This happy-looking fellow with the rag on his face is Cobra Commander. As you might imagine, he's the leader of Cobra, which is a terrorist organization bent on world domination. Cobra even has its own country, believe it or not. It's an island called, appropriately enough, Cobra Island, right smack in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
You know, if all Cobra Commander had to worry about was conquering the world, he might actually make some progress. But besides having to deal with the GI Joe team, he also has to deal with all the varied personalities that make up his entourage. For example, this guy on the right is Destro. Not only does his company, MARS, supply the weapons for Cobra, he is, at various times, the commander's right-hand man or else plotting to take over on his own, OR forming his own organization called the Iron Grenadiers.
Then there's Zartan. He's the Master of Disguise, using advanced holography to assume the appearance of whomever he chooses. In addition, he leads this whacked-out biker gang called the Dreadnoks. He doesn't want to rule Cobra, but his motivations are always mysterious. Who REALLY knows what he wants?
I suppose I should make an attempt to explain Serpentor, since he's the main villain of my new dio-story, Resurrection. Serpentor is a clone. Sort of. Destro and Dr. Mindbender (the de facto mad scientist of Cobra) obtained DNA samples from the greatest warrior-leaders of the past and created a clone that combined them all. Sort of. He took over Cobra for a while, but then died when Zartan shot him with an arrow. Make any sense? No? Well, that's about as good as it gets...
