Editing Cobra Commander (section)

===Marvel Comics (1982–1994)===
Cobra Commander first appeared in the [[Marvel Comics]] series ''[[G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel Comics)|G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero]]'' #1 (June 1982).

While Cobra Commander's birth name and childhood are unknown, he is believed to be a North American citizen born in the mid-twentieth century. His only known relative, an older brother named Dan, enlisted in the military during the [[Vietnam War]], and volunteered for repeated tours to spare his younger sibling from [[conscription]]. During this time, the man who would become Cobra Commander worked as a used car salesman. When Dan returned from Vietnam, he displayed deep psychological trauma, and took to self-destructive behavior, resulting in his death in a car collision with another family. Devastated by the loss of his brother, the future Cobra Commander blamed the family's survivor: another war veteran, against whom the young Cobra Commander formed an elaborate revenge scheme.<ref name="Marvel 26">{{Cite comic | writer=[[Larry Hama|Hama, Larry]] | penciller=[[Larry Hama|Hama, Larry]] | inker=[[Steve Leialoha|Leialoha, Steve]] | story=Snake Eyes: The Origin | title=G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero | volume=1 | issue=26| date=August 1984 | publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] | location= }}</ref><ref name="Hidalgo 2009 71-72">{{cite book |title= G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide 1982–2008|last= Hidalgo|first= Pablo|year= 2009|publisher= Random House|isbn= 978-0-345-51642-8|pages=71–72}}</ref>

Cobra Commander tracked the former soldier to Japan, where he was training to become a member of the [[Arashikage]] [[ninja]] clan. The Commander approached the mercenary [[Firefly (G.I. Joe)|Firefly]] to assassinate the soldier, but Firefly referred Cobra Commander to [[Zartan]], another assassin who infiltrated the clan, but ultimately killed the wrong man (the [[Hard Master]]). [[Storm Shadow (G.I. Joe)|Storm Shadow]] was blamed for the murder, and his search for his uncle's killer would eventually lead him to join Cobra, where he would pledge loyalty to Cobra Commander as his personal bodyguard, in order to get close to him and find the real assassin.<ref name="Marvel 26"/> The soldier left the ninja clan soon after, to live in seclusion in the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada]] mountains, until enticed to return to service on the G.I. Joe team as [[Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe)|Snake Eyes]].<ref name="Marvel 27">{{Cite comic | writer=[[Larry Hama|Hama, Larry]] | penciller=[[Frank Springer|Springer, Frank]] | inker=Mushynsky, Andy | story=Snake Eyes: The Origin Part II | title=G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero | volume=1 | issue=27| date=September 1984 | publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] | location= }}</ref>

Cobra Commander returned to his wife and newborn son [[Billy Kessler|Billy]], but when his wife found out what had happened in Japan, she threatened to go to the authorities. Cobra Commander abandoned his wife, taking Billy with him. Living on the road and earning a living by increasingly illicit [[scams]] and [[Confidence scheme|con jobs]], the soon-to-be Commander blamed all his problems on the American social system, and traveled in search of people who shared his desire to topple big business and the government, using money earned from [[pyramid scheme]]s to attract followers. It was during these early meetings that he first began wearing a blue hood to mask his civilian identity.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #10 (April 1983)</ref><ref name="Hidalgo 2009 74">{{cite book |title= G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide 1982–2008|last= Hidalgo|first= Pablo|year= 2009|publisher= Random House|isbn= 978-0-345-51642-8|page=74}}</ref>

He then moved operations to Springfield, an average small American town which had suffered economic collapse. Through his criminal skills he revived Springfield's' fortunes, and used cash and charisma to win converts to his cause. Eventually he seized control of the entire town and used it as a base to grow his organization into the paramilitary group "Cobra". This corrupting rise to power distanced Cobra Commander from his son, enough that Billy eventually joined the underground anti-Cobra resistance. From Springfield, Cobra's agents spread throughout the world, overturning or subverting unstable governments to establish criminal networks and profitable arms trades. The organization also explored dangerous and experimental technology, including mind-scanners and battle robots. Cobra became a significant international threat, becoming so large that Cobra Commander could no longer control it on his own. He created a "High Command" of his most skilled lieutenants, which included Zartan, [[Baroness (G.I. Joe)|Baroness Anastasia DeCobray]], Scottish arms dealer [[Destro|James McCullen Destro]], and Australian mercenary [[Major Bludd|Major Sebastian Bludd]].<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #31–32 (Jan.-Feb. 1985)</ref>

This 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 recruited Billy to carry out the assassination, but he was intercepted by Destro.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #33 (March 1985)</ref> Cobra Commander had no qualms about torturing his own son to unearth the conspiracy, yet Billy refused to surrender who had sponsored the hit. Storm Shadow later freed Billy, and they both escaped to New York, where Storm Shadow trained him in [[Ninja|ninjitsu]]. Billy was later caught in the crossfire between the [[Soft Master]] and Cobra agent [[Scrap-Iron]], resulting in an explosion which seemingly killed Billy and several others.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #43 (January 1986)</ref>

During a failed assault on [[The Pit (G.I. Joe)|the Pit]], the secret headquarters of G.I. Joe, Cobra Commander and Destro were separated from the main Cobra force by an explosion and presumed dead.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #53 (November 1986)</ref> The two escaped and assumed civilian disguises to travel incognito. Cobra Commander was depicted as an average, physically fit [[White people|Caucasian]] with a pony tail, large round green-spectacle sunglasses, and a long slender mustache. Although only a convenient disguise at the time, this civilian look would resurface on subsequent unmaskings. A police officer soon recognized the Commander from a picture carried by an accident victim: the Commander's son Billy, who had survived the explosion, but lost a leg and an eye. Unnerved by the discovery, the Commander swore to take responsibility for Billy's condition, and promised to be a better father.<ref name="G.I. Joe 1987">''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #55 (January 1987)</ref>

Still incognito, the Commander traveled to Denver where he sought out the undercover [[Crimson Guard]] agent Fred VII, a mechanical genius. Billy eventually awoke from the coma, with acute amnesia (and a new motorized prosthetic leg built by Fred). After an encounter with the [[Blind Master (G.I. Joe)|Blind Master]] and Storm Shadow's cousin [[Jinx (G.I. Joe)|Jinx]], Billy recovered his memory and immediately rejected his father, whereupon the Commander renounced the organization he had founded, declaring that his ambitions had cost him the only things that truly mattered. Fred VII, in return, shot Cobra Commander in the back, apparently killing him.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #61 (July 1987)</ref><ref name="Hidalgo 2009 75">{{cite book |title= G.I. Joe vs. Cobra: The Essential Guide 1982–2008|last= Hidalgo|first= Pablo|year= 2009|publisher= Random House|isbn= 978-0-345-51642-8|page=75}}</ref>

Fred VII then impersonated the Commander himself, traveling to [[Cobra Island]] to vie for control of Cobra with [[Serpentor]] (eventually sparking the Cobra Civil War). Unknown to Fred VII, he had been under surveillance by another Crimson Guardsman when he buried the Commander's body. This agent discovered that Cobra Commander was not dead, and brought him back to health. Thereafter, the Commander formed an underground network of loyal agents within Cobra, and rebuilt his personal fortune and influence. When [[Doctor Mindbender]] went to harvest DNA from Cobra Commander's body for the creation of a new leader, he discovered the empty grave, upon which the original Cobra Commander revealed himself and seized open control of Cobra.<ref name="Hidalgo 2009 75"/><ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #98 (March 1990)</ref>

Hardened by his "death" and betrayal at the hands of those he once thought loyal, the resurgent Commander was even more ruthless than before. His first act was to eliminate those who tried to murder him or subsequently learned of the act: Fred VII, [[Raptor (G.I. Joe)|Raptor]], Firefly, Mindbender, Zartan, Billy, and numerous unnamed Cobra personnel, all of whom he had buried alive within a volcano. Later, he established a brainwashing program to compel allegiance from those around him, including Destro, the Baroness, Zartan, Storm Shadow, and Billy.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #149 (June 1994)</ref> The returned Commander was far more willing to kill, pulling the trigger himself rather than relying on others to kill for him, as when he murdered the Borovian rebels Magda and the White Clown.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #145 (February 1994)</ref>

As Marvel's ''G.I. Joe'' series drew to a close, Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes finally battled each other in issue #150. Snake Eyes eventually won against an armored Cobra Commander, but the Commander would have the last laugh, as he captured Storm Shadow and successfully brainwashed him back to the allegiance of Cobra.<ref name="Marvel 150">{{Cite comic | writer=[[Larry Hama|Hama, Larry]] | penciller=Gosier, Phil | inker=Wallace, Crusher | story=Slam-Dance in the Cyber-Castle | title=G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero | volume=1 | issue=150 | date=July 1994 | publisher=[[Marvel Comics]] | location= }}</ref> Shortly afterward, Cobra forces in Europe fell to a unified attack by regular military forces. In the wake of this conflict, most of Cobra's high command disappeared, and Cobra Commander himself became an international fugitive. Soon after, the military disbanded the G.I. Joe team.<ref>''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' #155 (December 1994)</ref>{{Clear}}