Captain America #344
Don’t Tread on Me
Viper has tainted the water supply in Washington, DC with a formula that is transforming those who drink it into violent serpent people and one of the victims is the President of the United States of America.
Elsewhere in the city, Copperhead, Cobra, and Boomsland of the Serpent Society are trying to get out of town but get lost traveling through the sewers. Going up to the streets they discover that Washington has been plunged into chaos as serpent people begin rioting in the streets. They have to fight through the throng of frenzied citizens in order to make it back to their Serpent Saucer in a nearby park.[1]
However, when they get inside they find the Captain and Diamondback waiting for them.[2] While Cap deals with Boomslang and Copperhead, Diamondback attacks Cobra for betraying their leader, Sidewinder, to Viper.[3] Cobra’s cowardly streak returns pretty quickly and he escapes by contorting his body out through a missile tube. Spotting a second Serpent Saucer parked nearby, Cobra tries to use it as a means of escape. This time he runs into D-Man and Nomad who are guarding the imprisoned Viper and Slither. Cobra manages to fire a shot from his gauntlet that frees Viper before fleeing again. While Nomad is busy chastising D-Man for letting him get away before taking off after him, Viper manages to sneap behind Dennis and bite him with her venomous fangs.
Meanwhile, at the office of the Commission on Superhuman Activities, Raymond Sikorski comes in to warn their leader, Douglas Rockwell of what’s happening in the city. Rockwell tries to call the White House to inform the President, but nobody answers. Calling the Secret Service, he orders them to contain the situation, refusing to call in the Avengers to help. Instead, he wants to bring in their Captain America and Battlestar.
Captain America, aka John Walker, and Battlestar are still recovering from a botched mission to capture a mutant fugitive. Although they want to go after the Resistants and avenge the soldiers who died in the conflict, they are being called back to Washington to help deal with the outbreak of violence there. Battlestar is fed up with being jerked around from one mission to the next, but John tells him to remain calm.
Back in Washington, the Captain and Diamondback are dragging Copperhead and Boomslang into the other saucer where they find D-Man passed out on the floor. Realizing he is poisoned, Diamondback administers some anti-venom. Needing to find Viper, Cap tells Diamondback to stay and keep an eye on Dennis. She reluctantly agrees to do so, but gives him a micro-communicator the Serpent Society uses so that they can keep in touch with one another. Steve’s reluctance to trust her makes Rachel wonder what it will take to get him to see past her criminal past and love her like she loves him.
It’s just after midnight as Viper shoots her way through the city until she reaches the front gate outside the White House and forces her way inside. While on the street, Nomad finds himself dealing with the serpent people rioting in the street. Clashing with two mutated police officers, he is blinded by a flashbang tossed by the Cobra and is quickly swarmed. The Cobra realizes that he is in way over his head and due to his betrayal cannot look to the Serpent Society for help. He decides the best course of action is to flee and go into hiding, leaving Nomad to be beaten by the mob.
Inside the White House, Viper slaughters the President’s security detail and comes upon the First Lady, who has also been transformed. She is pleased with this turn of events and contemplates killing her, but decides that it’s not worth it. Heading into the presidential bedroom, she finds that the President has also begun to transform and gets him to drink more of the tainted water.
Back at the Serpent Saucer, Rachel gets tired of waiting for Steve to come back. Changing into a fresh costume she leaves her prisoners with D-Man, even though he’s still in rough shape. Outside she runs into John Walker. At first she confuses him with the Captain America she knows until he tries to stop her. Realizing that she is out of her depth, Diamondback takes off. While Captain America chases after her, Battlestar goes into the Serpent Saucer to assess the situation. There, D-Man begins coming around and, thinking Battlestar is a villain, attacks him to make up for an earlier act of cowardice.[3] The ensuing fight takes them outside where Battlestar and D-Man discover that they’re almost evenly matched. However, the snake venom is still working through Dunphy’s system and he is knocked out. Not long after, Captain America returns with Diamondback as his prisoner.
Meanwhile, the Captain is following Viper’s trail of destruction all the way to the White House. Fearing the worse, Cap decides to climb over the fence to investigate, even though this could lead to a lot of trouble now that he is no longer protected by his Captain America identity. As he runs through the historic building, Cap recalls the last time he was in the White House — not long after he became Captain America — and met President Franklin Roosevelt.[4] It was one of the greatest moments of his life and he can’t help but realize how long ago that way and how much things have changed since that day back in 1941.
Entering the Oval Office, Cap find the President sitting in his chair with his back turned. As he tries to convince the Commander-in-Chief to come with him to safety, the President turns around and Cap his horrified to see that he too has been transformed into a snake creature. He is then savagely attacked by the President, forcing Cap into the defensive. He doesn’t want to fight him, so Cap tries to talk sense into him. This doesn’t work but he notices that the President is sweating profusely and hopes that by continuing the fight he can cause the President to sweat out the chemicals that have turned him into a snake man.
That’s when Viper emerges out from her hiding place so she can watch as the Captain fights the President. She explains that she is doing all of this because of her nihilistic ideals and how she wants to plunge the entire world into chaos. It’s then that the Secret Service finally arrives with reinforcements. When they enter the Oval Office with guns blazing, Cap shields the President as the Viper leaps out the window to escape. Thankfully, the President reverts back to normal moments later, allowing the Captain to go after Viper. Out on the front lawn he runs into the Cobra who knocked out his former leader and hands her over to Cap in exchange for his safe escape. Realizing that he has no choice, the Captain allows the Cobra to get away.
The following morning, the government has taken control of the situation. With the water supply restored, people are starting to return to normal. However, Douglas Rockwell is not happy that Steve Rogers was involved, disobeying their directive that he cease his crime fighting activities. However, since they have arrested D-Man, Nomad, and Diamondback, he is confident that they can force Rogers to surrender.
Two days later, the President of the United States holds a press conference to tell the American people that the crisis has passed and that nobody was in any danger. He assures everyone that everything is back to normal. However, perhaps not everything is as it seems as the President still has a set of serpent-like fangs.
Recurring Characters
The Captain, Captain America, Serpent Society (Viper, Cobra, Boomslang, Slither, Copperhead), Falcon, Diamondback, Nomad, Demolition Man, Battlestar, The Commission (Valerie Cooper, Raymond Sikorski, Douglas Rockwell, Lewis Haywerth)
Continuity Notes
Here, Copperhead says Cobra has to make up for abandoning Viper in the past. The pair worked together in Captain America #180-182. Cobra abandoned Viper to the police during a fight with Nomad.
Boomslang wonders if there is any connection between the Captain and Captain America. Like many people in the public, he doesn’t know that Steve Rogers was forced to give up being Captain America in issue #332 and was replaced by John Walker the following issue. Steve has been wearing this new costume and calling himself the Captain since issue #337. This will remain the status quo until Captain America #350.
Mention is made about how Cobra betrayed the Serpent Society by joining up with Viper. This all went down in issues #341-342.
D-Man was overpowered by Titania when she was escaping the Vault. Afraid of facing her again, D-Man hid and allowed her to get away. See Captain America #340.
Steve Rogers met President Roosevelt not long after he became Captain America. This meeting was chronicled in Captain America #255.
Topical References
The President and First Lady are depicted as Ronald and Nancy Reagan. This should be considered topical since their terms in these roles came to an end in 1989. Both have subsequently died in 2004 and 2016 respectively.
