This is "How Can I Explain?", which is a feature spotlighting inexplicable comic book plots.

Today, we look at how bizarre it was that Captain America just decided to get over Diamondback's criminal past.

Mark Gruenwald made a concerted effort to introduce new villains for Captain America to fight during his run on the title and one of the more memorable ones was the Serpent Society, a trade union for supervillains.

Well, in Captain America #313 (by Gruenwald and artists Paul Neary and Dennis Janke), the Serpent Society had been hired to kill M.O.D.O.K. and Diamondback was one of the members of the team who was sent on the mission.

They catch MODOK feeding and Diamondback cuts him off from his food supply with one of her throwing diamonds...

She then severely damages his propulsion unit...

MODOK escapes, so Diamondback calls in help from the rest of the Serpent Society in hunting down the wounded MODOK...

They chase him to a shopping mall, but Captain America shows up on the scene, as well, and Diamondback has a chance to use her poison diamonds on Cap, but decides that he's too much of a hunk to kill. Meanwhile, though, her teammates are finishing the job in killing MODOK...

Two issues later, the former supervillain known as the Porcupine comes to Captain America with a plan where he can help Cap capture the Serpent Society by pretending to take Cap prisoner and trade him to the Serpent Society...

Cap, of course, is faking being captured and he pops up to take down the villains. Once more, Diamondback doesn't want to kill Cap, so she instead chooses to hunt down Porcupine, who she notes that she has no problems with hurting...

She throws her sharp throwing diamonds at the Porcupine and injures his suit...

Ultimately, while trying to get away, he trips and fatally wounds himself on one of his own needles...

So so far, she's helped MURDER MODOK and she sure didn't seem to mind possibly killing Porcupine, either.

But then we hit Captain America #319. The Serpent Society lost one of their own when the Scourge of the Underworld killed Death Adder. The Society went to investigate the murder of their friend and Diamondback runs into Captain America and she tells him that they should work together. She argues that he shouldn't find her responsible for what her friends did. This is clearly Gruenwald's pitch. She might be a thief, but she's not a KILLER. But she TOTALLY IS A KILLER!

It makes no sense! She can't just hand wave the death of MODOK! And yet that clearly was Gruenwald's intention. It appears as though he realized that she might be an interesting love interest, so he decided to downplay her criminal behavior, but he did it too late in the game.

Cap agrees to work with her, but then she pulls a twisted game of "Find the key" and Cap calls her bluff...

He then exits the ship, telling her that he can never trust her...

This is mostly forgotten by the time Captain America #341 comes around (now the art on the book is by Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom), where the Serpent Society suffers a coup d'etat and Diamondback's friend and leader, Sidewinder, is almost killed.

Diamondback can't think of what else to do but call Captain America for help...

He shows up in the next issue, where Diamondback is hiding out with Sidewinder at a gas station, where's she is keeping the gas station clerk as a captive. She then brags to Cap that she didn't kill him, at least, and he's like, "You're going to have to work a lot to earn my trust."

What the what? How is he even THINKING of trusting her?

In the next issue, Cap needs to go after Viper, but his friend, D-Man, is injured. He needs someone to watch over D-Man and so he asks Diamondback, giving her a chance to prove that he can trust her...

Why is this happening? This makes no sense!

After that arc ended, Diamondback was off doing mercenary work when she comes across a Red Skull scheme and is captured. She calls Cap for help (why he held on to the transmitter she gave him is beyond me)...

He then agrees to let her work with him on the mission...

That's when they really became a developing couple and Diamondback reforms and is Cap's girlfriend for most of the rest of Gruenwald's run.

And I get it, he liked them together and he really did write her well during this period, but he also really didn't even bother to explain why Cap would ever trust someone who flat out helped MURDER a dude in her second appearance. I think he just made a mistake and he mostly just decided to gloss over it, which is fine enough, but it's still a weird situation.

If anyone else can think of a good inexplicable comic book plot, write me at brianc@cbr.com!