Imagining the Capcom Cinematic Universe (circa 1998)

A long time ago, I used to think to myself, “What if Capcom had its own cinematic universe?”

Actually, that’s not exactly true. The term “cinematic universe” was still a good decade away from being popularized by Marvel, though interestingly enough, they would nevertheless still be a part of inspiring the thought. Back then, the concept was simply known as a “shared universe.”

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s turn back the clock to 1998, and the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes…

When the original Marvel vs. Capcom hit the scene, it was something of a landmark occasion. Not only was it bringing the worlds of Marvel and Capcom together, but it was the first time a lot of Capcom’s best and brightest had ever interacted with each other, too. And yet, I couldn’t help but notice a certain sort of disparity within the core concept.

For one thing, there had been two previous Marvel games prior to the crossover series, X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes. Even then, I thought to myself, “if the Marvel side can have a whole fighting game to itself, then why not the Capcom side?” It’s an idea I’ve explored with more contemporary eyes here previously, but that’s how long the idea has been baked into my brain.

But the other disparity between the two sides was their settings. Sometimes you’d see the notion bandied about that this was a battle of “the Marvel universe versus the Capcom universe” or “the world of Marvel Comics versus the world of Capcom video games,” but… it wasn’t really that, was it? Not exactly.

The disparity, of course, comes from the fact that the Marvel roster all comes from the same world/universe, while Capcom… not so much. With maybe the odd exception here or there, each game franchise represented is its own world, a separate universe. One world versus, like, a dozen, if you include assist characters. The number grows on the Capcom side with subsequent entries, of course.

But, I wondered… what if that wasn’t the case? What if all, or at least the majority, of Capcom characters/franchises came from the same universe?

Of course, I feel like the prospect might be more difficult now. For one thing, I feel like some titles are operating on a sliding timescale. Street Fighter, for example, originally had Ryu as having been born in 1964. And while he’s certainly older now, I don’t know if he’s supposed to be 59 years old. (Or maybe he is, and all that training has kept him young?)

In any case, I think a lot of it is possible to effectively place in the same world — or at least, it was in 1998. The catch, however, is that most of them don’t happen at the same time.

Just try to imagine the following…

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In Medieval times, Arthur faces off against the likes of Astaroth, Lucifer, and Sardius to rescue Princess Prin-prin. Elsewhere at the time, the deposed ruler Maximo and his partner, Grim, challenge the rule of King Achille and prevent the Army of Zin from keeping souls from making their way into the afterlife.

Fast-forwarding to sometime in the late-19th or early-20th century, there’s the tale of a bounty hunter known only as Billy Bob, who hunts down criminals in the Wild West era of Gun.Smoke. A few decades later in World War II, the soldier known as Super Joe would fight his way behind enemy lines in Commando/Wolf of the Battlefield. Meanwhile, in the Pacific Theater, revolutionary aircraft takes to the sky in the 19XX games.

The technological revolution wouldn’t be limited to the skies, however, as decades later, Super Joe would become a Bionic Commando to take the fight to the enemy in the late ’80s. However, when one mission goes awry, he’d have to be rescued by his successor, another Bionic Commando named Rad Spencer, and help put a stop to the Badds’ Albatross project.

Somewhere around this time, a young martial artist named Ryu would travel the global tournament circuit, and defeat the World Warrior champion Sagat to become known as the best Street Fighter in the world. In 1989, Mike Haggar had made it big as a titan of professional wrestling in Saturday Night Slam Masters, and rode this popularity to become the newly-elected mayor of Metro City. Unfortunately, he’s informed soon after of his daughter’s kidnapping, and recruits her boyfriend Cody and Guy to join his vigilante mission to clean up the streets and put the Mad Gear Gang down in Final Fight. And since these two actually do exist in the same universe already, several of their paths will cross throughout the Street Fighter Alpha and other series, including Sakura’s part in Rival Schools.

In 1998, when a series of unusual murders are discovered on the outskirts of Raccoon City, the local police department’s Special Tactics And Rescue Service is called in to investigate, where they find that the Umbrella Corporation is cooking up far more than just your run-of-the-mill CVS pharmaceuticals. As the virus spread throughout the city, the U.S. government decided to neutralize the Resident Evil by going with the nuclear option.

You knew he had to show up eventually.

Fast forward several more years, to the far-off world of 20XX. Technology continues to advance apace, especially in the field of robotics, as Dr. Thomas Light revolutionizes the field, and… well, if you’re reading this, then you know how it goes down. Suffice to say, after many encounters with a certain Super Fighting Robot (about 14 or so at the time), Dr. Wily’s threat does eventually come to an end. At least, for the time being.

In the year 2026, crime was on the rise in Metro City once again, and around the world. Using their hi-tech armor and weapons, Captain Commando led a team consisting of himself, Mack the Knife, Ginzu the Ninja, and Baby Head to take out the Super Criminals responsible and bring their leader, Scumocide, to justice.

By 2048, after the world had fallen into war, Grandmaster Meio took advantage of the situation. He used his army to bring the countries of the world to their knees and impose his oppressive rule, seeking to eradicate life on Earth so it could begin anew, under his guiding hand. However, a group of elite hi-tech mercenaries, the Striders, sought to put an end to his ambitions. One Strider, Hiryu, was able to successfully infiltrate Meio’s Kazakh City base and cut his rule short.

Side note: Imagining “what if Strider and Mega Man took place in the same universe?” is part of what got this whole ball rolling. Can’t remember if I knew it took place in 2048 at the time, though.

Near the end of the 21st century, Earth would become threatened by overpopulation, leading many people to live in space colonies. On Earth, Variant Armors are used for combat in the world of Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, as a young pilot named Jin Saotome seeks to prove his worth.

Some years later, in 21XX, an archaeologist named Dr. Cain happens across the buried remains of the lab of Dr. Thomas Light, and discovers within a capsule that would forever change the world…

—–

That’s more or less how I kind of envisioned things. I can’t seem to find when DarkStalkers takes place to be sure where to fit it in, by the way — it definitely wasn’t left out due to forgetfulness! And there are others that might fit in as well, but I think you get the idea now.

Looking back now, though? I’m not sure it would work. Not without a whole ton of massive reboots, at any rate. That said, if it was an actual “cinematic universe”… well, those movies would be their own thing apart from the games, then, right?

But one reason I don’t think a concept would work as-is now is simply down to the march of time. Several of the series mentioned have progressed in ways that have affected their world in ways that would be increasingly difficult to ignore from concurrently-running series. Heck, the early years of the original Mega Man series are now basically set in the past.

Similarly, Capcom has a lot more series now than they did then, and there’s a bit of overlap. For instance, I’m not sure if Dead Rising and Resident Evil would make sense coexisting plotwise, despite their very similar themes. Or maybe they would because of them?

There’s other stuff, like Devil May Cry, which I’m not sure if it would fit. Monster Hunter, one of Capcom’s big cash cows, might need to be set apart entirely.

Basically, there are a lot of moving parts, and I’m not sure they can all move together as more parts are added.

On the other hand, we do get stuff like Project X Zone, which not only mashes a number of these settings together with a wink and a nod, but also those from Bandai Namco, SEGA, and even Nintendo! If memory serves, those that can fit together are, and those that don’t so much are other worlds. So hey, good enough, right?

Still, it was kind of a neat idea at the time, but probably more for its time, don’t you think?

Oh, and one last thing: I’ll admit the inclusion of Maximo is a total cheat (the first game came out in North America in 2002), but the guy deserves recognition (and maybe a re-release of some kind), and he didn’t really get in the way of anything, so there he is. If I’m going to talk about Ghosts ‘n Goblins, you can bet I’m bringing up Maximo in the same breath. Check out Army of Zin in particular, if you get the chance.

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