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When I was a small child, I saw in the back of Wizard Magazine that someone won an arcade machine of Mortal Kombat. It was my dream to own it myself and as an adult, I did! But curiously, there was a dip switch to turn on an “attract mode”, which had an advertisement to order a special Mortal Kombat comic book through the mail.
You may wonder who would have the patience to stand in front of an arcade game with a pen and paper, waiting to write down the address so they could order something. The answer is not many, because the comic is pretty rare. However I have always wondered about it, because the instruction manual for the home versions like Game Boy would show panels from the comic. This would drive me crazy, wondering where or how I could get it.
As with the arcade game, as an adult I would finally get my hands on the Mortal Kombat comic book. Was it worth all the trouble to track it down? Definitely. Not only do we get a deeper portrayal of the characters, but also get some awesome artwork by John Tobias, the designer of the game itself. In a merely sixteen pages, we get a complete background story for everyone. And as a sweet bonus, we get introduced to Kung Lao, someone we do not meet until the sequel.
Of course the coolest panel of the Mortal Kombat comic is when we see Scorpion holding up Sub-Zero, vowing revenge for his murder. Seeing the two most memorable characters confronting each other is the best thing ever. Scorpion and Sub-zero are not the ones with interesting back stories shown. We also see Johnny Cage transitioning from movie star to martial artist legend, despite his agent objecting strongly. There is also sparse humor at the ridiculousness in entering an unsanctioned tournament.
If you are interested in the Mortal Kombat comic book, you can try to find it here (Affiliate Link).
