Malibu’s Street Fighter #3 article.
What Could Have Been: A Street Fighter Epilogue ~Kara Lamb
**As many of you might have heard, due to complications with Capcom and their dislike of our adaptation of the most popular game in the world, concluding with this issue, Street Fighter the comic book has officially been cancelled. We formally apologise for the dissatisfaction and disappointment we know this news can and will generate. We are true fans of Street Fighter, so even though we will no longer be publishing it, we sincerely hope someone else does! For the meantime, however, we hope to ease some of your Street Fighter withdrawals with a little epilogue. As far as we know, no other comic book company has ever offered this kind of epilogue to its readers, but we here at Malibu want you to know just how committed we are to Street Fighter and to you! If you care to read on, we will tell you what kind of tales writer Len Strazewski would have spun. It’s a character break-down, so you can look up exactly what would have happened to your favourite Street Fighter:
Balrog:
This boxing bad guy has been roped into M. Bison’s evil ring of Street Fighters. As featured throughout the first issue, we have witnessed how Balrog helped prepare for the (unfair) defeat of Ken and how Bison keeps him on hold as his right hand man.
Blanca:
Last time we saw this South American mutant man in issue #3 he had just found out about Ken’s apparent tragedy: that he was presumed dead. To make matter’s worse, ken’s body is missing and no one knows who is responsible, although everyone has an idea. Blanca is sworn to revenge ken’s death because, along with Ryu and Chun-Li, Ken was one of the few people kind enough to take the time to teach Blanca how to read.
M. Bison:
Bison has appeared as the ultimate evil man in the Street Fighter community. He has carefully put together a small army of corrupted Street Fighters including Sagat, Balrog and Vega to destroy the rest, beginning with Ken. But that was all only an introduction to a much more sinister plot: M. Bison had made a deal with dark forces to create evil twins of every Street Fighter, so the ultimate battle would have been every man and woman against his or herself, literally. Which poses the question: are the three Street Fighters working for Bison evil twins? If so, where are the real Sagat, Balrog and Vega?
Chan-Li:
The strongest woman in the world has several problems. First, she must avenge the mysterious death of her father. She knows he was murdered by M. Bison, but she cannot prove Bisons guilt, she has joined investigative forces of the police chapter. One fan asked why the strongest woman in the world would need to be a cop. Answered Len Strazewski, Because she needs legal clearance to investigate. Plus, there is a life outside of combat for all the Street Fighters. Most dont want to have to fight every day and would like to make a decent living. That is why Ken became an actor. Second, Chun-Li must now avenge Kens death. And third, she is beginning to fall in love with Ryu, and is not quite sure what to do about it.
Dhalsim:
The yoga Street Fighter was last seen set off balance by the presumed death of Ken. He was to become part of the Street Fighter alliance to bring down M. Bison.
Guile:
We left the big and bad American Marine with the sonic boom in issue #3 after he blew up a bar upon his notification of Kens death. Guile was upset by the unfair fight and his chance to usurp Ken himself. He suspects Bison to be behind the whole thing and swears vengeance as it was bison who was responsible for the death of Guiles close friend, Charlie. Now Guile has two reasons to go after Bison.
E. Honda:
The sumo-wrestler from Japan was scheduled to test new applicants to the Street Fighter programme. After meeting on a plane trip Ferret of Protectors fame, decided to try out himself. As we saw in this issue, he was definitely defeated by E. Honda.
Ken:
All throughout issue #1 and #2, Ken was in a battle for his life against first Balrog, and then Sagat. Both were teamed up against Ken by M. Bison as part of his sinister plan. At the end of issue #2, a car burst into Ryus private garden with the scalp and bloodied clothes of Ken inside. As several of you readers pointed out, during the game Ryu and Ken were bitter enemies. But after the Championship they were able to recultivate the old commaradirie they used to share during training. Now Ryu believes Ken is dead. However, this is not the case. Unbeknownce to all, Ken is alive, not well, but recovering. He is bald and in bad shape, but living under care. Unfortunately due to the cancellation of the series, we do not get to see his gallant return or the battle of the allied Street Fighters trying to take Bison down in the name of Ken. But this, at least, solves the mystery of Kens missing body.
Nida:
Nida is the unknown character. We were going to introduce her as the newest member of the Street Fighter team, but we never got the chance. She is an adolescent young lady from the Phillapines who, unlike the other Street Fighters, uses weapons. Her involvement with the Street Fighters begins when her father, a law enforcement officer, is killed during a drug bust by the evil Ryu look alike. Now she is out for Ryu with a vengeance. For the time being, she is nursing shen-Long back to health after he was posioned by M. Bison.
Ryu:
Ryu is the central hero in the story so far. He was meditating peacefully in his private garden when a car came crashing through with kens scalp and bloodied clothes left inside. However, there was no body. Ryu has become enraged and horribly saddened as he remembers all the times he shared in training with ken and Chun-li. The three of them have a lot of history together. Had the series continued, we would have seen Ryu organise the Street Fighters into a temporary alliance to take out M. Bison. But before the battle, we would have seen the bitter fight between Ryu and Sagat, the man he scarred during the Championship. Unknown to Ryu, Kens death was only part of a master plot to play him right into Bisons hands. Things would have turned grim perhaps. Except for the unexpected, and not necessarily friendly ally Ryu comes to find in Guile. They becomepartners, if only for a little while. Meanwhile, there is always Chun-Li, and Ryu knows he has fallen in love with her for sure. Their relationship would have definitely been resolved, said Len S. So dont worry all your romantic hopefuls; somewhere out there in the possible future Ryu and chun-Li finally got together.
Sagat:
The first and second issue show us what a bitter enemy Sagat can be. He was certainly bitter enough to kill Ken, or at least assume he killed Ken. But there is still something honorable in Sagat as we can see in these early issues where he is not happy to have declared victory after an unfair fight. In fact, Bison is well aware that Sagat might start having second thoughts and tells Balrog to keep Sagat fighting so he doesnt have to think about the guilt. I asked Mr. Strazewski if Sagat was just a victim of Bisons evil and he replied, In the first series of the book, Sagat would have no opportunity to redeem himself, but if we could have continued further
Vega:
The masked man with the knives on his hands was last seen in issue #1, preparing for battle at Bisons hidden estate. What Bison was planning to use him for remains unclear, but it was nothing wholesome, that is for sure. Handsome fighters never lose a battle!
Zangief:
The Russian Street Fighter was last seen in #3 fighting bears to prepare his revenge against Kens killer. Zangief was determined to beat Ken and claim the Street Fighter title. So now, like Guile he is mad that his chance has been taken away from him.
And that, fans and readers, in a pinch is what would have been if we were allowed to continue the series. And dont forget that we are also offering a keepsake for this series that never was, just so you remember Malibus version of Street Fighter Its our very special Gold Editions of #s1-3. Thanks for all your cards and letters of support, everybody.**