With the rising cost of his daughter’s medical bills and suffering from boredom at his job, economics professor and financial analyst Seth Voelker volunteers for superhuman enhancements, kicking off his costumed criminal career. Gaining the ability to teleport, he becomes known as Sidewinder and performs unlawful acts for his employers.
Mutagenic Alteration
Seth Voelker is an untenured college-level economics professor. His daughter, Amelia, suffers from an unspecified medical condition causing seizures. When he’s dismissed from his position, Seth becomes a financial analyst for a major branch of Roxxon Oil, soon discovering their extensive extralegal activities. Bored with his job, he volunteers for training and/or mutagenic alteration at Roxxon’s Brand Corporation subsidiary’s Mutagenic Laboratory. They surgically implant a device to mentally control “Nth Projector” dimensional-aperture opening circuitry that is incorporated into a cloak, letting him travel swiftly “sideways” through a sub-dimension “adjacent” to normal space.
Roxxon’s head, Hugh Jones, previously kidnapped by Ophelia Sarkissian, AKA Viper’s Serpent Squad and exposed to the Elder God Set’s Serpent Crown, wants his own Serpent Squad, and dubs Voelker “Sidewinder.” Voelker recruits other test subjects and leads Jones’ Serpent Squad.
Teleporting Cloak
Sidewinder’s cloak, plus some civilian clothing, is interlaced with Nth Projector dimensional-aperture circuitry, sending those within its field to an adjacent dimension to emerge almost instantaneously some distance away. The circuitry is controlled via a cybernetic brain implant, allowing Sidewinder to control it by thought; if he is injured, the chip performs short, random teleports, making him harder to target. Initially disoriented the further he jumped, Sidewinder avoided covering more than 20 feet at a time, but prolonged practice let him teleport 50 miles repeatedly without excessive strain; when he stopped regularly teleporting, this reduced to 10 feet. He can transport one other person, though they have to be fully enveloped in his cloak or risk being lost in transit. Sidewinder can breathe underwater, either via his costume or gill implants like his fellow Serpent Squad members.
His snake-themed costume is fashioned with body armor that protects him from small-caliber fire and oceanic pressures. Presumably via his costume, he can emit “side-effects,” random energy streams from his head that cause explosions on contact; he also sometimes carries anesthetic gas pellets.
Voelker is a skilled financial analyst, shrewd businessman, and excellent pianist.
Heroic Foes
Sidewinder often comes up against Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, as well as the Avengers and the X-Men since his business is of a criminal nature, and they are all in the opposite camp. Though Cap and the Avengers come to his aid eventually when his motives become clear.
Serpent Squad Goals
Building Jones’ Serpent Squad, Sidewinder recruits other test subjects like himself, including paraplegic Quincy McIver, AKA Bushmaster, former Roxxon steel worker Blanche Sitznski, AKA Anaconda, street thug Roland Burroughs, AKA Death Adder, and former call girl turned criminal, Tanya Sealy, AKA Black Mamba. He later starts his own criminal alliance, the Serpent Society, on a business model with profits, performance-based bonuses, medical benefits, and pension plans.
Sidewinder is also motivated to help his daughter, Amelia, who suffers from a costly illness. He pays for her medical bills with his life of crime but eventually they deplete his finances. He ends up asking for help from his enemies, the Avengers, in exchange for his commitment to turn his life around.
A History of Snaking About
Already possessing his own reality (Earth-616)’s Serpent Crown, Jones sent the Serpent Squad to retrieve Reality-712 (“Earth-S”)’s Crown, brought to 616 and dropped in the Pacific Ocean by the Avengers. Using a Roxxon “oil rig” for cover, the Squad oversaw underwater excavation to unearth their prize, but a demolition charge destabilized the rig, and Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing, Walter Newell, AKA Stingray, and amphibious scientist Dr. Henry Croft, en route to a mid-ocean rendezvous with the aquatic member of the Inhumans Royal Family, Triton, stopped to help the stricken rig. The Squad swiftly overpowered Stingray, and Sidewinder threatened Stingray’s life to force the Thing’s surrender. Croft, unnoticed in the heroes’ transport, alerted Triton, who arrived as the Squad unearthed the Crown and the Thing broke free; Sidewinder teleported to an air-sub and, after dropping depth charges and inadvertently causing an avalanche that buried his teammates, he delivered the Crown to Jones. Sidewinder invested his absent teammates’ payments on their behalf, making a tidy profit he put aside to give them when they found him.
Learning of Seth’s new criminal career, a disapproving Donna Voelker divorced him, taking Amelia with her. Seth decided to form a union of snake-themed mercenaries, a Serpent Society, and he enlisted a “test” team including Klaus Voorhees, AKA Cobra, Rachel Leighton, AKA Diamondback, Gordon Fraley, AKA Puff Adder, Gustav Krueger, AKA Rattler, and Anaconda, the last persuaded to put aside past differences in return for a prospective payoff.
Californian crime lords the Pride hired the Society to slay Tony Stark, an industrialist then down on his luck, after Stark’s “employee” (actually Stark himself) Iron Man unwittingly interfered with the Pride’s operatives. The Society attacked Stark while he was searching a junkyard for electronic components, but Stark cobbled together a device that drew energy from Sidewinder’s own Nth generator to stun the entire Society. The Society dissolved, and Sidewinder, injured during the attack on Stark, decided to work behind the scenes thereafter.
Anaconda rejoined Black Mamba and Death Adder in tracking Voelker down, but when they found him he placated them by giving them their cash, then invited other snake criminals to hear his Serpent Society pitch; Viper declined to attend, Puff Adder was left out for unrevealed reasons, and Frank Payne, AKA the Constrictor, walked out of the meeting, feeling he was doing fine working solo. All the others—Anaconda, Black Mamba, Bushmaster, Cobra, Death Adder, Diamondback, Rattler, Cleo Nefertiti, AKA Asp, Burchell Clemens, AKA Cottonmouth, and Zelda DuBois, AKA Princess Python—agreed, and Sidewinder assigned test missions to evaluate their teamwork. Constrictor, fearing the competition, secretly tagged along with Anaconda, Cobra and Rattler as they went to Brand’s now abandoned Mutagenic Lab to steal its equipment, then anonymously called the Avengers. Captain America interrupted the break-in and captured Anaconda, but the others escaped; Sidewinder freed Anaconda, and had her hospitalize Constrictor as a warning to others.
Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) hired the Society to slay their fugitive former leader George Tarleton, AKA M.O.D.O.K.; the group cornered him in a New Jersey mall, but Princess Python lost her nerve and fled; investigating Serpent Saucer sightings, Cap encountered Python, and she told him about the Society in return for her freedom. Despite Cap’s intervention, M.O.D.O.K. was slain, and Sidewinder later retrieved his corpse from the morgue for A.I.M. To dissuade further betrayals, Sidewinder tortured Python, then used Brand technology to wipe her knowledge of the Society. Alex Gentry, AKA the Porcupine, seeking to retire, offered to sell his Porcupine suit to Sidewinder and other criminals, but all turned him down. Gentry subsequently agreed to help draw out the Society for Cap in exchange for the Avengers buying his suit. Gentry again contacted Sidewinder, this time offering a “captured” Cap; Sidewinder sent Society members to kill Cap, but the Avenger defeated them, though Gentry accidentally died. To learn how the Society kept escaping, Cap monitored the prisoners’ cell until Sidewinder teleported in.
After Death Adder was murdered by a Scourge of the Underworld while returning a ransomed Princess Python to the Circus of Crime, Sidewinder had the Society members implanted with transceivers to locate them if they went missing, and, because so many of the team utilized snake venoms, placed Cobra’s universal antitoxin in every members’ quarters. Sidewinder’s business acumen saw each member earn over a million dollars in their first year, and Sidewinder and Black Mamba became romantically involved.
Intending to co-opt the Society, Viper had snake-themed criminals Ariana Saddiqi, AKA Black Racer, Davis Lawfers, AKA Copperhead, Teresa Vasquez, AKA Fer-de-Lance, and Puff Adder rob Las Vegas casinos, anticipating Sidewinder would try to recruit them; Steve Rogers, temporarily calling himself the Captain, and his allies Dennis Dunphy, AKA D-Man, Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, and Jack Monroe, AKA Nomad, captured them, but were incarcerated too by suspicious local law enforcement. When Sidewinder teleported in to take the four snakes out one at a time, the heroes tried to stop him, but Sidewinder falsely threatened to kill Fer-de-Lance, forcing the Captain to let them go. However, after being inducted as probationary Society members, the newcomers let Viper and her other minions, Marc Riemer, AKA Boomslang, Beatrix Keener, AKA Coachwhip, M’Gula, AKA Rock Python, and Aaron Salomon, AKA Slither, into the Society’s base.
Impersonating Black Mamba, Viper bit Sidewinder, administering a lethal poison, but Sidewinder teleported to Diamondback’s room, getting her to administer Cobra’s antitoxin. As Viper’s agents stormed the base and captured the rest of the Society, Diamondback called the Captain for aid, before the still ailing Sidewinder teleported them both outside. Viper offered each captured Society member a chance to join her or die; only Asp, Bushmaster and Black Mamba remained loyal to Sidewinder. The Captain and his allies invaded the base and defeated the Society, saving the three loyalists; at the same time, Black Racer attacked the unconscious Sidewinder en route to hospital, but the Captain’s associate Priscilla Lyons, AKA Vagabond, subdued her, saving Sidewinder.
Feeling betrayed, Sidewinder broke up with Black Mamba and quit the group, turning over leadership, but not his teleportation technology, to Cobra (who soon renamed himself King Cobra) in return for 25% of all future Society earnings. When Ghaur and Llyra Morris, AKA Llyra, approached Sidewinder to hire the Society to retrieve four mystic artifacts, he directed them to Cobra, but had Diamondback, who had also left the Society, rejoin to help him steal the relics once they were gathered. Though the X-Men retrieved the artifacts first, Sidewinder duly purloined them, sold them to Ghaur and Llyra, and sent the Society a mocking 10% commission.
Learning Diamondback was dating Captain America, the Society captured her and sentenced her to death for treason, but Black Mamba and Asp informed Sidewinder. Feeling obligated to repay his debt, Sidewinder rescued her from the Society’s base. Telling Diamondback they were even, Sidewinder prepared to flee in anticipation of Society retaliation, but, alerted to the Society’s hunt by Diamondback, Captain America captured them first. Sure it was only a matter of time before the Society escaped and came after him, Sidewinder reluctantly decided to placate King Cobra by freeing him from the Vault prison. Penetrating the prison, Sidewinder found King Cobra, but as they teleported out, a Guardsman shot Sidewinder’s shoulder. Reappearing just outside the Vault, Sidewinder realized he was too injured to risk carrying a passenger, and abandoned King Cobra, who surrendered to pursuing Guardsmen.
Without the Society’s income, Amelia’s medical bills depleted Seth’s finances; informed of a quarter million dollar procedure that might cure her, Seth contacted Captain America, asking for the Avengers to pay in return for Sidewinder staying on the straight and narrow. Rebuffed, Sidewinder raided crack houses, but when a heist went wrong, a wounded Sidewinder called Diamondback, and she and Cap rescued him. Having confirmed Sidewinder’s motives for seeking the money, Cap agreed to pay Amelia’s bills in return for Sidewinder turning himself in. While in the Raft prison, he apparently squared things with the Society by selling them his teleport technology to create new Sidewinders. Eventually paroled, Seth appeared on Action Network News’ discussion of the Thunderbolts as an expert on super-criminal redemption.
The Society empowered an unidentified man as the new Sidewinder, and King Cobra hired him out to Miranda Rand-K’ai, AKA Death Sting, to break into a S.H.I.E.L.D. base and steal the Zodiac Key, but he suffered an apparently fatal electrocution on exiting when he tried to teleport past an electro-shield. The Society chose Gregory Bryan as the next Sidewinder; he joined them in capturing Cap and a Diamondback LMD (Life Model Decoy), but the prisoners escaped and overpowered them. Later, following a Skrull invasion, the Society holed up in a Danzig, Ohio, compound, taking hostages when the authorities came for them. The Nova Corps stormed the compound, and Centurion Irani Rael took down Sidewinder while her teammates defeated the others.
Seth as Sidewinder came out of retirement to work for the Assassins Guild and help them take down their former members, such as Elektra Natchios, AKA Elektra, Matchmaker, and Cape Crow, and Kento Roe. Though when he faced Elektra, she overpowered him and forced him to reveal who led the Guild. Though he did not know, he revealed what he knew, how he received orders telepathically, and promised to return to retirement.
It wasn’t the last time Seth would don his Sidewinder costume, however. He soon invited billionaire investors to Voelker Castle, also known as the Serpent Citadel, headquarters of the Serpent Society. His former enemies, Captain America and Iron Man, infiltrated the event to steal a computer drive stolen by the society. Sidewinder caught them and held them at gunpoint. As he sent for security, Cap took matters into his own hands and attacked. The Serpent Society members joined the fray and when Sidewinder attempted to put a stop to it, Tony’s armor joined and evened the odds.
