Snakeman Villain: La Calavera Catrina (Patreon)

Alright! Last Snakeman villain for now! Meet the terror of Dias de Muertos who just wants to be reunited with her family, La Calavera Catrina!

ORIGIN

Once a year, on Mexico’s Day of the Dead, somewhere across the Central Americas the Snakeman would be called upon to face one of his most consistent and recurring foes. Officially the locals and authorities called her “La Calvavera Catrina”, named so after their famous iconic of their yearly celebrations. A powerful self-taught necromancer whose magic was strongest on holidays that celebrate the deceased, every year on Day of the Dead La Calvavera Catrina sought out open portals to the underworld, the results causing hordes of undead spirits to plague the locals wherever she performed her magic. And every year, when Snakeman would close the portals and once again put the souls of the dead to rest, La Calvavera Catrina would break down in tears not in defeat, but out of heartbreak. 

For as persistent as La Calvavera Catrina was, her mission in awakening the dead was never out of power or greed, but one of love and loss. La Calvavera Catrina had been the name she had taken in her mission, but officially she was Catrina Posada, one of Mexico City’s most wealthiest elites, who cherished family over all her wealth. Sadly, Catrina had been the sole survivor of a devastating earthquake that took the lives of her large family, and driven mad by loss and survivors guilt she vowed to bring back her family from the dead. Her yearly “attacks” were actually her trying to reunite with her family, and the hordes she unleashed alongside them was - in her mind - was a gift she was giving to her fellow man, a chance to be reunited with their loved ones like she would be, but her deteriorated state of mind made her oblivious to the chaos her actions brought. And she believed the only way she could permanently be reunited with her family was to take out the Snakeman who disrupted their reunion every year.

Powers/Abilities

La Calvavera Catrina is a powerful necromancer capable of creating portals to the underworld to summon the dead. Her powers work strongest on holidays that celebrate and honor the dead, such as Día de (los) Muertos.

Perhaps the biggest thing that excites me about doing a jungle superhero like Snakeman in the Central and South Americas is that offers a chance to explore a lot of rich culture, history and mythology found in these areas that can offer new and exciting storytelling not found in traditional jungle-based comic books. In the past, many if not all jungle-based stories had taken place either in Africa or Southeast Asia, though that's not to say those areas don't have a lot of rich culture themselves. But they're such done-to-death settings for jungle-based stories. To my knowledge there has never been a jungle comic that has been based in Central or South America, let alone just the Amazon Rainforest. But there's so much rich Latin culture and history to be found there that offers so many new potential stories that many comic writers have yet touched on. And with Snakeman as NRG's premier Jungle Superhero, NRG is excited to be the first to explore these stories.

Which brings us to La Calavera Catrina and the Day of the Dead Celebration, perhaps regarded as the iconic celebration of latin and hispanic culture. After setting Snakeman in Central and South America I knew I wanted to give him an enemy based on this important holiday, but I wanted to do it respectfully. So here La Calavera Catrina is an unintentional villain and her motives aren't 100% evil. Rather, she's meant to capture what is most important about Day of the Dead: remembering and celebrating the lives of those we have lost. But her Catrina is someone who refuses to accept that her loves ones are gone and genuinely wants to reunite with them. So she's become a necromancer to bring her family back, and in doing so she's also got it in her head that there are others who share her same desires, so she brings there loved ones back from the dead too. The problem is she's too far gone to see that what she is doing is causing far more harm than good and she is totally blind to the chaos she brings. Her heart is in the right place, but she's too blinded by grief and seriously needs to let go and move on. Buuuuut, that's not happening anytime soon.

And so with basing a Snakeman villain off of the dead, I knew I wanted her design to be a celebratory homage to it. So her design is based on the actual la calavera catrina symbolism of Day of the Dead. Tonytempest had a lot of fun designing her, and I really think he nailed it on this design! So far it's proving my favorite of Snakeman's villains.

Hope you guys enjoyed this new Snakeman villain! Let us know with a comment below!

Snakeman: Desperado of the Jungle © NRG Comics

Design by TonyTempest

Art by Danilo Cassonato