Rock Python

Isn't this one of those Cobra guys who climb cliffs? A mercenary working out of Africa, M'Gula adopts the name Rock Python and joins the slithering villain enterprise known as Serpent Society. Rock Viper was created in the 1980s, when the Serpent Society needed new members. Well, technically he was introduced as part of a group who were all working for Viper in an effort to infiltrate and take over the real Society; she lost, but apparently the Serpent Society is as forgiving and welcoming of its enemies as the early Roman Empire, because all her underlings were allowed to stay. Of course, when you're a bunch of animal-themed supervillains, you really can't afford to be very picky. If you start turning away villains who fit your theme, then can you really claim to be committed to that theme at all? It would be like the Raider Nation telling a drunken loudmouth to get lost because they liked wearing black and silver bodypaint too much. This figure uses the medium body mold, which is large enough to suit him without getting into exaggerated "Cottonmouth" territory. His super power is that he has incredibly hard skin, muscle, and bones - not exactly a trait that matches with the real rock python (P. sebae), which gets its name from... sometimes nesting in rocky areas? It's not really clear. But it definitely doesn't have rock-hard skin. To be quite honest, this feels more like a character created to fill an existing name, than like a real person who found he had powers and went looking for a supranym for himself. If you realized you had bulletproof skin, how far down the list would you have to go before you settled on "Rock Python"? Or was that just always his favorite animal and when the opportunity presented itself, he just full-on debuted his fursona, no hesitation? If that's the case, then we have to wonder whether he'd ever seen the actual snake in question. Rock pythons are, like many a snake, kind of brownish. Like a Predator with no arms or legs and significantly fewer dreadlocks. So naturally, Rock Python's costume is baby blue and dark purple. Ah, yes, exquisite! So serpentine. Very natural. And did he design that symbol on his chest himself? It's adorable! A cute, happy little triangle snake man, who looks like he's laughing at your joke. It's not some threatening image, it looks like an Undertale boss who you'd defeat by teaching it to dance. Rock Python may be an enemy to Captain America, but he looks like he'd be a friend to children. The new parts of the sculpt are the silver belt and the... helmet(?) he wears. It's either a helmet or a hood, and though it's probably meant to make him look more like a snake, what it really make him look more like is a glans. The eyes are sculpted in, and given black outlines around the white paint to set them apart, and his exposed mouth has a nice sneer to it. Rock Python has no accessories (he typically uses egg-shaped grenades that contain smoke bombs, explosives, or expanding metal coils), so the only thing in the package besides him is the left arm of the Hulk Build-A-Figure. Not a lot is known about Rock Python - not even where his abilities come from, whether they're natural or technological or what. He's just a crowd-filler villain, which means that if we want to imagine him as a guy who lucked into super powers, immediately named himself after his favorite animal, then designed a costume by himself using his favorite colors, there's nothing to say we're wrong. Sure, he may be a villain, but M'Gula is out here living his best life; and can we really fault him for that? -- 08/09/19

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