What fighter should I play?

The reality is that you’re going to need a handful of fighting games; it’s like buying fruit.

It’s cheap(…) and some of them you are bound to discard.

As much as I no longer care about SFIV, newcomers really can’t go wrong with it. Get AE and branch off from there.

Meh. Depends on which one. I don’t usually recommend Mahvel to newcomers because it’s just so salt-inducing

you just need to try them and go with whichever has characters, community and gameplay that you like.
community being people you can find in your area (within an hour or so).

if your experience is limited to p4a i wouldn’t suggest 3s. unless you REALLY like the characters and feel of gameplay. if you’re just lukewarm about it, i wouldn’t bother. imo get another asw game like blazblue or guilty gear. both are good. both are around the same price. go with whichever seems more awesome to you.

MvC: Clash of Super Heroes is the tits. Its two sequels are pretty ass, imo.

I’d say hop on GGPO and give Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo a try. It’s free and it’ll give you an amazing grounding in the fundamentals of fighting games if you stick with it.