VIRACOCHA

Real Name: Captain Victor Cochran

Identity/Class: Extra-temporal (@ 1945) human

Occupation: Leader of his tribe;
    former rulerer of an Incan tribe; former topographer for United States Navy

Affiliations: Dr. Raymond Corey, Ann Reynolds, Skull the Slayer (Jim Scully), Jeff Turner

Enemies: Jaguar Priest, Children of the Night

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: The Feathered Serpent (see comments)

Base of Operations: City of Gold, Bermuda Triangle

Appearances: [Skull the Slayer I#6], 7 (September, 1976); (8(fb), [6], 7, 8, [Marvel Two-In-One I#35(death revealed)]

Powers: Cochran was trained in the U.S. military. As Viracocha, he relied entirely on the deception that he was a god to rule the Incan tribe. He did have control of the tribe's warriors, and also used several captive dinosaurs as weapons. The left half of his face was badly scarred by a burn wounds, and he kept it covered at all times.

History:

Captain Victor Cochran was a topographer in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the conclusion of the war, he was sent to lead an expedition to Bermuda to investigate a number of strange sightings. While flying to the last recorded position of a lost plane, Cochran's was blinded by a strange light and pulled through the Bermuda Triangle time warp to a time 250 million years ago. Cochran's plane crashed and his co-pilot was killed, but he managed to stumble away, although the left half of his face was severely burnt. A tribe of Incans, who had been brought to that period by the warp some time before, saw Cochran descend from the heavens, blazing like the sun. The tribesmen believed him to be a god, and accepted his pain as the price a god had paid to visit his people.

Taking the name of the Incan sky god, Viracocha, Cochran settled into the role of leader of the tribe, and came to live with them in their City of Gold. In the process, Cochran usurped the leadership of the Jaguar Priest, a sorcerer, who resented the demotion to second-in-command, far below this new "god".

After over thirty years, the Jaguar Priest''s tribe encountered four other time-lost castaways, Skull the Slayer and his three allies. The Priest led the four back to the City of Gold and ordered his men to capture Skull. However, Viracocha II stopped the attack and allowed the four into the city peacefully. Viracocha subjected the four to a test, throwing them into a pit where they had to fight more dinosaurs. However, the Priest, resenting Viracocha's rule, ambushed Viracocha from beyond and pushed him into the pit as well. Skull and his allies slew the dinosaurs, and then captured the Priest. Having saved Viracocha's life, the four were now given free rein in the city. Cochran connected to these people from a time period closer to his own, and revealed his true past to them.

The Priest was imprisoned pending a trial, but his loyal cult, the Children of the Night came and freed him. The City was then attacked by a group of samurais riding winged dinosaurs. While Viracocha and his soldiers (and Skull and his allies) fought the samurais off, The Priest and his Children took out many of Viracocha's loyal soldiers. At the conclusion of the battle, the Jaguar Priest shot Viracocha with an arrow and retook leadership of the Incan tribe by force. The Priest had Viracocha put to death as a sacrifice to the Children of the Night.

Clarifications:
Viracocha was an impersonation of:

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, and Sonny Trinidad.

See the Bermuda Triangle entry for further info.

The tribe is referred to as both Incans and Aztecs. Take your pick. Viracocha is an Incan god, so that's what I'm going with.

The Feathered Serpent is not Viracocha, but Kukulcan, which is a Mayan god. I don't think that the two are meant to represent the same character, but I'm not 100% certain.

In case you don't know, a topographer is a map-maker.

Last updated: 08/01/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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