Mortal Kombat 11: The Joker Fights Dirty In The New DLC

The next guest character coming to Mortal Kombat 11 is DC Comics' Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker. First shown last year, along with five other characters including The Terminator, The Joker is penultimate character coming to the current Kombat Pack. This marks the first time since 2008's Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe that the Joker has appeared in a Mortal Kombat game, and he'll be available to play in early access on January 28 for current owners of the DLC bundle.

We've seen much more with The Joker, including our own gameplay showing off fights with the Clown Prince of Crime. His look is unlike any of his other appearances in other games, which makes for a less jarring interpretation of the character in the ultra-violent Mortal Kombat. For anyone who's played the Injustice games, also developed by Netherrealm Studios, you'll see many similarities with how the character fights in MK11. With that said, The Joker won't be tethered to Injustice's teen-rating, and his skills and tricks are far more brutal. In addition to using his cane to bludgeon his foes during his Fatal Blow--recalling his infamous killing of Jason Todd from the comics--he can also use a Batman dummy that conceals a gun.

In usual MK fashion, you can also take The Joker up the arcade ladder and have him face off against the suite of foes in the tournament. Our sister-site ComicBook.com even posted some gameplay of the ending of The Joker's story mode, which brings back some familiar faces from the fighting game series. In another neat reference, The Joker will even make a light reference to the Injustice series when facing off against a parallel version of himself. In the exchange, The Jokers will mention a possible third version, which seems like a fun nod to a potential Injustice 3 from Netherrealm games.

There's a lot of regular call outs to DC Comics lore with The Joker's appearance in MK11, and there are even some jokes made at the expense of the game. For instance, Joker's fatality brings back the series' famous Friendship finisher--a non-violent way to conclude a match from classic Mortal Kombat. However, it quickly turns violent when the cake that Joker hands to his opponent are packed with explosives, turning the friendship into a proper fatality.

Much like previous roster updates for MK11, new costumes will also be added to the game. Available on January 28, the new outfits take inspiration from DC's Elseworlds line--which focuses on alternate-history storylines. Revealed in the trailer, Kitana has a Catwoman inspired costume, Baraka gets a Killer Crock skin and a Darkseid outfit for Geras. However, the one that's most exciting of all is Noob Saibot's new costume that turns him into The Batman Who Laughs, an evil alternate universe Batman who takes on the mantle of the Joker.

With the upcoming release of The Joker, there's only one character that remains in MK11's Kombat Pack, Image Comics' Spawn. Set for release in March, Spawn's debut will mark the end of the first slate of bonus characters coming to MK11. However, there could be the possibility of other characters making an appearance in a future fighter pack. There's been supposed leaks of Ash from Evil Dead possibly making an appearance, but we've yet to see any official word of that at this time.