A couple of spoilers to be expected... I don't really do spoilers but I think most of you should already have read the comic and if you haven't, I hope by telling you what's going on.. you would start following it.
Chapter 2 moves along fast, years down the road.. with Hanzo (Scorpion) training Takeda and Fox. It was nice seeing them having a friendly rivalry rather than jealousness between them.
Hanzo stresses to kill the demon that Raiden warns about. We also see a Kamidogu dagger in Hanzo's protection. Not a false warning as Fox seems to have already been 'possessed' by that demon.
That night, it begins. Fox, under the influence of the demon, disfigures his face and threatens Takeda to confront Hanzo. Something similar to the first chapter, when Kano cuts SubZero in the face as well.
Felt it was too short but it ended with a major cliff-hanger.
At the start of Chapter 3, we see Hanzo is already tied up with Fox/Demon wanting to him to feel the pain of losing his clan again, as we saw many of Hanzo's rebuilt Shirai Ryu clan members killed.
He goes on to say that he wants Hanzo to be consumed by vengeance again and offers Takeda a chance to spare him that pain. A little confusing on what exactly was the demon's intention. To bring back the old Scorpion or for Takeda to kill Hanzo?
Somehow, Hanzo manages to realise that his memories were a set-up and breaks free, with his hell-fire powers raging. This was the part I was talking about in Chapter 1, where I believed that Hanzo is now in control of his Wraith powers, and not that he has lost them. My understanding is that when Hanzo lets his quest for vengeance take over, the Wraith form takes control. When he is control of that need for vengeance, he keeps it in check.
Moving on.. in his skull form, Scorpion attacks the demon and gives us another x-ray move. The blood however, only manages to make the demon stronger, again taunting Scorpion that Raiden never told him about the dagger's powers.. again similar to Kano mocking SubZero about Raiden not revealing the truth about the dagger. It's clear Raiden knows a lot more about the Kamidogu daggers than he is revealing.
And as the demon also mentions Quan Chi's name, Takeda kills him from behind.
Hanzo is back to his human form again, reinstating my belief that he has the Wraith under control; He burns the bodies of his dead clan members and moves on with Takeda to find Raiden, wanting to 'make a God beg for Mercy'.
At the Sky Temple, Raiden is with Fujin and has the Kamidogu of Order in his possession. Raiden cuts himself, and with the blood enhancing his 'sight' to find the demon. In his vision, we see images of several Mortal Kombat characters, each with a little clue of things to come.
With the 3 chapters concluding Issue 1, Raiden tells Fujin that it's too late and that 'it has begun!'
What a fantastic ending to Issue 1, setting up the excitement for the next few issues.
Just looking at Issue 1, I initially felt it was moving too fast and not having enough character build-up. Fox seemed like an interesting character and I was keen to know more about his relationship with Takeda and Hanzo.
The Shirai Ryu clan, was rebuilt and before we could even see anything about how the clan was run, or who these members are.. they all got slaughtered.
But, we have to remember that this is a short series of prequel comics for the MKX game, so there's limitations to building up the characters. Instead, it's a quick buildup to the game.
I'm very happy with the comic so far.. the art is beautiful and the violence of the Mortal Kombat franchise is there. I'm hoping that the success of this prequel comic will lead to a full Mortal Kombat comic series as the potential is there, and the comic seems to be in the right hands.
There's a lot of questions including if Takeda will be a playable character in MKX? What does Raiden know about the daggers? Very few are answered so far, but hopefully we will receive answers soon.
The weekly digital release also keeps things moving fast, though it's 1/3 of a comic. Hopefully Chapter 4 is out in a while..
---
