Mortal Kombat 11‘s Kombat Pack was fully revealed earlier this week. Players had already received Shang Tsung and Nightwolf and we knew Sindel and Spawn were on the way. However, the Kombat Pack promised us a total of six kombatants indicating there were still two characters to be announced. And now, following a brief teaser where you hear a chainsaw, we know who the two remaining characters are. The Terminator, which is the T-800 model and will look like it does in the upcoming movie complete with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s voice and likeness, is one of the remaining two. While the other is the Joker — the entire reasoning behind this article — because this isn’t the Joker we’ve come to know.
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Related: Mortal Kombat 11 Welcomes Spawn, Terminator & The Joker in New Trailer
The Clown Prince of Crime
The Joker is one of the most iconic villains in comic books and probably in any storytelling medium. The crazed look, the gaunt lanky physique, the unsettling smile — there’s no denying the physical appearance of the Joker is iconic. It bucks the idea of a villain having to be physically intimidating and as such, it rarely is changed. So much so that when it’s altered even the slightest, there tends to be a fair amount of backlash. Just look at what happened with the Joker’s look in the first Suicide Squad movie.
However, the Joker’s look in Mortal Kombat 11 is a bit more complicated. The purple suit, the green hair, the white makeup, and the red lipstick stretching beyond the mouth? It’s all there. Even the lanky figure, crazed look, and unsettling smile are present and accounted for. But his face? Well, that’s the one thing that is off. The Joker in Mortal Kombat 11 has a babyface as if he were just starting. His cheeks are too full, his hairline isn’t far back enough, and his chin isn’t nearly pointy enough. More importantly, though, his face isn’t gaunt like his body. The character design makes this look like someone else is dressing up as the Joker — like your sister’s boyfriend in middle school, or a really photogenic actor trying to look menacing.
The Clown Meme of Crime
The reaction to the Kombat Pass has been positive overall but the disapproval of this rendition of the Joker has been swift. Most have been commenting on how cheap this version looks and how it looks like bad cosplay. One comparison has been how the Joker looks like Conner from the video game Detroit: Become Human. The most notable joke, though, is this Joker looks very close to the version featured in an XXX-rated Batman pornography parody film. Regardless of how you feel about the Joker’s appearance, it is concerning that this once menacing villain is having the opposite effect in a game that will allow you to kill people as him.
Mortal Kombat 11 is available now.
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