Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Street Fighter #2 Review

Welcome back to Ninja Turtles vs. Street Fighter. Last time, we learned that The Ninja Turtles, as well as various protagonists from the Street Fighter series were participating in a Martial Arts tournament in Atlantic City. Unbeknownst to our heroes, the tournament is secretly being run by the villainous M. Bison who has joined forces with the somewhat less villainous Dr. Baxter Stockman. During a match between Guile and Raphael, a crooked referee disqualified the mutant turtle on Bison’s orders, angering both combatants. After Chun Li made quick work of Michelangelo, who now has a massive crush on tiny Asian woman with abnormally muscular legs, Raph finds Guile in an alley and demands a rematch. Watching all of this is Bison who sees potential in Raph and plans to unlock the Turtle’s psycho power.

We open with the fight between Raph and Guile already in progress as Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li look on. Raph and Guile are both still pissed about the outcome of their fight and both seem to think that the other bribed the ref, so neither fighter is pulling their punches. I should also mention that it’s implied that their anger is being bolstered thanks to Bison using something called a psycho amplifier. However, before the fight really gets going, a floating mechanical orb descends into the alley and zaps all present unconscious.

Back with Bison, the Shadaloo Dictator is furious with Stockman for stopping the fight but Stockman insists he made the right call. See, Stockman is smart and genre savvy enough to recognize that, as a recurring villain, more often than not, the heroes end up foiling his evil schemes. Therefore, if this plan is to succeed, the only way that happens is if he stays as far away from the Turtles as possible. Stockman demands that they separate Raph from the Street Fighters and Bison reluctantly agrees, at least for now.

Back at the tournament, as both sides stew about what went down in the alley, it’s time for a Protag vs. Protag fight as Ryu takes on Leonardo. The two have a pretty decent, albeit brief, fight and it seems the two are equally matched.  However, when Ryu talks about getting revenge on Raph for what he did to Guile (at this point, Ryu is convinced the Turtles are bad guys) Leo gets his second wind and lands several critical blows to Ryu, winning the match, the two fighters having gained new respect for one another through combat.

Donatello and Ken are up next, but, thanks in no small part to Bison’s manipulations, the animosity between the two factions of heroes has grown to the point where the match devolves into a massive multi-man brawl. As the brawl spills out into the casino, Bison sends his extraction team to abduct the combatants. By the way, the extraction team is wearing the same uniform as Bison’s minions in the 1994 movie. Cool. Our heroes redirect their aggression towards Bison’s goons and fight them off but Raph and Chun Li are taken in the chaos.

Back with our villains, we finally learn what Bison and Stockman are up to. See, they’ve been systematically abducting strong fighters with great potential for Psycho Power, unlocking said Psycho Power and using these people as batteries to power a doomsday weapon called The Psycho Bomb.

Back at the casino, the dust has cleared, our heroes have come to their senses and Mikey says they need to work together to rescue the new love of his life, the beautiful Chun Li… and also Raph I guess.

I guess I’m enjoying this story still, but there are a lot of little things that are keeping me from loving it. For example, the fight between Ryu and Leo just feels wrong. In any crossover, the big fight between the two main characters should feel like a big deal, but here, it’s just shoved into issue two and Leo wins with very little pomp and circumstance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining that Leo won. Considering last time, The Turtles went 0 for 2, losing one match by DQ and one via squash match, I’m glad the heroes in a half shell finally have some points on the scoreboard, but this fight should have been a bigger deal. This is the match that should be the final round of the tournament but here it is in round one. To compare this to another crossover, when Mega Man fought Sonic the Hedgehog, the fight felt huge, spanning the entirety of two issues with both sides looking like a force to be reckoned with. This fight between Ryu and Leo wasn’t bad exactly, but it just felt so unimportant. I’ll get more into my thoughts on the handling of the tournament next time, but before we sign off, I have to share one other, admittedly stupid, nitpick I have here. Okay, team Street fighter consists of Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Guile. That makes sense because they’re some of the most important players in the series. And, having four theoretically gives them equal teams with the Turtles. However, the fact that they threw Jennika, the female Turtle created for the IDW comics into the mix, muddies that a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I like Jennika. She’s a fine character in her own right and a welcome addition to the TMNT. However, now the teams are uneven and it bugs me, especially since there’s an extremely simple solution. Put Cammy on Team Street Fighter. Cammy teams up with Guile and Chun Li all the time and you can’t tell me a fight between Cammy and Jennika wouldn’t be awesome. It's also a little annoying since, as of issue 2, Jennika has yet to do anything that couldn't have been accomplished by one of the other turtles. Anywho, nitpicks aside, this series still has my attention and I’m prepared to stick it out and see where it goes.