Alita: Battle Angel actress Rosa Salazar will reportedly play villain Diamondback in the upcoming Captain America: A New World Order film.
This new report comes from Charles Murphy at Murphy’s Multiverse and comes on the heels of a set photo from Twitter user Christo45951886 that shows WWE Superstar Seth Rollins alongside a female actress.
In Murphy’s report he identifies the female actress standing next to Rollins as Salazar. Not only does he identify her as Salazar, but he also notes that she is playing the character Diamondback.
For those unfamiliar with Diamondback, the character’s real name is Rachel Leighton and she was first introduced in Captain America #310 back in 1985 by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary.
In that first issue, Diamondback is introduced as one of the members of the Serpent Society alongside Constrictor, Sidewinder, Black Mamba, Death Adder, Princess Python, Cottonmouth, Bushmaster, The Cobra, The Asp, The Rattler, and Anaconda.
The issue also details the goals of the Serpent Society. Basically, Sidewinder wants to create a union or guild for supervillains that will give them “greater access to data and tools, guaranteed pay scale, insurance, medical, and pension plans, and of course, the comradeship of like-minded people.”
However, the biggest benefit he offers is that “no member of my organization need ever fear imprisonment again!”
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As for Diamondback’s abilities, she doesn’t have any superhuman abilities. Rather she relies on her athleticism and various throwing weapons that she coats with poison and other lethal substances.
During a battle with Captain America in Captain America #313, she throws a number of the projectiles and even quips, “Hi, Cappy! I’m Diamondback! And these are a girl’s best friend!”
Later in the battle it’s revealed she coats the weapons with poisons, but is also physically attracted to Captain America. As she appears to be on the precipice of incapacitating Captain America, she thinks to herself, “The poison on these will–wait! Do I really want to do this to such a hunk?”
She would later abandon the Serpent Society and aid Captain America in battles against Batroc, Machete, Zaran, and Baron Zemo. She was even captured by Crossbones at one point, but was able to escape and returned to Captain America’s side to discover that Red Skull had found a way to cheat death and was still alive.
In more recent Marvel Comics stories, Rachel joined a group called a reformed Serpent Society going by Serpent Solutions led by Viper after she had turned to exotic dancing.
She would betray Sam Wilson who was pretending to be Captain America in the place of Steve Rogers by luring him into a fight with Black Racer, Cottonmouth, and Copperhead. After appearing to get beaten down by Black Racer, Diamondback would pretend to be injured until Sam Wilson had made quick work of the Serpent Solutions members. She then stabbed him with one of her poisoned tipped daggers.
She would eventually have a brief redemption arc and chose to aid Sam Wilson and Joaquín Torres, who would pretend to be the new Falcon, attacking her fellow comrades after they had left Torres for dead and incapacitated Wilson.
After defeating her former Serpent Solutions comrades, Diamondback appeared to catch a bus out of town with Misty Knight claiming “she snuck off after the fight.”
Interestingly, following Murphy’s report that Salazar is playing Diamondback, scooper MyTimeToShineH claimed Salazar’s Diamondback is actually the leader of the Serpent Society in the film.
What do you make of this report that Salazar is playing Diamondback and this rumor that her character is actually the leader of the Serpent Society?