STREET FIGHTER #0 - #6

Writer: Ken Siu-Chong | Art & Color: UDON Studios*
Assistant Script Editor: Marina Siu-Chong | Project Manager: Jim Zubkavich
Managing Editor: Marshall Dillon | UDON Chief: Erik Ko

UDON's inaugural STREET FIGHTER story arc sees young martial artist Ryu returning to the Japanese dojo where he lives with his master Gouken, only to find Gouken murdered. Ryu travels to the United States to enlist the aid of Gouken's other pupil, Ken Masters, to find their master's killer. Meanwhile, U.S. Special Forces officer Guile is investigating the disappearance of his old partner, Charlie Nash, who vanished while on the trail of a sinister organization called Shadaloo. Guile teams up with Charlie's Interpol contact, Chun-Li, to look into Shadaloo's apparent interest in Ryu.

From that starting point the two duos travel independently to Japan and eventually cross paths. Along the way, Shadaloo's top assassin, Vega, duels with Ken while Guile and Chun-Li find Charlie, now brainwashed to serve Shadaloo commander M. Bison. When Bison himself appears, Charlie regains his senses and sacrifices himself to apparently kill the despot. Elsewhere, Bison's agent codenamed "Killer Bee" is spirited away by a mysterious gypsy named Rose and given a new life, free of her memories of Shadaloo.

MARVEL PREMIERE #18

”LAIR OF SHATTERED VENGEANCE!”
Scripter: Doug Moench | Penciller: Larry Hama | Inker: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Letterer: Artie Simek | Editor & Series Originator: Roy Thomas

You stand poised in shock, instinctively assuming the defensive cat stance, and you listen as your bizarre opponent speaks to you…

And you watch in awe as his weapon pulses with an aura of coruscating force.

The Plot: Iron Fist duels Triple-Iron and defeats him thanks to a clue provided by the mystery ninja. He makes his way at last into Harold Meachum’s office, to find the older man crippled, missing both his legs. Meachum explains that after knocking Wendell Rand off the cliff, he had wandered the Himalayas aimlessly until he was found by citizens of Katmandu. They nursed Meachum back to health, but his legs were lost to frostbite.

While he recovered, Meachum overheard a visiting monk describe his brief time in K’un L’un on the day it appeared. Thanks to the monk, Meachum learned that young Daniel Rand had made it to K’un L’un, where he was being trained in the martial arts and was expected to someday take up the mantle of Iron Fist. Now paranoid for his life, Meachum returned to the U.S. and set his deathtraps, then waited a decade for Iron Fist to come for him.

With Meachum’s story concluded, Iron Fist departs in pity, unable to follow through with his plan for revenge. Meachum tries to shoot Iron Fist in the back, but the ninja appears to spoil his aim, then kills him and escapes. As Iron Fist stands over Meachum’s corpse, his daughter enters the room and immediately pegs Iron Fist as her father’s killer.

MARVEL PREMIERE #17

”CITADEL ON THE EDGE OF VENGEANCE”
Writer: Doug Moench | Artist: Larry Hama | Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: Artie Simek | Colorist: Petra Goldberg | Editor: Roy Thomas

You stand before the towering skyscraper, dwarfed by it in size… but not spirit. You have battled -- and defeated -- time, distance, assassins, the berserker called Scythe…

…And now you are ready to confront the man named Harold Meachum, the man who waits within the gleaming steel citadel before you, the man who murdered your father…

…The man who caused you to become Iron Fist --

--And the man whose projected death is the sole reason for your existence as Iron Fist.

The Plot: Iron Fist arrives at Meachum Industries and makes his way upstairs, past multiple deathtraps, armed gunmen, more deathtraps, a wolf, another deathtrap, a katana-wielding janitor, and another deathtrap. He enters Harold Meachum’s office to find a costumed assassin awaiting him.

THE SUMMER OF STREET FIGHTER

Last summer I decided to fill my time with what I called "...the comic book equivalent of a big, dumb summer popcorn blockbuster" in the form of DANGER GIRL. This year I'm doing much the same, taking a look at the STREET FIGHTER comics from UDON Studios.

UDON picked up the license to produce American comic books based on the STREET FIGHTER video game franchise (and a few other Capcom properties) way back in 2003. I didn't bother with the ongoing series at the time, but when it was released in a very large trade paperback called STREET FIGHTER: THE ULTIMATE EDITION, I picked it up. I had been a fan of the video games in the nineties and was somewhat familiar with the characters' backstories and world thanks to various adaptations into other media over the years (most notably the animated film which, it seemed, literally everyone on Earth had somehow seen when I was in high school). It was safe to say I was a fan of STREET FIGHTER, but more of the characters than of the video games, which I was never particularly adept at playing.

I read the ULTIMATE EDITION in 2006 and decided that, as far as I was concerned, this was the only definitive STREET FIGHTER continuity I needed to worry about. UDON borrowed elements from the games and various other media interpretations to create a unified storyline. It was a bit rough in places, but it was usually beautifully drawn and colored, and almost always entertaining.

BLACK CAT (2010)

"THE TROPHY HUNTERS"
Writer: Jen Van Meter | Artists: Javier Pulido & Javier Rodriguez
Color Art: Matt Hollingsworth w/Javier Rodriguez | Letters: VC's Joe Carmagna
Assistant Editor: Tom Brennan | Editor: Stephen Wacker | Executive Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine
Covers by Amanda Conner & Christina Strain

Also known as AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS: BLACK CAT, this limited series was published during the "Brand New Day" era of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, as a sort of "side story" taking place during the events of the storyline called "The Gauntlet", in which Kraven the Hunter's family banded together to set challenge after challenge against Spider-Man in order to soften him up for their own final attack.

The story follows Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, as Vasili Sidarov, a servant of the Kravinov family, kidnaps Felicia's mother and uses her to blackmail the Cat into stealing several items for him, which once belonged to the Kravinovs. But the Cat works with her gear suppliers, sisters named Kyoto and Tami, and her tech guru Poet, to turn the tables on Vasili, rescue her mother, and escape from the Kravinovs.

The artwork on this series is a bit of a let-down for me, personally. Don't mistake my opinion, however -- I think Javiers Pulido and Rodriguez are both excellent cartoonists. Their styles would fit an ongoing Spider-Man series wonderfully, especially alongside other similarly styled artists such as Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, and Chris Samnee. They draw a terrific web-slinger, and the general action and storytelling in this series are great. I can't state that enough before moving on: I like these artists quite a bit.

MARVEL PREMIERE #16

”HEART OF THE DRAGON!”
Writer: Len Wein | Inker: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: L.P. Gregory | Co-Plotter/Editor: Roy Thomas
And introducing the pulse-pounding penciling of Larry Hama!

You are Iron Fist -- and the odors that assault your tender nostrils this night fill you with a growing feeling of revulsion.

You have heard many stories of this strange place called New York -- this city that is hardly more than a memory to you --

-- And, unfortunately, it seems that all the tales are true.

The Plot: In a New York alleyway, Iron Fist is assaulted by a group of thugs out to claim a $10,000 reward on his head. As he fights them, Iron Fist remembers his decade in K’un L’un, where he was trained in the martial arts by Lei Kung the Thunderer. In the present, he defeats the thugs and sends them packing.

Iron Fist’s flashback continues as he recalls challenging a dragon called Shou-Lao the Undying. Upon defeating the creature, Danny Rand was branded with the emblem of a dragon on his chest and then, within Shou-Lao’s cavern, he sank his hands into a smoldering brazier and gained the power of the Iron Fist.

In the present, Iron Fist is attacked by a mercenary named Scythe. During their duel he flashes back to a week ago, after completing his trials. Yu-Ti offered him the fruit of the Tree of Immortality and the chance to live forever in K’un L’un, but Danny chose instead to leave the hidden city -- thus preventing him from ever returning -- in order to return to civilization for vengeance on his father’s killer, Harold Meachum.

In the present, Iron Fist defeats Scythe and learns that the bounty was placed upon him by Meachum himself. Iron Fist heads for Meachum’s skyscraper headquarters for revenge.

MARVEL PREMIERE #15

”THE FURY OF IRON FIST!”
Planned, Plotted, and Polished by--
Roy Thomas, Author/Editor & Gil Kane, Artist
Inker: Dick Giordano | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: L.P. Gregory

You are Iron Fist. You stand tensely -- too tensely -- aware of their eyes on you: Yu-Ti, the Hooded One, and his four Dragon-Kings…

And, facing you, four others edge closer, searching for an opening -- a moment of weakness -- the careless flickering of an eyelid.

For, this is your day of destiny, Iron Fist. Today you will eat of the fruit of the tree of immortality -- or else drink deep of the elixir of death--!

The Plot: Observed by Yu-Ti, the August Personage of Jade, Iron Fist spars with four men and defeats them all, completing the Challenge of Many. He then flashes back to a day ten years earlier, when he -- young Danny Rand – along with his parents and his father’s business partner, Harold Meachum, searched the Himalayas for the mystical city of K’un L’un. But their quest was cut short when Meachum killed Danny’s father, sending him plummeting into a crevasse. Danny and his mother fled.

Back in the present day, Iron Fist next faces the Challenge of the One, battling an unstoppable masked fighter called Shu-Hu. When Shu-Hu gets him on the ropes, Iron Fist flashes back again and recalls that his mother was mauled to death by wolves just as they discovered K’un L’un. The city’s defenders saved Danny from the wolves and took him in.

The memories spur Iron Fist to victory and he defeats Shu-Hu, which turns out to be a robot. Yu-Ti congratulates Iron Fist on his victory and offers him the choice between immortality or death.