Street Fighter (comics)

These Street Fighter comicbooks are provided by the U.S/Canada writer/artist collective UDON. This is the second time the series has been adapted into comic book form, with the first being the three issue run by Malibu Comics.

Started in 2005, the book mostly chronicles Ryu and his path of a true fighter, plus Guile and Chun-Li's operation to bring down Shadowloo and its head, M. Bison. The story cuts to other fighters along the way who either interact directly with Ryu, get caught up in the military investigation, or are working for or have gained the ire of Shadowloo. The series was originally published by Image before moving to Devil's Due Publishing.

Here the rundown of the series:

Main Series
 * Street Fighter: Based on Street Fighter Alpha. Chronicles Ryu's travels with his pupil Sakura, Guile and Chun-Li's efforts to track down M. Bison, and Cammy's defection from Shadaloo.
 * Street Fighter II: Follows the first half of the original game as Ryu goes to search for Akuma.
 * Street Fighter II: Turbo: The later half which features the tournament held by M.Bison. Closes out the "II" series.
 * Street Fighter IV: A mini series that doesn't fully follow the game; it features a story in which SIN kidnaps several Street Fighters for experimentation. Crimson Viper, Abel, and Seth are the central focus of this story arc with some glances at other characters of the game. Also includes a sneak preview of Juri from Super Street Fighter IV.

At the end of most of the issues (mostly those in Turbo) are short stories involving characters from Street Fighter III and Final Fight. A Street Fighter III series has been hinted at for a future date.

Legends series

Comics that focus on one specific character. There are only three series so far.
 * Street Fighter Legends: Sakura: Focus on Sakura and her exploits. The first two issues follow her as she trains and help R. Mika against Zangief. The last few find her against her rival Karin, who goes to almost ridiculous lengths to try and beat Sakura. Features characters from Rival Schools.
 * Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li: Centers on Chun-Li and her early days in the police academy. Features Dan and his father Go and their encounter with Sagat.
 * Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki: Starring Ibuki from Street Fighter III as she tries to live a double life as a ninja of her clan and a regular high school girl. Also features Makoto and Elena from the same game.

The series provides the following tropes:
 * A Day in The Spotlight: The Legends series.
 * Alliterative Name: Besides Cammy White and Keith Wolfman, everyone in Delta Red. Lita Luwanda, Matthew McCoy, and George Ginzu.
 * Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Plenty, but Akuma takes the cake.
 * The Atoner: Cammy to Chun-Li in this version after she's freed from Bison's control. It was she who  murdered her father.
 * Ax Crazy: Vega who gains the largest body count of a single character in the series, including Gen.
 * Brainwashed and Crazy: Cammy and Charlie at the start of the series, and Blanka and Dee Jay later on. Ken, E. Honda, and T. Hawk near the end of II Turbo.
 * The Cameo: In issue 9 of the Street Fighter II comic, Dr. Wily makes an appearance.
 * Allen Snider from Street Fighter EX makes a background appearance as one of the spectators in a fight between Ryu and Charlie.
 * Lupin III appears in issue 2 of Turbo II.
 * In Haggar's fight with Zangief, there are many other Saturday Night Slam Masters characters in the audience.
 * Captain Ersatz: Fei Long faces off against stand-ins of Iron Monkey, the Drunken Master, the Master of the Flying Guillotine, and other classic kung fu movie characters, while Chun-Li contends with human versions of the Furious Five.
 * Cerebus Retcon: The death of Dan's father in Legends: Chun-Li.
 * Cloning Blues: The case of Cammy, especially when she find out what's behind the mask of Decapre (one of Bison's dolls).
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: Zangief and E.Honda face this in the Japanese eliminatory of the tournament, just for Vega's amusement.
 * Doomed Hometown: M. Bison nukes Rose's village.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being a merciless killer throughout much of his life, Gen stops short from killing Chun Li after she witnessed him killing an assassin. The moment serves as Gen's turning point for his character.
 * Face Palm of Doom: Bison holds Charlie this way in the first issue.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: One of the kidnapped fighters in IV looks like Reptile, save for his mask being grey a la the movie.
 * Let's You and Him Fight: Happens more often then not.
 * Mythology Gag: Plenty, the UDON crew really did their homework with this one. Many characters from the oft forgotten first game make appearances as well as Expy of original characters from the animated and the manga series.
 * To mention a few examples, Charlie ... temporarily.
 * The place where Ryu goes to meet Dhalsim in India is the very stage from the Street Fighter II game!
 * Cammy's simulation test is very reminiscent of her introduction in the Street Fighter II animated movie.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: A large part of Cammy's eventual freedom from her brainwashing stems from Vega actively reprogramming her twice. Largely because he feels that beautiful people such as him and Cammy shouldn't have that done to them and partly because he just likes screwing around with Bison's plans.
 * Pro Wrestling Is Real: This series has it both ways; R. Mika's actual wrestling matches (i.e., the stuff that happens off panel) are scripted, while Zangief is baffled by the concept and has never heard of such a thing before. This has roots in SF canon; the series takes place in the same world as the Saturday Night Slam Masters games. Not only is wrestling real, but Zangief's old sparring partner Biff Slamkovich is upset that some people think it isn't.
 * Reverse Mole: Cammy in II Turbo for the heroes side,.
 * Ditto for Crimson Viper in IV.
 * Shout Out: In Legends: Ibuki, a couple of cops mention a prosecutor named Edgeworth.
 * Haggar's backstory now includes passages paralleling Arnold Schwarzenegger's.
 * These Hands Have Killed: Gen had no qualms with this until he was forced to kill Geki in front of a young Chun-Li. This ends up becoming the greatest regret of his life, and he swears to never kill again.
 * Tournament Arc: Kinda unavoidable since it's based off the games. The II Turbo series is mostly the main focus of this.
 * Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Of course a few of the fighters will play dirty to win battle. One of the more ridiculous examples is Karin from Sakura's legends series. She challeneges her to a hot dog eating contest and once she actually has her full, goes to attack her on the spot. It nearly works if not for the Rival Schools cast jumping in for the save.