Game-Art-HQ

Abel’s Game History:

Abel is one of the playable characters in the Street Fighter series by Capcom

He debuted in the arcade version of Street Fighter IV (2008) and its later iterations (Super SF IV, Arcade Edition, Ultra) and returned also in Street Fighter X Tekken (2012). He is a part of the background story in Street Fighter V (2016) but not playable character. 

Story:

It is likely but is not explained in the games that Abel is either a failed version of Seth, or Abel is the original human that Seth and the 25 other copies were based on.

According to his official profile, Abel is born in Russia, he fights however for France and also believes he is french since he is suffering from a strong amnesia effect. M.Bison seems to know Abel and mentioned they would meet again, after the events of Street Fighter IV. Abel was saved by Charlie Nash from Shadaloo and remembers the technique when Guile performs a Sonic Boom, which leads to a fight between them. M.Bison seems to know Abel and mentioned “Abel… (chuckles) My, how you’ve grown. We shall meet again.” during the final events of Street Fighter IV.

In Street Fighter X Tekken, Abel`s official Team partner is Guile.

While Abel is not a playable character in Street Fighter V (2016), he is a part of the background story of Rashid and also appears in the “A Shadow Falls” Main Story of the game where he is under the control of M.Bison’s Psycho Power but gets saved by Charlie Nash again. 

Gameplay:

Abel is a grappler type character who uses mixed martial arts, especially Russian Sambo. Abel is a rather offensive striker who can chain up many attacks into a throw. While he has no projectile moves, Abel is great as a mix-up character with a powerful anti-air grab. 

Trivia:

Abel is so far the second Street Fighter character representing France (birthplace is Russia but Abel can’t remember that) after Remy in Street Fighter III Third Strike.

The popular french comic character TinTin might have been a reference for his hairstyle

Abel`s character design is compared often to the Russian martial artist Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko who fights with the Sambo style since both wear practically the same clothes and share a similar fighting style as well. 

Character Overview of Abel from the Street Fighter Games

Abel SFXT White Background

Street Fighter X Tekken (2012)

Abel Cross-Art Poster

Street Fighter X Tekken (2012)

Abel SSFIV Transparent

SSFIV (2010)

Abel Character Art

 SSFIV (2010)

Alt. Costume Ad

Super Street Fighter IV (2010)

Render Art Variation

Street Fighter IV (2009)

Render Art

Street Fighter IV (2009)

Character Select

Street Fighter IV (2009)

 Interesting is, that Abel was once planned to be a small Judo using character who could be mistaken for a girl.

Taisaku Okada from Capcom explained that the first attempt at Abel was to make a character who is small but can beat the strong, also known as an “underdog” character some would say.

In the Japanese development blog of Super Street Fighter IV, they showed a photo of this unused concept art for that version of Abel, you can see this early concept art to the right

“Hyper Real Abel”

by Bosslogic

Real Abel

by Samuel Cazetta

“Vive la France” Abel

by Dhim

Ready!

by Jiggeh

Abel in Alt. Costume

by Jaimito

Abel by vancamelot

by Akenator

by Leomon32

by Cris-Art

by spadjm

by Jiggeh

by Z3dd

Abel/Seth by Samuraiblack

by MetalHanzo

by orbg

by BenScott81

Abel in the Capcom vs SNK Style

by Daeron-Red-Fire

by Godly-Effect

Abel KOFXIII Style

by Viraliptg

Abel in CVS Style

by DanOwnsAll122