Scorpion Vs Sub-Zero: Who Is The Strongest Mortal Kombat Fighter?

"Mortal Kombat" is one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, with multiple sequels, spin-offs, and feature films. There have also been a bunch of "Mortal Kombat" TV shows, including a Saturday morning cartoon. It even inspired one of the biggest dance hits of the '90s. The franchise itself began as a fighting arcade game from Midway Games released in 1992 at the height of the initial fighting game boom, following the success of Capcom's also massively-popular "Street Fighter 2" from a year prior. And while "Mortal Kombat" might not have had as robust a fighting system as its Japanese competitor, it made up for it with massive amounts of gore and extreme '90s attitude. It also boasted state-of-the-art digitized sprites, which made the fighters look more realistic than anything else on the market at the time, adding to the grisliness of the bloody mayhem.

Unfortunately, despite the impressive graphics for the era, there were still technical limitations on the arcade's hardware. So, to add an extra character to the roster, the development team had to palette-swap one of the ninja characters to make two characters instead. Essentially, one ninja was colored blue and dubbed Sub-Zero, while the other ninja was colored yellow and dubbed Scorpion (and a third, secret character, was green). However, despite their similar appearances, each character has their own unique lore and special abilities, making them arguably the two most popular characters in the "Mortal Kombat" games. But who is the stronger character, Sub-Zero or Scorpion? Let's find out below, shall we? Fight!

While Scorpion and Sub-Zero are the names you see when picking the fighters in the character select screen, those are not their actual names, but rather their super-cool ninja alter-egos. It should also be noted that several people have used these monikers (the same guy has even taken on both, but we'll get to that later). However, the original and arguably the best versions of these two iconic characters are Bi-Han as Sub-Zero and Hanzo Hasashi as Scorpion.

Now, there are multiple timelines in the "Mortal Kombat" canon, but we'll stick to the original timeline for now — from the first "Mortal Kombat" in 1992 all the way to "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon" in 2006 — where Bi-Han is an assassin with ice powers who works for the Chinese Lin Kuei clan and wears a blue ninja shinobi shozoku outfit (which, admittedly, isn't the greatest for stealth). While on a mission, Bi-Han runs afoul of another ninja assassin named Hanzo Hasashi -– aka Scorpion — from the rival Japanese Shirai Ryu clan, who has no powers (yet) and wears yellow ninja shinobi shozoku garb (which is somehow even worse for stealth).

Since Bi-Han as Sub-Zero had those aforementioned magical ice powers and Hanzo was, ultimately, just a regular (if skilled) human, Sub-Zero easily subdued and killed Scorpion. Sub-Zero obviously won this fight, but it's hard to call it a fair match due to the use of his powers. Regardless, Sub-Zero wins this first round pretty handily.

The Mortal Kombat tournament is a special competition held once a generation. In this tournament, if a realm is threatening to invade and merge with another one, the greatest fighters from each respective realm must fight each other to the death, either to prevent the realm from conquering it, or to do the conquering themselves by winning ten consecutive Mortal Kombats. In the first "Mortal Kombat" game, Earthrealm must defend itself from the evil invading Outworld ruled by the powerful Emperor Shao Kahn, with Kahn's evil sorcerer Shang Tsung running the tournament on his behalf. How Sub-Zero and Scorpion fit into it is kind of confusing, and often contradictory, not even counting the multiple timeline shenanigans.

In some versions of the story Sub-Zero fights for Outworld, since Tsung paid the Lin Kuei clan — a mercenary group at heart — to side with them in the tournament, while in other versions of the story Bi-Han was always an Earthrealm fighter. Scorpion's allegiances are similarly dubious, with some versions having him fight for the Netherrealm (since he's technically an undead Revenant by the time of the first "Mortal Kombat" game after being killed by Bi-Han) while in others Hanzo fights for Outworld.

In any case, in most timelines (besides the most recent game, the confusingly-titled "Mortal Kombat 1," which came out in 2023), Hanzo, as the undead Scorpion, kills Bi-Han in the tournament, avenging himself as revenge for his death. This fight, of course, was a lot more fair, since both of the fighters had access to superpowers. Round two goes to Scorpion.

Kuai Liang has a very interesting relationship with both Scorpion and Sub-Zero, especially after the release of the most recent semi-reboot "Mortal Kombat 1." So, in the original "Mortal Kombat" timeline (and even the alternate timeline that began in the first semi-reboot, the also confusingly-titled "Mortal Kombat" from 2011, which most fans now refer to as "Mortal Kombat 9"), Liang is the younger brother of Bi-Han, who takes on the mantle of Sub-Zero after Scorpion kills Han in the first Mortal Kombat tournament.

Afterward, Hanzo's Scorpion has a fraught relationship with Liang's Sub-Zero, at one point becoming Liang's protector as penance for killing his brother. This is also due to Liang being a much more honorable character than Bi-Han, because, while both brothers were raised as assassins in the Lin Kuei clan, Liang nonetheless showed greater mercy to his opponents. At one point, in the first alternate timeline, Hanzo's Shirai Ryu clan and Liang's Lin Kuei clan even come to find peace.

However, at the end of 2019's "Mortal Kombat 11," the universe gets destroyed once again and Liu Kang (the de-facto main character of the "Mortal Kombat" franchise) becomes a Titan of Time, creating a new timeline for the aforementioned "Mortal Kombat 1." In this newest timeline, Liang becomes Scorpion himself! Meanwhile, his brother is still Bi-Han, who remains that universe's Sub-Zero. Weirder still, Hanzo is now a young boy, who becomes a student under the tutelage of Liang.

Whether it's the original Bi-Han or his younger brother Kuai Liang behind the blue ninja mask, both Sub-Zeros have similar special move sets, all involving "cryomancy," i.e. control over ice. The most basic ice power that Sub-Zero possesses is freezing his opponent. In the games, during a usual match, after the opponent is attacked by Sub-Zero while frozen, the ice breaks away and they're able to fight back again. However, in other "Mortal Kombat" media — specifically the "Mortal Kombat" 1995 film – getting frozen means certain death. Sub-Zero is also known for freezing areas around him to use to his advantage, like shooting ice on the ground for his opponents to slip on, as well as using that same ice on the floor to slide across the arena quickly (and hitting his opponent along the way).

In later games, Sub-Zero becomes more versatile with his ice powers. One of the more unique powers Sub-Zero learns is creating ice clones of himself. If an opponent touches one of these clones, they freeze up. He also gained the ability to shoot ice in the air and have it rain down on his opponent like an avalanche falling from the sky. By far the most impressive — and innovative — use of Sub-Zero's cryomancy powers is his ability to conjure improvised ice weapons. He can essentially create any bladed or blunt weapon he wants out of ice to bloodily slice or bash his opponents to death, like a frosty T-1000. Definitely not someone to mess with.

Since Sub-Zero's cryomancy powers involve manipulating ice and cold, the biggest drawback is that intense heat can weaken their effectiveness. Now, while not commonly seen, there are instances — especially in ancillary "Mortal Kombat" media — where Sub-Zero is near areas of intense heat and we see him get fatigued and weak. This is most clearly shown in the 1997 feature film adaptation "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" — the infamously bad sequel to the original 1995 "Mortal Kombat" movie — where Sub-Zero returns as Kuai Liang (Keith Cooke) and fights Scorpion (who also died in the first film, but, unlike Sub-Zero, there's no logical explanation for his return).

This surprisingly well-choreographed fight scene takes place above some lava, and the longer the fight goes on, the weaker Liang gets, until he is eventually defeated by Scorpion. Other instances of this happening include an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon, "Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm." The issue with Sub-Zero's weakness is exacerbated as Scorpion famously has fire-based powers, whether they're granted to him as a resurrected hellspawn spirit bent on revenge like Hanzo Hasashi, or he's just born with them like the "Mortal Kombat 1" universe's Kuai Liang version of Scorpion. Either way, this gives Scorpion quite an advantage over Sub-Zero, power-wise, and is what arguably gave him the edge in his fight against Bi-Han in the first "Mortal Kombat" tournament.

As previously mentioned, the "Mortal Kombat" mythos has gotten semi-rebooted multiple times, first in 2011 with "Mortal Kombat 9," then in 2023 with "Mortal Kombat 1," eventually creating two different Scorpions across the timelines. In the original timeline, the fan-favorite yellow-clad ninja is Hanzo Hasashi, born a normal human being with no superpowers. He gained his powers after being killed by Bi-Han, sent to the Netherrealm, and finally resurrected as an undead, avenging hellspawn. Meanwhile, in the "MK1" timeline, the Scorpion mantle is donned by an alternate-universe Kuai Liang, who — unlike Hanzo — was born with his powers.

While there is massive overlap between the power sets of the two Scorpions, there are also some significant differences. For one, since Liang in "MK1" isn't a hellspawn, he can only use his spear and innate fire-based attacks, such as fireballs, and has none of the other perks Hanzo has as an undead Revenant. This means that, while Hanzo also has Liang's aforementioned fire-based attacks, he's the only one of the two who can travel to the Netherrealm, where he can regenerate and gain more power and strength. He can even send his opponents to the Netherrealm, like he did with Johnny Cage in the 1995 movie. Furthermore, by being an undead Revenant, Hanzo's Scorpion can never truly die. Even if you defeat him, he can just come back even angrier than before.

Unlike Sub-Zero, neither the Hanzo Hasashi or the Kuai Liang's version of Scorpion has any sort of innate weaknesses that adversely impact their powers. To be clear, that's not to say that Scorpion can't ever be defeated or overpowered — au contraire! Hanzo, for instance, is killed off by the evil yellow bug lady D'Vorah (first introduced in "Mortal Kombat X") in the story mode of "Mortal Kombat 11," as just one example. In another example, Batman knocks Scorpion out after they fight each other in the story mode of 2008's infamously T-rated "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe" crossover game (an obvious attempt to cash in — over a decade late — on the successful "Marvel vs. Capcom" games). Batman even has Scorpion comically sitting unconscious in the passenger seat of the Batmobile for a surprisingly long stretch of that game's story.

However, when it comes to Sub-Zero versus Scorpion, this is the main takeaway: Unlike Sub-Zero — whose powers weaken when exposed to intense heat — Scorpion doesn't have any sort of targeted Kryptonite or Achilles' Heel type of weakness that lessens his powers. This definitely gives him an advantage overall.

Finding out who is the greater martial artist between Sub-Zero and Scorpion is actually a lot harder to discern than would initially seem. For one thing, they both have similar backgrounds as trained assassins. Secondly, despite having in-canon fights and victories between them, those stats mostly come out even (Bi-Han kills Hanzo, Hanzo kills Bi-Han, and so on). Even if we factor in Kuai Liang, Liang as Sub-Zero beats Hanzo in "Mortal Kombat 9," while Hanzo beats him in "Mortal Kombat X" (despite neither killing the other). In the "Mortal Kombat 1" timeline, Liang as Scorpion is victorious against Bi-Han, but Hanzo is a kid.

However, there's also their special powers to consider — at the end of the day, they trump martial arts prowess. That being said, it's hard to determine how much their special abilities are a factor in each of the fighters' various victories. As mentioned in the previous entries, Bi-Han only really beats Hanzo's Scorpion initially due to Han having ice powers. Hanzo was just a regular ninja guy at the time, so it was an unfair match to begin with. And even though Hanzo beats Han in the first Mortal Kombat tournament — a more even match — it's been established that Sub-Zero has a weakness to heat, which gives the advantage to Scorpion.

The closest to an "even match" is the first fight scene in the 2021 live-action "Mortal Kombat" reboot film, where Bi-Han barely uses his ice powers — and still defeats Hanzo. But, with its many unanswered questions, that movie quite frankly sucks, so we're going to take it with a grain of salt.

While it would be fun to compare the various Fatalities between our two colorful ninja kombatants, the truth is that their Fatalities are irrevocably tied to their special abilities. For instance, most of Sub-Zero's Fatalities are variations on freezing people (apart from what is arguably his most famous Fatality from the '92 arcade game). The same goes for Scorpion, whose Fatalities either involve flames, the Netherrealm, or his iconic spear. And we've already compared their special abilities in previous entries.

However, in "Mortal Kombat 3," the developers added another Finisher to the series — following the introduction of "Friendships" and "Babalities" in "Mortal Kombat 2" — with "Animalities." And Animalities are... well, exactly what they sound like. When the booming announcer says "Finish Him," if the winning player puts in the right combination, the character that won transforms into an animal that kills the loser. Now, in the original "Mortal Kombat 3," only an unmasked Sub-Zero was playable; luckily, Scorpion was added later in the "Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3" arcade, released a few months afterwards.

In both versions, Sub-Zero transforms into a big polar bear, while Scorpion transforms into... a penguin? Turning Scorpion into a scorpion seems like a no-brainer, but, unfortunately the character Sheeva from the earlier non-Ultimate "MK3" had already taken that Animality, so Scorpion was stuck with... that. Obviously, in that competition, Sub-Zero wins. However, in 2023's "Mortal Kombat 1," Animalities made a return, and Scorpion finally got to become a giant scorpion, while Sub-Zero became a woolly mammoth. This one is a lot closer, but our money is on the giant scorpion.

As we look logically and scientifically at all the different factors at play when determining whether Sub-Zero or Scorpion is the better fighter, it seems pretty obvious who the winner is. From their respective roles in the official story, to comparing and contrasting their power sets and weaknesses, to even what their spirit animals are, it's quite clear Scorpion wins this fight. It's really no contest when you look at the cold (pardon the pun), hard data.

To recap, yes, Bi-Han initially kills Hanzo Hasashi to give Scorpion his original origin. However, as we've established in previous entries, that was someone with ice powers killing someone with no powers at all, so it doesn't really factor into the equation. Furthermore, in their rematch at the "Mortal Kombat" tournament, when Hanzo did have powers, Sub-Zero lost handily to him. And, even when Kuai Liang became Scorpion in the newest timeline, he too was victorious against Sub-Zero in the end.

There's also the fact that Sub-Zero has a Kryptonite-esque weakness to intense heat, while Scorpion not only has no such innate weaknesses, his power comes from fire. This means that the source of Scorpion's strength is literally Sub-Zero's weakness, making Sub-Zero's powers, if not entirely moot, at least drastically diminished in kombat. Finally, Scorpion has that cool spear and sounds super badass when he yells "Get over here!" Those two things alone are enough to argue the case for him being superior. Our verdict: Scorpion wins!