So is this whole poster cover thing just something the video games are going to do to me this week? Poster covers are weak.
Street Fighter II #0 (digital edition)
Udon Studios (October, 2005; comiXology posting)
WRITER: Ken Siu-Chong
PENCILER: Alvin Lee
INKER: Crystal Reid
COLORIST: Espen Grundetjern
LETTERER: Simon Yeung
Not a lot happens in this story, but a bit more than the previous when it comes to backstory, because that’s all both #0s seem to be, backstory previews. In this one Ryu comes upon a street fight in progress but don’t expect to see any action, which is kind of disappointing. Instead it’s a catch-up. As Ryu watches he thinks back to his training, how he and Ken learned from each other’s opposite ways of thinking, Ryu being too serious and Ken not serious enough. After Ken leaves we see Ryu coming upon his master’s body like in the previous issue, but we also learn how he challenged Akuma and not only got his butt kicked but almost succumbed to the darker side of the chi training, the “dark hado”. Now he travels to not only strengthen his fighting skill to learn how to keep from being tempted by the darker side. And this next street fight is part of that journey. Again, we won’t see it.
Look, it’s the preview so I’m not going to harp on the lack of street fighting in this street fighting story but it would be nice to see. I’d have to track down the series proper for that. The art is Udon’s usual standard but what’s with the balloon work? I know they’re using the traditional word balloon in place of caption boxes to highlight this is Ryu’s thoughts but without the thought tail it looks odd, like it can’t decide if it’s first person narration or immediate thoughts. It was a nice try but it doesn’t work, especially at the times when the white goes semi-transparent for no discernable reason.
Overall it’s a good preview but not much else.
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