So last week I was going through the loft to make some space for storing more things, and came across a box containing some comics I had collected in my childhood during the 90s. In this box was some Spawn comics, some Mortal Kombat manga comics, and most importantly; a long forgotten Street Fighter manga comic series!!
Now this comic was my first entry into the story elements of the Street Fighter 2 series... I had obviously played (and loved) Street Fighter 2, but back in those days, story didn't really matter in games, so these comics were an excellent draw for a curious kid like myself.
There are a couple of issues missing from the series in my collection, which is very unfortunate, but I can basically fill in the gaps for myself with what I do have!
What's very interesting in these comics is how much the story has been developed to this day... these almost feel like a starting point, which has spiraled and developed into the franchise we all know and love.
In these comics, the island of "Shad" was constructed by the super powers of the world to be a bustling man-made city, until it was hit with a worldwide financial crisis, causing all nations to leave the island to fend for itself... and a certain end boss to solidify himself as the ruler of Shad.
Ryu is a travelling fighter (as always)... however his personality differs very much, and one can only draw a direct comparison to him and Goku from Dragonball Z (Which gave me an idea for a piece I'm currently working on). In this manga, Ryu LOVES food and much like Son Goku, leaves piles of empty dishes and continues to eat!
Ryu defeats Balrog in the first issue and Balrog is disgraced and removed from his power as one of the 4 lords of Shadowlaw... Blanka, desperate to take Balrogs place takes it upon himself to attempt to solve Bisons problems to no avail.
It should be noted that Bison, in this series is basically a drug dealer... using a drug called "Doll" to control people opposed to using his Psycho power as more recently established.
Bison was formerly Guile's superior in a special forces team who drugged his whole squad with Doll... the only one unaffected was Guile as he did not take his rations on the day in question... Guile was forced to kill his best friend Charlie, as he was, under Bisons control, about to kill a child.
Bison was also responsible for the death of Ryu's master and also his best friend... Ken!
Or so he would have us believe... later in the series, Ken is revealed to have taken Balrog's place as one of the 4 lords of Shadowlaw (which I thought was a very interesting plot point!!)
Anyway, I'd recommend for any Street Fighter fan to attempt to track the book down and read it as it's an interesting take on the franchise we all know and love...
It's by Masaomi Kanzaki and was released around 1994.
If anybody has any questions on the story, i'll review the books again and see if I can answer them for you!