Female superheroes and villains have long piqued fans’ interest and affection, and Marvel is no exception. As much as we all adore a good superheroine like Black Widow, the Marvel Universe’s bad females never cease to thrill! These femme Fatales are both beautiful and terrible, starting with Lady Death and ending with The Scarlet Witch.
The woman in this video is no different, as she has easily held her own against big league heroes like the Avengers and fan-favorite X-Man, Wolverine. Viper is a supervillain in her own right, commonly known as Madame Hydra due to her affiliation with the HYDRA organization. Throughout her many varied appearances, she has faced off against a variety of superheroes, beginning with her debut in Captain America Issue #110 in 1969, and was created by Jim Steranko.
The first comic book appearance explored – Captain America Issue #110
The comic book was released in the year 1969 and followed Captain America in his encounter with the one and only Madame Hydra. Wandering the streets late at night, a solitary, depressed Steve Rogers pauses to look at a large billboard of Captain America as the Hulk breaks through the wall, chased by the U.S. Army.
Steve dons his Captain America outfit and arrives just in time to witness the Hulk being shot with an ionic energy cannon. Despite Rick Jones’ warning, Cap approaches the Hulk to see whether he’s still alive, which he is. Cap attempts to soothe the furious Hulk by knocking him out. Now Rick comes to Hulk’s help, but Hulk grabs him and hurls a lamppost at the cannon, destroying it. A nearby structure collapses as a result of the shockwave. Cap then saves Rick and takes him home to recuperate from his wounds when the Hulk flees.
Rick puts on Bucky Barnes’ outfit as he wakes up and offers to be Cap’s new companion. Cap initially refuses because he does not want to watch another boy die, but when the Avenger alarm sounds, they respond to it together. Cap’s solitary struggle becomes a team-up once more when they find themselves facing a massive attack in an underground HYDRA lair. Rick receives no warning before being confronted by an army of lunatics wielding frap-guns, as was the custom at the time. They soon learn that these hordes were under the command of none other than Madame Hydra or Viper herself and their grand evil scheme was to poison the city’s water supply.
Having to wade over to their armed-and-armored adversaries, the duo gets a few good licks in before Cap realizes, he’s set up a great scenario for history to repeat itself – the death of his partner, once again. Captain America is unfortunately taken down by the hordes of HYDRA, who transport him to their new leader, the intriguing and mysterious Madame Hydra. All of this happens while he is distracted while covering Bucky’s escape.
Captain America is taken to Madame Hydra and in front of her, he slowly wakes up, musters his strength, and once again resumes the fight. He quickly defeats one of HYDRA’s mooks and takes his uniform and power-vest to enter the organization in disguise.
Rick Jones, for his part, makes his way through the tunnels and back into the combat in an effort to help Cap, but instead ends up exposing the captain’s deception. Captain America, fortunately, is an expert in tactical improvisation and the two of them manage to hold off their foes. Unfortunately, Madame Hydra herself manages to flee after Captain America shatters the water pressure pipes which causes the horde to be swept away. The issue closes with the super-duo heading back home together.
What we see here is the ambitious and ruthless Madame Hydra who commands a legion. She also has a signature whip that she uses during combat and is seen in a green leather catsuit. Her enigmatic and terrifying demeanor comes across as we see the emergence of a formidable villain in this issue.
The origins of this deadly supervillain
Most supervillains have murky and dark origins and Viper is no exception. The girl who would go on to become the villainous Viper was born in Hungary in the 1920s and was originally named Ophelia Sarkissian. She was unfortunately orphaned at an early age after her parents were killed in a political revolution in Eastern Europe. An unnamed injury damaged the right side of her face while she was fleeing the war-torn nation, so she started wearing her hair down in a specific manner to hide her scar – this would become her signature look.
Ophelia was one of 12 girls taken in by HYDRA and reared by Kraken. Ophelia excelled for 22 years and was Kraken’s top pupil. She later advanced through the ranks of HYDRA and frequently clashed with Captain America and the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. She climbed up the ranks rapidly, ever ambitious. The H.Y.D.R.A organisation disintegrated after Supreme Hydra Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was assumed to have perished in the demolition of Hydra Island but Viper was determined to not let it vanish. Calling herself Madame Hydra, she took over control of the New York City-based faction and became the leader of the hordes of H.Y.D.R.A.
She later fought for survival as she wandered across Europe, relying on crime as her only source of support after she left HYDRA. She made a contract with the Elder God Chthon, who was stuck in Wundagore’s mountain, at some point. This bargain significantly slowed her aging process, allowing her to develop into a dangerous mercenary and criminal over time.
Madame Hydra also assisted Jordan Stryke, a supervillain known as Viper, in eluding capture in Virginia, only to assassinate him and assume his alias and leadership of the Serpent Squad. Cementing herself as the one and only Viper.
In 20th Century Fox’s live-action film The Wolverine, Russian actress Svetlana Khodchenkova played a different version of Viper that has another origin altogether. This incarnation is never identified as “Madame Hydra” nor is her affiliation with the group mentioned due to rights concerns with Marvel Studios at the time.
Rather, she is shown as a mutant who is resistant to all toxins on Earth and is capable of shedding her skin if contaminated. She is also shown to be a toxin master and is portrayed as a great scientist who goes by the name Dr. Green. Viper is hired by Ichiro Yashida, a Japanese soldier turned businessman who became obsessed with mutants and specifically, Logan’s healing powers after Logan saved him. Her job was to assist with the transmission of Logan’s healing factor.
When she suppressed Wolverine’s healing powers
Viper has always had a tenuous relationship with the Wolverine. In The Wolverine, Viper disables Logan’s healing abilities by injecting a bug into his body. Wolverine’s healing ability is harmed due to the introduction of the bug in his system, and his regeneration ability is significantly slowed down. This is a big issue considering that Wolverine has one of the best healing powers in all of Marvel and it has historically helped him get through multiple sticky situations. After his healing powers are suppressed, he sustains various types of injuries such as being hit by numerous bullets, sword cuts, and being hurled to the ground from a massive height.
Logan’s regenerative ability and the increased strength of his adamantium skeleton justify most of his death-defying adventures. When one of his superhuman abilities is inactive, it seems like the other picks up the slack. His skeleton was diverting and/or cushioning hits, according to others.
It is adamantium in his body after all and not normal human bone after all. Captain America’s shield and adamantium itself are the only things that can truly do any damage to them. He may have lost his ability to heal, but his bones were still as tough as nails. There is also a possibility that the bug itself did not suppress the entirety of his healing powers and there was enough to keep him from dying. Considering his healing powers are incredible and work very quickly, it is not wrong to assume that there was enough to keep him from dying.
However, the things Viper has done to Wolverine do not end here. Her involvement with the X-Men began when she attempted to poison Wolverine’s lover Mariko at the request of the Silver Samurai, the Viper’s proposed lover. Years after she attempted to kill the X-Men, this relationship between Samurai and assassin led to the duo’s evil movie partnership. One of the most outrageous things she has done was when she blackmailed Wolverine into marrying her.
he did this to cement her position as Madripoor’s criminal underworld boss, but she also hinted that she had affections for Logan and even compelled him to consummate the marriage! However, this did not last long and Wolverine stabbed the Viper after she was overtaken by the demonic spirit Ogun. Viper gave Wolverine the divorce he wanted in return for saving her life and liberating her from the spirit.
There is definitely some sort of chemistry between the two of them and so much can be done to build on their past history with each other!
What makes her so powerful?
Undoubtedly, she is an extremely powerful villain. However, as far as her description and appearances in the comics go, she lacks any specific superhuman skills. However, she possesses Olympic-level strength, speed, reflexes, agility, dexterity, coordination, balance, and durability.
She is an excellent swordswoman and an even better markswoman with most long-range weapons, and she has significant hand-to-hand fighting training. Viper frequently uses poisoned weaponry with snake themes, such as venomous darts or poisoned fake fangs. She uses exotic weaponry, including a teleportation ring, and razor-sharp claw extensions that appear to be integrated into her gloves in X-Treme X-Men.
Viper is a great strategist and tactician with vast combat tactical experience, as well as a master of criminal organization administration and a well-connected international criminal underworld figure. She’s also a master at espionage and stealth. Her influence, the monetary resources she has at her command due to her status in organized crime, and her amazing ability to avoid death in scenarios where lesser individuals would have perished are among her greatest assets. Viper’s longevity may or may not be supernaturally enhanced and is often attributed to her encounter with the Elder God Chthon.
Viper is typically armed with ray pistols and standard handguns. She’s also employed poison-tipped throwing darts, knives, and whips, among other unusual weapons. Her canine teeth are pointed and elongated, with hollows inside. She carries a particular poison with her in those hollowed-out that she is immune to.
Her drive and ruthless ambition happen to be one of her best weapons since she made it to the top of HYDRA after effectively coming from nothing. She is a cold and calculated killer who doesn’t feel much and will do anything for power, money, and prestige.
A whole host of different powers are seen when Viper appears in the movie, The Wolverine and is shown to be a mutant instead of a regular human. These new powers lend her character more snake-like attributes which do justice to the name ‘Viper’.
Viper in the animated universe
Viper has had her share of appearances outside of comic books and has thus also appeared in a couple of Marvel animated tv series of note. Lisa Ann Beley voices Viper in the X-Men: Evolution animated series episode “Target X.” Gauntlet serves as the leader of HYDRA in this edition. After X-23 destroys her facility, she is murdered.
Vanessa Marshall voices Viper in the animated series The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. A Skrull infiltrator masquerading as Viper debuts in an earlier episode titled “Widow’s Sting,” where they are kidnapped by S.H.I.E.L.D., and their identity is revealed, though she does not make her first formal appearance until the episode called “Prisoner of War.”
The real Viper teams up with Captain America and their other hostages in episodes “Prisoner of War” and “Secret Invasion” to escape Skrull’s incarceration and aid Earth’s heroes in resisting a Skrull invasion. Viper and King Cobra are captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. in “Along Came a Spider,” but they are saved by the Serpent Society and flee despite Captain America and Spiderman’s intervention.
The Wolverine live-action movie featured this badass supervillain
I have mentioned the movie ‘The Wolverine’ multiple times in this video and rightly so because here she appears in her full glory as she is played by actress Svetlana Khodchenkova. Her storyline is slightly different as she is shown to be a mutant with all sorts of snake-like powers and abilities.
She is the main plot driver in this movie filled with action, love, betrayal, and death. The plot follows along as she is recruited by Ichiro Yashida, a man who Wolverine had saved on the battlefield a long, long time ago and had later gone on to become the C.E.O. of his own company. Ichiro Yashida had become extremely sick and Viper, a talented biochemist was thus employed as his personal oncologist.
However, things took a sinister turn as she focused her energies on Wolverine and tried to suppress his healing factor. She succeeded in doing so but was unable to extract the healing factor from his body altogether as Wolverine put up one hell of a fight. With lots of action, drama, and tense moments, this film will appeal to anyone who is a fan of this disheveled, complicated hero. We also see Viper engage in battle multiple times and if they are anything to go by then, the woman has got skills!
Her movie-specific powers included the following – Her tongue, while human-like in appearance, may expand and extend far beyond the confines of her mouth and she had a snake-like proclivity for tasting the air with it. Viper’s cells had the ability to regenerate to some extent.
She would also shed the outer layer of her skin to reveal a new version of her form from beneath it after suffering injuries that would be fatal to a normal human. The entire procedure only took a few minutes, and the new form would emerge, although she would be completely hairless. Viper was also impervious to all known poisons, and her saliva was able to carry and thus produce a wide variety of them.
Everything that she could think of, from neurotoxin to potent venom, she could make in seconds and coat a sharp object or spit with it to use as a strike. She could also readily make antidotes to the myriad of hazardous compounds she produces within her body, negating her contagion, just as she could create almost any form of poison known or unknown to mankind. Viper had also demonstrated that she could lengthen and withdraw her fingernails to knife-like sharpness, capable of effortlessly tearing skin.
Her appearance was truly that of a femme fatale, all that you could expect from a tarrying yet beautiful villain who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Unfortunately, she dies at the end of the film but manages to keep the sickly Ichiro Yashida alive inside a massive suit of armour, effectively creating the Silver Samurai.
Perhaps Marvel’s first true femme fatale was the Viper and that definitely accords her a special place in the Marvel Universe. She truly embodied ‘Bond girl evil’ at its finest: exotic, seductive, and as lethal as a snake’s bite. The Viper could feature in future Avengers or Captain America films while also remaining a part of Fox’s X-Men franchise. The Viper’s comic book legacy is intertwined with both the X-Universe and the Marvel Universe, making her a prospective big evil for both organizations for many years to come. Would you like to see Viper in future movies? Let us know in the comments section below!