Comic Book / Primal Warrior Draco Azul

Draco Azul, rise!

Primal Warrior Draco Azul is an indie Super Robot Genre comic series first published in 2019; written by Andres Perez, and with artwork by Tyler Sowles, Ed Pirrie, and Jeff Zornow.

When mysterious giant monsters called Diablos start rampaging across Mexico, Eric Martinez—a high school teacher from LA—finds himself the new pilot of the ancient Maya giant robot Draco Azul. Helped by his allies—the artificial intelligence Ekchuah and former bartender Ramona Escobar—Eric must find the courage and determination to defend humanity against the Diablos, though even more sinister threats lurk beyond the stars.

Originating as the mascot of Andres Perez's YouTube channel, KaijuNoir, Draco Azul has grown into the star of not only the comic series but a pair of novels entitled Primal Warrior Draco Azul: Full Metal Chronicles (a compilation of short stories) and Primal Warrior Draco Azul: Soulless Blood. In addition to his own dedicated series, Draco Azul has also appeared in crossovers with other indie kaiju projects—including the Kaiju vs. Cancer charity fundraiser, the short-lived Daikaiju Daikessen video-games, the Gurral VS Sleipnir crossover webcomic, and the Atomic Rex series.

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Primal Warrior Draco Azul provides examples of:

• Action Girl: Ramona Escobar is introduced as a bartender whose father was a famous Badass Biker nicknamed El Gigante, who taught her how to handle herself in a fight. She demonstrates when saving Eric from some thugs, and after her bar is trashed by a Diablo she decides to join Draco Azul's crew and help Ekchuah teach Eric how to properly fight.
• Alternate Self: The crossover Draco Azul / Atomic Rex: Shadow of the Raptor features a Film Noir-style Draco Azul who works as a hardboiled private investigator in a world where giant monsters live mundane lives akin to those of humans.
• Ascended Fangirl: Ramona grew up watching kaiju movies, and ends up helping Eric pilot Draco Azul and fight against city-destroying giant monsters.
• Badass Bookworm: Eric Martinez was once a high school social studies teacher in Los Angeles, though his true passion was archaeology. While on vacation in Cancún, he was attacked by Diablos while visiting a Maya pyramid and found himself stuck in Draco Azul's cockpit—forcing him to quickly learn how to fight.
• The Bartender: Ramona Escobar debuts in the second issue tending bar at her dad's old biker bar. When Eric shows up, she engages in conversation with him—curious as to why he hasn't left town like just about everyone else. When he turns the question on her, she states that she can't bear to leave it behind due to the sentimental memories it carries for her. Unfortunately for her, a rampaging Diablos destroys the bar, compelling her join up with Draco Azul.
• Benevolent A.I.: While a bit snarky and gruff, Draco Azul's AI—taking the form of a Maya warrior named Ekchuah—is devoted to keeping humanity safe from the threat of the Diablos.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Draco Azul is equipped with dual axe-shaped arm-blades, which it can detach and dual-wield as combat knives.
• Botanical Abomination: "A Friend From Afar" has Draco Azul fighting against a plant-like alien called Rozacdyl, which was able to drain the life force from the surrounding vegetation to heal itself and manifest thorny vines to use as Combat Tentacles.
• Calling Your Attacks: Eric calls out all of Draco Azul's combat maneuvers and abilities when using them.
• Caped Mecha: It's revealed in the "Legacy of Valor" short story that Draco Azul was originally adorned with a regal red cape, though all that remains by the present day is the mech's Scarf of Asskicking.
• Combat Pragmatist: Ramona isn't afraid to fight dirty when teaching Eric how to fight, and chastises him for expecting her to do so when their enemies won't.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ekchuah's simulated battle against the Feathered Serpent in "Reminiscence"—to punish Eric for his recklessness—goes very poorly for Draco Azul. The draconic storm-god lays waste to the surrounding region with a massive hurricane—with Eric being powerless to save any of the innocents caught up in the storm—before easily overpowering the alien mech and destroying it. Ekchuah realizes he went too far, apologizing for making him relive Draco Azul's greatest failure.
• Crossover:
  • Augustine the Crookedman, the entity who enigmatically aids Draco Azul in "Divine Intervention", originates in William T. Kearney’s YouTube web-series turned webcomic The Crookedman and his not-so-scary Crooked Catgirl.
  • Draco Azul / Atomic Rex: Shadow of the Raptor is a crossover with Matthew Dennion's Atomic Rex series.
• Deadpan Snarker: Ekchuah, Draco Azul's AI, is prone to giving Eric sarcastic complements.
• Eldritch Abomination: Full Metal Chronicles' opening short story. "Divine Intervention", has a swarm of blob monsters composed of Ominous Obsidian Ooze making an incursion into Draco Azul's home dimension and merging into a gestalt form to fight the mech. The Crookedman calls them an abomination from another universe, and says that they are the offspring of something even worse.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Eric Martinez becomes Draco Azul's pilot after following a Maya priest into the pyramid complex where the mech was buried to take shelter during a Diablo attack. The priest—whose family had been safeguarding Draco Azul for generations—was fatally wounded, bequeathing a staff connected to the mech to Eric before passing away.
• Feathered Serpent: Angered by Eric's blasé attitude towards collateral damage in a simulated battle, Ekchuah puts him in a simulated match against the plumed serpent wind-god worshipped by many Mesoamerican civilizations—though Eric mainly refers to it as its Aztec name Quetzalcoatl despite its destructive behaviour being more in line with the Maya interpretation K'uk'ulkan.
• Fish People: The first Diablos that Draco Azul is shown fighting is a humanoid creature with a fishlike head and fins.
• Fusion Dance: In "Reminiscence", Hunhau reveals that he and and Uacmitun Ahau were once a single entity before splitting into two beings so that he could have a right hand upon becomeign the Top God. Pushed to the brink of defeat by Draco Azul, Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau merge back into their original form, Cizin.
• God of the Dead: In the short story "Reminiscence", Ekchuah uses a virtual reality simulation to pit Eric against the Maya death-gods Hunhau—ruler of the Underworld—and his avian brother Uacmitun Ahau.
• The Gunslinger: The short story "A Friend From Afar" has Draco Azul encounter the Star Slinger, aka José, an alien bounty hunter disguised as a gunslinger from the Wild West with an energy gun powerful enough to severely injure Diablos.
• How We Got Here:
  • The third issue contains a flashback to how Eric went from being a high school social studies teacher to the pilot of Draco Azul.
  • The "Legacy of Valor" short story has Ekchuah explain the history of Draco Azul's first pilot, Yochi, to Eric—much of the chapter being told from Yochi's perspective in the late 3rd century CE.
• Humongous Mecha: Draco Azul—originally called Ya'axkan—is a sixty-meter-tall alien mecha brought to Earth during the Maya civilization, where it was worshipped as a guardian deity. Its AI, Ekchuah, takes the form of a Maya warrior as a result. Buried under a pyramid for 800 years, it was awakened when Eric Martinez entered it and became its new pilot.
• I Have Many Names: Being an anthropology and history buff, Eric recalls that the Feathered Serpent god was worshipped across Mesoamerica under many different names, though its most famous in modern times is the Aztecs'—Quetzalcoatl.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Ekchuah notes that unlike Draco Azul's past pilots Eric isn't a trained warrior, and Eric himself laments that he's not cut out for the job. Ramona restores his confidence by showing him people admire Draco Azul as a hero, and that his efforts haven't all been for nothing.
• Mech vs. Beast: Draco Azul is an ancient alien mecha that was gifted to the Maya civilization millennia ago, and is used to defend Mexico from alien monsters called Diablos.
• Militaries Are Useless: The American government is briefly mentioned as refusing to provide military support to the people of Mexico, instead fortifying their own border against attacks from Diablos. The Mexican military doesn't fare very well either, being subjected to a thorough Curb-Stomp Battle in the opening pages of Full Metal Chronicles.
• My Greatest Failure: In the short story "Reminiscence", Ekchuah reveals to Eric that one of the worst days of his life—the event that caused him to retire from fighting gods and monsters for 800 years—was a battle with the Mesoamerican Feathered Serpent god K'uk'ulkan/Quetzalcoatl that ended disastrously, costing the lives of countless innocents, fatally injuring Draco Azul's pilot, and destroying the city of Teotihuacan in the process.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Eric's reckless fighting style and anger accidentally causes Draco Azul to destroy a swath of rainforest and kill the very merchants he was trying to protect in the short story "Reminiscence", the evil god Hunhau mockingly states that Eric isn't so different from himself—driven by rage and bloodlust, and more fitting to be called a destroyer than a defender. Eric is rattled by this, though Ekchuah assures him that playing mind games with his opponents was Hunhau's tactic when he was on the verge of losing a fight and the reason he chose the dark god as Eric's opponent was to make him realize he's better than he thinks he is.
• Projected Man: When manifested as a holographic projection, Draco Azul's AI, Ekchuah, takes the appearance of a Maya warrior in traditional regalia. In "Legacy of Valor", Ekchuah reveals that he wears the visage of the Draco Azul's first pilot, Yochi, as a tribute to his former protégé.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: In the second issue, Draco Azul engages a Diablo with Rubber Man powers in a barrage of rapid punch parries.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Draco Azul's AI, Ekchuah, was named after the Maya deity of travelers and journeys.
• Sanity Slippage: As a result of his initial lack of combat experience and rushed training, Ekchuah laments that four months of nonstop fighting have been eating away at Eric's sanity and caused him to become increasingly bloodthirsty and vicious in combat—lapsing into berserk states where he relentlessly mains his opponents.
  Ekchuah: You see, Eric and I have been at this nonstop. He's become more... unhinged over time. But this is something else. All of Draco Azul's past pilots have been strong-willed warriors with years of mental and physical training. Not only has Eric's training been rushed, but this war of ours might've been detaching him from the outside world. At this point, there's something else fueling his spirit. Something vengeful... primal even.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Draco Azul is outfitted with a tattered red scarf that it can use to wrap up opponents. It's revealed in "Legacy of Valor" that the scarf is all that remains of a regal red cape that the mech was originally adorned with; Eric wondering if it was shredded slowly over time or all at once in a big battle like Draco Azul's fight with Quetzalcoatl.
• Sequel Hook: The first and third issues include brief scenes of an armored alien warlord seemingly behind the Diablos attacks, which the third issue reveals are a test to see if Draco Azul is worthy of joining his ranks.
• Serial Killer: Varukan—aka Balthazar—is a hedonistic alien serial killer who preys on sentient life, and is introduced in the short story "A Friend from Afar" sadistically massacring a group of women who he seduces using his human disguise. When Eric begins investigating alongside the alien bounty hunter José, he discovers that Varukan has been using the city as a hunting ground for some time and been leaving bits and pieces of his victims scattered all over. When confronted, Varukan tells Eric that he's a simple monster who merely wants to indulge in all of life's pleasures, which for him means torturing and devouring his victims while they're still alive so he can enjoy their screams, and that the appearance of the Diablos has provided the perfect cover to go on a feeding frenzy.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: The monster that Draco Azul fights at the beginning of Full Metal Chronicles is a semi-amorphous creature that can reshape its body at will—manifesting fang-studded Combat Tentacles to fight.
• Ship Tease: Eric flirts with Ramona upon first meeting her, and in the third issue she tells him that he means a lot to her for having broken her out of the rut she'd been in since her father's murder, saying that he's given her an exciting life she feels is one worth living and that she's more than happy to share his burden.
• Shock and Awe: Draco Azul is powered by electrical energy absorbed through its horn, which it can use to wreathe its punches and kicks in lightning or fire powerful energy blasts.
• Shout-Out: In the third issue:
  • Eric is sporting an Atomic Rex T-shirt during his sparring match with Ramona
  • Ramona is wearing a sports bra with the logo for William T. Kearney’s *Gods’ Wrath: Tournament of the Divine* novel series
  • Godzilla, Nagoraiar, Kodoja, Fire-Beast Dorugan, Durontus the Lost Serpent, Ganogwa the Colossal Conqueror, and Robot God Akamatsu figurines can be seen in a corner of the Draco Azul merchandise stall.
• Slasher Smile: In the second issue, when attacked by a group of thugs Eric picks up a knife and grabs one of them by the throat with a bloodthirsty grin, before relenting due to Ramona watching.
• The Sociopath: In the short story "A Friend from Afar", Varukan is a sadistic predatory alien serial killer who relishes in torturing his victims and devouring them while they're still alive so he can enjoy their screams, taming the plantlike Diablo Rozacdyl and using it as a means of distracting the authorities from his feeding frenzy. When Rozacdyl is killed by Draco Azul, he is initially furious but mocks José's assumption that he cared for the Rozacdyl as anything other than a useful tool, sneering that emotions like love and compassion are weaknesses.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Eric Martinez—who was raised Catholic—is shocked to discover that the gods worshiped by the Maya were real in the short story "Reminiscence", Ekchuah stating that the gods worshipped by ancient civilizations were actually members of a hyper-evolved species of aliens with borderline-supernatural powers, shapeshifting abilities, and the ability to grow stronger by feeding off their worshipers' life force; though he notes he's not sure if the same is true for the gods of modern-day religions.
• Super Robot Genre: Draco Azul features a giant lightning-powered alien robot piloted by an inexperienced human who falls into the cockpit, fighting mysterious giant monsters in modern-day Mexico.
• Switch to English: When Eric first meets Ekchuah, the AI is set to speak in Yucatec Maya but quickly uses wireless communications to tap into the Internet and download the English lexicon.
• Took a Level in Badass: According to Ekchuah, Eric was completely helpless when he first started piloting Draco Azul. Four months later, he's become skilled enough to fend off a whole group of thugs with a hand from Ramona... though he's become something of a Blood Knight as a result.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • The short story "Crossroads" in Full Metal Chronicles reveals that Eric Martinez's trench coat was given to him by the Rodriguez family in Ensenada, who he was tragically unable to save from an attacking Diablo—a particularly crushing blow due to Eric having befriended him and the Diablo only having attacked due to his presence there.
  • Ramona Escobar's father was a biker who'd help people with gang-related troubles, until one day he was murdered. Ramona took over his bar, framing his leather jacket on the wall as a memento, but when the bar is destroyed by a rampaging Diablo she digs the jacket out of the rubble and takes it with her, saying that way she'll always be carrying a piece of her father with her.
• Two-Faced: Augustine, aka the Crookedman, is an enigmatic entity from another universe who appears in Full Metal Chronicles and has a mask with a skull-like right half and a frowning face for a left half, each being able to speak independently of the other and possessing its own personality.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Draco Azul's usual finishing move is the Draco Striker, which fires a massive beam of concentrated lightning that obliterates almost anything it hits.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In the short story "Reminiscence" Ekchuah berates Eric for having killed the very merchants he was supposed to have been protecting during his simulated battle with Hunhau and Uacmitun Ahau, thereby crippling the Maya civilization. When Eric protests it was just a simulation, Ekchuah coldly states that if Eric can't learn to control his recklessness and prioritize minimizing collateral damage over winning at any cost then he's no better than the enemies they go up against.

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