G.I. JOE INSIDE THE FILE CARDS FEATURING “COBRA COMMANDER”!

G.I. Joe’s Cobra Commander is listed as “Intelligence” for his PMS and “Ordnance, Experimental Weaponry” as his SMS. Yes it should be “Ordnance” and not “Ordinance” as the two have different meanings. Cobra Commander relies on revolutions and chaos in order to control the world. States he has led uprisings in the Middle-East and Southeast Asia and other troubled spots. Responsible for kidnapping scientists, military leaders and businessmen.

So the fact that “Intelligence” is listed as a military specialty and he has led uprisings in various parts of the world lends me to think that Cobra Commander is former military and not the ponzi scheme, used car salesman that Marvel had him as. No one learns military tactics and intelligence gathering by selling cars and/or snake oil (ha, see what I did there!). I cannot remember if he was depicted as military in Rise of Cobra or if he was an attached civilian or not but if military that would be a more realistic take on him. In my Joe-verse he is a former military officer turned mercenary before starting Cobra.

So looking over the earlier filecards for Cobra and also other source material I have in my mind that Cobra was not exactly a full-fledged army. but rather small cells of like-minded individuals who performed more covert operations versus a full-scale military action. They were given an assortment of weapons of different calibers (basically whatever was attainable at the time) and other weapons that relied on stealth to get the job done (garrotees, long-range scoped weapons, tranquilizer guns, etc).

I like to think that Cobra Commander pulled in various groups of varying degrees of politics, religion, nationality in order to achieve his goals. For example maybe through a third party he supports an Islamist terrorist group in the middle-east, while at the same time supporting a hardline Israeli group that is also involved in its own terrorism of Palestinians. I see Cobra Commander being smart enough to work with these groups without letting his true intentions be known nor of the other group being aware of his affiliation with the other group. I also see him supporting other groups like the IRA, Mexican cartels, US drug gangs, biker clubs, etc.

And in regards to using spies I also see him using Cobra Officers (later Crimson Guards) to infiltrate local government (maybe starting out with the mayor of Springfield) then growing to county, state, then federal offices as the years go by and becomes more powerful. Not all battles are won on a battlefield.