Black Supervillain: Doctor Crocodile - Joshua N'Dingi

"My name is Joshua N'Dingi. You will now be so kind as to return to your vehicles and leave my country. It is your choice as to whether you will be carrying corpses or not"

Joshua N'Dingi

Joshua was born to the Gawan tribe of Mbangawi. His father was the tribes leader Jonas N'Dingi and like everyone else, he expected Josua to achieve great things in life.His father sent him away to England to be educated. While in England he studied at Eton College and received a doctorate and was recruited to join the rogue government agency Resource Control Executive, or RCX. His job was to capture the Warpies, a race of mutated mutant children, and bring them under government care. 

Joshua really was a caring guy at the start. He tried to treat the children like humans when other agents warned they were unpredictable and unstable. During one mission he was attempting to care for one of the Warpies because it was afraid and crying. Despite Joshua calming the child it was startled by a loud sound in another room and exploded knocking him unconscious. He was permanently disfigured, losing his left leg, left arm, left eye and scaring or burning away majority of his remaining body on the left side.

RCX's official explanation to the government was that he had been injured in a car accident. They spent millions of dollars to reconstruct Joshua with artificial skin grafts and the best cybernetics they could get. When Joshua awoke he felt bitter. He was the only person to approach the work with any form of sensitivity to the children, yet he was the only one injured. At one point he was a legitimately nice looking guy who enjoyed expensive suits. Now the fibers irritate his skin, he lost the dreadlocks he was proud of, and his remaining skin looked as if it would crumble if touched.

During the time he spent in and out of operations his father had died. Joshua was bitter sweet about the death. On one hand, he was sad his father died and he could not be with him. On the other hand he was glad his father did not live to see the man that he had become. At this point in his life he was at a crossroads. The RCX expected Joshua to continue his work with them after the money they spent rebuilding him. However he didn't want to continue work where he wouldn't be appreciated. Instead he chose to return to Mbangawi and take over his father's former role as ruler of the country, leaving RCX shocked. The role of King in Mbangawi held the same weight as being considered a God. Despite his gruesome appearance they welcomed him back with joy. He preferred to be called President N'Dingi but that didn't work out. Instead his people only became more infatuated with him. They gave him the nickname Dr. Crocodile. It sounds evil but it really was from a place of love. Joshua managed to stop the wars between tribes in his country in a way most people would view in bad light. He went to war and personally ended them. Either end your wars and pledge allegiance or die. He killed a few but there were no more internal wars. He was able to build up the country to levels that no ruler had ever been able to before him. To his people he was a hero, to others he was a warlord and dictator.

While his new kingdom had strict laws there were countless improvements to health, education and wealth. Despite not agreeing with his methods T'Challa could not help but admit it was effective. Looking through old records he learned of a Canadian man named James Howlett, better known as Logan or Wolverine. Logan was the confirmed assassin of three African leaders and Joshua pieced together that it may have been more leaders. This lead to the idea that Logan may have assassinated Joshua's father as well. However, revenge would have to wait.

Joshua and his men captured a man named Jaimie Braddock who was the brother of Captain Britain. Jaimie Braddock was in Mbangawi because he was operating an illegal slave trade and looked to capture Mbangawi citizens. Despite being caught red handed, Jamie refused to name his collaborators leading Joshua to torture him for weeks. Seeing this the RCX led Joshua to believe that Captain Britain was also involved in the slave trade. 

Captain Britain was lured to Mbangawi where he was quickly beaten in a fight by Joshua. He was then tortured with hallucinations by Joshua and a witch lady. However Joshua was convinced that he was innocent. Joshua showed him what his brother had done and Captain Britain left Jaimie to Joshua's will. However, Technet was hired to rescue Jaimie who had gone mad due to the torture. Joshua tracked the team back to England but he was turned into an actual baby crocodile. Eventually the withc woman tracked him down and returned him to normal.

Like Moses Magnum and T'Challa, Joshua also attended the Pan-African conference during Civil War. A unified solution was not met but Mbangawi did accept some refugees as well. Shortly after the conference Joshua underwent surgery that upgraded his cybernetics. It also removed much of his scaly skin and replaced it with new artificial skin grafts. 

While he was away from the country receiving this operation he was informed that Warpies had started appearing there. He told his men to simply kill them, warning Warpies were the reason for his appearance. The X-Men were also drawn to Mbangawi for the Warpies. However they quickly defeated Joshua's men.

When Joshua arrived he took the X-Men's medics hostage and demanded they leave the country because they were trespassing. They were told to leave either of their own free will, or in body bags. Emma frost used her psychic abilities to make Joshua's men threaten suicide. He took the time to inform them of his past with the RCX and why they were out of their area of expertise. At this point Wolverine spoke up and Joshua brought up the fact that Wolverine assassinated several leaders so he was in no position to judge people for killing. When Wolverine called him a man who murdered to stay in power Joshua pointed out he never killed for fun or pleasure and he inherited his title, he never killed anyone for it. Needless to say they were not going to be friends

At this point Beast called Joshua stupid for arguing with Wolverine instead of dealing with the problem. But to be fair he was dealing with the problem, then The X-Men infiltrated his country and took out the people he had instructed to deal with the problem. Joshua quickly walked out hearing gun shots. He informed his men to protect civilians as a man had been attacked by the Furies, cyborgs from an alternate Earth.

Joshua reluctantly worked with the X-Men to defeat them. During the battle Joshua used his arm to form a drill and split the Furies in half. Meanwhile Cyclops continued to yell at him for killing Cyborgs who wanted to kill everyone. During the battle Joshua saved Emma Frost and allowed her to read the mind of one of the Furies. That's when they learned that the man behind this was Jim Jaspers. A man that could warp between realities. Warpies were formed every time he did this. The Furies were attempting to eliminate all mutants to prevent more Warpies from being created. 

The X-Men had met Jaspers earlier and kept him in one of their hospitals to recover from their wounds. Joshua stated he wanted to meet Jim and discuss the issues his warping was causing. When the group approached Jim he was sleeping and recovering from wounds he had received. The X-Men were shocked when Joshua simply pulled a gun and shot him in the head preventing another batch of Warpies from ever being created. 

At this point all hell broke loose and arguments began but Joshua refused to back down. He told them to get their Warpies and leave his country in the next 24 hours. The X-Men were angry but he pointed out how they were hypocrites. They had shamed him for ruling his country and letting people refer to him as a God, but Storm used to do the same thing. They were disgusted by his murder, but Wolverine used to kill for money. They called him a dictator, so what is Cyclops? Beast called him stupid but Beast only used his knowledge in attempt to heal his mutant gene, while Joshua had brought a country out of civil war and poverty to be an African powerhouse and world lteader. He explained that they never cared about his country only themselves, as that is all they ever cared about. Stating that nobody cared about Mbangawi but Mbangawi.

Now, here's my thing. Joshua isn't really a villain. Throughout his life he has come into conflict with a lot more heroes than what I mentioned here. But, he wasn't out for world domination or anything like that. The reason he's classified as a villain is simply because he chose to go about things differently. He ended a decade long civil war with military strategy instead of diplomacy. He's like Dr. Doom. Sure, people will call him a villain, but he has good reasoning behind his actions.

Abilities and Equipment

• Cyborg components
• Enhanced strength
• Several types of vision 
• Left Arm shoots a variety of chemical weapons
• Hallucinogenics
• Sleeping gasses
• Poison gasses 

• High pain threshold - may not actually feel pain
• Diplomatic Immunity
• Brilliant strategist and scientist

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
Follow @OriginalKingD