If Secret Histories turned him into one of the most admirable characters, I don't know how they can surprize me any further.
I'm surprised nobody before me proposed him, but let's give him a try.
What's the Work?[]
Secret Histories is a web animation series by Mashed parodying various video game franchises (and Harry Potter), taking their premise and turning it upside down. Almost every villain from the series has been approved IH, one is even PE (though I'm not buying him actually counting, and I've explained why), but I've seen no proposals for heroes from it (as few as there are), so let's fix it.
Who's the candicate and what's he done?[]
Kano is a vile and treacherous member of the dreaded Black Dragon Clan who's often assisted Shang Tsung in his evil plans...if you're following the official Mortal Kombat canon. Professor Kano from Secret Histories is anything but: a humanitarian and a Pulitzer-winning journalist who sought to shed light on the truth behind the Earthrealm-Outworld war, namely that the Outworlders weren't bloodthirsty barbarians and that Earthrealmers were the ones killing and exploiting them. As he received some evidence in form of photos, he was knocked out by Sonya Blade and taken prisoner. His words about the people needing to know the truth fell on deaf ears, as Sonya was more concerned with saving the Earthrealm from lack of resources rather than what it meant for the other realm. Ultimately, Raiden told Sonya to cut it out and just kill Kano, who is hurled off a cliff and just so happens to only lose his eye to a stalagmite. He returns at the end of the video, now a cyborg, meeting Raiden after his speech to the Earthrealmers and asks him to answer one more question "for the press", namely whether all the deaths he caused were worth it. Raiden retorted with something like "oh, well, I unified the people with fear and solved the lack of resources, will you undo it all by revealing the truth to them?" As Kano pauses, unable to answer at once, Raiden leaves the scene, and what Kano did afterwards is unknown.
Admirable standards?[]
Though every Secret History sketch seems to be in their own continuity, leaving Kano with lesser competition, even if they weren't, I think he'd pass. The admirable standards are generally low in the series, as they usually focus on the evil actions, but Kano here, he risked his life to find evidence of Earthrealm forces' crimes and make it public, and Raiden's words make it clear that by doing so, he could very well stop the war. He is pretty much the only one to put up any meaningful resistance towards Raiden and his gang, as Shang Tsung, Goro and Noob Saibot do pretty much nothing but be victims of demonization and invasion, and he doesn't even have that much resources other than his camera, and even after he's turned into a cyborg, he doesn't seem to possess any weapons like his inspiration.
Corrupting qualities?[]
Unlike the canon version of Kano, this one never committed any murders, terrorist acts or the likes. Surprisingly, he isn't even slightly jerkish (the one sarcastic "cute" thrown at Sonya is pretty much justified given her early actions), and though the villains make a point that his actions may prevent Earthrealm from gaining enough resources to survive, he is only opposed to the way they are trying to fix the problem, not saving the Earth itself. Other than that, I didn't notice anything corrupting.
Verdict?[]
Not a particularly strong one, but yes imho.