Despite being consistently gawd-awful at the games, I always find myself drawn back to Street Fighter comics. Like the games, the comics never quite seem to be what I'm looking for. Probably because they so often seem to revolve around Ryu, and I don't really care about him. Goku's just about the only, "goofy but kind guy with a huge appetite who loves the challenge of a good fight" character I have time for.
Yet I still try. This 3 volume manga was based on, as the name suggests, Street Fighter II, and the first 2 volumes one big fighting tournament, funded by the mysterious M. Bison. Ryu's seeking several things: his teacher's killer, his best friend Ken, and a good challenge. Guile's out for revenge for a dead friend. Chun-Li's out for revenge for her father, but is trying to find evidence linking Bison to a drug known as "Doll" to get him arrested.
It's interesting to see the differences between this and what the canon of the games would become later. Here, Doll is a drug that makes people into obedient weapons. Later, Doll refers to genetically engineered fighters for Bison, most notably Cammy. Here, Bison killed Ryu and Ken's master, but later it's Gokuen's brother Akuma that's responsible. Blanka's a conniving and vicious figure, trying to prove he should be one of Bison's sub-bosses, rather than a gentle being tortured by Bison's experiments. Dhalsim's a grief-stricken man who wears his dead children's skulls(?!) around his neck. A far cry from the calm and measured sage he becomes in later versions.
The fights vary from somewhat silly (Chun-Li versus E. Honda) to kind of cheesy. Guile beats Zangief with a powerbomb and when the Russian expresses shock Guile would use a wrestling move, Captain Flattop responds that he's from the Land of the Free, so he's free to fight how he likes. Dude deserved the ass-whupping he got from Sagat in the next round, I'll tell you. There's a bit of blood - Ken shatters his fist punching a wall when he breaks the drug's control during a fight with Ryu - but this isn't Mortal Kombat. Nobody's got bones sticking through the skin or being disemboweled. Bison swings Ryu headfirst into the floor, but that's no match for true Fighting Spirit!
There's a persistent thread in the story that anger only weakens you. Guile's focused on revenge and fights stupid against Zangief, which leaves him too injured to even slow Sagat down. Blanka's vicious out of an inferiority complex, and nearly wins because Chun-Li loses control of her own anger and grief. Ryu manages to focus on winning, even when faced with the man who killed his teacher, and makes it to the top. He crushes Bison, wins the tournament, and then is off in search of his next opponent.
So for volume 3, Kanzaki plays off the game mechanic of fighting yourself. Everyone gets lured to the same location, and have to team-up to fight palette-swapped versions of themselves who are, of course, convinced they're the "real" ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment