"These are the Defenders of the Realm."

I've stated on this blog before that I absolutely love the Mortal Kombat franchise. In particular I can spend hours reading about the rather convoluted mythology of the MK universe...which is a good thing because to be quite frank I am horrible at fighting games. Not that it stops me from purchasing every new MK title that comes out.

Chud.com this morning clued me in on the possibility of a new Mortal Kombat movie, which seems completely based in gory 'realism' this go around and while I am very interested in where they are going to go with this concept I still prefer the likes of Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Goro, and Raiden.

Although it will sound like a backhanded compliment I really thought they hit their stride with the release of Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm on the USA network in 1996 and as much as I enjoyed the series I have no qualms about admitting the animation used was quite poor in the series...a trait many of the 1990's cartoons possessed I believe.

The series storyline, which seems to take place between the live action Mortal Kombat movie and the Mortal Kombat 3 arcade game, is that Raiden has handpicked Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Princess Kitana, Jax, Sub-Zero, Stryker, and Nightwolf to form a strike team to combat the invaders using portals to attack Earthrealm from Outworld and beyond. The short lived 13 episodes series also introduced the villainous Quan Chi before his gaming debut in Mortal Kombat 4 and MK: Deadly Alliance.

Lending their vocal strength to the series was Clancy Brown as Raiden, Oliviad'Abo as Sonya Blade, Luke Perry as Sub-Zero, and Ron Perlman as Kurtis Stryker. The only way this series could have been more enjoyable is if they would have received a second season and expanded the roster of characters to at least include the most awesome Mortal Kombat character EVER to be created. Kung Lao.

By the way here is the link to that Chud.com video. http://chud.com/articles/articles/23984/1/IS-THIS-VIDEO-FOR-THE-NEW-MORTAL-KOMBAT-MOVIE/Page1.html

Kano (Use Your Might) - The Immortals