Mortal Kombat X #10 Review: Hellfire

Cameron Koch, Tech Times 09 March 2015, 02:03 pm

Scorpion has long been Mortal Kombat's poster boy. From his signature chain-spear to his familiar yellow tunic, the character is instantly recognizable as a key component at the heart of the Mortal Kombat franchise. After several Outworld-focused issues, the Mortal Kombat X prequel series returns to Earth and Scorpion's quest to find Raiden.

Or more accurately, Raiden finds Scorpion, who has now, for the most part, "cured" himself of his demonic alter ego and now goes by the name Hanzo. From the beginning this series has felt like Scorpion's story, so it is nice to have him back in the spotlight as he battles Raiden alongside his new apprentice, Takeda.

It's a shame then that this issue chooses to focus primarily on Scorpion's "sekret origin". There is nothing secret (or sekret) about the character's origin at this point. It's a tale very familiar for any Mortal Kombat player, and we even learned all about Scorpion's origins at the beginning of this comic series, as Fox became possessed by one of the cursed daggers. Sub-Zero murders Hanzo's clan and his family. Hanzo becomes a fiery spirit of vengeance, resurrected by Quan-Chi. He fights people. We've heard it and seen it all before, even if the origin story depicted here is told well, thanks to Daniel Sampere's artwork.

While it makes up the majority of the issue, there are a few moments that take place in the recent past and in the present. Takeda gets the opportunity to prove he is a capable, if inexperienced, warrior, and Hanzo gets to show that even if he is no longer Scorpion, he still knows a thing or two about using the fires of hell to his advantage. The flashback scenes help to give the reader an idea of Hanzo and Takeda's long journey to Raiden, as they march across snow-covered peaks in their fur-lined jackets.

The biggest question of the issue is why exactly Raiden seems intent on killing his onetime ally. If you've been reading this series from the start, it probably isn't hard to guess the answer. Yes, everything in this series so far seems to revolve around these magically cursed daggers. For such critical plot points we still know very little about them, other than that nearly every character so far seems to have encountered someone possessed by the dagger or has been possessed themselves. A "sekret origin" for these demonic blades would have been much more welcome than a retreading of Scorpion's well-known past.

Story

★★★☆☆

Art

★★★☆☆

Overall

★★★☆☆