Mortal Kombathas a long history of serious horror dialed up to the point of absurdity, as well as deliberate comedy. Whether it be the Fatalities that go a little too far without the technology to support them, or some characters that are just supposed to be weird, smelly monsters,Mortal Kombathas it all. This sendup to every classic kung-fu and monster movie has churned out plenty of stories and characters over the years, and while there are as many duds as there are classics, there’s also one other category: the absurd.
Johnny Cage may be a wisecracking Hollywood star, but even he’d be given pause at the sight of some ofMK’s more bizarre fighters. These are all highly concentrated inMortal Kombat’s much-maligned 3D era, where Netherrealm was willing to try any idea it had. That spirit is somewhat alive today with all theaction movie, horror movie, and comic book guests, but that’s more due to surprise factor. While no one would describeMKas a series with too much grim dignity, it’s still a chuckle to see what even it tried to leave behind.
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Mokap
The strangest character inMortal Kombatmay be its most normal: Mokap. He is a regular mixed martial artist from Earthrealm, and has been hired by Johnny Cage to work on some of his movies. He fights in a blue and black motion capture outfit, a reference to the real life motion capture actor Carlos Pesina who has been working on theMortal Kombatseries sinceMK1. The main feature that sets him apart from the rest of the 3DMKcast is that instead of using a weapon, he has multiple stances focused on different martial arts. He may never return, but his spirit lives on in the games’ development and possibly in thenewMortal Kombatmovie’s productionas well.
Havik
Havik is another uniqueMortal Kombatfighter, though he’s a lot more “special” than Mokap is. Havik is the series’ one and only Chaosrealm fighter, and represents his realm as its cleric. When Onaga the Dragon King surfaced inMortal Kombat: Deceptionto bring order to all realms, Havik set out to put a stop to that. AsJoker’sMK11ending showed, he’s still at it somewhere in the multiverse. The bottom half of his face is skeletal, and he fights through contorting his body in impossible ways. He can even snap his own neck to regenerate health. Fans would love to see him make a return, though with the extent of his injuries in theMortal Kombat Xcomics, it remains to be seen if he will.
Meat
When one is talking aboutMortal Kombatbeing juvenile, they don’t need to look much farther than its history of ridiculous Fatalities. PersonifyingMortal Kombat 4’s “flayed alive” variety of Fatalities, Meat started his life as a bonus skin for every character. He already served as the base bloody skeleton beneath every model, so players could just choose someone’s moveset and play them with Meat’s appearance.Armageddongave him a minimalist “escaped experiment” backstory, and a mixed move pool including everything from wrestling moves to throwing parts of himself at enemies.He’s another unlikely candidate for futureMortal Kombatgames, but will persist as a sort of lynchpin for the fourth chapter in the series’ history.
Drahmin
At the end of it all, some ofMortal Kombat’s characters are meant to be weird, smelly monsters for their own sake. The patron saint of these isMortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance’s Drahmin. A masked oni from Netherrealm, Drahmin is trying to carve out his own comfortable niche by finding a nice, evil master who will facilitate his hobby of torturing souls and people. Drahmin is a fairly plain fighter, but his disgusting appearance stands out among the mostly human-looking cast, and he is constantly surrounded by flies that he can hurl at his opponent. That fighting style is already filled by themuch more popular insect queen D’Vorah, but his appearance is unique enough that showing up in anotherMortal Kombatas at least a costume would be appreciated.
Mortal Kombat 11is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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