I'm not much of a video-game guy, and when it comes to these one-on-one fighter games, I am most certainly not a fan. I can never get the special moves down, and I always get my virtual ass kicked before getting my quarter's worth of entertainment. I might be wrong -- it's not my field of interest, after all -- but I believe Capcom's Street Fighter is the grand-daddy of those fighting games. So already, the folks at Udon Studio had a major strike against them when I decided to delve into this comic-book revival of the long-standing game property.
I'm shocked... not that this property was adapted -- it's in keeping with the cartoon revival trend in comics right now -- but rather because I (a) understood and followed the story and (b) enjoyed it. Is this special preview book enough to suck me into the regular series this fall? I don't know. But if I, video-gamne snob that I am, can enjoy the book, I'm guessing Udon's target market will go crazy for it.
Ryu, a native of Japan, is training to be the best fighter in the world. His sensei is impressed with his student's combination of grace, speed and sheer power, and he sees within the young man incredible potential... for good and for evil. The sensei has been down this path before, and he knows that Ryu is approaching a turning point in his life when he will have to decide whether he will be a hero or a villain.
I enjoyed Alvin Lee's pencilled artwork on Gail Simone's Agent X a great deal, but it doesn't come close to the strength to be found here. The high quality of the paper and the astounding coloring job almost gives the artwork a painted look. The colors are rich and textured, and the inks bring an appropriate darkness to the action when the antagonist of this nine-page story.
That story is followed by a number of profiles of the best-known Street Fighter characters from Capcom. They provide a great deal of information that fills uninitiated readers such as myself in on the world that Capcom has created. I didn't think the one-on-one gladiator-like game could yield an actual story, but it would seem I was wrong.
This preview of the September's Street Fighter series was available at the Comic-Con Internation San Diego from the Udon booth directly, and a number of dealers picked up copies for sale as well. I suspect copies will make their way to many comics shops, and as long as the price isn't jacked up, it's a surprisingly entertaining promotional item.
Note: This comic book was not among this week's new releases.
