Just this morning PC World confirmed that a new Mortal Kombat game slated for this fall will combine its classic characters with another set of classic characters– from the DC Universe. As bizarre as it sounds, it’s no joke. Batman and Superman are both definitely in but no word yet on who else might be added.

This isn’t horribly surprising to me– it’s another of a long line of crossover fighting games, like Marvel Vs. Capcom and X-Men Vs. Street Fighter. The real difference, and I think the thing that will give this game a lot of hype, is that it’s Mortal Kombat, a game known for it’s excessive violence. It seems like a weird move on DC’s part to allow their characters to be featured in a such a dark arena… until, of course, you read any of DC’s most recent books. Comics aren’t necessarily for kids anymore and after reading recent issues of Batman: Confidential and the trade of Infinite Crisis, this almost looks like a logical step for DC. A lot of readers who like dark comics (myself included) probably also like dark video games.

What’s going to hurt this game, though, is that the trademark fatalities are gone. In fact, it’s probably less violent all around since it won’t be including the M for Mature label. It seems that while the comic world has gotten dark enough to envision a MK/DC game, the DC characters are too iconic and well-known for the producers to allow it to get that violent. A part of me really appreciates this, especially since I consider Batman and Superman among the most legendary characters that our 20th and 21st century mythologies have to offer. And at the same time… if you’re going to do something, you really should do it. Maybe the problem is the title: Mortal Kombat Vs. the DC Universe. If it were a game that had the MK characters mixed with DC, maybe even mixed with some other fighting game characters (I’m probably the only one but Batman Vs. Virtua Fighter sounds REALLY appealing to me) and just called it something else, you could probably get away with it. But a lot of die-hard MK fans are going to have a hard time wrapping their heads around a less-violent game, just for the sake of DC characters.

Looking at the trailer, it certainly looks pretty violent to me… but for some reason the lack of blood is a going to be a problem for a lot of fans.

It’ll be available in the fall for the XBox 360 and PS3.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

I grew up drawing superheroes about as often as I read about superheroes. I had a craving to create something amazing and hoped one day to draw a comic of my own. Unfortunately, I wasn’t any good at it. I eventually admitted this to myself and moved on to writing– I guess you have to play to your strengths. So I might have an even greater appreciation for talented artists than most people. I’m fascinated by good art because I can’t figure out how to do it myself.

I know some great artists and I’ve run across some incredible artwork while surfing the Internet. The medium of comic books is another one of those, like music and film, that’s very hard to break into. There are a lot of very talented people no one will ever know about because there’s only so many positions available in mainstream entertainment.

So I thought I would show you some really great artwork I’ve found around cyberspace. These are all artists I think are good enough to write for comics, and unless you scour fan-artcentral.net like I did, you’d probably never run into them. I like helping talented people get more exposure, so here for your viewing pleasure are some really neat drawings of some of my favorite characters. There is a lot more impressive art like this and I’ll be sure to share more with you in the future.

Swingin Around by koglerr

I love perspective shots like this and the lighting is really unusual. Spidey looks almost orange, which is working for him, and it seems like you can see the city lights in his costume. This would be a great cover.

Superman Returns by graphixrob

I’m not the biggest fan of Superman Returns, but this is really impressive portrait work. I find a lot of artists in books have a hard time making people look like real people, especially in books for shows like Buffy or Star Trek. This guy got Routh and Spacy dead-on.

Doomsday by Kuroko8

I gotta say, I really geeked out when I found this one. I’m a huge fan of the Death of Superman arc from the early ’90s and I really appreciated seeing someone recently draw him like he was originally presented. I liked the Doomsday in the new Bruce Timm animated movie, but he pales in comparison to this.

Batman and Venom by Stitchking

As if it weren’t enough that this is a comic fan’s dream come true… it’s also a classic Venom and a classic Batman. Venom isn’t easy to get right but this guy draws him like he’s meant to be drawn. I like the contrast between his blues and Batman’s solid black. Instead of both being drawn like a Batman or a Venom artist, he merged Spider-Man and Batman art together to make this masterpiece. Eat your heart out, Amalglam!

Spawn by DarkSlyde

If I had to pick a winner out of this set, it would be this one. This piece is very Greg Cupullo. The detail is astounding– surely good enough for a cover. Spawn is one of the hardest comic characters to draw but this guy does him with authority, and even though it’s a closeup with no cape (which is one of the hard parts) he spares no complexity when he gets into the face and especially those arms.

If you have any fan art of your own you’d like to share, please point me in the right direction and I’ll be sure to put good ones in future blogs.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan