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Fictional terrorist organization in the G.I. Joe franchise From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
COBRA (sometimes referred to as Cobra Command) is a fictional terrorist organization and the nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, as well as in related media.[1]
| Cobra | |
|---|---|
Logo of COBRA | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics Devil's Due Publishing IDW Publishing |
| First appearance | G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero |
| Created by | Larry Hama |
| In-story information | |
| Type of organization | Terrorist military group |
| Base(s) | See Bases |
| Leader(s) | Commander: Cobra Commander Emperor: Serpentor |
| Agent(s) | Weapons supplier: Destro Director of intelligence: Baroness Chief of science: Doctor Mindbender Crimson Guard co-leaders: Tomax and Xamot Ninja bodyguard: Storm Shadow Primary field commander: Major Bludd Anti-armor specialist: Scrap-Iron Dreadnoks leader: Zartan |
| Roster | |
| See: List of Cobra characters | |
Cobra was first introduced during the launch of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline in mid-1982. The toyline was accompanied by a Marvel Comics series, written by Larry Hama, and an animated television series by Sunbow and Marvel Productions. However, the origin and portrayal of Cobra has differed in each of them.
Marvel Comics invented the Cobra concept, with the name having been proposed by Archie Goodwin. When Marvel first proposed the concept, Hasbro was reluctant to make toys of the villains for fear that they would not sell. According to Jim Shooter, "later ... villains became 40% of their volume."[2] Cobra's iconic logo was later created by Hasbro designer Ron Rudat.[3]
All members of the Cobra organization are portrayed as fighting against G.I. Joe, however, there are several internal power struggles within the group.
There are different factions of Cobra:
The Black Dragon is an organization that works for Cobra. While the original group was wiped out during the Cold War by the original G.I. Joe team, there was a survivor who formed the next incarnation of the group who allied with Cobra. The Black Dragon Leader has the Black Dragon organization consisting of Black Dragon Troopers and Black Dragon Ninjas.
Cobra-La is an ancient civilization led by Golobulus that Cobra was said to have connections with in different adaptions. He is served by Pythona, Nemesis Enforcer, and his Royal Guards.
The Coil is a religious wing of Cobra and a highly influential cult that is known to the public as a self-help group.
Led by Zartan and his siblings Zandar and Zarana, the Dreadnoks are a militarized biker gang consisting of mercenaries, thieves, and vandals who work for Cobra when brute force was needed. Zartan used them for backup and brought them with him when he joined Cobra, with Zarana in particular becoming a top ranking agent of Cobra under Fred VII. Members include Burn Out, Buzzer, Crusher, Demolisher, the Dreadheads, Gnawgahyde, Monkeywrench, Ripper, Road Pig, Storm Rider, Thrasher, Torch, Zartan's daughter Zanya, and Zanzibar.
The Iron Grenadiers are a private army owned and maintained by Destro. Its known members are Darklon, General Mayhem, Metal-Head, Roddy Piper, Sergeant Major Duncan, and Voltar.
The Lunartix Empire is a kingdom of aliens who are allied with Cobra. Its known members are Predacon, Carcass, Lobotomaxx, and the Manimals Iguanus, Slythor, and Warwolf.
V.E.N.O.M. is short for Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem. Specialist Trakker's action figure for the G.I. Joe toyline states that V.E.N.O.M. is a technology and weapons research branch and mercenary army for Cobra.
The vast majority of Cobra is made up of legions of uniformed soldiers. Nearly all of them appear masked in order to be anonymous and widely diversified according to specialties and functions. Some of the more prominent include:
Cobra maintains a number of bases around the world. In several media incarnations, Cobra's primary base is Cobra Island. In the Marvel Comics series, Cobra has bases, underground cells, and even whole communities scattered across the globe. The following are several specific locations with names:
To hide certain aspects of its operation, Cobra maintains a number of legitimate business fronts (in addition to the town of Springfield itself and its encompassing businesses) nearly all of which appear to be anagrams of the word "Cobra".
Cobra had its beginnings when the financially ruined man who would become Cobra Commander settled in an American town called Springfield. Blaming the federal government and big business for his misfortunes, he conceived a plan to form a secret organization to acquire wealth and power and thereby take his revenge on the world. Springfield was a perfect place to start the organization, as the town itself had fallen on hard times and the population was disillusioned. Soon, the organization was growing with the entry of like-minded individuals from all over the country. Much of Cobra's early funding came from pyramid schemes and other semi-legitimate business plans, and that financial success allowed a gradual and intense takeover.[7]
In a very short time, Cobra evolved from a business into a paramilitary movement. Motivated by greed and power, the group soon expanded all over the country, operating in secret, engaging in terrorism to achieve their objectives. By the time the U.S. government recognized Cobra as a threat, the organization had already gained footholds as a powerful private army and terrorist organization around the world.
Many of its members (especially those in the elite Crimson Guard units) lead seemingly normal lives, supporting Cobra covertly. Cobra attracted members with the promise of fast financial rewards and power for those willing to be ruthless enough. It also offered a world of order and strength, with its "model community" of Springfield being one example of the Cobra ideal.
Cobra would eventually achieve a temporary legitimacy by the artificial creation of Cobra Island, which was recognized as an independent nation by the international community. This allowed Cobra to have diplomatic facilities in the United States via a Cobra Consulate building acquired in New York City.
During Serpentor's tenure, Cobra's primary source of income came from arms sales to Third World nations. This led to a clash with Destro's M.A.R.S. Organization, which provided Cobra with much of its arms.
For a comic series predominantly aimed at children, Cobra was a relatively mature depiction of a highly successful terrorist organization.[original research?] With its strong symbolic imagery, charismatic and ruthless leader and fanatical hierarchy, the fictional group is similar to other fictional terrorist and totalitarian organizations such as SPECTRE of James Bond fame and the similar Marvel Universe organization HYDRA.[citation needed]
Larry Hama depicted Cobra troops as being motivated by money, power and a sense of brotherhood. However, they are not fanatical to the point where they would fight to the last man and to the last breath. If all is lost, they would willingly surrender or run away had they the chance, something their leaders rarely let them do. The brutal training depicted in the file cards of the troopers are very much characteristic of ritual hazing.
The only instance that has shown Cobra as a suicidal fanatical organization was in issue #8 where the troopers willingly let themselves blow up on a boat after their loss.
In the United Kingdom, G.I. Joe was marketed under the name Action Force. The original antagonists in the Action Force series were the Red Shadows. The Red Shadows were a terrorist organization led by Baron Ironblood and his lieutenant the Black Major. Prominent members included artillery expert Red Laser and tank commander Red Jackal.
The Action Force series was eventually written to more closely match the American G.I. Joe franchise. The "World Enemy No. 1" storyline in the Battle Action Force comic had Ironblood betraying the Red Shadows, abandoning them to die pointlessly, and going into hiding. When he reemerged, he had organized a new group called Cobra and renamed himself as Cobra Commander. The Red Jackal tracked down Cobra Commander with the intention of killing him to avenge the treachery he had performed. On the brink of throttling the Commander, Jackal succumbed to stun gas and passed out, not quite completing his sentence declaring his intention to destroy the former Baron Ironblood. Admiring his tenacity and resourcefulness, Cobra Commander elected not to kill the man, instead allowing him to continue to serve. To remind Jackal that, in the end, he failed to eliminate Cobra Commander, the leader renamed him 'Destro' — the last word he spoke as his former self.[citation needed]
In the IDW universe, Cobra is a shadowy, rumored organization,[8] led by a man known only as "the Commander"; however, there have been other Commanders in the past, elected into 'office' by the faceless body known as the Cobra Council.[9] The Baroness refers to it as "an old organization ... ensconced in its own traditions" that has existed for centuries.[10] The Council members' identities are unknown.
Other high ranking agents include Xamot and Tomax (corporate leaders, coerced by Cobra to merge their Extensive Enterprises organization with them),[11][full citation needed] Crystal Ball (psychological tactics master and internal affairs), Major Bludd, Captain Vicuna (submarine commander), and the chief scientists Dr. Mindbender and Copperback.
Cobra's standard method is to destabilize an already unstable nation, using both terrorism and shell companies to hit the economy. They then openly hire out their Crimson Guard soldiers to that country and slowly make the population trust them more than their government. One operation involved manipulating a small war in Africa, forcing the attacked nation to sell off its national assets.[12][full citation needed]
It has its own secret communications network, the Cobranet, unconnected to the regular Internet. Terrorist groups across the planet are somewhat aware of Cobra and scared of it. An international aid company serves as a Cobra front, and they use a psychological test to identify potential, loyal recruits.[13][full citation needed] It is later revealed that a large cult, The Coil (led by Serpentor), is also part of Cobra's organization.[14][full citation needed] They have a prison called Section Ten and Selene Base, located on the Moon.
Mainframe first stumbles across the global Cobra conspiracy by accident, and was believed by General Hawk to be crazy. Determined to reveal the organization, he went AWOL. Later, Snake Eyes also goes AWOL looking for Cobra. The Joes later hear the word "Cobra" mentioned after busting one of Destro's arm shipments,[15][full citation needed] but are unaware of what it truly is. Duke believes the organization is just a myth and Hawk now believes it is the codename for an operation, but by this point Scarlett believes Cobra is a real, large-scale threat. As a result, she kept unauthorized contact with Snake Eyes about it. At about this time, Chuckles is sent to infiltrate a secret organization which, it is soon discovered, is in fact Cobra.[16][full citation needed]
Thanks to Mainframe and Snake Eyes, Cobra is revealed to the Joes. At the same time, Xamot and Tomax reveal they have used Chuckles (whom they knew all along was a spy) to feed selective information to the Joes in order to intimidate them. Chuckles goes rogue in order to bring the organization down, and succeeds in assassinating the Commander and causing the nuclear obliteration of a Cobra island base.[17]
After a series of catastrophic losses to the Joe team (including the destruction of Section Ten, the loss of the M.A.S.S. Device and the subsequent abandonment of the lunar Selene Base),[18][full citation needed] the Cobra Council responds by creating a contest to determine who would be the next Commander: whoever murders the most Joes takes on the role of Commander.[19][full citation needed] A ruthless agent named Krake wins the competition, largely by revealing that he had killed and replaced one of his rivals with Zartan, doubling his kill score and showing the initiative to break the rules to win.
The new Commander orders the open invasion of the Southeast Asian nation of Nanzhao and successfully convinces the world at large that Nanzhao was a brutal regime that profited off the international drug trade; in reality, the invasion is a front for acquiring the country's massive gold reserves and driving up the price of heroin, a drug that Cobra itself deals. The Commander then slaughters the Cobra Council and assumes full control of Cobra.[20][full citation needed]
The Sunbow cartoon did not explore how Cobra began. It was only in G.I. Joe: The Movie that it is revealed that the organization was a front runner for a 40,000-year-old underground civilization called Cobra-La, whose snake-like inhabitants were driven underground by the advent of humankind.[21] Cobra Commander was, in actuality, a member of this underground race. He was tasked with creating an organization that would overrun the world at large. It is also revealed that the creation of Serpentor was an initiative by Cobra-La: through the use of a biological mind controlling device, they implanted the idea into Dr. Mindbender's mind.
The creation of Cobra-La was an unintentional side effect of Hasbro's demand that the heretofore unintroduced Cobra Emperor Serpentor be inserted into the series, despite the fact that Cobra Commander had long been established as the one-and-only head of Cobra. Series story editor and writer Buzz Dixon offered two possible storylines to make it work: one had the senior Cobra leadership, fed up with Cobra Commander's constant failures, deciding to literally build a better leader. The other presented Cobra as being a front for a vast, secretive and far more sinister organization whose leadership finds Cobra Commander lacking and sends Serpentor as a replacement.[citation needed] Hasbro, liking both ideas, had the series writers combine both concepts.[citation needed]
The writers despised the name Cobra-La and had only originally intended to use it as a working name to be replaced by a "real" name in the finished product; they were overruled by Hasbro.[citation needed] Buzz Dixon had a much different idea originally for the origin of Cobra. In a story entitled "The Most Dangerous Man in the World", it was to be revealed that Cobra was originally organized around the political theories of a Karl Marx/Friedrich Nietzsche-type figure, whom Cobra Commander locked away when the Commander began corrupting the Cobra philosophies from their original principles.[citation needed] A first-season two-part episode, Worlds Without End, portrays an alternate reality in which Cobra has established control over the United States (and apparently all of the world). Although Cobra's reign is totalitarian, it does not use its power to promote any ideology beyond glorifying its leadership, and there is no sign of Cobra-La or other inhuman backing.
None of the senior Cobra leaders, except Destro and the Baroness, likes the others. During the encounter with the Gamesmaster, Zartan accuses Destro of kidnapping Cobra Commander; Destro refuses to bargain for Zartan's release from G. I. Joe, and regards Cobra Commander with contempt; the Baroness disbelieves Cobra Commander's promise that he will send help after escaping via helicopter, and prefers G.I. Joe member Lady Jaye to use the vehicle; and Cobra Commander only trusts himself. Even after Cobra's complete victory in "Worlds Without End", distrustful rivalry between Cobra Commander and Destro persists, bringing the regime to the brink of civil war.
According to the recruitment brochures for Cobra's troops, they provide excellent dental.
In the pilot episode of Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles, General Blitz states that he helped create Cobra, during a teleconference between Blitz and Cobra Commander.
Several of the organization's prominent members such as Cobra Commander, Destro, the Baroness and Zartan are featured prominently in the G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 television series. Many of these members are given some form of cybernetic enhancements. The Sigma 6 version of Cobra maintains B.A.Ts as the primary bulk of their army with human personnel acting mostly as technicians.
In the G.I. Joe: Renegades television series, Cobra is presented as Cobra Industries, a multinational company involved in communications, pharmaceuticals and military technologies. The US government has long suspected them of criminal activity, but had no evidence. The Joes, here framed as criminals for their attempt to discover the truth, attempt to find evidence of Cobra's plans of world domination. Cobra Commander, Baroness, Destro, and Doctor Mindbender are seen as the most prominent members of Cobra, but Major Bludd, Storm Shadow, Zartan, and Firefly also work for Cobra.
Despite its title in the live-action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Cobra as an organization does not appear as such. Instead, M.A.R.S. Industries, owned by James McCullen, are presented as the main antagonists along with Baroness, Storm Shadow, Zartan and the Doctor. While McCullen builds up his company and convinces NATO to fund his research and development projects to build more advanced weapons, he also conceives an elaborate plan to take over the world by creating an enemy that would inspire fear on a global scale and make everyone turn to the most powerful individual on Earth: the President of the United States. To this end, McCullen turns M.A.R.S.'s unlimited resources towards espionage and terrorism.
While not present, there are several hints throughout the film of what will become Cobra, such as the presence of M.A.R.S. Industries elite warriors, called Neo-Vipers, and the Doctor taking the alias of "the Commander", stating that "the time has come for the cobra to rise up and reveal himself" while escaping in a submarine branded with Cobra's logo. At the end of the film, the Commander and McCullen, now known as Destro, are imprisoned on the USS Flagg while Zartan appears at the end impersonating the U.S. president.
While the Commander and Destro are still imprisoned, Cobra reappears in the sequel film G.I. Joe: Retaliation, under the leadership of the U.S. president who is secretly Zartan in disguise. Zartan recruits ex-Joe Firefly and Storm Shadow to free the Commander, but leaves Destro in prison. Storm Shadow would later betray Cobra and joins the Joes on stopping Cobra and killing Zartan.
Cobra played a big part in Snake Eyes with Baroness as a figurehead and yakuza head Kenta Takamura as members. Storm Shadow joined Cobra in the end after being cast out of Clan Arashikage, after the betrayal and death of Kenta.[22]
In Image Comics' Invincible and its television adaptation, Cobra is parodied as the Lizard League, whose members include Queen Lizard (voiced by Tatiana Maslany), King Lizard (voiced by Scoot McNairy as an adult, Jacob Tremblay as a child), Salamander (voiced by Phil LaMarr), Supreme Lizard (voiced by Fred Tatasciore), Iguana, and Komodo Dragon.
Cobra are featured as the main antagonists of the Community episode "G.I. Jeff", written by Dino Stamatopoulos and directed by Rob Schrab, set within the coma dream of Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), as he finds himself taking on Cobra after accidentally killing Destro (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.) and introducing death to the world of the G.I. Joe animated series.[23][24]
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