She-Blanka needs to be real
It doesn’t look like the majority of fans consider Street Fighter V to be a high point for the series. That’s sad. The good news is, Udon’s current run of Street Fighter comics is arguably the best they’ve yet produced in their 10-plus-year run with the franchise. It’s called Street Fighter Unlimited, and it feels more confident than anything the publisher has done prior. Seeing Gill from Street Fighter III hanging out with Barack Obama was a particularly fun head-turner. Just like it says in the name, this is a comic that is not allowing itself to limited by the events of the games, or any other conventional set of rules. It stays true to the continuity laid down in previous Udon stories, but beyond that, all bets are off.
Udon’s “homage cover” series for both Street Fighter Unlimited and the upcoming series Street Fighter Legends: Cammy is another strong example of how far they are willing to run in new directions. Everything from the 1994 Street Fighter movie to the more recent “how can I see her face and her butt at the same time?” cover to Spider-Woman #1 are paid tribute to, in ways that often surpass the originals. As you can see, they definitely got the anatomy closer to “humanly possible” on their Cammy cover, though without losing the spirit of playful exaggeration that makes this brand of art fun in the first place.
Probably my favorite cover is the She-Hulk #1 tribute that proposes that Laura Matsuda may someday become the She-Blanka. This would not only be an awesome story, but it would also be an awesome mechanic for Laura to employ. Maybe they could use that story to explain why her brother Sean has the new habit of changing skin colors every few months?
You can find a gallery of all these amazing Street Fighter covers and the original comics that inspired them below.
