STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: IBUKI

"AMBUSH!" | "WAY OF THE NINJA" | "INTERLUDE: MAKOTO"
"FIGHTING WORDS" | "INTERLUDE: ORO" | "THE CHOSEN PATH"
"CLASH OF NINJAS"
Story: Jim Zubkavich w/Ken Siu Chong (Interludes)
Artwork: Omar Dogan w/Alan Wang & Gary Yeung (Interlude 2)
Lettering: Marshall Dillon | Chief of Operations: Erik Ko
Managing Editor: Matt Moylan

Let's start by saying that I know absolutely nothing about STREET FIGHTER 3. I think I played it once in my life, at a casino arcade at Lake Tahoe. I'm unfamiliar with the plot and the characters. Its probably the STREET FIGHTER area where I have the very least amount of knowledge. And since this mini-series focuses entirely on SF3 characters, I have to admit to being a bit lost among these pages.

Which isn't to say Jim Zubkavich isn't a good writer -- in fact I would rate him higher than Ken Siu-Chong in terms of grammar and exposition (this is especially evident when the first "interlude" crops up and Siu-Chong guest scripts a few panels of painfully constructed exposition).

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story here follows a girl named Ibuki, a Japanese high school student who also happens to be a ninja trainee, living among a group of ninjas in a hidden glade. Ibuki and her classmate Sarai befriend a new student named Makoto who is also the heir to a karate dojo. The group is rounded out when African exchange student Elena, also a powerful fighter, arrives as well.

STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: CHUN-LI

"EASY CATCH" | "MEAN STREETS" | "EYE FOR AN EYE"
"DEADLY ACQUAINTANCES" | "HARSH LESSONS"
Story: Ken Siu-Chong | Artwork: Omar Dogan | Lettering: Marshall Dillon
Chief of Operations: Erik Ko | Managing Editor: Matt Moylan

(Not to be confused with the beloved motion picture, STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI.)

The first STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS mini-series was lighthearted and went for broad comedy across the board. But CHUN-LI takes a different route, playing pretty much entirely straight and reading like an action movie. The story is a prequel to everything we've covered thus far. We meet Chun-Li and her partner, Po Lin, as rookies on the Hong Kong police force. They stumble onto a plot by Shadaloo to steal several Terracotta Warrior statues on display at the local museum and, working with Chun-Li's father, Officer Dorai, thwart the plan.

The story is rife with guest stars from the STREET FIGHTER universe. Besides the obvious ones for a tale set in Hong Kong -- Fei Long and Gen -- we also see Sagat as the leader of the Shadaloo task force, as well as M. Bison and, on the story's final page, "Killer Bee" in cameo appearances.

STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: SAKURA

"TARGET: SAKURA" | "SCHOOL DAYS" | "TAG TEAM!"
"THE HOT DOG EATING CHAMPIONSHIP" | "SAKURA VS. DAN"
Story: Ken Siu-Chong | Artwork: Omar Dogan | Lettering: Marshall Dillon
Chief of Operations: Erik Ko | Managing Editor: Matt Moylan

Note that I've made a slight change to my originally advertised order. I was unaware at the time I planned this all out that STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: SAKURA was published more or less concurrently with STREET FIGHTER II and ties loosely into its events. Now, with that disclaimer out of the way...

STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS: SAKURA is the first in a trio of LEGENDS mini-series, all spotlighting female characters and drawn by Omar Dogan. It's interesting to me that UDON chooses to lead off with a mini spotlighting Sakura rather than the higher profile Chun-Li or Cammy. But Cammy's story is one of the major threads in the ongoing STREET FIGHTER comics, so it's likely there wasn't much that could've been done with her here that wouldn't have stepped on the ongoings' toes. And Chun-Li will spotlight the next mini-series, so her time isn't far off

But the question remains, if you're going to do a Chun-Li story, why not start with it? My best guess is that Sakura is completely sidelined from the main action in STREET FIGHTER II and UDON wanted to keep the character in circulation. Which works out fine, because this is a fun little series that never takes itself too seriously; something nice to see when compared with the STREET FIGHTER ongoings, where, for the most part, melodrama is the order of the day.