He regretted having discarded his mother's Choctaw heritage as worthless trash. He regretted having been an outlaw, a arm and leg breaker for a ruthless loan shark. He regretted having stolen gold from a land sacred to the Apache, Navaho, Hopi and Pima.
He regretted wasting his life dreaming about the exploits of fictional dime novel heroes, such as El Murcielago.
Mostly he regretted his part in the execution death of Poul Ichabod, his friend and blood brother. While it is true he did not strike a killing blow, he did not protest when his other two brothers had tied Ichabod to a cross made from timbers.
He regretted having laughed when Donegal Ryan blew off Ichabod's arms at the shoulders with two shot gun blasts, of laughing when Ross Irving broke Ichabod's knees with a townball bat.
Remembering having taken his Bowie knife and scalping Ichabod chin of his beard, Bear Marks shuddered. Whooping he had stuck the bloody chin scalp on the circular bald spot on his own head. As a child a bear had tore out a chunk of Bear Marks's scalp leaving it bald and scarred.
A great prickling heat had rushed through his body centering from where the scalp had attached itself to his scalp. Bear Marks tried to wrench the bloody scalp from his head but the hair had become as fastened on his skull as his own.
Bear Marks and Ross Irving
left the valley together traveling through Nevada. Ross Irving had noticed
that hair from the chin scalp had become coarse, black bristles and it
had spread slowly replacing Bear Marks own hair.
The black, bristly hair covered Bear Marks scalp and then moved slowly downward, covering his forehead, neck, and ears. His eyebrows disappeared covered over by an expanse of hair which covered his head to his nose, still it crept downwards. All his facial hair was replaced by the bristly black hair.
In the space of two months, Bear Marks looked like Jojo the Dog faced boy. By the time four months had passed , the black hair covered his entire body, except for his palms and the soles of his feet.
Still further changes continued. His vison became weak, especially at during the day. His hearing became acute and his ears, nose and teeth transformed. His ears became pointed funnels, his nose a flat, black half muzzle and his teeth became sharp fangs. His dietary habits changed also, he could no longer abide cooked or prepared foods, craving vegetables, fruits and especially insects.
Bear Marks realized that Ichabod had cursed him and made him into a distorted image of his favorite dime novel hero, El Murcielago, The Bat.
Realizing this plunged Bear Marks into a deep despair. He had sat at a solitary campfire contemplating suicide. He had even fired a revolver directly against his head, only to have the gun misfire. Sobbing he had tossed the gun away.
From despair had come regrets and from profound regrets had arisen a vow to remake his life as he had been remade. He would use his cursed form to fight evil. He took a vow to become El Murcielago, to fight for justice, to avenge wrongs and to destroy evil, unto his death if necessary.
At first he vowed never to take a life but to capture his quarry alive. However since his arrests did not have the force of law, his first two foes came back to haunt him with nearly fatal results. After this incident, Bear Marks vowed to bring 'em back alive, if it weren't too much trouble.
From late 1870 until his suicide in 1875, Bear Marks roamed the New Southwest from New Mexico to the center of Mexico seeking to redress wrongs. His exploits were inspired by dime novels but soon became even wilder than the tales of the fictional El Murcielago.
He met and defeated an array of villains, the Gay Vaqueros, the Last Conquistadore, Aztec Bob, the Land Pirates, The Five Wound Killer, Los Hermanos Dos Penitentes, Razorback and Longhorn, Oil Man and of course that arch villainess Salinda the Dance Hall Queen.
In 1875 the evil El Head pursuing vengeance against Bear Marks for youthful excesses, had three of his Headsmen, The Clown, Half a Face and the Dog Solider create a criminal empire to wear Bear Marks down for an easy kill.
However the three criminals proved
too hard for El Head to control and Bear Marks found himself in an uneasy
alliance with the disembodied head. After all three villains had been defeated
El Head betrayed Bear Marks by exposing his secret identity and publishing
various character assassinations in newsprint.
View an image of Bear Marks
Read the Bear Marks/El Murcielago story the Last Conquistadore online now!
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All the material on these web pages or any other material relating to the character of El Head are copyrighted by Dennis E. Power ©1997 Dennis E. Power. All Rights reserved.
Character of El Head created by David Rush ©1996 All Rights Reserved.
All of the persons,
places and items on the El Head pages are imaginary.
Any resemblance to any
existing place or product is done only for purposes of fictional verisimilitude
and should not be taken as an endorsement of said product or place.
Any resemblence to any
person living, dead or somewhere in between is merely coincidental.