Led by Zartan and his siblings Zandar and Zarana, the Dreadnoks are a militarized biker gang consisting of mercenaries, thieves, and vandals who work for Cobra when brute force was needed.
Members include Burn Out, Buzzer, Crusher, Demolisher, the Dreadheads, Gnawgahyde, Monkeywrench, Ripper, Road Pig, Storm Rider, Thrasher, Torch, Zartan's daughter Zanya, and Zanzibar.
Its known members are Darklon, General Mayhem, Metal-Head, Roddy Piper, Sergeant Major Duncan, and Voltar.
Blaming the federal government and big business for his misfortunes, he conceived a plan to form a secret organization to acquire wealth and power and thereby take his revenge on the world.
Springfield was a perfect place to start the organization, as the town itself had fallen on hard times and the population was disillusioned.
Much of Cobra's early funding came from pyramid schemes and other semi-legitimate business plans, and that financial success allowed a gradual and intense takeover.
Motivated by greed and power, the group soon expanded all over the country, operating in secret, engaging in terrorism to achieve their objectives.
Many of its members (especially those in the elite Crimson Guard units) lead seemingly normal lives, supporting Cobra covertly.
For a comic series predominantly aimed at children, Cobra was a relatively mature depiction of a highly successful terrorist organization.
[citation needed] Larry Hama depicted Cobra troops as being motivated by money, power and a sense of brotherhood.
The only instance that has shown Cobra as a suicidal fanatical organization was in issue #8 where the troopers willingly let themselves blow up on a boat after their loss.
1" storyline in the Battle Action Force comic had Ironblood betraying the Red Shadows, abandoning them to die pointlessly, and going into hiding.
On the brink of throttling the Commander, Jackal succumbed to stun gas and passed out, not quite completing his sentence declaring his intention to destroy the former Baron Ironblood.
Admiring his tenacity and resourcefulness, Cobra Commander elected not to kill the man, instead allowing him to continue to serve.
To remind Jackal that, in the end, he failed to eliminate Cobra Commander, the leader renamed him 'Destro' — the last word he spoke as his former self.
Other high ranking agents include Xamot and Tomax (corporate leaders, coerced by Cobra to merge their Extensive Enterprises organization with them),[11][full citation needed] Crystal Ball (psychological tactics master and internal affairs), Major Bludd, Captain Vicuna (submarine commander), and the chief scientists Dr. Mindbender and Copperback.
Cobra's standard method is to destabilize an already unstable nation, using both terrorism and shell companies to hit the economy.
[12][full citation needed] It has its own secret communications network, the Cobranet, unconnected to the regular Internet.
An international aid company serves as a Cobra front, and they use a psychological test to identify potential, loyal recruits.
[13][full citation needed] It is later revealed that a large cult, The Coil (led by Serpentor), is also part of Cobra's organization.
The Joes later hear the word "Cobra" mentioned after busting one of Destro's arm shipments,[15][full citation needed] but are unaware of what it truly is.
At the same time, Xamot and Tomax reveal they have used Chuckles (whom they knew all along was a spy) to feed selective information to the Joes in order to intimidate them.
Chuckles goes rogue in order to bring the organization down, and succeeds in assassinating the Commander and causing the nuclear obliteration of a Cobra island base.
The new Commander orders the open invasion of the Southeast Asian nation of Nanzhao and successfully convinces the world at large that Nanzhao was a brutal regime that profited off the international drug trade; in reality, the invasion is a front for acquiring the country's massive gold reserves and driving up the price of heroin, a drug that Cobra itself deals.
Although Cobra's reign is totalitarian, it does not use its power to promote any ideology beyond glorifying its leadership, and there is no sign of Cobra-La or other inhuman backing.
The Sigma 6 version of Cobra maintains B.A.Ts as the primary bulk of their army with human personnel acting mostly as technicians.
Industries, owned by James McCullen, are presented as the main antagonists along with Baroness, Storm Shadow, Zartan and the Doctor.
While McCullen builds up his company and convinces NATO to fund his research and development projects to build more advanced weapons, he also conceives an elaborate plan to take over the world by creating an enemy that would inspire fear on a global scale and make everyone turn to the most powerful individual on Earth: the President of the United States.
Cobra played a big part in Snake Eyes with Baroness as a figurehead and yakuza head Kenta Takamura as members.
Storm Shadow joined Cobra in the end after being cast out of Clan Arashikage, after the betrayal and death of Kenta.