With the Mortal Kombat reboot finally coming (after another delay), I thought I’d revisit the first Mortal Kombat game I actually owned. Yes, the 2008 Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was pretty much my introduction to the Mortal Kombat franchise. I guess it was technically Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, but it was only for a few matches and at someone else’s house. Hey, I was too young to own one of those games at the time, but since Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was toned down, my former underage self was able to get it. And you know what? In my opinion, it was a solid introduction.
Yeah, I realize that’s not a very popular opinion with the MK fans, but I’ll stand by it. What got me into it in the first place? Well, aside from being a massive gaming freak, I also have a rather serious obsession with comics. Just the fact that the greatest characters from DC Comics would be crossing over to fight the greatest fighting characters in gaming got me pumped. Well, after receiving it as a Christmas gift and devoting a lot of my time playing it, Mortal Kombat gained a new hardcore fan.
Now I’ll just say, I get why the fans aren’t too fond of MK vs. DC. Remember those fatalities? Okay, I’ll give the naysayers that, but at least the heroic brutalities were cool. Well, at least most of them. To me, I just dug the over-the-top cartoony aspect of it, with all the crazy comic and MK action blended together. What I thought was most cool about it was just seeing all the characters interact with each other. Ever wonder what an interaction between Batman and Sub-Zero would be like? Well, the game gives you exactly that, and spoiler alert: Batman loses.
That’s just a dip in the water on what that game gave us. I mean, heck, it even had Darkseid and Shao Kahn merge together to create the ultimate villain. His is name was, you guessed it, Dark Kahn. Boy, sometimes it’s really fun to be cheesy. His whole goal was to merge the realms together and infect everyone with uncontrollable rage. Everyone had a reason to fight and the villain thrived off the chaos. Guess who saved the day? The combined forces of Superman and Raiden, the most powerful heroes from both universes. They won the day, and Darkseid and Shao Kahn separated… into the wrong universe. Darkseid was imprisoned in the Netherrealm and Shao Kahn was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone.
So that alone sounds like a cliffhanger NetherRealm Studios can work with. However, just look back at the character endings and you’ll get an idea on which direction a sequel to the game would look like. Do we even need a sequel? I feel like many fans would say no, but I respectfully disagree. If a sequel to MK vs. DC were to happen, I would imagine it to be more like a standalone sequel. It doesn’t have to be canon to the overall story arcs of the Mortal Kombat or Injustice games. After all, the MK vs. DC game itself was never meant to connect to any Mortal Kombat storyline. That is, however, until Mortal Kombat 11 came around and heavily implied that the events of MK vs. DC was one of many timelines created by Kronika.
If you think I’m crazy, just go play some Injustice 2 or MK 11 and have Joker fight any Mortal Kombat from the game. Both characters will reference that they remember what happened or at least fragments of it. Now this could be for the sake of just throwing some frivolous references around. If it is, then that would be pretty disappointing. However, I don’t think that’s the case. So Ed Boon has shot this theory down, but I wouldn’t completely rule out a sequel to MK vs. DC just yet. I mean, Ed Boon likes to troll his fans, so don’t always take his word.
How about the word of Dominic Cianciolo, the voiceover director of NetherRealm Studios. The man practically admitted that the events of MK vs. DC probably occurred in one of Kronika’s timelines. What was her objective? She wanted to make sure Raiden and Liu Kang were always fighting each other in every timeline. By the end of MK vs. DC, Raiden and Liu Kang were fighting over Shang Tsung, just like in the Aftermath expansion. Heck, Liu Kang even said the same line. “Shang Tsung is not the enemy this time!” Of course, we all knew that he was in Aftermath, but that wasn’t the case in MK vs. DC.
Even if Ed Boon himself doesn’t want to confirm it, I’m all for a sequel to MK vs. DC. And now that we know that they’re willing to go the whole alternate dimension route, I think now is the perfect opportunity. Kronika may have erased that timeline, but we all know how much Mortal Kombat likes digging up all kinds of past events. Heck, why not have it tie into the Injustice games? If we’re not getting an Injustice 3, having the DC characters of that timeline interact with the Mortal Kombat characters can change everything.
I can honestly just see the difference between how everyone would look compared to their 2008 appearances. All updated looks on the characters with modern graphics would be quite a sight, not to mention including more characters from both universes. Another rematch between Superman and Raiden? Or how about a fight between the good Raiden and the Injustice Superman? Now that could lead to an interesting conclusion for the Injustice series. When it comes to timelines in the Mortal Kombat universe, it’s always a gamble, so I don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t embrace it. Standalone or direct sequel, I think another MK vs. DC game would be a blast. Now that Mortal Kombat is getting hotter with the new movie, it would be a good idea to embrace another merge with DC.
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