Warning! This article contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Street Fighter #1 Raphael has been named by Leonardo himself as the strongest member of the TMNT's latest Street Fighter crossover is about to give Raphael a dark and powerful upgrade.
Within the world of Street Fighter, there are many different forms of power-ups and energy sources that fans of the original games are assuredly familiar with. Every fighter in the Street Fighter universe has access to ki, as that is the energy that runs through all things, and it can be used for special attacks. For characters like Ryu and Ken, they can harness their ki to use the Hadoken, Shoryuken, and the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. Then, there are fighters like Rose, who have access to a source of energy known as Soul Power, and, of course, M. Bison–one of the main antagonists of Street Fighter–who exploits the corrupted version of that known as Psycho Power. Now, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are finding themselves exposed to these strange new power-ups, and M. Bison has his eyes set on Raphael to teach him the twisted Psycho Power.
Street Fighter’s M. Bison Will Soon Corrupt TMNT’s Raphael with Psycho Power
In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Street Fighter #1 by Paul Allor and Ariel Medel, the Ninja Turtles travel to Atlantic City to enter into a fighting tournament, and many characters from Street Fighter decide to do the same. The book opens with Raphael fighting Guile in the ring, though there were sinister actions going on behind the scenes that the fighters weren’t aware of. TMNT’s Baxter Stockman has teamed up with Street Fighter’s M. Bison for unknown (yet obviously villainous) reasons. What readers were clued-in on, however, is that M. Bison is building some kind of evil army, and upon watching Raphael fight, he reveals that he wants to recruit the Ninja Turtle. On the final page of the issue, M. Bison says that Raphael will be his, and that he will unlock his Psycho Power.
While Soul Power effectively pulls from the purity of one’s soul to empower their body during combat, Psycho Power is derived from the anger, hatred, and aggression within a fighter. As any TMNT fan can attest to, Raphael is the one Turtle with the most pent-up aggression, and he regularly lets that aggression out when he fights. Usually, this is a good way to release those feelings in a productive, and even heroic way. Though if Raphael relies on his anger too heavily in battle, he will begin to lose himself, and take things way too far. This has happened many times in the TMNT series, and readers see it happening in this comic during Raph’s fight with Guile–and M. Bison sees it too. It is because of Raphael’s well-noted aggression that makes him the perfect candidate for learning this dark power, though it could mean the end of Raphael’s time as a hero forever.
If Raphael does accept M. Bison’s offer to learn Psycho Power, he would cease to be a TMNT hero and effectively become a Street Fighter villain. However, the reason Leonardo said Raphael is the strongest of the Ninja Turtles wasn’t due to his physical strength, but the resolve of his spirit. No matter how far Raphael strays, he has proven time and again that he can always pull himself back in. Though only time will tell if he’ll be able to recover from his own inner darkness again this time, as the sinister upgrade he’s being offered in this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Street Fighter crossover may be too powerful for Raphael to come back from.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Street Fighter #1 by IDW Publishing is available now.
