Batroc Ze Leapair!

It was just recently announced that UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will be playing "Batroc the Leaper" in the new Captain America movie.  First of all, this is a superb casting choice, one that would only be made better if Georges already had the epic facial hair that Batroc requires to be "Batroc Ze Leapair."  Now, Batroc isn't a major villain.  He isn't a major character at all.  He's a one-note joke whose only role is to show up, get punched around, and go to jail before showing up to repeat the process all over again.

And god, I love this character so much.


It's no secret I love B, C, and D-List characters, often more than I love the A-Listers.  Perhaps I feel that a lot of stories involving the main superheroes have already been done, and it takes a lot more to impress me.  Maybe it's that you can have more fun with offbeat ideas when the book stars someone like Adam Strange or Elsa Bloodstone.  Maybe I think underutilized characters are just massive amounts of potential, waiting to be tapped.

Or, in the case of Batroc, they're so pure in what they embody, that you can't help but like the shlub.

Batroc is a master of savate, which I only really know about because of him, Dick Grayson, and Remy from Street Fighter III.  However, based on a quick skim of Wikipedia, it seems like it's a pretty devastating martial art.  Batroc also has his own mercenary group called the "Batroc Brigade."  Yes, the other people are just as lame as you can imagine.

But what do I like about him?  Well, let's look at him:

1)  He's honorable.

No, really.  Batroc (with few exceptions) usually always announces his presence to whoever he's fighting.  Sure, this could set him up for someone with an actual superpower to drop him instantly, but if the alternative is to do a sneak attack?  Pft.  Better to take the loss and come back another day.

Also, Batroc usually isn't trying to kill anyone.  There's a moment in a classic Captain America issue where Batroc, working for Mr. Hyde, realizes that Hyde is actually going to murder the entire city of New York, he takes offense to it.

Yeah, Batroc still gets hauled off to jail, but he'll be back soon!

2)  He's fun.

Batroc likes being a bad guy because it lets him fight the best there is in fighting.  There was a great one-shot comic in 2011 appropriately titled Captain America and Batroc the Leaper that was told entirely from Batroc's point of view.  In it he simply explains the basics about his existence.  He wants to be the best he can possibly be.  He knows he'll probably never win against Captain America ("You want someone who can beat him?  Good luck.  No such man exists.  Because if there was, there would be no Captain America.")  He also knows his own reputation is that of "distraction."


But he lives for the thrill of the fight.  He loves testing himself every chance he can (even when his brain is screaming at him to escape).  He holds no grudges against heroes who beat him, and in fact admires many of them (why would he always fight Cap if Cap wasn't the best?).  In that light, he's not simply a pompous jerk so much as a test for Cap, to make sure he's still got it.

3)  He's French.

How can you not love the accent?  The fact that probably one of the most famous French characters in comics is a guy who constantly gets punched out by a man with an American flag on his chest is not only hilarious, but the fact that the stereotypical accent "carrees ovehr to everyzing 'e zays" is just the icing on the cake.  I always hear his voice in my head sounding like Pepe Le Pew, just more extreme.

4)  He believes in the same thing I do.

Namely, in the power of the boot to the head.

5)  He's such a loser.

Batroc is a guy who, even when he isn't trying to take out a man designed to tip an entire world war in the favor of the Allied powers, just can't seem to get a break.  For instance, on a mission he's hired to do, Batroc is sent down into the ocean to try to find clues to pieces of an alien gemstone that once made a caveman the premiere monster hunter in the world.

I swear, only in comics.  God bless 'em.

How did that turn out for him?

The same storyline had him almost get sacrificed at a South American temple.  So, if nothing else, you could say he's at least a survivor.

I really look forward to seeing him show up in the Captain America movie, and I honestly really hope he shows up as a genuine threat and not just someone who tries to rob a bank and then gets dropped in the first ten minutes of the film.  Let him be over the top.  Let him be in it solely for the fight and be a good sport if he loses.  Let him have fun.  Anything else, and it simply wouldn't be "Batroc Ze Leapair!"

Batroc, what's your take?

With any luck, yes.