STREET FIGHTER V: THE LIFE AND DEATH(S) OF CHARLIE NASH

Story: Chris Sarracini
Art: Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz, Hanzo Steinbach, Edwin Huang, Rob "Robaato" Porter, Long Vo
Colors: Jeffrey "Chamba" Cruz, Josh Perez, Espen Grundetjern, Rob "Robaato" Porter
Lettering: Marshall Dillon | Flats: Ludwig Olimba
Cover Art: Steve Mack w/Espen Grundetjern | UDON Chief: Erik Ko
Director of Publishing: Matt Moylan | Senior Editor: Ash Paulsen

UDON's first tie-in with the upcoming STREET FIGHTER V videogame is an original graphic novel released as a San Diego Comic-Con 2015 exclusive. UDON claims this book will not be rereleased elsewhere, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the story pop up somehow, in some other larger collection. In the meantime, however, since I was on a STREET FIGHTER binge over the summer of 2015, I opted to pick up the exclusive book and cover it here.

Apparently Capcom decided to bring back the long-dead Charlie Nash as a playable character in STREET FIGHTER V, leading to some consternation among fans. The guy had been killed off chronologically prior to the original STREET FIGHTER II, in the STREET FIGHTER ALPHA prequel series, and his death was a major part of the backstories of both Guile and Chun-Li. But with the character returning to life in the game's canon, that meant UDON would need to resurrect him as well for their ongoing stories. And, rather than regular STREET FIGHTER writer Ken Siu-Chong, this task fell to STREET FIGHTER ORIGINS: AKUMA scribe Chris Sarracini. Probably a good idea. As noted previously, Sarracini seems a much more adept writer than Siu-Chong, and a certain level of skill is required here to pull off Charlie's return.