Maximum Letdown: Street Fighter (Malibu Comics)

Many people, including myself, thought that the movie starring Jean Claude Van Damne was the low point of the Street Fighter franchise. Or you may have thought it was the game based on said movie. However, you’d be wrong on both counts. At least that movie was goofy enough to get some chuckles out of, and you can’t blame a developer for wanting to cash in on the digitized fighter craze. This 3-issue comic from Malibu however, was Street Fighter at it’s worst. How bad was it? Capcom itself asked them to pull the plug. This despite the company giving the okay to Hasbro to make a line of action figures that barely look like Street Fighter characters.


I could go into a deep synopsis, but why bother? (Besides, Destructoid has the whole first issue here.) This panel pretty much symbolizes everything that is wrong with the comic. God-awful art, the characters act out of character, and the dialogue is cringe-inducing. The plot centers around M.Bison making a deal with dark forces to clone the Street Fighters, although thankfully the series was canceled before this was touched upon even further. During the comic’s 3 issue run, Ken is murdered and scalped by Sagat. and EGM April-fools prank Shen Long also makes his debut as a hospital patient. Oh, remember that action figure of Blanka THE SAVAGE MAN-BEAST who was capable of operating a military vehicle? If that pissed you off, wait until you see this:

I’d be remiss if I forgot to mention that issue 3 contained an appearance by Malibu’s own superhero, The Ferret.

So just who is he? According to his bio on comicvine:

Cal Denton discovered, after he turned 18, that he had superhuman abilities. He assumed it was just a genetic aberration and began fighting crime gaining a reputation for being a violent and volatile crusader. What he didn’t know was that he had been given his abilities on purpose, possibly by the government. He’s a member of the Protectors, although his ends-justify-the-means method of crime fighting sometimes strains his relationships in the team.

So lets see, a feral-wildman with a mysterious past who fights crime using renegade tactics that put him at odds with his peers. Now where have I heard this before?

This comic is an example of what happens when intellectual property owners aren’t careful with who does what with their stuff. The cash is important, but maintaining the integrity of what makes your project special even more important. Otherwise you’ll wind up with a total clusterfuck like this.