Cobra Commander vs. Serpentor

[zechs27.insanejournal.com]

From G.I. Joe vol. 2 #25 during the Devil's Due run. The moment most Joe fans have been waiting for: Cobra Commander versus Serpentor. Winner gets rule over Cobra.

This was during Serpentor's big return arc #22-25 that the series was building up too. He had captured some Joes (biggest one amongst them being Snake-Eyes) and the Commander.

Of course the group escapes and once Cobra Commander alludes his newfound "allies" and all hell is breaking loose with Cobra and G.I. Joe vs the Coil (Serpentor's faction) on the former Cobra Island, the Commander decides it is time to leave when we get to this:







HA! God I loved that.

I know Zartan's kill was oh so more flashier, but come on those last lines the Commander said to Serpentor where just awesome.


For those wondering who the kids are, they're Serpentor clones, all various tries before the original. Cobra Commander ordered them killed, but Mindbender couldn't do it and in the first part to this arc was being father to them all. After the story they're all broken up and taken into foster care. One of them not included in this was aged and become's a US General during America's Elite. His name was General Rey and unlike the rest of his fellow clones wasn't too fond of the possiblity into turning into such a monster.

Comments

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

Ooooh, badass! Badassery somewhat mitigated by the fact that I can't unhear Chris Latta's voice whenever I read Cobra Commander.

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

"I can't unhear Chris Latta's voice whenever I read Cobra Commander"

Why would you want to?? RIP Mr. Latta.

[tacobob.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I always liked his voice. He was the original Mister Burns on the Simpsons..

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

And, of course, G1's Starscream, and both Darkstorm and Cravex on Visionaries.

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

and I've hated him since I was a child....

sorry, I'm sure he was a nice guy.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Why on Earth would you hate someone based on their voiceover work?

Chris Latta was a curious case, Peter Cullen remarked of him that he was a victim of Hollywood's tendency to "devour its young" and Susan Blu said that Latta was "a sweet guy who had his demons". There are all sorts of rumours about his offscreen life and his actual death.

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

I guess that's what I meant. Never liked the voices at all. I didn't mean he was a jerk.

[lieut_kettch.insanejournal.com]

It isn't so much Chris Latta himself, but the way Cobra Commander was portrayed in the cartoon. Toon!Cobra Commander was a bumbling fool, and a coward to boot.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Arguably, that makes it more bad ass!

[khamelea.insanejournal.com]

I think that about sums it up!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Agreed

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

Just do what I do and imagine Tyler Durden's voice instead.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

They somehow managed to make Serpentor look lamer than he did in the cartoon and Marvel series.

Cobra Commander, on the other hand, looks pretty awesome.

[thormonger.insanejournal.com]

The whole exploding helmet / burning Serpentor section looks like a Looney Tunes cartoon. All it needs is Serpentor holding a sign that says "Ow."

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Note that the exploding helmet is actually canon from the 80s Joe comics: Cobra Commander is so crazy prepared (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyPrepared) that he's lined his mask with plastic explosive to kill himself if he's ever forced to remove it under coercion.

Comics Cobra Commander was always more bad ass than Cartoon Cobra Commander.

[magus_69.insanejournal.com]

You're damning him with faint praise. The cartoon version most definitely had his moments, but most of the time I was wondering why Destro wasn't in charge. Then I figured that Destro didn't want the hassles of leadership.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Given the standard quality of Cobra tech, one has to wonder at the sort of mind which can wander around wearing a full helmet that's lined with plastique! The only beneficial side I can think of is that you wouldn't live long enough to know what had gone wrong.

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

The same sort of mind who wanted to carve his face into the moon.

Cobra Commander is an iconic villain, that doesn't mean he's a sensible one.

[zechs27.insanejournal.com]

Not to mention besides that, the paranoid quack also has the faceplate of his mask lined with an electrical charge both in the toon and comics.

That's how he escapes in this very issue to begin with, two guards are stupid enough to say, "Let's take off his mask and see if we can make his face more uglier."

But yeah, Comics Cobra Commander always had a ton of good moments. This, shooting his son, and killing Mindbender are probably his best antics in the first run of Devil's Due.

Course in the third run aka America's Elite he so take's it up a notch. God there's just so much evil villainy there to be had. Hmm.. perhaps it's time to post scans of him burying every enemy he had at the time in a volcano.

[menagerie.insanejournal.com]

With the exception of the Ellis written GI Joe.

THIS I COMMAN-OH Fuck! You Dick!

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

That's CC. Master of the cheap-shot.

Re: THIS I COMMAN-OH Fuck! You Dick!

[zechs27.insanejournal.com]

Him and Cyborg Superman. They make cheap-shots so amusing. :)

[salamangkiero.insanejournal.com]

It's what I expect of Cobra Commander. I never did accept the idea that he was some sort of ineffectual leader. I always imagined him as a true badass.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Am I the only one going "OMG he's Scorpion under the mask!"?

[(Anonymous)]

Nope! I thought that too :) Glad it wasn't just me.

Right before the kick when Serpentor was set on fire though I also heard a voice in my head say "Finish him!"

[geoffsebesta.insanejournal.com]

The art style of the 2000s shall undo what the 90s have wrought.

I love how the vast majority of comic book artists have decided that whole decade was a terrible mistake. This art is clearly 80s-style with good coloring and anatomy, or one could say "Eighties, minus the 90s, plus computers."