Board Thread:Mortal Kombat X/@comment-31706171-20170409203945

Hello all!

This is my first post here and it's a big one. I originally posted this on the official MKX forum but that place's relatively dead (it could also just be that no one cares), and I spent a far too much time on this, so I thought that there might be some people here who might be interested. Enjoy!

So I've been a bit troubled for quite some time now over the fact that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is supposed to be Mortal Kombat 8 and a part of the main series yet is still not a canonical part of the Mortal Kombat main storyline. I am one of those people who quite liked MKvDC despite the heroic brutalities and so called fatalities, and I'm particularly fond of the story mode of the game that laid the foundation for the quality story modes of NRS' later games.

That is why I've taken it upon myself to find a way to fit the game into the true MK canon and through some considerable narrative acrobatics I feel like I've come up with a relatively good (if somewhat convoluted) solution which as a bonus makes Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks canon as well. And this could all be done with an appearance by the Joker as a guest kombatant in Mortal Kombat 11.

A small disclaimer. There will be major spoilers for MKvDC, MK9, Shaolin Monks and a couple of MKX arcade endings, as well as small spoilers for Injustice and major spoilers for a couple of big DC comic crossover events (namely Flashpoint and Final Crisis), so proceed with caution.

Kontinuity problems It is generally assumed that MKvDC as well as Shaolin Monks takes place in two different alternate realities completely separate from the regular MK universe. This is because, as anyone who've played them can attest to, there are a lot of inconsistencies in those games which keep them from being a part of the canon MK storyline.

Shaolin Monks roughly follows the story of MK1 and 2, but there are a number of peculiarities that makes them incompatible with the regular MK canon. For instance, as opposed to the original story Kung Lao was present at the MK1 tournament disguised as one of Shang Tsung's guards. Furthermore a number of characters present in MK3-7 unnecessarily gets killed which obviously makes it hard to explain their appearances in later games.

MKvsDC appears to happen after Shao Kahn is defeated in MK3 and is even harder to place as a part of the main canon since it ends with Darkseid trapped in the MK universe and Shao Khan in the DC universe of MK8. That obviously creates quite a conundrum since mr Khan plays a big part of later games.

Yet I would like to argue that these two game actually takes place in the same timeline as Mortal Kombat 1-7. Now how can one despite these inconsistencies possibly argue that? Well, let's begin with the end: Mortal Kombat Armageddon (MK7).

Not with a whimper but a Blaze In the game the Kombatants have grown so numerous and strong that their Kombat power is starting to destroy the very fabric of reality. This leads to things like fighters coming back from the dead and other peculiar happenings. The Elder Gods put a safeguard in place to prevent the total destruction of the realms in the form of Blaze who appears on top of a pyramid. Blaze who is arguably the most powerful being in the MK universe starts to absorb the energy of all the realms and causes Armageddon. Pretty much all Kombatants who've appeared in the MK storyline converge on the Pyramid and try to defeat Blaze as the one who beats him gains his near limitless power.

As we see in the intro of MK9 the one who wins is Shao Kahn which forces Raiden to send a message back in time to his younger self before he dies. But more on that later. What we're looking at now is what happened because of Armageddon "before" Raiden created the new timeline we see in MK9 and MKX. I'd like to postulate that the MK timeline, even before Raiden sent his message back in time, was not only altered by Armageddon but shattered.

Before I explain what I mean by that I should quickly summerise a story been inspired by, the Geoff Jones-written comic crossover event Flashpoint  (which many of you may know from the Arrowverse adaptation or less likely the animated movie). In it Barry "The Flash" Allen wakes up in a world very different from the regular DC universe he knows. He originally believes he's been transported to an alternate reality but eventually realises that he's actually still in his own timeline which has been significantly altered. It turns out that it was the Flash himself who changed the entire reality when traveling back in time to try and stop a painful event. He successfully changed the past but to do it he had to absorb the entire Speed Force from which he draws his power. This not only change the timeline but (in Reverse-Flash's words) shattered it.

As opposed to the many science fiction stories where a time traveler changes the past which significantly alters the present and future (like for instance MK9) in Flashpoint the prevention of the event in question changes not only things that happened after it but things that occurred before the event. This is explained in the comic by the existence of "time waves", reality-changing shock waves sent backwards in time emanating from Flash's time altering. The waves changes things that happened before the changed event like for instance knocking baby Superman's spaceship out of it's original trajectory, and having Bruce Wayne die in Crime Alley instead of his parents, which obviously changes the timeline quite a lot.

Timewave Applications So, my proposal for the "canonisation" of Mk8 and shaolin monks is that armageddon was such a violently realm-shattering event that it sent reality altering shockwaves back in time through the main mk timeline causing the events of those two games. One of those time waves hit at exactly the same time as raiden blasted shao khan when he tried to escape after his failed mk3 invasion. In the original unaltered timeline shao kahn was successfully blasted through the portal and then managed to escape but post-armageddon, because of the time wave combined with raiden's and superman's blasts, the portal now explodes creating Dark Khan and the events of MKvDC ensues.

The rest of the game can happen without much effect on the "later" games in the MK series with one big exception, Shao Kahn ends the game trapped in the DC universe which means the events of MK9 and MKX doesn't happen since he doesn't win Blaze's power at the end of Armageddon. Well, this can be solved without the time waves using another practical retconning tool, the clone. As is seen in his Gamecube and PSP exclusive bio in MK Deception the Shao Kahn killed by Quan Chi and Shang Tsung in the intro of Deadly Alliance was in fact a clone manufactured by the real Emperor. If we assume Shao Khan swapped places with his clone just after his defeat in MK3 it is in fact the Shao Khan clone that merges with Darkseid and gets stuck in the DC dimension's Phantom Zone, freeing up the real Shao Khan to keep hammering people in the MK-verse.

As for Shaolin Monks one time wave hit around the time of MK1 changing things like Kung Lao appearing as a guard in Shang Tsung's palace, which leads to the events of Shaolin Monks. The other problem with the game is that a bunch of characters including Shao Khan and Shang Tsung gets killed by Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Once again this can be solved by the deus ex machina-esque time waves, as one can hit at the end of the game simply nullifying the unnecessary fatalities of the game, and letting the characters star in MK3-8. Plus uncanonising the fatalities of Shaolin Monks doesn't seem like such a stretch when you consider that pretty much every fatality in all Mortal Kombat games (except the ones seen in MK9 and X's story modes) per definition are non-canon since most characters appear in a sequels.

If you're feeling particularly adventurous you can even use the time waves to explain the canon inconsistencies in MK5 and 6's conquest modes as well as make the various guest appearances canon, as they all happened in MK9 and X post-Armageddon. One time wave could have ripped open a portal to the universe of the Aliens vs Predator franchise letting a few eggs and a Predator through. Another might have opened a door to a universe where versions of Freddy Krueger, Jason and Leatherface lives, as they have all at various times interacted with each other in comics and movies. Kratos probably just punched a wall too hard and opened a rift in the space-time continuum by accident...

So if we place all the games chronologically in the Armageddon timewave altered time line I've proposed it looks like this: MK 1 & 2 (occurring as they happened in Shaolin Monk), MK3, MK8 (MKvDC), MK4-7. It is this timeline that Raiden sends his consciousness back through in the beginning of MK9 which also explains why Kung Lao is disguised as one of Shang Tsung's palace guards in that game despite the fact that only happened in the supposedly non-canon Shaolin Monks. As Raiden's mind travels back to a time before Shaolin Monks and MKvDC takes place he not only changes the events of MK1-3 and erases the MK4-7 future but also nullifies what happened with the DC heroes.

An Injust Universe Now where does the Joker come in? Well, to explain that we have to look at the another major part of my solution: the DC universe of MKvsDC is in fact the Injustice universe where Superman goes bonkers and kills Joker. This is admittedly one of the weaker parts of my solution as there are a quite a few inconsistencies between those two universes as well. Off the top of my head there is the relationship of Lex Luthor and Superman, where they are enemies in the MK8 DC universe and friends in Injustice. I assume there might be a few more problems if you read the Injustice comics (which I haven't), and here we don't have a convenient Armageddon to send reality changing shockwaves back in time. Once again we turn to Geoff Jones and Flashpoint for help.

At the end of the comic series the main DC comics universe gets rearranged into New 52 universe which is quite different than the previous one. Eventually we find out this is caused not just by the Flash in the Flashpoint event but also by the reality-tampering shenanigans of a certain all powerful New York-themed super hero from Watchmen. Even if it's reaching a bit one may assume this affected the universes outside of the main 52 comic ones and created changes in the DC universes existing in other media too. Like I said not the strongest part but it does line up okay if we look at the real world releases. Flashpoint came out in 2011 between MKvsDC's 2008 and Injustice 2013 release dates.

On a side note, this takes care of my main gripe with the Injustice story: how easily corruptible the heroes of the "bad" universe are. Of course Superman has a good reason for turning and there is the whole deal with the brain washing but come on, Wonder Woman doesn't bat an eye when Superman kills a kid (even if he were in an adult body). She's the gosh dang Wonder Woman! If the Injustice-verse were the same as the one seen in MK8 then most of the heroes would at some point have been affected by Kombat Rage and even though Dark Khan was defeated that previous exposure might have been enough to easier sway them to Superman's Torturing & Children Killing League of America.

The unexpected friendship of Shang Tsung and the Joker Another problem arises now as almost everyone in have forgotten the events of mkvdc as raiden erased the altered timeline, and in my mind a game can't really be considered canon until something of it has been included in another indisputably canonical product. That's why if I were in charge of the mk franchise I would use a character from injustice and thus also from the DC side of MK8 as a guest character in MK11, namely the Joker, the same Joker who was killed by Superman in the beginning of Injustice.

The way I'd explain it is by first assuming that Ermac's MKX arcade ending is canon and Shang Tsung is resurrected. He is a part of another canon curiosity in MK9 and the only reference to MKvDC that exists in the two latest game: in one of his fatalities he turns into a generic clown and shoots his opponent in the head with the exact same animation as Joker's fatality in MK8, this time with satisfactorily gruesome results in true MK fashion. So, let's presume that Shang Tsung has some sort of connection to the Joker (maybe caused by him absorbing a part of Jokers soul in a battle during the merger) that transcend time and space, even though MK9 happened before MK8 and erased the events of that game. Maybe that connection combined with his stint in the afterlife (which may or may not have affected his ability to remember the original timeline if Kitana's arcade ending is to be believed) caused him to remember the being of pure chaos and destruction that is the Joker. Shang Tsung could then retrieve his soul from the afterlife where Superman put him and put it in a new body bringing a character appearing in MK8 into the new MK timeline.

I personally think Joker would fit in perfectly in the MK universe and it would be great to see a completely M-rated iteration of him which is relatively rare. If he were to appear in a future game I'd really like to see a version based on his most violent and dark sides, taking inspiration from Grant Morrison's Joker and Heath Ledger's incredible performance in Dark Knight. In my mind I'd also base his appearance on Ledger's Joker with the chaotic face paint and clothing, maybe even include the Glasgow Smile scars. It would make sense for Joker to do that to himself in my backstory since Shang Tsung puts his soul in a new body without his characteristic smile.

Speaking of which, if the reader may excuse one last small digression, I came up with an idea for a Joker finisher that I'd like to share: ''Joker walks up to his stunned opponent and takes out his razor. He makes quick cuts from the sides of his victim's mouths to their ears on both sides of their face, then sprays them with joker gas that makes them laugh hysterically. Nastiness ensues. As the opponent lays on the ground with their face split in two still laughing but alive, the words Heroic Brutality shows up instead of Fatality. Joker looks angrily at the floating words then pounces on the prone opponent and keeps violently slashing at their face with his razor until they stop laughing and moving, and the word Fatality replaces heroic brutality. Joker looks up at the word, satisfied, then rises, straightens his suit, and chuckles.''

Summations and good byes

I've been going on for quite a while now so I thought it may be good to end with a short summary of my post:

∙    I'd like to argue that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe (aka Mortal Kombat 8) and Shaolin Monks take place in the same universe as the rest of the Mortal Kombat games despite the many continuity issues.

∙    This can be explained by Armageddon sending reality-altering "timewaves" (as seen in Flashpoint) backwards through time, altering parts of the original un-Raiden-changed MK timeline, and creating the events happening in MK8 as well as the slightly different version of MK1-2 seen in Shaolin Monks.

∙    These events disappeared along with everything that happened in the original games when Raiden's consciousness travelled back in time in Mortal Kombat 9, so they essentially "never happened".

∙    A way to show that MKvDC despite this still is a part of the MK canon as well as tie into the Injustice games would be to first establish that the Injustice universe is the same as the one seen in MKvDC, then have a guest character from Injustice appear as a guest character in MK11.

∙    One great choice would be to have Shang Tsung resurrect the Joker who was killed by Superman at the beginning of Injustice, as Joker probably won't appear in Injustice 2 and he would be a perfect fit in the brutal world of Mortal Kombat.

∙    I have a lot of free time on my hands.

So there you have it: one way to truly make Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe the eighth installation of the Mortal Kombat series and a full fledged part of the canon, while simultaneously tying in the Injustice universe directly into the MK continuity. I'm also happy that this solution takes care of those pesky canon problems of Shaolin Monks which I feel is quite a gem of game, that definitely deserves a real sequel. I just hope that if we ever get one it fits nicely into the MK canon cause my head hurts...

Any and all feedback is very welcome, whether it be praise, improvement of my ideas, constructive and unconstructive criticism, complaints about my overuse of parenthesis or general derision of my tremendous nerdiness (or the fact I use words like "derision"). I would be especially happy to read some other ideas for Joker fatalities as I feel that an untethered Joker has some amazingly gruesome possibilities. And of course if anyone knows any members of NRS please feel free to forward this thread to them if they're in the mood for some light reading.

Holy crap, that went on longer than I thought it would. So yeah, Joker in MK11 would be cool. Many thanks for reading! Christopher "Hophi86" Wall 