FER-DE-LANCE

 

FER-DE-LANCE

Real Name: Teresa Vasquez

First Appearance: Captain America (Vol. 1) #337, January 1988

Powers: Originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers, Teresa Vasquez underwent a chemical enhancement of her musculature. This granted her enhanced strength, endurance, and resistance to physical injury. Her costume is a snake motif with two retractable 8-inch omnium steel razor-edged claws which fit into forearm sheathes, one on each arm. It also has two 3-inch long spring-loaded retractable omnium steel spikes which extend from the toes of her boots.

BLACK MAMBA

 

BLACK MAMBA

Real Name: Tanya Sealy

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers, Tanya Sealy was a call girl hired by the Roxxon Oil Company for experiments to transform her into a superhuman operative. Sent to their Brand Corporation division, a component was surgically implanted inside of her brain which allowed her to tap into the Darkforce Dimension and wield its substance offensively. Dubbed the "Black Mamba", Sealy joined the snake-themed subversive Serpent Squad.

 

She taps into the the Darkforce Dimension's ebony energies and manifests it as an inky, semi-tangible black mist. She then targets a victim and summons an image from their subconscious of the person they desire the most, overlapping that image over the mist. Thus, her victim perceives the Darkforce as someone they are in love (or lust) with, naked and beckoning them provocatively. The Black Mamba's power stimulates the libido and causes a release of euphoria in her victim, slowly their mental clarity and keeping them from questioning the sudden appearance and odd behavior of their loved one. This effect can be used simply as a distraction or to pacify an opponent. However, Mamba can also use the effect offensively. By having the Darkforce wraith embrace her victim, the target begins to kiss and hold tightly onto their "lover", when in fact they are asphyxiating themselves, inhaling Darkforce mass into their nose and mouth to cut off their air supply. Victims can pass out or even die if they stay in the wraith's clutches for too long. The Black Mamba has also employed her power in other, slightly different ways in the past. For instance, at times she has not used the Darkforce, but instead projected the lover's image over her own body as a "second skin", temporarily fooling a person into believing she was their lover. 

 

She has also cast a blanket of Darkforce mist over one or several people, causing them to experience entire pleasurable scenarios instead of merely the presence of one lover. Mamba has also summoned a wraith based on the person her target most fears. Diamondback perceived the wraith as Snapdragon, a woman who had almost drowned her weeks ago. Given Diamond's panicked and frightened reaction to the wraith, it is possible that Mamba's fear-wraith power stimulates anxiety and fear in the person's brain, just like it stimulates euphoria for the lover-wraiths. However, Diamondback was in an extremely fragile state of mind then, and her reaction may have been completely her own. Mamba can also project her own image over a Darkforce wraith, discarding the hypnotic effect and simply creating a formless cloud of dark matter to restrain or grapple with her opponents. Other times, she has created even more varied projections, such as disguising Captain America as Superia by casting a illusionary Darkforce cloud over him. Black Mamba is psychically linked to her wraiths, and if they are somehow struck or damaged, the mental feedback will affect her as well.

The Black Mamba also developed a second, hypnotic power as a result of the implantation. The origins of this second power remain unclear, but it has formed a symbiotic relation to her Darkforce power, causing them to work in conjunction. She can also breathe underwater and is a capable aircraft pilot.

KING COBRA

 

KING COBRA

Real Name: Klaus Voorhees

First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery (Vol. 1) #98, November 1963 (As Cobra); Captain America (Vol. 1) #367, February 1990 (As King Cobra)

Powers: Klaus Voorhees is a Dutch ex-convict who was bitten by a radioactive snake, and while he administered the anti-venom to himself, he developed the proportionate attributes and abilities of a king cobra snake.

As a result, he has superhuman speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes, and developed a highly flexible and resilient molecular structure. The elasticity of his body enables him to absorb the brunt of considerable impact without suffering any harm, providing he adapts to the impact. He can squeeze his malleable body through extremely tight areas, even the barrel of a tank. A bizarre sort of independent muscle control allows King Cobra to move himself without using his limbs: He can lie flat on his stomach and "slither" like a snake to propel himself forward. This is also how he manages to keep moving through tight spaces too small to give him any leverage. He has a move called his "Cobra Grip" where he wraps his body around an opponent and begins to squeeze them. His elasticity and muscle control give him a virtually unbreakable grip and makes this a potentially lethal attack. He molts on occasion, leaving him with a serpentine appearance (scales, yellowed eyes), but his appearance gradually returns to normal.

His costume is coated with slippery chemicals that facilitate his unique motions and make him difficult to properly hold onto. Micro-suction cups in his boots and gloves enables him to climb walls and ceilings, and a spring-fired cable from his chest gives him a line to swing from off of buildings. Once he adopted the King Cobra identity, Voorhees adopted a flexible, blunt-ended tail on his back that normally resembles a cape in design, but adds an extra edge to his "Cobra Grip", allowing him to pummel his enemy with great force using the tail while he holds them immobilized. His wrist-shooters contain his various "Cobra Bite" missile types, including explosive, venomous, smoke-filled, nerve gas-filled, and blindness-inducing. He also once employed a "Cobra Convulsion Pistol" which fired an energy beam that temporarily simulated the neurological symptoms of a cobra's venom in his target's metabolism. As leader of the Serpent Society, he controls their resources (including multiple secret headquarters, Brand Corportation technology capable of creating superhumans, and their flying "Serpent Saucers").

COTTONMOUTH

 

COTTONMOUTH

Real Name: Burchell Clemens

First Appearance: Captain America (Vol. 1) #310, October 1985

Powers: Cottonmouth has had his neck and jaw cybernetically enhanced. His teeth have been reconstructed with steel, with four especially sharpened fangs as his canines. His multi-jointed jaw is capable of opening up larger than a human head, and can snap shut with enough strength to decapitate or dismember a normal human, or seriously damage stronger materials. He possesses Superhuman Class 10 strength in his jaw muscles and his steel teeth can bite with sufficient force to crush substances as durable as cinderblock. He can even deform metals softer than iron and hang a rope by his teeth for more than an hour.

DEATH ADDER

 

DEATH ADDER

Real Name: Roland Burroughs

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Roland Burroughs was selected by agents of the Roxxon Oil Company to be a special agent in covert operations. At the Mutagenic Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary company, the Brand Corporation, Burroughs underwent extensive surgery to give him gills and a bionic tail. He was then provided with a special costume and code-named "Death Adder". As a result of the extensive bio-engineering and surgery performed on his body, the Death Adder gained numerous superhuman powers:

He was amphibious, able to breathe underwater (by extracting oxygen molecules from water through the artificial gills in his throat) as well as in the air. These gills used fabricated polymer gill-cloth which was approximately eight times as efficient as average fish gills. There was no limit to the amount of time that he could spend underwater; in fact, he could sleep safely underwater. His entire anatomy was bionically bolstered by the transplantation of synthetic bone and tissue, permitting him to withstand the water pressure variations of a descent to 400 feet and back. A special membrane was grafted over each of his retinas, which rendered his eyes sensitive to the blue-green region of the visible spectrum (predominant in ocean depths to about 650 feet), allowing him to see clearly in those depths. He possessed enhanced strength on land (lifting up to 1 ton) and his swimming speed was in the superhuman range (between 50-60 knots).

The largest modification to his body was the implantation of a 4-foot-long, spike-studded tail attached to his lower spine and made of synthetic flesh and bone. Connected to his central nervous system, this tail could be whipped at speeds up to 60 miles per hour and acted as a fifth limb. Death Adder could swim at speeds up to 30 knots (34.5 miles per hour).

The Death Adder's costume was a full body-suit specially treated with a silicon compound that approximated fish-oil's viscosity to minimize water resistance. In the five fingers of each glove were special inch-long capsules containing highly concentrated venom of a death-adder, which he could release through the talon-like fingertips. One scratch of poison was sufficient to paralyze a 200-pound man within 90 seconds. Without an antidote (which he carried in his belt), death by asphyxiation would follow within an hour.

Roland Burroughs was a college graduate with a degree in engineering. Due to an accident involving his larynx during the surgical implantation of his gills, the Death Adder was mute and rendered unable to speak.

ANACONDA

 

ANACONDA

Real Name: Blanche Sitznski

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Blanche "Blondie" Sitznski was a steelworker selected by executives in the Roxxon Oil Company to be a special agent in covert operations. At the Mutagenics Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary, the Brand Corporation, Sitznski was bioengineered to have various permanent serpentine adaptations.

Anaconda has scales on her face, neck, back, and chest, and small fins on her cheeks. Anaconda possesses the ability to elongate her limbs, entwine them around persons or objects, and constrict. The entire skeletal structure of her arms and legs has been replaced by artificial Adamantium alloy-based bones in the basic configuration of a snake's bodily skeleton. Her arms, normally 24 inches from armpit to wrist, and her leg, normally 35 inches from hipbone to ankle, are able to elongate to about one and a half times their normal length. When she extends her limbs in this fashion, the muscle tissue gorges with blood, swelling the limbs so that each looks like a massive, powerful, unarticulated snake. These four constricting limbs are capable of exerting enough pressure to radically deform a one inch-thick steel tube, two feet in diameter. Once Anaconda has fully entwined her serpentine limbs around a human-sized foe, there are few human beings able to get sufficient strength to break her grip.

She possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift (press) approximately 2 tons on land under optimal conditions. Her serpentine limbs are capable of exerting enough force to contain and injure even Class 85 opponents for some time.

Anaconda has been surgically given artificial gills to enable her to extract oxygen from water in order to breath. She can now breath while underwater indefinitely, as well as breath on land. As a by-product of the extensive bio-engineering done to her body, Anaconda possesses superhuman recuperative abilities. Her body can heal from ant non-fatal wound many times faster than a normal human beings.

SIDEWINDER

 

SIDEWINDER

Real Name: Seth Voelker

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Seth Voelker was a financial analyst for the Roxxon Oil Company who volunteered for training and mutagenic alteration at the Mutagenic Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary company, the Brand Corporation. A small device was surgically implanted in Voelker's body which would permit him to mentally activate the dimensional aperture opening circuitry incorporated in a specially-designed cloak. Given the name "Sidewinder" because of his ability to travel "sideways" through inter-dimensional space, Voelker became the leader of the new Serpent Squad.

His cloak contains highly sophisticated electronic equipment that, in some manner, creates a dimensional discontinuity between this reality and a certain other reality. This inter-dimensional aperture is formed within his cloak. The particular dimension into which he creates a portal has a slightly differing space/time congruence so that one foot traversed there equals five feet traversed in this reality. By moving into and out of this reality and that one, it is possible to cover great distances in this reality with relatively little effort. The cloak's equipment is cybernetically controlled: By thinking specific sequences of thoughts, he is able to control the parameters of the dimensional aperture within certain limits. Sidewinder experiences severe disorientation upon re-emergence into this reality after covering about 20 feet within the other dimension. Thus, he seldom travels farther than that extra-dimensionally.

Sidewinder's cloak allows him to move partially into the other dimension. He can extend a small part of this body back into his home dimension. He can extend a small part of his body back into his home dimension; for example, his eyes, so that he might take his bearings. He can send other objects or humans to the other dimension by draping his cloak over them. He cannot transport anything larger than what he can completely drape his cloak over. If he leaves anything in that other dimension, he must note landmarks in this reality corresponding to a position in that reality in order to retrieve the object from where he has placed it.

The circuitry of Sidewinder's cloak is a solid-state version of the more advanced Nth Projector equipment developed by Roxxon's subsidiary "Nth Command". It differs from that much larger device in having a smaller capacity of mass transfer, not having on-board computers, and lacking location-sensing and inter-dimensional communication devices. Sidewinder's cloak is a refinement on the principles behind the construction of the Nth Projector and is very power-efficient, requiring only watts of power to transfer Sidewinder out of and back into this dimension.

Seth Voelker has a master's degree in economics and is a skilled financial expert, business planner, and strategist of above-normal intelligence.