Since appearing in Thunderbolts#3 with the new masters of evil, her identity has been unknown. There was much speculation as to who was under the mask, such as jocasta, gypsymoth, and mother superior. The Crimson Cowl's identity was finally revealed in Thunderbolts#25, as Dallas Riordan. Dallas once was the Thunderbolts city liaison to the mayor's office, until she lost her job when the Thunderbolts were revealed to be the Masters of Evil, and the mayor wanting to save his own job, blamed the whole situation on her.
After Moonstone unmasked Dallas as the Crimson cowl, and to the surprise of Atlas who was once involved with her, all she had to say was
"No. You get nothing. That's what you deserve. Go ahead, Thunderbolts--call the police. Just get me away from here--From all of you..."
Leaving more questions on everyone's mind as to why she did this, some of it just doesn't seem to add up with earlier actions for her secretly being a villain.Which is why mystery will continue to go on, as she indeed my not be the actual crimson cowl.
The original Crimson Cowl appeared in volume one of the Avengers series. The Crimson Cowl has always been the front man for the real villain in the past. Jarvis, the Avengers appeared to be the original Cowl for Ultron, the true villain. The same thing could be happening in the present, Dallas is just the real Cowl's pawn, for some reason. Also Moonstone found Dallas trying to crawl out of the wreckage of the command module that was flying in the air, Moonstone was with the Crimson Cowl before the crash. So that means that Moonstone must have lost sight of the Cowl, if only for a moment, as the module fell to the ground.Now knowing that the Crimson Cowl has a teleportation device to make getaway quickly.The real Cowl could have used Moonstone's energy blast that brought down the command module to teleport away unnoticed and to bring in another to take the fall as the Crimson Cowl, then the module crashed. This could be Dallas, for some reason or another Dallas is set up for being the Crimson Cowl. This would also explain her reluctance to explain her actions and why she wouldn't tell them the truth, not even to Atlas. She was being forced to take the fall.
The Crimson Cowl and Dallas seem to be two different characters. If Dallas really is the Crimson Cowl, the way she speaks and acts is vastly different then when she is just herself as Dallas, almost like two different personalities. Also why did Dallas even bother to become involved with Atlas in the past if she was the Crimson CowlThere was no indication she was trying to get information out of him, of take of advantage of him if that's the reason she was with him. She was also very emotional when Atlas tried to contact her from an orbiting space station when they were taking over the Thunderbolts were attempting to take over the world, because if she was the Crimson Cowl, it wouldn't matter that he wasn't a hero anymore, since their both criminals.They could still have a relationship together. Furthermore, the Cowl tried to recruit the Thunderbolts into her team, you would think she would have said something to Atlas, Was Dallas really that crazy to think that if atlas joined she could still keep her identity and feelings secret from him?
Many Questions arise from the revelation of who the Crimson Cowl is. This is one mystery that will continue, as everything doesn't add up properly. It will be interesting to see what the future holds and what develops.
In Thunderbolts#27 Atlas goes to see Dallas in jail which turns into quite an eventful time, as there's an explosion in the side of the prison as 4 mysterious individuals rescue Dallas from prison. Covered in black with red visors and what could pass for a red V belt and rocket boots for them to escape. Just who rescued Dallas? Or did she get them to rescue her?
A little note for Thunderbolts#30, which has Citizen V tracking down a young man, called Melvin Biggers to find out where the Crimson Cowl is. When the Melvin mentions that the Crimson Cowl just busted out of jail, Citizen V pauses and says yes that's the one and suggests the Cowl needs to start building a new one locally. Melvin finally gives in to Citizen V and decides to tell her about the only set of Heavies in town with that kind of Illegal help on that kind of scale. That's all were left with for Issue #30. The pause if funny to note like Citizen V was thinking about something else and just who are the Heavies in town was that the Imperial Forces of America or some other organization?
Citizen V is unmasked in Thunderbolts#38 and is revealed as Dallas Riordan. This causes a few problems as she was also revealed as the Crimson Cowl. Is Dallas both the Crimson Cowl and Citizen V? Or is it more than likely that she was knocked unconscious in Thunderbolts#24 and taken hostage by the Crimson Cowl? Then the Crimson Cowl makes an escape when their scheme fails and puts Dallas into the Crimson Cowl costume. Perhaps Dallas could have told the Thunderbolts then what had happened. But they did ruin her career so she figures they didn't deserve to know. Her being Citizen V as well she must have had some idea that she was going to be broken out of jail by the V battalion as well.
At the end of Thunderbolts#39 as Dallas in her Citizen V costume argues with the images of the V-battalion and the Thunderbolts watch on Dallas is taken away by the Crimson Cowl's Cowl. The Cowl says "As per-programmed evasion protocol". Dallas tries to say something but the hum of crackling energy from the cowl makes it so that no one can hear her. Dallas is then wrapped up by the Cowl and then disappears along with it. This is certainly an interesting development. Did Dallas pre-program the cowl to get her after a certain amount of time if she is the Crimson Cowl? Is the real Crimson Cowl a living person at all? Maybe Crimson Cowl is some sort of robot or perhaps a robot controlled by someone. If the real Crimson Cowl was busy doing something its possible they sent the cowl to retrieve Citizen V while they attended with what they were doing.
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