BATMAN versus SOFIA GIGANTE FALCONE

Peace (DC)
Where: Batman: Dark Victory #13 When: December 2000 Why: Jeph Loeb How: Tim Sale

The Story So Far...
The mystery of a new killer grips Gotham City in the wake of The Holiday murders. The months melt away as The Hang Man stalks the ranks of law enforcement, pinning a crude scribbling of the children's word game to their victims, written on documents taken from the desk of Harvey Dent.

The scarred former District Attorney has gone underground as the walls of suspicion and his enemies begin to close in around him. Former ally, Batman, is on his trail, but the man now dubbed "Two-Face" is busy with his own investigation, and the pair will inevitably reach the same conclusion, leading to a showdown with Sofia Gigante Falcone!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)
Total: Batman 29 (Metahuman)

The Batman has had no shortage of run-ins with organized crime figures, but finding a comparison for the heiress to the Falcone Crime Family is no mean feat.

Sofia Gigante Falcone is one of a kind. The daughter of notorious Gotham City crime boss Carmine Falcone, she was much closer to her father than her mother, Luisa. Sofia inherited The Roman's cunning and determination, navigating mob rank with the benefit of a physically imposing stature and demeanor.

It's difficult to do Sofia Falcone's domineering size and aura justice. She is a truly powerful woman in every sense of the word -- but by the time of Batman: Dark Victory, she is carrying the literal & figurative scars of The Long Halloween.

The Holiday Killer's campaign against organized crime pushed Sofia to extremes and ended with her shocking plunge from the balcony of the Falcone Penthouse.

Catwoman's bola inadvertently saved Sofia from falling to her death, but in doing so, swung her uncontrollably through plate glass windows that sheered the right side of her face off, and left her wheelchair bound -- or so it seemed.

Cosmetic surgery, wigs, and a steel frame rebuilt Sofia's appearance, but rumors of her crippling physical injuries were greatly exaggerated. In fact, the wheelchair is a mere cover for her campaign as The Hang Man Killer: a serial murderer whose hanging modus operandi speaks to the physical strength of Sofia Falcone.

She isn't enhanced to the degree of Bane - who combined stratagem, training, and Venom augmentation to famously break the bat - but certainly possesses the natural physical attributes to give Batman a run for his money.

We know he can handle himself against the likes of a Venom-enhanced Riddler, Killer Croc, Fatman & Little Boy, and even Marvel's peak physical specimen, the super-soldier Captain America. How will he handle Falcone? Let's find out!

The Tape: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...

Gotham City burns from the inside out as the gas lines ignite, and Harvey "Two-Face" Dent crawls desperately through the labyrinthine sewers beneath.

Dent pulls himself across the stone, emerging from a metal hatch without noticing the dark figure hidden in the flames. A noose drops around his throat and yanks him toward the pipes overhead. On the other end of the rope - a hulking shadow, emerging through the flames as it sheds the metal frame around its head.

His executioner steps into the light -- Sofia Gigante Falcone, The Hang Man Killer.

The seemingly crippled crime boss almost fooled them all. They never suspected the woman in the wheelchair. She towers, completely capable and unencumbered, strong enough to hold a grown man off the ground by a rope around his throat.

Dent spits in Sofia's face. She yanks the rope and buries her right fist in his gut.

A razor-sharp batarang cuts the air and slices the rope. Two-Face drops.

The Dark Knight descends into the burning sewer tunnel, gliding over Sofia Falcone. A short uppercut knocks her back as he works through all the clues in his mind, unravelling and revising the inevitability of her guilt.

The powerful crime boss is disgusted that Batman would protect the Two-Faced former District Attorney. Falcone is more than able to match his blows, scuffling with a leading left that becomes an upward strike.

The Batman delivers a straight kick to her chest to wind the giant.

He follows rapidly with a precision nerve strike delivered with straightened hand.

A stiff uppercut completes the combination to end the Falcone Crime Family.

The Batman appears triumphant, but then --

Suddenly -- a gunshot rings out in the tight sewer tunnel and Sofia Gigante Falcone's grimace goes limp. Her eyes widen, dumbstruck, as blood bursts from her forehead. The Hang Man has been hit.

A noose drops around her neck, pulling the corpse away from Batman and toward those pipes running along the top of the sewer tunnel.

Falcone's body provides counterweight as Two-Face leaps to a lower level of the tunnel system, dangling from the other end of the rope in escape.

"You wanted it to end, Bats. So did I."

The pipe bursts as chunks of the old sewer system begin to collapse and fall away. Fire engulfs the underground. The Hang Man has been stopped, but it's not over. Not yet. Two-Face is still on the loose and The Batman has a cave to defend.

The Hammer...

It's been a while since I've revisited Dark Victory, but I remember a lot of it quite well. Not just through the ripples of its influence in the adaptations of Christopher Nolan, or the recent HBO live-action Penguin series streaming to MAX, but from the impact of that very first read some twenty-plus years ago.

The Long Halloween had passed me by, but I read vicariously through the pages of Wizard Magazine, where the hottest Batman story of the mid-late nineties was the source of much speculation and excitement. It got me excited, too!

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale quickly became a must-read partnership as I reinvested myself in DC's Dark Knight -- a lapsed favourite from earlier childhood. Naturally, a collected edition of The Long Halloween became an instant favourite. I cherish it still. It's on top of a tall stack of comics on my desk right at this moment.

I still consider the two maxi-series to be among the very best Batman stories on offer. Individually, or together, they address the greatest aspects of the character, and his surrounding world. Masterworks ripe for study and enjoyment.

There is the thrilling tour through the iconic rogue's gallery that offers instant amusement and all the action you could want. Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent intersect with the conflict between organized crime and these new "freaks" in Gotham City. Dent's fateful transformation into Two-Face is retold, becoming an actualized transition between the two paradigms, nestled within an unfolding crime caper that fulfills the old fashioned pulp fiction of Detective Comics, while also addressing the oft-neglected mystery-solving of The Dark Knight Detective.

Loeb & Sale's work builds directly on a foundation of Year One, but surpasses it in a great many ways, better reflecting a definitive version of the superhero, while adapting the montage technique of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's four issue classic to create a monthly timeline that plays directly into the story.

The overarching threat of "The Long Halloween" is a veiled antagonist, The Holiday Killer, who strikes but once a month -- just like comic books. In Dark Victory, it's the mysterious Hang Man who terrorizes Gotham by calendar.

The layers are many, and that doesn't even begin to address the immediate appeal of Tim Sale's artwork, complimented beautifully by the colours of Gregory Wright. The collaboration with Sale is impeccable, creating an unrivaled mood for Gotham City and its many haunts. You see it in every gloomy night, grand interior, and stone-walled sewer tunnel.

The penciler's layouts, designs, and expressive characters are on another level. Cinematic, beyond merest reality, yet believably grounded in it.

I recall listening to an interview with Fanboy Radio, where Sale waxed romantically about his real-world inspiration for Catwoman -- a character he and Loeb revisited with the sequel mini-series, Catwoman: When In Rome.

I wouldn't ordinarily skip straight to the conclusion of the second series, but I settled on today's featured fight for its reflection of all of Sale's skills. In particular, I wanted an entry that captured the grandeur of his vision for Sofia Gigante Falcone, who seems underserved by the recent live-action casting of diminutive, slight, and conventionally glamorous, 5'2" Cristin Milioti.

I've already expressed misgivings about the entirety of The Penguin spin-off and its origins in The Batman. Not having seen the show, I wouldn't want to be too outwardly venomous towards Milioti's portrayal, but I think the panels included in today's entry speak to the vast disparity between the originating comic book character, and Hollywood's all too typical choice for females in these projects.

Towering and scarred, wearing that heavy trench coat, there's obviously a lot of dramatic exaggeration going on in this final chapter of Dark Victory, but for anyone who has read both series throughout, you will recognise Sofia Falcone as an archetype that exists in life. A powerful, physically imposing Italian woman, with strong features. A distinct and appropriate choice for the character, whose domineering presence looms literally & figuratively over both stories.

With so much of contemporary cinema caught up in social concerns, it's a little dismaying to see female characters with unique characteristics, be they body-type or age, regularly supplanted in live-action with more standard types.

Marisa Tomei as Aunt May might be the most egregious example of this time, but I also think of DC's Amanda Waller, who is yet to have the robust physicality of "The Wall" seen in classic comics in any of her live-action portrayals.

Put simply: Sofia Gigante Falcone would crush her live-action counterpart in much the way she squeezed Riddler's head to the point of bleeding.

A fantastic character, who like other key figures in The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, is irreversibly corrupted by Gotham City and her own obsessions, driven to becoming one of the very "freaks" her family so detests. Thus, The Hang Man Killer is hung by her own noose. A perfect, ironic end, punctuated with a gunshot to the head to seemingly rule out another miraculous return from the dead.

Of course, this isn't actually the end. There was The Long Halloween Special in 2021, and now Jeph Loeb has collaborated with another excellent Batman artist, Eduardo Risso, to begin Batman: The Long Halloween - The Last Halloween. A final chapter that pays homage to Tim Sale, who passed away in June, 2022.

It still hits me pretty hard to think about that.

I didn't know the man personally, but his work has been tremendously important to me. Having neglected talking about these favourite series all these years, I finally started working on an entry for Halloween 2021, but when I couldn't confidently describe a detail in the story, I wanted to seek clarification from the source. Just over half a year later, I understood how poor my timing must have been. That entry, or any others, just became a little too hard to think about.

We're blessed to have Sale's work adorn Last Halloween covers. His unmistakable hand still a part of the project. I think fondly not just of his work on The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but also his covers for Detective Comics, which were as exciting at times as the interior issue itself.

One day I will return to that unfinished 2021 entry, and other memorable moments from The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but for now I'm taking a break.

You can find relevant entries, past and future, by following links throughout this article, or by diving in to the Secret Archive. That's where every featured fight is filed in order of publisher, series, and issue number. Starting with DC, you'll be able to find plenty of Batman right near the top, but I also recommend following the Tim Sale label for some of his other fantastic works, at DC and elsewhere.

If you'd like to see me return to this subject sooner than later, or any other topic that strikes your fancy, you might like to become a supporter on Patreon. This is a fine way to get my ear, but also just help keep us all in the fight. With over 700 battles detailed, and many more subjects covered, Secret Wars on Infinite Earths is determined to be a free resource to anyone who might have use for it.

Get daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day by following on X (aka; Twitter)! Don't forget to smash that like, fave, and share -- and keep your eyes peeled for the week's top trending battles every Sunday on X & Discord! The lively Discord chat is one of the bonuses of becoming a Patreon subscriber!

Winner: Two-Face & Batman
#152 (+297) Two-Face [+1 kill]
#1 (--) Batman
#1032 (new) Sofia Gigante Falcone

BATMAN versus PENGUIN

Snow and Ice Part Two: Bird of Ill Omen (DC)
Where: Detective Comics #611 When: February 1990
Why: Alan Grant How: Norm Breyfogle

The Story So Far...
The Penguin is dead. Claimed by a heart attack in Gotham Penitentiary while working out in the gym. An ignoble death for a man whose final will & testament pledges protection to the bird species from which he took his criminal alias.

The Batman attends his funeral with other friends, rivals, and enemies, breaking with taste and tradition to diligently verify the legitimacy of Oswald Cobbleplot's demise. The corpse is genuine -- but its slumber is not. The Batman is right to harbor his suspicions.

By night, The Penguin's men exhume his body, and although they at first fail to stir him from the hypnotic state mimicking death -- they soon spring Mortimer Kadaver from prison. His role in putting The Penguin under is quickly undone with the utterance of a simple code word, allowing the pair to begin a fresh crimewave with The Penguin beyond suspicion.

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 5 (Professor)
Speed: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Batman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Projectiles)
Total: Batman 29 (Metahuman)

Batman has one of the most famous rogue's galleries in comic book villaindom, and although The Penguin has always enjoyed a certain iconic status, modern times haven't always been especially flattering to his combat potential.

Once upon a time this criminal mastermind reigned supreme as one of Batman's premiere opponents, but as The Dark Knight has become increasingly associated with almost super-human levels of peak physical & mental conditioning -- Oswald Cobblepot has found a more comfortable niche as a businessman and overseer.

The Penguin therefore differs from some of Batman's more maniacal arch-villains in cold calculating. He's a rational actor, wielding tactical brilliance to manipulate the ranks of organized crime, politics, and high society -- eventually maintaining the facade of a legitimate businessman as owner of The Iceberg Lounge.

One way Penguin deals with physical opposition is to recruit hired muscle. We saw him call upon Girder and Double Down during a visit to Keystone City in The Flash #210. He also recruited Jonathan Crane for an operation that led to the psychologist's transformation into the rampaging Scarebeast.

Far from helpless, Penguin also typically travels with an arsenal of personal firepower. His famed trick umbrellas come with a variety of munitions, blades, or gasses, as was unleashed against Green Arrow in Justice League of America #135.

We generally expect Batman to defeat most opponents in the end, but planning and resources can get the better of him -- especially in one of his more street-level outings.

The Batman himself almost undid his dominance over Rick Flag by infiltrating the secret Belle Reve Prison headquarters of Task Force X. Caught in the lion's den, he only escaped Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad through negotiation.

Master planners Bane and Hush stacked the deck in their favor by running The Batman ragged before respective showdowns in Batman #497 and Batman #619. Pawns in their scheme, Riddler and Harley Quinn, proved capable of testing The Dark Knight in their skirmishes as well, in Batman #490 and Batman #613.

So, will this be one of those circumstances? Has The Penguin planned the ultimate humiliation for Batman in this installment? Let's stop speculating and find out!

The Tape: Batman Ranking: Batman (#1)

What Went Down...

With a spring in his step, a sack full of cash over his shoulder, and a tune whistling from his lips -- The Penguin descends a fire escape ladder on his way to another escape from the back of the freshly robbed First Gotham Bank.

He has just unburdened himself of his partner-in-crime, Mortimer Kadaver, but The Penguin's troubles are only just beginning. As he begins to load his loot into a getaway car -- a cold voice growls from the street light overhead: "Hi."

The startled Penguin leads with his umbrella gun as he twirls to meet the grim figure descending from above.

His hat falls away and for the briefest of moments The Penguin locks eyes with his hunter, but he does not lose his composure.

The Penguin welcomes the diving Bat with open arms -- using the Dark Knight's own momentum to redirect him with a backwards roll and kick of his legs.

The toss sends Batman hurtling into nearby trash cans -- a painful reminder that appearances aren't everything where the stout, but physically capable Penguin is concerned. His choice of accessory hides deadly potential, as well!

From the end of Penguin's umbrella blasts a wild spray of gunfire!

Batman dodges and weaves to keep clear of the shots, but he knows he can only keep the feat up for so long!

With a single fluid motion The Bat dances around the bullets, while also collecting one of the nearby trash can lids to fling towards his foe!

The broad metal disc collides with The Penguin's skull -- creating an opening!

The Batman seizes his opportunity -- closing in with a knock-out punch!

The Hammer...

Our first look at a classic rivalry gives us a surprisingly competitive street fight.

I have to admit, I'm not entirely at peace with the image of a judo-rolling Penguin, but for the most part I find this a pretty acceptable outing.

Batman dancing between short-range gunfire might be stretching credibility to its absolute breaking point, but there's still a lot to like about the balance of ruthlessness and iconic Penguin gimmickery in this portrayal. I'll gladly take reality-bending super-human feats if it means indulging in the fantasy of trick gun-umbrellas and exciting comic book imagery.

Norm Breyfogle has to be right up there with Jim Aparo as one of the great, iconic Batman artists. They both have terrifically stern, angular takes on The Dark Knight, who remains firmly rooted in the world of superheroes, but can disappear into highly stylized urban shadows, and moody pulp page layouts.

There's something about Breyfogle that reminds me a little of Sal Buscema, as well. Another favourite artist of the late eighties/early nineties who trades in sound fundamentals, instantly identifiable exaggerations, and a flair for big action and expressive characters. Guys who really make comics a singular experience.

We're back in one of my favourite years: 1990. A time especially significant for Batman as a character and brand, still riding the phenomenon of mainstream mania sparked by the 1989 feature film, while DC Comics continues to navigate the on-going creation of a new normal for a post-Crisis DC Universe.

I think fondly of picking up issues of Batman and Detective around this time, in places like the city train station, where I would exit past the newspapers caged outside a narrow hole-in-the-wall convenience store, new issue gripped in my hot little hands, and daydream about Batman and The Joker fighting across an overhead foot bridge. There was a touch of Gotham in that place, with its old fashioned wooden phone booths & polished coat hangers, and rain-soaked winter commuters whom I could swear were wearing hats and trench coats, but probably had something a little less sophisticated in style for a 1990 wardrobe.

The classic rogue's gallery was ripe for a rethink around this time, and Bat-fans were eating well, with all the major villains represented and near the peak of their powers. A period of re-establishment that laid a strong new foundation for the decades to follow and build upon.

The Penguin is still leaving a trail of clues for Batman in this issue, citing the idea that a crime spree wouldn't have any thrill if nobody knew who was doing it, but he's taking a break from ornithological fixations to go after cold hard cash, and more notable, "snow" and "ice" -- street names for cocaine and diamonds.

I suppose there's nothing too unusual about that, but it does feel a little like this issue is participating in a broad process of evolution that will advance the Bat-mythos, and take The Penguin toward a more hands-off approach, arriving a decade later as something of a power broker ensconced in a world of luxurious gimmicks -- namely The Iceberg Lounge -- rather than actively pursuing gimmicks, like exotic birds.

Not that I'm at all opposed to Oswald Cobblepot's specialist interests and proclivity to acquire the finest things through criminal methods. There are just better opponents to be out on the streets trading blows with Batman, and the idea of flaunting clues for attention feels more at home with Riddler, or perhaps Joker.

This process of refinement, and commitment to the unique accumulating culture of comic books, was & is one of the pleasures of the era.

You could really count on the comics back then; resistant to even the massive cultural impact of Michael Keaton's Batman, and Tim Burton's later vision for a grotesque sewer-dwelling Danny DeVito that we never fully suffered in comics. Even the enduring all-black rubberized Bat-costume was never fully executed in the comics, even if there was some experimentation with colouring and design.

The Penguin was a brilliant visual right out of the gate in 1941, and the details of that design were largely retained as well -- even in the face of modern fashion sensibility, which admittedly, had room for gorgeous retro as part of its variety of styles, but still contained the pressures of aggressive disposal in pursuit of the hot new thing.

If there were any outside forces that influenced Penguin - it was the Batman animated series: A show that was embraced by comicdom for its high-quality retro vision, which itself was heavily and intuitively influenced by comic book sources.

For lack of a better term - the cartoon was one of "ours", even as it navigated its own necessary evolution of design and characterization, before eventually losing its way in the later iterations.

I don't like to spend too much time here railing against the present, but I invariably return to the subject, because I do wish current comics showed more of that consistent old resiliency and dedication to refinement, without falling in to a complete regression into dead-end nostalgia.

It weighs particularly on my mind as we endure our current Batman mediascape, steered unconvincingly, but with baffling acclaim, by Matt Reeves' decidedly less comics-intelligent, pathetically cliche post-Nolan pubescent fan-fiction, The Batman, and the current Penguin spin-off series starring Colin Farrell on MAX, which I admittedly haven't seen much of. I'm not sure it would improve my mood.

The temptation of the British gangster pursues a version of The Penguin that ultimately seeks to diminish the things that make him interesting. This version is cut from a cloth notably worn by the Batman Arkham video games, which are very good, but slightly cringeworthy for the 'edgy' grime of their aesthetic, pulling on outside influences, like roles played by The Long Good Friday actor, Bob Hoskins, in addition to a wide array of Batman comics and multimedia.

These efforts in other mediums forget that there is a big wide world of characters, and in the case of Farrell's portrayal, the addition of scars further infringes on other characters, and by design works to make The Penguin far less special.

It can be very interesting to flesh out a character or idea by pulling on intuitive similarities to outside reference, but done indelicately, without firm understanding and appreciation for the original source, it can quickly become a self-defeating fool's errand, gradually making everything in our world increasingly bland and flavourless. We can find British thugs in any number of other places - but there's really only one monocle-wearing, top hatted, umbrella-packing, dapper Penguin.

Superheroes and their prolific blockbuster adaptations have been particularly endemic of this problem, but it's something palpable throughout all western pop culture, which seems to have lost far more than it has gained in the last couple of decades. A depressing reality for fans & viewers -- and the industry itself.

I find myself increasingly believing comics should be read backwards and forwards. The best of the past and the potential of the future.

If you'd like to know more about either, perhaps you'd consider joining me in my explorations by becoming a supporter on Patreon. With well over 700 featured fights and more, Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has mused a great deal through the highs & lows of recent comics. With your help, we can continue to do more!

You can find all the superhero smackdown reports for free by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of battles in order of publisher, series, and issue -- or by hitting links to your favourite topics found throughout each entry.

Get daily links to fights inspired by the topics of the day by subscribing to Twitter! Don't forget to smash that like, fave, and share -- and keep your eyes peeled for the week's top trending battles every Sunday on Twitter & Discord! The lively Discord chat is one of the bonuses of becoming a Patreon subscriber!

Winner: Batman
#1 (--) Batman
#1084 (-7) The Penguin

RYU versus DHALSIM

Battle 04: Carnival (Tokuma)
Where: Street Fighter II #3 When: June 1994
Why: Masaomi Kanzaki How: Masaomi Kanzaki

The Story So Far...
Ryu has travelled from Japan to the crime-ridden island metropolis of Shad in pursuit of earning his place in the renowned Third Annual Grand Fight. Something he can only do by competing in street fights to earn a place in the final stadium tournament bracket.

A victory over former boxing champion Balrog has made Ryu a hot prospect, but to assure himself a place in the stadium showcase he must overcome a warrior with unique insight, who has sensed the power of his chi and is determined to defeat him.

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Ryu 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Dhalsim 3 (Straight A)
Speed: Ryu 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Draw 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Dhalsim 6 (Rubber)
Fighting: Ryu 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Ryu 3 (Explosives)
Total: Draw 23 (Champion)

Ryu is the eternal "World Warrior", wandering the globe in search of truth through fist. Although there are significant departures from established Capcom canon in Masaomi Kanzaki's 1993 manga adaptation (and it's Tokuma Comics version edited for US distribution) -- that spirit of competitive fighting remains true!

Ryu won the first major fight of the localized series when he faced Balrog (aka; "Boxer") in a match that almost ended with his assassination.

The sniper was cut-off by Guile, but this time the US Special Forces man won't have his back. He joins Ryu as a competitor in the Grand Fight Tournament -- a renowned event held in Shad to crown the strongest fighter in the world.

Dhalsim may not have the outwardly appearance of a muscle-bound powerhouse capable of claiming that title -- but his mastery of esoteric yoga techniques has made him an enduring force in the world of Street Fighter.

In UDON's comic book adaptation, Ryu sought the wisdom of Dhalsim's council as he honed his fighting technique and wrestled with the inner darkness of his desire to avenge his master Gouken -- who was murdered by Akuma.

In that encounter, Ryu was humbled in defeat, as he learned the value of Dhalsim's unusual philosophy towards the spirit of fighting. Something Sagat had already experienced when he sought out Dhalsim's training for similar reasons.

Gamers know Dhalsim is ostensibly a pacifist who uses his fighting techniques to protect and sustain his village in India. He believes in the yogic principles of harmony & understanding, mostly reluctant to use the offensive capabilities of his style, which includes breathing "yoga flame" for a variety of short & long range fire attacks, as well as extending his limbs for uncanny striking reach.

Ryu is arguably a superior fighter to Dhalsim, continually honing his ansatsuken style in friendly competition with his martial arts brother Ken and against powerful opponents like Sagat. He harnesses his chi for a variety of fire-based attacks, famously scarring Sagat with his violent shoryuken dragon punch.

Yet, Ryu has also been shown to still have much to learn. During the prequel plot of the Street Fighter Alpha manga, he was defeated by the similarly enlightened approach of Rose. Will his SFII manga battle be a moment of learning - or victory? Let's drop some quarters in the slot and get this fight started!

History: Dhalsim (1-0-0)

The Tape: Draw Ranking: Ryu (#30)

What Went Down...

Dhalsim pulls away the turban and robes covering his body, revealing sparse decoration on his slender frame. A metal ring clinks and dangles around each his wrists, while three small skulls stare across the street to his eager opponent.

Ryu didn't expect to meet the impressive yogi so soon in his quest to reach the Grand Fight. He can tell Dhalsim is a tough fighter, but has no intention of losing his ticket to the big battle. Dhalsim swears on his skulls that he will win.

Ryu makes the first move, closing in on his opponent with an overhand punch -- but Dhalsim dashes backwards to avoid the blow and create space.

The Japanese fighter is stunned to immediately find himself forced to block a kick!

He can hardly believe that Dhalsim's limbs are closing the divide - stretching for dangerous long-ranged kicks and punches!

Undeterred by the blocked kick - Dhalsim quickly follows with a stretching punch!

Ryu blocks that too, but still feels the mental and physical toll of the blow.

His mind begins to race. He can't find a way to get close to Dhalsim!

The yogi takes full advantage of his command of the space. If his limbs cannot strike their target -- he will try a projectile attack!

The ball of Yoga Fire hurtles toward Ryu!

He does his best to mitigate its burning seer -- dropping and rolling on the ground as gathered onlookers watch in slack jawed awe.

"Like I said, I swear on these skulls that I will not lose."

Ryu regains a vertical base, his arms sizzling as he assumes a ready stance.

Fighting through the crowd, his friends Po-Lin and her young brother are shocked to see the martial artist in such rough shape.

Dhalsim throws another furious stretching punch, which Ryu barely manages to block with his burnt arms.

He attempts to fight fire with fire, unleashing a hadoken fireball!

Once again the yogi stuns his opponent -- standing stoically as he catches the fireball with his bare hands and lets it dissipate to nothingness.

He is impressed by the strength of Ryu's chi, but it will be useless against one who has mastered the ways of yoga in pursuit of a noble cause.

Dhalsim reveals the terrible toll of economic hardship suffered in his country. The pointless deaths of innocent women and children who suffer the frequent wars, disease, and starvation that afflict the poverty-stricken nation.

He once pledged himself to the teachings of Brahman, and the ways of yoga, but came to learn they were useless in protecting his people. So he has abandoned the way, intent on earning victory through fighting to divert his winnings to the children. Children like those who produced the skulls he wears around his neck.

Ryu sympathizes with Dhalsim's plight, but doubts that a street fight will offer much of a solution.

He remains committed to fighting for himself, but as he contemplates his last resort, Ryu recalls his master's teachings: 'Listen, the sho-ryu-ken (dragon punch) is a powerful force... but use it only when necessary! It may call upon death!'

Dhalsim forces the issue with Yoga Flame!

Ryu is doused in the inferno of the spewing flame!

Afraid for his friend, young Wong-Mei cries his name -- and Dhalsim hears!

The child's voice provides a momentary distraction. A distraction that costs Dhalsim dearly as Ryu resorts to his most powerful strike -- the shoryuken!

The Hammer...

In repurposing the original chapters of the Tokuma Shoten manga for a format and tone more in keeping with American comics; the English colorized version creates a cliffhanger that doesn't exist within collected tankobon editions.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths usually adheres to rules restricting an entry to the contents of an individual issue, but fortunately, this issue's final page ends with Ryu charging his shoryuken -- the finishing move of the fight!

We can therefore cheat a little and record a definitive result, with the impact (pictured below), taken from Street Fighter II #4, page four.

The [almost] full-page image is one of the most striking of the adapted series so far, and one of the most successful applications of colour to the original greyscale Kanzaki art.

Unlike some of the other panels featured in this article - this one removes original black & white shading methods, replacing Dhalsim's zipatone flesh with relatively straight colour. You'll notice in other panels they awkwardly coloured right over the top of horizontal lines used to create darker shades in original black & white art. It's more obvious in the digital scans, but it's still a clumsy visual to the eye.

The process of making this image has pros and cons. The American comic creates a clean, well realized version by completely re-doing background action lines in colour, which presumably also made it easier to replace Japanese sound effects with English translations. Unfortunately, the inks still become muddier and simplified in the process, losing the finer details of impact motion lines on Dhalsim's body, and diminishing the marriage of Ryu's dragon fist in non-linear contrast to the background, which is rendered originally with similar lines, just in different directions. Ultimately, the original looks the best, but this one is still nice.

UDON did a wonderful job of localizing the complete Masaomi Kanzaki story in three black & white volumes in 2007, which includes the entire 450-or-so page story in its original format, with English translations.

In addition to revealing various edits of panel size, layout, and slight changes to context of various dialogue exchanges -- the collections also include an entire excised plot running much longer than the eight-issue American series.

Ordinarily I'd skew towards referencing the original format, but I only have two of the UDON volumes, and I think it's interesting and worthwhile to explore the oddities of what Western gamers were subjected to in the 1994 American editions.

Back then you had to work a little harder to get the story details of your favourite characters. Gamers should have been savvy enough to know Po-Lin and Wong-Mei were invented for the manga, along with the Shad location of the series, but this version of Dhalsim at least skews fairly close to the basic premise of the Street Fighter II video game character.

He remains a deeply spiritual practitioner of yoga in the comic, choosing to fight only to raise funds to protect the innocents of his homeland, who are afflicted with famine and pestilence caused by poverty and war. At the time, the manga may have been one of the most effective deliveries of this premise.

This generally became Dhalsim's motivation moving throughout the franchise, albeit with more specific focus on his village, rather than the entire nation of India, which goes largely unnamed in both versions of the translated manga & comic.

India is only specifically mentioned in Dhalsim's entry in the character bios that are included at the bottom of every page in each American issue. These bios inform readers of each character's background and stats, while also compensating for the different dimensions of American comic book and manga page sizes. The manga is slightly more squat, leaving empty space at the top or bottom of pages.

In the earliest contemporaneous versions of the Street Fighter II arcade game(s), Dhalsim was explicitly shown returning home to a wife after the tournament, with whom he parents an inquisitive young son some three years after the game. That doesn't seem to be represented here, but women & children remain significant.

The undersized skulls Dhalsim wears around his neck provide literal and spiritual protection in the comic. They are motivational keepsakes of the children who died in his country, but are ultimately destroyed while saving his life -- absorbing the brunt of Ryu's shoryuken dragon fist that is described as a potentially lethal killing technique. A reinforcement of their defensive, mystic properties.

The concept of the skulls may be a fictionalized derivation of the Kapalika "skull-bearers" of ancient Shaivite ascetics, who worshipped Shiva and carried begging cups carved from human skulls, among other things. Dhalsim does not appear to explicitly share any of the ritual context associated with those tantric sects.

The American version describes Dhalsim's lapsed dedication to "Brahman", a Hindu concept of reality, with ties to the creation deity Brahma, and appropriate etymological origins denoting "to swell, expand, grow, enlarge" -- much like his extending arms and legs. The UDON translation of this dialogue refers instead to a generic, non-denominational "Yoga god". I presume the latter is more accurate.

Both versions of India are depicted as an overtly war-torn nation. I might speculate that was inspired by the Kashmir territorial conflict between India and Pakistan, but I'm not expert enough in world politics to know, or recall, what tensions and unrest existed within the country around that time.

I do have very specific, fond memories of playing Dhalsim in the Street Fighter II video game back in those days, though.

I was a youngster, grabbing life and pop culture with both hands. I was fairly immediately taken with the international flavour and fantastical martial arts characters of Street Fighter II. The iconic battlecries of the various fighters were like a siren-song beckoning me to any game cabinet that might be in the nearby vicinity -- and back in those days there were plenty!

Arcades, movie theatres, supermarkets, delis, video stores, bowling alleys -- you name the location, and there's a pretty good chance they had a coin muncher or two. Of course, for me, Dhalsim will always be linked with the home PC port.

That was how I beat Street Fighter II for the first time. I used Dhalsim -- a character I perceived as having the basic advantage of punching & kicking across most of the screen. It took hours, and playing through a PC glitch that turned Vega's cage fight into a bizarre, twinkling pixel abstract nightmare, but in the end I was successful. A double rite of passage as it was the first time I had ever deliberately stayed up deep into the AM. Something gamers know all about!

We didn't have a PC at home, but I was sleeping over at a family friend's house. At that point I don't think they had any children, so I enjoyed the loose discipline and pop culture corruption of a pseudo-nephew. Alas, "Uncle" David isn't with us any more, but as with many comic books, this one comes with a nice memory.

There are plenty more memories to be had with the Street Fighter II comic series, but for now we move on to other interests. Like other recent entries, this one was inspired by the release of the Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection, but if you'd like to make sure I come back to this topic sooner, perhaps you'd like to consider becoming a Secret Wars on Infinite Earths supporter on Patreon.

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Winner: Ryu
#24 (+6) Ryu
#75 (-10) Dhalsim