Kano

"Pretty boy ain't gonna save ya this time!"

- Kano to Sonya Blade

"One dead Lin Kuei, in a tick!"

- Kano to Smoke

Kano is the arrogant and crude former leader of the Black Dragon and a villain from the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games. He holds a sick infatuation with Sonya Blade (much to her disgust).

Past
Kano acted as the leader of the Black Dragon organization, a cut-throat criminal organization, and clashed numerous times with the Special Forces. He also killed Lt. Sonya Blade's partner, which lead to her having a personal grudge against him.

Mortal Kombat Special Forces
At one point, Kano freed his partners, No Face, Tasia, Jarek, and Tremor from a Special Forces prison, telling them that he wanted their help in reforming the Black Dragon. Kano actually wanted them to hinder the Special Forces agents from pursuing, while he ventured into Outworld. While his cohorts fought against Jax, Kano headed into Outworld and began looking for the Eye of Shitian, an artifact that would grant him great power. However, Jax caught up with him and defeated the criminal, using the eye to transport them to Earthrealm where he took Kano into custody. But Kano made his escape in order to compete in the Mortal Kombat Tournament.

Mortal Kombat
Kano journeyed to Shang Tsung's island to compete in his tournament, since he had heard that the sorcerer's palace was full of gold and riches, which he could use to fund the Black Dragons. Kano was free to take part in the tournament, while Sonya was forced to fight to keep her Special Forces comrades alive. They both survived, although many others died, including Sonya's men and Kano and Sonya teamed up with Johnny Cage to defeat Goro. During the fight, the two were sucked into Outworld, where they were found and captured by Shang Tsung.

Mortal Kombat 2
Kano was used as bait, along with Sonya to draw the fighters into Outworld. They were both freed by Jax, who saved Sonya and put Kano in custody. However the Black Dragon leader escaped back into Outworld.

Mortal Kombat 3
Though Kano was assumed dead by most of Earthrealms warriors, he had managed to survive by convincing Shao Kahn to make him part of his army as an instructor of weapons, using his knowledge of Earthrealm's weapons. During Shao Kahn's invasion of Earthrealm, Kano fought against Sonya, but was thrown off to his presumed death by Sonya. He survived and was imprisoned by Motaro, but after the centaur's defeat at the hands of Sheeva, Kano was freed by the Shokan. The two originally planned to work together to kill Shao Kahn, but the Black Dragon leader turned on Sheeva in the important moments, resulting in her defeat. After this, Kano became the general of Outworld's army.

Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
Kano's promotion to general by Shao Kahn proved to be a wise move on the warlord's part. He faced the strong tactics of Kitana and Goro and the overwhelming odds of their Edenian-Shokan army, yet Kano was successful in repelling their forces and returned to Shao Kahn's palace to see the overlord slain by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. He swore his allegiance to the Deadly Alliance, becoming their general and was assigned to enslave a village to build a palace for the new Soulando. During this time, Kano was attacked by Li Mei and saved by Quan Chi. However he was forced to fight Mavado, who had completed a mission for the two sorcerers in exchange for this.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon
It is presumed that Kano lost the fight since he was encountered by Taven in the Red Dragon fortress. He explained to the demigod that the Red Dragon had been experimenting on him, as well as other clanmates, to transform them into Dragon-Human hybrids. Kano mentioned that they were trying something new on him, but left before elaborating.

Armageddon Ending
In his ending, he defeated Blaze, causing his transformation into a black dragon-human hybrid due to the experiments performed on him.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
During the merger between the Mortal Kombat Universe and the DC Universe, Kano appeared in Gotham City where he stole an amulet that Catwoman had attempted to make off with after she was beaten by the Flash. Catwoman stole it back and Kano was left to fight against the Flash, who had been overcome by the kombat rage. He was beaten, but before the Flash could finish him, Batman appeared and intervened. When Sonya was overcome by the rage, she hallucinated that Jax was Kano. He later joined the alliance between the MK Universe fighters and was forced to accompany Sonya to track down The Joker and Deathstroke when, after the clown damaged Sonya's wrist portal, they are transported to the Green Lantern Homeworld.

Kano then faced Deathstroke and then the rage infected Joker after he beat Sonya and was defeated. He returned and was then taunted by Shang Tsung, who he attacked after being overcome by the rage. Kano then accompanied the other Mortal Kombat warriors to the fusion of Outworld and Apokolips, where they all faced off against the DC fighters.

MK vs. DC Universe Ending
In his ending, the defeat of Dark Kahn, unleashed so much rage into him, it caused him to become driven insane by it. Kano became an outcast and painted his face to express his anger, repeating constantly, "Death to Shang Tsung!"

Mortal Kombat 9
In an alternate timeline, Kano was one of the combatants that attended the Mortal Kombat Tournament, run by Shang Tsung. Sonya Blade was assigned to arrest Kano for various crimes. After Johnny Cage knocked out Sonya, Kano ambushes Johnny from behind, throwing him from the bridge. Kano then set his sights to kill an unconscious Sonya. However, Johnny saved himself, and confronted Kano. Kano ended up getting defeated by Cage, but managed to escape before Sonya could arrest him. Later on, after Sonya rescued Jax and called for a helicopter, they eventually encountered Shang Tsung and Kano. The four witnessed as the rescue helicopter was shot down, preventing the two from escaping. Sonya confronted Kano and defeated him. Just as she was about to arrest him, Shang Tsung interfered, and took Kano with him.

During the Second Mortal Kombat Tournament, this time ran by Shao Kahn, Kano was sell some weapons from the Black Dragon to Shang Tsung. Just the Smoke arrived, demanding what they know about what happened to the original Sub-Zero. Deciding no to answer, Kano confronted Smoke, and lost.

Kano was one of the member who joined the invasion of Shao Kahn's army. During the invasion, Kano encountered an old friend, severally burned; Kabal. Kano took Kabal to Outworld to give his friend a breathing apparatus, as well as his hook swords. When Kabal began to wake up, Kano tried to convince his old friend to rejoin the Black Dragon. But Kabal berates Kano for selling the Outworld warriors their firepower. Enraged, Kabal confronted his old friend, and managed to defeat him. Kabal then forced Kano to bring him to a portal out of Outworld. Kano does so. After making a wisecracking comment, Kano is knocked unconscious by Kabal.

After regaining conscious, Kano rejoined the invasion. Kano traveled to the bell tower, where Goro, and Kintaro, were watching over the POW soldiers. The three were assigned to wait for Cyber Sub-Zero, unknowingly though, Cyber Sub-Zero was reprogrammed by the Earthrealm defenders. Cyber Sub-Zero arrived and froze Kano, Goro and Kintaro to rescue the POWs. Eventually, Kano thawed out and warned Noob Saibot that Cyber Sub-Zero was heading his way. What happened to Kano afterwards is unknown. It's highly likely that he survived the aftermath and escaped.

MK9 Ending
"Kano made a fortune selling arms to Shao Kahn and used the profits to upgrade his cybernetics. The added connectivity of his eye implant gave him unparalleled access to global communications. Using his mind, he navigated the databases of banks, law enforcement agencies and other networks. But his activities left him vulnerable to hackers. Jax infiltrated Kano's mind and trapped his consciousness in the Special Forces mainframe. It wasn't long, however, until Kano managed to free himself. His consciousness spread like a virus throughout the Special Forces network of automated weaponry. Kano has become a one-man army.""

- Kano's Ending in MK9

Mortal Kombat X
It's been confirmed that Kano is set to appear in the upcoming game; Mortal Kombat X. It's shown that since the game is taking place many years since MK9, Kano has become a lot older, and most of his body is know cybernetically enhanced.

Mortal Kombat: The Movie
Kano appears as an accomplice of Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film, where he is portrayed by the late Trevor Goddard. He fights Sonya Blade and is killed when she breaks his neck between her legs.

Abilities
Kano is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter and displays great prowess with knives, particularly his Butterfly Knives, relying on them instead of special powers. He can however fire a laser out of his cyborg eye and tuck himself into a ball and fly at the opponent. Kano is also shown to be incredibly strong as he can punch through a person body. He's even capable to punching through metal, ripping out vital organs, ripping off someone's head, and even rip out an entire skeleton out of his opponent with his bare hands.

Trivia

 * Kano bears some resemblance to the Terminator and Ed Boon stated that his design was based on the T-800's appearance in Terminator 2, when the Terminator's face skin is peeled off, revealing his mechanical face.
 * In Deadly Alliance and Armageddon, Kano began wearing a lock of Sonya's hair around his neck that he tore from her head in their battle in Mortal Kombat 3.
 * In the Deadly Alliance Krypt, one of the coffin's contains an ad for "Kan-O's" a breakfast cereal with Kano's picture on the box.
 * During the Konquest mode in Deadly Alliance, it is stated that it was Jax who caused the facial damage that lead to Kano wearing the metal plate on his face prior to the events of the series.
 * Kano and Sonya were the first characters confirmed for MK3.
 * In Kano's MK vs. DC ending, when he becomes the MK equivalent of the Joker, Kano bears a resemblance to Jack Nicholson, who played the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie.
 * When he faced the Flash, Kano stated that he would give Kabal a run for his money.
 * His fatality in UMK3, where he reached down the opponent's mouth and pulled out their skeleton, was listed number 6 on Screwattacks' list of Top 10 Mortal Kombat Fatalities.
 * In the games, Kano was originally intended to be Asian, but Trevor Goddard's portrayal of Kano as Australian in the Mortal Kombat movie was well liked by the developers, who incorporated aspects of it into subsequent games.
 * A cyborg heavily based on Kano appeares at the Bad Anon meeting in the Disney film, Wreck-It Ralph.
 * Kano is also the moniker of a well-known UK grime MC.

Videos
thumb|300px|left|Kano's MK:DA endingthumb|300px|right|Kano's MK vs. DCU ending thumb|300px|left|Kano's MK9 ending