The warriors of Mortal Kombat have gone through many evolutions over the years, as illustrated by one fan’s depiction of resident assassin Smoke shifting between his classic and modern appearances in a brief animation. Smoke, real name Tomas Vrbada, is a former member of Sub-Zero’s Lin Kuei clan. He first appeared as a secret character in 1993’s Mortal Kombat II, where players could challenge him in a similar vein to Reptile in the original game.

At first, Smoke was simply one of the many palette swaps of series mainstays Scorpion and Sub-Zero, trading their standard fire and ice powers for smoke and extreme speed, but over time he would take on a look and identity of his own. In Mortal Kombat III, he became a cyborg assassin along with fellow Lin Kuei warriors Sektor and Cyrax, and he would remain this way until the series was rebooted in Mortal Kombat (2011). There, he would return as a human ninja once more, now defined by the hair-like smoke that engulfed his head.

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A few days ago, fan animator FlavioLuccisano shared a homemade gif of Smoke alternating between his Mortal Kombat II and Mortal Kombat (2011) appearances in a swirling cloud of his namesake. This is just one of the many animations of MK characters that he has done, including one of former Sub-Zero Bi-Han becoming the spectral Noob Saibot. However, what sets FlavioLuccisano’s Smoke animation apart is that it has drawn the attention of MK’s co-creator Ed Boon, who shared it on his own Twitter page a couple of days ago.

This has caused some fans to speculate that Smoke might be coming to Mortal Kombat 11 as a DLC fighter, compounded by a recent Instagram post by Smoke’s voice actor, Andrew Bowen, suggesting that WB Games has called him up for a job. So far, MK 11 has enjoyed a wealth of additional content since its release in 2019, with series favorites like Shang Tsung, Mileena, and Rain rejoining the battle alongside special guests like The Terminator, Spawn, and Rambo.

Ed Boon and NetherRealm may be gearing up to announce Smoke as part of another wave of DLC characters during next week’s E3, but in the meantime, it’s cool to see FlavioLuccisano’s well-animated take on the elusive ninja warrior in both his classic iterations. Even more impressive is Ed Boon himself taking notice of this hard work and sharing it on his own social media account, as he has done with so many character teases in the past. Whether this is just Boon showing off some neat fan art or a hint at the future of Mortal Kombat 11 is still up in the air.

Source: FlavioLuccisano, Ed Boon

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J. Brodie Shirey
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J. Brodie Shirey is just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe, but aren’t we all? He currently lives in York, Pennsylvania. He is a big comic book, video game, and science fiction fan, and likes writing articles for ScreenRant or scripts for some of his crazy TV show ideas.

A graduate from York County School of Technology, he’s self-published several books on Amazon, and once won 1st place at a regional computer fair for a CGI animated short. He might post it on Youtube someday. He hopes that working for this site will be his first step into the larger universe of online writing, since Megazord technology hasn’t been invented yet and he doesn’t seem to have any Force powers. You can check out his work at The Uncanny Fox, purchase his books on Amazon.com, see his posted scripts on Script Revolution, or see his portfolio here or here. He can also be followed on Twitter @FoxUncanny.

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