M. Bison

His first chronological appearance was in Street Fighter Alpha, as the head of an elusive criminal and military organization known as Shadaloo. Along with his aspirations for world conquest, M. Bison had been working on perfecting a lethal and deadly energy that would exponentially increase his fighting ability, an inherently evil energy he refers to as “Psycho Power”. During the events of Street Fighter Alpha, Shadaloo came to the attention of Interpol, which sent Chun-Li (an operative with a personal vendetta against the crime lord, who had killed her father) to thwart Bison’s plans. Chun-Liand M. Bison eventually confronted each other and battled. M. Bison defeated Chun-Li and then escaped on his helicopter while mocking her and promising to kill her in the same manner he killed her father if she confronts him again. During the events of Alpha or Alpha 2, M. Bison also came into conflict with Rose, a mysterious woman who wielded Soul Power, the opposite of Bison’s Psycho Power. This fact and the fact that her quest was to stop any and all of M. Bison’s evil plans indicate the intricate connection between the two, and would later be revealed in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

By the time of Street Fighter Alpha 3, the Psycho Power began exceeding the limits of his body. Having predicted this event, M. Bison had his scientists engineer a body that he could transfer his essence to, but that body Cammy escaped from Shadaloo’s conditioning. M. Bison then turned his sights to Ryu, one of the most powerful fighters in the world, and the personal nemesis of Bison’s right-hand man Sagat. Bison defeated and captured Ryu and subjected him to intense psychological conditioning; when Sagat objected, M. Bison turned Ryu on him, telling him he could finally have his rematch. While Sagat battled Ryu, Ryu’s friends Kenand Sakura fought M. Bison. With Sagat’s urging, Ryu came to his senses and forced M. Bison to retreat to the Psycho Drive, which restored his power.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, USAF officers Charlie and Guile are on a mission to stop the dictator from using his new creation, a satellite (featured in Street Fighter Alpha 3), which can enhance his Psycho Power abilities. Guile and Charlie are joined by Chun-Li, and the three of them battle M. Bison. In order to take down Shadaloo’s leader, Charlie keeps fighting him while the base is set to explode, and eventually sacrifices his own life. M. Bison’s soul, however, ended up surviving the explosion and took control of Rose. It is revealed that, while trying to master Psycho Power, Bison had to expel all the humanity and good in his soul to accommodate and supplant the intense energy the power gives him, and that Rose is actually the formation of all of M. Bison’s good energy. He stayed inside of Rose’s body until his Shadaloo scientists could forge a new body for him, the body seen in Street Fighter II. This body, however, was much weaker, since, having inhabited his “good side”’s soul for a period of time, he retained both his good and evil energies as he transferred to his new body, thus making his Psycho Power considerably less effective.

M. Bison held the second Street Fighter tournament to get revenge against the people who had destroyed the Psycho Drive. His new body was much weaker than the previous, but he was still very powerful. In the end he would fall short of winning, some fans believe he lost to Ken in the finals. He was then confronted by Guile, who had planned on killing him before his family convinced him otherwise. Ultimately he would be destroyed by Akuma, who killed him with the Shun Goku Satsu.

Bison returns in Street Fighter IV, however, his soul transplanted to yet another new body, again not as powerful as his Alpha days. Though his scientists tried to dissuade him (their reasoning being that, in time, a new body could be created that could hold the psycho power in its entirety) Bison chose the weaker body instead of remaining dead any longer, stating that “it would only be a matter of time before [Bison] would inhabit his body, anyway.” Bison then took part in Seth’s new World Warrior tournament. However, Bison was not heard of in Street Fighter III, and Chun-Li’s mid-boss dialogue with Urien inStreet Fighter III: 3rd Strike suggests that Shadaloo was destroyed. In Street Fighter 4, however, Shadaloo is also thought to be destroyed, though Bison is obviously taking steps to revive it.