Darkstalkers X Street Fighter- Hunter Killers # 1 (Lords of the Makai Part 4)

 By Mark Rodriguez

Pieces of the world of Makai and Chicago have switched places causing chaos everywhere. Queen Morrigan ceded the throne to Lilith as they send teams of Street Fighters and Darkstalkers to protect the citizens from the demons and monster of the Makai. The spell to switch ownership of the throne to Lilith has made Morrigan feral. The Makai energies have also had odd effects on Charlie, Cammy, Menat and John Talbain. What will happen next?

"Hunter Killers" opens in the palace's main room where all of the humans being kept safe from the madness happening outside of Castle Aensland. John Talbain transforms into his werewolf form but is completely feral this time. Maggio sees this and runs off to find Menat.

 

Menat is in an underground parking garage, thinking she made a wrong turn somewhere. As she heads to the surface she can sense several eyes on her. Upon reaching the surface she sees Morrigan sucking the souls out of the various demons and monsters.

Maggio finds Menat. Menat asks Morrigan why she is killing their allies. Morigan says she didn't give up the throne to kill the bad guys, she did it so she could kill whoever she wants. Right now, she wants to kill Menat. She grabs her by the throat and starts to suck out her soul. Maggio flings his yo-yo at her, which wraps around one of her claws. He slams the succubus to the ground, which makes her let Menat go. Morrigan flies towards Maggio calling herself a force of nature. She calls herself Death.

Maggio and Menat nod at each other and dash in opposite directions. Morrigan calls their little tactics cute. Menat appears by her side and blasts her with magic, but Morrigan blocks with her wings. Maggios flings his yo-yo at her face, but this time she catches it. Morrigan says the people of Makai learn to fight as soon as they born. She tells them if they insist on fighting, they have to fight to win. Morrigan yanks on the yo-yo, which flings Maggio towards her. She prepares to end him with her claws.

John Talbain arrives and tells Menat and Maggio that they bit more than they could chew. Morrigan says she wondering when he's break free of his leash and join the hunt. She likes the effects the dark energies are having on him. Talbain tells her to leave those two alone, as they just a distraction.

Morrigan thinks for a moment and drops Maggio. Morrigan asks Talbain if he is ready to go toe to toe with her or if he would rather join her in the hunt of taking lives. Talbain says he is a hunter and a killer, just like her, and they shouldn't fight for scraps where there is larger bounty ahead. Morrigan is glad that he has embraced his true self and tells him to keep up since she'd hate for him to miss the fun.

 

Morrigan bids Menat and Maggio farewell. Talbain tells them to wait in the castle where it's safe. Menat wants to stop them since they can't allow them to kill innocents. Maggio says they can't win a fight against both of them. He says they best they can do is follow and mitigate the damage. 

Further ahead, Swinozo and his pigs have finished dealing with the monsters, but want to continue killing. Morrigan shows up and kills one of the subordinates and Talbain grabs Swinozo by the throat. Talbain says he thought he was supposed to be one of the good guys. Swinozo asks if he wanted to join the fun, since he can see in his eyes that he wants to kill and feed. Swinozo is right, but Talbain wants to kill Swinozo and his pigmen, which he does alongside Morrigan. Menat and Maggio arrive in time to see the bloodbath.

Talbain notices the two and Menat bashes his face with her crystal ball. Talbain is enraged and Maggio hits him with his yo-yo. Talbain tries to slash Maggio to ribbons. Morrigan calls the kids annoying since they are ruining the fun. She swoops down and grabs Menat. She takes to the sky and flings her towards the pavement. Maggio runs from Talbain and helps Menat up, who somehow survived falling from a great height. 

Suddenly a giant tentacle erupts from the ocean. As they run, Menat says they have to stop Talbain and Morrigan. Maggio says they have to run. Talbain starts to chase them. Menat has enough energy to create one last portal but the werewolf destroys it. Menat falls back, weakened, and Maggio stands in front of her. He tells John that they are his allies. Talbain says he has few allies and none of them attack him. He asks them why they thought it was a good idea to pursue them. Morrigan says they're more trouble than they're worth and tells him to kill them already.

 

Talbain prepares to kill them and says they should be running. Menat tells him to think of Felicia. Talbain warns her not to say that name. Menat, tears in eyes, tells Maggio they should go as they did all they could do. Maggio creates a portal and they both escape back to the castle. As they appear at the castle, Rose tells them to close the portal before any of the monsters can follow them. Felicia is saddened to see what has happened to Talbain. She walks off, sobbing.

John Talbain is fully aligned with Morrigan. Morrigan laments that they got away since younger victims taste better.

Bonus Comic-

Maggio performs his fancy yo-yo tricks saying he's the best there is. He shows off moves he calls The Leg Wrap Slap a Dap, the Brain Drain and the Pop N Fresh. He flings the yo-yo towards his opponent and asks what trick he can do. John Talbain catches the yo-yo in his mouth and says he only knows one trick, Walk the Dog. Talbain runs off, yo-yo in mouth, and dragging Maggio behind him.

 

My Thoughts-

Wow, this one went by fast. Since the first issue went through the burden of introducing the premise and all the characters involved, these issues go by fast. Issue 2 had the combination of what Charlie and Cammy we doing as well as Menat rebelling against Rose. Issue 3 was all about BB Hood, Victor and Gill fighting off the Queen Bee swarm. This is is all about Maggio and Menat dealing with Talbain and Morrigan. With so many huge splash-pages and such, there isn't much room to return to other characters. It also makes it difficult for me to decide which pics to post. 

Morrigan has gone full feral and is just running around killing whoever she pleases. We get to see Swinozo again, who was one of the many Makai characters introduced in the first issue. In his case, we also see that after he's done killing the monster he was sent to kill, he wants to continue anyway, even if it's the innocent. In his case it's hard to tell if the Makai energies are also affecting him or if that's just his nature. The first issue did throw a lot of character at us, mostly throwaways. Hell, Swinozo wasn't even named in this issue and I had to go back and look it up.

 

It's hard to say if Talbain is fully lost to his murderous impulses. He does tell Menat and Maggio to return to the castle, and when he was going to kill them, he gave them a chance to run. On the other hand, he did seem like he legit wanted to kill Maggio if he wasn't fast enough to dodge his strikes.

I am a bit confused by Menat somehow surviving not just a big fall, but also Morrigan flinging her towards the ground with force. With the panel of her falling being the cliffhanger panel before you turn the page, I thought Maggio or someone would have caught her and broke her fall. But no, she falls and only gets up with an 'ow'. I had to flip between pages to make sure I didn't miss something. Also with the way her leg was positioned, I thought maybe she broke it, but nope, she was standing just fine when trying to create the portal.

 

Then we have the giant tentacle that just came out of nowhere. For a moment I thought that Rikuo the merman of the series that controls marine life was going to get involved... but nope. I guess it the kraken of the Makai world that ended up in Lake Michigan or something.

We'll see what happens next issue as the story continues. It looks like the story will return to Lilith and the mystery shadow thing she's talking to. I'm also guessing that Rose and Menat have a few things to talk about.

Also for those forgetting, Maggio is the brother of one of the lesser known Shadaloo Dolls, Aprile. Capcom has a lot of these characters, like the rest of the women in Rainbow Mika's wrestling organization and the rest of Sean and Laura's siblings. They even went back and named the two guys that duke it out in the SF2 arcade intro as Scott and Max. Whoever is in charge of Street Fighter's lore is very thorough.