Issue(s): Captain America #365, Captain America #366, Captain America #367 (Cobra story only)
Cover Date: Dec 89 - Feb 90
Title: "Nowhere to Hyde!" / "The way of the snake" / "The way of the snake"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
M.D. Bright / Mark Bagley - Penciler
Don Hudson - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
There have been back-ups in Captain America since issue #357, but until now they have focused on (more or less) heroic characters: Diamondback (the first part of the Bloodstone story), USAgent, and Vagabond. These issues instead focus on Cobra, the villain that has recently gained control of the Serpent Society. It's an Acts of Vengeance story, but in a cool twist, Cobra dismisses Loki's call to attack different opponents, since the Serpent Society are a financially motivated venture not interested in grudge matches.

But Cobra himself does have a personal matter hanging over his head. He's running the Serpent Society, but doesn't feel like he's doing a good job, and he thinks it's because his perpetual fear of Mr. Hyde is ruining his self-confidence. Hyde has recently escaped from the Vault as part of Acts of Vengeance, so Cobra decides to, er, lube up and go after him.

Cobra blows up all of Hyde's known headquarters except one, and then waits at that one to confront him.

Cobra is still terrified, but to his credit he opts to not use a Cobra Bomb to blind Hyde since he wants to be able to say that Hyde saw him defeat him.

But things don't go well for Cobra, and he winds up in a chokehold. With no other options, he spits in Hyde's mouth.

Another candidate for the Bureau Chief's sadly defunct This Is A Fetish For Someone category.

Cobra tells Hyde that he's been poisoned, and if Hyde kills him he'll never get the antidote. So Hyde lets him go, but even then Cobra makes him beg.

Cobra gives Hyde a drug that turns out to really be a sedative. And after Hyde has passed out, Cobra says that it was actually just plain ordinary "nervous" spit that went into Hyde's mouth. Gross!

When Cobra gets back, he's noticeably more confident, and he rebrands himself as King Cobra.

This was great. It's nice to see the Serpent Society putting profit over revenge, so their exclusion (mostly) from the crossover makes a lot of sense. And it's nice to be able to give Cobra a personal arc that doesn't require him to defeat any super-heroes (since we know that wouldn't be allowed). Both M.D. Bright and Mark Bagley (who replaces Bright as the regular back-up penciler with issue #366) do well here. I'd like to see more like this, but maybe with less spitting next time.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Asp and Coachwhip are both said to have gotten into a little trouble and needed to be sprung while Cobra was out. That probably refers to their appearances in Alpha Flight #79-80 and Moon Knight #10, respectively. Since Asp and Coachwhip appear in the first part of this story, that means that this story (which takes place over a "few days") must take place concurrently with both of those, and i've placed this story based on where it ends, after both of those issues.

References:

• Mr. Hyde was one of the villains that broke out of the Vault in Avengers Spotlight #26.
  
• The Cobra/Hyde partnership ended with Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #46 when Cobra refused to help Hyde during a previous imprisonment.
  
• Asp appeared in Alpha Flight #79-80 and Coachwhip appeared in Moon Knight #10. Nice to see that there was at least a little big of coordination during this event.
  
• Cobra says that Sidewinder appointed him to be the leader of the Serpent Society after the events of Captain America #342-344. In the lettercol to issue #365, someone writes in asking for clarification regarding what happened that caused the Serpents to abandon Sidewinder in Uncanny X-Men annual #13, and a partial clarification is that Cobra didn't oust Sidewinder and that Sidewinder may not have been telling the whole truth in that annual.

Crossover: Acts of Vengeance

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The spitting bit is a classic. Pretty good story but what's with all the bolded words? Seems like every balloon has at least two or three. Try reading some of that out loud and put emphasis on the bold words and you'll sound like Christopher Walken.

I was a bit surprised they didn't use this opportunity to show Acts of vengeance going after one of Cap's sidekicks (Falcon, Nomad, etc.) But getting Cobra to get over the Hyde dynamic was a good move for both characters. The revenge stuff had run its course.

But I think they brought back an old Master of Kung Fu colourist to colour Cobra in these issues for some reason.

Never again (or before?) was Cobra depicted so badass.

We'll find out later in Captain America Annual 10 that Sidewinder resigned because he was upset that so many of the Society members sided with Viper.

Ironically, the Serpent Society goes downhill and basically gets its ass kicked in most of its appearances after this one.