Editing Dark Champions: New Venice (section)

===VIPER===
In Champions V.I.P.E.R. is the generic bad guy, inspired by GI Joe's C.O.B.R.A. and Marvel's Hydra. But such groups may not fit in this low powered darker world.

So, instead of V.I.P.E.R. the comic book supervillian group, we have "Viper Security Consultants," a legal but shady private security group/Mercenary army that is traded on the stock exchange. Think of a more sinister version of Blackwater, Wackenhut, or Brinks. The US even has a contract with Viper Security Consultants and have their men working in Afganistan and Iraq doing some pretty nasty stuff.

Ironically, this makes them more powerful and far wealthier than the comic book version of V.I.P.E.R. There is no reason for this incarnation to rob a bank, not when their own armored trucks regularly carry $100 million in laundered drug money and weapons sales.
Why risk everything with some crazy plan to rule the world when your stock is already selling for $120 on the NASDAQ and is set to split once news of your latest goverment contract is made public at your next stockholders' meeting?

However, that does not mean Viper is above corporate espionage under the cover of supervilliany or terrorism, and may explain the sudden rash of terrorist activity in town.  Viper is not above playing both sides of the field.