One talented Mortal Kombat fan has modified the official Scorpion artwork from Mortal Kombat X to give it a darker makeover. NetherRealm’s long-running and groundbreaking fighting game series has inspired plenty of impressive fan art over the past few decades, from reimagining celebrities like Terry Crews and Vanilla Ice as Jax and Sub-Zero to rendering images from the first three Mortal Kombat games in crisp 4K resolution.
Scorpion is perhaps the closest thing the Mortal Kombat franchise has to an official mascot, as he has appeared in virtually every mainline MK game along with a guest role in 2013’s DC Comics-based Injustice: Gods Among Us. He was originally known as Hanzo Hasashi, a highly respected warrior in the legendary Shirai Ryu ninja clan. One fateful day, his family was attacked and slaughtered by the Shirai Ryu’s main rival, the Lin Kuei, and Hanzo was slain by its chief assassin Bi-Han - who would eventually take up the identity of Sub-Zero. Not willing to rest in peace until his clan and family were properly avenged, Hanzo struck a deal with the Netherrealm sorcerer Quan Chi and was reborn as the undead killer Scorpion. Scorpion would enter the Mortal Kombat tournament and take his revenge on Bi-Han - only to ignite a new feud when Bi-Han’s brother Kuai Liang takes up his mantle in Mortal Kombat as Sub-Zero.
Reddit user and artist Toxic_Illustration posted a modified image of Scorpion's official Mortal Kombat X artwork to the Mortal Kombat subreddit, depicting the fearsome ninja wielding his signature chained kunai weapon as his fiery eyes glow amid the shadows. While some commentators initially thought this was an original drawing, it was later clarified that Toxic_Illustration filtered the preexisting Scorpion artwork to make it appear more stylized. Aside from Scorpion, Toxic_Illustration has used this technique for images of DC characters like The Joker - who recently made a guest appearance in Mortal Kombat 11 as a DLC fighter.
Recent rumors have indicated that NetherRealm is working on Mortal Kombat 12 now that it is officially finished creating new content for the highly successful Mortal Kombat 11. Fans are already speculating about MK 12’s hypothetical roster of playable fighters, with some hoping that the game has a massive cast like Mortal Kombat Armageddon and others making strange-yet-plausible requests for guest fighters like WWE legends Mick Foley and Kane. In any case, players are expecting the landscape of the Mortal Kombat universe to be radically different after the timeline-shattering events of the Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath DLC.
Given how popular and iconic Scorpion is among the Mortal Kombat fanbase, it's highly likely that the Shirai Ryu warrior will return in the upcoming Mortal Kombat 12 in the form of his younger self from MK 11. In the meantime, fans like Toxic_Illustration continue to capture the combatants of the Mortal Kombat universe through artwork - be that an original drawing or an altered version of NetherRelam's official images of the undead ninja warrior.
Source: Toxic_Illustration/Reddit