Origin

Cazador's (hunter, in Spanish) true name is lost in the shadows of history; the only thing known for certain is that he is the last descendant of an ancient family of northern Germany, composed by the most brutal warriors of ancient history.

His grandfather, a German mercenary, fought under the command of the infamous Romanian warlord Vlad Tepes, the Impaler, who initiated him in the arts of torture and black magic.

When he returned to Germany, he took with him a Cossack woman he had taken captive. Shortly after, he raped her. Of this abominable act, Cazador’s father was born. His mother was decapitated shortly after his birth.When he grew up, he left the family's fortress, and joined Juan Díaz de Solís’ expedition to the newly found American continent, in search of gold. He never found any, but eventually returned with a child of strange looks: Cazador.Back in the family castle, Cazador became a fearsome warrior, as well as a master of torture. Yet, despite its family sympathy for the dark teachings, he became a strong Christian believer. So, when Cazador finally parted to South America, he wasn’t intending, as his father, to look for gold. He simply wanted to exterminate the native pagans, in the name of God.

He couldn’t have come to in a worse time, though.

Established in the newly founded city of Buenos Aires, he soon knew of true misery and starvation, as the city’s food reserves exhausted, and people started eating each other corpses.

Infuriated by such transgression to God’s commandments, he blamed the natives for forcing his fellow colonists to fall into cannibalism, and led them to a suicide attack against all the nearby native settlements.

Initially, Cazador was successful in its raids against the natives, which always ended with him torturing the very few survivors to death, and marking their fronts with a Christian cross.

But Cazador’s luck eventually ran out, when he was ambushed by the natives, losing all of his men. Surrounded, he was given the chance to surrender, which he refused, just before a shady beast attacked him from behind and knocked him out. When he awoke, he found himself tied to a post, with some strange native witches around, who told him that, for his terrible deeds, they would curse him with his own instrument of faith, and so they did, marking Cazador’s forehead with an inverted Christian Cross. They also revealed him that he was half-Indian, as his father had him with a native woman, who believed he was a god because of his blonde hair.

Cazador became so shocked by the revelation, he jumped off a cliff, trying to commit suicide… only to find out that the natives’ curse had turned him into an immortal being, condemned to wander the Earth to the end of time.

Creation

Cazador was created by Jorge Lucas, Ariel Olivetti,Mauro Cascioli and Claudio Ramirez. The character is greatly inspired by DC Comics’ character Lobo, and more generally, by the whole “darker and edgier” comic book style of the 90’s.

Cazador is based on a previous, short lived Cazador character ( Creation of Jorge Lucas)(later renamed “Cazador del Primer Mundo”, or simply Hunter, and established as a separated character) whose single story was published in a 1990 fanzine. Unlike the actual Cazador, this one, whose real name was Robert Howard (a reference to Conan the Barbarian’s creator), was American, sported a white star on his forehead (as opposed to the inverted cross that nowadays Cazador has), had a strong sense of justice, and starred a serious sci-fi conspiracy adventure, greatly inspired by the style imposed in comics by Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. The deep opposite personalities of Hunter and Cazador have been exploited for laughs in some issues, where they were forced to work together in order to fend off an alien invasion, led by a Superman turned evil.

Character Evolution

-The “Gorila” period: Cazador’s early personality was meant to be a parody of what, through time, Argentines have come to know colloquially as “Gorilas” (gorillas), this is, the highly conservative, and deeply Catholic, extreme right wing sector of Argentine society, whose most prominent members plotted and executed the majority of the military coups in Argentina’ history, from 1930 to 1976.

Cazador perfectly embodies most of the “archetypes” Argentine society has formed about Gorilas: he is basically a very dumb man, blindly quoting the Bible, but not really understanding the meaning of its words, who prefers to solve any problem he comes across by the use of extreme violence.The character’s “right wing spirit” was also reinforced by adding a good quota of nazi symbolism (although the immediate identification of gorilas with Nazis is fairly debatable) in the early times of the comic: he wore iron crosses (which he lost when killed for the first time, marking his phasing into the “Negro” period), had a teddy bear called “Bussi” (named after army general Antonio Bussi, who fought against communist guerrillas in northern Argentina during the last de-facto Military Junta period), with the “ss” part highlighted, thus making reference to the nazi Waffen SS, and piloted a WW 2 german fighter plane called “Adolf” (named after Adolf Hitler, who would eventually make his way into the comic on issue #10).

This Gorila profile began to slowly fade early in the comics, as Cazador started to behave in ways that were very, very far from the Gorilas’ patterns of conduct.

The first hint of this change was given in issue #6, “Bienvenidos al Planeta Hachedepe” (Welcome to Planet S.O.B) when Cazador went to the “popular” section of a stadium (probably La Bombonera, the home stadium of Boca Juniors) to watch a soccer match between Boca Juniors and Racing Club de Avellaneda, the team he supports unconditionally (which, ironically, was also the club that the three times Argentinean president Juan Domingo Perón, a long-time political rival of the Gorilas, supported. This is probably a coincidence, however), and ended up in a brutal brawl with Boca Juniors’s barrasbravas (hooligans) when Racing scored, but the goal was disallowed, because of an offside position. This (woefully common in real life Argentina) incident shifted Cazador more to the “people’s” side, as this violent soccer skirmishes often involve low class, marginal or openly criminal sectors of Argentine society.

From there on, Cazador as a Gorila on steroids, disappeared, and was replaced by his Negro form.

-The Negro period: Cazador was greatly changed after his first death at the hands of zombie Cacique Patoruzú. Revealed to the public to be half-Indian, its personality took a 180 degrees turn, and instead of a right-wing, Catholic zealot on steroids, he became apathetic, elder gods worshiping, brute (on steroids, of course). In this new portrayal, he was in open conflict with the church he once loved: apparently the cathedral in which he dwelt was being illegally occupied by him, and he never missed the chance to censure priests for their easy and effortless lives. It was also established that most of his neighbors and “friends” (to somewhat call his potential victims) were people of very low social and economical position, and that Cazador himself was also very poor, often being discriminated by citizens of higher classes (colloquially called “conchetos”, snobs in English) because of his economical status, or his humble origins. Even his talking changed dramatically. From swearing a lot, but talking in clear Spanish terms, he passed to swear even more, adopting a “street lingo” more akin to his new social position.

In a way, Cazador became what the rather racist Argentine society often calls “Negro” (black, even though is rare to even see actual black people in most places of Argentina, except maybe in the largest cities), a quite ambiguous insult, used to refer to despised people of the lower classes, and their lack of any true intellectual prowess or cultural achievements. Oddly, he still was a supporter of nazi ideology, although references to this sympathy gradually faded into oblivion as the story progressed. It must be noted, however, that, despite Cazador’s new image is somewhat of a parody of ’s marginal classes, the character and the comic itself are an even bigger caricature of the Argentine Society as a whole. If Cazador is a despicable individual by itself, those surrounding him are just as evil and wicked… if not more.

Another difference between this Cazador and the previous it’s his apathy towards anything that happens around him. While the “Gorila” displayed a more “active” behavior, unleashing his wrath against what he believed was wrong, this new “Negro” Cazador is something of an hedonist: he doesn’t really care about anything, save eating, drinking, laying down with women… his adventures often starts when a friend invites him to somewhere and everything goes hopelessly wrong, either by Cazador’s own stupidity, or because a greater evil accidentally crosses his way, or by the work of previous enemies, coming back for revenge.

This is the profile Cazador had until the eventual termination of his comic, and apparently is one of the comics’ highlights, and the reason that made him so successful: while other argentine comic characters were “adapted versions” of North-American superhero stereotypes, Cazador had a very “Argentine” feel in its character’s personality and its relation with the surrounding environments, allowing readers to truly feel identified with him (for good or bad).

Powers and Abilities

Immortality and regeneration: Cazador’s greatest power comes in the form of a Indian curse that wouldn’t let him die. Cazador is almost 500 years old, yet he remains in the same age and physical state he was when the curse was first set upon him.

The curse not only prevents his aging, but also allows him to survive without the need of food or drink.

He’s is still physically vulnerable, though, which means that he can be temporarily “killed” by severely damaging his body, but he will always come back, seemingly regenerating his body entirely in the process.

The way his immortality power works, however, is not totally understood, as it has manifested in several different ways through the years. Sometimes, Cazador has been reduced to merely a fleshy torso and head, and somehow remained alive. Other times, he would be “killed” by simply punching a hole through his chest.

On another occasion, he took a point-blank handgun headshot, without showing any signs of brain damage, yet some time later, he suffered temporary amnesia when losing a chunk of his brain, after a demon struck his head with a war hammer.

Even his body regeneration seems erratic at times: on one of the occasions he revived, his eyes and lower limbs were missing, and did not regenerate at all, requiring him to eventually “borrow” eyes and legs from innocent bystanders to fully recover.It is possible that the “unreliability” of his immortality is associated with its status as a curse, thus effectively becoming a torment for his bearer, rather than a grim, but effective benefit.

Cazador’s regenerative skills were also the responsible of creating one of his greatest foes: Final (The Ultimate Abomination), a “brother” born of a cyst that was surgically removed from Cazador’s behind on issue #9, and later grew all by itself into a full humanoid shape. This monstrosity has displayed regenerative skills as efficient as those of Cazador himself, coming back several times after being apparently killed for real.

Weapon Master: as descendant of a deadly family of mercenaries, and due to the harsh lifestyle he had since childhood, Cazador has become a master in the use of all kinds of weaponry. From machineguns to knives, to broad swords, anything is a deadly instrument of doom when Cazador is using it.

In the past, his weapon of choice was a huge automatic revolver, packed with great firepower, but prone to getting stuck in the middle of battle. This gun was eventually eaten, on issue #3, by one of Cazador's major enemies, the Swearing Demon Balrog, and was never seen again since.

From there on, and despite the fact that he has a seemingly endless cache of weapons stacked below the dungeons of his cathedral (including ACME “Atomik” grenades), Cazador didn’t carry a “weapon of choice” anymore, instead relying on what opportunity could bring upon him. Although it is known he has sometimes hidden small handguns in his underpants, just in case of an emergency. This contingency allowed him to survive against seemingly overwhelming odds on issue #29, when he was sorrounded by the whole Mortal Kombat roster on the of the ninja warlord Sinister Claw.

Unarmed combat: despite not having any formal type of training in unarmed combat, Cazador still manages to defeat most of his enemies by sheer brute force alone (and he has a lot of sheer brute force to share). He is a brawler in the purest sense of the word.

Still, his lack of true fighting skills take its toll when Cazador is forced to fight in earnest against opponents as strong and powerful as him, who have been known to overwhelm him with relative ease. Besides his arch-enemy, the Demon Lord Melkor, Cazador has been brought down by the zombie Indian Cacique Patoruzú, his “brother”, Abominación Final, a group of anonymous ninja assassins, and the cyborg boxer Mike Tyson, in the rematch bout they had (although Tyson ultimately lost the fight because Cazador’s friend and trainer, Argentine former boxer “Roña” Osvaldo, KO’ed him with a lead pipe).

Piloting: Cazador has displayed superb piloting skills several times, mostly using WW 2 or WW 1 era airplanes.

He currently holds two planes in the hangar of his cathedral: a Junkers 87 Stuka dive bomber, which he used to take him and Diego Maradona to Paris in order to watch the Grand Final of the France 1998 FIFA World Cup on issue #50, and a Focke-Wulf 190 fighter bomber he calls “Adolf” (probably named after his good friend Adolf Hitler), that has been modified to carry “ACME” tactical H bombs. These were used by Cazador (issue #4) to put an end to the Hell on Earth unleashed by his nemesis Melkor and Balrog in the city of , wiping out their demon/zombie army entirely, and weakening them just enough for Cazador to finish them off with his bare fists.On issue #58, he also hijacked from the Aviation Musem of New York a German WW I experimental Albatros Biplane, fitted with anti-tank missiles, and used it to kill a Godzilla-ezque monster he had accidentally created in the hours before. His deed is highlighted, by the fact that said monster had already easily destroyed several modern jet fighters before Cazador came into action.

Necromancy: the unholy heritage of his family, although it is not know for certain what is the real purpose of such necromantic powers, nor how they work. The true potential of Cazador’s power can not be calculated, and that is a reason to be really scared when night comes.

It was possible, however, to witness a puny fraction of such power, when he, almost inadvertently, unleashed the very hordes of hell into the Earth, letting the Devil enter our world, during a black mass (issue #39). For some reason, the coming of daylight averted the spell, saving humanity in the last moment.

He also brought back from the grave his enemy Patoruzú (issue #50), who set aside his differences with Cazador, and joined forces in order to ensure ’s victory in the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Many (including His Holiness John Paul II) have claimed that Cazador is actually the Antichrist, destined to bring the end to this world. It remains to be seen if this is true.

Exorcism: a leftover ability of the time he was a believer of the Christian faith, Cazador is capable of casting a demon out of a possessed body. He used such skill to purge his arch-nemesis Melkor from the body of Argentine President Carlos Saúl Menem, who was being forced by Melkor to use his authority and influences to destroy Cazador (issue #5).

Lycanthropy: upon being bitten by a werewolf on issue #14, Cazador gained the ability to become a werewolf under the light of the full moon. Whilst on this state, he completely loses control over himself and is turned into a bloodthirsty beast (at least, more bloodthirsty than usual). He apparently lost such power when killed by a barrage of silver bullets, despite reviving as usual.

Professional torturer: a trademark of the Cazador family. Cazador employed it thoroughly during his personal crusade against the American Natives. Nowadays, he has almost abandoned it, but sometimes, if someone pisses him way too much, he will dust of his rack, and give the poor bastard a little hell of his own making (issue #6).

Misc

-His adventures often make little sense, if any at all. They frequently include parodies of public figures, such as present-day politicians, celebrities, etc.

-He is a supporter of Racing Club of Avellaneda, an Argentinian soccer team.