The opening panels really set the tone for the comic. The Street Fighter Tournament is around the corner and contestants are training their asses off. We start off with Fei Long and Chun Li sparring each other, followed by Guile training, also we come across T.Hawk, E.Honda, Zangief wrestling a bear, Ken practicing his flaming Shoryukens, and Ryu in the midst of a fight, pushing himself further and further. All of the fighters appear to an ulterior motive, some seek vengeance, while others are striving for honor.
Now lets fast-forward to the juicy stuff, the fights! But before that lets hit on some key points, Cammy became Killer Bee for a bit but Vega broke her free, she then realized that her team, Delta Red, are being held as hostages in the laboratory. Eliza, Ken’s wife, found out the sex of their baby but didn’t mention it to Ken. Now onto the prelims, first up we have Adon vs.
Dhalsim, the fight begins with Adon charging in blindly, brimming with confidence the match
turns into a cat and mouse chase as Dhalsim dodges Adons attacks. In the end Dhalsim wins and secures a spot in the finals. Next up we have Chun Li and Fei long in a tag team battle against several foes. Fei long makes quick work of his enemies and now its up to Chun Li to finish out the battle. Her fight is a bit more challenging because her opponents are playing dirty. One of the fighters throws a powder at her face and now she has lost her sight (Bloodsport anyone?), her enemies take advantage and begin to close in, Chun Li throws a punch and completely misses (another Blood sport moment, wtf?), and she is then punished with a claw attack to her chest. From the crowd she hears two familiar voices that begin to be her eyes in the battle; the voices belong to Yun and Yang who snuck away from the restaurant in order to see her fight. Help their help she regains the upper hand, but now she is surrounded and her opponents are not showing any mercy, they all attack simultaneously, in an instant Chun Li executes her spinning bird kick which ends the match and advances her to the finals.
Now we cut to Japan where Vega is overseeing the prelims. The fighters here are, The Red Cyclone (Zangeif), The Blue Tsunami (E.Honda), Sodom, Rainbow Mika, and Dan Hibiki, but Dan never received an invitation, so he had to go through a side quest of tracking down Guy and stealing his invitation. Guy was fully aware of what Dan was up to but he was too busy protecting his village that he gave the invite to Dan. Considering the change of plans, Vega decides to make the prelims a tag team battle. The teams are Zangeif and E.Honda vs. Sodom and Mika, with Dan moving forward by default. The outcome of the fight is E. Honda and Zangeif, but Sakura makes an appearance and challenges Dan for his spot. She is determined to show Ryu how far she has come along. Dan gracefully accepts the challenge and charges into battle. Sakura performs her Haru Ichiban (super attack) that connects with Dan perfectly, knocking him out! Feeling sorry for the damage she caused, she decides to take Dan to the hospital and forfeits her spot in the finals. This volume ends in a cliffhanger; Balrog meets with the entire finalist from america and informs them that there are only four spots for the finals. He has placed four golden tickets in a building wired with explosives, the fighters only have ten minutes before the building explodes, let the games begin…
Book6: Final Round
The clock is ticketing and everyone is scrambling, fighting one another for a golden ticket. Ken, Ryu, T.Hawk, and Guile are the lucky
four. The bracket has been determined, Guile and Chun Li are faced with a dilemma, and they both have to find a way to throw the match in order to help Cammy free the Delta Red.
The finals are underway and the first match is Cammy vs. T.Hawk, T.Hawk has being eagerly waiting this rematch since their fight in New Mexico. Unfortunately Cammy is too skilled for T.Hawk and in a few strategic moves he is defeated. The next day Guile is up against Blanks, the fight commences quickly with a Sonic Boom from Guile, Blanka takes the hit full force but keeps his head in the game, He lounges towards Guile and begins to nom on him followed by a back handspring that is dodged, Guile them maneuvers behind Blanka and kicks him in the head. Blanka becomes angered and performs him super attack, Guile was anticipating the attack and surprises Blanka with a flash kick that ends the match. Later on that day Dhalsim and Dee Jay have their battle, in the middle of the fight Dhalsim notices that Dee Jay is fighting strange, as if he is being controlled, it is then that he figures it out and restores Dee Jay’s mind. That evening Ken begins his match, his opponent is Zangeif, Ken begins to panic when he realizes his Hadokens have no effect on him, but Zangeif makes a big mistake in leaving himself wide open for an attack, Ken sees his opportunity and executes his Sippu Jinrai Kyaku (badass ultra) to finish the match.
The next morning E.Honda and Ryu must go head to head, E.Honda has the upper hand because of his size, Ryu struggles but
the second E.Honda is air born, Ryu delivers a Shoryuken that knocks him out. Today is the day where Fei Long, Guile, Cammy, and Chun Li have to put on a “show” for M.Bison in order to follow through with their plans. First up is Chun Li and Fei Long, during their fight both of them communicate on what move to do next, in the end Fei Long “wins” and wishes good luck to Chun Li. Immediately after, Cammy and Guile must do the same, M.Bison is unaware that Cammy is no longer under his control, Guile holds on as long as he can until Cammy takes him out. Behind closed doors, the trio, Chun Li, Cammy, and Guile get to work, navigating their way through corridor after corridor Cammy is able to locate Delta Red and set them free. Meanwhile, the other two discover that the fighters that have lost have been brainwashed, now they must fight them and find a way to break them free. Ryu and Fei Long have their fight, which is pretty one sided, Ryu mops the floor with and retains the title of Champion of the Street Fighter Tournament.
M.Bison is highly pleased with the outcome of the tournament and sets his eyes on Ryu, he wants to harness the skill that he posses. Everyone else has their hands full; they now have to fight M.Bison’s thugs while Bison fights Ryu. Ginzu, a computer specialist, begins to work on the mainframe of the base, meanwhile, Ken is forced to fight Vega, his moves are very confusing for Ken, as a result he is losing fight. Vega finds a note on Ken, he believes its a love letter from Eliza, his curiosity gets the best of him and he reads it to Ken, all the letter says is “It’s a boy”, Ken’s eyes light up as he repeats ” It’s a boy”. Filled with a sense of new determination, he darts at Vega and takes him down. Ginzu successfully disable the brainwashing system. The mainframe has a fail safe to auto destruct, now our fighters have to vacate the base as soon as they can. Ryu is still getting his ass kicked by Bison when Akuma jumps in and destroys Bison. Akuma wants his match with Ryu, and no one is going to stand in his way.
Ryu is finally ready to face his enemy and avenge his master’s death, but the task at hand is not an easy one because Ryu is not going to embrace the Dark Hadou, Akuma views this as a sign of disrespect and goes in for the kill. As Akuma dashes towards Ryu, a figure appears from the shadows, It is the spirit of Gouken, Ryu’s master, Gouken does a Dragon punch which buys enough time for Ryu to recover. Gouken then lends his strength to Ryu and he is filled with a different level of energy, something more powerful than the Dark Hadou, Ryu charges up a Super Hadouken and in an agonizing scream he yells out ” SHIIINNNKUUU—HAAAADOOOOKENNN”. Akuma falls to his knees, at this point Ryu faints on the ground. Dhalsim had been watching the entire fight and he teleports to Ryu and removes him from any danger. The volume ends on a happy note, it briefly shows an update on some of the fighters, long story short; they are all living a happy ending. Well that raps it up, make sure you swing by your local comic book store and pick up a copy of your interested in seeing the awesomeness!
Sounds pretty epic! But the spirit of Gouken hits Akuma? That’s crazy. I hope Ken’s son gets included in Street Fighter 19 lol