The Good
Week three pushes forward as Fox holds Scorpion hostage and demands Takeda kill him. Scorpion's troubled past is also explored in this latest issue.
We're getting close to a point, with a weekly, digital comic, where people are in for the long haul or have lost interesting. This is the point where people start wondering if they should keep on going, and luckily, this issue delivers enough to make the average person keeping pushing forward. Storywise, it's a really solid issue and we get a lot of emotional investment with everyone's favorite skull on fire, Scorpion.
Writer Shawn Kittelsen and artist Dexter Soy, with Veronica Gandini on colors, give the reader a great look into a pivetol moment within Hanzo's life. While the moment the reader sees is actual more of a fever dream, as Hanzo is tied up, we get to see the beginning of the feud between Sub-Zero and Scorpion, also, we get to see Scorpion's head on fire, which looks really freaking awesome. I don't know what these scripts look like, but I'm pretty sure Kittelsen describes Scorpion as "looking awesome" as much as possible because there are so many times here where Hanzo looks so cool. Soy is doing an incredible job with the art here. Many times, in a weekly, digital series, the art isn't as good as most the monthly books you find in the stores, but here, it's top notch quality.
This book is still brutal and violent but only where it needs to be. Is there a fatality in this issue? Yeah and it's freaking awesome. The book doesn't fall back on the idea that everyone has to die and it has to be in this horrific way. The reader gets a nice build-up and at the appropriate time, violence happens. The book is focused more around telling the story, which is why this has been an excellent series so far. And once again, Soy's imagery is wonderful and better yet, he does some great work with these page layouts as well. The eye naturally moves around on the page and the pages are smooth and great at showing the reader the story.
The Bad
It feels like there's just as little too much packed into those final couple of pages for what is really a story focused around Scorpion. It's a solid lead-in to the next arc to feels like those final pages rush at you a million miles an hour.
The Verdict
I'm not surprised that MORTAL KOMBAT X can hold a reader's attention without them feeling alienated due to the dense mythology and backstory that comes along with it. Kittelsen is obviously a fan of this world and presents it to the reader in an easy to access way. On top of that, Soy and Gandini deliver some beautiful art too. If you're a fan of Mortal Kombat, there's no reason not to be reading this. It's only 99 cents and awesome.