarters for one more go.

 

My Thoughts- 

Um... yeah, the first part of the story with the cliffhanger of Haggar and Belger hurtling to the deaths off the top of Belger's tower... No.  It doesn't matter what wrestling hold Haggar gets Belger in, or that Abigail's truck broke their fall... from that height those two are dead. I don't know what other kind of contrivance they could have used to keep of them alive (or at least just Haggar), but Haggar just power bombing Belger into a monster truck from several flights up? That was the best they could come up with?

The rest of the issue is fun and action packed as the Mad Gear members get a final showing and we also have Zeku, Maki and Lucia back into the story. The story has the benefit of hindsight since Maki was not introduced until Final Fight 2, Zeku was not introduced until Guy's story in the Street Fighter Alpha games, and Lucia was not introduced until Final Fight 3. While Street Fighter 5 retconned Lucia being around during the events of the first Final Fight, the comic had her use one of her new special moves she got in the latest game.

The scene with Sodom and Maki was funny. While I thought he was an actual samurai in Final Fight, the Alpha games revealed he's pretty much an American weeb trying too hard and using broken or flat out wrong Japanese. Here he's pitted up against someone fluent in Japanese that can point out how unfamiliar he is with the language. 

It's hard to tell if Damn legit wants to be Haggar's friend or he's just trying to get him to lower his guard for a cheap shot. This late into the game and he still sounds like he wants to collaborate with him. Damnd was shown to be a fan of Haggar during his wrestler days. Maybe Haggar was someone he once admired and it was difficult for him to be on the opposite side of a wrestler he grew up watching. I mean, I grew up watching Razor Ramon/Scott Hall (and got to meet him) and I would never want to be put into a position where he'd be my enemy.  

Probably the one Mad Gear boss character that got shafted was poor Abigail. He was beat up as an off-panel gag in an earlier issue and he only appears here to lament the loss of his muscle truck. Once we got into the all-out brawl, he didn't get a single scene the way Sodom, Rolento and even Roxy got. 

One thing I still say was weird if we take the story as a whole, was the strange design to have the entirety of issue two be 'on its side'. I mean, yeah, several comics have done two-page splash panels where you do have to flip the comic over to see it properly, but it would be only for that 'poster', not the entire issue. There is already a trade paperback out that collects all four issues and it's weird that you'll have to flip it 90 degrees when you get to issue two and then back to normal when you get to issue three.

The comic's ending is similar to the classic arcade where Cody decides to go and keep fighting rather than stay by Jessica's side. The comic however, has Haggar and Guy actually agree with him and Haggar even ends the story with his own variation of 'as long as evil stalks the streets'. I guess this better matches the arcade without throwing in too many hints of what would become of Cody. Sure, the arcade hints he'll continue to fight, but nobody expected to see him behind bars when Street Fighter Alpha 3 re-introduced him.

 

I enjoyed the story and all the callbacks and references to that popular 1989 arcade game that took the Double Dragon formula and heavily improved it. With all the attention that Bred gave to his brand spankin' new car, we just knew eventually it would get destroyed like the infamous bonus round. It's too bad Final Fight 2 and 3 were not that well received (other than giving us Maki and Lucia), but I would have loved to have seen comic adaptations of those as well. I'd like to see how Udon would explain Guy's sensei being Genryusai in Final Fight 2 before Zeku was introduced.

I used to own all 4 issues and somehow lost them during the move from the apartment to the house, so thankfully I was able to grab them again thanks to Hipcomic. It just sucks that, for the sake of completion, I'd have to track down that Street Fighter VS Final Fight issue and pay for it, considering it was free the first time around.