Reading this second issue of the short-lived 1993 Malibu Comics Street Fighter series, it’s fairly clear why Capcom were unhappy with what the publisher was doing with the story and characters.

A nearly issue long fight between Sagat and Ken is what we get here, and look, we know this was the EXTREME, VIOLENT 90s, but Street Fighter is hardly Mortal Kombat; it’s a shame nobody told the creators that. It’s an uber-violent action sequence with a genuinely shocking and somewhat gory climax; to avoid spoilers (yes, I know it’s a comic over three decades old, but I’m still conscious of this kind of thing), stop reading now.

SPOILERS

In a move that was either incredibly daring or very, very stupid, writer Len Strazewski seemingly kills off one of the Street Fighter saga’s main characters in this issue. That’s right, just two issues into the series, Ken is brutally killed, and, to add further insult to injury, scalped too. Though there’s no body seen at any point (leaving the door wide open for a patented comic book shock return), it’s still a jaw droppingly weird curveball for the series to take at this stage.

END SPOILERS

So, it’s clear that the creators really don’t understand the Street Fighter games or its characters. The artwork has its moments, but is generally not great (the colour work is, again, pretty good however; Malibu Comics were really making use of early computer colouring across their entire line and it’s fantastic).

So, where can the series go from here? Let’s find out in the third (and final!) issue…