While the main characters of Street Fighter have become iconic in the world of gaming, they also transcended the realm of arcades and consoles into that of comics where one new character, Nida, was introduced. Unfortunately, Nida was lost to the vestiges of this short-lived comic series, though during her stint within Street Fighter lore, Nida definitely made a name for herself as she broke a major franchise tradition–at least, she would have.
Street Fighter originated as an arcade game that came out in 1987, and it didn’t take long to become massively popular both in of game play and the avatars through which the players could fight. Some of the more popular Street Fighter characters included Ryu, Ken, Sagat, Chun-Li, M. Bison, and Zangief with a plethora of other awesome fighters to choose from. While each of them have widely unique fighting styles and finisher moves, there is one thing that practically all of them have in common: they don’t use weapons.
In 1993, Malibu Comics released a Street Fighter comic series (by Len Strazewski and Don Hillsman) continuing the lore of the original game. The book opens in classic Street Fighter style: with an epic one-v-one battle. This particular fight featured Ryu, the reigning champ of Street Fighter, battling Sagat, a worthy contender for the title. While two well-known Street Fighter characters introduce fans to this series, they are far from the last fighters readers are exposed to in this comic–but only one of them is a fighter readers have never seen before: Nida.
Nida's Significance to Street Fighter: Explained
Nida is a martial artist who traveled to Okinawa to train with Sheng Long, a martial arts master who Street Fighter fans will recognize as the man who trained both Ryu and Ken. The reason Nida is so inclined to train with Sheng Long is because she believes Ryu is responsible for killing her father, and she wants to sur him in of fighting style and strength in order to exact her vengeance. However, Nida was relying on misinformation as her father was actually killed by an evil clone of Ryu created by the villainous M. Bison–though the comic series ended before Nida learned the truth. Not only was Nida’s story left unfinished, but this comic left a lot of other things about Nida unfulfilled, including her fighting style. However, one editorial note helps fill in those gaps left in her character, stating that Nida would battle with weaponry.
While it isn’t unheard of for characters within Street Fighter to use weapons, Nida would have been the first to do so as a hero of the franchise. All other Street Fighter heroes fight hand-to-hand and rely on the powers they unlocked through training to defeat their opponents. Nida would have broken this major franchise tradition by being a hero who used weapons, and she would have done so while standing alongside its most iconic roster. Unfortunately, Malibu’s Street Fighter comic series ended after only three issues, and with the loss of this series, fans also lost Nida and the game-changing alterations her character would have made to the franchise.
