Charlie Nash

Charlie, known as Nash in Japan, is a video game character from Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. He is first introduced as a playable character in the original Street Fighter Alpha, but was already part of the series' backstory since Street Fighter II.

Charlie is a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

Story
Charlie is first mentioned by name in the Street Fighter II storyline (first released in 1991), where he is the deceased war buddy of Guile, one of the playable characters in the game. Prior to the events of the game, Charlie was killed by M. Bison, although the exact circumstances are not clear (in the English localization of the game, it is said that he was taken captive during a mission and later died during the escape attempt). In the game, Guile enters the World Warrior tournament with the purpose of avenging his fallen friend's death. In Super Street Fighter II Turbo, a scene is shown of Guile visiting Charlie's grave.

Charlie would later be made into a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha, a prequel set before the Street Fighter II games. In the Alpha storyline, Charlie was the previous U.S. Martial Arts champion for two years (a record succeeded by Ken) and was also the one who taught Guile some of his fighting techniques (explaining their similar fighting styles). In the game, Charlie is given the duty to track down Bison and uncover corruption within the American military. In his ending, Charlie defeats Bison, but only to be struck from behind by him shortly afterwards.

Despite Charlie's death in the first Alpha game, he would return as a playable character in the two succeeding Street Fighter Alpha games. Street Fighter Alpha 2 features a different depiction of his death during his ending - after defeating Bison, he is shot from the back by his intended backup helicopter and falls from the waterfall. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he has an ending where he actually survives battle and manages to destroy Shadaloo's secret base. In the console ports of Alpha 3, Guile is added to the playable roster as well. In Guile's storyline, he is ordered by his superiors to track Charlie, who has supposedly gone AWOL. In reality, Charlie was undercover to investigate Shadaloo and its connection to the military, whereas Guile was sent to put a stop to him without knowing it. After realizing, Guile defeats Bison and teams up with Charlie to destroy Bison's Psycho Drive. Guile escapes, while Charlie stays behind to hold off Bison and is presumed dead after the explosion.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter features a different outcome for Charlie where he becomes Shadow (see below). Outside of fighting games, Charlie is a playable character in Cannon Spike.

Appearance
Charlie wears green cargo pants and a yellow jacket. He has glasses which he takes off before a fight. He has an exaggerated hairstyle consisting of a large forelock of blond hair.

Shadow
The Marvel vs. Capcom series provided a twist on Charlie's fate. In his ending for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Charlie is captured by Bison, who performs terrible experiments on him. Charlie's fate would be left up in the air until Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, where a secret character by the name of Shadow appeared. Shadow was a palette swap of Charlie, with nearly his entire body blacked out, and a white eye shining behind his glasses. He had all of Charlie's moves, but his attacks would set his opponent alight with blue Psycho-Power flames. His supers also had a brief pause where his eye would gleam before the move was pulled off (this made him somewhat unpopular, as the gleam could give an opponent enough time to block or avoid the attack). Shadow would later appear in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes as a secret helper character. However, by Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Shadow seems to have reverted back to his original form, but by how is unknown. In addition, the ending for Chun Li also hinted that Bison intended to alter her in the same way, and another hidden character, called Shadow Lady, was a Shadow-altered Chun-Li. Shadow Lady's ending in the game also showed a similar fate befalling Jin Saotome.

In Other Media
Due to Charlie's integral role as a character in Guile's backstory, many Street Fighter adaptations produced prior to the release of Street Fighter Alpha featured their unique depictions of Charlie.

In the live-action Street Fighter movie, Charlie and Blanka were combined into one character named Carlos Blanka. In the film Carlos is taken captive by Bison and is subjected to gene altering experiments by Bison, transforming him into a mutated beast like Blanka is in the games. The American-produced animated Street Fighter series loosely follows the film's storyline in which Charlie and Blanka are the same character. The episode "Eye of the Beholder" features Blanka reverting back to his human form. He is given clothing similar to the one Charlie wears in the games.

In Street Fighter II V, Charlie is depicted as having slicked black hair and a beard, a design which bears a likeness to actor Jean Reno (the supporting character of Tom from Street Fighter III bears a similar design). He appears late during the series, when he and Guile are hired by Ken's father to rescue Ken and Chun-Li from Bison. Charlie is killed by Bison during the mission. In the English dub version of the series, he retains his original Japanese name, although at one point Guile calls him "Charlie". As Street Fighter II V was developed before the Street Fighter Alpha series, Charlie does not appear with his trademark blond hair and yellow vest.

In the comic adaptation of Street Fighter by UDON, Charlie's Japanese name is made into his surname, giving him the full name of Charlie Nash (this name is not canonized by Capcom). Udon would also include Shadow as part of their Street Fighter comic series. In the comic, Bison captures Charlie, turns him into Shadow, and uses him as an agent. He tries to have Shadow kill Guile and Chun Li in Japan, but Charlie regains his memory in the fight and runs off. He later attempts to rejoin his friends, but is gunned down by Bison's helicopter. With the last of his strength, Charlie sacrifices himself by using his Somersault Justice to destroy the cliff on which they were fighting, sending both he and Bison plunging into the sea.

In the Rockman (Megaman) Remix and the Rockman Megamix manga by Ariga Hitoshi, Charlie briefly appears as a news caster in several chapters. Instead of going by his Japanese name of Nash, he is simply called Charlie.