Sideshow: Zoolu (Patreon)

Alright, next two Sideshow characters serve as the animal trainer acts of the circus: next up is Zoolu, the magical shapeshifting immortal beast and Whisper's best friend.

ORIGIN

Willow’s best and only friend before joining the Sideshow was the shapeshifting, albino beast known as “Zoolu”. Having rescued him from an animal testing lab, Zoolu had no original form of it’s own, instead possessed the ability to maintain and shapeshift into any animal that had lived on the planet, even extinct ones, and gain their abilities as well, all while retaining its albinism. Not only did this make Zoolu the ideal creature for animal acts in the sideshow, but made him an effective jack-of-trade to aid the Sideshow in their battles and missions in various ways. But as amazing as Zoolu was, his exact origins were a mystery to everyone aside from Whisper, a secret she’s kept well hidden from the others at his request.

This is because Zoolu’s origins were of great shame. Zoolu possessed human intelligence because had in fact once been human. His name originally was Archibald Kinglsy, a big game hunter from the late 1800s who had made a name for himself hunting all sorts of dangerous and exotic beasts across the world, and he made no qualms about using or eliminating others to do so as long as he got his trophy. His last adventure had brought him to the African congo in search of a fabled ghost-like creature known as the “Zoolu Beast.” But Zoolu did not heed the legends and stories of the locals when came hunting for it, discovering too late that when he killed the Zoolu Beast he took its place, becoming trapped in the body of an immortal albino animal until another took his life just as he did. For years since, the hunter had become the hunted, eventually opting to leave Africa and attempt survival out in the greater world as time passed. With no method of communicating with his fellow man anymore, Archibald spent most of his survival in contemplation on how to amend for his greedy ways until he finally found communication and a companion ship with Willow, the first human capable of understanding him and his cries for help. Joining the Sideshow was Archibald’s best shot of redemption for his many years of greed and inhumanity.

Powers/Abilities

Zoolu is an albino metamorph with the ability to shapeshift into any animal that has existed on the planet, even extinct ones, thus gaining their abilities all while retaining his albinism.

So yep, big revelation is that Zoolu isn't actually an animal, but he's a human trapped in the form of a magical, shapeshifting immortal beast.

When I was creating the concept of characters for animal acts for the circus, I had to come up with an idea that would allow me to utilize a loophole in modern laws that prevent animals from being used circuses anymore. Eventually I came up with the idea for a human that was forever trapped in the body of an animal, so technically they wouldn't be a true animal to begin with. This led me to formulating Zoolu's story as a cursed big game animal and his powers to shapeshift into different albino fauna. This also allowed me to pair him better with Whisper as a team, since being trapped in as an animal he would have lost all method of verbally communicating with humans, so Whisper would be doing all the talking for him.

2 Fun side notes: The first that Zoolu's main default form isn't a lion. He doesn't actually have a default animal form due to his shapeshifting, and often takes different forms such as a dog, cat, monkey or bird when around Whisper. We just decided to depict him as a lion since that's one of the most iconic known animals from circuses (via Lion tamer acts). Secondly, Zoolu and Whisper are technically a couple, but not in a weird perverse way. Its more like Pegasus and Le Bruiser from Invincible's Guardians of the Globe series.

Hope you guys like this new NRG Superhero! Let us know with a comment below!

The Sideshow: The Greatest Superheroes on Earth © NRG Comics

Design by https://www.deviantart.com/sirhocuspocusfocus

Art by Danilo Cassonato