Monday, January 19, 2015

Mortal Kombat X #2 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Shawn Kittelsen
Art By: Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini
Digital Price: $0.99
Release Date: January 11, 2015




Babality!


Last issue of Mortal Kombat X, we saw that our setting is years ago and at that point Kenshi and his son were being pursued by the Red Dragon clan, but luckily Kenshi led his pursuers through Shirai Ryu territory, which really means they became targets for Scorpion and man did he fatality the hell out of the Red Dragons.........fatality can be used as a verb right?  The whole point of last issue was to find out that Kenshi is trying to take down the Red Dragon leader: Daegon and to accomplish his goal he leaves his son behind in Scorpion's care......... I'm guessing there's no child protective services in Mortal Kombat's world, so I guess we'll go with it.  At the end of the issue we jumped to the Red Dragon's temple where we saw Sub-Zero trying to steal a dagger for Raiden but Kano was also interested in the dagger and somehow got the upper hand on our favorite ice shooting ninja and Kano cut Sub-Zero down his eye as Sub-Zero screamed out the blade was cursed............ Now I'm no shlub, I know a bit about Mortal Kombat but I spent that first issue being completely lost with what was going on.  Hopefully here I can get some clarity.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

This issue begins kind of the way you'd expect it to, Scorpion is training Kenshi's son: Takeda in how to fight and man does he just get his ass handed to him Mortal Kombat style.  Don't worry too much though, it's not Scorpion fighting the child but it is another child who is pretty handy when it come to the ass kickery.  I guess it's at this point where I just assume that Kenshi died during his mission because a lot of time passes and there's Scorpion still getting boys to fight for his amusement.  Takeda has become a pretty skilled fighter but we see that he still can't beat his opponent Fox, who he's been fighting regularly and it seems that Scorpion is getting a little pissed that Takeda isn't dishing out the crane technique......... well I'm a little pissed because I've seen that shit work.


All the fun of children brutally fighting one another is put on hold though as Scorpion tells them that Raiden paid him a visit and told him of an evil that broke it's way into their realm and plans on taking out the world's champions........... and it's at this point that I realize that the goddamn dagger that we saw Kano use on Sub-Zero last issue is being safeguarded by Scorpion and I'm left wondering what the hell is going on.  How can I be this lost during the second issue?


In the end, Fox tells Takeda not to worry about this big bad because they're in a temple surrounded by trained assassins, but I guess Fox didn't plan on the evil coming to him in his sleep and making him fulfill "the blood code".  Do any of you remember the movie NightBreed?  Well it's always bugged me that the one character Narcisse said that he wanted to show us his true face and then started cutting his scalp off.......... So at least here I finally see someone get it right because as we close this issue we see Fox completely missing his face and waking up Takeda with a knife around his neck saying that he's sorry for telling him that they were safe in a temple full of assassins.  As we pan out we see that everyone else has been killed by Fox now sporting the cursed dagger and his nifty "no face".

YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG NARCISSE!



That's it for this issue of Mortal Kombat X and while I appreciated the more direct storytelling about boys training at a temple, the lack of timeline really did a number on me.  I just have no real idea how much time has passed and really even what the hell is going on.  We've seemed to have forgotten all the story that we were given last issue and started up a new one............. and yet, I find myself liking this issue more than last.  I really don't know what's going on in this book but I find that this issue is easier to get into than the last.  Dexter Soy continues art on this book and let me just tell you, I love me some Dexter Soy.  Some incredible artwork here and at this point that's the highlight of this series.  Oh and before we end this thing, it's everyone's homework tonight to go watch NightBreed, it's not an excellent movie, but I sure would love for people to know what the hell I'm talking about.

Bits and Pieces:

With this being a prelude to the upcoming game, as of right now I think that it will be more like Silent Hill because I just really don't know what's going on.  We've got multiple stories throughout these first two issues and I'm not really seeing a connecting thread.......... Except for Scorpion's love of seeing children beat the hell out of one another.  I'm sure if you're a Mortal Kombat fan, you could get behind this no problem but I don't know how anyone else is expected to follow this series.

6.5/10

2 comments:

  1. Eric I would advise against reading this series if you have not played mk9....

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    1. That's the thing, I did play MK9 and I beat the hell out of it. I just don't see how this series goes with that game or will lead into a new one.

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