UDON Entertainment 2015
Written by Ken Siu-Chong
Illustrated by Joe NG
Colored by Espen Grundetjern
Flats by Ludwig Olimba
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
For all of you who played the game this is a no brain series to be picking up. But if you're like me and you never played Capcom's Street Fighter video game? Why should you be interested in this series is the real question you're asking right. Nowadays it's not uncommon to see a lot of different companies going after a lot of different video games to translate into comic book form.Street Fighter however has a long history and comics.This time around UDON seems to have found what is going to work.
Multiple interesting story lines that seem to be on their way to converging into one huge explosive arc. I will admit I'm impressed with what Ken's doing here. Even a comic enthusiast such as myself sometimes don't recognize names. Ken's among them though after checking the comic database I realized I have heard of can and have read his stories since probably the early 90's. So I'm beginning to wonder why it taking so long for me to realize the talent this man has. Also it seems he's written pretty much every Street Fighter series ever published. So he does indeed know these characters inside and out and that's probably why we're so I am so readily able to connect with them.
This isn't a serious that starts off from the beginning it kind of pics up I guess where everything else is left off. But even then it's easy enough to see who's who, the good guys or the bad guys for instance. That people change and alliances and allegiances alter periodically so that who was once a major body might not be one today. What I really liked about it though even though we're only in the second issue is that I don't feel like I need to have read everything to understand what is happening here and that's a huge bonus. We're introduced to the characters one by one and in small groups so that we see how all of these different storylines can potentially merge into one larger one.
The natural story progression here is very well done indeed. Unless I miss my guess we open if issue with what will be the biggest threat that all of the street fighters have to face. There is also a lot of smaller sub plot points that are happening this issue that go beyond your traditional hi let's meet up and beat the crap out of each other. There's an intelligence to the story that goes beyond what you'd expect and it's that kind of interjection into the story that makes this much more interesting for me.
Whether it's introspection about where you fit in in the universe or if you're looking for old friends either way the storytelling here really does stand out.
The interior artwork very much has this Saturday morning cartoon feel to it.And I don't mean the current stuff I mean the classic good stuff that I grew up on.So instead of that new age stuff we're getting today it really is this elevated feel of possibly anything from the eighties to the early nineties. Yeah sometimes a body will be out of proportion or larger than life and seemingly unrealistic but then again this is comic books and it's based off a video game and the bad guy here well even though he looks ridiculous in his body structure you understand that this is the biggest threat.
There's an intelligent kind of fun happening here that I wasn't expecting to see.That alone makes this more than worth your time to find pick up, read and experience for yourself.