Street Fighter Blog reviews Street Fighter II Turbo #1 Comic

After almost a year and a half of absence from the comic stores shelves,  the Street Fighter comics made by Udon are now finally back!

Udon has started publishing Street Fighter II Turbo series which is the direct continuation of their main street fighter storyline that has left off when the various street fighters around the world received an invitation from Bison to participate in the second street fighter world tournament.

It is also worth mentioning that Street Fighter Turbo #1 is the first issue fully drawn by new comic artist Chamba Cruz. How does his art holds up against veterans like Alvin lee and Arnold Tsang? Keep reading to find out

The Story: The Story for Issue 1 is more or less a re-introduction of the main cast of the series, we see Ryu fighting various people during some kind of street fights, Chun-li getting ready to to enter the street fighter tournament as she sees is the only way to get closer to Bison. We see Guile exploring military options to destroy bison, and then finally Ken who is training while worrying about his pregnant wife Eliza we also witness the four heavenly kings (bison and his 3 henchmen) reunite for the first time after quite some time. 

While the story in Issue 1 does not really move the story forward it does help to set the mood for things to come. Ken Sui Chong, writer of the street fighter comic series since its debut, makes you feel right at home with the smart way of re-introducing the characters without using flashbacks of things that happened in the previous issues of the series. So many writers have tried interpreting the street fighter story into a book and only few of them have succeeded and Ken sui chong is really in top of the list with Masahiko Nakahira (writer of the street fighter alpha and Ryu final Mangas)

The Art: As i previously Mentioned, This is the first issue fully drawn by Chamba Cruz. Chamba's art style is quite different from his predecessors and is, unfortunately, the only drawback i found in the issue. If you prefer the anime style Alving Lee and Arnold tsang used for the previous issues i am afraid you will be disappointed. Chamba's style is a more of an artistic style, the panels looks more like oil paintings than comic book drawings.

While the action scenes are wonderfully drawn, the characters themselves do not look quite appealing, there is a lack of inking that i couldn't help but notice. The backgrounds of the panels were the biggest problem as they were most of the time consisting of couple colors and really empty. I would not say that the art is horrible, not at all it is actually good, but in my opinion does not live up to Alvin lee and Arnold Tsang's art style. Good news is his drawings seems to be improving as we will see with issue#2

Closing Comment: The Street Fighter Comics are back and i cannot be happier, even if Chamba's drawings are not as good as what we got used to from Udon the the Street Fighter 2 Turbo series does look very promising and this issue is a must have for any Street Fighter Fan.

Street Fighter Blog Score: 7.5/10

look for issue#2 review that will go live tomorrow.