Serpent Squad

The Serpent Squad is a fictional super-villain team featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are part of the mainstream Marvel Universe, but have also been featured in the company's "Ultimate Marvel" continuity. They are generally associated with the Captain America line of comic titles.

Overview
There have been several iterations of the Serpent Squad, beginning with the team formed by Klaus Voorhees, aka Cobra, which were first introduced in the pages of Captain America, Volume 1 #163 in July, 1973 titled, "Beware the Serpents". This was a small three-man unit (or three-snake unit), consisting of Cobra, Eel (Leopold Stryke) and Jordan Dixon, the first Viper.

A second team was formed a short while later and was put together by Ophelia Sarkissian, aka Madame Viper. Dixon was killed prior to the formation of this team, but Voorhees and Stryke remained on. Viper expanded the team to include Zelda DuBois, aka Princess Pyton, and the Atlantean warlord known as Krang. This group debuted in Captain America, Volume 1 #180 in 1974 and fought up against Steve Rogers after he had assumed the costumed identity of Nomad.

A third team was formed under the guidance of Hugh Jones - the head of the Roxxon Oil corporation. This team was led by Sidewinder (Seth Voelker), and included Anaconda (Blanche Sitznski), Black Mamba (Tanya Sealy), and Death Adder (Roland Burroughs). They first appeared in June, 1980 in Marvel Two-in-One #64 in a story called "From the Depths!", which was chapter one in "The Serpent Crown Affair" storyline.

This version of the Serpent Squad, eventually evolved and expanded to become the Serpent Society. All of the previous members remained on the team, though Viper had become more of a puppet master by this point. New members included Asp (Cleo Nefertiti), Bushmaster (Quincy McIver), Cottonmouth (Burchell Clemens), Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) and Rattler (Gustav Krueger). They were introduced in Captain America #311 in November, 1985 and became a major focal point in an ambitious plot to take control of the nation's capital. Rachel Leighton later left the group and reformed.