Skates

Art by Peter Richardson

Skates is one of the four primary heroes in the Streets of Rage series, appearing in three of the four adventures. The young man joined the vigilantes at a later date after assisting them in one particular mission, aiding them with his wheeled combat.

Home life

Skates once lived in a small, beat-up apartment block with his mother and step-dad Murphy. At some point in his childhood, Skates was sent to prison for an unknown length of time after making threats and was kept there for a further 30 days for bad behaviour. On his release, he returned to discover that his policeman stepdad had been murdered and his mother assaulted, all for the pursuit of a disk containing names of corrupt officers.

Vigilante

Determined to avenge his stepfather's death, Skates visited a geeky classmate from school and forcibly gained permission to use his computer, analysing the contents of the disk. He attempted to get help from old friend Roach but the thug wasn't interested in "cops killing cops". Needing concrete evidence, Skates climbed ten floors up the town's precinct and attempted to record an incriminating conversation on tape. Unfortunately, Skates was discovered and, in his haste to get away, slipped and would have fallen to his death, had he not been captured by a policeman first. The corrupt officers celebrated getting their disk back and took Skates to someone who knew how "to kill with real style".

This killer turned out to be Roach, who turned on Esposito and the cops at the sight of Skates in the boot. Now free from an early grave, Skates learned from a dying Esposito that Mr X had strapped a bomb to the Princess Grace, planning on detonating it tonight. Skates received no help from Roach, so jumped into East River in pursuit of the ferry. With only five minutes left to detonation, Skates managed to swim to the ship undetected, got below decks and disarmed the bomb, revelling in the excitement. He then somehow managed to shoot down the helicopter carrying Mr X's pilot and revealed to the other heroes that he had deactivated the bomb. Unfortunately, another bomb had been planted and exploded, ripping apart the Princess Grace. Furious at what the criminal had done, Skates aimed a flare gun at X's face, but relented when the police arrived to calm the scene. Afterwards, Skates was interviewed for saving the day and was asked if he planned to follow in Murphy's footsteps. Skates scoffed at the idea of becoming a policeman in this city and skated off, instead joining the vigilantes.

Skates became an integral member of the group, providing speedy combat against the hordes of slow gang members polluting the city. His first recorded act was to bring the team to Julio, an informant of Skates, only to find himself in a trap. After being initially confused at the enemy's actions, Skates leapt into action by obscuring the vision of a motorcyclist. He later raced down a curved girder, smacking another foe's teeth with his rollerblades. Along with his friends, Skates almost died when Axel Stone attempted to cross the East River with the Battle Wagon and almost lost his teeth when a girder crashed through the falling vehicle.

Personality

During his first appearance, Skates was just another youth brought up in a broken city so easily became a teenage delinquent. His attitude didn't alter at all during his stay in prison but he became more thoughtful after Murphy's death. His character altered even more vastly when he discovered that his mother had been brutally attacked. This, along with knowing that there was hardly anyone out there to help him, led Skates to take matters into his own hands and play the 'hero'. He got a huge buzz from attempting to save the passengers of the Princess Grace and took great pride in (what he thought was him) saving the day. His youngster days finally faded away when Skates surrendered to the police rather than shoot Mr X and spend his days in prison.

After this first adventure, Skates slipped easily into the other group of vigilantes. His personality didn't particularly shine through in this time, but he was still shown to young and quite naive, not thinking he could be led into a trap. The new addition frequently cracked jokes at his opponents' expense, even when his own situation was quite dire.

Skates (real name unknown, although he was called Skates by his own mum) lived by his name, going absolutely everywhere in his roller skates. Such frequent usage of this mode of transport meant that Skates was completely adept in using them and introduced them into his own style of fighting. He was also shown to be able to ride backwards while holding a motorbike (similar to the art of "skitching").

Appearances

• Issue 23 - pin-up/teaser
• Issue 25 - cover
• Issue 25 to Issue 30 - Skates' Story
• Issue 30 - cover
• Sonic the Poster Mag 7 - Facts of Life and cover
• Issue 41 to Issue 46 - The Only Game in Town

Streets of Rage games

Skate appeared in the second and third editions of the popular series and made his entertainment debut in Streets of Rage 2. His role is similar to the comics, although SoR2 is noticably short on story. In this continuity, Skate is shown to be the younger brother of Adam and his real name is Eddie Hunter (Sammy Hunter in the Japanese versions), who had been captured by Mr X. Skate joined the other heroes in an attempt to free his brother and bring justice to the crimelord.

Skate is the speedy option, although his defences are low. His brand of combat involves him speeding towards his foes with his skates. Many special moves involve him grabbing the enemy somehow and he is the only character able to throw them in mid-flip (at least in the second game). His signature moves are to launch a powerful corkscrew kick into oncoming threats, or to somersault into them at speed.