fighting
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe vs. Comic-Con
Posted by Michael McWhertor at 10:40 AM on June 26, 2008
If you're going to next month's San Diego Comic-Con and think that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is a fantastic idea, we have good news. Well, Midway has good news, as it has announced a Comic-Con panel dedicated to the fighting game series reboot. "Worlds Collide: The Making of Midway's Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" will go down Friday, July 25th and features MK creator Ed Boon and DC Comics collaborator Jimmy Palmiotti rappin' about the crossover, showing off "never-before-seen gameplay" and unveiling "key characters".
They're also giving away posters! Hopefully, said posters feature Wonder Woman and Sonya Blade for extra poster-kissability. For those who aren't able to make the trek to Comic-Con, perhaps these day old MK vs. DC in-game screenshots will soothe the pain.

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Strider-No.9
Posted 11:54 AM 26/6/08
@ObZen:
Great point.
Strider-No.9
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Posted 11:52 AM 26/6/08
@Aethyr: Ha! I missed that particular bylaw, my friend! It won't happen again!
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
zanzibarlegend
Posted 11:50 AM 26/6/08
@BoringJob: LMAO. but seriously.... you left out the part about said skiers being sprayed with shark bait perfume. there, now that should do it.
zanzibarlegend
Aethyr
Posted 11:47 AM 26/6/08
@wild homes has particularly attractive fries today: Don't use Kotaku to coerce others into doing something that turns you on! Only I'm supposed to do that.
Aethyr
zanzibarlegend
Posted 11:46 AM 26/6/08
@Fishballs: well the answer is simple. somehow the bad idea stage mockups didnt make it to the shredder, so they accidentaly got shipped to the developers in some far away dungeon where they we forced to design their beloved superheroes and watch them get pummeled, no thanks to the lovely programmers hard at work. even though this is not true.... you gotta almost think that this would be the closest story that would make sense.
zanzibarlegend
Kokatu
Posted 11:40 AM 26/6/08
@itscomplicated:
Probably not Aquaman.
Kokatu
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Posted 11:40 AM 26/6/08
@nick.soapdish: If you will eat the fried testicle and put the thing on YouTube, I'm willing to reimburse you.
And you're right. I'm not against a crossover when it makes sense. For me, this one doesn't-- it's not even that it COULDN'T, it's just that the way it seems they're going about it, it's a bit dumb. If they were to tie it into something like Infinite Crisis or Final Crisis and feature loads of awesome characters AND a storyline that makes sense-- like Alexander accidentally brings MK-Earth together with Earth-1 or something so we'd have a reason for all these random characters to be together... then I'd gladly sign up. It just seems like this particular idea has too few characters, not enough lesser-known characters, and looks to feature some really bland environments. I mean, this could be THE CHANCE to really show off loads and loads and loads of DC characters and their superpowers in an interactive media! Why wouldn't DC want to push that-- that's fucking AWESOME!
And I can't even imagine what storyline they'll use, but I'm guessing it'll be ridiculous-- this IS Mortal Kombat, after all. It's just such a waste-- so many good answers to their problems are just in the source material! UGH!
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
kingme
Posted 11:36 AM 26/6/08
Batman + Shirt Ripped + Scars and Blood = Cool!!!
kingme
BoringJob
Posted 11:33 AM 26/6/08
@BoringJob: While wearing elephant seal costumes. Did I mention they poured 300 gallons of fish blood in said pool before the attempt?
BoringJob
BoringJob
Posted 11:31 AM 26/6/08
@ObZen: With DC AND MK being used this way, it's like a pyramid of water-skiers jumping over an olympic pool filled with starving Great Whites.
BoringJob
Fishballs
Posted 11:31 AM 26/6/08
@Pezdispenser: It got past the bad idea stage the moment someone started coding.
Holy crap. This should be right next to that stripper bike riding game in the dictionary under "ill-advised"
Fishballs
ObZen
Posted 11:28 AM 26/6/08
I've said this before, I'll say it again - Mortal Kombat ceased being Mortal Kombat when it stopped using digitized actors and went 3D. The realism the actors, combined with the brutal gore (note: brutal gore of the first 2 games, and not the over-the-top silliness of 3) gave MK its unique style and appeal.
If they truly want to revive this franchise, then I say it's time to innovate again.
Go back to 2D. Go back to actors. With modern high-definition capabilities and storage capacities, imagine the realism and fluid animations that could be possible, combined with the realism of digitized graphics. And getting back to the gritty, gory nature of the first 2 games would go a long way as well.
But this? This is just ridiculous, and just another jumping of the shark for this once great franchise.
As a fan, it pains me.
ObZen
BoringJob
Posted 11:27 AM 26/6/08
@Ed_209: That was the peak of the series. Period. It's not your opinion. It's fact.
BoringJob
Pezdispenser
Posted 11:25 AM 26/6/08
@Fishballs:
Who said it got past the Bad Idea stage?
Pezdispenser
Fishballs
Posted 11:20 AM 26/6/08
I...just...wow...no...but Superman...wow...
HOW THE HELL DID THIS EVER GET PAST THE BAD IDEA STAGE?!?!?!
Fishballs
Strider-No.9
Posted 11:20 AM 26/6/08
Why is Superman Bleeding? And once again does anyone know what happens when The Flash charges at you and hits you with the force faster than the speed of light? It would put Supes to sleep real quick.
This is a bad idea for a game.
Strider-No.9
vanderblade
Posted 11:12 AM 26/6/08
This looks horrible. The same stiff animations, the same sub-par graphics, the same terrible designs. MK is a dead series, and everybody knows Marvel is better than DC.
I'm sure they'll sell enough to fanboys and misinformed mothers to warrant its creation, but damn, this is an eyesore.
vanderblade
Ed_209
Posted 11:08 AM 26/6/08
I wish Boon would just make a Mortal Kombat II HD game, that was the peak of the series in my book.
Ed_209
nick.soapdish
Posted 11:08 AM 26/6/08
@wild homes has particularly attractive fries today: There's a restaurant near me that apparently cooks a mean beer-batter fried testicle.
In all seriousness, it's good to see the MK guys trying something new, but this more and more seems like it's just attempting to tie on to the DC universe to try and get people interested in the MK series again. However, I do want to see how it plays. Could be fun, who knows. Even a half-way decent game when you can use Batman to beat on Sub-Zero is amusing in its own right. 60 dollars amusing? That I have yet to see.
nick.soapdish
itscomplicated
Posted 11:08 AM 26/6/08
Who's ready for Aquaman V. Sub-Zero?
itscomplicated
GameCasa
Posted 11:07 AM 26/6/08
No fatalities??? Sorry, it's not MK if I can't decapitate Batman. Being an old school fan of MK, this does not cut it for me. Sticking with Tekken 6, SF 4, and SC 4. Although I will reserve my judgement until I try it.
GameCasa
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Posted 11:04 AM 26/6/08
But I have to say I'm glad to see Batman's trying to give Scorpion a hand getting up in that one image. Just because you're the Caped Crusader doesn't mean you can get away with being a dick.
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Kokatu
Posted 11:04 AM 26/6/08
This is like the poor man's Marvel vs Capcom. At least those match ups made sense.
Kokatu
ItsSuperEffective
Posted 11:03 AM 26/6/08
Yes! Super excited!
ItsSuperEffective
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Posted 11:02 AM 26/6/08
McWhertor, more importantly-- do they have a Comic-Con panel dedicated to STOPPING the fighting game series reboot? Because this whole thing looks about as good as a pile of fried testicles.
wild homes has particularly attractive fries today
Arsenicberyllium
Posted 11:02 AM 26/6/08
You know, even though I think this game looks like utter crap, I'm now excited for it simply because I'm going to Comic-Con.
Arsenicberyllium
ZeeBeeEss
Posted 11:01 AM 26/6/08
This still seems gawdawful.
ZeeBeeEss
Aethyr
Posted 11:00 AM 26/6/08
This game looks worse and worse every time I see it. It might be the overly ornate MK character designs in comparison to the crappy DC designs.
Aethyr
ObZen
Posted 12:08 PM 26/6/08
@Strider-No.9: I'm just an oldschool MK fan, grew up with the arcade games, spent ungodly amounts of money on those machines, then bought the home versions and played them to death. Then I moved onto X-Band and played them to death in the infancy of online console play. And I've watched each MK game get worse and worse, further and further away from what made it great to begin with.
ObZen
NoahSteam
Posted 12:02 PM 26/6/08
This game will easily sell a million units. It is a brilliant idea from a business standpoint, and at the end of the day, games are just business. I've never been a huge MK fan, besides the first two, but visually this is looking nice and the idea of fighting DC characters has me intrigued.
NoahSteam
MadSystem
Posted 12:51 PM 26/6/08
@NoahSteam:
MK's fans(like me) are going to ignore this game so...
Who do you really think is going to buy this game?
We are in the year 2008(yeah really), fighting games are not so popular anymore, the ordinary gamer will just ignore MKvsDC as well.
"This game will easily sell a million units"
Nah...but can easily be the worst concept we ever saw.
MadSystem
Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.
Posted 12:45 PM 26/6/08
@BoringJob: That sounds like Evil Knieval's funeral.
Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.
Scuba Steve
Posted 12:45 PM 26/6/08
Seems like Mortal Kombat for the Genesis had better graphics.
Scuba Steve
frostcircus
Posted 12:27 PM 26/6/08
I wonder if DC have made the (legitimate) complaint that Midway are putting far, far more effort into the MK characters than the DC ones. The difference in quality is just enormous.
frostcircus
Sousanator
Posted 12:25 PM 26/6/08
"For those who aren't able to make the trek to Comic-Con, perhaps these day old MK vs. DC in-game screenshots will soothe the pain."
So they get posters featuring the female species, and all we get are screenshots of tightly clothed males?
That does not soothe the pain at all.
Sousanator
The Grey Ghost
Posted 12:24 PM 26/6/08
By "never-before-seen gameplay", they mean "here's some pre-rendered footage we staged that we'll then try to make the game to look like".
The Grey Ghost
kylo4
Posted 1:19 PM 26/6/08
@fearing: I see your point but at the same time, Marvel vs. DC would be the best fit. It just works.
kylo4
fearing
Posted 1:11 PM 26/6/08
@Kokatu: In what ridiculous world did the matchups in Marvel vs Capcom make sense? Jill Valentine vs Spider-man, oh yeah, that made a lot of sense. Hell Jill Valentine vs Servbot didn't even make sense and they are both Capcom.
Most fighting game mash-ups don't make sense for the two universes to fit together, otherwise they probably wouldn't have made that other series that the first one in versusing(can I copyright that word?) because it's just be a ripoff of the first one. Granted, some work better than others, I could see Tekken and Street Fighter kinda meshing okay, but I would hate to see the ludicrous crap-that-passes-for-a-fighting-game that is Tekken sully the Street Fighter universe. Almost as much as I hate the even-worse-than-Tekken Mortal Kombat universe coming inot contact with DC, man I will rue the day this game is released.
fearing
AFreak3000
Posted 2:00 PM 26/6/08
I wish they could at least get The Flash's costume right.
AFreak3000
Kokatu
Posted 1:44 PM 26/6/08
@fearing:
I forgot about Jill. I mostly played Megaman and Street Fighter characters. So there were a few that made no sense, but for the most part, Capcom characters seem like they could at least hold their own against Marvel heroes. Some even fit in. I can totally see Ryu taking on Wolverine. But all believability flies out the window when Superman punches someone from Mortal Kombat and they aren't instantly liquefied. Plus, none of the characters from DC seem like they fit in with MK characters to me.
Kokatu
Vanguarde
Posted 2:56 PM 26/6/08
This is more total bullcrap.
There is no way in BLOODY HELL that Scorpion can abuse Superman in the way the screenshot shows.
Superman would turn Scorpion into a small puddle of goo in 2 seconds.
Vanguarde
Silenced
Posted 3:27 PM 26/6/08
i just want to see what theyre gonna do with jokers fatality (fatalaties?)... oh wait pg13? you know what fuck it
Silenced
Ping5000
Posted 3:19 PM 26/6/08
@Bonus-Round: Instead of being sorry, you shouldn't have said anything in the first place, you ho.
Ping5000
Bonus-Round
Posted 3:14 PM 26/6/08
"Superman that ho!"
oh God, I'm so sorry guys...
Bonus-Round
dowingba
Posted 4:15 PM 26/6/08
Superman mirror match will invent perpetual motion!
dowingba
taftsearlobe33
Posted 4:56 PM 26/6/08
As bad as this game looks I really want it. It seems like one of those fun games me and my friends can get some beers, get drunk, and just have a fun time playing because its so ridiculusly bad. This idea is no more ridiculas then Marvel vs Capcom.
taftsearlobe33
B33
Posted 4:45 PM 26/6/08
I'll pass for Street Fighter IV instead.
B33
Fishballs
Posted 4:41 PM 26/6/08
@Vanguarde: While I agree with you that it seems ridiculous and the entire concept of this game stinks of the desperate clawing of a dying franchise, the inner comic geek inside compels me to say that Superman, while invincible to most things, is vulnerable not just to kryptonite, but also magic.
And Scorpion is a walking angry skull-man who came back from the dead to kill frosty people and can manifest spears out of no where. Magic might be involved there.
Fishballs
Plan303e
Posted 6:06 PM 26/6/08
Pass. Neither series have made decent fighting games alone in recent memory. Yes, DC and MK.
@fearing:
You're right about a few things. Jill's only there because she's Capcom's favored girl. Not sure about now, but she is popular within Capcom.
The highest tier characters are mostly Marvel (Capcom managed to get that right), which shows the unbalanced match up. And God tier? Full of Godly Marvel/Omega-level mutants, with this Sentinel rendition apparently forged with the power of Nimrod if it trashes around mutants and supers easily.
Tekken and SF meshing? Lol QCF+P spam (if that input system is favored). Something's going to give between the two. Either Tekken has to speed up/become mashy or SF has to slow down/take up limb assignments.
However, it seems that the audiences that like either Marvel or Capcom are mostly the same. People who were into video games typically were interested in comics, with Marvel over DC. And then when you think about the presentation and history of both, it worked.
SF and Marvel had flashy, awesome characters. Capcom did make stand-alone X-Men/Marvel games, and they worked successfully with the SF formula. The "VS. Series" thus made perfect sense, with MvC2 as the pinnacle of perfection. For such an aged game, it's still very alive and popular, casually and competitively.
The only major crossover in recent memory that made unquestionable sense would be the SNK/Capcom games. Period.
Plan303e
bubble-bee
Posted 7:08 PM 26/6/08
Theres crypto also? or how scorpion will beat super man? :D lol well.... its kinda stupid... lets see the result
bubble-bee
bubble-bee
Posted 6:58 PM 26/6/08
Well... I dont know whats the logic of Super man fighting Scorpion... IN a world without crypto.. scorpion loses just with one punch from Super man... ok ok, passing forward... whats the logic of mixing characters comic characters (almost invincible) with mortal characters? ...Not that fun...dont know...lets wait for the final result.
bubble-bee
username484767
Posted 8:37 PM 26/6/08
looks like a pos
username484767
Billkwando
Posted 9:27 PM 26/6/08
Graphics look shitty.....like, Everquest shitty.
Granted, I'm on a Palm right now with, like, a 320x320 screen. But still.
Agreed that MKII was the end of the series.
Dial-A-Combo, run button, and Henry Rollins as Sub Zero? No thanks, 3.
Billkwando
Angryrider
Posted 9:42 PM 26/6/08
Actually I'm cool with this. I don't read DC comics except the Vertigo imprint, and I don't play Mortal Kombat. Kill two birds with one stone eH?
Angryrider
jammadave
Posted 12:22 AM 27/6/08
@Billkwando: THANK YOU! I too always thought the guy playing Sub-Zero in MK3 looked exactly like Henry Rollins. I enjoyed the notion, but found out that it's actually not him.
This game? Man, I want to like it - every time a new MK game comes out I *want* to like it because I liked the old ones, especially II of course. I liked Deception, actually.
I'll give this one a rent.
jammadave
Billkwando
Posted 3:44 AM 27/6/08
When do we get Mortal Kombat II Super HD Remix?
I wanna see the Pesina brothers in full HD. I wanna count the hairs on Ho Sung Pak's nipples!
I wanna see the shine on Richard DiVizio's head!
(Yes, as you may have noticed, I am an old skool MK fan)
Billkwando
zanzibarlegend
Posted 5:52 AM 27/6/08
@Billkwando: no, you're a fucking weirdo....
btw, the nipple hair count is 6,342 if you're still curious.
zanzibarlegend
zanzibarlegend
Posted 5:46 AM 27/6/08
@Bonus-Round: lmao.
right when you are beat your opponent, you hear the voice "FINISH HIM!!" to which then the son of Krypton begins to crank dat soulja boy..........yyyyyyyyyyoooooooooouuuuuuuuu(exclamation mark)
now if that isn't a fatality, i don't know what is.
zanzibarlegend
Bonus-Round
Posted 2:23 PM 27/6/08
@zanzibarlegend:
haha... thanks for the backup there. Glad someone appreciates humor here.
Also, when Superman fights Scorpion... why does anybody take this seriously?
Bonus-Round
ponyguts
Posted 2:33 PM 26/6/08
Fighting game story lines have never featured a lot of depth, so I don't understand any the complaints about how this mash-up is unbelievable/unrealistic. I will admit it's a bad concept, especially since DC is seemingly only using heroes and completely avoiding villains.
But Mortal Kombat never featured a logical storyline, so this should be no different from the previous titles.
ponyguts
hotrider12
Posted 1:57 PM 26/6/08
the flash would be the only reason I would buy this game
hotrider12
hotrider12
Posted 1:56 PM 26/6/08
I'll buy this game just for the flash alone!!!
hotrider12
Vulture_Shark
Posted 2:16 PM 26/6/08
I'm just waiting for the ensuing fanboy fighting for which Green Lantern they decide to use
Vulture_Shark