Action Figure:
4 out of 4 stars
This represents Cobra Commander's initial transformation in G.I. Joe: The Movie due to exposure to Cobra-La's spores. Here, he is given movie-accurate sculpt and paint details, his torn uniform, and the monstrous features, with scales and multiple eyes.
His only accessory is the spores pod, which no one can really hold to be honest, but that's no big deal. It would have been amazing to have as a child, to potentially use it against G.I. Joes or other Cobras. Body horror as a thematic device wasn't used too much in G.I. Joe media.
The sculpting features a ball point neck, allowing him to look up and day as well as side to side, with tongue sticking out, much like they did in G.I. Joe: The Movie. That's so much more interesting visually than if not. Cobra Commander also has those extra eyes from his first encounter with mutation spores.
His unform is "battle-damaged" and asymmetrical. One glove, one foot bare, his pants and clothing ripped in a real way, not mirrored point for point.
His scaled belly, arms, and face have a snake scale texture across his body. He carries the visual of a mutated freak monster. This moves away from a critique of early ReAction+ figures, overly smooth and lack a sense of depth on the figures (wave1 Duke and Snake Eyes look like knock-off figures). This one definitely does not have that problem.
It is everything I'd want from a Sunbow figure and something I wanted as a child. Cobra Commander, as this mutant monstrous being, "once a man."
I suppose a case can be made, having him be asymmetrical, he can't necessarily be seen as "ruling" Cobra, but can easily swap some parts with a regular Super 7+ Cobra Commander to give him regular arms and legs.
This is by far the best G.I. Joe figure Super 7 Reaction+ line and probably the top five for Cobra Commander all time in this scale. This figure is well worth the 20 bucks or so, depending on the retailer.
The Power of the Unknown:
Imagination fueled the fear of children. What is created in their own mind's eye was far more menacing an image than any actual reveal could deliver. Why do kids need parents to look in their closet, check under the bed, and provide a night light? The unknown is such a source of suspense and fear.
In the episode "Lights! Camera! Cobra!", Destro demanded to Cobra Commander, that he needed to cover himself while eating, implying that Cobra Commander had a less-than-normal appearance, at least in Destro's view.
Destro wore a mask, while Cobra Commander either wore a hood or a mask. However, for Destro, it was out of family tradition; for Cobra Commander, it went beyond maintaining anonymity. There was something outright visually unappealing about his face. Cobra Commander's face provided intrigue, mystery, and was a hallmark of G.I. Joe media.
Children, by nature, were naturally curious, and the hidden identity fueled their imagination about what was beneath the mask during the 80s. A disfigured freak? An alien? A snake man? The possibilities were endless.
There were certainly mysteries and rumors about it on my school playground growing up, but most was just stuff boys came up with on their own, such as machine gun Mario power up, Lara Croft Nude Raider code, Nudalities in Mortal Kombat later on (hey, that was on the minds of boys on into the 90s, lol).
There was a loudmouth boy who claimed his father worked for Hasbro and knew a unmasked Cobra Commander would be produced. It never happened.
Or if you read the comic, he was just a used car salesman who had his hair in a ponytail, wore sunglasses, with a fake mustache. Womp womp womp
Keeping Cobra Commander masked reduced his humanity. The face mask represented Cobra Commander's unwavering pursuit of power, control, and an outright departure from the "ordinary." Most of the G.I. Joe action figures, by contrast, were unmasked. They were depicted as individuals and adhered to moral codes.
(Snake Eyes, the notable masked G.I. Joe, in The MASS Device, showed much humanity and unwavering heroism in his attempts to finish his mission despite many obstacles. So, it went both ways. Animation could demonstrate the character of a person through actions and behavior, be it heroic or villainous, despite not being able to animate facial reactions.)
This makes Cobra Commander more distinct and memorable, placing him in the realm of antagonists like Dr. Claw or Darth Vader. Again, what was not shown was scarier than anything that could actually be shown to children.
Answers:
So, answers, did we need them?
G.I. Joe: The Movie provided a series of reveals for three characters.
Cobra Commander, unbeknownst to anyone within Cobra, answered to someone else, Golubulus. Serpentor was actually the creation of Golobulus, who implanted the idea and knowledge into Dr. Minbender's mind. Lt. Falcon, a G.I. Joe in training, was the half-brother of Duke.
In the lead up to the 1986 assortment of figures, Hasbro was creating the Cobra Emperor and wanted him in season 2 of the cartoon. Sunbow confused, asked, wait a minute, who was the Cobra Emperor?
Everything in all G.I. Joe media pointed to Cobra Commander being the leader of Cobra.
Hasbro shrugged, we make figures, you are the idea men, it's for you to figure out.
So, two ideas were provided. A replacement would be created for Cobra Commander, as his underlings were tired of losing. Or, that there was a man behind the curtain who was pulling the strings. Hasbro liked both ideas because that allowed them to make two figures. Ah, cynical toy making.
Serpentor became the Cobra Emperor, released in 1986, a composite clone of history's greatest leaders. In 1987, Gobolulus was released, the supreme ruler of Cobra-La and whom Cobra Commander secretly worked for.
So, in G.I. Joe: The Movie, Cobra Commander was revealed to be a brilliant, young Cobra-La Nobleman, whom the script said was handsome in a cruel, aloof manner.
There is a bit of Starscream here, both being scientists before getting caught up in conflicts and the quest for power. Cobra Commander was disfigured in a lab accident involving those mutation spores, giving him extra eyes, which were wonderfully freaky, and was sent out by Golobulus to raise a mighty army and conquer civilization.
Is this all stratifying? Seeing the face was always a letdown. The skin tone is a retcon, certainly (which can be handwaved, that Cobra Commander when hooded, used makeup like Joker in Batman 89). But even beyond the visual, it was rather controversial at the time.
In terms of the Cobra-La connection, G.I. Joe went from military fantasy and shifting into sci-fi fantasy.
But we return to the idea that perhaps Cobra Commander was something more than just a man all along. He had become bizarre, mythic, and surreal in quality.
Being disfigured, then mutated, then revived as some kind of creature made him more than/less than anything approaching "human."
Cobra Commander should be fluid, slippery, self-serving, reflecting his mutated form and desperate need for control. At least that's what I wanted post-G.I. Joe : The Movie. It made him in all ways Cobra Commander, mind, body, and soul. I wasn't the only one as a kid who used Serpentor's pet snake as a mutated Cobra Commander. That was a fairly common play pattern.
DIC (Do It Cheap):
DIC got the license, and Sunbow G.I. Joe was no more. It was jarring, to say the least.
The Sunbow Era (1983-1987) had solid storytelling, with occasional surrealism (The Viper is Coming, There's No Place Like Springfield), sometimes subversive messaging (Red Rocket's Glare, The Gamesmaster, The Wrong Stuff).
The characters always behaved and sounded like real people, with personality quirks. Even if strange things were going on around them, the characters always made sense.
Shipwreck was chasing women, Beachhead was a comically serious military man, Dial-Tone was the hanging-on-by-a-thread Joe, Lady Jaye enjoyed male attention/was flirty in her body language, Jinx was independent but self-conscious, Alpine was cynical, and so on.
The target audience for Sunbow G.I. Joe was 10 to 12 years old. They could understand character beats, sly humor, and a bit of layered undertones.
The DIC Era (1989-1992), with its budget cuts, led to much simplified animation, bad voice acting, and cut &paste storytelling, thus the nickname, "Do It Cheap." Villains became outright caricatures, the plots were simplified without any dread, and any complexity was replaced with slapstick and toy-driven narratives.
The characters... ehh. There were no characters in DIC G.I. Joe, mostly. Cpt. Krimov's personality was that he was Russian. Big Ben's personality was that he was British. Lady Jaye's personality was that she was a girl. Metal Head's personality was that he was an idiot. General Hawk's personality was that he was old and should retire. And on and on it went.
The target audience for DIC G.I. Joe was 5 to 7 years old. It provided brighter colors, catchphrases, simple plots and characters, and less menace. It was a cartoon commercial meant to sell toys first, last, and only.
Even the theme songs reflected a difference in priorities:
"He'll fight for freedom wherever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is there..."
to
"You've got to have guts to stand for your rights!"
And they said 80s was the "Me Era."
The Sunbow theme tapped into something greater than one person, of valor and service.
DIC's theme was synth-heavy, jingle-like, evoking commercialism as well.
The style worked for what it was: DIC G.I. Joe was a cartoon for very young children. It was peppy, motivational, almost like a Saturday morning PSA. It was aimed at children raised on after-school specials, "you can do it" type messaging.
Personal empowerment rather than collective service.
Lame Payoff:
DIC provided a "return of Cobra Commander" in its Operation: Dragonfire five-part mini-series, which hand-waved the entire thing.
Once Cobra Commander put on the Battle Armor and regular DIC episodes happened, he was just a man, not a mutated emissary of an ancient civilization. His tragic fall and return were not a factor; the show wanted to feature his cartoon buffoonery.
So, the mythic weirdness of Cobra-La was scrubbed clean, and Cobra Commander's arc was flattened into something far more digestible for a younger demographic. He sounded like Cobra Commander, and he had schemes that were easily defeated with a crew of Cobras that were pathetic on a level never seen before.
This is an example of IP fragmentation. Fans who grew up with Sunbow's layered storytelling found DIC's younger storytelling approach alienating, creating generational divides in fandom: those who aged out after Sunbow G.I. Joe went off the air and those who aged in when DIC G.I. Joe was airing.
Cobra Commander's arc became a patchwork of conflicting identities across the two animation adaptations. Even DIC's own kick-off mini-series, Operation: Dragonfire, and then the regular series felt like different Cobra Commanders. There's no real cohesive narrative bridge.
Once A Man Cobra Commander Lives On The NES:
The NES was the home of all sorts of licensed video games. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was a simple, but fairly fun little game. A player would choose a team of three G.I. Joe characters, each of which had their own abilities and drawbacks.
The roster was Duke, Snake Eyes, Blizzard, Captain Grid-Iron, and Rock 'n Roll. That provided two A-list heroes, along with different characters who were sold as toys during the period of the game. The sixth character, General Hawk, became playable in the final stage, a player having access to his neat flying ability at the end of the game.
Six stages to take on Cobra with both vehicles and characters as bosses, until the end, where Cobra Commander was the last, final boss.
Cobra Commander was in his snake form at the end of the game, just as he was in G.I. Joe: The Movie. VERY COOL! A mutation ray beam hit him, and he was transformed into his reptilian snake-humanoid form, wearing his Battle Armor, ready for the player to fight.
Why was Cobra Commander chilling as a snake? Does he remain as a snake until needed? Was it just downtime for him? Does he prefer to plan as a snake? Perhaps he eats his meals as a snake. We shall never know.
But here's the kicker, if the same mutation ray hit the player during the fight, the G.I. Joe character was mutated into a lizard-like dinosaur creature momentarily in the battle (ala Serpentor's fate in DIC's Operation: Dragonfire mini-series).
Cobra Commander seemed to have repurposed the Cobra-La spores from a bioorganic weapon and militarized the concept with modern technology. It doesn't need to burst as fungi; Cobra Commander could simply outfit vehicles and weapons. Or randomly have it on a wall here.
This NES game, with no obligation to canon, the Sunbow take Cobra Commander still carried the day. Why? Because it made Cobra Commander more weird, more strange, more bizarre, less human, it had more cultural standing than the used car salesman take, it was a neat visual pre-battle cue, and it provided a gameplay mechanic during the battle.
What's interesting is that Cobra Commander is like the figure just like one scene. After that he mutates even more into a snake, no legs. The spores are nice, but if they wanted to go the distance, a removable face plate and helmet. Of course, they also made this figure's head too big, really. Perhaps that fits with the vintage aesthetic, but I would've gone a bit small and included the helmet and visor, even if they fit poorly, because the point is they are coming off during that scene anyway.
ReplyDeleteBut at least the damn figure finally got made. We are past the comic book purists/gate keepers running things. Took waaay to long to get there.
I always thought Destro might have been disgusted by WHAT Cobra Commander was eating, not just the sight of him eating food. This to me, was always a subtle hint to the tv series "V".
ReplyDeleteWhat if Cobra Commander was eating a live mouse or something of that nature?