Snakeman Villain: The Chupacabra (Patreon)

Alright, now that I've said my part, it's time to fully introduce a backlog of new NRG characters all this week! Starting with a brand new Snakeman villain, none other than the legendary cryptic itself, The Chupacabra!!

ORIGIN

The Mesoamerican jungles held no shortage of strange and dangerous fauna thought to have been lost to myth that still existed way into modern day. And it fell on to Quetzalquotl's avatar to keep these cryptic creatures hidden from the eyes of man; sometimes putting them down if he deemed them too dangerous. Yet as often as he tried, some of the jungle's creatures could not be forever slain. One such creature was the Chupacabra of Mexico While various eyewitnesses all had their own descriptions of the creature, only the Snakeman knew what it truly was- a wingless bat-like creature that moved along the ground as if it were a shadow, before it entangled its prey to feast on its blood. 

As elusive as the creature was to mankind, only the Snakeman was capable of tracking it and many times had seemingly ended its life. Yet the Chupacabra would return again, and the reason was as dark as the creature itself. While the beast mainly fed on livestock, once in a blue moon an unlucky human would be caught as its prey, but the creature would not feast on the mortal but instead leave a single bite. Like a vampire, this bite created a new chupacabra that would only be unleashed once the previous one had been slain, thus ensuring the curse would continue in an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Powers/Abilities:

The Chubacabra is a fast and agile beast capable of melding to and crawling along the ground like a shadow to ensnare its prey.

The Chubacabra’ fangs and claws are razor sharp, capable of hurting Snakeman.

The Chubacabra’s fangs are capable of transmitting its curse through bite on any human, creating a new Chupacabra after the original's death.

As soon as I decided Snakeman's adventures were going to be taking place in the Latin American Jungles, I knew that I wanted him to face the legendary Chupacabra of Mexico! I mean, how could I let that opportunity pass. But like NRG's take on Frankenstein's monster of Bigfoot, I wanted to try something completely different and new with the monster that hadn't been done before. And ultimately I knew that meant finding a new and original design for the Chupacabra that went against what a lot of famous comic creators have done before. So I spoke to David and told him to design me something new, and one of my favorite ideas he presented to me was this idea that the Chupacabra wasn't a reptilian like monster. Instead, it was this small, hairy bat-sloth like creature that could meld into the ground like a shadow and spring up to ensnare its prey to drains them of their blood! Immediately I knew that would make NRG's own take on cryptid legendary!

I haven't planned on how many times or stories the Snakeman will be facing the monster, but like all villains I make for my heroes I make them with the intent on using them more than once. And with the Chupacabra I needed to figure out a way that made sense for why the Snakeman had to keep fighting it when he could have put it down already by now. I ended up coming up with this idea that the Chupacabra is something of a cursed creature that is able to reborn itself when it's slain by planting its curse in a human host that activates when the previous chupacabra is killed. In like to think that the creature has this instinct of when it senses its about to die, so it waits to plant its curse then. And although Snakeman is a good hunter, he would have not idea of knowing which human has been infected with the curse because A) it would lay dormant until the old one is killed, and B) most humans would probably write their attack by a chupacabra as some sort of wild coyote attack or something because it moves pretty fast to be seen.

Anyway, that's NRG's take on the Chupacabra! I hope you guys are excited by this unique take as we are! Let us know what you think with a comment below!

Snakeman: Desperado of the Jungle © NRG Comics

Design by David Velasquez

Art by Danilo Cassonato