Cobra Commander

Cobra Commander is a fictional character from the GI Joe franchise. He appears in the animated series, comic books, toyline and movie.

Animated Series

In Season 1, Cobra Commander is the leader of Cobra, described in the show's themesong as "A ruthless, terrorist organisation determined to rule the world". His face is always covered, either by a cowl which covers everything but his eyes, or a featureless chrome mask which covers his entire face. He always wore a blue miltary Cobra uniform, and occasionally wore a cape and carried a scepter, depending on the occasion.

Season 2 opened with the 5-episode miniseries "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!", in which the Cobra organisation decided that, after Cobra Commander had failed to lead them victory, they should literally build a new leader. Cobra's scientists used the DNA of the world's greatest military leaders to genetically engineer Cobra Commander's replacement, caucasian with brown eyes. Why he wears the mask is not mentioned explicitly, but at one point Chris Latta.

Comic Books

Not much is known of Cobra Commander's past, but in his early career he was a used car salesman. While struggling to keep his business afloat, he learned a car crash had taken the life of his older brother Dan, who had suffered a breakdown after serving in the Vietnam war.

Cobra Commander became obsessed with finding someone to pay for Dan's death. The other car which Dan had hit contained the family of the GI Joe operative codenamed Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander began to blame him, eventually tracking him to a Japan, where he was a member of a ninja clan, and hiring a mercenary called Firefly to kill him. Firefly knew he was no match for Snake Eyes, so he referred Cobra Commander to another assassin, Zartan, who infiltrated the clan and shot Snake Eyes with an arrow he had earlier stolen from another ninja, Storm Shadow. However, it was not Snake Eyes who was hit, but the clan's leader and Storm Shadow's uncle, Hard Master. Storm Shadow was blamed for the murder and fled, along with Cobra Commander, and both vowed revenge against Snake Eyes.

Cobra Commander returned to his normal life, but after his wife gave birth to a son, Billy, she found out about what had happened in Japan. He took Billy and left his wife, becoming increasingly paranoid and blaming all his problems on "the system". He travelled across America with Billy, finding people who shared his desire to bring down big business and the government, and using money he'd earned by running pyramid schemes to attract even more followers.

He then moved to the town of Springfield, where the businesses were struggling and the people had become dissillusioned the way America was being run. He used his power to corrupt the town and eventually control it. Within the town, he founded a clandestine terrorist group called Cobra. Billy, realising his father was now totally insane, fled and joined an anti-Cobra underground organisation, but Cobra Commander cared little.

Cobra's agents spread throughout the world, overturning or subverting unstable third world governments. During 1980s nuclear standoff, Cobra fought against both American and Soviet forces. Eventually, Cobra became so large that Cobra Commander could not control it on his own, and hired a cadre of arms dealers, assassins and bodyguards to aid him. This led to frequent internal power-struggles within the organisation, and ultimately The Baroness and Major Bludd hired an anti-cobra fighter to assassinate Cobra Commander. The boy they hired turned out to be Billy, and he was captured before he could kill his father. Cobra Commander had become such a raving lunatic by this point that had no qualms about torturing his own son, but Billy refused to reveal who had hired him. This impressed Storm Shadow, who now worked for Cobra, so he freed Billy and they both escaped to New York, where Storm Shadow taught Billy ninjitsu. Billy was later involved in fight between Cobra and a group of Ninjas, and a missile attack blew his leg off and left him in a coma.

After several failed world domination schemes and the creation of Serpentor by Doctor Mindbender, Cobra Commander found out about Billy. He found him and promised he would now try to be a better father, and brought Billy to the action figure form.

Version 1 - 1982

Blue Cobra uniform and chrome mask. Came with a laser pistol.

Version 2 - 1984

Dark-blue Cobra uniform and cowl. Came with a laser pistol.

Version 3 - 1987

Had aquamarine and silver samurai-style 'battle armour' which revealed the top-half of his face. Came with a pistol, backpack and mouthpiece.

Version 4 - 1991

Blue & black ninja-esque uniform with a golden helmet and red veil covering his face. Came with a submachinegun, glider and a launcher for the glider.

Version 5 - 1991

Blue Cobra uniform with yellow trimmings and cowl. Came with a rifle and a missile-launching backpack. The backpack had four buttons which caused him to say either "I'll get you!", "Vipers attack!" or "Cobra!" depending on which button was pressed. The fourth button produced a 'combat' sound effect.

Version 6 - 1993

Black Cobra uniform with silver trimmings and cowl. Came with four guns, a spring-loaded missile launcher, two missiles and a figure stand.

Version 7 - 1994

Aquamarine, blue and black "Star Brigade" armour which left the entire top of his head uncovered. Came with a rifle, helmet and a device which allowed him to 'crawl'.

Version 8 - 1997

Blue and silver futuristic armour which covered his face. Came with a pistol and figure stand.

Version 9 - 2000

Black Cobra uniform with silver trimmings and cowl. Came with a rifle, missile launcher, two missiles and a figure stand.

Version 10 - 2001

Silver and blue futuristic armour which covered his face. Came with an uzi, backpack and figure stand.

Version 11 - 2002

Blue & grey Cobra uniform with cowl. Came with three guns.

Version 12 - 2002

Black & red Cobra uniform with cowl. Came with three guns.

Version 13 - 2002

Blue & grey Cobra uniform with cowl. Came with a backpack, harpoon rifle, pistol and a golden staff in the shape of a snake.

Version 14 - 2003

Blue Cobra uniform with red trimmings and chrome faceplate. Came with two guns, a cape and a golden snake-staff.

Version 15 - 2003

Black Cobra uniform with red trimmings and cowl. Came with a backpack, harpoon rifle, pistol and a golden staff in the shape of a snake.

Version 16 - 2004

Black & silver Cobra uniform with red trimmings and chrome faceplate. Came with staff, cape and two guns.

Version 17 - 2004

Blue Cobra uniform with gold trimmings. Came with two guns.

There was also a "Ken" sized Cobra Commander released (don't know the date) with a removable cowl. His face was revealed to be that of a normal looking caucasian male in his 30s-40s with blue eyes and black hair, but his mouth is covered by a kind of scarf.

Movie

GI Joe: The Movie explained Cobra Commander's origin in full, although it does contradict some of what we saw in the original cartoon. Cobra Commander is revealed to be a former scientist / nobleman from the ancient, pre-human society of Cobra-La. He is humanoid in appearance, but has completely white skin, no hair, and eyes with cat-like pupils. Prior to the formation of Cobra, there was an accident in his laboratory when a strange plant he was studying exploded and disfigured his face, explaining why he must wear the mask. He was then sent forth from Cobra-La and told to raise an army that would destroy human civilisation, allowing Cobra-La to retake the world. This, of course, failed, and Golobulous, ruler of Cobra-La, punished him by using mutating spores to devolve him into a snake. This was a slow process, though, and he spent the final hour of the movie rasping "I wasss once a mannnnnn!" until he became a snake completely.

His inhuman appearane both before and after his lab accident goes against what was seen of him during the animated series. As Cobra-La is an ancient, inhuman civilisation, Cobra Commander could potentially be thousands of years old.

As in the animated series, his voice was provided by Chris Latta.