Trade Tales! - Tekken: Blood Feud

Next up for the month is a return to the comic book world. This time, it’s a look at another Tekken comic book. Tekken has always had trouble with being adapted to other media and comics are no exception. There were comics released in the 90’s and judging by this article, they weren’t good. I didn’t even have a good time with Tekken Forever. Heck, that issue was so bad it pretty much killed the mini-series it was setting up. Anyway, it looks like Namco wanted to try this again, so they gave their license to Titans Comics.

Tekken: Blood Feud was released last year over four issues. I actually found out about the series during Free Comic Book Day.  The first issue of the series was on the stands at that time. I tried to keep up with it but ultimately just got the trade which was recently released. It’s supposed to take place between Tekken 6 and the recently released Tekken 7. It was written by Cavan Scott. The artwork was handled by Andie Tong and the colors were done by Mauricio Wallace. So, what did happen to Jin between games?

Tekken: Blood Feud

Writer: Cavan Scott

Art: Andie Tong

Colors: Mauricio Wallace

Letters: Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt

Design: Russ Seal

Editor: Tom Williams

SYNOPSIS

This takes place sometime after the events of Tekken 6. Ling Xiaoyu and her pet, Panda, are being chased by Anna Williams and G Corporation soldiers. G Corporation (who’s being headed by Kazyua Mishisma) is looking for Jim Kazama, the former CEO of the Mishima Zaibastu. Luckily, Ling’s saved by Nina Williams and Paul Phoenix. They then go to the Hida Mountains where Jin Kazama is hiding at. He’s also there with other fighters: King and Yoshimitsu.

The Mishima family is really screwed up. You should see the what Heihachi's granddad looked like.

It turns out Jin’s not doing too well after the events from Tekken 6. He’s employed these fighters to help him find an “artefact” in the Zaibastu archives. It’s supposed to help Jin get better. Unfortunately, Anna placed a tracker on Panda and G Corp. finds them easily. Kazuya, Jin’s father, even came along. A fight breaks out but Jin doesn’t fight since he can’t control the Devil Gene he has. The fight ends as our group of fighters escape in style.

Robotic schoolgirls? It's just another day in Japan.

Jin and the others head for the archives and try to look for Artefact 333. Unfortunately, it’s not there anymore. They then get attacked by cute robotic schoolgirls with pink hair… Welcome to the Tekken universe, folks. The group takes them out with ease and uses one of the robot’s to find out where the artefact is.  Meanwhile, Kazuya and Anna are secretly hacking the archives to see what was taken. What either group doesn’t know is that Heihachi Mishima knows they’re coming.

Once both groups make it to the Mishima headquarters, we find out what was Artefact 333. Let’s just say that it’s not a good thing. Then, Heihachi comes out of the shadows and this comic gets weird. It gets “angels vs. demons” weird! It gets “the dead rising from the grave” weird! As I said before, welcome to the Tekken universe where we have bears, demons, dinosaurs, and wood fighting in mortal combat. I won’t spoil the rest of the book but just know that things pretty much get back to normal. After all, this is a tie-in comic that’ll probably have no bearing on the game.

OPINION

So, what did I think of this? Honestly, I’m a little mixed on the mini as a whole. It’s not as bad as Tekken Forever. Heck, a lot of things are better than that issue. Still, it’s not that good either. For a four issue mini, not a lot happens. Heck, things go back to normal the end, so it feels like nothing happened at all. While I did think the story started out strong, it lost momentum as it went along.

The pacing especially felt off since there was fighting going on most of the time. While these are characters from a fighting game, I think we could see more than that from them. It definitely feels weird toward the end with the pacing. Some of the dialogue wasn’t that good either. Finally, while I liked that the roster was kept low here, I do wish a couple more fighters showed up. Yes, it’s a nitpick, but I would have probably like this more if Marshall Law, Hworang, or Eddy Gordo were helping out.

Even though it has issues, there were things I liked about it. We only get a few characters from the franchise, and that’s a good thing. Tekken has like 30+ characters, so only featuring 10 of them works for me. Besides, the Mishima Clan is at the center of the story, so you really only need a few folk. Even though some of my favorites weren’t included, I did like who showed up here. The comic also let you know who these people were, so you at least got an idea on what’s happened.

The artwork was another highlight. It had bit of a manga/anime feel to it. All of the characters used looked on model. Even Yoshimitsu’s new, weird design looked on point. The fight scenes worked for me. I even noticed that some of the character’s signature moves made it in. While there were a couple of points where the art lost me a bit, it was good throughout the mini. Finally, while I didn’t like most of the dialogue, there were some moments where it worked for me.

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Overall, this was a mixed bag. Uber-Tekken fans would probably like this, but I’m not sure about any casual fans. I guess you can throw me into the latter group since fighting games haven’t been on my radar much these days. Still, I did get some enjoyment out of it and that is a good thing. Tekken finally has a comic that isn’t dreadful. Well, I need to start wrapping up this themed month. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t let bears do your battles.