Cottonmouth

"You like my Biggie photo? Me too. You know what draws your eye when you look at that? The crown... Wanna know why? 'Cause everybody wants to be the king."

- Cottonmouth to Shameek Smith

Cornell Stokes, also known as Cottonmouth, was the owner of Harlem's Paradise, a nightclub within New York City. His criminal ongoings began to unravel due to a failed gun sale, causing him to track down those responsible and becoming Luke Cage's enemy. Due to Cage's actions, Cottonmouth's entire organisation was put at risk due to the threat of Diamondback taking over while he lost his money. Despite Cottonmouth's best efforts to keep the business running, he soon enraged his cousin Mariah Dillard who eventually murdered him and took over his criminal empire.

Early Life
At a young age, Cornell was a great pianist and wanted to pursue a career. But with Mama Mabel basically running the neighborhood of Harlem and being head of the family mob, she wanted something different for Cornell. One night she forced Cornell to kill a young thug in the basement, for dealing with drugs outside of her mob. He returned upstairs from the basement with blood on his hands where he returned to his piano. Mama Mabel comforted him with a hug as she put her hands on top of him. Next, Mama Mabel confronted Pistol Pete, her late husband's brother, for making a deal with the Puerto Rican mob. She forced Cornell to lead him outside at gun point. Mariah came out and started shouting at Uncle Phil, until Cornell shot him twice, killing him.

Personality
Cornell Stokes was a calculated person who firmly believed that power came through money and violence. Unlike his cousin Mariah Dillard who seemed to respect the suffering that the black community in the United States of America had to go through over the course of history to achieve equality with the whites, Stokes thought the real goal of that struggle was to achieve power.

Abilities

 * Expert Tactician: To be added

Equipment
To be added

Family

 * Mama Mabel † - Grandmother
 * Buggy Stokes † - Grandfather
 * Father
 * Mother
 * Aunt
 * Peter 'Pistol Pete' Stokes † - Great-uncle and Victim
 * Mariah Dillard - Cousin and Killer

Allies

 * Henry Hunter/Pop † - Former Friend and Mentor
 * Hernan Alvarez/Shades
 * Willis Stryker/Diamondback
 * Turk Barrett
 * Zip †
 * Amos
 * Sugar
 * Benjamin Donovan - Lawyer

Enemies

 * Shameek Smith † - Victim
 * Chico Diaz †
 * Luke Cage - Former Employee
 * New York City Police Department
 * Rafael Scarfe † - Ally turned Victim
 * Misty Knight
 * Connie Lin
 * Tone † - Subordinate turned Victim
 * Domingo Colon † - Former Friend and Situational Ally

Trivia

 * In the comics, Cornell Cottonmouth was a heroin trader that wanted to recruit Luke Cage for his organization when Cage was wrongly accused of drug trafficking with heroin stolen from Cottonmouth by Willis Stryker.

Behind the Scenes

 * According to Cheo Hodari Coker, the attitude of the rapper, a friend of Coker, was a strong influence for this version of Cottonmouth. Coker has also compared Cottonmouth to from ',  from ' and Rowan Pope from .