Board Thread:Mortal Kombat X/@comment-7297858-20150827184306

With the tie-in comic series about to wrap up, now is the perfect time to review the latest comic series to bear the Mortal Kombat moniker. For those who wish to enjoy the comics for all they're worth, please note that this is gonna be a spoiler heavy discussion, so this is your last chance to turn back.

Before we cover the first issue of MKX, let's briefly look at Mortal Kombat's prior comic history.

Midway and Malibu
Most fans are aware of the Malibu published Mortal Kombat comics, mostly for their notoriety, be it either the god awful art or groan worthy story and dialogue. But believe it or not some things from those comics did end up becoming actual story elements, such as the romance between Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage.

And while most fans know of the tie in comics for 4, Deception, and MK vs DCU, not man yare aware of the mail-order prequel tie-ins for MK1 and MKII, written and drawn by John Tobias himself. Those comics were used to expand and explain the stories of both games, and the first one even included bios for the original characters. Tobias would return to help on the MK vs DCU tie-in comic, but if you look back on MK's comic history, it's a poor and rather unsuccessful one.

Then Netherrealm studios came along...

Netherrealm and DC Comics
When Warner Bros got the Midway assets that eventually led to the creation of Netherrealm Studios, MK saw a successful revival with Mortal Kombat 2011. And then two years later, Netherrealm made a game using another asset Warner Bros had.

DC Comics.

And Injustice: Gods Among Us, was born.

Love or hate that game, this lead to the birth of what is now arguably DC Comics most successful digital tie-in comic...er, Injustice: Gods Among Us. That series has become a major digital best seller, constantly ranking within the top ten sales spot for DC's digital sales, even taking the number 1 spot again and again, for going on four years, outliving its progenitor game series.

So, obviously, DC and Netherrealm would collaborate on another tie-in comic for their latest upcoming game.

Mortal Kombat X.

Is it as successful as Injustice?

Not by a long shot.

While it's been in DC's top ten digital spot, it has not been able to stay there like Injustice has, or even keep the number one spot more than twice that I'm aware of.

Is it a successful Mortal Kombat comic?

Hell yes.

Here's why:

Shawn Kittelsen
Shawn Kittelsen was a working for DC Comics at the time of Injustice's production, and he was one of the story consultants who helped Netherrealm for the game's story. He left quite an impact, because his name was one to come up when the MKX Comic was being planned. In an interview, Kittelsen revealed when he was called in to talk with NRS about the comic, he brought a portfolio filled with his own ideas of what had become of the MK universe in the new timeline, each and every change.

Needless to say, NRS was impressed. Kittelsen has been a MK fan since he was a kid, and a fan is exactly what is needed to write stories for Mortal Kombat.

Shawn got the job and the keys to the kingdom, and thus a new MK comic was born for the first time in over a decade. With Kittelsen at the wheel and a major publisher like DC Comics backing up, along with Netherrealm's approval and word of god confirming it was canon, this was a recipe for success.

But is it? More or less.

With that base history and info covered, let's move onto the very first issue of Mortal Kombat X.

Chapter One: Prelude
Being a digital first series, the MKX comic was broken down into three part chapters that make up a single issue before its sold in stores, allowing those earlier access in some cases, or leaving them behind in others.

The first chapter opens with my favorite character, Kenshi, running through the Himalayan mountains with a little boy on his back. Arrows rain down from the sky, and Kenshi throws his sword with his telekinesis before taking an arrow to the tibia. Ouch. And then his pursuers are revealed: The Red Dragon, lead by the fearsome...Hsu Hao. Kenshi tells the kid, whose name is revealed as Takeda, to run, and confronts Hsu Hao, who gets a pretty badass line as Kenshi's sword impales him in the chest...and does no apparent harm.

Takeda runs into a Red Dragon goon with a vendetta against his dad, who quickly gets a spear chain through the throat. Three guesses who's about to show up.

Meanwhile, back with Kenshi, our favorite blind swordsman has been on the beating end of Hsu Hao's fists. Wow, seriously Kenshi? Not looking so cool anymore man. And then Scorpion shows up and kills Hsu Hao. See image.

So then Scorpion takes Kenshi and Takeda to the Shirai Ryu's temple, where we learn that Scorpion has revived his clan with survivors of something called the "Netherrealm War", and that Scorpion is now human again. K. Then we learn Takeda is Kenshi's son. Double K.

We're treated to a flashback where we learn Kenshi snuck into the Red Dragon clan to kill Daegon, cuz killing a demigod is always a plus, when he was found out and ran away from Hsu Hao. Seriously, Kenshi, come on. If it was Mavado I could almost understand, but Hsu Hao?

Anyway, Kenshi soon figures out the Red Dragon is now threatening his son...that he didn't know he had. Starting strong on that dad of the year award Kenshi. Kenshi hightails to save his kid and lover, but it's too late.

So Kenshi puts Takeda to bed, the two bonding over how Takeda doesn't trust the hellfire breathing wraith his disappeared dad has introduced him to, or his dad. At this point can you blame him. When Takeda is safely asleep, Kenshi takes responsibility and leaves his son in Scorpion's care to go kill Daegon. If you thought I meant responsibility by raising Takeda, man do you have the wrong priorities.

So Kenshi ditches his eight year old motherless son to be raised in Scorpion's gentle, nurturing temple filled with trained killers. Best. Childhood. Ever.

And then suddenly slaughtered Red Dragons and Sub-Zero!

Sub-Zero is kicking ass and taking names, while refusing to clarify his own, and is looking for something. Then Kano shows up and gives him a familiar scar while talking about how Raiden lied about the curse of the Kamidogu. Wait I'm confused. Which is Sub-Zero is this? Is that dagger a Kamidogu I thought they were floating objects? Kano why are you here?

That's chapter one.

Confused? So was I. It's not gonna get any clearer anytime sooner.

Chapter Two: Scorpion's Apprentice Part One
We open chapter two with what every fan of fighting games loves to see: Children beating each other up.

The kid beating up Takeda's name is Forrest Fox. You will only know that in January when this came out if you looked up his concept art or read the chapter three synopsis. His name won't be said in full for about...thirty chapters.

So anyway, he beats Takeda up, and then timeskips!

The now teen Takeda and Forrest Fox continue to spar, while Scorpion watches, because he's Scorpion. Takeda dodges all Fox's attacks until Fox get's him in a hold and Takeda busts his nose. Scorpion declares Fox the winner and threatens to throw Takeda out into the wilderness for being unwilling to kill his opponent. Well, he has a point, this is Mortal Kombat.

Fox defends his bromigo and suddenly starts talking to no one there. Neither Takeda or Scorpion notice this, so it must be common.

And then Scorpion flashbacks. Hmm, timeskips, flashbacks, yes this is MKX.

Scorpion recalls how Raiden teleported in the middle of his armory/bedroom, it's never clarified which, and apparently this is pretty common since Scorpion seems only annoyed and not surprised. The two talk, Raiden warns Scorpion of a demon running loose in Earthrealm, and Scorpion takes a potshot at Raiden for letting so many die in the last game. Raiden then thanks Scorpion for watching a dagger- wait, is that the same dagger Sub-Zero was trying to get, one of the supposed Kamidogu? Comic! CLARITY.

We get a quick cameo of Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade before Raiden leaves with the vague and rather useless warning of "Beware the one who walks in silence." It's not so much useless as in useless info, as useless as when we find out who it is, this guy isn't silent. Back in the present, Scorpion tells Takeda that Raiden sucks and to kill the demon if he sees it. Naturally being surrounded by modern day ninjas and a guy who breathes fire, Takeda just writes it off as his master messing with him. Later that night...Fox cuts his face off with the dagger as the voice in his head demands he invoke the Blood Code and kills all the Shirai Ryu. Man, two chapters, that didn't take long. Fox then takes Takeda hostage. Well shit just got real.

Chapter Three: Scorpion's Apprentice Part Two
We open with Faceless Fox holding Takeda hostage while Scorpion hangs upside down by a chain. Fox is ranting about great his idea was to kill the Shirai Ryu to piss Scorpion off into becoming a wraith again. And while normally I would point out how suicidal that is, this kid did chain Scorpion up and kill a bunch of sleeping ninjas, so he may be onto something. Fox also wants Takeda to kill Scorpion, because reasons.

Meanwhile, in Scorpion's head, he's dreaming about the time his clan was being killed by the Lin Kuei and is kicking some dream ass until he finds his wife and child frozen and dead before him.

And then suddenly Sub-Zero, but we know this one is Bi-Han, who is asking Scorpion how he feels. Scorpion, being the living incarnate of generic blind rage, suddenly realizes this all might be in his head and we get a pretty awesome panel of his flaming skull.

Back with Faceless Fox and Takeda, Fox is just being plain mean as he calls Takeda a runner and not a warrior, but makes a mistake when looking away, allowing Takeda to hit him with a whip, knocking away Fox's sword and the dagger. Since the whip wasn't serrated or anything Fox is pretty much unaffected and blasts Takeda away with magic, because Fox suddenly has magic. Oh right, that thing earlier, the Blood Code.

Then Scorpion wakes up. Naturally, he's quite upset. And proceeds to roast Fox alive.

Before the announcer can declare "FATALITY" Scorpion stabs Fox with the dagger. This proves to be a bad idea, as Fox suddenly starts healing and blasts Scorpion away with more magic. But just as Fox starts to give us a possible explanation on the dagger being connected to Quan Chi, Takeda cuts Fox's head open with a sword, finally killing him.

Takeda, naturally traumatized, falls to his knees while Scorpion just takes the dagger and gives the kid a half-hearted pat on the shoulder. Then they burn all the dead Shirai Ryu and start on a journey, with Scorpion explaining to Takeda that he's going to show him how to make a god beg for mercy. I love Scorpion's logic: One of his ninjas plays around with something they shouldn't have been playing around with, gets possessed by a demon Raiden warned him about, and suddenly it's Raiden's fault his entire clan is dead (Again).

Meanmwhile, with Raiden at his Sky Temple, Raiden is annoyed he can't find that demon that's running amok and decides to cut himself with ANOTHER one of those daggers, and we finally get clarification that these daggers are the new timeline's version of the Kamidogu. Fujin, being the only smart god on Earthrealm since Bi-Han killed the other three, tells Raiden that cutting himself with that dagger might not be a good idea. Raiden throws caution back at Fujin and cuts himself with the dagger to offer it blood.

And then this happens. Raiden has another vision of characters soon to be seen, and everyone remembers what happened last time Raiden had visions? People died. A lot. This brings issue one to a close.

Still confused I bet.

The Story
The opening of any series is always very important. You have to establish characters, settings, story and plot. With this in mind, the first issue of a comic becomes all the more important since you have to sell all these elements to keep people reading, and thus buying. So does the first MKX comic make you want to read more?

For me it did, simply because I had no idea what the hell was going on.

Shawn Kittelsen does a very good job with the characters. Everybody's in character and nobody feels off. Well except Kenshi, but that's a matter for later.

But what makes this issue so confusing, is that, no questions are answered at all about anything.

Why is Scorpion human? Which Sub-Zero is that? What happened to the Kamidogu, why are they daggers? What is this Netherrealm War, we're you talking about Shao Kahn's invasion, that was Outworld you moron! What's the Blood Code? What happened to Kano and Sub-Zero? Is that dagger the same one they were fighting over?

These were only some of my thoughts after reading this issue. As the series goes on and the game itself was released, they are answered and this issue makes more sense in the long run, but if your reader is left confused after just the first issue, well that's not good.

What made the first issue of Injustice so good was not only did it explain what happened to cause Superman's downfall in game, there were no questions to ask because you understood everything that was going on.

Here, this issue just raised questions and answered none. We don't know why Scorpion's human, just that he and Kenshi are buds. We don't know who Sub-Zero is (The scar helped but this was still back in January before Kuai was officially confirmed), we don't know why the Kamidogu are suddenly daggers and we're not gonna find out for a while.

Another really annoying thing about this issue, is that while it was nice to have the scene of Sub-Zero, Kano, and the Red Dragons, what purpose did it serve? It interrupted the story we were following with Scorpion, Takeda, and Kenshi, and has no resolution for two issues. Digital or physical, that means it took TWO MONTHS for us to find out what happened to either character. By then you've all but forgotten.

Still it's not all complaints. Raiden's vision at the end was a nice teaser of things to come, showcasing new characters like Cassie Cage, Kotal Kahn and Ferra/Torr, it also promised us characters like Frost, Reiko, Mileena, and showed Kano and Sub-Zero, with Sub taking on the Cyber Kuei. Fun fact: We still haven't seen that, and it won't be resolved until the final two issues.

The Art
I love Dexter Soy's art. Let's just establish that. It's vibrant, and everybody looks like they stepped out of the game. My favorite panels were definitely both shots of Scorpion's flaming skull, Kenshi and Hsu Hao's showdown, and Raiden's visions. Soy I feel is just perfect for MKX. It's a damn shame that because this is digital first, the artists revolve to meet the weekly deadlines, and Soy's act is tough to follow.

Final Score
7/10. I think that's fair. While the first issue does raise questions, the overall plot of the Shirai Ryu's second slaughter, the tease of things to come through Raiden's vision, and just the overall look of the issue, it just averages out to being a good read for any MK fan.

Bottom line is, you would have to be a fan to understand what's going on. If not, this comic is a confusing mess.

Next Issue
No more Scorpion and Takeda for a while. We meet a lot of new characters and get reintroduced to some old ones. 