Cobra Fist
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Cobra Fist | |
| User:Tyranno | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper |
| Threat Level: | 41 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jake Graham |
| Known Aliases: | Cobra |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 19 |
| Height: | 6 Foot, 0 Inches |
| Weight: | 175 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | Unknown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Circus Performer/Acrobat |
| Place of Birth: | Seattle, Washington |
| Base of Operations: | Cobiness |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Mistress Marabelle (Carnival of Shadows) |
| Affiliations: | Operational Leader of Alpha Squad |
| A bizarre accident from a circus act, unleashes a furious fighter with a venomous attack. | |
Contents |
BASIC PREMISE
A circus performer has a horrible accent. He is horribly disfigured, but is now able to deliver sharp venom through martial arts. He now lives day to day in Paragon, as an independent super-hero.
BACKGROUND
Carnival of Shadows
Jake Graham was always a carnie. Both his parents worked in the circus. They performed for a west coast troupe playing in the American Northwest. Jake's father was an animal handler (particularly dangerous animals used in various acts). Jake's father died in 2003 and the circumstances of his death are mysterious and not much is known about it. Shortly after his death, his mom and Jake moved to Paragon.
Today, Jake's mother is an illusionist of some renown. During the day she performed simple illusions for the circus; but at night, she became Mistress Marabelle, (a high-ranking member of the Carnival of Shadows crime syndicate).
Despite his mother's secret dual-life, Jake took to circus life pretty well. He developed an affinity with animals (much like his father), and in particular, was quite the snake handler. He also trained as a trapeze artist and by the age of sixteen was so good he became a featured attraction for the circus.
However, the circus life is often a rough one, and when the Freakshow or Hellions would show up to steal box office receipts, the carnies were often left on their own to defend their 'turf'. So 'the Cobra' became a fairly decent fighter, and learned a few crude martial art techniques.
The Cobra
Jake's stage name in those days was 'the Cobra', and in order to spice up the act (and keep people coming back for more), he kept on increasing the danger surrounding his stunts. Soon he was performing without a net, and later, he added a new element of danger: he placed a pit of venomous cobras underneath the trapeze.
To Jake, the danger was minimal because he was a natural athlete and his performances were flawless.
The 18th Birthday
On Jake's 18th birthday, he was brought in to talk with Mistress Marabelle (his mother). She explained to Jake that the circus was largely a front, and that the true nature of the show was simply to cover up a profitable crime syndicate. She explained that Jake's athletic prowess made him a valuable recruit.
The entire time Marabelle was talking to Jake, she wore a strange delicate mask (as was tradition for the circus). She explained that she had promised Jake to a Strongman guild, and she'd receive top dollar for him.
Jake refused to take the job, and the two had a vicious verbal spat. In the argument, Jake reached for his mother and accidentally knocked off her mask. Marabelle ran away covering her face, leaving the mask behind. Jake kept the mask and hurried back to the circus tent to perform his act.
The Accident
The climax of Jake's act was always a triple somersault, over a pit of live venomous snakes. However on his 18th birthday, his normally reliable partner failed to catch him after his flip - and Jake landed into a pit of cobras.
He should not have survived the fall or the bites from the snakes, however as luck would have it, undercover Longbow agents were at the performance, and they quickly rushed Jake to a Longbow laboratory in an attempt to save him.
After radical surgery that involved great doses of radiation (to stimulate the immune system and fight the poison in his body), Jake was kept alive. However, during reconstructive surgery (he had many broken bones), Longbow realized the snakes in Jake's act were mutants. They were probably genetic replicants purchased on the black market, (possibly to allow for easier breeding, and less expensive to feed). The mutated venom, mixed with high doses of radiation from the radical surgery, endowed Jake with incredible powers.
After his full recovery Jake found he could run faster, jump higher and deliver martial blows with a touch of venom that would often "stun" his opponent. He also healed himself at alarming rates and seemed to have endless willpower to keep fighting.
Renegade
Longbow offered Jake a job in the Freedom Corps special forces unit. However, Jake feared he would be used to infiltrate the carnies (and possibly help arrest his own mother), so Jake refused the job.
Instead, Jake left the Longbow laboratory, (that had been his home for a year), and decided to go out into the streets as an independent super hero. He made a crude costume from his acrobat uniform, and he modified and painted his mother's mask a bright venomous green.
He took to the streets as Cobra Fist, where he is currently scowering the sewers underneath Atlas Park, scrounging for money and fighting the insidious creatures that dwell within the muck and filth.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Rocket Boots
Cobra Fist did not want to commit the crime of theft, but thought Chaos Red's suggestion was outstanding. So he begrudgingly visited a city representative of Atlas Park and asked him if there was work he could perform defeating the Sky Raiders. Cobra Fist would ask for no payment for the work, but asked if he could keep one of their "wings", (a portable jet device that could help him fly) instead.
The Atlas Park representative agreed to the plan, as long as Cobra delivered all valuables he discovered along the way. In short order, Cobra Fist infiltrated a secret cave where a sect of Sky Raiders were using the cave to funnel black market goods back forth from the Rogue Islands.
To reward him for his efforts, Cobra Fist was awarded a pair of platinum rocket boots, with gyro-guided jet turbines, that he was able to use to fly at will (after a great deal of practice).
Fist then discovered that air travel with jet rockets on your feet, requires a proper stabilizer, or gusts of winds (or a violent hit) can knock you way off course. Once again he went to Atlas Park city council for help, and they offered him a special Longbow stabilizer-cape, in return for defeating an Arachnos raid in a nearby neighborhood.
Father's Journals
Cobra Fist was discovered squating in Faultline by Doc Delilah. At first she wanted to arrest Cobra for vagrancy, but then upon questioning him she realized she knew his father.
She gifted Cobra a set of journals that his father wrote, that she had. Later, she and Cobra uncovered a time crystal.
When Cobra tried to attune to the crystal, he was sucked into a weird chaotic time loop, where time kept changing from past to future. At the end of the loop, he was stuck in 1993 in a military base owned by the Fifth Column. There he finds (and rescues) Doctor North (who had been captured in 2007 and brought back to 1993).
UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES
Cobra First is rather secretive about his personal life. For example, he rarely (if ever) discusses his origin as a superhero with others, and seems to have some disdain for Freedom Corps. Despite this, Cobra Fist is not a villain! He enjoys being a hero and helping others, but likes to do so independently on his own terms.
Cobra Fist never seems to date or have any social life at all, and he makes up vague excuses whenever he asked to any social event. He flirts with girls, but never approaches them for a relationship.
Cobra Fist has not been seen with his mask off, indeed if one were to look closely, they would note that his mask is sutured into his skin, as if to ensure it will not be knocked off during battle.
It is not known where Cobra Fist lives. He has been seen carrying large jerry cans of gasoline, causing some to speculate he lives in a vehicle of some sort.
The medical records to Cobra Fist's reconstructive surgery and recovery have been lost (or at least made classified).
Spoilers to the Mysteries
The cobras in the pit that Cobra Fist fell into were induced with Superadine. This was done to make the snakes more ferocious and dramatic during the stunt.
Cobra Fist is addicted to a special hybrid of Superadine as a result of his surgery and the venom from the Superadine induced cobras.
Electro-Drug Addiction
Cobra Fist is addicted to a specialized Superadine formula. The formula contains biological elements (derived from Cobra venom), mixed with the Superadine. The formula is also electrically charged via a battery pack and exposed to low-dose radiation via a small uranium cell in the syringe.
The formula is dubbed "electro-drug" because of the required battery charge, and the fact it glows with green electrical energy when charged.
Cobra Fist requires this injection every morning, and is physically exhausted and subject to hallucinations, until he gets the dosage. Part of the reason he wears a mask (and refuses to take it off), is his body is mutating underneath (due to the exposure of Superadine). The formula enhances his healing powers greatly, and Cobra Fist is able to heal massive wounds very quickly as a result. However it is also destroying his skin, and mutating his DNA.
It is unclear just what Cobra Fist is mutating into.
Cobra never removes his mask and does not allow mirrors in his home. He is very sensitive to his ugly appearance, and this is why he does not date or attempt any social life.
Cobra Fist sometimes hallucinates, probably also due to the Electro-Drug coursing through his veins, sometimes this is a symptom of withdrawal.
The Electro-Drug often makes Cobra Fist ‘twitchy’ and ‘quick-tempered’. Sometimes additional injections will grant him more power and healing ability, but will greatly burn his skin and cause awful rashes. This makes Cobra Fist in constant discomfort, though he never complains about it.
RESCUE OF DOCTOR NORTH
In January of 2009, Cobra Fist found a time crystal that had been discarded in his condemned building in Faultline. When he activated the crystal he was sent on a chaotic trip through time that saw him have several adventures.
Eventually, his final destination was 1993 in a military base operated by the Fifth Column. During Cobra Fist's escape from this complex he learns Doctor North had been held captive there when he was captured in 2007. He helps rescue him and Doctor North has been returned to January 2009, where he is slowly resuming his duties as a meta-psychiatrist and part-time super hero.
Cobra Fist and Doctor North have been great friends since.
The Rescue's Time Crystal Paradox
Ironically the time crystal that captured Doctor North was the same crystal that Cobra Fist used to find and rescue him, due to a time-paradox involving Psycho Boy and Chaos Red.
Psycho Boy finds a time crystal crystal in 2007 in a Council warehouse. He returns to 2009 and throws the crystal into a chasm in Faultline where Cobra Fist finds it and returns to 1993 to rescue Doctor North.
After North is rescued, Chaos Red finds the crystal and uses it transport an infant Psycho Boy back to 1993.
The crystal is then used by the Fifth Column to capture Doctor North in 2007, and then stored in a warehouse until Psycho Boy finds it, and the entire cycle repeats. This creates a circular and recursive paradox that has Doctor North worried will repture the fabric of the universe if left unrepaired.
ALPHA SQUAD
Formation
Lacking the infrastructure to support a legitimate army or navy, the newly independent nation of Cobiness formed a group of super-heroes and began to recruit mercenaries and vigilantes to defend their nation and to fight villainy.
That group is now known as Alpha Squad.
Diplomatic Immunity
Cobiness has stretched International laws to their limits, by making each member of Alpha Squad members of their diplomatic corps, ensuring that all members of the group enjoy diplomatic immunity.
Leadership
The group is lead by Doctor North but the day-to-day management was granted to Cobra Fist.
Cobra Fist soon saw that leadership suited him and he has since recruited Colonel Grim, Mars Five and Madam Smite to his cause.
ALPHA BASE
Cobra Fist has been given a limited stipend to construct a secret underground base in the arctic tundra of Cobiness.
The base located deep in the tundra still lacks many modern comforts, but has recently come online with a teleporter pad directly to Paragon City. Paragon City was chosen as a teleporter destination because of the concentrated villainy in and around that region.
TOXIN LEVELS RISE
Shortly after assuming leadership of Alpha Squad, Cobra Fist saw an alarming rise in his venom levels, making him increasingly erratic and violent.
In an attempt to seek maximum power and stabilize the toxins in him, he surged his bio-electric chemical input to maximum dosage, while exposing himself to high doses of arcane energy from Pi Tau's mystic forge. The experiment was a disaster, leaving Cobra Fist unable to answer the emergencies surround the PAED bomb or other threats from the the Supreme Society. He also condoned the mental torture of Psycho Boy which brainwashed the poor teen, and led to a disastrous set of circumstances.
A Living God
Cobra Fist was demoted by Alpha Squad for his reckless behavior. He fled to Rogue Isles, where he learned that the toxin in his body had a strange hypnotic effect on the Snakes that ruled the sewers of Mercy Island. As his toxin levels continued to increase, the Snakes began to worship Cobra Fist as a god.
Cobra Fist began to have delusions of ruling Mercy Island with his newly found minions. He arranged a lucrative deal with Ghost Widow and Floral Madness, to act as a double-agent, spilling many secrets of Alpha Squad to them in exchange for money. He also poisoned Azalea Iris with the toxin, to see if he could turn her into a willing servant.
Eventually Alpha Squad learns that Cobra Fist is a traitor and they capture him and imprison him in Alpha Base, the very base he helped build only a year or so ago.
Cobra Fist is currently a prisoner of Alpha Squad, and Azalea remains poisoned and dying.
COMIC BOOK COVERS
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Issue by Issue
ISSUE 1: [1]Jake Graham was a trapeze artist for a city circus, secretly funded by the Carnival of Shadows. At the end of Jake's act, he would perform a triple somersault over a pit of venomous cobras. The night before a large show in Steel Canyon, Jake was approached by the Carnival of Shadows to become a member of their crime syndicate. He refused, and strangely that same night his partner in the act fails to catch him. Jake lands in the pit and is horribly disfigured. Radical radition therapy howver, saves his life, but not before endowing him with venomous fists and mutant athletic ability.
ISSUE 2: [2]A Blood Widow agent for Arachnos covertly sees Cobra Fist in action on the streets fighting Hellions. Researching him, she learns of his possible familial link to the Carnival of Shadows. She is convinced Cobra can be recruited to Arachnos. She attempts to lure him over to her side, and when she fails, they have an epic battle. Cobra Fist wins the fight, but only barely.
ISSUE 3: [3] Chaos Red in a casual conversation at Pokcet D, informs Cobra Fist that the Sky Raiders have all kinds of technology that could help Cobra fly. So he organizes a mission to infiltrate a smuggling operation run by the Sky Raiders, and when he smashes the ring is rewarded with a pair of platinum rocket boots.
ISSUE 4: [4]The Lost attempt to recruit Cobra Fist, by inducing him to a fake rave party. The Lost plan is to ambush him, and then subvert him to their cause. Cobra Fist defeats them all, and in the process discovers a strange suit of black Rikti armor. He adopts the armor into his own costume, despite the fact the does not fully understand how it all works.
ISSUE 5: [5]Cobra Fist discovers a strange crystal in his Faultline squat. When he activates the thing, he gets sucked into a chaotic time spiral, where the past, present and future seem to warp around him at random intervals. During the first warp, he is transported to Atlas Park in the future and discovers it has been taken over by strange gelatinous creatures with bizarre powers.
ISSUE 6: [6]Cobra's time vortex begins to collapse until he is trapped in an energy beam. The Sky Raiders traced his time signature and collapsed time around him, holding him in a fourth dimensional trap. Cobra Fist cleverly dupes a Sky Raider guard into releasing him, then punishing him severely showing Cobra's lack of remorse and vengeful side.
ISSUE 7: [7]Cobra fights his way out of the Sky Raider headquarters and gets back his time crystal. Instead of being transported to his present day however, he is transported back to 1993 and becomes a prisoner of the Fifth Column. The Sky Raiders brag after he uses the crystal that they were paid all along to navigate him to this time and place, and that his 'escape' from the trap was all part of their plan.
ISSUE 8: [8] Cobra Fist finds himself in a Fifth Column base in 1993, where he fights several odd robots and creations of the Fifth Column. Later he discovers that the famous super hero called Doctor North has been trapped here. He rescues him and the two fight together to retrieve the time crystal and return to modern day. This issue begins a long friendship between Fist and Doctor North.
ISSUE 9: [9]Cobra Fist finds Arachnos attempting to destroy Doctor North on his first visit to the United Nations, via a clan of spider-droids. Cobra Fist intercepts the droids and defeats them.
ISSUE 10: [10]Cobra Fist is made leader of Alpha Squad but finds the power and responsibilities too much and fails on several fronts.
ISSUE 11: [11] In this issue Cobra Fist conducts a reckless experiment to increase his venom levels and power. It will change Cobra Fist forever, and not for the good.
ISSUE 12: [12]In this issue Cobra Fist is demoted and flees to Rogue Isles, where he becomes a living god to the snakes that live in the sewers of Mercy Island. This story is part of the "Traitor Among Us" story which crosses several issues and starts with Alpha Squad issue 14.
ISSUE 13: [13] In this issue Cobra Fist is revealed as a traitor and after a huge battle is imprisoned in Alpha Squad's base, this is the last issue of the "Traitor Among Us" cross over story.
Issue References
- ↑ Issue 1 - Fists of Fury
- ↑ Issue 2 - Cobra versus Blood Widow
- ↑ Issue 3 - Cobra versus the Sky Raiders
- ↑ Issue 4 - Cobra versus the LOST
- ↑ Issue 5 - WTF? Part 1
- ↑ Issue 6 - A WTF Trap
- ↑ Issue 7 - A WTF Conclusion
- ↑ Issue 8 - Rescue of Doctor North
- ↑ Issue 9 - Spider Clash!
- ↑ Issue 10 - Call To Arms!
- ↑ Issue 11 - Power Surge
- ↑ Traitor Among Us - Part 1
- ↑ Issue 13 - Traitor Among Us - Final Chapter
ROLEPLAY NOTES
Personality
Cobra Fist is a "tough as nails" character type, with an over-the-top machismo delivery and temperment.
Cobra Fist will never claim he is hurt or injured, even when he is close to death. He despises bureaucracy and will often circumvent the law or due process to do what he believes is right.
Snake Plissken, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Rutger Hauer are all characters/actors from which Cobra Fist's personality is derived.
Trivia
Cobra Fist likes Nirvana, Built To Spill, Mercury Rev and Guided by Voices. His favorite movie is Pan's Labyrinth.
If a Hollywood movie were made of Cobra Fist, he'd be played by a youthful Christian Slater.
