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Rattler
Rattler

Rattler

33 appearances · Bronze Age · 1985–2025 · 3 key issues
Who is Rattler?

Gustav Krueger is a mercenary who joined the Serpent Society, a professional syndicate of snake-themed villains, as Rattler — a formidable combatant equipped with a powerful cybernetic rattlesnake tail that he wields as both a weapon and a physical asset in battle.

Rattler slithered onto the scene in 1985's Captain America #310 — a Bronze Age Marvel debut courtesy of Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary — and has been coiling through the Marvel Universe ever since, racking up appearances across four decades and three key collector issues along the way. A card-carrying member of both the Serpent Society and A.I.M., this villain runs in genuinely dangerous company, sharing pages with the likes of Captain America himself, Anaconda, and Blanche Sitznski across titles ranging from Captain America to The Amazing Spider-Man and Battle Scars. Gruenwald's Serpent Society era is rightly celebrated as one of Marvel's great villain-ensemble experiments, and Rattler is a bona fide piece of that legacy — not a headliner, perhaps, but a persistent, recognizable presence whose 33 catalog appearances prove real staying power. For collectors chasing that classic mid-'80s Cap continuity, Rattler is exactly the kind of deep-cut character who rewards the dig.

Identity

Real name. Gustav Krueger

Powers. Skilled Combatant: Rattler is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and in the combat use of his tail.

Teams & affiliations
Serpent SocietyA.I.M.Enforcers
★ First appearance
Captain America #310
Oct 1985

Top series

Covers through the years — 1985–2025

Captain America #310 1985
Captain America #310
X-Men Annual #13 1989
X-Men Annual #13
Captain America #381 1991
Captain America #381
Captain America #434 1994
Captain America #434
Thunderbolts #104 2006
Thunderbolts #104
The Amazing Spider-Man #562 2008
The Amazing Spider-Man #562
Battle Scars #3 2012
Battle Scars #3
Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Complete Collection #1 2016
Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Complete Collection #1
Avengers by Jason Aaron #10 2022
Avengers by Jason Aaron #10
Avengers Assemble #3 2025
Avengers Assemble #3

Appearances

X-Men Annual (1970)
#13
Damage Control (1989)
#1
Captain America Annual (1971)
#11
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Teams 2005 (2005)
Thunderbolts (2006)
The Amazing Spider-Man (1999)
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2008)
#3
Battle Scars (2012)
Captain America by Ed Brubaker (2012)
#3
Wolverine by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection (2013)
#1
Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The Complete Collection (2016)
#1
Avengers (2018)
Avengers by Jason Aaron (2018)
#10
Avengers Assemble (2024)
#3