Mortal Kombat X [DC]

[X-SOLDIER]

Soooooo, DC is doing a weekly Mortal Kombat comic that's currently following Kenshi's son & Scorpion, but has also seen brief bits with Sub-Zero & Kano and most recently Fujin & Raiden. Not sure how long it'll be running, but it has been enjoyable, the art's good, and it's a friggin' $0.99 comic, so it's easy to just pick it up and enjoy it - especially since I'm looking forward ta the game in April.

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[X-SOLDIER]

Soooo, this is extra cool because we're learning about characters who we haven't seen announced or revealed yet.

Spoiler

Cassie Cage is Johnny & Sonya's kid, her best friend Jacqie is Jax's kid, aaaaandd Cassie just got put into a death match against Frost.

Also Kotal Kahn has been at war with Mileena for the throne of Outworld for years, and he's a smooth calculated individual, and Mileena's teamed up with the Red Dragon Clan. D'vorah is one of his deadliest warriors, along with a cowboy-like guy named Erron Black who hasn't been mentioned or revealed in any capacity for the game. http://m.imgur.com/a/NKzXC

Looking forward to next week's comic to wrap up this little arc, and seeing what comes next. Also, these release on Sunday so I'll be keeping up with them then, probably.




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[X-SOLDIER]

This week was background on Kotal Kahn & why he's all Mayan despite being from another Realm that was defeated by Outworld. Also- Mileena is working with Good to try to take them down and win back the throne of Outworld. Suffice to say, I'm really pleased to see Kotal Kahn being one of those conquerer-type rulers who isn't willing to overlook a minor threat.




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[The Twilight Mexican]

Question: Which Sub-Zero is this?

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I haven't seen him long enough to know, actually.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: Summary of the latest chapter

So, Reiko was Kotal Kahn's compatriot for a long time, and they both served together under Shao Kahn. Reiko betrayed him by seducing Mileena to become her & Goro's top advisor. Reiko sabotaged their trade routes and destroyed crops just before harvest, so Kotal Kahn sent his father - wielding Shao Kahn's Wrath Hammer - and a force of their people to go assault their desert and kill them all.

The Osh-Tekk gain their power from Sunlight, so when his father and their army arrived, Rain (working for Mileena) clouded the sky with his powers to cut them off from the light. Then Mavado & his Red Dragon mercs enlisted by Reiko (having acquired the Lin Kuei's cloaking technology) slaughter their weakened army, while Prince Goro takes Shao Kahn's Wrath Hammer and smashes Kotal Kahn's fathers head in with it.

Reptile (in his recently revealed alternate costume) reports all of this back to Kotal Kahn, aaaaand then Kotal Kahn cuts his chest with a Kamidogu dagger and makes a pact with the Elder Gods to grant him the power to become a Blood God to obtain the power to permanently disarm Goro.

So, it seems more & more that Kotal Kahn is gonna be the "good guy" leader of Outworld, who has issues working with the Earth Forces because of long-standing bias towards their realm, and Mileena's army is gonna take the role of the initial bad guys sparking conflict in Outworld that spills into Earth Realm.

What's kinda scary about that is the fact that there's been close to no direct involvement of Quan Chi or the Brotherhood of Shadow, and given the ending of MK9, they're clearly playing the whole situation from behind the scenes and gonna exploit the whole thing to their advantage. (Not sure about the Black Dragon's role yet).

We know that Daegon & the Red Dragon are in pretty much every corner of what's been happening, and their ties to Shinnok make it pretty clear that he's pulling the strings on some level. It was hinted that the Kamidogu (which are daggers here) are connected to Quan Chi in some way. Kano used one to cut Sub-Zero and curse him, another one was used by the crazy Shirai Ryu kid who was manipulated into bringing back Scorpion into his wraith form, the Order one was used by Raiden to gaze into the future, and the most recent one was used by Kotal Kahn to make his blood pact. (Although the Kamidogu being used at all also means that it could also be Onaga emerging again in the end).




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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: Holy shit, I was NOT expecting this

So, Kotal Kahn rides out to their Golden Desert hideout on a T-Rex to go kill them for slaying his father. Meanwhile, Reiko convinces Mileena (probably rightly) that Goro will kill her to take the throne as soon as possible (as he betrayed Kotal Kahn), and he vows to kill whichever of them survives.

As Kotal comes out, Goro, Modolvo, Rain, & their forces stand to meet him. Rain clouds out the sun again, but Kotal uses his blood magic to cut a hole in the clouds and burns Rain alive. Then he cuts through soldiers and challenges Goro to Kombat, and the two of them throw down. Goro comments about how he won't ever serve anyone because it goes against the Shokahn way to do so and is strangling Kotal and tells him to struggle and die with dignity like his father.

So, Kotal pushes off and rips one of Goro's arms off at the elbow, grabs his sword and cuts off his other three arms. He then signals Reptile who appears with D'vorah & Ferra/Torr (no sign on Err on Black) to kill the remaining troops. Goro asks to be killed, to which Kotal replies that doing so would be an act of kindness and Shokahn tradition forbids such things, and walks away. (+1000 badass point, -100 strategy points).

After they burn the place down, Reptil reports that Goro will be returned to Kuatan, and that Reiko & Mileena escaped. Kotal bids them all to return to Z'unkahrah, and D'vorah chastises him for taking unnecessary risks, which she dislikes. He needs to rest from the toll that the Blood God power took on him, when he gets shot through the gut - by Sonya who is looking for Cassie (who was kidnapped by the Black Dragon and dragged into Outworld).

This is EASILY the most intense chapter yet and mixed things up in a way I'd never saw coming. I cannot wait for next week.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: Big character details from Ch 9

So, D'vorah uses her insects to eat the bullet inside Kotal Kahn and coagulate his blood to start healing her, as Reptile yells at Sonya for jumping in and making attacks & false accusations of them. Johnny Cage steps in as a verbal-only negotiator. Kotal Kahn is only willing to work with "Raiden's champion" and doesn't want to speak with Sonya at all. He swears that, just having lost his own family, he would never steal children, and Johnny Cage shows him an image on Cassie's phone.

Turns out that Erron Black was photographed by Cassie as she was being kidnapped by the Black Dragon. Kotal Kahn had been using Erron as a liason to them (having never met them directly) in order to supply Outworld with weapons. It's figured that the very poor initial negotiations with Sonya in Earth Realm triggered him to act on his own to try to motivate the Earth Defense Forces for assistance. Meanwhile, Mavado is watching them all.

Cut to Erron & Kano transporting Cassie & Jackie. They try to make an escape, but get shut down. Erron tells Kano to make sure not to hurt them - prompting Kano to talk about replacing his eye recently:

We see him cutting Sub-Zero with the Kamidogu and telling him that it possesses whoever it cute -- and the only way to break the curse is to kill the person who's possessed. Sub-Zero replies, I've already been dead once. Never again!" before ripping off Kano's cybernetic eye.

Then back in the present, Mavado attacks Erron & Kano and attempts to take their prisoners.

Lastly, Hanzo & Takeda are camping outside of the Sky Temple, and Raiden (covered in cuts, glowing red eyes, and wielding his Kamidogu) attacks Scorpion, telling him he shouldn't have come here.




Noteable Recap: As of now, from our main characters: Sub-Zero, Raiden, & Kotal Kahn have been cut with a Kamidogu.

Fox from the Shirai Ryu did, too but he cuts his own face off and took Takeda hostage to force Hanzo to become Scorpion again. He mentioned that he grew more powerful with each drop of blood and that the Kamidogu were connected to Quan Chi before Takeda cut him down the middle and killed him. I'd suspect Scorpion fights off Raiden to determine what all this is about next week.

I was also pleased to see that Sub-Zero (with the scar, so we know he's the one in game) mentions having been dead before, which I'd assume means that he's likely Bi-Han aka Noob Saibot and not Kuai Liang (since he was made into Cyber Sub-Zero and not killed). I'm curious what his defeat and being sucked into the soulnado in MK9 has to do with that, as well as the Kamidogu being connected to Quan Chi will mean going forward.

Also, it's worth noting that the amulet in the character trailer is Shinnok's amulet, which is secretly the final Kamidogu, so I'm still relatively certain that Onaga is going to be involved in the final stages of the game at some point.

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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: Soooo, this chapter is pretty much all about Scorpion's background

So, Blood Code-possessed Raiden is going nuts on Scorpion, and says, "The demon that entered Earthrealm is not here to destroy us. It's here to set us free." Scorpion knows that he's possessed and wants to help him, but despite his last second protest, Takeda buries a katana through Raiden's back, since he's tired of being assaulted by Kamidogu possessed people.

We get ta see him talking to Takeda about his Hellfire not being a technique, and explaining the whole scenario with him getting killed by Sub-Zero, his wife & child frozen and his clan slaughtered. He prayed to the fire itself ta save his family. Also, he wasn't Quan Chi's revenant but his willing volunteer to get justice, and his loss became his Hellfire.

We see him getting vengeance without justice as he kills Sub-Zero, who is screaming, "It wasn't me! Nooo!!" Said Hellfire stayed with him through all his battles (shown fighting Quan Chi & Johnny Cage), and even after he was restored - Hanzo shown alive with burning hands.

He brings out his Hellfire through remembering his shame/pain/loss, but if he holds on too long, he could destroy himself. It's then revealed that it was Kenshi who helped him learn how to control it without being overwhelmed after his resurrection.

Then we cut back to the battle, and Hanzo teleports himself and Kenshi away as Raiden goes off saying, "Chaos is coming to Earthrealm, and I am its-" followed by Scorpion teleporting in, pulling the sword from him and punching him in the face.

It'll be interesting to see what else happens, because it feels like this arc might build up some more detail about the Kamidogu in detail.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Sub-Zero is Kuai Liang, though I've not a fucking clue how the hell he got unconverted and also resurrected. Also a shitton of other details: http://xsoldier.tumblr.com/post/113766942810/so-we-see-the-jin-sei-that-shinnok-was-stated-to




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[The Twilight Mexican]

Well, that's somewhat confusing.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

WELP.

Spoiler: Cassie dun killed a dude...

And that dude was Mavado. Jackie pins his arms behind his back, and Cassie kick in in the shin and shatters it before slicing him open from his crotch to his chin with his own hooksword. Then they got captured by the Red Dragons, who left Erron Black to deliver their message to everyone looking for them:

They're informed to head to a specific location... where we (the readers) learn that the Cleric who's manipulating Reiko into becoming a Blood God, and has also taken over Shang Tsung's island is... Havik.

So Chaosrealm's prime representative is the one pulling strings and generally turning Outworld into a living shitstorm. I'm further convinced that this means that Quan Chi is just setting up things for all of the potential Outworld rulers (Kotal Kahn, Reiko, & Mileena) to just go at each others' throats until things are weak enough for him to implement his plan to resurrect the Dragon God to take over all of Outworld, so that he can be in control of the Netherrealm AND Outworld by proxy. I think that Shinnok is still at the core of the conflict in making things hard for Earthrealm initially (especially with the bit from the start of Chapter 1 that we saw).

Yup. Still sitting by my call of Lui Kang coming back at the end as the Dragon God.

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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: Soooo~

Havik is the one who seems to have been speaking through people possessed by the Kamidogu -- especially Sub-Zero. Additionally he seems to have cut open Reiko and removed his heart in one of Shang Tsung's labs, so who know what sort of messed up things he'll be up to next issue.

Sub-Zero & Hanzo/Scorpion and Takeda are on the verge of having their big fight, since possessed Sub-Zero froze the whole city of people.

As far as the main cast, Johnny & Sonya have ex-partner dialogue, and Reptile & D'Vorah put Erron Black in the dungeon for his betrayal. Lastly, before they can all go to Shang Tsung's island to find Cassie & Jackie, Kotal Kahn and the whole lot of them have to survive a massive assault by all of the Shokan -- because despite the dishonor of losing and not being slain, Goro's father didn't reject him (peak of the family always stands by each other message here), and all of the Shokan (Kintaro, Shiva, and all) are launching a night assault against Z'unkarah as revenge.

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[X-SOLDIER]

Sub-Zero's almost dead, but Takashi manages to keep Scorpion from finishing him off, and the assault on Zaterra is still ongoing. Also, Sub-Zero's origin is apparently next week, which should hopefully clear up what the hell happened with Cyber Sub-Zero.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Important thing this week was seeing that Quan Chi pulled Kuai Lian's soul from Cyber Sub-Zero and reconstructed him into a Revenant made of flesh & bone. I'd expected this a little bit, 'cause of how the Lin Kuei manage to control the cybernetics in their minions, so unlike Kabal & Jax, this would've made him a liability.




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[X-SOLDIER]

Well, fuck.

I died…




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[Cthulhu]

My condolences,

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

If you ask me, you had it coming.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Cutting my hair and joining the Earth Defense Forces was clearly a misstep, but are you referring to something aside from that, Tres?




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[X-SOLDIER]

Spoiler: This week, in Mortal Kombat X

The Shokan assault retreats after Kotal Kahn clap explodes Goro's dad's head, and they don't have a leader. Goro gets told by Kintaro that he's not eligible for leadership because of his injuries and they're going to have a tournament for a new leader, and Goro goes off to do something with the intention of being able to enter.

Reptile & Johnny Cage are wounded from the battle. Kotal Kahn plans to stay and defend the area with his Bloodgod powers while the rest take care of the problem on Shang Tsung's island… but his Kamidogu is gone, so he tells D'Vorah to take the rest of them and go finish off Reiko. Turns out that during the conflict Skarlet (working for Reiko) stole the dagger and delivered it to Havik. They're planning to steal Cassie's green energy from her by forcing her to fight.

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