Review: MORTAL KOMBAT vs. DC UNIVERSE (C)
(Originally published at the Onion AV Club)
In the family of fighting games, Mortal Kombat is the middle child who tortures cats in his spare time, but can also dazzle with fits of charisma. The series loves gruesome combat, but pines for the mainstream adulation. When games were less bloody, that was an easy balance to strike. Gouts of gore plus catchphrases (”Finish him!”) and the allure of shocking hidden fatalities added up to massive sales and popularity. Now that those elements are commonplace, how to recapture the attention of old?