Mortal Kombat X

My Comic Strip, MK: Altered Destiny (2006)

In my comic strip, in 2006, Shang Tsung goes back in time, his consciousness sent to the body of his younger self, to avoid Shao Kahn's hammer killing him.

http://tabmok99.mortalkombatonline.com/page_abbbaa.html

Okay, I guess I should elaborate a little.  My comic strip is a choose your own adventure comic strip, using video-game graphics, in which one possibility for the first page ends in two choices, leading to two possibilities for the second page, leading to four for the third page, and basically eight possibilities for the fourth page.  The HTML files were labeled as page_a, page_aa and page_ab, and AB leads to ABA or ABB . . . so in route ABBBAA, you get this.  Shao Kahn is about to hit Shang Tsung over the head with a hammer.  So Tsung sends his consciousness back in time to his younger self.  He will send a gust of wind to pass by the coin that was flipped at the end of the first page.  So, for once, instead of reaching an ending, ABBBAA is the only path which instead leads back to a choice of AA or AB through time-traveling.

SOME of this comic strip was what my brother Justin, or ]{0MBAT, suggested I put into it.  The "man of a thousand faces" comment was an idea he suggested I put in.  Similarly, in his comic strips about Shao Kahn having the hiccups, I suggested he add confetti to the panel where he celebrates the hiccups being over, and he used it.

This comic strip was put up online in 2006.  I never thought anyone in the MK team would actually read it.  If I had, I'd have probably invested more time into Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn in the last few panels, and not let them use the same sprite over and over. ( -_- )  The narration described Shao Kahn's hammer "coming closer to" Shang Tsung, yet we don't see it due to my working fast at just getting the whole project finished and wrapped up.  I do kinda wish I had actually SHOWN that hammer attack.

Shang's life begins to flash before his eyes, and he realizes that he can soon be destroyed.  In a moment of panic, a crazy idea hits him: to alter the course of history in order to undo his current predicament.  That moment in the past in which he flipped the coin is the most critical moment.  That is the moment that must be altered.  Shang sends a gust of wind to blow by that coin at a precise second.

This idea is a bizarre one, but as Kahn's hammer gets closer, Shang begins to see its merits.  He sends the gust of wind into the past . . . either turning it over once, from tails to heads - or twice, back to tails again.

What They Put Into

Actual Mortal Kombat (2011)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnWfoPz1LHM

Raiden is about to die, being killed by Shao Kahn.

As Shao Kahn's hammer gets closer, Raiden uses his broken amulet (similar to the one seen in the 1995 MK Jeff Rovin novel??) to send a message back in time to his younger self: "He must win."  And thus the message of words is sent backward in time to younger Raiden.

Have you ever seen the Final Destination movies?  They always start out this way.  Now it turns out that, back in time to Mortal Kombat 1, Raiden had a premonition of all this happening in 1992.

Another thing I would say about MK9, or MK (2011), is that . . . I always wanted to make my amazing remake of Mortal Kombat.  Now, here it is, the game doing everything I wanted to do, like Johnny Cage's outfit looking how it looked back in the days of MK1's trading cards, and other stuff.  Now we have a time-travel reboot of Mortal Kombat.

So, my remake, Mortal Kombat X, waits until MK3 for Raiden to share with Liu Kang a premonition of something he saw earlier, but did not want to share before.  In one vision of the possible future, Shao Kahn is the last one standing, killing Raiden last.  Raiden must not let this dark possible future come to pass.  So.  Suppose they DID borrow from me.  Everything goes back to everything else.

MAYBE ALL THIS STUFF IS COINCIDENCE.

Or maybe not.

Shao Kahn had kind of been shown as progressively weakening in the years building up to 2006.  In my comic strip, I went back to showing him as the be-all, unstoppable villain that wins.  MK9 brings Shao Kahn back to that state - taking him seriously again, moreso than he was in the last several years of games.  Inspired by my approach, in my comic strip?  Or coincidence?

My Brother's Comic, Ghost in the Machine (2006)

tabmok99.mortalkombatonline.com/ghost_machine_9.html

What They Actually Put Into Mortal Kombat (2011)

Jax's Ending

This was a surprise change of direction for Mortal Kombat: virtual reality.  Jax plugs himself into electronic networks, using human/mechanical cyber-tech, connected to his arms, only to find that Kano can be found due to the mechanical implant in his eye.  They enter virtual reality, and fight, and - this is the twist - Kano's consciousness gets kept inside a machine.  For now, it seems like victory for Jax.

Kano's Ending

Kano learns that, inside the machine, he can access networks without his physical body.

He spreads like a virus . . .

. . . and becomes a one-man army.  Holy fuck.

But a man's consciousness kept in a machine at the Special Forces base?  Kano instead of Shang Tsung.  Coincidence?  Or the farthest thing from it?