If you have early access to Mortal Kombat 1, then you’ve been enjoying playing Homelander since he officially dropped. The character is one of the most iconic villains of recent years thanks to The Boys TV show and his portrayal by actor Anthony Starr. The way that the “premiere superhero” carries himself and acts is so unique compared to so many other heroes and villains that he stands out from the pack, which is likely why NetherRealm Studios wanted him for their game! To that end, like with other special characters, they tried to reference the places he’s been via his moves and Fatalities, like by having a character get killed by him via airplane.
However, one person discovered that when he does a Brutality on Kenshi, the blind swordsman, he references both The Boys and Call of Duty all in one go.
You see, in The Boys Season 2, a new character is introduced via Blindspot, who is handpicked by a higher-up in Vought Industries to fill a void in The Seven, the supergroup that Homelander leads. The character, like Kenshi or Daredevil, uses his hearing to see the world and thus is an incredibly effective fighter.
However, Homelander isn’t impressed and does the Brutality above to make him deaf and bleed out everywhere. When doing so, he notes that he’s “just another useless f-ing blind guy,” just like he says to Kenshi above. It’s a clever use of the line, and that line was also used when Homelander went into Call of Duty and made fun of the people he killed by saying, “just another useless dead guy.”
While it may not be the “biggest piece of news ever,” it does highlight the depth that NetherRealm Studios went to ensure that their big new characters in Mortal Kombat 1 looked, played, and sounded like the versions that people know. Sure enough, Homelander is an arrogant jerk in the game, threatening people a lot, referring to himself as a god, playing for the cameras when possible, and so on.
The irony is that Homelander is the last of the “special characters” in the first Kombat Pack. The rest of the pack will be familiar characters to the lore.
That means that all eyes will be on the second Kombat Pack and seeing who makes the cut. Ed Boon has said many times over that there are no “boundaries” per se when it comes to bringing in other universe characters into the mix. So we’ll see who they have in mind next time.
