Not sure why it's more realistic for Liu Kang to have a shaved head or Sonya to be called Burke.
Who nicknames someone "blade", anyway?

And if Reptile wears a mask because he's from Outworld, I assume Goro does as well?

Kang has a full head of hair, he's rebellious until he becomes inspired by Raiden's tales of Lao. In the end fight, Kang shaves his head in honor of Lao and to defeat the beast who messed up his idol.

Should have expanded on the Reptile/mask thing. These creatures (only these creatures) are not use to the Earth's oxygen. Goro would have no problem with it since he isn't apart of that race and has gotten use to Earth's atmospheric conditions as he's been there for over 500 years. The reptilian creatures are completely alien in nature. Reptile might not even be from Outworld (but it's assumed), he would be from a hellish realm... Hence the use of the mask.

Blade is a silly nickname bestowed upon her by Jackson Briggs as rib. Teasing in a way. Her name Blade comes from her well-versed techniques in knife fighting. I will probably turn this into a web comic, that's something that's easier to do than a fan script or otherwise.

Why do people always look at Mortal Kombat and say "needs more realism"? Or more specifically, why is it "realistic" for magic to only come from alien realms and nobody on Earth to know about it?
Why do the Lin Kuei have to know "Outworld magic", why not just plain "magic"? Can't there just be spellcasters or people who believe in chi in the world? Fuck, the REAL Shaolin Monks believe in chi. They can't shoot it at people as fire, but that's what you do in a fantasy setting, you embellish to make things more interesting.
I'm fairly certain nobody ever looked at Big Trouble in Little China and said "can you make it so the Chinese kid who hangs out with Kurt Russell's character doesn't know what's going on and remove the old man who helps them out? All this wizard shit would be more believable if only the bad guys had access to it."
Or watched Highlander and said "Y'know, this movie would be better if it was just about Scottish dudes sword fighting and they didn't live forever or blow things up when their heads are chopped off, because I've never met a scottish guy who was 400 years old and shot lightning out of his neck."
Or watched Buffy and went "Why is the redhead from American Pie learning witchcraft? I can handle vampires and demons, but normal people casting spells breaks my suspension of disbelief!"
I just don't get this whole concept that Earth isn't allowed to have magic, that you can believe it on the screen but only if the badguys are doing it.
I get it if a character from mainstream society like Sonya or Stryker doesn't believe in it at first, but is quickly disabused of that notion upon encountering the other characters, but characters like the Lin Kuei and Liu Kang have very good backstories for the supernatural already. Coming from a secret society is enough.
Y'know what I'd do? I'd just take the source material at face value, don't dick with it, don't try to turn it into Dark Knight. Just play it straight like the Avengers movie did. If the director goes "This isn't campy, I'm not embarrassed by this setting or trying to hide from or disguise it, I believe in it and so should you" and that's the tone of his movie, the audience WILL fucking believe in it.

I like your enthusiasm. I think video game films have gotten a bad rap but I think I'm not going to dismiss them entirely, I believe video game films can be put on the same level as comic book films and everything associating with that. My view however differs from yous but atleast we still both have (albeit different) ideas of what we would like to see and our intentions are all in the best. We both just want to see video game films succeed, thanks for your feedback.

Well...I will definitely concede that the big obstacle with video game films as opposed to comic book ones is budget. It's hard to make a fireball or a Goro look good when you can't afford the really good CGI. And it's tough to get money for the really good CGI when the studio doesn't believe in the material, which they never really do with games.

Hell, it's tough to make a set look realistic without money. Tancharoen's videos nearly look like home movies by the environments he was shooting in, and that's a guy who is trying to do the whole Dark Knight-style "gritty realism" thing.

But shit, we now live in a world where a movie like Scott Pilgrim can get made. Sure, nobody understood the premise and nobody went to go see it...but it still got made and it looked perfect. We're getting closer.

Updated. Check it out. My idea for Sub Zero is for him to look like a ninja, no blue front mask just completely black. He would use black majik to summon ice. He would be used a dark blue shoulder pad-type vest over the outfit.

Scorpion's outfit is similar to this, however he uses a yellow vest. This would be his way to mock Sub Zero's failed attempt on his life. The yellow represents the fire he survived. Beneath the mask, his face is quite scarred. Lack of eyebrows, patches of hair. You would see his face as he would reveal it to Sub in their battle. Sub Zero initially has no idea who Scorpion is and why this man is after him until it's revealed it's Hanzo. It would a fun little twist.

Turning this into an official web comic. You can follow me on reddit, my username is foolishartist.

Here's something from a web comic I'm doing. Enjoy!

Above all else I really just don't get the point of changing Sonya's name.
It just comes off as a forced change, for the fuck of it. It's not something that you're changing to help create a better story or a better character, it's just like... Hey, I want to make this more different from the games for some reason, I'll just change a character's name but still include it in as a nickname because fuck it.

Just my way of grounding/changing up the character. Sonya has never been a particular good character, I would change it up because her name is just full of that 90's cheese that I would break away from. Johnny Cage works because he's full name is John Carlton. Some more artwork. It's simply an aesthetic change, nothing more, nothing less.

You say you'd like to stay away from the 90s cheese of "Blade"... but you're keeping it as her nickname anyway, so what's the point?

Because there's a difference between the character's real surname being Blade to Blade just being a corny nickname bestowed upon her by her Special Forces colleagues as a rib as I've mentioned while still giving a tip of the hat to the source, changing it up for a contemporary grounded take.

Perhaps she is of foreign origin and when he "americanized" he translated her name.


Hell, as an author it would make a bit of sense to alleviate the trouble of pronuncing my name, and not directly translating it into Jackdaw Valentine (or Valentine Jackdaw as we use asian name order).

Or it could be an alias. Sonya Burke née Munroe. Or John Carlton Northsworth.
Just try to keep verisimilitude and don't come up with James Edgar AwesomeMcPowerFist for Kung Lao.