Cobra Commander was first released as a mail-in figure in 1982. Wearing a light blue uniform and his signature Battle Helmet, early production runs were marked with a prototypical Cobra sigil, nicknamed the "Mickey Mouse" emblem for its overly round shape. In 1983, a swivel-arm version of this figure, with a proper Cobra sigil would be released on a card for mass market. In 1984, the Commander was offered again as a mail-away, this time in a darker blue, with the iconic hood that he wore prominently in the Marvel comics. This figure would continue to be available as a mail-away until the line ended in 1994.
In 1987, a new Cobra Commander figure was designed, this time outfitting him in full-body Battle Armor. Cobra Commander was given another overhaul in 1991, wearing a blue and black ceremonial uniform with an ornate redesign of his original Battle Helmet. Finally, in 1992, Hasbro released a Talking Battle Commander figure featuring a blue and yellow uniform inspired by the admiral's jacket and hood worn by Cobra Commander in the comics since Marvel #1. This figure was repainted in black, with silver accents, for 1993's Battle Corps subset. A 12" version of the Commander wearing the same uniform (blue with yellow accents) was released in 1993 as well.
Finally, Cobra Commander was suited up for space combat in 1994, as part of Star Brigade. Wearing a strange teal and purple spacesuit, the Commander's domed helmet was removable, revealing a masked head underneath. This face is similar to the sculpt which lay under the hood of the 12" figure, with dark hair, and a half mask covering his nose and mouth.
After the line was canceled in 1994, Hasbro made several attempts to resurrect A Real American Hero through repaint series. In 1997, Cobra Commander was released as part of the "Cobra Command Team" 3-pack, utilizing the 1987 Battle Armor mold in a dark blue. In 2000, the Talking Battle Commander mold was repainted (sans talking backpack) in an even darker blue, with silver highlights, with a new character "Chameleon" (a Baroness dopplganger created to sidestep copyright problems). A second repaint of the 1987 figure was made available in 2001, in a muted version of its original color scheme.
Modern
In 2002, Hasbro reinvented G.I.Joe for the new millennium, and Cobra Commander was among the first to be redesigned. Once again sporting the iconic hood, the Commander was initially meant to wear a long flowing trenchcoat. After the more radical elements were removed (before production), the Commander emerges as one of the least extreme make-overs of the line. A second Commander figure was released for Spy Troops, featuring a more military look than the Commander has ever had before, and utilizing the Commander's signature Battle Helmet. This figure went on to be repainted multiple times in 2004's Valor vs. Venom line, including one version with an interchangeable helmet and hood.
A 12" Cobra Commander was released to coincide with the Spy Troops line, and it is based on the same design as its smaller counterpart.
Sigma 6
In a new 8" scale, Sigma 6 figures were heavily stylized with help by the Japanese animation company Gonzo. The Cobra Commander was released in the "Commando" collection in 2006. Wearing body armor and a cape, the Commander still donned his iconic hood with a battle helmet on top of it. As an action figure, Cobra Commander had a spinning wheel built into his chest, which registered battle damage if hit.
A repaint of this figure, without the battle-damage feature and new weapons, was released in black and silver (now a standard for Commander repaints). A second, more radical repaint followed in 2007, with the Commander's armor painted silver, and an air chariot (a device previously utilized by the Commander's rival, Serpentor) included as an accessory.
The Commander was also released in the 2.5" line, initially as part of the "B.A.T. Attack" figure 4-pack. A second version was included with the H.I.S.S. Tank.
25th Anniversary
2007 is the 25th Anniversary of the original launch of G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero. To celebrate, Hasbro created three boxed sets of brand new figures, featuring modern sculpt and updated and increased articulation (including the replacement of GIJoe's trademark O-Ring construction). Cobra Commander is included in the inaugural Cobra set, along with Destro, Baroness, Storm Shadow, and a Cobra Trooper. The figure was rereleased on a single card, and repainted in black and gold for the "Cobra Legions" 5-pack, and in comic accurate colors for a Comic 2-Pack. Mirroring the vintage line, Cobra Commander was released with a hooded head sculpt in the first wave of single carded figures.
A second Cobra Commander sculpt, based on the 1987 Battle Armor figure, was released in early 2008. The Battle Helmet version from 2007 was repainted in cartoon accurate colors for a second single card release, and the "Cobra Senior Officers" 3-Pack. The Hooded version was repainted for the 'Crimson Guard" 3-Pack.
Comic Series
Marvel
Much of Cobra Commander's early origins, such as his birth name and childhood, are unrevealed. By all appearances he was born an American citizen sometime in the mid-twentieth century, his only known relative an older brother named Dan to which he had a strong attachment. Dan enlisted in the military during the Vietnam War and volunteered for repeated tours in order to spare his younger sibling from being drafted (federal policy being that only one sibling from a family could serve in combat). During this time, the man who would become Cobra Commander worked as a used car salesman struggling to keep his business afloat. When Dan returned from Vietnam, he displayed deep psychological trauma caused by his war experiences, and took to drinking heavily and engaging in self-destructive behavior, especially reckless driving. This ended tragically when Dan crashed head-on into another car, killing himself and a family of three. Devastated by the loss of his brother, the future Cobra Commander refused to see any responsibility on the part of Dan for the accident (and by extension, any guilt for himself for being the ultimate cause of Dan's condition). He perversely blamed the family in the other car and their only survivor, another war veteran who the family had been traveling to the airport to pick-up when they were killed by Dan. Becoming obsessed with this soldier, the young Cobra Commander formed elaborate revenge schemes against him.
Cobra Commander managed to track the former soldier to Japan, where he was training to become a member of the Arashikage ninja clan. The Commander approached the mercenary Firefly for the job, but Firefly realized he was no match for the target and instead referenced Cobra Commander to another assassin, Zartan, who took the job and infiltrated the clan. Zartan retrieved a personal arrow shot by Storm Shadow to serve as the murder weapon and conceal his involvement. Forced to shoot blind, Zartan used a sound amplification scope to target his victim's distinctive heartbeat. However, at that moment the soldier was meeting with Storm Shadow's uncle, the Hard Master, who was demonstrating a secret technique to mimic the soldier's distinctive heartbeat. As both the true target and the Hard Master were obscured from Zartan's vision, the Hard Master was mistakenly stricken and killed by the arrow. Though Storm Shadow saw Zartan fleeing the scene, no one else did. Storm Shadow was blamed for the murder and fled in search of the killer. The soldier eventually left the ninja clan to live in seclusion in the Sierra Nevada mountains, until enticed to return to service on the G.I. Joe team as Snake-Eyes.
Cobra Commander attempted to resume his domestic life, returning to his wife and newborn son Billy. However, when his wife found out what had happened in Japan, she threatened to go to the authorities. Denouncing her perceived betrayal, Cobra Commander abandoned his wife and took Billy with him. Living on the road and earning a living by increasingly illicit scams and con jobs, the soon-to-be Commander became egotistical yet paranoid, blaming all his problems on what he perceived as the corrupt American system that always crushed the little guy, and began to harbor great ambitions of wreaking vengeance upon it. He traveled across America with Billy, seeking out people who shared his desire to topple big business and the government, using money earned from pyramid schemes to attract followers. It was during these early meetings that he first began wearing a blue hood to mask his civilian identity.
He then moved his nascent organization to the town of Springfield, where the economy had failed and the population had become disillusioned. Using his criminal skills and charisma to create immediate prosperity he soon had the population's gratitude and loyalty and took absolute control of the town. Building his base of followers into a disciplined organization he established the paramilitary group Cobra, a cartel that promised personal wealth and power to its members in exchange for unquestioning loyalty to its goals and used terrorist tactics to achieve them. For reasons and in ways unknown, Billy left his father about this time and joined the anti-Cobra resistance in Springfield. Storm Shadow's search for his uncle's killer eventually led him to Cobra, which Storm Shadow joined, pledging loyalty to Cobra Commander as his personal bodyguard in order to get close to him and find the real assassin of the Hard Master.
Cobra's agents spread throughout the world, overturning or subverting unstable third-world governments in order to establish criminal networks and a profitable arms trade. The organization also explored dangerous and experimental technology, including such wonder weapons as mind-scanners and battle robots; not coincidentally, this was also the time when Cobra Commander began wearing his distinctive featureless silver hi-tech battle mask (elaborately booby-trapped to prevent unmaskings). Cobra became a significant international threat, prompting the United States to form the elite G.I. Joe team in order to combat it. Recruiting new members from many nations and controlling assets across the world, Cobra became so large that Cobra Commander could no longer control it on his own and created a "High Command" of his most skilled (if not trusted) lieutenants, which included Zartan, Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, the Scottish arms dealer James McCullen Destro, and Australian mercenary Major Sebastian Bludd. This dubious staffing led to frequent power-struggles within the organization and ultimately the Baroness and Major Bludd enacted a plot to assassinate the Commander and seize control of Cobra.
In a twist of fate, the conspirators unknowingly recruited Billy to carry out the assassination, but he was intercepted by Destro before he could accomplish his task. Cobra Commander had become such a rabid megalomaniac that he had no qualms about torturing his own son to unearth the conspiracy, yet Billy refused to surrender any information identifying who had sponsored the hit. Such tenacity impressed Storm Shadow, so he freed Billy and they both escaped to New York, where Storm Shadow trained him in ninjitsu. Billy was later caught in the crossfire between the Soft Master (Storm Shadow's other uncle) and Cobra agent Scrap-Iron, when the car he was driving in exploded.
After a failed assault on the the Pit, the secret headquarters of G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander and Destro were trapped underground, presumed dead, and upon escaping forced to work together to make their way back to Cobra. Assuming a civilian disguise in order to travel incognito, Cobra Commander was shown unmasked for the first time in the comic series, though only after he had donned obscuring accessories such as sunglasses and a false mustache. He was depicted as an average, physically fit Caucasian with a beatnik image evinced by a pony tail, large round green-spectacled sunglasses and a long slender mustache. Though this motif was presented as a convenient disguise at the time, this civilian look resurfaced on subsequent occasions or in flashbacks when he was seen without his mask (while Destro appeared differently in later unmaskings).
It was during this cross-country trek with Destro that Cobra Commander learned of Billy's fate: though he survived the explosion, he had lost a leg and an eye, and lay in a coma ever since. Unnerved by the discovery, the Commander emotionally broke down and swore to take responsibility for Billy's condition, and promised to be a better father. Seeking out the Crimson Guard agent Fred VII, a mechanical genius, the Commander set up shop in Denver, where Billy eventually awoke from the coma, though with acute amnesia. Fitted with a motorized prosthetic leg built by Fred VII, Billy unwittingly stumbled upon the Blind Master (yet another Arashikage ninja) and Jinx (Storm Shadow's cousin), an encounter which restored his memory, especially of the many horrible things his father had done as Cobra Commander. Seeing that Fred VII had constructed a suit of battle-armor for Cobra Commander, who was forgetting his promise and once again entertaining thoughts of conquest, Billy walked out on his father. The incident led Cobra Commander to reflect on how little his ambitions had left him with personally, and finally declare that he was done with Cobra and abandoning the organization he had founded. Fred VII was so angered to see the man he had dedicated his life toward throwing it all away that he shot Cobra Commander in the back, apparently killing him. Fred VII then donned the armor and began a long charade as the Commander himself, returning to Cobra Island to vie for control of Cobra with Serpentor. The apparent assassination of the original Cobra Commander was not commonly known of, and Fred VII filled the role for several years.
However, unknown to Fredd VII he had been under surveillance by another Crimson Guardsman when he buried the Commander's body. It was exhumed by this agent, Fred VIII, who discovered that Cobra Commander was not dead yet and brought him to medical aid clandestinely. With Fred VII masquerading as him in Cobra (and conveniently taking up all of G.I. Joe's attention) the Commander began to form an underground network within Cobra from loyal agents and rebuild his personal fortune and influence. When Dr. Mindbender went to harvest DNA from Cobra Commander's body for the genetic creation of a new leader, he instead discovered the empty grave, upon which the original Cobra Commander revealed himself.
Cobra Commander took that opportunity to return to Cobra openly and in force. The last vestiges of his compassion burned away by the double betrayal of Billy and Fred VII, he was even more maniacal and ruthless than before, filled with wrath and unwilling to tolerate any traitors (real or perceived). His first act was to imprison those who had betrayed him (those who tried to murder him or come to know of the act subsequently): Fred VII, Raptor, Firefly, Dr. Mindbender, Zartan, Billy, and numerous Cobra troops, all of whom he had buried alive within a volcano on Cobra Island. He relinquished all traces of morality and humanity, and rebuilt a new command structure by instituting a brainwashing program to compel allegiance from those around him, including repeatedly brainwashing Destro, The Baroness, Zartan, Storm Shadow and Billy.
He also became much more willing to kill, even personally executing Borovian rebels Magda and the White Clown.
Devil's Due
Among the few revisions Devil's Due instituted was the expansion of Cobra Commander's origin. After his brother's death, the future Commander sought out the surviving son of the family killed by Dan. He found the soldier, Snake-Eyes, at a bar, where the Commander saved him from an oncoming truck and the two became friends. They traveled from state to state, acting as vigilantes. One night, Cobra Commander took Snake-Eyes to the house of a corrupt Judge who he blamed for the hardships they had both experienced: years before, the judge had presided over a case involving Cobra Commander's brother Dan, who ran a veteran's hospital. The hospital had been burned down by a patient, but the judge ruled that it was insurance fraud; Dan lost everything and turned to drinking, which led to the crash that took his life and the lives of Snake-Eyes' family. Realizing where his anger had taken him, Snake-Eyes refused to kill the man and walked away. Cobra Commander killed the judge himself and vowed revenge against Snake-Eyes for having turned on him.
After the Marvel series ended, Cobra forces fell to a unified assault organized by the G.I. Joe leader, General Hawk. Cobra Commander managed to escape, becoming an international fugitive as the remnants of his organization retreated into hiding. He spent the next seven years sheltered in non-extradition countries, rebuilding his organization from the shadows.
By the time he had fully restored the terrorist group, however, he was usurped by Destro's illegitimate son, Alexander, who hoped to impress his father by eliminating his old rival and leading Cobra to victory. Alexander was defeated by the G.I. Joe team, and Cobra Commander was freed by Storm Shadow, retaking his organization soon after. He then proceeded to attack Destro, believing him responsible for Alexander's coup. Destro shortly cleared himself of such suspicions and offered to atone for Alexander's actions by serving Cobra again.
Cobra Commander quickly proved himself deadlier than ever, smuggling a nuclear warhead into the United States, and using a decoy ship as a means for Storm Shadow to infiltrate the G.I. Joe base and assassinate Hawk. Unfortunately, both plans ended in failure, with the Joes capturing the warhead and Snake Eyes arriving to stop Storm Shadow. (It is hinted that it was Storm Shadow himself who informed Snake Eyes of the assassination attempt.)
Not long after, Cobra Commander was betrayed by one of his own troops, the Dreadnok Zandar, who brought him to Cobra Island and presented him to his new leader, Serpentor. Serpentor's army, the COIL — which also included another Cobra traitor, Dr. Mindbender — struck out at the world. During their campaign, a group of Joes that included Snake-Eyes was captured and thrown in the same cell as Cobra Commander. The prisoners managed to escape along with Cobra Commander while G.I. Joe and Cobra attacked the island. The Commander came across Serpentor, who took him captive and ordered the Commander to remove his helmet. The Commander did so, handing it to Serpentor, but his face was still concealed by a balaclava worn beneath the helmet. Cobra Commander then activated an explosive in the helmet and landed a kick that sent Serpentor falling out a window to his death.
Cobra Commander then contacted Storm Shadow, and together they sought out the Red Ninja Clan for protection. The two were tracked down by a G.I. Joe team but managed to escape while the Joes battled the Red Ninjas. Cobra Commander then made his way back to the U.S.
The Commander wasted no time in returning to Cobra Island, which Tomax and Xamot had bought back. Following Destro's capture by G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander led a rescue operation. During the operation, he managed to severely injure General Hawk, but was betrayed by the Baroness. It was revealed Destro had cut a deal with the U.N. in exchange for his freedom. The Commander would spend weeks in custody before being freed by the Dreadnoks. Zartan had traded places with Cobra Commander, allowing the Commander to learn Destro's true plans and watch as the Coil joined Cobra in the wake of Serpentor's death. In a swift coup, Cobra Commander regained his organization and appeared to kill the Baroness.
Destro had been after the Tempest, a device built by Dr. Mindbender that could seed clouds to cause rainfall. Once back in control of the Cobra and Coil forces, the Commander moved all Cobra personnel to the Monolith Base in Budakistan. The Coil forces were to remain on Cobra Island. The Jugglers had alerted Cobra to the U.S.'s plans to drop a nuke on the island. The entire Coil force was killed in the strike.
In Badhikstan, Cobra Commander unleashed the Tempest, armed with a flesh eating bio-engineered virus known as "Deathangel", upon the country. A G.I. Joe team led by General Phillip Rey (Hawk's temporary replacement) managed to track Cobra to their new base, where they defeated Cobra forces and destroyed the Tempest. Although Cobra Commander was able to elude capture, he became a target of the Red Shadows, a secretive organization that sought to eliminate G.I. Joe and Cobra alike. A Red Shadow operative named Dela Eden tracked down the Commander and shot him.
America's Elite
A year passed after the Red Shadows are defeated by G.I. Joe, and Cobra Commander has been written off as dead. While most accepted this as fact, Hawk and Duke believed he was alive and still dangerous. Hawk sent Spirit in search of the Commander, and after a long hunt, the tracker found his prey but was captured by Cobra Commander, and imprisoned.
Duke went on his own search for the Commander but instead found a squad of B.A.T.s who took him captive. The androids were under the control of a former Crimson Guardsman who had a grudge against the Commander and wanted him dead, planning to launch a missile at his position. Duke managed to free himself and to stop the missile's launch, learning its target location from a computer screen: Washington DC.
In Washington, a group of presidential advisers ask to speak to the President, but he tells them to take it up with his Chief of Staff — Garret Freedlowe. The men are shocked when they open the door to find Cobra Commander in the office. The Commander informed the men that he had taken Garret Freedlowe's place with Zartan's masking technology and that he would kill them, replacing them with his own operatives. Cobra Commander then proceeds to tell the President that the abilities of the GI Joe team are lacking, and organizes his very own Elite Anti terrorism team, the Phoenix Guard, led by one time G.I. Joe commander General Rey. He then sent the team to destroy numerous Cobra cells around the world, a step ahead of the Joe teams own efforts. He then accompanied the President on a tour of the secret G.I. Joe base, the Rock, where Colton reveals to them that they have the Baroness secretly in custody. After the trip, Cobra Commander sends new orders to the Phoenix Guard, sending them to the Rock to replace G.I-Joe as America's anti-terrorist force.
During the attack, the Phoenix Guard became too ruthless and reckless for Rey's liking. He soon learned his team were secretly members of Cobra. Several members of G.I. Joe were captured while Kamakura, Scarlett and General Colton made it to Colton's hidden radio to contact the White House. The president was shocked to find Garret Freedlowe's decaying corpse in the Chief of Staff's office and a video recording of the Cobra Commander. On the recording, the Commander revealed he had been using the Chief of Staff position to learn everything he could about the United States' strengths, weaknesses and secrets.
The Phoenix Guard was ultimately defeated and most of its members imprisoned. At a secret Cobra base, the order to every sleeper cell went out, announcing Cobra was once again active. The Commander was seen looking down at an infant boy, the son of Destro and the Baroness, whom he planned to mold into the physical manifestation of his ideals. However, he would trade the child to his parents, in return for Destro's family arms dealing empire, MARS.
Eventually Cobra Commander would amass his vast terror network and allies again for a final "World War" against G.I. Joe. Using prototype stealth technology from MARS labs, and his special "Plague" unit, Cobra Commander was able to launch an all out offensive on many of the most powerful nations in the world. The attacks were unprecedentedly successful, with Cobra Commander deposing the President of the United States, and Royal Family of Great Britain, while forcing France and Russia to capitulate. Eventually, G.I Joe was able to break Cobra's stealth technology with the help of Destro, and after a brutal series of battles across the globe, Cobra's conventional forces were crushed. Refusing to admit defeat, Cobra Commander made a last stand where Cobra began in the Appalachian mountains. Cobra Commander would confront his son Billy for a final time, shooting him with toxic bullet and hanging his corpse from a flag pole, breaking the last tie he had with his former life. In the final battle, Cobra Commander wounds General Coulton, but is blindsided by jet pack wearing General Hawk while attempting to escape. Finally captured, Cobra Commander is imprisoned in a special facility at the bottom of the ocean. While claiming others will rise up to carry out his vision, Hawk admits to the possibility, but states Cobra Commander will have no further role in it.
Alternate Continuities
Battle Action Force (IPC)
In the UK Battle Action Force comic, Cobra Commander was originally known as Baron Ironblood, leader of the Red Shadows, a ruthless terrorist organization. The Red Shadows were comprised of legions of brainwashed fanatic soldiers armed with sophisticated, high-tech weapons. The group was declared the single greatest threat to world security by the UN, with Ironblood being labeled "World Enemy #1".
Ironblood betrayed the Shadows, leaking information about their bases and intentions to the UN. While the Shadows were wiped out, Ironblood went into hiding and constructed a new identity for himself, becoming Cobra Commander, creating Cobra in secret.
Action Force (Marvel UK)
In Action Force Weekly, Cobra Commander's personality is a hybrid of the U.S. comic and cartoon version: he is intelligent, a skilled scientist and a charismatic leader, but he is also hysterical and prone to fits of rage.
Sigma 6
Devil's Due created a mini-series based on Sigma 6. It follows the style and the content of the cartoon series, spotlighting a different member of Sigma 6 and Cobra in each issue.
Animated Series
Sunbow
In the first season of the original 1980s animated series, Cobra Commander is the leader of Cobra, described in the show's opening theme as "A ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world". His face is always covered, either by a featureless chrome mask concealing his entire face or by a hood with eyehole cutouts. He wears a blue military uniform, occasionally sporting a cape and carrying a scepter, depending on the occasion. His distinctively raspy voice was provided by Chris Latta, who also provided the voice of Starscream in Transformers. The voices of Starscream and Cobra Commander were virtually identical, with the difference being that for the former, Latta's voice was run through a vocoder to produce the characteristic digital echo effect of the Transformers.
Although only Cobra Commander's eyes are openly exposed, it is clear from this partial view that he is a brown-eyed Caucasian. His reason for wearing the mask was not expressly divulged, but in one episode, Lights! Camera! Cobra!, Destro interrupts his unmasked privacy during a meal and is repulsed at what he saw (which is not shown on-screen), prompting the Commander to wryly muse "It takes a strong stomach to watch me eat, eh, Destro?", implying that he may have some unsightly deformity. This is later confirmed in G.I. Joe: The Movie, where his face is shown to have been horribly disfigured as the result of a laboratory mishap involving "genetic altering spores". It is not the original origin the writers of the cartoon series had in mind, however. This is further evidenced by Cobra Commander's blue skinned appearance during that particular scene.
Cobra Commander frequently led assaults himself, but often vacillated between being a coward at heart, usually the first to turn tail in retreat whenever the tide of battle shifted unfavorably, or pushing his troops to seize victory at all costs, berating them when they turned to retreat. Impatient and frequently hysterical, he was prone to fits of rage when things went badly, often launching into extended rants. He was also greedy and egotistical, often mistreating his own troops to the point of mutiny, and on multiple occasions saw his plans foiled by his own arrogance.
He had a knack for concocting creative schemes for world domination - including cloned dinosaurs, giant amoebas, miniaturized troops stowed away inside Christmas presents, and using a superlaser to gleefully carve a picture of his face on the moon à la Chairface Chippendale - plans which his immediate subordinates, particularly Destro, often blasted as ridiculous. (In fact, when Destro found out about the moon carving, he shouted why were millions of dollars wasted on "this... cosmic graffiti!?") As such, he was less of an evil genius and more of a psychotic egomaniac. The writers later commented that they only found Cobra Commander's personality when they stopped writing him as an Adolf Hitler-type and started writing him more in the vein of Yosemite Sam.
Season 2 opened with the 5-episode mini-series Arise, Serpentor, Arise! in which the Cobra organization decides that, after Cobra Commander had repeatedly failed to bring them victory, they should literally create a new leader. Under the guidance of Dr. Mindbender, Cobra's scientists combine DNA samples retrieved from the tombs of history's most notorious despots (along with DNA from current G.I. Joe member Sgt. Slaughter) to genetically craft Cobra Commander's successor, Serpentor, who immediately assumes charge of Cobra and deposes the erstwhile Commander to the status of "lackey."
Fortunately for the Commander, G.I. Joe managed to interfere with the gene collection to deny Serpentor the critical inclusion of Sun Tzu's essence and with only a little of Sgt. Slaughter's. The absence of that ancient military strategist's influence evidently makes Serpentor prone to impulsive foolhardiness that shows when he immediately orders a full-scale attack on Washington, D.C.. While the operation is initially successful, it soon turns into a complete fiasco at the hands of G.I. Joe's reprisals. Cobra Commander is able to convince Dr. Mindbender to free him from his handcuffs because he knows how to use a weapon and Cobra needs all the help it can get. During the battle, Cobra's vehicles began to run out of fuel, except for one Night Raven, which would take the high command back to Cobra Island. A sudden burst of fire cuts the Joes off from Serpentor. The high command is shocked to learn Cobra Commander saved them. Serpentor orders the high command to the Night Raven while he deals with the Commander. In a rare moment of brilliance, Cobra Commander is able to convince Serpentor that he needs him for a scapegoat.
Thereafter, Cobra Commander seems to be employed as the organizations primary field commander, while Serpentor leads mostly from the Terrordrome. Serpentor even allowed Cobra Commander to be the organization's second-in-command, a decision tolerated by the rest of the Cobra High Command. Cobra Commander spent most of Season 2 trying to reclaim his former glory from under Serpentor's domineering shadow, assembling his own secret society called The Coil to that end.
The Movie
G.I. Joe: The Movie explained Cobra Commander's origin in full, but it contradicted material seen in the animated series. Cobra Commander is revealed to be a former scientist and nobleman from the ancient, pre-human society of Cobra-La. Although humanoid in appearance, he has pale blue skin, no hair, and eyes with cat-like pupils. The nobleman was disfigured in a laboratory accident while studying a strange plant which sprayed his face with mutative spores, causing him to grow an asymmetrical array of eyes over his face, thus explaining why he wears a mask. Despite this deformity, his ambition was recognized and he was selected by Cobra-La's ruler, Golobulus, to venture from their isolated Himalayan kingdom into the outside world, there he was instructed to establish an army for the razing of human civilization, allowing Cobra-La to retake the planet.
Cobra was this army, but in light of their constant failures, Golobulus decides to put the Commander on trial and punishes him by forcing his further exposure to the spores, whose effect begins to devolve him into a snake. Escaping with Joe member Roadblock, Cobra Commander's "humanity" begins to slip away as his body transforms. Soon he is left mindlessly hissing that he was "once-ssss a man...". In the end, seeking vengeance for his deteriorating condition, he tries to lead a Joe offensive into Cobra-La -- Roadblock encouraging him to retain his humanity: "Which way now, man? You hear me, man?" -- but ultimately becomes mentally unresponsive as his continuing metamorphosis fully changes him into an oversized snake. He briefly slithers to Lt. Falcon's rescue during the final battle, foiling Serpentor's attack, allowing Falcon to defeat Serpentor and Golobulus and save the world.
This origin stands in contradiction to background information previously hinted at in the cartoon: in the episode Twenty Questions, the Commander told an interviewing journalist that he was responsible for spearheading a mutiny at his military academy in his youth. In other episodes, aforementioned reactions to off-screen unmaskings or glimpses of the Commander's features are not in keeping with the inhumanly blue-skinned figure portrayed in the movie.
DiC Series
After the movie, Cobra Commander is seen as a cobra and he is kept as a pet by Serpentor. However, Baroness steals him and restores him partly to a semi-human form, because she had been rejected by Destro in favor of Zarana, and was seeking revenge. The basic shape of his body is humanoid, his skin and features are reptilian and he retains a taste for flies he catches with his prehensile tongue. However, upon being outfitted with his battle armor, Cobra Commander once again appears to be a caucasian male. His inhuman origins are never mentioned again, and he is never shown to have reptilian features again.
Back in human form, his attempt to overthrow Serpentor is nearly foiled when his newly created Python Patrol is too scared to attack, but with the help of Low-Light (in disguise as a Viper) , Serpentor is captured. Gnawgahyde provides his Iguana for use in the pythonizing ray and it is unclear if Serpentor (now an iguana) is dead or is a pet. He tries to get the Dragon Fire energy but G.I. Joe has foiled his plans again.
Through that, he took over Cobra once again with Destro rejoining as his second-in-command alongside Baroness and later, Major Bludd. He also joins forces with Eco Terrorist Cesspool, whom he immediately plans to double cross. The Commander is still as hysterical as before, but seems far more in control of his organization with Serpentor no longer around, and other enemies like Dr. Mindbender and The Crimson Twins gone. He also spends much of his time trying to regain his lost fortunes, and states numerous times that Cobra is more or less broke. His subordinates also make reference to this, as he apparently does not pay them much, if anything at all. In the first season he wears the battle armor, and in the second season he regains his hood and blue military uniform.
His personality and creative schemes are now far more dangerous than the last time, including schemes such as creating a fake General Hawk to make the Joe lax ("A is for Android") or creating an ozone creme that he forces the masses to buy to protect themselves. So far, he is seen far braver than the previous seasons, and now Destro has renewed loyalty to him they attempt to defeat the Joes once and for all. With his leadership, Cobra almost defeats the Joes several times ("Victory at Volcania" parts I & II, "D-Day at Alcatraz" I & II, "Long Live Rock N Roll" I & II), and he is even captured once (in "Shadow of a Doubt") but escapes with the help of Storm Shadow (who is now a G.I. Joe). At the end of the series, Cobra and G.I. Joe are still waging war, and he is still attempting to gain his first real animated victory.
Transformers
Cobra Commander as "Old Snake".
Cobra Commander unofficially appeared in the third season of the Transformers cartoon (1986), in the episode "Only Human". Set in the then-future year 2006, a trenchcoated figure going by the name "Old Snake" is approached by crime lord Victor Drath, who wishes to purchase synthoid technology, as seen in a few episodes of the GI Joe cartoon series. Old Snake transfers the minds of Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and Springer into synthoid bodies, leaving their robotic shells for Drath's use in criminal activities.
Although it is never explicitly stated, several details make it clear enough that "Old Snake" is actually an aged Cobra Commander: his raspy voice is provided by Chris Latta (the voice of Cobra Commander), he wears the character's distinctive silver mask, and has visible traces of his blue uniform underneath his trenchcoat. He is identified in dialogue as the former leader of a terrorist organization that utilized synthoid technology. Most tellingly of all, the episode concludes with Old Snake lamenting that "they simply don't make terrorists like they used to", raising his fists in skyward exaltation with the familiar "Cobra!" battle cry breaking prematurely into a hacking cough.
Old Snake appears to be wearing the gauntlets of Serpentor (in black rather than Serpentor's dark green). This is contrary to the series' production bible, which notes that his bare fingers should be visible through torn gloves, and that his skin is scaley, like that of a real snake (the animation of this Transformers episode, as with a good half of season 3 episodes, is not stellar, so this costume detail may be simple misinterpretation).
Sgt. Savage and His Screaming Eagles
Cobra Commander appears briefly in the pilot episode of Sgt. Savage and His Screaming Eagles, having a videoconference with General Blitz concerning the relationship between Cobra and Blitz's IRON army. He wears the uniform used on his 1992 figure. He is voiced by Scott McNeil in this appearance.
Sigma 6
In G.I. Joe: Sigma 6, Cobra Commander's profile has been modified, stating that he considers himself a warrior king. This rendition of the character possesses snake-like eyes as well as full battle armor. He wears a helmet that resembles a snake's head and covers his face with a hood. The snake staff he carries contains a number of hidden weapons systems.
This version of Cobra Commander displays far stricter control over his organization, having the loyalty of all his troops and being both feared and respected; he is no longer a coward or a hysterical madman. However, like his earlier cartoon counterpart, he has a flair for grandiose and insane schemes, such as unleashing a giant robot to destroy a city or using a high-powered laser cannon to cut the East Coast off the United States to form "The Cobra Coast". While he mainly operates from behind the scenes, he has been shown to be highly proficient in combat, having battled Duke one-on-one three times, and actually having beaten him once.
Rise of Cobra film
Cobra Commander is set to appear in the live action G.I. Joe movie, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film is slated for an August 2009 release date. USA Today reported Cobra Commander is a multiple role. Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan[citation needed] – and prosthetic makeup underneath. Upon seeing concept art of the role he was being offered, Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity." Levitt described his vocal performance as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s cartoon, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.
Resolute
Cobra Commander completely drops his weak and cowardly facade, which he also rants about in the beginning of the story, explaining that he used that persona to manipulate potential traitors. He instead is more of a ruthless and sinister villain perfectly willing to kill his own men if they fail him. He first murders Major Bludd and cuts his heart in half. Then he uses super charged particles to destroy all of Moscow, encouraging the UN to give him control of the world before he destroys another city within 24 hours. In the end, after a final battle at Cobra's base in Springfield, Cobra Commander is locked in a safe room with no apparent means of escape when GI Joe turns Cobra's super weapon back on Springfield. However, an investigation team investigating the aftermath found the safe room to be completely empty.
This version of Cobra Commander is voiced by Charlie Adler. Just as Chris Latta voiced both Starscream and Cobra Commander in the Sunbow cartoons, Charlie Adler was the voice of Starscream in the live-action Transformers film.
The Robot Chicken episode "Toyz in the Hood" showed Cobra Commander (voiced by Seth Green) with Skeletor, Mumm-Ra and Lex Luthor in a sketch about going to work and being caught in a traffic jam that included their respective heroic enemies — Flint, He-Man, Lion-O and Superman. The heroes mocked and tormented the villians. In the episode "More Blood, More Chocolate," the "Inside the Battlefield" segment retells Cobra Commander's plot to take over the world with the Weather Dominator. In the final fight, G.I. Joe planted an American flag in Cobra Commanders butt both metaphorically and in one unusual case. Duke mentioned that Cobra Commander went to jail until Zartan busted him out with a wickerbasket and a remote-controlled snake. In the episode "P.S. Yes In That Way," Cobra Commander accepts a sniper named Calvin (who had been called "Fumbles" and mistreated by G.I. Joe) and codenames him "Trousersnake" after the pants he was wearing. After he and the other Cobra members saw Calvin snipe the G.I. Joe members, Cobra Commander congradulated "Trousersnake" only to be told by Calvin to call him "Fumbles" (which Calvin has finally accepted as a codename).
Cobra Commander had a cameo in the "PTV" episode of Family Guy, where he had taken over the FCC.
Comedian Hal Sparks dressed as Cobra Commander on the VH1 special I Love Toys in a segment called "Cobra Commander's Day Off", where he would commit 'evil' deeds such as stealing newspapers and toilet paper, cheating at chess and vandalizing a coworker's desk.
On G4's show Action Blast! during intervals is a segment called The Cobra Commander Show where Cobra Commander discusses his view on the world and other meaningless information. It also reveals that he likes to watch and play with My Little Pony.
In 2008, on the G4 television program Attack of the Show, they had an ongoing gag where Cobra Commander is running for President of the United States. Segments include a music video/commercial using the slogan, "Yes we shall", a parody of Barack Obama's slogan, "Yes we can."
In the video game Crash of the Titans and its sequel Crash: Mind over Mutant, various enemies can be heard shouting "Cobra-la-la-la-la-la!", referencing to Cobra Commander's punchline in the animated series.
