Has Udon lost the plot?

Media Outlet Comic Book Forum
1

After thirteen issues of Street Fighter and four issues of Darkstalkers released so far, I have a few concerns about certain aspects of the plot development. Starting with Street Fighter, I’m referring specifically to Ryu’s plot. Granted, it’s always been a little nebulous in the games, with the Shotokan warrior seemingly striking out in random directions to improve himself. But I thought Udon had given him a more concrete purpose right from the first issue when his master was murdered. It was a sensible choice, but the execution was questionable…

Ryu did adopt an active role early on by seeking out Ken’s help in returning to Japan, but ever since then I can’t help but get the feeling that the key events were not triggered by him. Ryu did not find his arch rival Sagat, it was Sagat who found him. Ryu did not come to Akuma, it was Akuma who came to him. Ryu is merely subject to whatever trouble comes his way.
I thought this was resolved in issue six when Ryu set off again to pursue his master’s killer, but once again the developments have been minimal. After defeating Adon, he set off towards India to find Sagat, but got sidetracked by Ken’s wedding and he had to return to the States. Isn’t that sort of a tail-backward, Udon? Whatever happened to the trip to India? Whatever happened to finding Sagat and Akuma? We haven’t seen them since issues four and six respectively, and by now I’m sure they’ve been all but forgotten. In devoting more pages to the Chun-Li/Cammy/Ken side of the story, it seems that Ryu’s plot has been lost in the shuffle. It’s a general sense of fate over choice that conveys the feeling that Ryu has been given a back seat for his part in the comics - and he’s supposed to be the lead Street Fighter for cryin’ out loud!

There are similar problems in the Darkstalkers comics, expect these ones are broader and even more worrying since the series has barely begun. In issue #1, we get a delightfully mysterious introduction to Morrigan and her delectable succubus ways. Perfect. In issue #2, it switches to Donovan, and Morrigan is barely mentioned. Um… okay. In issue #3, it jumps to Felicia and Jon with a minimal dose of Morrigan. What? In issue #4, it leapfrogs over to Victor and Emily. EH?!
You can see where I’m going with this. I understand that Udon are trying to balance out character development by offering equal amounts of pages to each successive Darkstalker, but if they try and strike out in too many directions at once, the story could rapidly lose its focus and the plot will be lost. I’ve already read four issues and I have NO IDEA WHO THE PROTAGONIST IS! If this doesn’t qualify as a problem, what does?
It would have helped to aleviate the confusion if there was more interaction between the characters, but all we’ve seen so far are Jon and Felicia together, and a reference to Donovan in Victor’s storyline. After four issues, I’m afraid that’s just not enough - not after having introduced Morrigan, Donovan, Felicia, Jon, Victor, Huitzil and the big, bad Pyron. Speaking of which, I wonder how the Hellstorm warrior is doing these days. We haven’t seen him since issue #2 and the other Darkstalkers don’t even seem concerned about the bright orange star in the sky. Another lack of coherence, or are Udon playing it close to their chest?

So I think I’ve laid down my point justifiably. This general lack of direction could deteriorate the storyline and leave the plot inconclusive. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to say I’m disappointed with the issues, because I still think they’re cracking comics. But they could still achieve new levels of greatness if Udon tied things together more tightly. Anyone else agree?

2

Ryu walks around, someone new appears, FIGHT ME, Ryu fights them, then someone new appears at the end of the issue as a cliffhanger.

Thats the plot, it goes in an endless circle of new appearances.

Throw in some guile/chun li interpol antics and Cammy killer bee confusion, and you got yourself a plot.

Pretty art, not much depth storywise.

Where are the tournaments ? The story doesn’t have to be rushed so fast.

3

Easiest to answer first: The Darkstalkers books aren’t done in any continuity at this moment. Right now, it’s more of a collection of various stories about the 14 characters from Night Warriors: Darkstaler’s Revenge (Darkstalkers 2).

The books are more of a “midnight movie”-style atmosphere right now. As Pyron gets more and more prominent, the story will begin to gel. If you saw Sin City, sort of like that movie.

As for SF: As far as I can count, there are about 56 characters total in all of the Street Fighter books. Sure, Ryu is ultimately the protagonist of the series, but we haven’t even seen all of the original 8 yet. (Honda got maybe two pages, Blanka just barely showed up, Dhalsim’s nowhere to be found, and outside of the backstories, no Zangief either).

Also, Ryu wasn’t necessarily looking for Sagat or Gouki, they just happened to show up. If you’ve been keeping up with the books since the beginning, you’d know that Gouki was in the area since issue #3. Also, Sagat didn’t come to Ryu with the purpose of fighting him, he came to Ryu with the intent of warning him. The Emperor’s rage just got the better of him when he saw Ryu.

Finally, Chun-Li/Cammy/Ken are just more interesting characters than Ryu. Sorry, but they are. Heck, I’d be snoring right now if they didn’t give Ryu Sakura to play off of.

Once again, there are 56 characters in the SF universe (and that’s only the playable ones). The book’s called “Street Fighter”, not “Ryu”.

For a prime example of how boring an SF story can get based on one character only, go watch the Van-Damme awful SF live action movie.

“Ah’m goingto KEEK dat sonavabeesh Bison’s ass so HORD that the next Bison WHANNABE isgannafeelit.”

4

Yeah and your point is?

Ryu has NEVER gone out and searched for Sagat, it was always Sagat going after Ryu, or waiting for Ryu to cross his path.

Ryu NEVER goes out and searches for anyone, he ALWAYS comes across everyone’s paht by simply wandering.

Yeah so what?

Akuma has ALWAYS searched for strong opponents, so him going after Ryu should be no suprise.

Yeah, just like in the games, the animes, mangas, and now the UDON comics.

Im really failing to see the problem here.

You obvioulsy dont relize they’re building up to everyone meeting and then going up against Pyron. They can NOT just have all the chars meet up in issue one without developing the characters and story, plus the DS storyline overall isnt very long to begin with, they go up against Pyron, then Jedah, and then thats it, so shame on UDON for doing it better then Capcom did it.

THATS BECAUSE THEIR IS NO PROTAGONIST!!!

DS has never had a Protagonist, nor any main character really. Demitri in the first storyline would be the closest char to a protagonist, and Morrigan would be the one in the second storyline.

The DS characters are all just a bunch of fucked up individuals searching for a purpose or just living out their existence, so its not really like you could pick out a protagonist, unless the storyline was changed, which would suck, or an original character were introduced to be the lead (which probaly wouldnt be such a good idea either)

What about the Donovan Vs Bishamon fight? I guess that just wasnt important or dosnt count as two characters meeting up?

Okay maybe (or obviously) you dont understand how these stories work.

Have you EVER seen the SF2 Animated Movie or the SFA anime, or the SF2V anime, or the DS anime?

Remember how in ALL of those animes the characters all start out seperate from one another, but then slowly but surely they all meet in diffrient places until they all come togehter for the climatic battle at the end?

So given that (and the fact that Capcom, UDON, and most all SF fans like the SFII anime) I can only wonder why UDON is choosing to do the stories this way.

5

I just had a thought: Udon probably doesn’t even have to keep the characters alive, I.E. have Ken actually DIE in a rematch against Vega in a future issue (I like that idea…rematches NEVER mean the previous loser will be the winner). They have permission to use and portray them, and they ARE allowed to take liberties with the plot…

6

NICE ANWSWERS,TAS! I was going to reply,but you answered everything and more in a MUCH BETTER WAY THAN I COULD HAVE DONE.

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They can’t kill anyone that doesn’t officially die in the games. It would make zero sense to kill Ken now, when he’s featured in SF3.

They can take liberaties getting the characters to where they need to go, sure, but they’re fans of the series, they’re not going to go so far against the story as to kill a main character just because. Udon is pretty dedicated to the fans as well, and it’s not good business to spit in the face of your audience.

8

Those threads are such a waste of time. Every time someone starts a discussion with valid points, someone will dismiss it right away.

I bet the comic could be nothing but Ryu doing shoryukens from page to page and guys like TAS (still waiting for your superbly animated SF4, by the way) would still say “so what, he does a lot of shoryukens in the game too”. :rolleyes:

I dont agree with all the things Glitcher is complaining about (i think execution is irregular, but they seem to be going somewhere with the plot and trying to balance it with the character devlopment - unlike the first few issues), but he does have valid points that nobody in this topic has proven wrong (or even tried to) so far.

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to the topic creator

I don’t think your reading everything that Udon prints on the pages.

Ryu’s story, so to say, is still going on …after he ran into Akuma he realized that if he were to beat him that he would have to train up alot. That is what he’s doing now. He was headed to see Dhalsim but got side tracked by Ken … after the next issue i’m sure you’ll see Ryu head back to India. Read the comics back to back and it all seems to flow just nicely. After reading the comics back to back, i saw that Ryu/Ken/Akuma, ChunLi/Guile/Bison/Charlie, and Cammy/Dolls/Delta Red all got the same ammount of page time. All the stories are nicely balanced out as they are right now. and everything seems to be taking a logical evolution. Nothing far fetched or forgotton going on.

So you’ve read darkstalkers and can’t find a bad guy? How about Pyron, Bushiman, Morrigan (sorta), or Jon (sorta). They are setting up who is dark stalker and who is night warrior. They are taking the series slow so that we can get more of a feel for each character. Frankly i love the way they are doing it. I love that each character is getting they’re own back up story. I can’t wait to see some Rikuo stories … and Jedah(sp) … never saw him before.

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[quote=Time_Stop]

I bet the comic could be nothing but Ryu doing shoryukens from page to page and guys like TAS (still waiting for your superbly animated SF4, by the way) would still say “so what, he does a lot of shoryukens in the game too”. :rolleyes:

QUOTE]

Hahaha. I found that really funny for some reason.

Anyways, I disagree that they need to focus more on Ryu’s story, but I do agree that the story’s been a bit rushed thus far. I still love the series though.

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No, this has to do with the storyline, not the games (which are pretty devoid of storyline) Glitcher has a problem with the story being done like this, that, and this, when every other adaption of SF and DS have handled the stories the samway.

Meaning what exactly?

What valid points? Everything he had a problem with isnt a problem when it comes to SF, DS, or most all video game adaptions really.

Yeah maybe the points are valid compared to conventional comics like Spider-Man and Batman, but these comics arent like that. UDON’s Capcom comics have a huge undertaking of getting through a cast of 20+ chars, and they are doing it the BEST way possible. Any other way of doing it would either result in us having only 5 or 6 chars introduced at this point in the SF comic, or we would have a crap load of characters intorduced already at the result of a shitty story.

Is there even anything in his post that could be proven wrong anyway?

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13 books in and you’re lost? You fools have no attention span.

13

Udon’s doing the best job anyone who has a finite amount of resources (IE, everyone) can with a comic that has to contain more than 100 characters (assuming every Street Fighter character has at least one supporting cast member. Some of them, like Cammy, have SIXTEEN supporting members in the form of the twelve Dolls and the four Delta Red members).

That said, the best that anyone can do with finite resources when it comes to a comic where they have to cram more than 100 characters into limitted space… really isn’t very good. But it can’t be helped, sadly. Well, okay, I can think of a few things I might have done differently (decreased Delta Red’s role a bit for one thing. Unlike the Dolls, Delta Red… wasn’t very necessary to the plot in general. The Dolls at least provided a crucial punching bag villain role since the only other nonShadaloo boss character in SF was Birdie). Still, I doubt doing those things differently would have made that much difference if Udon wanted to get to even a fraction of SF’s ginormous cast within remotely reasonable time.

Seriously, a decently developed series starring Cammy and her supporting cast alone and the few SFers really connected to her (Bison, Vega, and maaaybe Rose) could probably span two to four entire anime seasons (IE, an entire anime), let alone trying to cram it in with the 55 other SF characters and their own supporting casts and storylines. And she’s not even SF’s biggest most merchandised star (Ryu)!

14

Give it a rest.Tas already made some very valid points rather you see it or not.
And I agree,Apathy,if they kill off anyone that does not die in the games(which are ONLY Charlie,Gen,Rose and Bison),then I will NEVER read another udon comic again,but that will never happen because they actually have some sense.And I hate the fact they are going on a break for a few months because I look very forward to the street fighter and darkstalkers comics each month.

15

Yeah but there are chars that can die who dont die in the canon and yet it will make sense.

Well actually not characters plural, since I can only think of one, Adon. Now I dont have anything against Adon, he’s actually pretty cool, but the dude went after Akuma, and I seriously doubt he survived that, so thats one character I could understand them killing off since it actually, well sortta still fits the canon.

Lee from SF1 might be another since he had ties to the mob, and we havent seen him since SF1, and Geki if connected to Vega could’ve been killed by Vega.

So the canon kinda leaves an opening for a few chars to die, but not anyone major, plus I dont think UDON would just start killing off chars, just so they wouldnt have to deal with them anyway.

I could see them doing the Adon/Akuma thing in the SF3 storyline though, ie during the SF3 arc Akuma has a flashback where it shows him kill Adon.

Yeah but at least Rival Schools should fill the void of SF.

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Yeah,I actually thought of Adon and even Guy dying also,but I think people would freak out if they killed off Guy.And besides,who knows rather anyone from final fight will show up or not.the only characters from final fight that will have to be there will be Poison/Hugo,since they are moreso street fighter 3 characters as far as them being incorporated heavily into the sf3 storyline(as minimal as it may be),but i would like to see the others show up,especially Rolento.

As far as rival schools filling the void,I hope so,but doubt it,only if Sakura and Karin are MAJOR stars of it.And I really hope street fighter is gone NO LONGER than four months and returns in August.And is darkstalkers taking a break too,or just street fighter?

17

I have to agree that during the 2nd arc the plot seems to have lost all focus. I understand that there are a lot of different characters to focus on which does end up confusing it a bit, but the main focus should have still been on Ryu as the main character. He is the focus of attention atm but his plot is slacking a bit, travelling the world to find answers and such, he doesn’t even seem to be seeking anyone that could help him just walking around stumbling across fighters. Surely Ryu would need to seek out fighters of legendary status to “learn” to take on Akuma? I know we’re not at the Oro phase but there must be some more icon fighters, all we really had so far for Ryuother than the wedding is a random fight with Adon.

The second arc itself doesn’t even seem to have a plot which is what bothers me, it seemed like a waste of time and the only thing of any importance seems to have been Ken’s wedding. The focus of attention seems to be more on Cammy lately whilst the plot development is good what seperates Cammy from all of the other main characters that could have been focusedon?

I’d also like to agree with Time_Stop, whenever there is constructve criticism it gets bashed which is somewhat ridiculous since this is a thread for fan discussion, notice it doesn’t say “fanboys only”.

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No TAS, your premise is twisted. You believe that since the games and/or the anime have set an average standard in storytelling, the best solution for Udon would be to hover around that standard. That’s the wrong attitude. If it’s possible, why not try and improve on the story? You, yourself, are perfectly conscious of the lack of focus in the storyline as you have just pointed out. The ending to the DS anime is a good example, since Hsien-Ko/Mei-Ling, Morrigan and Demitri’s goals have remained fundamentally inconclusive. So if Ryu is wandering aimlessly and the Darkstalkers comics are lacking direction and coherence, why not TRY and fix it? There’s no need to revolve around a passable standard just because canon dictates it. If it was up to you, you would probably end the SF comics with Bison trying to crush Ryu with a truck. :rolleyes:

19

Story

Nothing against the canon, but even Tiamatroar admits that the street fighter storyline has always been pretty much out there.{in her plot guide}

It’s never been the best storyline and the udon comic is probally the best version of the story we’re going to get.

The non canon animes were not that great either.

Please note that I’m not bashing street fighter. Street fighter is my favorite game and comic.

But it seem’s that you want street fighter to be something it’s not or will never will be.

Udon took all the plot holes and missing story threads and connected them together pretty well. There’s only so much story you can do with a fighting game. Just cut it some slack and enjoy it for what it is.

Things have been acomplished. { ken gettting married, Blanka introduced , etc} But to compare it to the first story arc is unfair, That was udon’s trial run. { read that in the back of issue 6 i think}

Right now I think they’re are setting themselves up for a bigger picture.

20

hmm

what udon should do is just focus on core characters and throw other ppl in through advances in the storyline, thats what they did afterall with the animated features… and also u guys r saying it isnt the same as marvel or dc cuz there are so many characters well what about the xmen? or justice league? what the heck r u guys talking about? besides, id rather see the characters being put to good use then to to see them being used at all whats more important? the plot or having your favorite character make an appearence just to your satisfaction?

the only reason the plot was lingering in my opinion was the whole cammy side story. like really… why does delta red feel like they need to be in the comics before the 8 main characters int he original street fighter when delta red was introduced in super? that doesnt make sense… i dont care about delta red…maybe cammy but not her friggin posse.