WOMEN WARRIORS

Membership: Asp (Cleo Nefertiti), Black Mamba (Tanya Sealy), Diamondback (Rachel Leighton), Quicksand, Skein (Sybil Dvorak)

Purpose: To publicly "protect" Delaware (while secretly remaining villains and working for Norman Osborn)

Aliases: None

Affiliations: Constrictor (Frank Payne), Sally Floyd, Force of Nature (Aqueduct/Peter Van Zante, Skybreaker/Aireo, Sunstreak/Andrea Rourke, Terraformer), Miriam, Norman Osborn's Avengers (Ares, Hawkeye/Bullseye, Iron Patriot/Norman Osborn, Ms. Marvel/Karla Sofen, Sentry/Bob Reynolds, Spider-Man/Mac Gargan, Wolverine/Daken Akihiro), Philip, Psionex (Asylum, Coronary/James Sharp, Impulse/Dwight Hubbard, Mathematic/Thomas Sorenson, Pretty Persuasions/Heidi P. Franklin), Riot, Taskmaster, Tristan, U-Foes (Ironclad/Mike Steel, Vapor/Ann Darnell, Vector/Simon Utrecht, X-Ray/James Darnell), Warbow

Enemies: Asgardians, R.A.I.D.

Base of Operations: Camp HAMMER, New Mexico, USA

First Appearance: Avengers: The Initiative I#26 (September, 2009)

History: (Avengers: The Initiative I#30 (fb) - BTS) - After joining Norman Osborn's Initiative and being placed on the Initiative's Women Warriors team as leader, Diamondback secretly began providing information to the anti-Osborn Avengers Resistance.

(Avengers: The Initiative I#26 (fb)) - During a press conference regarding the Fifty-State Initiative, which he had only recently taken over, Norman Osborn announced his plans to continue adding Initiative teams in states that did not already have teams and publicly revealed the Women Warriors, the Delaware Initiative team, as well as three other new state teams. Reporter Sally Floyd of the Front Line newspaper then asked about the newly-announced teams being comprised of known criminals but Osborn reminded Floyd of the Avengers who had once been criminals and the Women Warriors' Diamondback had once been the partner of Captain America. Osborn then revealed that all of the criminals comprising the Women Warriors had voluntarily registered themselves and that they would be granted amnesty for their past crimes after proving themselves.

(Avengers: The Initiative I#29) - The Women Warriors were sent to Baltimore-Washington International Airport to assist Constrictor in dealing with the terrorist group called R.A.I.D. When a member of R.A.I.D. downed an incoming plane, Women Warriors team leader Diamondback feared for the safety of the civilians present and ordered the Women Warriors to stop the crashing plane. Remarking that they couldn't stop the plane with their looks, Black Mamba instead yelled for the Women Warriors to run but Diamondback stayed her ground, only to be rescued by Constrictor, who pulled the plane to a stop with his cybernetic coils. Fifteen minutes later, reporters arrived to interview the Women Warriors and Constrictor, and Asp claimed that they had the situation under control the entire time. The interviews were cut short, however, when a woman named Miriam introduced Constrictor to her son Tristan and husband Philip, whom had been on the plane Constrictor had stopped. Later, an alarm went off at Camp HAMMER, prompting the Women Warrior Quicksand to jump into action alongside other Initiative criminals but Diamondback ignored the alarm to spend more time with Constrictor as the Avengers Resistance attacked the base.

(Avengers: The Initiative I#31) - Norman Osborn phoned Initiative head Taskmaster, who was throwing a celebratory party with Women Warriors Black Mamba, Asp and several other criminal Initiative recruits, and informed him of an impending inspection the next morning as Diamondback discussed with Constrictor her ruse of leading the Women Warriors and secret feeding of intel to the Avengers Resistance. The next morning, Skein represented the Women Warriors and stood at attention alongside other Initiative members as Norman Osborn toured Camp HAMMER.

(Siege I#1) - The Women Warriors joined many other Initiative recruits in listening to a speech by Norman Osborn's ally Ares in which he revealed that they would all be invading Asgard, who would be caught unaware by the impending siege of warriors.

(Avengers: The Initiative I#32 (fb)) - The Women Warriors joined members of the U-Foes, Force of Nature, the Shadow Initiative and Norman Osborn's Avengers in traveling aboard the HAMMER Helicarrier towards Asgard for the invasion. During the trip, the Women Warriors stayed close to Diamondback as she discussed with Constrictor and Taskmaster the danger in invading Asgard and fighting gods. Overhearing Constrictor's fears, Quicksand remarked that she had once fought Thor and he wasn't "all that." Asp replied that she had heard Quicksand ran from Thor and the two began to argue until Black Mamba ordered them to save the fighting for paying customers, reminding them that Thor was powerful but other Asgardians were only about as strong as Spider-Man. Diamondback agreed, reminding the Women Warriors that they also had some heavy hitters on their side in the form of the Sentry, who could handle Thor. Constrictor then asked to speak with Diamondback alone, prompting Black Mamba to joke that the two were having a lover's quarrel. As Constrictor spoke with Diamondback and subsequently Taskmaster, Asp and Black Mamba flirted with Bullseye and Venom.

(Avengers: The Initiative I#32 - BTS/Siege I#1 - BTS) - During the battle in Asgard, Diamondback managed to hold her own against Asgardian fighters but both Quicksand and Diamondback witnessed a combined attack from Norman Osborn and his allies that downed Thor.

(Siege I#2 - BTS) - The Women Warriors' Quicksand continued to stand over the fallen Thor alongside Norman Osborn and his allies.

Comments: Created by Christos N. Gage, Rafa Sandoval and Roger Bonet.

The Women Warriors were never seen again together following the "Siege" storyline. One can only assume the Women Warriors disbanded following the Siege of Asgard and Norman Osborn's downfall as head of the Superhuman Armed Forces. I don't see Steve Rogers keeping them around as an Initiative team after he took over from Osborn...

While Avengers: The Initiative I#30 revealed Diamondback's double agent status, we don't actually see the entire Women Warriors team in that issue, only Diamondback and Quicksand. Therefore, I did not list Quicksand and Diamondback's work against Nightmare and the Avengers Resistance in that issue, as it didn't involve the Women Warriors so much as the two individually. Similarly, only Black Mamba, Asp, Diamondback and Skein appear in Avengers: The Initiative I#31, all acting independently of one another, and Quicksand is noticeably absent, but since they all appeared in that issue, I chose to list it as an "appearance" of the Women Warriors for the sake of this profile.

Only Diamondback, Quicksand and possibly Asp appear in Siege I#1 and only Quicksand in Siege I#2 but we know from the flashback in Avengers: The Initiative I#32 that all of the Women Warriors traveled to Asgard for the Siege so I suppose the Women Warriors were BTS in Siege I#1-2.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Women Warriors have no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Avengers: The Initiative I#29, p10, splash page (Women Warriors battling R.A.I.D. alongside Constrictor, main image)
Avengers: The Initiative I#26, p5-6, splash page (Women Warriors with Psionex's Pretty Persuasions)

Appearances:
Avengers: The Initiative I#26 (September, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Rafa Sandoval (pencils), Roger Bonet (inks), Jeanine Schaffer (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#29 (December, 2009) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#30 (January, 2010) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Victor Olazaba, Andrew Hennessy (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#31 (February, 2010) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Rafa Sandoval (pencils), Roger Bonet (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Avengers: The Initiative I#32 (March, 2010) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Mahmud Asrar (pencils), Rebecca Buchman (inks), Bill Rosemann (editor)
Siege I#1 (March, 2010) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Olivier Coipel (pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Siege I#2 (April, 2010) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Olivier Coipel (pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 02/09/2019
Last updated: 02/09/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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