Mortal Kombat X arrives tomorrow to test your might!
Catch up on the life and times of Kung Lao before then.
The Great Kung Lao was Earthrealms ace to prevent that.
Really, his bio and ending are just, blah blah blah ancestors blah blah temples blah blah monks.
Luckily, his design was so badass that it overcame all that blandness.
Dressed in black, Kung Lao came with his trademark bladed hat, inspired by Oddjob fromGoldfinger.
Personally, I wish later games would have kept the chinstrap.
They should just give Kung Lao a beard at some point is what Im saying.
At the time, Kung Lao was considered out of the picture.
His ancestor got namedropped by Liu Kang real quick, but that was it.
Actually…thats notquiteaccurate, now that I think about it.
The firstMortal Kombatmovie had an animated intro/prequel/abomination calledMortal Kombat: The Journey Begins.
This was a free rental at video stores meant to get people interested in the movie.
If you havent seen it, the animation was terrible on all accounts.
This time they went straight into making him look like the modern Kung Lao.
The show was strange.
and lots of blatant sexiness.
Then it didnt get renewed.
Youd barely even notice him.
And speak in third person too, I guess.
The two fought it out with Shang getting the advantage by turning into Kung Laos ancestor.
That was about it.
Goro turned back to being evil two games later, so maybe Kung Lao was onto something.
In the opening cutscene, Liu Kang was killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi.
This timeKung Laowould be the angry Shaolin guy inspired by his buddys death.
On one hand, most of the games endings acted as pieces of a larger story.
Yes, Onaga was set up, but Kung Lao and his buddies failed.
Years later, that part still never gets old.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddonfeatured everyMortal Kombatplayabe character, so naturally that meant Kung Lao was in the fray.
From there, it became a big game of King of the Mountain where the winner got ultimate power.
Kung Laos ending had the ultimate power send him back in time to meet his ancestor.
Thats not what happened in theMortal Kombatcanon, though.
As shown in the 2011Mortal Kombatreboot, Kung Lao died on the battlefield against Shinnok.
Though at the very least, he did successfully take out Baraka before going down.
Like inShaolin Monks, Kung Lao was incognito as a guardsman during the events ofMortal Kombat 1.
Then Raiden chewed him out for his brashness.
Kung Lao successfully defeated Shang Tsung and Quan Chi at the same time, then took down Kintaro.
Liu Kang was able to defeat and seemingly kill Shao Kahn while Raiden mourned his own bad decision-making skills.
The games arcade mode ending featured an interesting twist about Kung Lao.
As Raiden figured, Kung Lao is in fact the reincarnation of the original.
Kung Lao appeared in the second season as played by Mark Dacascos.
Kung Lao was set up to play the hero for the non-existent third season.
The finale showed the two about to fight against Kung Laos will.
Who knows if well ever see any follow-up on that.
The gray in his hair speaks to that.
Glad to see he finally went with facial hair, though.
Told you hed look better.
