(Silver Streak Comics 015, 1941)
The Serpent, a well-established and powerful crimelord, has been laying low due to the threat posed by the Daredevil, but all that is at an end now because as far as she can tell the Daredevil isn't around any longer. She puts in a call to her men, and I really like the sequence that follows. Nothing can stop these guys from getting to work, not prison, not pool, not partying with babes.
The Serpent's plan is both simple and audacious: kidnap the children of the wealthy simultaneously in at least thirteen cities across the US, relying on the mass confusion of the event to hinder law enforcement long enough for her to collect the 10 million dollars ransom and skedaddle.
It turns out that the Serpent was right to fear the Daredevil as he had not retired or been killed but had instead been lying low specifically to draw her out. Now that she has revealed herself, he jumps into action and, barring a brief spell in the Serpent's dungeons (from which she has the audacity to try to ransom him back to the police!), he breaks up her operation in no time flat.
The Serpent herself is captured after an attempt to assassinate the Daredevil at his home because he a) didn't check to see if anyone was following him and b) walked back in uniform. Terrible secret identity hygiene, Daredevil!
Though she is jailed (and makes a great face while being captured!), the Serpent joins the ranks of one-off characters who are just kind of out there with full knowledge of their enemy's secrets. Luckily for the Daredevil, he existed in a less continuity-obsessed time than later heroes and so the Serpent never comes back to bite him for his carelessness.
Categorized in: Animals (Snakes), Kidnappers (Ransom), Villains Who Know Their Heroic Foe's Secret Identity
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