| Bacteria Monster | |
|---|---|
 ' | |
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Real Name: |
Morbulus |
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Gender: |
Male |
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Color: |
Purple |
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Element: |
Germ |
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Type: |
|
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Series: |
SWAT Kats |
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First appearance: |
SWAT Kats Episode 2 |
The Bacteria Monster was a creature appearing in the episode "The Giant Bacteria" of SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. It was a ravenous purple four-eyed creature created by mad scientist Dr. Viper when he mutated Morbulus, another villain who had eyes in the back of his head. Viper used the monster, which divided like a giant amoeba when hit, in an attempt to steal a rare chemical from Megakat Biochemical Labs, a highly secure research facility in Megakat City.
Due to being a mutated kat (the show's term for the anthropomorphic feline characters), the monster was for the most part solid and kept its more or less humanoid shape, although it was capable of temporarily liquefying itself to envelop prey. One of the creatures consumed an entire subway train in this manner. For the most part, though, they always ate using their mouths, which were enormous black holes permanently curled into evil smiles. They were also limited in how many times they could divide due to the number of eyes there were; the original four-eyed one divided into a pair of two-eyed creatures, one of which divided into two one-eyed monsters.
At all times, their upper and lower lips were connected by thin strands of slime. The more they ate, the bigger they became. The initial four-eyed monster was only slightly larger than Morbulus himself had been, whereas the final creature (one of the one-eyed creatures) was as large as a skyscraper. Of intelligence, they seemed to possess none; like most of Viper's creations, they were little more than mindless eating machines completely obedient to their maker.
In addition to dividing when struck, their bodies were soft, and projectiles not big enough to make them split would simply pass harmlessly through them. Dr. Viper also made them immune to even the strongest antibiotics in the world. Their only weakness was heat, specifically electrical heat, which would cause them to shrivel up, turn brown, and melt into lifeless puddles. Two of the creatures were killed by the SWAT Kats in this manner. The third swallowed a Megavolt Missile which electrocuted it from the inside out, causing it to explode into ashy powder instead of melting into a puddle.
It's unclear if they were giant germs, or giant collections of germs. Both the episode's title and in-story dialogue simply refer to them as "giant bacteria," although Viper's line about using the mutated Morbulus as a "living test tube" for what he called his new bacteria strain suggests the latter more than the former.
One appeared in the SWAT Kats SNES game as a boss in the Dr. Viper level (utilizing a sprite of the two-eyed version of the monster).