While the Mortal Kombat universe has been dormant for the last few months, aside from the smattering of news about Ultimate Mortal Kombat for Nintendo DS, we're beginning to see some signs of activity at the house of Mortal Kombat. Lately, we have started to hear a few rumblings around the Chicago-based developer in regards to the next title in the Mortal Kombat franchise, aka Mortal Kombat 8. The MK Team has in the past gone on the record in stating the the next Mortal Kombat game for this generation's consoles will feature a totally reinvented formula than the previous console-specific Mortal Kombat titles. Recently, the direction that Midway is considering on taking their most prized franchise has started to take shape.

A post on the IGN Boards (highlighted by a MK Online user), brought up the prospect that Midway's next Mortal Kombat title will straight up be a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Comics fighting game, in the spirit of the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games. While this rumor has been around in various iterations ever since X-Men vs. Street Fighter was released in 1996, it appears that this latest reincarnation seems to carry a bit more weight this time around. As incredulous as this rumor has sounded ever since it first made the rounds more than ten years ago, TRMK has confirmed from our own sources that the next Mortal Kombat game for the current generation of consoles - Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 - will indeed be a "Versus" style game.

While we were unable to confirm the DC Comics angle proposed by the IGN Boards message, we do know that the game will feature another well-known established intellectual property. It seems unlikely that the DC Comics license will appear along side a franchise known for its gruesome fatalities; however, the MK Team did state that they were intent on "reinventing everything from the ground up" in order to "wipe the slate clean". Therefore, the idea that the game will not feature fatalities in the traditional Mortal Kombat style is not as far fetched as it initially sounds.

Early this year, series co-creator, Ed Boon, did go on the record to state that the series will feature a darker and grittier art direction and game presentation, inspired by the hit Xbox 360 title, Gears of War. The DC Comics universe fits within this style with their recent reimaging of their Batman and Superman franchises in the movie theaters. But until we hear definitively who the other partner is in the Mortal Kombat Versus game, we can only speculate as to who we will see Scorpion and Sub-Zero fighting against on our Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in late 2008.