Valentina is similar in appearance to Medusa of Greek Mythology. As a result, she can use her hair to bite people with similar effect to a deadly viper. She also has her own fangs (which assumably also contain venom) as well as the ability to change her form. She can either transform herself into a giant snake like creature or her limbs into one or more snakes. She does not seem to be able to separate any of these snakes.

Valentina is a Serpent Queen, and as such has the ability to communicate with and control all sorts of serpents. She can even use her snakes to bite regular humans for unusual effect. If they should survive the experience, their strength and toughness increase dramatically but they can be controlled by Valentina in a similar fashion to her serpentine servants.

History

Valentina is the arch-nemesis of Darna. As Darna has appeared across all forms of media, so has Valentina. Unlike Darna, her incarnations have little variation across versions. For more information on the various media incarnations of Darna, see that write-up.

The snake queen Valentina appears as early as the the 40’s and has been Darna’s nemesis in every incarnation. Valentina seems based on both the Greek gorgon, Medusa, and the Asian myths of Naga.Valentina’s origin was originally that of a deformed woman who had snakes for hair. When her parents were killed by a crowd of superstitious villagers, she escaped and was adopted by a mysterious entity known as Kobra who guided her into becoming “The Serpent Queen.”

Darna is one of the most prolific superheroes of all time in movies and first appeared in the movies in the early 50s. Valentina also appears in the movie versions, often disguised as a model or religious leader (of course the cult of victims don’t realize what they’re serving). She can shape shift into a snake and usually has demonic henchmen (who also can transform into snakes).

In the Mango comic version (upon which this write-up is entirely based), Valentina can entrance her victims to become her willing slaves. She also uses snakes and their venom to increase her slaves’ physical prowess, particularly strength. Similar to previous versions, she has a pair of accomplices in the comic who in this case are also Snake Queens from Tiamat.

The background origins of Darna’s race of “Adarna Warriors” (named for the Adarna bird of Filipino legend) and Valentina’s race of “Serpent Queens” (still resembling Medusa and/or Naga) is revealed in this version. The two races shared the planet of Tiamat and became embroiled in a fierce war which ravaged the planet. The Adarna Warriors then sought a new planet, Nibiru (also known as Marte possibly to consolidate earlier retcons).

Mango Comic Synopsis:

As stated above, the origins of Valentina’s people are revealed in the Mango comic series. According to The Matriarchs, Darna was the greatest Adarna warrior. She was their greatest hero and champion but fell in battle. It is unclear whether Valentina was the one who killed her or if it was another of Valentina’s race. The worlds controlled by the races were ravaged in the conflict and the Matriarchs fled. Valentina became their queen and while she ruled the world, it was a hollow victory as she was now ruler of a dead world.

She somehow made her way to Earth. It is not clear in the comic, but in the original version she was born on Earth and raised by Kobra, who made her the heir of the Serpents and revealed her spirit was originally that of a Serpent Queen.

Valentina, using a wig to disguise her hair, integrated herself into human society and eventually fell in love with a man named Eduardo.However, when she shared her origins with him, he was shocked and frightened. While it’s not exactly clear how he died, it seems likely his reaction tore Valentina to her core. She swore she would never love again and denounced love as inconstant every chance she would ever get since. She encased his body in stone much as she encased her own heart in stone.

She then decided if humanity would not love her, they would fear her.She brought her ’sisters’ to Earth (it seems likely she has either a Dimension Travel or some other ritual for traveling back and forth).She began assembling a secret terrorist army to generate fear in the people.

Finally, she came upon what she believed her master stroke. Just as she was lured by love, she would lure her new slaves. She disguised herself once again and became Amor! A new pop-singing sensation and plotted to turn her throngs of fans into her mindless slaves at a huge concert.

Everything was going so well until Darna showed up. Darna defeated her servants and freed the audience at the concert before Valnetina could enthrall them. Defeated, Valentina fled to her secret temple but Darna pursued. They fought and Darna discovered Eduardo’s body in the property damage as Valentina destroyed the statue he was encased within. The temple collapsed as Darna desperately tried to save her enemy, only to discover she only held Valentina’s collar.

DC Universe History

Let’s start with Marvel. Considering the unusual effects of the snake venom upon her thralls, perhaps a US scientist discovered one of her (or her predecessors’) thralls once before. Taking his blood and isolating some of the unusual neurontoxins within, he discovered this serum could be used to create a `super‘ man. In wartime, he could be a `super‘ soldier. This scientist was code named Dr. Josef Reinstein.His patient was the now famous Steve Rodgers. Since the serum is at its core still Valentina’s venom, she could possibly control Captain America (and perhaps US Agent). With Cpt.America as her personal body guard, she naturally takes over the Serpent Society and acquires the Serpent Crown. Over the course of her battles with the Avengers, she calls upon the same powers to destroy the Avengers once and for all that her race called upon to destroy Darna and her people. Once again, she is victorious but at the cost of a ravaged world.

This time, she decides, instead of leaving the planet, she would find a parallel Earth to conquer. Summoning her servants to her side, she begins a ritual that will take her to another Earth

At first she can not open a portal to the other Earth, she can only project herself spiritually. She quickly finds a ready mind who is easily susceptible to her influence. Slowly she subverts his mind and has him create a cult in her image. In order to bring her entire army to this new Earth, she realizes she must have a number of people on that Earth equal in size to `open the door‘ from that end. So she has her servant, Jeffrey Franklin Burr, build an army with her supplying him with power through the use of the Crown and her pre-existing abilities.

He adopted the name of Kobra and served his mistress faithfully for years, even if he wasn’t fully cognizant of who was controlling him.After years of service and all the pieces were finally in place, the ritual began. He had even manipulated his lover, Eve, or perhaps it’s better to say Valentina influenced her, to stage a betrayal so this world would never know what was coming.

Just as the complex ritual was reaching it’s climax, some of the JSA tracked him down. Black Adam ripped the heart from the Kobra, unwittingly completing the ritual with his sacrifice. Now Valentina has slowly brought her greatest agents to this strange new Earth with strange new enemies. Valentina has hidden behind the scenes, coiled and ready to strike.

Another option is to use her as is. South East Asia is sparsely populated with supers in the DCU and Valentina could easily be ruling this region, or at least giving it’s heroes a world of trouble.