Diamondback (Rachel Leighton)

Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Originally depicted as a supervillain who was part of the Serpent Society, she was first introduced in Captain America #310 (Oct. 1985) and became a series regular for years afterwards.

Rachel Leighton made her debut as part of the Serpent Society and soon came into conflict with

, before briefly returning to her criminal roots as part of Serpent Solutions.

Publication history

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Rachel Leighton first appeared in Captain America #310 (Oct. 1985), and was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary.

Fictional character biography

Rachel Leighton was born in

Later, there was a glitch discovered in the super-soldier serum that Cap was suffering from and Diamondback went to Superia in hopes for a cure. Using her as a test subject, there was a 50/50 chance that the cure would either work or kill Diamondback. As an added stipulation, if the test was successful, Diamondback had to serve Superia as the second Snapdragon. The experiment was a success, but she later got out of this deal when Superia was killed.[19]

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,^[20] and spent an extended period of time recovering in S.H.I.E.L.D. care.^[21]

BAD Girls, Inc. reappeared in Cable & Deadpool, with the original lineup intact.^[22]

Rachel's brother Danny is also known as

Diamondback later turned up along with Asp and Black Mamba during the "Civil War" as a member of the Secret Avengers.^[26] She took part in the final battle of the "war", but did not accept the offer of amnesty that came with Captain America's surrender. Later Diamondback and the other BAD Girls were captured by the Mighty Avengers in a New York City street mall.

Diamondback appears in

Later, Rachel is shown working as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and sporting a new costume.^[36]

As part of the 2015-2017

A third Diamondback appeared in the "Secret War" storyline. This Diamondback was Deborah "Debbie" Bertrand. Debbie attended the University of North Carolina on an athletics scholarship, becoming an All-American Olympic athlete and gymnast. For undisclosed reasons, apparently quitting this career to try her hand as a mercenary, she purchased equipment from the Tinkerer, which he had designed for Diamondback (Rachel Leighton). Perhaps hoping to use Leighton's reputation to boost her own fledgling career, Bertrand adopted the same code name, despite Leighton still being active in that identity. Nick Fury thought to himself that when Rachel found out, she would "kick the impostor's butt".^[40] Bertrand teamed with Scorcher to attack Daredevil in his apartment. They didn't count on Spider-Man being there and had to retreat. She took part in the battle at Mount Sinai Hospital and was apprehended after the heroes won the day.^[41]

Rachel Leighton LMD

A fourth Diamondback, apparently the real Rachel Leighton, resurfaced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, trying to rekindle her romance with Captain America, while in fact she was working undercover for the Red Skull.

Rachel Leighton is an athletic woman with no superhuman powers. She has skill in gymnastics, and at pitching small ballistic objects with great accuracy, and at piloting small aircraft. She also has knowledge of general street-fighting techniques, and some jujitsu. Leighton wears a costume of synthetic stretch fabric backed by Kevlar weave, with two biceps-belts and two thigh-belts for carrying throwing diamonds, concealed pockets in the boot tops, boot-heels, glove tops, and brassiere for other throwing diamonds, and throwing diamond earrings. Her personal weaponry consists of throwing diamonds, which are actually 4-inch (100 mm) hollow zirconium octahedrons (though not made of diamond, they are shaped like diamonds) containing various substances; spent uranium, plastic explosives, nitric acid, tear gas, smoke, curare-derived narcotics, etc. Her equipment was originally designed and manufactured by the Trapster,^{[volume & issue needed]} but her later design and manufacture was by the Tinkerer.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Reception

Accolades

• In 2020, Scary Mommy included Rachel Leighton in their "195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.^[47]
• In 2022, Screen Rant included Rachel Leighton in their "10 Best Anti-Heroes Not Yet In The MCU" list.^[48]

Other versions

The

• Diamondback appears in Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, voiced by Naomi Shindō and by Rachel Robinson in the English dub.^[50] This version is the partner of Rosetta Riley and a member of the Serpent Society.
• Diamondback appears in the
  Infinity Stone is to take place. However, they are defeated by Wasp, Black Widow, and Charade.^[52]