People might ask “but why keep that costume? A white karate outfit doesn’t even fit his character.” Well, that’s because most people think of Kano’s character as a generic street thug. In the S.T.A.R. lab missions, the plot is centered around Scorpion being sent to Earthrealm to recruit Cal-El (Spelled with a K to keep Netherrealm Studio’s ‘K Replacment’ joke going) (Superman) to lead the Netherrealm’s forces. Scorpion is a playable character in Mortal Kombat (2011), widely known as Mortal Kombat 9, being the 9th installment in the Mortal Kombat series.

The truth is, Kano’s origin is supposed to tie back to being a mercenary, a military-trained guerrilla fighter for hire. The announcer voice for this game is Jamieson Price, who is also the announcer for Super Street Fighter IV. I always thought it was weird that he wore red in the first game and then suddenly switched to blue for every game after, so I wanted to draw him with a blue belt. SUB-ZERO – To me, the first Sub-Zero costume isn’t the one from MK1, it’s the one from Mythologies, because that’s the prequel. He’s of course got the cloth mask from the original MK1 costume as well. The Toasty fatality consists of Scorpion’s classic fatality: Scorpion pulls of his mask to reveal a flaming skull. The move consists of Toro throwing a chain with a bear trap on the other end and yanking, but getting pulled into his oppenent when he hits them.

I also stuck a fingerless glove on his “Green Bolt throwing hand”. It’s very inspired by more “military” ninjas like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from G.I. To make him look different from the other ninjas and specifically “Scorpion”-y, I gave him skull kneepads because Scorpion always wears skulls somewhere on himself as his specific logo, and his is the only one of the ninja costumes that has that diamond quilting pattern. And it was important to me to make sure facially he looked more like the MK1/DA Kano who’s going bald, slicks his hair back, and only has stubble for a beard, because to me, it’s that added aged look and sleaze factor that makes Kano look less like a generic thug and more like a crimeboss. Some yellow paint. I painted the vest and cut the sides to look like scorpions outfit. You can see in the MK1 comic that this outfit came with a matching chinese-style jacket that Liu takes off when he fights.

Another thing is I wanted his mantle to be very decorated with symbols because Sub’s MK1 bio said that he could be identified as Lin Kuei by the markings on his uniform. So I did the stripes that Sub’s tunic has in vsDCU, but I made them little Lin Kuei logos repeating over and over again instead of the sort of snowflake design he had there. One thing I wanted to do is make his clothes much “nicer” and more privileged looking than Scorp who’s still dressing like a Feudal Japan ninja, so Sub’s outfit is tight like spandex, his tabi boots are rubber soled instead of sandals, it looks like it’s all been sewn specifically for him. He then shoots fire out of his mouth, like a flamethrower, burning his opponent. Then I thought “well those slippers look silly, let’s give him socks and tennis shoes like he wears in the other games”.