The Coon (Character)

The Coon is the superhero (or rather, supervillain) alter-ego of Eric Cartman. He first appears in the self-titled episode, "The Coon". He was also the leader of Coon and Friends in "Coon 2: Hindsight", but he was kicked out by the other members because he was beating them up and blackmailing other heroes.

The Coon eventually went to the evil side when he formed an alliance with Cthulhu in "Mysterion Rises". He embarks on a killing spree with Cthulhu, eventually making Cthulhu level the entire city of San Francisco. In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", he continues on his killing spree, making Cthulhu destroy the Burning Man festival, slaughter Justin Bieber and most of his fans, and banish his friends to the sunken city of R'Lyeh.

However, Cthulhu is eventually defeated when Mint-Berry Crunch uses his super powers to seal him back into his own dimension. The Coon is made powerless and captured by the new Coon and Friends, who put him in the cell with Professor Chaos.

Background
In "The Coon", Cartman assumed the identity of the Coon to wipe out crime in South Park, but his idea of crime was flawed, as he attacked a man he thought was a rapist when he was trying to kiss his date. In his regular identity, Cartman tried to spread the word of the Coon, even appearing as the Coon and giving the South Park police department Coon T-shirts, but no one really cared about him and the police were even annoyed by him when he went to report his "crimes".

One night patrolling, Cartman meets another superhero called Mysterion, who, like Cartman, wanted to get rid of crime in South Park, but was more successful - and popular - than Cartman. This made Cartman jealous and led him to try and get rid of Mysterion to become the only superhero in South Park. He enlisted the help of Professor Chaos and General Disarray to get rid of Mysterion. The Coon noticed he was crossed out of their list of Mysterion suspects, and that his identity was on a list of people who could be the Coon, but this was only because Cartman is fat.

The Coon made a plan where Professor Chaos would make a broadcast about blowing up a hospital and Mysterion would show up to stop the crime, and they could catch him and unmask him to the public. Eventually, Mysterion does come and fights the villains, with Cartman coming unexpectedly and helping Mysterion fight the villains. After they run off in defeat, Cartman convinces Mysterion to unmask himself, but because of the way the characters are drawn, it wasn't clear who he was.

Mysterion is taken to jail and Cartman perceives victory that he is once again South Park's only superhero, but in an alternate ending, it was revealed Kyle was the Mysterion that unmasked himself to draw attention away from the real Mysterion, and Mysterion comes and unmasks himself to Kyle, still making unclear who he was.

The Coon reappears in "Coon 2: Hindsight", where it seems he and Mysterion (later revealed to be Kenny) have put aside their differences and is now leading a group of superheroes called Coon and Friends, consisting of Toolshed (Stan), TupperWear (Token), Iron Maiden (Timmy), Mosquito (Clyde), The Human Kite (Kyle), Mint-Berry Crunch (Bradley), and Mysterion.

He has converted his basement into a headquarters and has even kept Professor Chaos in a "holding cell" for six days, leaving him only with a bucket to poop in. He was seen criticizing Mint-Berry Crunch about the flaws of his costume, and left him to guard the base during missions. He has also set up Coon and Friends alarm systems in his teammates' houses (without their knowledge and to the puzzlement of their families), to call them for meetings.

On a mission to stop a burning building, they get Cartman's mom to drive them to the crime scene, but the firemen try to back them away. Just then, another superhero, Captain Hindsight, tells them the things they should have done so the fire would not happen, and despite not actually helping but criticizing the non-executive flaws, the firemen thank Captain Hindsight for his help, and leave, allowing 14 people to die in the fire. This draws the attention of The Coon, who wants to recruit Captain Hindsight to be a part of their group. Cartman, as his regular self, goes to Captain Hindsight's mansion and ask for him to join Coon and Friends, but Captain Hindsight says he works alone and refuses the offer. This angers Cartman, who then attempts to blackmail Hindsight by having Butters dress up as Courtney Love and have sex with a random hobo with Captain Hindsight's face photo-shopped on. Hindsight actually believes this ploy, which causes his reputation to crash.

Meanwhile, the BP oil company drills into the Gulf of Mexico and opens a dimensional rift, from which strange creatures emerge and terrorize the citizens. The BP (who later change their name to DP) decide to drill into the Moon to get rid of the creatures, but this only exacerbates the problem by summoning the Great Old One, Cthulhu. To help out the people in the Gulf crisis, the Coon is forced to go with Mosquito's plan to make a bake sale to help the people in need, which the rest of Coon and Friends agrees to. When they go to the grocery store to get ingredients for the bake sale, Cartman viciously attacks Mosquito and Mint-Berry Crunch in order to assert his power within the group. This causes the rest of Coon and Friends to vote Cartman out, who is later grounded by his mother for swearing and beating his friends up. Mysterion takes over Coon and Friends, and they go to stop the Gulf crisis with their bake sale. However, the Coon decides that his friends have become evil "assholes", and sets of to stop them.

In "Mysterion Rises", the Coon is trying to get to Cthulhu, but his flight is delayed because Cthulhu defecated on the runway. A little girl comes and asks Cartman if he knows Mint-Berry Crunch. This angers Cartman and he beats the girl up (in his mind, saving the day).

When Cartman does reach Cthulhu, he tries to get his attention by yelling at him, but the dark lord does not notice him. He eventually realizes he has to be sweet and kind, so he does that, by introducing himself as the little Coon, and petting Cthulhu's belly. Soon enough, Cartman befriends Cthulhu. They are then shown flying around, destroying various things Cartman hates, such as a synagogue, hippies, and even the entire city of San Francisco. In "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", the Coon returns to South Park to get back at the other members of his former group, using Cthulhu's powers to banish all of them (except Mint-Berry Crunch, who ran away) to an alternate dimension. He later continues his killing spree, getting Cthulhu to slaughter every last person at a Justin Bieber concert. However, in the aftermath, he is confronted by Mysterion, who had escaped from his imprisonment by committing suicide and being reborn in the real world, accompanied by Mint-Berry Crunch.

Unexpectedly however, it turns out that Mint-Berry Crunch actually has real superpowers due to his hitherto unknown alien heritage. He uses these powers to defeat Cthulhu and return him to his own realm, as well as save the other members of Coon and Friends. Stripped of his power, the Coon is last seen in the Coon and Friends holding cell with Butters and nothing but the latter's excrement to eat.

Equipment
The Coon's primary weapons are sharp metal claws attached to his fingers (made to resemble a raccoon's claws). He uses them to scratch up a mans face in "The Coon" (the man comments afterward "ow, that really stings!"), and to beat up Mosquito and Mint-Berry crunch (they appeared to cause more serious injury, as evidenced by the large amount of blood on Mosquito). He also uses his bare hands to hurt his enemies, such as when he punches Professor Chaos in the face or when he kicks Mosquito in the face and groin.

He is shown using a variety of conventional equipment such as computers, binoculars, and TV's, all of which have coon-themed names and labels on them. In "The Coon", he also uses large amounts of dynamite to try to blow up a hospital, but abandons the plot soon after Professor Chaos (Butters) is defeated. While usually preferring to scale buildings for transportation (usually through the use of ladders), he is not above simply asking his mom (who he refers to as "The Coon's faithful butler") to drive him places (he refers to her car as "The Coon-Mobile").

Appearance
The Coon wears a raccoon-like mask with raccoon ears with metal claws, a utility belt, a red cape with a capital "C" on the back of it, a raccoon tail, a white shirt with a capital "C", and a gray jacket and gray pants.

Personality
Like his alter-ego, Eric Cartman, the Coon is deemed selfish, ego-maniacal, with a short temper, and wanted to be the only one with the spotlight, demonstrated as he tried to get rid of Mysterion so he can be South Park's only superhero. He defines being a hero as making the world a better place for himself. But in reality, the Coon is a villain.

He has a massive problem with concealing his identity - as Cartman, he is always going out of his way to promote the Coon and defends him when someone insults him (such as when Kyle called him "faggy"), then accidentally letting his identity slip several times as the Coon (Mysterion could tell he was Cartman from the fact that he said Kyle hated him, although he already knew by the Coon's weight)

Trivia

 * Cartman's way of disguising his voice and reporting his crimes to the police is similar to Batman. His plan to wipe out crime is also similar to Rorscach from Watchmen.
 * The Coon's interactions with Cthulhu are a reference to My Neighbor Totoro, a Studio Ghibli film. Other interactions reference several old Warner Brothers shorts featuring a tiny black kitten and a huge bulldog.