Origin

Tanya Sealy was born in Chicago but little else has been reveled about her past. While working as a call girl, Roxxon Oil Company hired her, Anaconda, Death Adder and Sidewinder to form a new Serpent Squad and go on a covert operation to retrieve the mystical Serpent Crown. Tanya was given a cerebral implant that granted her low-level telepathy as well as the ability to manipulate the extradimensional energy known as the Darkforce. Now creating a persona for herself as Black Mamba, she would combine these newly given abilities to telepathically pluck the image of an opponent's loved one out of their mind and then manifest a darkforce illusion which would lure her opponent in and suffocate them. Black Mamba proved herself to be a dangerous foe, facing off against heroes such as the Thing, Captain America, and Iron Man.

Creation

Black Mamba first appeared in Marvel Two-In-One #64 in June 1980 and was created by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio.

Major Story Arcs

Serpent Society

Although the Thing, Stingray and Triton managed to defeat the Serpent Squad, Sidewinder escaped with the Serpent Crown and Anaconda was able to free Black Mamba and Death Adder. Noting her talents, Sidewinder invited Black Mamba to join his organization, the Serpent Society. Black Mamba immediately accepted - prior to working with Roxxon she had been a call-girl and, while the money was good, it was not steady and she was intrigued by the opportunity to make a lot of money with the Society. Black Mamba thrived in the Serpent Society, forming close friendships with fellow members Diamondback and Asp as well as becoming romantically involved with Sidewinder. Because of this, she remained loyal to Sidewinder when Viper managed to infiltrate and seize control of the Serpent Society, something that almost cost Black Mamba her life.

Atlantis Attacks

Cobra would take a job from Ghaur and Llyra to obtain four objects containing arcane mystic powers. Cobra would split up members of the Serpent Society and send them to various locations to retrieve these objects. Anaconda, Rock Python, Coachwhip and Black Mamba would come into conflict with Colossus, Rogue and Havok of the X-Men over a magical totem located inside a shopping center in Lima, Ohio. Black Mamba uses her dark force to form the image of Polaris on Havok. The dark force image begins to constrict but Havok fires a plasma blast that causes a huge amount of canned goods to explode. Black Mamba is covered in goo and loses control of her dark force. Havok then plants Black Mamba inside a huge can filled with gunk.

Bad Girls Inc.

When Diamondback reformed from her criminal ways it affected Black Mamba. She, alongside Asp and Diamondback formed B.A.D. Girls Inc., a mercenary group. (B.A.D. being derived from the first letters of their respective code names.)

Black Mamba was also part of Superia's Femizons, but betrayed that group to help Captain America and Paladin. Despite her heroic turn, she was not above committing morally questionable acts, as she led a drugged Hercules to an ambush. She would also later join Crimson Cowl's Masters of Evil, lured in by the temptation of a large profit. For a short time she worked with the Serpent Society again, but eventually found her way back to her friends Diamondback and Asp and rejoined B.A.D. Girls Inc. During one mission with B.A.D. Girls Inc. she severely embarrassed Deadpool when she revealed his darkest fantasy - to be given a back rub by his partner, Cable.

Civil War

During the events of Civil War, Black Mamba joined Captain America's anti-registration group alongside Asp and Diamondback. She was later taken into custody by the Avengers, though she escaped and was most recently seen with several other villains in the Bar With No Name.

Dark Reign

During Dark Reign, Black Mamba joined The Hood's Army as a member of the Women Warriors, alongside Diamondback, Asp, Quicksand, and Skein. They participated in the attack on Asgard, and escaped when the battle ended.

Assassins Guild

Black Mamba later appears as a member of the Assassins Guild and Belladonna calls upon all her specialist in the United States to drop their other assignments to come after Wolverine and Domino. Black Mamba is in Miami strangling a man with her darkforce powers when she receives the phone call. Black Mamba arrives in New Orleans and meets up with fellow members of the Guild including Bullet, Boomerang and Nakh. Belladonna tells her assassins to kill Wolverine and bring Domino to her once they arrive to New Orleans. During the battle, X-Force appears and Black Mamba battles X-23, who promptly stabs her in the chest with her foot-claw. Elixir quickly heals Black Mamba, ensuring her survival.

Black Mamba would be hired once more by The Assassin's Guild alongside her former Serpent Squad teammates to hunt down and kill Elektra, Cape Crow, Kento Roe, and Matchmaker. They found their targets in the Himalayas at the Quiet Refuge, an old and forgotten Inhuman memorial, nearby the former location of Attilan. The Serpents concentrated their attacks on Elektra to lure the others to Cape Crow's hideout, where Lady Bullseye was waiting to kill him. Black Mamba used her powers on Elektra, who bit her in the nose to break Mamba's concentration after she allowed herself to get too close to Elektra. Matchmaker then knocked Black Mamba out with a punch.

Serpent Solutions

Black Mamba would rejoin The Serpent Society, now under the leadership of Viper (Jordan Nixon) and rebranded as it as "Serpent Solutions", a shady business company involved in deals with big business. Their goal was to be hired by big companies and do their dirty work and subsequently sell the work back for a massive profit while giving their employers plausible deniability of any involvement. However, Black Mamba was not seen alongside her teammates during the confrontation against Captain America (Wilson), who had been temporarily transformed into a wolf hybrid, and the new Falcon Joaquín Torres.

Hunting Deadpool

Black Mamba was hired by Belladonna of the Assassins Guild once more, along with several other mercenaries, to hunt down Deadpool and his friends. When Deadpool and his allies attacked the Assassins Guild headquarters, Black Mamba and several other hired assassins aided Belladonna against the Merc with a Mouth, who electrocuted her, K.I.A., and Scorpia, causing them to lose consciousness.

The Thing's Bachelor Party

Black Mamba along with other female members of the Serpent Society such as Asp, Anaconda, Fer-de-Lance, Princess Python, Black Racer were accidentally hired by Johnny Storm as entertainment for the Thing's bachelor party while they were wearing their private clothes. The ladies took the opportunity and popped out of cakes in full costume to defeat the supposedly drunk heroes, but they were quickly defeated and arrested by the authorities.

Hunted

Black Mamba and other Serpent Society members were gassed in their office and captured by Black Ant and the Taskmaster to serve as hunting targets in Central Park for wealthy participants who control robotic drones called "Hunterbots", as part of a plot Kraven the Hunter and Arcade concocted. While being chased by a hunterbot, Black Mamba and Cottonmouth revealed that they didn't think Viper was a suitable leader for the Serpent Society until they were saved by Vulture. Later, Black Mamba joined Vulture's group of villains that wanted to fight back against the hunterbots. The group soon ambushed several drones, revealing that damaging the drones hurts the user, which Kraven had planned for all along. When the force field keeping the criminals inside Central Park dissipated, Black Mamba and the rest of the now free criminals tried to escape only to be attacked and apprehended by the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and the NYPD.

Powers & Abilities

Black Mamba possesses the ability to project an inky cloud of extradimensional energy known as the Darkforce. This energy is manifested by Black Mamba as a limited quantity of viscous semi-solid matter. It is not known how far Black Mamba can project this energy manifestation, but her control over it seems limited by her line of sight. It is also not known how much of it she can manipulate at once: so far she has not been observed using it against more than one person at a time. Black Mamba uses the Darkforce (a process she refers to as "shedding her skin") to surround, constrict, and suffocate her opponents. The maximum amount of pressure she can generate through her Darkforce-projection is not known. However, the superhumanly strong Thing seemed unable to break its grip when he was encompassed by it. During the Superia crisis, after a suggestion by Captain America, Black Mamba discovered that she could surround herself (or someone else if they remained within her line of sight) with a cloud of darkforce, she could alter its appearance to disguise herself as someone else.

Black Mamba also possesses some form of hypnotic ability, enabling her to mesmerize her opponents into perceiving her Darkforce projection in the image of someone they love or trust. It is not known how irresistible this ability is, but the Thing, Iron Man, and Captain America have proven susceptible to it. As part of the hypnotic illusion, her opponent imagines him or herself in the embrace of his or her self-chosen loved one, and the implausibility of the loved one's sudden materialization and provocative behavior is overwhelmed by the sensation of euphoria she triggers in most human brains, if one remains in the grip of her illusory Darkforce projection for too long, he or she will succumb to suffocation. The amount of time this takes varies according to the stamina and breath control of her opponent. The victim dies, however, overwhelmed by ecstasy. Black Mamba may need to be within line of sight of her opponent not to direct the Darkforce, but to use it in conjunction with her hypnotic power.

Alternate Versions

Ultimate Universe

Black Mamba appears in the Ultimate Universe as a member of the Serpent Squad, a group of female mercenaries. Along with Asp, Anaconda, Death Adder, and Princess Python they attempt to obtain the Serpent Crown after having it stolen from them. Black Mamba and the Serpent Squad battle the Fantastic Four but the results of the battle do not go well. Black Mamba was knocked out of the fight after going toe-to toe with The Thing early on, and was taken into custody. After the Thing called the Serpent Squad freaks in passing, Black Mamba retaliated in anger by saying he would die alone because he is so sickening. Black Mamba along with the rest of the members of the Squad are taken into custody to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.