Capcom’s 1989 arcade title, Final Fight, was far from the first scrolling beat ’em up. However, it soon became, and remains, an iconic and influential title in the genre. It’s visually spectacular, even now, with lots of big, beautifully drawn sprites duking it out on screen at any one time, but importantly, it also plays brilliantly too (though the later stages and bosses can be quite cheap and unfair; it is an arcade title designed to part players with their coins, after all!). It was incredibly popular for good reason, and it has aged very gracefully indeed, despite being 35 years old in 2024.

It does have a rather thin and silly plot, however, which is perhaps why it’s taken so long for a fully fledged Final Fight comic to emerge. This four issue series, from the video-game-to-comic-book specialists at UDON, retells the story of the arcade game; ex-wrestler and Mayor of Metro City, Mike Haggar, must rescue his daughter Jessica, who’s been kidnapped and is being held to ransom by the psychotic Mad Gear gang. Jessica’s boyfriend, Cody, offers his assistance, as does Cody’s friend Guy. All of them set off to get to Jessica, through waves and waves of Mad Gear gang members, on the streets and in the subways and buildings across Metro City.

Given the wafer thin plot, there’s not a lot to tell here, as setup aside, it’s pretty much wall to wall fight scenes. Characters are sketched fairly thin too, so there’s barely any insight into Guy, for example; I got the same feeling from the arcade game when it came to the third playable character (who no one seemed to choose), so at least it’s remaining faithful to the source material in that respect!

It’s faithful in numerous other ways too, with lots of scenes recreated vividly from the game. The dialogue, while incredibly cheesy, is also reminiscent of what you’d find in the arcade title too, but the real surprise comes with the intro page, which frames the whole story as a jaunt into an 80s time capsule of urban decay, trapped in the confines of an arcade machine.

That’s a very pretentious way of saying that, basically, it doesn’t matter how campy or OTT the action and dialogue is at all. It’s just a fun, action movie style experience on the page; where previously it would have been rendered in pixels, here it’s in brilliantly dynamic and kinetic artwork that really pops off the page.

It’s really fun stuff; if you’ve experienced the hyper stylised Street Fighter comics that UDON produce, you’ll pretty much know what you’re in for. Are they artistically worthy character studies that speak to readers about the human condition?

Nah, they’re about an ex-wrestler who busts heads across the city he’s just been elected to protect. Big, daft, campy fun. But fun, nonetheless!

You can download the PDF of Final Fight #1 directly from UDON for free, here.

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