Dr. Cobra

Dr. Cobra is a long-lived gentleman villain, cursed with African magic to take the permanent form of a serpent. Over a century cursed and seeing the people most important in his life perish has left him despondent and no longer serving any needs beyond his own.

Appearance
Ezra Worthington once appeared quite gentlemanly, keeping his facial hair neatly trimmed and wearing a nice suit. On his journey to Africa he instead wore typical safari hunt wear. This was the last set of clothes he would ever put on, as his cursed transformation led to him being unable to continue to wear them.

Now a giant ophidian being, he roamed the Earth unburdened by clothing, the entirety of his green, scaly hide for all who witnessed his existence to see. Although he is not countershaded, the underside of his hood is golden in color instead of the usual green. He is near-sighted in one eye, and has somehow been able to keep wearing his monocle. He has a pair of vestigial claws from what would originally have been his legs.

Personality
Dr. Cobra has a personality that could be considered stereotypical of a well-to-do big game safari hunter from the mid- to late-1800s. In his human life the lives of other humans was incredibly important to him and in this aspect he was a loving, caring individual towards those who meant something to him. He began to shut out the world after witnessing first hand the horrors of the American Civil War, but did his best to keep his mental stability as normal as possible. The curse bestowed unto him by the Zulu shaman Ngunda Polotembe during his time on African safari with President Roosevelt has slowly poisoned his mind, and his inadvertent part in partially causing Kermit Roosevelt's own drop in mental stability and eventual suicide was a final straw for him. He has since grown despondent and closed off from others; now he seeks only the hunt, forgoing his love of humanity as his memories of the golden years give way to only memories as a serpent.

Despite what one may consider to be the most dangerous game, Dr. Cobra has never really been interested in hunting humans, possibly due to his past with them, and instead tends to ignore their existence unless it encroaches upon his own. However, he finds himself greatly interested in the neogenetic hybrids created by Dr. BadGuy as well as alien and mutant life that is not purely humanoid in nature.

When approached he is withdrawn but still speaks with an air of gentlemanly etiquette, and he hopes for the same, though he realizes how different he is from modern society. He seems to have a bit of an endearment to other beings sharing serpentine physiology, likely finding a sort of kindred spirit among them.

Abilities
As a magically-created man-sized cobra, he has abilities one might come to expect from various cobra species.

First off he is highly venomous, injecting cobratoxin into any victim that he chooses to bite to weaken and then paralyze the muscles of his foes. This leads to respiratory problems, while the toxin evolves into a necrotic form that will eventually cause death; he avoids using this if he can however as he sees it as "unsportsmanlike".

This venom can also be spit into the eyes of a foe. If the toxin hits the eyes instead of being injected directly into the subcutaneous level of the skin it simply leads to bleary vision. He is more likely to use this attack over directly injecting his venom as he feels that it balances out the playing field more considering that he is essentially limbless.

He is capable of arboreal movement perhaps better than actual snakes, due to the vestigial claws that once made up his legs.

Despite essentially being a cobra, he possesses some level of constricting ability similar to Anacon though on a greatly diminished level when compared to his colleague.

As he is magically created he also has the ability to hypnotize an opponent by gently swaying back and forth, lulling them into a trance-like state.

However, he does not appear to be able to collapse his hood, and it is always seen extended. It is unknown if he truly cannot extend this hood or simply doesn't know how to, not being used to working these neck muscles in such a way.

Relationships
In his human life, Ezra was close to his immediate family. Though his father Gideon was a serious and stern man, he cared deeply for all of his children and his relationship with Ezra was good. His mother Milicent was beloved and he looked up to his older brothers, Adelbert and Erasmus, to the point of idolizing their joining with the American Civil War; however he was too young to join legally so he remained home until their untimely demises.

Into adulthood, he made friends with many, but the most well-known of these affiliations was Theodore Roosevelt and eventually his son, Kermit. His relationship with the eventual-president of the United States would inadvertently greatly affect his fate, and he remained loyal to both Roosevelts until their deaths.

Since their deaths he has shied away from the world, and spends most of his days biding his time or hunting what he considers worthy adversaries. Although independent in nature, he has allied with others over the years. In most recent times, he has embraced his serpentine visage and allies with only other serpentine, villainous individuals, such as the Mutate Anacon, as well as professional wrestler Boa Condrictor. During the initial outset of the Crux Invasion he allied with Snig & Snog, though once the full pirate force set down he instead joined forces with Snakeface's Outcasts.

He has developed a fascination with hunting Swamp Croc, but also enjoys hunting others he considers worthy adversaries, such as Raccoon and the Long Story Heroes.

Early Life
Ezra was born on April 1st, 1845 to Milicent and Gideon Worthington, a Pisces born in the year of the Wood Snake.

The Civil War
When hostilities between the states erupted on April 12th, 1861, Ezra was only 16. He watched his two older brothers join the Union Army while he stayed home to continue his medical studies. His life changed forever when word reached his family that each of his brothers had perished in the war; Adelbert had been killed by friendly fire while Erasmus had had his leg mangled by cannon fire and while he survived the initial wound, poor field surgery left it to become gangrenous, leading to his death as well.

This news destroyed his mother, and his father entered a malaise. Seeing his family destroyed was more than Ezra could handle and he joined the war, seeking to use the surgery knowledge still fresh in his mind to save others.

He proved himself on the field and helped save hundreds of Union soldiers, as well as a few Confederate ones that found their way into his tent. Although proud to have served so well, he still greatly missed his brothers and never fully recovered from this. He returned home from active service at the end of the war on his birthday of 1865.

Behind the scenes

 * Dr. Cobra was originally created back in 1992 for Somarinoa's Steno Notepad character database project.