Diamondback in the Rough: The Rachel Leighton Story

Today I, Ethan Stranger, will be discussing one of Marvel Comics’ Hottest women (whom in my opinion doesn’t get the love and care that she deserves, hell, she has yet to make her MCU debut). Allow me to introduce to you former ex-criminal, “Diamondback (Rachel Leighton)”, who’s well-known as a former member of the Serpent Society & an unlikely love interest to Captain America, 1st appearing in Captain America #310, created by “Mark Gruenwald (Well-Known for his Legendary 10-year run on Captain America) & Paul Neary”. I do need to be honest with you guys and gals, I have an ulterior motive behind this particular post and it is to be able to explore this character and her complex backstory, her relationship with Captain America (how it differs from “Spider-Man & Black Cat”) and definitely her looks (while her real costume color is pink, these 2 top picks show it being purple, guess it all depends on who’s the inker, right?). 

                                     

Before actually diving into understanding the character, I think a quick recap of her personal story would be useful. From enemy to friend, to finally main Love Interest (for a short time, Rachel Leighton attempted to live a normal life before returning back as Diamondback) and she (alongside her “Serpent Society Friends, Asp (Cleo Nefertiti)& Black Mamba (Tanya Sealy)”) started up their own Heroes for Hire-like Cooperation, “BAD GIRLS, INC”, she also had brothers (all were killed by “Crossbones”), but sadly, towards the end of Gruenwald’s Run (in the story Arc, “Fighting Chance”, and sadly his death in 1996), both Cap & Diamondback broke up (in a way), for Diamondback had to serve under the supervillain, Superia, after murdering her enforcer, “Snapdragon (Sheoke Sanada)” plus (at the time), the Super-Soldier Serum was failing on Cap and Superia promised Diamondback a cure for him if she was willing to serve under her as Snapdragon.

Following the end of Gruenwald’s Cap Run, Diamondback has a made other appearances throughout various Marvel Comics titles (with her recently appearing in “Sam Wilson: Captain America & both the Dominio & Hotshots Comics”), in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, she’s more villainous (Member of the street gang known as the “Serpent Skulls”) and an enemy of the Ultimate Spider-Man (Miles Morales), but none of them could ever live up to what Mark Gruenwald did, introducing a villainess that was able to turn a new leaf just to win Cap’s love, that’s what I call impressive, while there have been many themes of “romances between two characters from completely opposite backgrounds and allegiances (like Spider-Man with Black Cat, & Batman with Catwoman or Talia Al Ghul)”, Cap’s was somewhat rare, for a loyal super-soldier of America, he unexpectedly finds himself slowly developing feelings for this villain, as she’s rushing herself, but Cap believes that their is some goodness in her & that’s the side that she wants to see of Diamondback (too bad we ain’t seeing that chemistry didn’t play out anymore in current Cap Comics). 

What I, Ethan Stranger, find interesting about this Magenta Haired Bad-ass, she was actually able to make Captain America go out on a date with her, against all odds. Being a flirtatious villain, Diamondback possesses a ton of very positive personality traits, along with her story we can see that she's very courageous, persistent, resilient (no matter what situation she’s thrown into, whether it’s with Cap or not), however even though she appears to be very confident, bottom down, she is as doubtful, confused and human as the rest of us. Plus Diamondback’s relationship with Cap was more than just love, as she believed Cap could try to make her a better person and she wanted to be closer to him and she also attempted to get Cap to show more of his “human side”, for somebody being a leader of Earth’s Mightiness, even he could use a Break, as for the relationship between Black Cat & Spider-Man, well, things are a bit more complicated, for she prefers Spider-Man over Puny Peter Parker (I don’t blame her, most women prefer a man’s alter-ego than their true selves). For she may have a troublesome childhood and dealing with the death of her brothers, trying to make a living as a villain before attempting to win the love of a super-soldier, which at 1st was all about the manly/hype appearance, but it later approved to be a challenge for a Super-Soldier to accept an ex-criminal for a lover (in real-life, we’ve all experienced this feeling, attempting to win the heart of somebody, despite some disturbing background features, for there's also a chance on seeing the goodness in all of us & that’s what (in my opinion) Rachel Leighton/Diamondback represents).

With Disney +’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier Series coming up soon, I would feel like they're taking cues from Mark Gruenwald’s Captain America Run (with the introduction of John Walker/Captain America II/U.S. Agent and (possibly) Lemar Hoskins/Battlestar) if so, we can (hopefully) see the introduction of the Serpent Society (alongside Diamondback), I mean who wouldn’t also want to see her flirting with Cap-Wolf (Sam Wilson)?

Until my next blog post (or until Arris Quinones does a breakdown of this character), Ethan Stranger says “Excelsior” 

(A message for the late Mark Gruenwald: Diamondback’s the main reason why I loved this Cap Run).