Those who pre-ordered a physical copy of the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection were also gifted a special new Marvel vs. Capcom comic that legitimately introduces the likes of Capcom’s Street Fighter characters to the world of the X-Men and Avengers.
Though formidable for sure, the characters of Street Fighter don’t tend to get quite as over the top as those in Marvel, and so it’s relatively interesting to see which Capcom character was chosen to do battle with Thanos, one of the most powerful beings in the entire Marvel universe. They did, however, and the Capcom representative gave Thanos and other powerful Marvel figures quite the run for their money.
The main big baddie of Street Fighter, M. Bison, does play a prominent role in the 32-page issue as he is juxtaposed quite nicely with Dr. Doom. The two team up (though with a palpable sense of distrust and contingency plan coming from either side) to wreak havoc on everyone under the MvC banner, but Bison is not Capcom’s ultimate champion.
One might think poster boy Ryu might ascend to the top to clash with Thanos, especially if he’s in his stronger than ever post-Street Fighter 5 state, but that isn’t the case either. One character from the Street Fighter universe (sort of) that could feasibly fight Thanos would be Ingrid, a literal goddess, but she’s not exactly canon and everyone seems to hate her, so she wasn’t used.
When it’s all said and done, it’s actually Akuma who winds up clashing with Thanos. The demonic fighter is simultaneously one of the strongest and most beloved characters in all of Street Fighter, and is one of the few that would actually enjoy taking on a nigh-impossible fight with the Mad Titan.
In a likely effort to build up the power of both Thanos and Akuma before they fight, the latter defeats the mighty Wolverine with relative ease. While we get that this is in service to making him feel formidable, we still have a hard time swallowing the idea that Logan might fall so quickly to even a powered up Shin Akuma.
Thanos and Akuma appear evenly matched as they battle, which creates a problem for everyone in the MvC universe as the two threaten to destroy everything a la collateral damage. The fix, eventually provided by Doom, is to open a portal and send the rampaging combatants to an uninhabited dimension where they can roll for the rest of eternity.
Is it believable? Probably not, but given how hype it is to see our favorite MvC characters in an actual MvC comic, we’re more than happy to come along for the ride.