Within the final hours of the release of Street Fighter 6, it's time to look at the free morsels of lore that were given to many Street Fighter fans over the month of May. Each week leading up to the game's release, a free issue was released online, leading up to the final issue released today. While the physical comics are available for purchase with different variants featuring the Street Fighter 6 cast, all four issues can be read for free on the official UDON Comics website.
Rather than focus on Ryu, the titular character from Street Fighter, this story centers around Ken Masters and how much he has changed since the events of Street Fighter 5. Ken has foregone his fighting history in favor of being a philanthropist, traveling around the world to various countries and helping them by funding their needs. His altruistic nature backfires when he meets the supposed diplomat of this new developing nation, Johan Petrovich.
The story shifts to Mel Masters, Ken's son who has grown into an adolescent boy forced to live under his father's shadow. Being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company while also being a world championship fighter means dragging your son around the world, whether they want to or not. Mel feels a disconnect with his father and wants nothing more than a traditional "father-son" relationship. This is something that Luke, who was hired to protect Mel by Ken himself, takes note of. Having lost his family to terrorists when he was young, Luke sympathizes with the young boy and plays a key role in indirectly saving his life.
It's incredibly difficult to pinpoint what year the Street Fighter canon takes place in as everything is modern and up to date with current technology. Chun-Li makes an appearance in the comic in an attempt to clear Ken's name and enlists the aid of Li-Fen, a young girl around the same age as Ken who is under Chun-Li's guardianship. Li-Fen shows herself capable of being a hacker, identifying that Ken was set up via a deepfake of all things. This, coupled with malfunctioning AI and talks of cryptocurrency makes some of the themes in this mini-series echo ominously of real life.
Within minutes, Ken's reputation is ruined by a fraudulent video claiming that he's aligned with terrorists, a global manhunt is after Ken Masters, and in the midst of all of this, Mel is caught in the crossfire. He's kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip by the villain who orchestrated this entire scheme, but like father like son, Mel uses his resources to get out of a sticky situation. The ringleader behind all of this, JP, seems more demented than M. Bison was.
This is based on the fact that it seems his motives are "to see how human nature reacts" to a fallen hero being pitted up against a reckless hero. Luke happens to be just as hot-headed as Ken, who is on a short fuse because his son is in danger. A brief fight ensues between the two, despite being on the same side, while the real villain looks on in his amusement. JP is a cold calculating villain, almost seemingly having no remorse in killing those who stand in his way or make an attempt on his life.
Counting the playable characters, only four showed up in the comic, Ken, JP, Chun-Li, and Luke. Issue four segues into Street Fighter 6's story as some time passes, with Luke running a dojo, Chun-Li allegedly not working with Interpol, and of course Ken blending in plain sight. What impressed me was how this mini-series handled Ken Masters who was unfortunately believed to be "homeless and on the run."
Fortunately, Street Fighter fans got one of the two right and Ken has soundly defeated the "deadbeat dad" allegations. I'm excited to unravel the story mode for myself when the game releases to see how Ken and the others find their redemption.
Street Fighter 6 releases on June 2nd, 2023, for the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.