Viper (X-COM)

About

Viper is an alien creature and a support-type character from the X-COM video game series. Although not sharing any connection with Earth, they strongly resemble snakes. It is canonically stated that all individuals within the Viper race are only female; in the X-COM community, Vipers are a popular subject of memes and fan art, including NSFW art.

Origin

On February 5th, 2016, turn-based tactics video game XCOM 2, developed by Firaxis Games, was released.^[1] The game introduced a race of alien enemies known as vipers,^[2] a true form of Thin Men, an alien enemy from 2012 game XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

In the following years, Viper became a popular character among the X-COM fans, often being subjects of memes and fan arts, including Rule 34 fan art.^[3]

Spread

The popularity of the character saw a surge in popularity following the April 14th, 2020, announcement^[4] of the upcoming video game XCOM: Chimera Squad. On the same day, Redditor Mgmtheo discovered that the character card for the playable Viper character Torque claimed that she worked alongside XCOM 2 character Colonel Jane Kelly, with whom she formed a "close bond." The post suggested that Jane Kelly "had a viper gf" (shown below, left).

On April 15th, 2020, Twitter^[5] user youdidntseemeh noticed what appeared to be a Viper brothel in the background of the promotional footage released for the game. The post received over 400 retweets and over 1000 likes in five days (shown below, right).

The posts prompted a surge in the number of memes and fan art dedicated to Vipers in the following days, with notable posts being made by users on Twitter, Reddit and other platforms.

On April 23rd, an introduction video for playable Viper character Torque was released.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External Links