I had an idea for a superhero that basically stemmed from "What if Batman was Latin-American?". I was thinking of a vigilante who has no powers but makes up for it with lots of training and gadgets, yet has a distinct Latino background that appears as a theme. I know some might be thinking "It's just his race, that doesn't matter". It doesn't matter in a lot of ways, but it can make for a very different interpretation of the character.
That said, I'm kind of drawing blanks on both his name, and what his backstory is (don't want it to be too similar to Batman to the point where he's just a complete copy). Could anyone help? I'll be willing to discuss for with those who do.
Thanks.
Chupacabra
"Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."
Not to burst your bubble too much but the [url=https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Tick_%282001_TV_series%29]live action 2001 Tick TV series[/url] already immortalized Batmanuel:
[img=400x400]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/d2/19/f5d2194593665b1a58702fad25f6e891.jpg[/img]
Which was basically the answer to "What if Batman was Latin-American?" in a slightly light-hearted campy sort of way.
Of course if you wanted a more old-school version of a "Mexican Batman" there's always Zorro:
[img=400x400]https://cdn.hinative.com/attached_images/119982/e7c1a77eb0501bcb2902bcfd7e2f8466e99d219e/large.jpg?1497407569[/img]
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
It's funny because Batman was based off of Zorro. Anyways, I was thinking of naming him El Aguila (The Eagle) and giving him an eagle motif. If that sounds good with you guys, anyways.
Zorro was awesome.
For a Mexican-style Batman, what about “Yaguara”. It is a Tupian word (ancient language family of South America) which means “beast of prey”. It’s also the origin of the word “jaguar”.
The jaguar is a powerful symbol in Mexico, and has been revered for over three thousand years. Depictions of the beast are found in artwork from the oldest civilizations in the area.
The jaguar is a stealthy, strong and compact predator at the top of the food chain and has the third-strongest bite out of all great cats in the world (only less than the tiger and lion). In native culture it is considered the king of all animals and second only to humans.
Likewise, Yaguara is at the top of the food chain among criminals. He is the one feared by those who prey on the innocent. Like his namesake, he prowls from on high, his keen nightvision allowing him to rule the shadows. The criminal underworld calls him an inhuman monster, part man and part animal.
In reality he is just a man. Like Bruce Wayne his parents were murdered in a robbery. Unlike Bruce, he had no butler to raise him in a mansion. Instead he was raised in a state-run orphanage, a brutal and unforgiving place where he had to learn to fend for himself. He grew up strong in both mind and body, forged in that pitiless crucible. But he never lost that sense of justice, and being subjected to such an unfair life just made him cling even stronger to a moral code to not lose himself.
As an adult he finally felt that he could act on his beliefs and strike back against the corruption that exploited the poor and weak in his country. He took up the mantle of the Yaguara and with that symbol he both appeared and felt invincible.
Lacking wealth himself, he nonetheless is able to augment his personal skills with the aid of technology. He lacks the means to invent or purchase those tools but instead scavenges them from his enemies. In particular the cartels have nearly unlimited resources and he finds them convenient targets for his purposes. Ironically, the more he is feared, the more his enemies invest in trying to bring him down, and the more opportunities he has to add to his arsenal.
Yaguara is the feared and revered hero of the people of Mexico City, and bane of the criminal underworld.
You could call him El Tigre Chino, ONLY if he is a Spanish genius!!
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The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
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I don't think it matters but in case it does to you El Aguila is a marvel character:
[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/2/2b/Alejandro_Montoya_%28Earth-616%29_from_Official_Handbook_of_the_Marvel_Universe_Vol_1_1_0001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110707003640[/img]
If you are not set on El Aguila you could go with La Noche which means night.
I think this [url=https://www.artstation.com/artwork/D8W8R]cyborg aztec assassin[/url] is very cool. Yes, I know your guy isn't a cyborg. But take one look at this and tell me you don't want to make him!
I hope MWM can pick up this guy. It looks like he's got some good 3D talent and more creativity in his pinky than I have in my whole body.
But another concept I really like might be good for yours: The [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlahuelpuchi]Tlahuelpuchi[/url]. They're traditionally vampires that feed mostly, but not exclusively, on children. So they've got the dark fear-unducing stigma your hero could embrace. But what I think is really cool about them is that they can take their feet off to fly. And that is such an oddly disturbing characteristic. The only difficulty would be to somehow vulgarize the name. But maybe such an obvious Nahuatl name is part of the charm and character of it.
[hr]I like to take your ideas and supersize them. This isn't criticism, it is flattery. I come with nothing but good will and a spirit of team-building. If you take what I write any other way, that is probably just because I wasn't very clear.
It's three in the morning and all I can think of is, El Whapo from The Three Amigos.
[img]https://s15.postimg.cc/z9bk1znkb/Black_Falcon_Sig_in_Progess.jpg[/img]
El Guapo
That's interesting as I had never heard that before. I was always under the impression that pulp heroes such as The Shadow (rich playboy philanthropist by day, vigilante sleuth by night) had more of an influence and was the primary source of inspiration for the Bat-Man. Good to know!
El Tigre (which is a nickname for a jaguar) was an X-Men villain. He was also the name of a Mexican superhero in his own Nickelodeon cartoon.
http://eltigre.wikia.com/wiki/El_Tigre
El Guapo means “the handsome”, I’m not sure that’d match a Batman-type character.
Zorro was a huge influence on the creation of Batman, in particular Mark of Zorro, a 1920 film. The Scarlet Pimpernel was a similar influence.
The Phantom was another influence (he swore to fight crime after his father was killed by pirates). The detective part of Batman’s identity was inspired by Doc Savage, the Shadow, and Sherlock Holmes.
And the whole reason why Batman was made in the first place was because of trying to mimic Superman’s popularity. Bob Kane’s preliminary sketch had Batman in red tights. So the most important influence is arguably Superman.
It's probably more fair to say the elements that became Batman were probably inspired by a combination of multiple related characters taking bits from each of them. I doubt it's fair to assume that he was 100% inspired from just one single ancestor character. Having said that I would at least agree that Zorro is one of those inspirational characters.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Bob Kane's original Batman concept drew inspiration from Zorro, Scarlet Pimpernel, daVinci's artwork for a flying suit, and mostly Superman artwork. Bill Finger then largely redesigned the character costume and created the backstory of the character. he drew inspiration from The Phantom, Irish and American historical figures and Sherlock Holmes.
Finger actually did a lot more to bring Batman to life but that isn't relevant.
Hybrid, in fleshing out a character I would suggest that you just start pouring over relevant information and latch onto whatever seems fitting to you.
Here is something to start with.
You have a thin idea , Mexican Batman, so start pouring over literature, movies, music, cultural norms, history that has even the slightest connection to either of the two basics you started with.
Masculine pride, revolution, conquest and incompetent/corrupt authority feature strongly in Mexican literature/film. Surprisingly tragedy is not a major theme in Mexcian fiction.
Foxes, jaguars, eagles, spiders and snakes all have prominence in their myth. Animal spirits, gods in animal forms and other nature myths are common enough to be relevant. Romance and honor are major themes that run through Mexican folklore and mythology.
Lately there has been an element of Mexican fiction/music that glorifies criminals and their society. To be crystal clear, this is escapism on their part and not a cultural norm.
Historically the colonization of Mexico was largely one of conquest. The Spanish all but obliterated the Aztec society but elements of that culture still remain to this day. One particular prevailing aspect is the belief in omens or signs from the gods foretelling of dire events to come. Another is a form of Polytheism (worship of multiple gods/spirits).
If I were to come up with a character just from the above information and knowledge of the Batman character it would be:
(Part of this character is inspired by elements of Moon Knight and Black Panther as well as mexican culture/history and Batman.)
A young man, Cuauhtemo Diaz (after an Aztec Emporer) who is an ancestor of Aztec priests.
His parents remember and still pay homage to the old gods and they taught Temo (what most call him) how to gain the blessing of Tezcatlipoca.
Tezcatlipoca is primarily a night god but he also has dominion over divination, jaguars, war, obsidian and wind (among other things).
The blessings Tezcatlipoca bestowed on Temo were speed and strength, limited precognitive ability, great warrior skills and the ability to cloud the minds of others. These powers are strongest at night but he is not powerless in the day.
Temo was a cruel and selfish young man who used that blessing to carve out a significant criminal empire at a very young age. in doing so he destroyed many other criminal organizations in his quest for power and wealth.
One day he saw an omen of his downfall which he ignored.
When the omen proved true he saw that his cruelty and selfishness were the cause of Tezcatlipoca turning on him.
Not trusting the corrupt authorities, using the gifts that the spirits bestowed upon him and his ability to read the omens, he sought to bring down the criminal empire he had created.
The criminal empire has moved from Mexico and the new leader is his old lover Miss Dia Cortez (Dia means day and Cortes was a hated Spanish conqueror.)
His costume is a dark Orange (almost brown) with spots and a cat cowl (not just ears but a replica jaguar face mask). The suit also has the ability to camouflage the wearer to a limited degree and built in low light sensors in the mask. The suit does not have claws.
He uses obsidian throwing spikes similar to Kunai but resembling a cats claw, a pair of wooden clubs called cuauhololli (short curved clubs with a thick rounded top) and a bolo.
His fighting style is his own creation but share similarities to capoeira, eskrima and savate.
When he is not fighting crime he is a professional MMA trainer (he feels his advantages would be unfair so does not compete) and a notorious ladies man.
He calls himself Cazador de la noche, Night Hunter, but the world knows him as El Jaguar.
I know you didn't want to give the character powers so you can turn the bestowed gifts into training, natural intelligence/athleticism, gadgetry and a suit with more functions.
The Black Jaguar!
The son of a rich drug dealing family, who himself dealt in the world wide drug trade, who after watching his family get gunned down in their own house by his young innocent niece who was trying to stop their evils, by their own bodyguards, he changed his way and became the new fear of criminals...THE BLACK JAGUAR!
There ya go! :)
What about... The Puma Man?
[youtube]NHMPR7kXJak[/youtube]
I feel like if we could actually fly we would think we look like superman when this would be a lot closer to what it would look like lol
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
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Isn't that how he flew in Greatest American Hero?
I’m pretty sure you just repeated everything I said earlier... ;)
You mean Black Panther? A black panther is not actually a species, it’s either a leapord or jaguar that has been melanised such that its fur is completely black. A black jaguar is a black panther.
I prefer Pink P... Jaguar. Pink Jaguar.
A man in a militarized black cat suit might look imposing, but a grown man in a bright pink version of that same cat suit must truly know no fear.
That's pretty good! A better name than the one I came up with, and I like the backstory. I'll see what I can make out of these ideas.
To paraphrase Wash, "A man walks down the street in that outfit, people know he's not afraid of anything."
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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You're right I did. I should have pointed to your post when I broke Batman's design between the two creators. I apologize.
To be fair, animal inspired superheroes do not always follow proper classifications when using color as part of their nomenclature.
Bronze Tiger, Silver Scorpion, Red Raven, Blue Beetle and so on.
Black has always been a popular color to add to a superhero like Black Canary, Black Bison, Black Manta, Black Condor and Blackhawk to name a few.
I would readily agree that Black Jaguar is probably not a great name though.
No. I went with one of the most dangerous animals in South America (your said Latin America). Jaguar was listed as one of the most dangerous. Wiki also said about 6% of them aren't spotted but rather all black.
So, I went with a drug cartel version (being that it's South America and all) of Batman :p
Honestly I’m really just teasing. Most people would neither know nor care what a black jaguar is. And as Brainbot pointed out, a name doesn’t have to confirm to biological reality. I was being ironic. :)
I was going to suggest having the name be the Spanish equivalent, but “Negro Jaguar” might not go over well.
El Batman.
Ladies and gents, I think we have a winner.
It just wouldn't go over well for those who are to retarded to not see it was Spanish. :p
*Too
Umm, excuse me, it is the Green Monkeys, the Silver Snakes, the Purple Parrots, and the Blue Barracudas :p Interwebz points to those who know what I'm talking about ;)
The Carnival of Light in the Phoenix Rising
"We never lose our demons, we only learn to live above them." - The Ancient One
Avatar by lilshironeko
I think I'm missing the joke. Are you referencing these specific animals or is there a connection with all of these I am just too lazy to search for?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_of_the_Hidden_Temple
As a kid I could never understand how people could screw up the shrine of the silver monkey. It baffled me.
Legends of the Hidden Temple?
I’m a bit too old for Legends of the Hidden Temple (I grew up in the Double Dare era) but I got the reference, I’ve at least seen the show before.
I appreciate the reference, it got a chuckle out of me at least. :)
Oh. I have heard the name before but that is as far as it goes.
I saw it a lot on some alternative nick channel back when I was a kid. I wasn't born until after it first starting airing though.
Interesting show, I too never understood why people struggled with the monkey statues so much. It was like in three pieces? Not very hard to figure out which goes where in that many pieces. Then again I haven't seen the show in years so I might be remembering it wrong.
I also assume most of the kids were panicking when they got to that part so puzzle thinking went out the window