The Mortal Kombat II Movie is Going For It

I did not care for the first modern Mortal Kombat movie. It was a dark, grungy mess that made a lot of weird story and lore choices. I’m a big MK lore nerd, and it all bugged me. But…yeah…I’m probably gonna go see Mortal Kombat II in the theaters. Why not?

I find it hilarious that this trailer could just as easily fit a first movie in the franchise. After the utter failure that was Cole Young as a protagonist in the first movie, this sequel is just going to start over again and bring in Johnny Cage as the neophyte who has to be introduced to the world of Mortal Kombat. Madness and hilarity.

At least my favorite character from the first film is coming back. Hopefully that leads to some entertainment value.

Also, sadly, no Smoke…at least from the look so far. Though considering how afraid these movies seem to be to put their ninjas in actual color-coded costume, any masked dude could be Smoke…

Mortal Kombat II comes to theaters on May 8.

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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/21/26

My relationship with comics is so weird these days. I’m loving pretty much everything DC is putting out, I’m very very lukewarm on anything Marvel is attempting, and I’ve all but given up on the Energon Universe. I’ve got a vacation coming up, and I think I’m gonna try to get caught up on all the comics I’ve let fall to the wayside so that I have more review options. Anyway, here’s Captain America and the Ultimate Spider-Man finale.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Batman #17, which delivers another absolute banger as it introduces Absolute Poison Ivy.

The guest artist understood the assignment

Meanwhile, I finally finished Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It was a solid, enjoyable RPG that wasn’t as deep as I might have preferred, but it was a fun play. Now I’m on the search for my next game to play, and I don’t want to spend much money…I’m also rewatching all of Star Trek: Lower Decks to finish my recent Trek binge. The show absolutely and wonderfully holds up. I hope to see these characters again someday.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Batman #17, Captain America #7, Ultimate Spider-Man #24, Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1 and Wonder Woman #30.

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Absolute Green Arrow and Catwoman are Coming!

Something called ComicsPRO was going on yesterday, where both Marvel and DC announced a bunch of upcoming comics. I’m rather lukewarm on Marvel these days, so I don’t really care what they had to offer. Whereas DC has announced and show artwork for two new Absolute comics! I love Absolute Comics! Well, most of them. Enough that I wanted to talk about these comics!

Absolute Green Arrow should be pretty awesome.

SPOILERS

So as we saw in that Absolute Evil one-shot, Oliver Queen was brutally murdered by Hawkman and the Justice League of bad guys. I thought that was a great twist! And now they’re building off of that with a horror-based Absolute Green Arrow series, which will also feature Black Canary.

The comic will be written by Pornsak Pichetshote, with artwork by Rafael Albuquerque.

Here’s the synopsis:

“Executive protection specialist Dinah Lance, also known as Absolute Black Canary, is assigned to uncover the murderer’s identity as she investigates a list of suspects drawn from the ranks of DC’s most dangerous archers. Each one is uniquely connected to a recently murdered Oliver Queen. A deadly mystery unfolds in this urban horror reimagining of the Emerald Archer’s mythos, brought to life by Eisner Award winners Pornsak Pichetshote and Rafael Albuquerque.”

All of that sounds great to me! I’m going to have high hopes for this one.

The next series is Absolute Catwoman, by Che Grayson, Scott Snyder and Bengal.

Catwoman was a pretty fun supporting character in Absolute Batman, but she definitely had a big life story that barely got touched. This series is apparently going to take a look at what Selina Kyle has been up to all this time.

Here’s the synopsis:

“Spinning out of Absolute Batman, Che Grayson, Scott Snyder, and Bengal delve deeper into the life of the Absolute Universe’s Catwoman. Through her ingenuity and skills, Selina Kyle has become the greatest thief the world has ever known. But when someone from her past comes knocking at her door, Selina’s life comes crashing down around her and she’ll need to get to the bottom of a mystery taking her all around the globe!”

Sounds good! Absolute Green Arrow will come along in April, and Absolute Catwoman will come along in June.

And then DC also announced that there will be a new Absolute Universe crossover event before the end of the year. No details on that yet, but I’m sure it will be fun. The recent Batman/Wonder Woman crossovers were amazing, and it was inevitable that bigger crossovers would happen. Hopefully the Absolute comics can maintain their quality level when they get a Big Event thrown at them.

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I’m Not Going to Let Anybody Get Me Down About The Mandalorian and Grogu

Strap yourselves in, people! We’ve got a new trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, the new Star Wars movie that’s coming out later this year. In May, in fact. It’s a continuation of The Mandalorian TV show, of which your opinion may very. Me, personally, I enjoyed the third season of the show just fine and have not yet lost any interest in these characters, their world or their adventures.

I’m not even sure what to say about this trailer. There doesn’t appear to be a specific or important plot. It just looks like Mando and Grogu are off on another adventure in the stars. They fight some bad guys, help some good guys, use the Force, meet some cameos and…that’s the movie! And as mentioned above, I’m fine with that.

I’m old. I’m bitter about the world. Life is only going to get harder and worse as the rest of my years go on. So I have no problem with Disney churning out a wacky adventure film in which Mando and Grogu get up to monkeyshines. I’ll gladly see it in theaters and hopefully have a fine time of it.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is coming to theaters on May 22.

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 2/14/26

I was buried in snow again this week, so I worked from home one day and had a bunch of time to read more comics than usual. Sometimes I’ve been feeling that I review too few comics, or that I read too few. So I really wanted to expand my horizons this week! Like Vertigo! And Deadpool even!

True to form, however, Comic Book of the Week goes to Absolute Wonder Woman Annual, because it’s awesome.

This angle/character size will be thematically important later

Meanwhile, not much else going on, just getting through the second half of winter. Watched the latest season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and it was fun. And I’m onto the second DLC for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, so it’s all just moving along nicely in life. Such is everything.

Comic Reviews: Absolute Wonder Woman Annual #1, Cyclops #1, Void Rivals #26, Bleeding Hearts #1, D’Orc #1 and Wade Wilson: Deadpool #1.

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