Snake Lord (Earth-51900)

snakelord-main snakelord-face-prof SNAKE LORD
Earth-51900

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-51900) demon (apostle)

Occupation: Lord of Koka

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: God Hand, his own henchmen, unidentified mayor of Koka

Enemies: Guts

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Koka

First Appearance: Monthly Animal House I#10 (October, 1989);
(Marvel) Berserk I#1 (August, 1996)

Powers/Abilities: The Snake Lord has the physiology of a cobra with arms and legs and is enormous in stature, allowing him to inflict even more deadly blows on his enemies. He has regenerative powers and is immune to conventional weapons. The Snake Lord, like most of the other apostles, has the ability to take on humanoid form, which, however, retains some of his snake-like features.

In humanoid form, he retains his abilities and can transform into his true form at any time.

The Snake Lord is also known to be able to ride a horse and wield an axe. snakelord-upper

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed (black and white comic)
Hair: Unrevealed (black and white comic)

History: Nothing is known about the Snake Lord's past, but it can be presumed that he was once a human who activated behelit and made a sacrifice to the God Hand.

(Berserk I#1 - BTS) - Snake Lord, accompanied by his bandits, arrived in the town of Koka and seized power by making a deal with the mayor, the condition of which was order for the town and people in exchange for regularly providing him with gold, as well as people to eat. One day, the mayor gave Snake Lord a prison wagon full of women and children.

(Berserk I#1) - While Snake Lord was eating human flesh in the castle, one of his minions came to inform him of Guts' arrival in Koka. Snake Lord wondered if this was the apostle-slaying swordsman of whom he had heard. The next visitor was the mayor, who informed him that Guts had been captured and apologized to Snake Lord for Guts' actions. The mayor further claimed that Guts was an outsider and not one of the locals, and he promised to double the amount of gold and human cattle he was delivering. Snake Lord smiled wryly and noted that the mayor looked troubled and worried for his life. He tossed a severed human ear, which he had not finished eating, into the mayor's hand and stated that seeing humans in a fiery apocalypse and listening to the snapping of their bones under the hooves of horses was more important to him than food and riches, adding that he did not need any excuses. The Snake Lord watched as his henchmen grabbed the mayor and led him out of the room.

Seeing no need to keep his word and eager to fulfill his cruel desires, the Snake Lord donned his armor and went with his minions to the city, where they began a merciless massacre. Snake Lord killed a boy with an axe and raised him above himself to drink the blood pouring from the corpse. He ordered the entire place to be burned to the ground, but was interrupted by the arrival of Guts, who had broken out of prison. Guts killed the knights standing in his way and prepared for a direct confrontation with the Snake Lord, who was confident that Guts, being a mere mortal, had no chance against him, an apostle.

Riding a horse, the Snake Horse charged at Guts, who shot him several times with a crossbow. Most of the arrows hit his armor, but three hit his face, one of which hit his eye. The Snake Lord fell from his horse, but quickly got back up, after which Guts fired again. The Snake Lord assumed his true form, becoming a huge monstrous snake, and he struck back with his tail. Moving towards Guts, he announced his intention to eat him alive. The Snake Lord landed a few more blows, which gave him more confidence in victory, and he grabbed Guts, intending to eat him, but Guts chose the right moment and shot him in the face with his cannon arm. snakelord-kill

Grabbing his huge sword, Guts bisected the apostle, thus completely incapacitating him, but even that was not enough to kill him. Guts fired several arrows into the Snake Lord, who begged him to stop. The Snake Lord saw the Brand of Sacrifice on his enemy's neck, but hastened to assure him that he did not know where the God Hand was, as this information was unknown to mere apostles. Guts left, leaving the Snake Lord to die in the fire.

Comments: Created by Kentaro Miura.

    I dedicate this profile to Kentaro Miura, who died on May 6, 2021 and never managed to complete the manga series he had been working on for over 30 years. Rest in peace, legend, and thank you so much for the legacy you left to us!

    Berserk is a critically acclaimed dark fantasy/sword and sorcery manga series illustrated and written by Kentaro Miura. The 46-page prototype chapter was first made available to the public in 1988. At the time, Miura was in college and slowly began to develop his idea. Serialization of Berserk began in 1989 in Hakusensha's seinen (adult-oriented) magazine Monthly Animal House starting at #10. It ignored the plot of the prototype (for example, the prototype says that Guts' mother was killed by the apostles, which was what prompted him to start his journey in order to take revenge), but some thematic elements and character designs were kept. After the cancellation of Monthly Animal House, Berserk migrated to Young Animal under the same publisher. The manga is currently ongoing, continuing to run after Miura's sudden death, and is curated by his close friend Kouji Mori and illustrated by Studio Gaga. Berserk was published by Dark Horse Comics in the USA, but its connection with Marvel has its roots in Italy...

    Marvel once owned Panini, through which they were selling comics in Europe. Since Panini is an Italian company, a division called Marvel Italia became the main branch. Although the publisher, as its name suggests, specialized in translating and reprinting Marvel comics, in 1996 Marvel Italia spawned two imprints: Cult Comics and Marvel Manga. The first published translations of Image Comics, and the second published Japanese manga. Titles released by Marvel Manga included Neon Genesis Evangelion, Slam Dunk and Battle Angel Alita. In 1998, Marvel was going through hard times and decided to sell Panini, resulting in the reorganization. Marvel Italia became Panini Comics, and Marvel Manga was renamed Planet Manga. Marvel Manga managed to publish 11 issues of Berserk, which included chapters 0A-11. The reprints were adapted into a comic book format and read from left to right (it should be noted that Marvel did the same when they published Akira in the 1980s).

    The Snake Lord's weight and height are impossible to determine, and the Berserk Official Guidebook provides no data. Because the manga is black and white, it is also impossible to tell what color the eyes and hair are.

    The Snake Lord has cameo appearances in chapters 48 and 80 of Berserk, but they are not included in the profile as they were not reprinted by Marvel Italia. There, he was among the apostles present at the Eclipse - a sacrificial ceremony occurring once every 216 years, during which a new member of the God Hand is elected.

    The Snake Lord appears in the first episode of the 1997 Berserk anime adaptation. He was voiced by Kan Tokumaru and Lex Woutas in the English dub. Kan Tokumaru voiced Dum Dum Dugan in the Japanese dub of Iron Man: The Animated Series and Anakaris, Amingo, and the Abyss in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.

Thanks to Loki for editing the image on the bottom right...it was a little too graphic/gorey as originally pictured.

This profile was completed 07/02/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Mike Castle.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-51900's Snake Lord should be distinguished from:

SERPENT MEN - a race of snake-headed humanoids, who were the enemies of Omm and the Spider People, were the original offspring of Set, active back in pre-cataclysmic Atlantis, most wiped out by Kull, and later Conan and his son Conan (Conn)--Kull the Conqueror I#2.
SERPENT MEN of Starksboro - human followers of Set, servants of Sligguth, Ebora, N'Gabthoth and others, natives of the town of Starksboro, who took on reptilian characteristics, and some even became hosts for the spirits of Set's Serpent Men--Marvel Premiere#4.
SERPENT MEN - aka Snake Men, humans mutated by a chemical from Tyrannus, that mutated them into semi-reptilian form, under the control of himself, Ghaur, Llyra, and the other major players in Atlantis Attacks. A prototype of this serum was used by Viper against Washington, DC, and temporarily mutated Ronald Reagan--Captain America I#344, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#9
SERPENT MEN of Snake Dance - warriors of the Apache tribe who fell under Snake Dance's influence and fought for him--Marvel Spotlight I#8
MAN-SERPENTs (not Men-Serpent) - also known as the Sons of Set, who were giant snakes with a human head, and Medusa-like snakes in place of hair, which diverged from a common race along with the Serpent Men--Conan the Barbarian I#7
other "Snake" and/or "Lord" characters, groups, items, events, races or places...

images: (without ads)
Berserk I#1, p67, pan1 (main; in armor)
Berserk I#1, p76 (in his true form)
Berserk I#1, p39, pan4 (the Snake Lord in human form without his armor)
Berserk I#1, p60 (on horseback, pole axe raised)

Appearances:
Berserk I#1 (August, 1996) - Kentaro Miura (writer, pencils), Marco M. Lupoi (editor)

First posted: 09/29/2026
Last updated: 05/10/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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