There was some controversy surrounding the original Joker reveal for Mortal Kombat 11. When NetherRealm gave fans a peak of the Joker previously, reaction was mixed at best. A lot of fans complained that the Joker looked too beautified for a character set in the Mortal Kombat realm, and also appeared in conflict with his iconic persona of a psychotic clown. Many even said that it looked like someone trying to cosplay the Joker.
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The new Joker is not a complete redo, but it is a major improvement complete with more stereotypical facial features of a classic villain in his new look. Furthermore, one could say that perhaps his new look has more stand-out facial features, as opposed to the old version which had more plain and generic looking facial features that were perhaps too clean looking for a man as crazed as the Joker. After all, the Joker is anyone but a normal looking male.
The new Joker clearly has a more defined hook nose, a slightly darker and more piercing glare in his eyes, and appears slightly more aged, including a subtle receding hairline on the front of his head. His hair looks slightly more greased-up and his suit looks to have a more clearly visible sheen on it, suggesting a more leathery material for his purple jacket. In other words, his jacket is something more akin to what one would expect a contemporary version of the “Clown Prince of Crime” to wear.
The grin on the new Joker is also more subtle, allowing his maniacal facial features and personality to do more of the talking. The grin on the previous Joker looked much more exaggerated and forced, which was perhaps necessary in order to make a more plain and everyday face look crazed and abnormal.
With Jared Leto’s beautified, clean, and glitzy portrayal of the Joker being the least popular version of the character in recent times, it makes sense to offer some subtle changes to the Joker in Mortal Kombat 11 from his original version. It is clear that fans prefer the Joker’s that look slightly more disheveled, with a sort of subtle carelessness about his hygiene and sense of class and etiquette which resonates a loose-cannon type character about their appearance.
Fans clearly want a Joker who looks less pretentious in his mannerisms, and instead carries a more nonchalant way of going about his business that very much demonstrates how little he cares about anything or anyone’s opinion of him. While the new Joker (and likely his moves) still carries a certain swankiness to his look which is similar to the previous version, there is also a subtle element of gritty sleeze tacked on to him, which resembles a character who simply does not care about letting himself get disheveled.
It will be interesting to see what sort of overall body language, script, and move sets that Mortal Kombat 11’s developers can come up with in producing a fully fleshed out Joker for its game. Certainly, in taking on the rest of the Mortal Kombat roster, fans will be wondering what fatality may be in store when the Joker gets ready to ‘finish them’ after he becomes available for downloading on January 28, 2020.
Mortal Kombat 11 is out now for PC, PS4, Switch, Stadia, and Xbox One. Joker releases on January 28, 2020.
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