Head: 87 Mercer
Torso: 88 Skidmark
Arms: 01 Big Ben
Waist/Legs: 98 Heavy Duty

What the heck? Viper? Who is this guy?

Well, this is basically the man who becomes a Viper, and later, Mercer.

Mercer is one of those "blank slate" characters we dio-storytellers love to use because we can go crazy with their characterizations as they were barely used in any media. My take on Mercer is that he was an all-American boy from a rural area who joined the military right after high school graduation. After distinguishing himself during special forces training, he caught the eye of Duke and was recruited into Delta Force. On his first mission, he was captured by Cobra and subjected to mind control conditioning and ultimately brainwashed into the US military, the government, and hot dogs and apple pie.

He kept his code name of "Viper" and became the prototype of a more militarized Cobra trooper. In my Joe-verse, the Blueshirts are Cobras terrorist agents. They go in, blow up bridges, assassinate people, kick puppies, and cause general mayhem. The Viper corps are Cobras battlefield troopers. As Viper "Prime", the man who would become Mercer recruited a dozen or so agents from the Blueshirt ranks to fill out Cobras first pure battlefield unit, capable of going head to head with the Joes.

This figure itself was made with this role in mind. I just used some left over parts on hand that went together to craft up this very special figure that would serve a central role to my storyline.