Mortal Kombat 11 Asks Who Would Win a RoboCop vs. Terminator Fight

Mortal Kombat 11 is getting a huge expansion update in May, turning it into Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. More story mode stuff, Friendships, Stage Fatalities, and new characters will be added. But the big news is the inclusion of guest fighter RoboCop, complete with voice work from actor Peter Weller.

While seeing RoboCop arrest the Joker or compare notes with Spawn about being resurrected by the corrupt will likely make for some fun moments in the game, the big selling point is the inevitable match-up between RoboCop vs. Terminator. It’s a fight nerds have been arguing about for decades and now NetherRealm Studios is building on Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath’s release by putting a spotlight on this cyber clash.

The studio released two trailers showing off a match between the two cyborgs. Here’s round one:

And here’s round two:

What’s really cool about that first clip is how it references the RoboCop vs. Terminator Dark Horse comic by Frank Miller and Walt Simonson. For those who haven’t read it, the story reveals that SkyNet was able to learn sentience from RoboCop himself since he’s a robot with a human mind. The last human survivor of Judgment Day goes back in time to destroy RoboCop, causing SkyNet to send several Terminators back in time to make sure RoboCop survives.

Judgment Day ends up happening anyway, but RoboCop is able to win the war and go back in time in a sacrificial move that annihilates SkyNet before it can ever be a threat. That leaves “present day” RoboCop without any knowledge of the entire adventure, although he inexplicably feels some inner peace.

There’s no record of RoboCop ever coming across a Terminator, but Murphy does have a vague feeling that it’s happened somehow.

The funny thing about the RoboCop vs. Terminator comic is that it’s been loosely adapted into video games with various takes on the storyline. Versions of this story were released for SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, and Game Gear, plus there was also an unreleased NES game. Variations of the original story included appearances by Cain, an alternative ending where RoboCop doesn’t travel to the past, and SkyNet sending back an evil RoboCop clone to kill Alex Murphy.

Dynamite Entertainment later published another comic crossover called Terminator/RoboCop: Kill Human. The idea was that RoboCop woke up in the future in a robot museum, only to be forced by SkyNet to kill the last human survivors of the SkyNet War. RoboCop then went back in time to stop this by interfering with the events of Terminator 2 in a way that was ill-explained, made zero sense, and acted as a full-on character assassination for Alex Murphy. For instance, he allowed the T-1000 to kill John Connor because…reasons.

I really hate that comic.

Unofficially, RoboCop and Terminator have battled it out elsewhere on the internet. They made for a mediocre installment of Epic Rap Battles of History and a pretty decent episode of Death Battle.

We’ll get to see more once Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath hits on May 26.