Street Fighter X GI Joe #2 Review

This is an interesting subject for me to be tackling. On one side of this crossover, we have a franchise that has held a special place in my heart since I was four years old, and on the other side, we have a franchise I only have a passing familiarity with. Let’s start by discussing the former. Street Fighter is one of, if not the most popular and influential fighting games in history. The story is too complicated to explain here, but the basic premise centers around a tournament, secretly run by an evil organization, in which the best martial artists from around the world are gathered together to determine the world’s strongest. Pretty basic stuff, but what sells it is it’s vast cast of interesting and unique (albeit sometimes stereotypical) characters. For yours truly, Street Fighter holds a special place in my heart as I said. Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo was the first video game I ever played and remains my all-time favorite to this day.

But enough about that, let’s talk about the other half of this crossover, GI Joe. While everyone has probably played with GI Joe toys at some point in their life, as far as the story goes, my knowledge is limited to the bare minimum. The Joe’s are an elite squad of “real American heroes” that battle against an evil terrorist organization known as Cobra. Outside of some character backstory tidbits I’ve picked up here and there, plus whatever I picked up from the 2009 film, that pretty much all I know.

We’re coming in on the second issue here so some backstory is warranted. M. Bison, the leader of the evil Shadaloo organization and main antagonist of the Street Fighter series has apparently joined forces with Destro, an arms dealer who serves as the principle supplier for Cobra. Together, they’re putting on a tournament featuring several characters from both series, but their true motives remain unknown. Sadly, the qualifying rounds of the tournament took place off panel, so the first issue saw the first four matches of the eighth finals in which Snake Eyes defeated C. Viper, Rufus defeated The Baroness, Hakan defeated Roadblock, and Jinx defeated Ryu. Incidentally, I find it to be a bold move on the part of the writers to have the main character of the Street Fighter series knocked out of the tournament in the first issue. In this issue, the tournament continues.

We open with Guile, a major in the U.S. Air Force and hand to hand combat expert, Cammy, an former assassin for Shadaloo turned British special forces, and Chun-Li, an Interpol detective with the torso of a thin and nimble Chinese woman and what appear to be the legs of a dark-skinned male body builder. Anywho, they’re all discussing the target of their mutual hatred, M. Bison. While they’re in the tournament to win, they’re also there to gather intel on whatever it is Bison has been planning.

But speaking of the Tournament, Guile’s match is up next, and it’s against Gun-Ho, the Joes’ reconnaissance specialist and expert bareknuckle boxer. After some friendly antagonism between the army and the air force, Guile quickly gains the upper hand by showcasing some moves from the game. Frustrated, Gung-Ho pulls out a knife and slices Guile through the shoulder. Yeah, by the way, this tournament apparently has little to no rules when it comes to the use of weapons seeing as how last time around Roadblock was able to use a large machine gun in his fight against Hakan. However, Gung-Ho made one fatal mistake. See, Guile has an American flag tattooed on each shoulder, and if there is one thing Guile will not tolerate it’s disrespecting the old stars and stripes. As such, Guile makes quick work of Gung-Ho with his signature Flash Kick. After the match, Guile helps Gung-Ho up to show that there are no hard feelings, and Gung-Ho returns the gesture by acknowledging Guile’s superior military rank.

Next up is Chun-Li’s match against Dan Hibiki. the pathetic joke character of the Street Fighter series. As you can imagine, Chun-Li dominates most of the match without taking Dan seriously in the slightest. However, that all proves to be a part of “Dan’s” plan as he reveals himself to be Zartan, Cobra’s master of disguise, catching Chun-Li off-guard and winning the bout.

Before the next match, The Baroness, Cobra’s chief intelligence officer calls the participants, Croc Hunter, Cobra’s head of security who uses a trained Gator in combat, and Storm Shadow, Cobra’s Ninja Assassin, over for a little pow-wow. Baroness orders Storm Shadow to take a dive and Storm Shadow responds by saying “I’ll do what needs to be done.” As the fight begins, it becomes immediately apparent that Storm Shadow’s pride as a ninja supersedes his loyalty to Cobra and he makes short work of Croc Hunter and his pet gator, much to the irritation of the Baroness.

Finally, the last match the round pits Cammy against M. Bison himself. Remember when I said Cammy used to work for Shadaloo, well that was only partially correct. The full story is that she was actually created as a female clone of M. Bison to be his soulless assassin. Eventually, she was able to free herself from Bison’s brainwashing and developed a mind of her own, but she still holds a deep seated grudge against Bison. However, Cammy soon gets more than she bargained for when Bison reveals his ace in the hole, a psycho drive, the device from which Bison draws his incredible power. However, this psycho drive has been beefed up thanks to technology provided by Destro. With his new powers, Cammy is crushed and beaten to the point where even Destro thinks it’s enough. Our comic ends with Bison declaring, “It’s never enough.”

What Works:

In true Street Fighter fashion, the fights are excellent and the characters are interesting and easy to get invested in. I’ve been especially enjoying the twists and turns that they’ve been throwing at us, making the ultimate outcome of the tournament difficult to predict.

What Doesn’t: I personally find it silly that this tournament allows the use of guns, knives, swords, large drums of oil and trained Alligators. Sure, there are some Street Fighter characters who use weapons, but there’s a big difference between Vega using a specialized claw for melee combat and one of the Joes pulling out a sub-machine gun.

However, my big complaint here has to do with the battle between Croc Hunter and Storm Shadow. Assuming both men work for Cobra, why should it matter to the Baroness which one of them wins the fight. In fact, if their fight is any indication, Storm Shadow proved himself the superior fighter of the two, so if anything, Baroness should be ordering Croc Hunter to take the dive. I don’t know, maybe it’ll be explained in a later issue, but right now it seems unnecessary. Overall:

4/5

While this series is a lot more flash than substance, it’s very enjoyable flash and for someone who has loved Street Fighter as much as I do for as long as I have, it’s something that won’t disappoint.