Origin

The Serpent Society was like an expanded version of the Serpent Squad that had come before it, as some of its key members had once made up the third incarnation of the Serpent Squad. It all began with Seth Voelker (aka Sidewinder), when he betrayed the Serpent Squad and took all the profit the team had made from finding the Serpent Crown. But those who had once followed him and been left for dead caught up with him. Boasting that he was much wealthier now and had ideas for what would become the Serpent Society, Sidewinder then promised Anaconda, Death Adder and Black Mamba all the benefits his Society could offer, including better access to technology and jobs, higher pay, lodging and partners. But most important was the fact that with the help of Voelker's teleportation cloak, the members would never have to fear imprisonment again.

After he convinced them and paid them their share of the reward, with interest, they contacted many other snake-themed supervillains to join the Society, most accepted, except for two. Constrictor was unimpressed and so he left trying to turn them over to the Avengers and Viper ( Madame Hydra) would not attend the initial meeting. Thus Sidewinder, Anaconda, Death Adder, Black Mamba, Asp, Diamondback, Cobra, Bushmaster, Cottonmouth, Rattler and Princess Python became the charter members of the Society.

Creation

The Serpent Society was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary and first appeared in Captain America #310 in October 1985.

Major Story Arcs

Reputation Building

The Serpent Citadel (the Society's headquarters) was originally located in New York City, at an abandoned mental hospital. They were sent out to contact various criminal organizations, their first assignment was to from A.I.M. who wished them to kill their former leader, MODOK. They succeeded and so were ranked as top-level criminals, Captain America often attempted to intervene but could not put the Society out of commission. Two charter members left the Society, Death Adder was killed and Princess Python ran out on them during their MODOK assignment and so was expelled.

Corruption

Madame Hydra was not oblivious to the Serpent Society and she gathered agents to take it down and bring it under her control. She had Copperhead, Black Racer, Puff Adder and Fer-de-Lance infiltrate the Society and then Coachwhip, Boomslang, Rock Python and Slither attacked the Serpent Citadel, the charter members betrayed Sidewinder and joined Viper but Bushmaster, Asp, Diamondback and Black Mamba remained loyal.

But the Viper used the Society, so that she could poison the water supply of Washington DC, transforming the citizens into snake-men and the capital was almost destroyed.

But Diamondback escaped with the help of Sidewinder to get help from Captain America, using sex to do this. Help also came in the form of his friends, D-Man, Nomad, Vagabond and the Falcon.

They stormed Serpent Citadel where they proceeded to rescue the loyal members and capture the others. But Viper managed to escape, Cobra eventually subduing her. Cobra then tried to use her as a bargaining chip with Captain America but failed, so he turned her over anyway.

Trial of Diamondback

Sidewinder became bitter and so left the Society leaving King Cobra (formerly Cobra) to become the new leader of the team which expanded as all of Viper's agents minus Slither joined the team and the Society re-located to the Bronx.

Soon after Diamondback became romantically involved with Captain America and she began to desire him over the Society. He did not force her to betray the Society to him, but when the Society had surveillance put on her they discovered this relationship and she was put on trial for treason.

She was found guilty, the verdict, death by injection. The only members who did not vote for her death were future BAD Girls Inc. teammates Black Mamba and Asp as well as Bushmaster (a fellow Society member loyal to Sidewinder) and Rock Python.

King Cobra said the sentence would be dropped if she would tell them the civilian identity of Captain America, she refused. But she was rescued at the last moment when Black Mamba contacted Sidewinder to use his cloak to help her.

Captain America

Diamondback sought revenge and so she joined forces with Paladin (after Captain America told her he could not guarantee immunity for Asp and Black Mamba). Paladin and Diamondback infiltrated the Serpent Society headquarters only to be captured along with Asp and Black Mamba. But Captain America, who was riding his sky cycle witnessed Fer-de-Lance and Cottonmouth heading to their headquarters on a Serpent Saucer.

Captain America followed them in and easily disposed of the two serpent-like super-villains. He united together with Paladin, Asp, Black Mamba and Diamondback after freeing them and the five took down the Society.

All members were brought to prison minus the three who helped Captain America plus Anaconda, Puff Adder, Rock Python and Boomslang as they were not at the headquarters at the time.

Fighting Chance

The Serpents were terrorizing a community in Arizona when two of their members were attacked by Jack Flag. He claimed to best them as an audition to join their ranks, but King Cobra didn’t believe him (nor should he). He gave him a task to earn his membership: stealing a painting of his back from a thief who lived in Reno. Cobra made sure to give that thief, Mister Hyde, a head’s up so that he could take Flag out. Flag managed to beat Hyde and get the painting after an accidental exposure to some of Hyde’s strength formula.

His next task was to run the gauntlet on the rest of the members while wearing Cobra’s uniform. It was a task he was more than up to thanks to Hyde’s chemicals. Cobra was forced to give him provisional membership when an intruder tripped an alarm. Flag expected Captain America, who he had sent a distress signal to. The two faked a fight and Cap’s eventual capture, in case the Serpents were watching.

Unfortunately, they started to torture Cap. Cap’s backup, Free Spirit, who had jumped and replaced Serpent member, Coachwhip, blew her cover to save him. So, Jack Flag broke his to join her. Cap was hurt badly, so while the other two fought, Giant Man managed to rescue Cap while Force Works was called in to join the fight, ending the Serpent’s control over the area.

Disassembled

While Captain America and Diamondback were on a date at a baseball game, the stadium was attacked by Batroc and his henchman. The two publicly saved the day, getting the attention of a reunited Serpent Society. They wanted vengeance and managed to take both Cap and D-back as prisoners. They promised to torture Diamonback for her defection. They were able to fight their way out thanks to Diamondback being an LMD sent to seduce Cap for the Red Skull. She was much stronger than she used to be.

X-Men To Serve and Protect

The Serpent Society was hired by Mister Negative to take on a couple of vigilantes in San Francisco who were ruining his business. They turned out to be Anole and Rockslide, students of the X-Men, who were living on Utopia just off the coast. When their identities were revealed during a confrontation with the Serpents, Mister Negative appeared to enslave Rockslide with his influence powers and capture Anole. Anole was clever enough to put members of the Serpents between him and Rockslide and let his mind-controlled partner wallop them. Mister Negative refused to reign in Rockslide, so King Cobra terminated his contract with Mister Negative, citing client interference. The Serpents left, for Negative to deal with the two mutants on his own.

Serpent Solutions

Viper rebranded the Serpent Society as a business consulting firm to pharmaceutical and military technology companies, among others. They would be hired to take on development projects from other corporations, move forward with the illegal experimentation required to get results, and then sell the patents back to the corporations to give them a level of plausible deniability. This got them on the radar of Sam Wilson (active as Captain America).

Their “Captain America problem” started to scare off business so Viper had to resolve it. He hired back Diamondback, who was struggling as a hero after her boyfriend’s medical emergency left her in debt. With a desperate need for money, she agreed to lure Sam into a trap when he inevitably comes to her for help with the Serpents. She ended up stabbing him with one of her poison throwing diamonds. Sam was brought to Serpent Tower on Wall Street, where he was kept in the boardroom under the effects of a paralyzing agent. Viper forced him to listen to his monologuing about how they were good for America.

Viper lost his patience in Sam’s arguing, so he threw Sam out the window of his skyscraper, unable to use his wings. Unfortunately, Sam’s psychic connection to birds extended to his newest ally, Joaquin Torres, a victim of Serpent Solutions experimentation, which transformed him into a bird-human hybrid. Torres was able to catch Sam sensing he was in danger. The Serpents followed them to the street and attacked yet again. Joaquin was able to hold them off long enough for Sam’s other allies, D-Man and Misty Knight to come to the rescue. Diamondback also came to her senses after not agreeing to Viper’s decision to kill Sam.

After beating the Serpents, they were able to dig up enough dirt on the corporations that were hiring them to have their CEOs arrested.

The Book of the Iron Fist

The new Constrictor, son of the late original, was hired by Choshin to steal the Book of the Iron Fist for one million dollars. Constrictor used this score to leverage membership in his dad’s old gang, the Serpent Society. He then leveraged their muscle against Choshin to up the deal to three million. They gave Choshin 24 hours before they started looking for other buyers.

Unfortunately, Constrictor got himself caught on Iron Fist’s security cameras. Danny tracked him and the Serpents down with the help of Sabretooth, an old rival of Danny’s and a former partner of the original Constrictor. Creed, who had recently been turned into a good guy thanks to a Scarlet Witch spell, wanted vengeance on the man who would dirty the reputation of Constrictor, who had gone straight sometime before his death.

They were interrupted by Choshin and his henchman. While Creed and Danny had their hands full, Constrictor tried to run off with the book, only to be beaten by Choshin’s right hand man, Rat of 12 Plagues, losing the book in the process. The Serpents were ultimately left alone by Danny and Creed who were more concerned with tracking the book and getting Constrictor to a hospital.

Hunted

The Serpents were ambushed by Taskmaster and Black Ant, who were hired by Arcade to collect any supervillains they could get their hands on that were using animal-themed personas. Arcade was working for Kraven the Hunter, who wanted to challenge these animal pretenders for the shame that they had brought to the animal kingdom. They were to be used in a trophy hunt for New York elites in Central Park. This was all a ploy by Kraven to lure out Spider-Man, so that he may be killed by a worthy adversary again. By banding together, the villains, including the Serpents, were nearly able to escape Central Park once Kraven’s focus was elsewhere, however, the Avengers showed up just as they were leaving. Most of them were apprehended.

Cult of the Red Serpent

The Serpents would be mesmerized by Mephisto, believing him to be a snake god, The Great Red Serpent. He commanded that they go floor by floor of the Serpent Tower, killing workers as a sacrifice to open a portal. They would pile the bodies in the middle of their boardroom surrounded by a blood painted circle. The Serpents held hands in a circle around the offering pile and began to pray.

Their efforts were interrupted by Nighthawk, who received intel from Black Panther as a show of good faith. He managed to beat and tie up the Serpents just as the Avengers showed up. Although they did not finish the prayer, the portal to Mephisto still opened long enough for Mephisto to make threats.

Long after the dissolution of their corporation, Viper had the team moved to Pawlings, NY, north of the city, in a dilapidated mansion. From there, they would monitor the new Avengers Emergency Response Squad, a first responder version of the team run by Captain America. They would plan heists for artifacts to sacrifice to Mephisto near where the Avengers were responding to. This way, they would go largely unnoticed.

Ahead of their final heist, one of the society's newest members, Tiger Snake, confirmed that the Avenger, Shang-Chi, was on to them. For their final heist, they Society split into a diversion team that lured the Avengers away and a team that could finish their work. With a completed serpent serum, they used it on Captain America, turning him into the first snake-human hybrid. Now controlled by his primal instincts, Cap attacked his team, siding with the Serpents. Luckily, his team did not lose a step. They defeated the Serpents and brought Cap home, curing him.

Other Media

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

The Serpent Society appears in the episode, "Ultron-5." The membership includes King Cobra, Anaconda, Bushmaster, Rattler, and Death Adder. The group holds civilians hostage in a subway station, but are attacked by the Avengers. Ant-Man, claiming that King Cobra and other members of the Society were under his care, tried to reason with the group. However, after a battle, King Cobra, Anaconda, and Rattler escaped. Death Adder was defeated by Hawkeye, and he and Bushmaster were likely taken into custody.

Disk Wars: Avengers

The Serpent Society appears in several episodes of the Japanese anime series Disk Wars: Avengers. The membership includes the leader King Cobra, Diamondback, Cottonmouth, and a female Death Adder.