Does it do the red-haired end boss justice or is it a bastardization that ruins him?
Read on and find out.
Then theres UDONs take on the series, which has lasted a whole ten years so far.
Since his inception in 1994, Akumas backstory had only consisted of a few details.
He and his brother Gouken trained in the martial art of Ansatsuken under Goutetsu.
Now we get Chris Sarracini and Joe Ngs take on what went down.
The Ryu/Akuma corner ofStreet Fighterlore is basically a Jedi/Sith thing with more punching and kicking.
When we see Akuma throughout the years, hes a pretty interesting dude.
Honorable and stoic, but with some boiling intensity right under the surface.
He also doesnt depict pre-demonic Akuma as an overly-sensitive whiner (ie.
The best part is that we get why Akuma does what he does.
When he takes his first life, it isnt some kind of traumatic horror.
Its barely even a life-defining moment.
We understand Akumas actions and may even cheer him on.
About 2/3 into the story, it starts to drag a bit, but then everything comes into place.
When the other shoe drops, it all clicks.
It feels almost acceptable to see him fall from grace because its hard to blame him.
The story isnt all great.
Mainly its the Gouken aspects of the comic that drag it down.
Gouken is pretty damn boring throughout.
Gouken even gets his own story arc early on thats barely even there.
Hes just too hard to care about unless hes thinking about what his red-haired brother is up to.
Joe Ng draws the UDON house style youd expect.
Also great is how Ng handles Akumas aging and evolution.
At first hes just a big, redheaded dude.
His hair becomes wilder and wilder and his face continues to deform.
Its a repeated editing mishap that gets under my skin.
Its inconsistent and characters mention each other by name in conversation way too much.
In one page, a man having a conversation with Akuma mentions Akumas name four times.
Nobody talks like that, reader.
And that, reader, is why it bothers me.
But man, would it have killed them to toss in at least one Raging Demon?
Thats the mans bread and butter!
AndGoogle+, if thats your thing!
Rating:
4 out of 5
