I’ve long since become inured to Mortal Kombat’s grossout action. There are only so many ways to slice up a virtual human before it becomes passé, after all. But NetherRealm’s latest DLC trailer for Mortal Kombat 1, which gives us our first look at The Boys’ deeply disturbed superhero Homelander fighting in the game, has found a whole new way to disgust me.
The trailer sees Homelander doing battle with Liu Kang while showing off a few fatalities, including one where he burns through Liu Kang’s skull with his laser vision, and another where Homelander uppercuts Kang into the path of a cruising jet liner. Frankly, though, nothing unsettled me more than the trailer’s first few seconds, during which Homelander takes a big slurp of delicious, edifying milk from a baby bottle.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Boys, then without delving too deeply into spoiler territory, let’s say that Homelander has something of an Oedipus complex, and the milk in question almost certainly did not originate from a cow. The logical part of my brain tells me that, irrespective of where it may have flowed from, seeing a person drink milk shouldn’t be as inherently revolting as seeing someone’s head exploded by searing hot lasers. But I can’t argue with my own reaction. Perhaps it would be less repulsive if Homelander drank his milk from a cup, rather than lapping it straight from the bottle like an omnipotent cat.
Milk-related antics aside, perhaps the most important part of the trailer is how Homelander sounds. Last December, Antony Starr revealed he would not be lending his voice to MK1’s version of the character, despite having done similar work for Call of Duty: Warzone previously. This leaves some big red boots for Starr’s replacement to fill, with said replacement rumoured to be Chris Cox, who voiced the Terminator in MK11. Unfortunately, Homelander only says three words in the trailer, so it’s hard to make much of a judgement call based on that. But my initial reaction is that it’s a passable impression.
The trailer doesn’t specify when Homelander will land into Mortal Kombat 1, although he’ll initially be available as part of a Kombat Pack with several other DLC characters, before becoming available for standalone purchase later down the line. Also included in that Kombat Pack is Invincible’s Omni Man, who like Homelander is a twisted take on Superman voiced by JK Simmons. Even without Starr’s presence, I imagine pitting them against each other will make for quite the spectacle.
