COBRA Organization
The COBRA Organization (officially called Cobra Command) is the fictional nemesis of the G.I. Joe team. In the opening credits they are billed as "a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world".
Characters
Though the members of the COBRA Organization are all fighting against G.I. Joe, there are many internal power struggles.
- Baroness or Baroness Anastasia DeCobray - a mysterious woman who operates independently, but often allies herself with Destro.
- Cobra Commander - the leader of COBRA. His face is always obscured by a mask or a veil. It is revealed that the Baronness is the only person to have seen his face and lived. He was temporarily deposed by Serpentor.
- Cesspool - A shady business man who was transformed into a psychopath after falling into a vat of chemicals and lead the Cobra Eco-Warriors.
- Copperhead - a Cobra boat driver.
- Destro or James McCullen Destro - a man who always wears a metal mask (even though in the cartoon the mouth of his mask moves. He often operates independently and frequently attempts to wrest control of COBRA from Cobra Commander. Destro is an arms dealer and his weapon sales fund Cobra.
- Dr. Mindbender - a mad scientist of startling intellect. He has several mind-control devices. He is also quite accomplished with genetic manipulation.
- Fred VII - a former soldier in the Crimson Guard who temporarily impersonated Cobra Commander when he was believed to be dead.
- Serpentor - created through a breakthrough in cloning research by Dr. Mindbender from the DNA extracted from the unearthed remains of the most ruthless and effective military leaders in history, including Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Hannibal and Genghis Khan. In addition to his genetic disposition to greatness, an early experiment also gave him access to the brain patterns of G.I. Joe troop Ripcord, allowing him to use their strategies against them. He was eventually killed by Zartan.
- Storm Shadow or Tommy Arashikage - a ninja who trained in martial arts and military service alongside Snake-Eyes. He joined COBRA with the intention of murdering Cobra Commander, who he believed had been responsible for the death of his master. It was later revealed that Zartan was in fact responsible, but Storm Shadow was never able to avenge his master's death. He eventually was brainwashed and began working for COBRA in earnest.
- Tomax - twin brother of Xamot and leader of the Crimson Guard. The twins experience an empathic connection. While this is often useful, as it allows them to communicate wordlessly and finish each others sentences, it is also a liablity, as they feel each other's pain during fights.
- Dr. Venom - A cobra scientist who played an important role in the first year of the comic book.
- Xamot - twin brother of Tomax and leader of the Crimson Guard. Has a scar on the right side of his face.
Troops
There are several different elite fighting units within COBRA, each of which is trained in different types of combat. During the many power struggles within the COBRA organization, they are usually leveraged against each other. From Hasbro's perspective, each new type of troop was an opportunity to release another collectible action figure, as each of the teams had different costumes.
- Crimson Guard - Cobra's Elite Troopers led by twin brothers Tomax and Xamot.
- Crimson Strike Team - Cobra Vipers that beef up the Crimson Guard's ranks, led by the Baroness.
- Eco-Warriors - led by Cesspool. Aimed to destroy the environment.
- Iron Grenadiers - Destro's personal army. They were originally the guards for his castle, but he later branched out and the fought as their own army.
- Sonic Fighters - led by Major Bludd. Used sound-powered weapons.
- Star Brigade - COBRA's outer-space unit.
- Python Patrol - This patrol specialized in stealth. In the cartoon, they were the counterparts to Sgt. Slaughter's Marauders. The special pythonization process that gave their outfits the interesting scale pattern makes them invisable by radar.
- Vipers - led by Cobra Commander. COBRA's regular infantry troops.
Bases
- Castle Destro - Desto's fortress in Scotland. Training ground for the Iron Grenadiers.
- Cobra Island - the base of COBRA operations
- Springfield - COBRA secretly took control of a small town in middle America, and operated it successfully as a base. Many covert operations were held there, including the creation of Serpentor.
Mercenaries
- Dreadnoks - a team of Australian mercenaries who are frequently contracted for various jobs by Cobra Commander.
- Zartan - the leader of the Dreadnoks. Through an unexplained ability, he is able to camouflage his appearance. His disguises are disrupted by contact with Sun Light.
- Major Bludd - An evil militaty man who has worked for Cobra from time to time. Major Bludd's biggest assignment for Cobra was the assassinartion of General Flagg, the original leader of the GIJoe team.
Cobra-la
In the G.I. Joe Movie, it is revealed that the operations of the COBRA Organization are controlled by a 40,000 year-old underground civilization called Cobra-la, whose snake-like inhabitants were driven underground by the advent of humankind. Though they control most of the COBRA operatives through mind-controlling chemicals, Cobra commander is actually of their race. Cobra-la uses fairly low-tech weapons, such as body armor made out of crustacean carapaces, and motion detection systems leveraging spider-webs. The movie was not well received, and the Cobra-la story arc was all but abandoned in future plotlines.
