A four-part Street Fighter 6 prequel comic has given some background on why Ken Master is in such rough shape - turns out that he's a washed-up crypto bro, as well as being a pretty crappy dad to his son, Mel.
One of the most exciting things about Street Fighter 6 is that it finally advances the series canon and moves it past Street Fighter 3, giving us a look at how fan-favourite characters like Ryu, Chun-Li, and Guile are getting on, alongside introducing new characters like Luke and Jamie. Although most of the cast have had big glow-ups, there's one outlier - Ken Master isn't doing too good, you guys.
Ever since Ken was first revealed, his long hair, stubble, and slightly-less-positive attitude have made it clear that he's not the same sunny character we've all come to know. Although fans theorised that Ken was a sad divorced dad, Capcom has explained that his rough state is because he's been accused of orchestrating a "criminal plot" that forced him to abandon his family.
That will likely have you feeling sorry for Ken, especially considering he's a long-time fan-favourite character, but a recent four-part prequel comic might erase that - as reported by Kotaku, the comic reveals that, before the events of Street Fighter 6, Ken was a crypto bro and an absent father to his son, Mel.
The comic, titled "Days of Eclipse: #1 Indication", shows Ken, who is at this point a multimillionaire, trying to set up a live-streamed tournament in Nayshall, a fictional nation that's in Asia. It's then explained that Ken's tournament is going to use "omnidirectional AI drones" to record the fights and try to bring attention to Nayshall and try to gain it some independence.
Sounds good right? Well, the comic then explains that the citizens of Nayshall don't like all of the changes that Ken is trying to make to the nation, while the board of directors is skeptical about some of Ken's financing options, calling him out for his use of "cryptocurrencies and micro-insurance" schemes. The memes were right - Ken's a crypto bro.
That's not all, though. The comic also reveals that Ken is an absent father to his son, Mel. Mel reveals to Luke that Ken made him cancel a trip with his friends to come and see the tournament, which is bad enough but at least explainable, but things get worse when Mel calls to check in on his dad only to end up getting hung-up on after he showed annoyance that it was his own son and not something to do with his tournament. Smooth move, Ken.
The comic ends before we get any resolution to Ken's crypto shennanigans or his relationship with his son, but it's made pretty clear that he's fallen from grace. We'll have to wait for future issues to see how else Ken does things wrong.