Fat Cobra (Marvel)
Fat Cobra is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
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Biography
Fat Cobra was a male human born 111 years ago on Peng Lai Island that was a mystical land which was one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven similar to K'un-Lun. It was noted that his parents were actually pig farmers who tended to the fields and gathered manure to fertilise them. His mother was shown to had died upon his birth leaving his father to care for the boy though the man struggled to feed his son. It was claimed that 8 different women from his village nursed him each day but his appetite and hunger was never sated. Eventually, his father decided to abandon his child when he was 3 months old and left him at an orphanage on Peng Lai whereupon he was never seen again. However, even the orphanage itself struggled to feed him despite the islands wealth and thus the child was banished from Peng Lai to Earth when he was 2 years old. After his exile, he was taken in by a Peking Opera School located on the mainland which was where he first received training in dance, acrobatics and martial arts. He became the most promising young opera singer in China where he spent several years travelling with the opera. In China, war was being fought but the young man who became Fat Cobra was coming of age. He first drank wine on the roof of the folies bergere in Paris, drank the beer halls of Munich dry and lost his virginity to a trio of Spanish flamenco dancers one night in Australia. In 1924, he was in Cairo where at a coffeehouse where he first killed a man in a drunken argument that led to him punching his foe through a wall. This resulted in the end of his opera career but he gained a taste for killing which resulted in him returning to China to join the army during the civil war. In the Chinese Civil War, he used various identities in order to fight for both sides in the conflict. He developed fine tactical skills in this time with him naturally suited for warfare with people from both sides wanting him to be their General. However, he simply used the fortune he amassed to purchase his way back to Peng Lai and into the Kung Fu school of Iron-Crutch Khan. Whilst there, he went through the older martial arts masters strict tutelage in order to become a Cobra Warrior. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
Alongside the other students, he trained for the singular goal of earning the chance to face off against the great Xiang Yao that was the giant multi-headed snake which lived in the caves under the island. By defeating the great Yao, the successful warrior became Peng Lai’s Cobra champion and could join the ranks of the Immortal Weapons. He confronted the beast but was beaten where his battered body washed up on the Chinese mainland leading to his second banishment from Peng Lai. On the shore, he was found by a deformed old woman who cared for his comatose body but began to sexually take advantage of him during this time. When he recovered, he managed to escape from her only to learn of his second exile. For years, he remained on Earth where in 1933 he came to serve as a sidekick of immortal Monster Hunter Ulysses Bloodstone. Alongside Bloodstone, he embarked on series of adventures that took him to various parts of the world including the Savage Land and Monster Island where he fought numerous strange creatures. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1) In 1937, both him and Bloodstone met with Puck where they helped respond to a monster fighting on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. (Alpha Flight: True North v1 #1) In 1939, he became part of a team of Kung Fu commandos brought together by Union Jack in order to combat Nazi Germany’s secret death squad of S.S. ninjas led by a notorious butcher named Herr Samurai. He turn out to be the only survivor of the squad with his martial artist compatriots perishing. Afterwards, he was invited to join the Axis-fighting squad of the Kid Commandoes alongside sidekick heroes including Toro and Bucky. However, he refused and instead decided to teach self-defence classes at an all-girls college in Switzerland. Afterwards, he came to appear in a number of Hollywood movies and later became a key player in American football until he was kicked out of the league for injuring KKK protestors. He then departed to continue spar in underground fighting circuits in various locations such as the spires of Wakanda and even in underwater domes of Atlantis where for years he remained undefeated in the death matches. Fat Cobra even entered into an eating competition at Olympus where he managed to win against the likes of Hercules and Volstagg. During the 1970s, he offered his services as an instructor where he taught Kung Fu to the king of rock and roll. In the Cold War, he was drafted by S.H.I.E.L.D. where he worked alongside Nick Fury to defeat Russian werewolves that had overrun the American moon base. After years of adventuring and honing his skills, he decided to return to Peng Lai where he embarked on his second attempt at defeating the snake-dragon Xiang Yao but was critically wounded this time. Paralysed and legless, he spent 2 years at a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility where miraculously he managed to regrow his lost limbs and heal his spine. Years later, he was confronted by all his offspring from the various romantic flings over the years where they in the hundreds wanted revenge against him. This saw Fat Cobra fight for his life as he killed them all thus honing his warrior instinct to fight against Xiang Yao for a third time where he defeated the beast and became one of the Immortal Weapons. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
Over the years, he had forgotten much of his past due to the long years and excess drinking with him attempting to recollect it only to forget it once more. By modern times, he once more attempted to find out about his past and hired a biographer named Carmichael who conducted extensive research for Fat Cobra. He at first believed these would be glorious tales of heroism only to find his past very sobering. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1) He joined the tournament between the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven to decide which one of them would manifest on Earth. This saw him being selected in the first round against the Shaolin Terror Priests which he defeated and he was given the choice of choosing his first opponent with him selecting the Immortal Iron Fist. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #8)
After the establishment of the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, Headmistress Kitty Pryde was looking to recruit teachers to serve as part of the faculty for the institution. Fat Cobra was among those who were interviewed for the position where he was refused after he inquired about there not being any classes for wine, carnal intimacy and the fine art of human skull stomping. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #19) As the Avengers chairman, T’Challa began to recruit numerous super-powered beings as part of his Agents of Wakanda who served as a support staff for the heroes when they were based at Avengers Mountain. Among those recruited was Fat Cobra who joined the group. (Avengers v8 #12) Among the missions he was deployed on was investigating a strange report of monsters in a town where the Agents of Wakanda were separated by a fog as they were beset upon by nightmares spawned from their own fears. Fat Cobra confronted his own and learnt that the source of the disturbance was the recently returned Sentry. The warrior of Peng Lai sensed the bad chi within the Sentry that was caused by his mental instability but despite his warnings Reynolds refused to listen to him. Eventually, the Agents of Wakanda along with Thor confronted the Sentry where Fat Cobra used a powerful chi punch to dislodge the mental instability which he consumed. This caused Sentry to come to terms with himself and he departed Earth in an effort to get more control over himself without harming others. After the mission, Fat Cobra was checked to see if there were any side effects of consuming the dark chi but he was fine and he returned to active duty. (Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda v1 #2)
Afterwards, the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven came under attack from forces from the Hidden City. The Eighth City sought dominance by targeting the dragons that powered the hearts of the other cities. This saw a simultaneous attack on the cities and their champions with Fat Cobra having to defend his home. He managed to defeat them just in time as Iron Fist had used a machine that brought all the Seven Cities to Earth. Fat Cobra then joined the other surviving Immortal Weapons as they journeyed to the Hidden City where they fought against Midnight Sun and his undead forces whilst his master looked to escape from his prison. (Iron Fist: Heat of the Dragon v1 #2)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, the Fat Cobra was noticeable for his large frame. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #8)
The name Fat Cobra was given to him by his martial art instructor Iron-Crutch Khan who remarked on his size and said if he became a Cobra Warrior then he would be a ‘fat cobra’. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
As a result of his constant drinking, he had largely forgotten his own past and origins. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
It was noted that in addition to his appetite towards women that he lusted after women. Over the course of many years, he had a wide range of romantic companions from all walks of life. These were all brief flings and one-night stands with him often leaving the women afterwards. On some occasions, the women were pregnant with his child with him being unaware of this as he left them. All these children grew up resenting their father and wanted revenge against him by killing him. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
Originally, he was an inhabitant of Peng Lai but came to learn martial arts whilst on Earth when he was with a travelling opera group. This led to him learning the art of war during the Chinese civil war bringing him back to his mystical island home. Once there, he trained under his homelands martial arts instructor Iron-Crutch Khan leading to him learning the ancient secrets of Peng Lai Kung Fu. From this tutelage, he learnt such techniques as the Ten-Form Lightning Fist, the White Chi Dragon Palm, the Five Fingers of Pandemonium and other moves that made up 92 ways to kill with a person’s feet. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1) Other moves included the Twenty-Two Harmony Strike, Long Punch of Enlightened Buddha and the powerful Sumo Thunder Stomp. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #8) Some other moves included the Cudgel of Misfortune, the Whirlwind of Impending Doom, and the Devil's Skullcrusher. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #9) It was said that his size and strength was only outclassed by his speed. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #8) Fat Cobra had said that he had an explosive strategist mind that allowed him to compensate for the fast moves of an opponent. (Immortal Iron Fist v1 #9)
Similar to all people of Peng Lai, he was a hardy person able to regenerate wounds. This allowed him to slowly regrow a broken vertebrae and even lost legs. According to Fat Cobra, such a trait was not uncommon among Cobra Warriors as he had seen Wild Cobra regrow her entire body from a single bloody knuckle and witnessed Old Cobra age himself backwards by 40 years through sheer force of will. (Immortal Weapons v1 #1)
Notes
- Fat Cobra was created by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja where he made his first appearance in Immortal Iron Fist v1 #8 (October, 2007).
- Writer Jason Aaron wrote a one-shot on the characters origin where he said in an interview on CBR, " "We don't really know a whole lot about Fat Cobra except that he's fat and loves his wine, and wenches in waiting. That's about it. So I pretty much got to flesh out his story and tell his origin. The idea behind the one-shot is that Fat Cobra is a pretty old guy. He's been around for a little over a hundred years and over the course of that time he's drank vast amounts of intoxicants. So his past is a little bit of a haze. He can't remember too much of it."
Appearances
- Immortal Iron Fist v1: (2007)
- Immortal Weapons v1:
- Wolverine v4:
- Wolverine and the X-Men v1:
- Iron Fist v1:
- Avengers v8:
- Alpha Flight: True North v1:
- Black Panther and the Agents of Wakanda v1:
- Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon v1: (2021)
External Links
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