Captain America (vol. 4) #31

Feb 10

Feb 10 Captain America (vol. 4) #31

Super-Patriot: Part 3

Captain America and Diamondback have found themselves captured by the Serpent Society, who have wanted to get revenge against Cap’s female companion for leaving the group and going straight.[1][2] King Cobra, the Serpent’s leader, looks forward to killing Diamondback and tells Captain America that when they’re done with her, they will be selling him to the highest bidder. Left alone to ponder this, Captain America is more worried about his recent video rental than he is being captured.

King Cobra and his lackies come back about sixteen hours later to collect Captain America.[3] However, while the villains are all bantering, King Cobra makes the mistake of getting too close to Captain America. Cap is then able to kick his shield out of his foe’s grasp. It rebounds all over the room before striking Steve’s shackles hard enough to shatter them. Finally free, Captain America beats on King Cobra, Anaconda, and Puff Adder enough to stun them long enough for him to free Diamondback. Unfortunately, this takes too long and the rest of the Serpent Society — Asp, Black Mamba, Bushmaster, Coachwhip, Fer-de-Lance, Rattler, Rock Python, and Sidewinder — all come out of the woodwork to try and stop the pair from escaping.[4] Despite the superior numbers, Captain America and Diamondback easily trounce the entire Serpent Society. With the battle now over, Captain America tries calling Nick Fury to get a SHIELD team to pick them up. Mike Nolan answers instead and offers his assistance.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Serpent Society’s hideout a group of villains — Dragon Man (!?!), Arnim Zola, Mister Hyde, Baron Strucker, Baron Blood and MODOK — wait for the Captain America auction to begin, unaware that it has been abruptly called off.

At that same time, Mike Nolan and his crew of rogue SHIELD agents are trying to figure out their next move. Although they have lost the Red Skull’s as an ally, but Mike is certain that they can still stage a coup of SHIELD. When he gets no responses from his fellow mutineers, Mike instantly knows that Nick Fury is standing right behind him and heard the whole thing. Fury is and he brought backup in the form of Sharon Carter and Dum Dum Dugan. Fury can’t believe that Nolan was stupid enough to try and stage a coup without Fury finding out.[5]

Meanwhile, Spider-Man swings by Steve Rogers’ trashed apartment looking for Captain America. When he finds no sign of Cap, the web-slinger swings off complaining that things were easier when he could just pop by Avengers Mansion. As he swings off, he hopes that Iron Man is easier to find.[6][7]

A short time later, Captain America and Diamondback are back in Steve’s neighborhood. Rachel apologizes for the attack from the Serpent Society, as they were her former team. He tells her not to worry about it and the two kiss. When they get back to Steve’s apartment and see the ruined state it is in, Rachel decides to invite Steve back to her place for dinner. Cap accepts the offer but wants to go inside and organize repairs first. After Rachel leaves, Steve’s land lady comes out and gives him shit for trashing her building. He apologizes and promises that he’ll sort out and pay for all the repairs. After he calls and makes arrangements for the repairs, the land lady comes knocking again because she remembered Paladin came by looking for his help. Steve then calls Diamondback and leaves her a message to tell her that he’ll be a little late for dinner.

When Diamondback gets the message it is just as she is returning home for groceries. She is then confronted by her boss, the Red Skull who demands to know why Captain America isn’t dead yet and what she is doing now. She tells him how they were captured by the Serpent Society and that Captain America had saved her life. Rachel has suddenly had a change of heart and realizes that she can’t kill him because she still loves him. Annoyed by this new twist, the Red Skull decides that Diamondback is of no further use to him and snaps her neck. Seconds later, Steve Rogers comes knocking at the door for his dinner date, totally unaware of the danger that lurks on the other side of the apartment door.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, “Diamondback”, Serpent Society (King Cobra, Anaconda, Asp, Black Mamba, Black Racer, Bushmaster, Coachwhip, Fer-de-Lance, Rattler, Rock Python, Sidewinder), Red Skull, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter, Mike Nolan), Baron Blood, Arnim Zola, Dragon Man, Mister Hyde, MODOK, Spider-Man

Continuity Notes

Attracted to Captain America, Diamondback went straight so the two could date. Their relationship lasted from Captain America #371 to 433. She left Steve to work as Superia’s bodyguard in exchange for a cure for Steve’s deteriorating Super Soldier Serum (something that had been affecting him since Captain America #425). However, Steve was cured independently in issue #445 and the two never reconnected. The woman here is not the real Diamondback but a sophisticated Life Model Decoy, as we’ll learn in next issue.
The real Diamondback was a founding member of the Serpent Society back in Captain America #310. During their frequent clashes with Captain America she soon became attracted to him and the pair started dating in issue #371. When King Cobra found out, he tried to put her through a mock trail but she was rescued by Captain America and Paladin as seen in Captain America #380-382. She has been on the outs with the group ever since.
Here, Cap calls the Serpent Society’s leader “the Cobra”, who corrects him by saying he goes by King Cobra now. When Klaus Voorhees first started his criminal career in Journey into Mystery #98 he was simply known as the Cobra. He started calling himself King Cobra in Captain America #367 after taking over the Serpent Society. He’ll go back to calling himself the Cobra again in Spider-Man’s Get Kraven #1.
There are some issues with the Serpent Society roster. The details:
- Eagle eyed readers will notice that Sidewinder is among the rest of the Serpent Society. At face value, this would seem like an error as the original Sidewinder — Seth Voelker — went retired and went to prison in Captain America #424. When he’s seen again in New Thunderbolts #7 he had just recently been paroled. Per the Serpent Society entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #10, this is a successor to the role named Gregory Byran.
- At the time of this story, Asp and Black Mamba were actually members of BAD Girls, Inc. a team of female mercenaries for hire that was formed alongside the real Diamondback. The group first formed in Captain America #385. The BAD Girls, Inc. profile in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3 states that the real Diamondback hired the Serpent Society to hunt down her LMD impostor.
Mike Nolan had allied with the Red Skull in Captain America (vol. 4) #29 in the hopes that the Nazi war criminal would help him stage take over leadership of SHIELD. Last issue, the Skull dumped Nolan and his crew after he got what he wanted, a suit of power armor.
Spider-Man’s commends about Avengers Mansion is really underplaying what happened recently. The Scarlet Witch went batshit crazy and used her powers to trash Avengers Mansion as well as kill Ant-Man, Jack of Hearts, Hawkeye, and the Vision. This all went down in Avengers #500-503. Although the Avengers do bounce back, Tony Stark’s tighter finances forces him to shut down the team in its current form in Avengers Finale #1. He will form a new, more scaled down version of the group in New Avengers #1-5.
Spider-Man is looking for Captain America for help fighting the so-called Queen. See Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #15-20.

Topical References

Captain America is worried that he won’t be able to bring back the movie he rented on time. While physical video stores are still a thing they are a fast dying industry as people favor digital and streaming content. The idea that Steve has to return a physical copy of a movie to an actual store should be considered topical. Modern readers could assume that he is worried that a digital rental is about to expire before he can watch it.