Sideshow: Acro-Bat (Patreon)

Alright, this is the final member of the Sideshow for now! Meet the Acro-Bat, who performs trapeze and acrobatics for the circus, and reconnaissance and search-and-rescue as a superhero.

ORIGIN

The youngest recruit for the Sideshow at only age 13, the young neo-human known only as Elio had been born a freak. Elio was the son of a wealthy newly wed couple from New York who while honeymooning in Mexico had gone exploring and found a hidden temple where they committed debauchery that would lead to Elio’s birth. However, the temple the couple had been in once been used as a place of worship for Camazotz, the mayan bat god of death, and as punishment for desecrating his sacred temple Elio had been born with bat-like futures fangs, pointed ears and upturned nose, prehensile feet and fleshy arm-like wings. Immediately, Elio was abandoned at an orphanage far away from the couple, where he was kept locked away to avoid abuse from the other cruel children. Naturally more active at night, the kinder orphanage caretakers would let Elio leave the orphanage to fly and explore the world beyond the orphanage with some supervision. 

When Alvyn came to the orphanage in search of the rumored “bat-boy”, Alvyn found a natural kinship with the young boy and offered him a place at his circus not part of the act, but as his adopted son, offering to him the same love and kindness the circus had showed him as an orphan. Even though Elio was only supposed to be under Alvyn care and serving as the circus’ resident acrobat and trapeze artist, when the Carnival of Killers attacked the Sideshow on opening night Elio managed to find his courage and rescue his adoptive father, after which Alvyn deciding that if the Circus was going to be a true superhero team, then it was best Elio would be trained to harness his abilities to better protect himself. Since then, Elio has become the heart of the Sideshow and excited to become the next great superhero.

Powers/Abilities:

Bat-like anatomy grants Acro-bat gliding-based flight and agility, fangs, claws and echolocation.

Naturally, when thinking of a character for trapeze and acrobatics for the Sideshow, the first idea that came to mind was a literal "acro bat". I like this idea enough because it gave me to based the character around the old bat boy character from the old fake tabloid news stories in the 90s, which I thought would have always made a perfect circus freak. But from design I struggled with finding a specific role for Acro-bat on the team in terms of storytelling. Eventually I decided he would be the youngest member as to grow into a future hero alongside some other teenage superhero ideas I had. And while writing his origins I decided he would officially be Alvyn Showman's adopted son as a way of joining the team, as I realized their origins were someone similar that a natural kinship could be formed like father and son. So Alvyn is officially his adopted father, with the rest of Sideshow filling the role as adopt family (I was thinking of having Juno be his mother figure).

Big shout out to our artists Gaston and Danilo for their incredible work on Acro-Bat's design! Let us know what you think of Acro-Bat with a comment below!

The Sideshow: The Greatest Superheroes on Earth © NRG Comics

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

Art by Danilo Cassonato