One shots issues dedicated to Kung Lao (last issue released in 1995 if my memory serves me well, titled "Rising Son") and Kitana ("Sister Act") are the best thing coming from Malibú Comics. They are short stories with one lead character and few supporting ones, the plot doesn't necessary conflict with the canon story, although there are few liberties here and there.

The Raiden...ehm, I mean Rayden & Kano story arc was good and an enjoyable read. It was a short, three parts story arc. The story is great, the art sucks though.

I am glad that Kittelsen is going with the "short stories/arcs" route in MKX, because the main problem with Malibú comics was the excessive lenght of some mini-series that often ended with a cliffhanger or a "off-screen" fight.

Blood & Thunder was a terrible retelling of John Tobias' comic book. Liu Kang defeated Goro & Shang Tsung off screen. I've never felt more cheated in my life. The whole tournament was replaced by the hunt for a cursed book. Of course the ending was stupid as hell. In the middle pages a lot of uninteresting short fights with a lot, a huge lot actually, of secondary, retconned, useless characters like Siann, Henge, Hydro, Spunky or Sonya's partner with a ripped heart (another off screen scene), Queen Aynos, etc
None of them is useful to story progression or character development, even Sonya's revenge is a parody the way it is depicted. Most of them appear just in a page or a couple of vignettes.
In the middle of this mini-series we had Goro Prince of Pain which is basically the reason why nobody should be surprised if Mortal Kombat's run lasted only 10 months.

Mk: Special Forces was a two parts story, full of shallow and forgettable characters. It was better than the video game of the same name, though.

Both Tournament Edition issues are just huge brawls between characters, their faction is not even portrayed correctly, considering that Baraka is on the good side, while Jade and Smoke are bad.

The art is poor, the story doesn't lack interesting ideas, but they are bad implemented.

The only secondary character worth mentioning was Bo, Johnny Cage's body guard. He defeated Reptile with a broken arm and sat on him, literally.


Thankfully MKX has nothing to do with this mess.
If you are a huge Mk fan I suggest you to buy them all, maybe it is not about money, but their emotional and personal value is unimaginable.

In the end, malibú comics are not as pathetic as mk: Annihilation, they were more of an unintentional parody, something that you'd hate to love (or you'll love to hate, is up to you).

"The best MK comics of the age" certainly weren't from Malibu. The storytelling was awful (Goro with a machine gun?!!), as was the art (I'm one of the few who liked Patrick Rolo, but everyone else was terrible). And yes, Bo was the only OC with any redeeming value.
The MK4 comic that came with the PC release of the game is OK, but the artwork sucked.

For the ninjas, look up the first couple issues of the Battlewave miniseries and the final issue of Rayden & Kano.

Otherwise, stick with the Midway-produced comics instead, and the MKX series going on right now.

Greatly appreciate the responses!

I got the Tournament Edition in the mail today and I must say...not exactly what I was expecting. Kind of a clusterfudge tbh. I WAS going to fill the gaps of my collection and get them all but now I'm just wondering if it's even worth it.

I'll probably still get the Kung Lao and Kitana/Mileena issues because I've been recommended those by many a folk. But overall, I think I'll mainly stay with what MKX has going on right now because those are absolutely fantastic.

Anyways, thanks again friends!

That's exactly what happened in the Midway comics as well.

Yes but the Midway comics had to hype up the suspance for the sequel, while the Malibu comics came almost three years later, when everyone knew already how mk1 ended.