Membership: Cobra (Klaus Voorhees), Eel (Leopold Stryke), Viper (Jordan Dixon)
Purpose: Revenge against Captain America
Affiliations: Quentin Harderman
Enemies: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Peggy Carter, Dave Cox, Falcon (Sam Wilson)
Base of Operations: New York City
First Appearance: Captain America I#163 (July 1973)
History:
(Captain America I#159) - Alongside other members of Crime
Wave, Viper and Eel were sent to jail by Captain America.
(Captain America I#163 (fb) - BTS) - While Viper and Eel were incarcerated in New York's Sing Sing prison, the Cobra apparently smuggled in their costumes to them and made arrangements for them to make a jailbreak.
(Captain America I#163) - Wearing their costumes, Viper and Eel broke out of prison -- the guards tried to stop them, but were helpless against the two super-villains. When they got out to the prison yard, Cobra supplied a rope-ladder so they could get over the prison wall. The three of them escaped in a car and drove to their secret hideout, and the Serpent Squad was now formed.
The three Squad members began to plan their revenge against Captain America and Falcon. Viper decided to call his old friend Quentin Harderman, to have him start an ad campaign called "The Un-Selling of Captain America" -- the purpose of this campaign was to convince the public that Captain America was a glory-grabbing vigilante, despoiling the name of America (see comments).
After Viper hung up the phone, Eel told him that he always had some nutty ideas, but Viper responded, "Wait and see. Never underestimate the power of advertising." But then the Eel broke in -- he read in the Daily Blast newspaper that Captain America was now in Virginia, visiting the family home of his girlfriend Sharon Carter (see comments); upon learning this, the three villains decided to go after Cap and kill him, so they traveled to Virginia in turn.
The trio of villains burst through a window of the Carter estate; they announced they were the Serpent Squad and confronted Captain America and Falcon, proclaiming that both the heroes must die.While the Falcon battled Cobra, Viper hurled one of his lethal darts against Captain America, but Cap managed to block it with his shield and then knocked down Viper. Cap tried to grab Eel, but burned his hands when he touched the Eel's electrified costume. Realizing that they needed to regroup, the three villains fled to gather their specialized weapons (see comments). Afterward, Cap and the Falcon split up to search for the Serpent Squad in the surrounding wooded property.
Peggy Carter had joined with Captain America in the search, and the two briefly stopped at Dave Cox's neighboring cottage to take a break. But the Serpent Squad used their weapons to launch another attack against Cap. When the villains realized that they couldn't bring Captain America out in the open, they broke down the door of Cox's home and went inside. Seeing that Cap was apparently gone, the Squad tried to get Dave Cox to tell them where he was; but Dave refused to tell them, so Cobra used his weapon against Dave, while Viper and Eel searched for Captain America.
Suddenly, Cap dropped down from the ceiling, surprising the unwitting villains. After Captain America took out Cobra with ease, Viper was about to use his wrist-mounted viper fangs against him, but Cap smashed his shield into Viper's face, knocking him out. With Cobra and Viper out of commission, Eel fled from the cottage, but he was punched unconscious by the Falcon following a short battle. With the Serpent Squad beaten, the three villains were sent to jail... again.
Comments: Created by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and John Verpoorten.
It should at least be mentioned that an eel is not a snake.--Snood
Yeah, but Eel's Viper's tag-along brother, so whaddaya gonna do?!--Kyle
Viper's phone call to Quentin Harderman would result in Harderman creating the organization C.R.A.P.
The whole thing with the Serpent Squad learning the
whereabouts of Captain America in a newspaper seemed like a lame idea
-- how did this information get leaked? And at the very least, you'd
think the newspaper could be sued for the damages caused at the Carter
home.
While they were attacking Dave Cox's home, the three Squad members used their own personalized armaments (see third image), apparently designed by the Cobra:
Each of these weapons was only depicted as being fired
once, and were not used again in the remainder of this story,
nor any other stories [...which is OK by me, since their silly names
sounded like plastic accessories that would come with toy action
figures of the villains].
--Ron Fredricks
New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by The Beetle.
Profile updated/edited by Kyle Sims
CLARIFICATIONS:
The original Serpent Squad should not be confused with:
The Cobra (Klaus Voorhees) should not be confused with:
The Eel (Leopold Stryke) should not be confused with:
The Viper (Jordan Dixon) should not be confused with:
images: (without ads)
Captain America I#163, p6, pan3 (Serpent Squad - Eel, Viper, and Cobra smash through window)
Captain America I#163, p7, pan2 (Serpent Squad - Cobra and Viper; Eel [background])
Captain America I#163, p13, pan1 (Serpent Squad - Eel, Viper, and Cobra with personalized weapons)
Appearances:
Captain America I#159 (March, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), John Verpoorten (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Captain America I#163 (July, 1973) - Steve Englehart (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Tony Mortellaro & John Verpoorten (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
First Posted: 06/04/2003
Last updated: 06/15/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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