Indeed true, DC can not only be dark, it can...and has...easily been darker than Mortal Kombat........but a lot of those pictures don't really prove anything.

Read "Batman: The Killing Joke"...where the Joker shoots Batgirl in the spine, takes her clothes off, photographs the whole thing, and then forces Commisioner Gordan to look at each picture.
That alone is darker than anything we've seen from Mortal Kombat, in my opinion.

nothing is darker then ramming a sword up someones ass, and puling their insides out.

ewww

if DC is darker then MK fine. But they cant make it that dark when they are restricted to T for teen. But please show a DC picture with guts all over the place : )

Let's see what Raiden thinks

Completely agreed.

That was kindof a dumb post... alot of those pictures didn't really show "Dark" at all... especially the one of Michael Keaton wearing rubber in a well lit room.

But I get his point. I'm perfectly aware that comics can be very dark... but that's only on a selective story by story basis. There's no way they can take the entire pantheon of DC comics and conform it to work well with Mortal Kombats tone/feel.

It doesn't matter how the hell you draw it, Superman, in his classic costume (and make no mistake, he WILL be wearing his classic costume) will not fit well in the Mortal Kombat universe. You can use the darkest, grittiest, most rustic shades of red and blue in the color spectrum, and he'll still look like a goofy guy in a red speedo and cape with blue tights.

The Lobo comic books are pretty dark so he better make the cut.

I think generally it's just a very different type of dark.
It probably isn't popular to go there, but frankly, probably a more mature version of dark than MK, which has always been about the thirteen-plus market. Fanged teeth, big boobs, and lots of blood isn't exactly the epitome of the asthetic...

They're by no means the best example, but I've sort of approach the potential for overlap with these examples.

Also true.

I mean Wonder Woman has lopped off more than her fair share of heads, but she really isn't a dark character....nor is she really meant to be.

LOL! Classic.

Exactly. Just because any given comic CAN be dark (take for instance Sin City) that doesn't give ALL comics the inherant ability to be made dark.

Characters like Batman and Lobo, yeah, they were made to have an edge. Characters like Superman and The Flash however just weren't meant to be "dark" brooding characters, and never will be, no matter what kind of spin someone tries to put on them.

I mean Peanuts is a comic too, but would you find it believe if Scorpion had a knock down drag out fight with Charlie Brown? :P

(lol... that'd be pretty damn funny...)

you have a point.. and that just makes me more confused as to why the fuck this has to be T

because......Superman can't get his head ripped off. It would just be distasteful.

I have to agree, this whole mk vs dc is a bad idea, but I just hope Midway makes the best of it, because this could seriously hurt the franchise.


As far as I'm concerned, fatalaties and perhaps the storyline are the only things that have kept mk alive for this long.


Messing with those 2 elements is a hara kiri.

DC can be dark, but not like MK.

DC has disturbing, dark events that happen.

MK is just very violent, and gory. The dark comes from the Taboo. Like the Netherrealm, sorcerers, Outworld, and just the overall theme. Oh, and Fatalities.

That said, I think those characters are certainly capable of reflecting whatever's put around them.
Of course, part of the charm and power of these characters in darker situations is their capacity for commentary and/or reflection on the good and bad of both asthetic designs.

The T for Teen audience that's supported MK from inception like the naughty thrill of a series without true heroes, which means even good-as-gold characters like Liu Kang have gotten darker with each game.
I'm not a fan of the concept, but as a narrative, it could be very interesting to see how the MK characters reflect, and are reflected-on, by a character with a strong moral core.



SOILENT BROWN!!!


DC does silly, immature violence, too.
Kingjolly brings the goods (above) with just one of many outbursts from Black Adam, who recently killed over three million people, in a rage.

Well, honestly, I was just going by what people were telling me.....and Superfriends.

Thanks for the enlightenment on the darkness.(Oxymoron?)

Information from people who are no more an authority than you are, and a Saturday morning cartoon from thirty years ago. Wherever could you have gone wrong?...

Well as long as we're using long strings of images to prove our points...
















lol...

YEAH...

DARK!

lolz...

Wait so why does this have to be rated Teen if these comics are dark? :(

because DC comics can only be violent to a certain extent.

you forgot the Frank Miller stuff or Alex Ross Swamp Thing

Eh...sounded like a good strategy to find info to begin with.....I mean what do you expect me to do, actually research a reliable source? Haha, get real...why do that when I could get my info from the all knowing, generalizing community of this Forum?

Because DC release several hundred comics every month to the direct market, and can appeal to a diverse range of demographics without significant financial risk.

Video games are a mass market currently skewing younger and younger as a new generation of gamers take control of the market share. For DC to maximise the advantage of a game, they want to appeal to the broadest range, including, potentially, the cartoon-wtching kids.

Also; everyone seems to have lost their head over the loss of fatalities. T for Teen still has a lot of room for silly violence, and Boon himself has acknowledged they're going to push the rating as far as it can go.
A spur of the moment reference would be something like Red Steel; rated T for Teen and packed full of swordary and gunplay on, of all systems, the zealously padded Nintendo Wii. Sony and Microsoft, as you can imagine, are bound to restrict the capacity of that ESRB rating even less.

All of those marvel heroes woulnd't have been shown in Kiddo comics if they we're SOOOOO dark !