Television Blind

Having finally tracked down Viper, the Red Skull has deemed her plan to run counter to his own. He realizes now that nihilism is not the way to go and that the Viper has now become a threat to his operations.[1] Seeking to put a stop to her, the Red Skull has decided to hire Silver Sable and her Wild Pack to take Viper down, finding it amusing to hire a Nazi hunter like Sable.

However, Captain America stumbles upon who has hired Sable and arrives to try and stop the Wild Pack from handing Viper over to the Red Skull. While Sable is reluctant to work with Captain America, she points out that if her mystery client is indeed the Red Skull, then delivering Viper is their best chance at finally capturing the old Nazi. Cap is at least able to convince Silver to let him interrogate the prisoner alone. Unfortunately, Viper won’t reveal why the Red Skull wants her stopped and tells him that America will fall within the next 24 hours thanks to her latest plan.

With not much to work on, Viper is injected with micro-infinity bugs under her skin that will allow them to listen in when she is recovered by the Red Skull. They then leave the immediate area to wait for the Skull to act. The Red Skull has sent the Iron Monger with a laptop computer so the Red Skull can interrogate Viper from a safe distance from the pick-up site. Under the Skull’s orders, the Iron Monger breaks Viper’s leg to make her reveal the full scope of her plan. Viper reveals that she has rigged up a television station to send out a signal that will override every other channel in the country and that anyone looking at a television at that moment will be struck blind. However, before she can be forced to reveal the location of the transmitter her Fangs squad — Bludgeon, Heat Ray, Razorblade, and Slither — arrive to rescue her. With their high tech weapons the easily incapacitate the Iron Monger and rescue their leader.

When Silver Sable and Captain America return to the site, they make the grave decision to leave Iron Monger behind to catch up with Viper and stop her plan before it can reach fruition. They soon arrive at the television station just as Viper is starting to fire things up. It will take sixteen minutes for her broadcast to be transmitted. When Cap, Sable, and Battlestar arrive, the Fangs are sent out to prevent them from stopping her plan. Unfortunately for Viper, at the last possible second, Captain America manages to grab a weapon from Bludgeon and uses it to blast the transmitting tower. Viper prematurely celebrates her victory when suddenly, the power at the television station goes out.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Silver Sable, Viper, Red Skull, Fangs (Bludgeon Heat-Ray, Razorblade, Slither), the Wild Pack (Battlestar, Chen, Powell, Quintero)

Continuity Notes

1. This is quite the reversal on the Red Skull’s part. He freed Viper from prison back in Captain America #394-395. At the time the Skull had been claiming to be a nihilist himself since Captain America #378. Viper was given unlimited funding to do whatever the hell she wanted and has been off the radar following her last appearance in Captain America #400.

Topical References

• All the televisions in this story are depicted as CRT models. This should be considered a topical reference as this is now an obsolete technology.

• The Red Skull states that he gave Viper 10 million dollars to carry out her plans. This amount should be considered topical due to inflation. 10 million in 1993 money is worth #22.5 million in 2022 money.

• Likewise, the television station that Viper takes over is depicted as having a UHF transmitter tower. This should be considered topical since all television stations in the United States use digital transmitters now.

• Viper states that she will affect 250 million Americans with her pirate transmission. This was the population of the United States when this comic book was published in 1993 and should be considered topical as population rates have steadily grown since then. For example, in 2020 the population was listed at 329.5 million people.