Hes just the wildcard, smoldering in hellfire on the sidelines while reality hangs in the balance.
Hes like ifMarveldecided to makeVenomits mascot.
The result was three of the most popular characters in the franchise.
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Another reason Scorpion is still popular today is his spear attack.
Or harpoon or kunai, if thats your preference.
Sub-Zero was part of the Lin Kuei ninja clan and Scorpion hated him for some reason.
That was all we had to go on.
They put that panel in the instruction booklet and everything.
Regardless, Scorpions identity was explored through his Fatality and ending.
Thats all right, though.
Later games would retcon this so that they were dead too!
Scorpion succeeded in killing Sub-Zero in the firstMortal Kombatgame.
That brings us to 1993sMortal Kombat II.
Scorpion and the other ninjas received much nicer, quilted outfits.
Female ninjas Mileena and Kitana were also introduced!
They just werent allowed to have pointy shoulder pads or pants.
Surprisingly, Midway also resurrected Sub-Zero.
The mystery was quickly solved by the promotional comic, though.
The new Sub-Zero explained that he was the younger brother of the original blue ice ninja.
Eventually, the series would name the older/dead Sub-Zero Bi-Han and the younger one Kuai Liang.
Scorpion decided to become the new Sub-Zeros protector.
The ninja joined the Outworld invasion until he discovered that Sub-Zero was one of the heroes.
Then he turned on Kahn and went back to traversing the Netherrealm.
One was very good, one was extremely bad, and one was mediocre.
We also finally got to see Scorpions origins.
The sorcerer Quan Chi needed someone to go through impossible odds to secure a magical amulet for him.
Whoever got it would be his agent.
The canon outcome was that Scorpion died.
After all, who was Scorpion going to believe?
Scorpion reappeared later in the game when Sub-Zero was imprisoned in the Netherrealm.
The blue ninja fought off his undead nemesis and eventually stopped Quan Chi and Shinnoks plans.
The game ended with Sub-Zero learning that he was doomed to go to Hell when he died.
Where Scorpion killed him.
Yes, well said, Kuni.
Later that year,Mortal Kombatwent 3D withMortal Kombat 4.
Scorpion was playable and got a cool unmasked costume out of the deal.
The game had to do with Shinnok and Quan Chi invading Earthrealm.
Quan Chi convinced Scorpion to join their side by saying, Oh, that younger Sub-Zero?
He had a big hand in killing your clan and family.
I probably should have brought that up earlier.
Once Scorpion beat down Sub-Zero, Quan Chi stepped in like an idiot and spilled the beans on everything.
In 2002, Midway releasedMortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.
This was especially true for Scorpion.
Part of their scheme involved creating a soulnado that reached into the heavens.
The two overpowered Scorpion and shoved him into the soulnado, where he was completely torn to pieces.
2004sMortal Kombat: Deceptionfollowed up on this with one of the most unfortunate bait-and-switches.
In the lead-up, Midway revealed that Scorpion was going to be the new hero of the game.
Finally, the franchises most popular character was going to take center stage.
That turned out to be bullshit.
The game was actually about Shujinko, the star of Konquest mode.
He was eventually tricked into resurrecting Onaga.
He eventually made things right by taking down the Dragon King.
Unsurprisingly, Shujinko is…not exactly beloved by theMortal Kombatfan community.
At least we got Scorpions non-canon ending where he got to dive through Onagas torso like a fucking boss.
In other words, Fatalities were all over the place.
While Scorpion was unlockable in the New Game+, he was also a level boss.
Before being fully submerged, Scorpion gave fans theTerminator 2thumbs up.
And thats why youre cursed to an eternity of torment, Hanzo.
You have a potty mouth.
Scorpion was once again a bad guy.
That was enough to get him to fight on the evil side with everyone from Kano to Shao Kahn.
Not too much changed with Scorpion.
Scorpion never made his temporary peace with Sub-Zero as he did in the original timeline.
There is no justice!).
In 2015, we gotMortal Kombat Xand a prequel comic of the same name.
He was befriended by the blind swordsman Kenshi, who helped convince him to move forward.
Takeda became Scorpions prized pupil and fashioned a fighting style out of Scorpions teachings and his fathers telekinetic powers.
More importantly, Scorpion laid to rest his rivalry with Sub-Zero and the Lin Kuei.
Kuai Liang Sub-Zero showed him proof that Quan Chi was the puppet master behind all of Scorpions pain.
Distraught, Scorpion dedicated himself to hunting down and murdering the sorcerer.
He succeeded and, sweet Jesus, was it cathartic to watch.
Unfortunately, Scorpions wrath threw a wrench in the other heroes plans.
Scorpion was once again shamed and dedicated himself to following Raiden as penance.
The modern Scorpion died from a poison attack at the hands of DVorah.
The incident inspired his younger, demonic self to switch sides and join the heroes.
Cetrion killed all of the other Elder Gods, choosing familial loyalty over morality.
Now, in other media, Scorpions been a bit all over the place as a character.
You never got to see Wolverine shove one of his claws into Apocalypses eye socket.
So how did Scorpions spear outside of the games?
Sub-Zero caught up to him years later and cut his guts out with a katana.
Parks soul then fused together with his sons body to create Scorpion!
The present day stuff was 2D and hand-drawn while the flashbacks were all done in primitive 3D.
Scorpion got to throw his spear once in each animation style.
In 3D, when facing Sub-Zero, he straight-up missed.
The 1995Mortal Kombatfilm featured Chris Casamassa as Scorpion.
Scorpions spear was replaced with a tiny, CGI lizard thing and for some reason we didnt second-guess it.
Anyway, Scorpion was defeated by Johnny Cage.
Casamassa also played Scorpion in the prequel seriesMortal Kombat: Conquest.
He too had a hand-lizard, but it was a far worse effect due to the cable TV budget.
Scorpion did kill people, but with a spiked ball at the end of his rope and limited gore.
He was voiced by Ron Perlman, whose, GET OVER HERE!
sounded a lot like a New Yorker screaming, IM WALKIN HERE!
This time, his spear was a gold chain with a tiny lizard head at the end.
It looked especially stupid, like a keychain.
Liu Kang agreed and broke the chain, tossing the lizard head off-screen.
Speaking of cartoons, Scorpion made a cameo appearance on the Comedy Central adult cartoonDrawn Together.
Xandir regenerated and explained that his finishing move was the reach-around.
It had its moments and actually let us finally watch Scorpion use his weapon correctly in live-action.
There was no third season.
In fact, there was supposed to be a prequel web series toMortal Kombat Xwith the same actors.
They even filmed the entire thing!
It just never saw the light of day for whatever reason.
So whats next for Hanzo?
Its hard to say.
Hes worn many hats as a demon ninja.
Maybe hell finally get to be the one true hero one of these days.
Or he could go back to his cooking show.
Gavin Jasper writes forDen of Geekand revisited theImmortal music video by Adema.
It did NOT age well.Read more of Gavins articles hereand follow him on Twitter@Gavin4L
