Diamondback (comics)
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Diamondback (real name Rachel Leighton) is a reformed supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe.
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[edit] Biography
One of the members of the original Serpent Society, Diamondback was a seductively sly woman with expertise in hand-to-hand combat, being trained by Anaconda at Taskmaster's academy. Her gimmick was that she threw acid-laced or poison-tipped diamonds at her enemies. After her first confrontation with Captain America, she was instantly smitten.
Viper's staged a coup of the Serpent Society, causing several of her underlings to infiltrate as new members and setting Viper up to take over by force. Diamondback and their current leader, Sidewinder, escaped, recruiting Captain America and his allies to rescue the Serpents who were still loyal to Sidewinder. After a fierce battle, in which Viper was defeated, Sidewinder abandoned the Serpent Society. Diamondback stayed on for a while under the new leader, Cobra.
Diamondback and Captain America eventually went on their first date, aided by Rachel's friends in the Serpent Society, Asp, Black Mamba, and Anaconda. Diamondback was eventually put on trial by the Serpent Society for her consorting with the enemy (most of the Society assuming, incorrectly, that Diamondback had betrayed their secrets to Captain America) and found guilty for her actions. She escaped with Captain America and Paladin's help, and along with Black Mamba and Asp, formed "BAD Girls, Inc." After a failed kidnapping attempt from Anaconda, Diamondback was taken aboard Superia's ship, and joined her Femizons under duress. While aboard Superia's ship, she was attacked by the Femizon Snapdragon, of whom Diamondback developed a phobia. After being rescued, Diamondback tracked down and confronted Snapdragon, who died in the fight.
BAD Girls disbanded after that. Some time later, Diamondback was infected with "mind-control nanoprobes" by Baron Zemo. Diamondback suffered extensive neurological damage from the experience.
BAD Girls, Inc. recently reappeared in Cable & Deadpool, with the original lineup intact. How the biological Diamondback recovered from her disability is not discussed.
She later turned up along with Asp and Black Mamba during the Civil War as a member of the Secret Avengers in Civil War #5.
[edit] Diamondback II
Leighton is not the only Marvel character to have used the Diamondback name. A second Diamondback appeared in the Secret War. Nick Fury thought to himself that when Rachel found out, she would kick the impostor's butt. Additionally, while with the Serpent Society, Leighton swapped bodies with the X-Men's Dazzler for a period of time. She and the X-Men went on a mission to get her body back.
[edit] Diamondback III
A third Diamondback, apparently the real Rachel Leighton, resurfaced as a SHIELD operative, trying to rekindle her romance with Captain America, while in fact she was working undercover for the Red Skull. Truly loving Steve Rogers, but still willing to follow the plot, was confronted and killed by the Red Skull himself only to "resurrect" herself with a biomechanical form able to take over pieces of technology, like the empowering armor worn by the nazi villain. Nick Fury than explained that the "new" Rachel was an advanced LMD, in fact so advanced as to believe itself to be human, and kept her in storage while working at a way to restore her proper programming. Before "she" could be restored, the Iron Maniac wiped out all her memories, and reshaped her body in a new neurokinetical armor for himself.
