I got to thinking about this not too long ago when I came to the realization that Cobra itself did not have any real ideology. So they want to take over the world. But why? The comics seemed to paint them as just being greedy and everyone was there just for the money. But even then there has got to be some cause that everyone is at least pretending to be interested in. As such I decided that in my Joeverse Cobra is a snake worshiping cult of sorts. One of these wacky new age religions. Essentially it attracts a lot of kooks. As such I view Cobra's Commander (and his followers) as being those conspiracy theorist types. He thinks 9-11 was an inside job, the moon landings were faked, the Nazis had a base on the moon, UFOs are alien spacecraft and are being covered up by the government, the elections are all rigged, secret societies are really running things, etc. He doesn't see himself as bad. Rather he sees his fight against the government as being a righteous one. He is not an over-the-top buffoon so much as he is the kind of guy that won't drink water from the tap because he thinks the government puts chemicals in it to control his mind. I also see him ultimately as a hypocrite. He condemns the US government as murderers but is willing to murder himself. He's crazy but not padded walls crazy.

Wow. I like these insights.

Frank hit a lot of this stuff. That cartoon really messed with how he could've or should've been. As Destro said, "...Is a world class... BUFFOON!" The comment that people don't know WHY Cobra wants to rule the world, I've questioned that too. I REALLY do like how a lot of people are attributing Cobra to a snake worshipping cult. I might have to play with that one. See if I can make that one work.

Thanks for helping out everyone. The upcoming dio will showcase Cobra Commander even tho his role will be small.

Keep the insights coming if you want!

I do think that Cobra has an ideology.
They are meritocratic facists with a military bent. That is they belive the strong should rule and one should always obey the ones above you in the chain of command because they are better than you. This is liked to their belief that democracy is evil and corrupt and that the world is best served with a strong supreme leader.
The militaristic bent takes form of their incredible desire to uniform everything and everybody LoL.
Their meritocratic idiology is tainted with their love of ruthlessness or their view of ruthlessness being a mental quality rather than a lack of mental quality.
Its Heinelens vision of the perfect political system but with more realistic characterization of the individuals within the organization.
Off course their ideology is vaugely described by Larry Hama as he focused on the individuals personal journey.

Are you referring to Robert A. Heinlein? If so I have to disagree. Heinlein was a vocal supporter of Democracy but he did think it could be improved. In his books he brought up the idea that people's right to vote should be earned through voluntary service to their country. He also believed that people should be required to serve their country before they would be able to run for political office.

Cobra has been portrayed as a Dictatorship or Totalitarianism. Cobra Commander made himself the leader of Cobra without anyone's consent and he has no intention of ever giving up that power.

From the impression I got from his writing, Cobra would be opposite of what Heinlein believed in.

Having the right to vote and having an political office is power. And when Cobra rules the world I belive that the blueshirt will be the ones to "vote" who will be in power and they would only vote for proven Cobra champions. Exchange volentary service to their country with volentary service to Cobra and you see what I mean.

I agree that its a dictatorship and totataliarian but Cobra Commander actually have the consent of everybody that follows him. People sometimes forget that allthough being a member of a democracy has its advatages dictatorships has its advantages too, sure you have to kiss the ass of those above you but you get to really kick down on those below you. That power over those below you in the system is the reason why so many people reject democracy even today. So Cobra is volentary.
I know that Cobra is not at all what Heinelen had in mind, but it is in the same territory. Think of it as and corruption of Heinelens ideas.

After Cobra conquers the world would Cobra Commander really risk his position as Dictator for Life (Calvin and Hobbes :p ) in an election? Would he even allow his underlings to be elected? Or would he only promote his most loyal and those who brought Cobra victory and profit?

I kind of tackled him in as being sort of like Julious Ceaser, He THINKS he is makeing the world a better place by eliminating the "eliete" of society so that they might benifit under his rule.

His major downfall is his own arrogance and his constant mistrust of everyone, in fact he mistrusts them to such a point he is constantly ploting against his alies to "Cut them off at the pass." before ethey can betray them. This makes Cobra very fractured to say the least (Hence why they keep "losing" as they can't work together).

He isn't an idiot, but he also isn't as smart as he thinks he is. When he makes mistakes he constantly tosses the blame on others instead of learning from them (also he tends to make the same mistakes over and over).

BUT what he does have is alot of charisma, and his idea isn't that implosible (He latches onto the "Hot" issues and introduces drastic measures if he was "In Charge" thus those that follow him see him as an inspiration. The truth is that implimenting his "solutions" would also undermine everything democracy stands for, and while his ideas might be viable solutions, the cost is too great to any kind of freedom).

Also he is utterly ruthless, if a joe is captured they are probably going to be severly hurt (to the point they may have to quit the team). A huge incentive NOT to be caught by a cobra scouting party.

That pretty well the rough and dirty definition of how I view him.

Back to the Ceaser example, I bet he would make some sort of Aristocracy or Republic rule and insure the voters were "Loyal" to him. Pretty much the way Palpy did in Ep 3 or Ceaser did with Rome.

He would only promote the most loyal and those who brought Cobra profit, and his followers would be okay with that because they can also be loyal and give cobra profit. "Anyone who are willing to fight for money and power are welcome to take up an rifle and fight alongside him". The promoting only the one who are usefull are the meritocracy part of the idiology.
The "election process" are like a direct democracy where the most powerfull claw their way on to the top and the others agree they belong there because they dont want to loose their position in the pack order.
In the Starship troopers movie there is a funny moment (one of many) where the general whos strategy had failed steps down and let another general step up as leader. I dont think Cobra Commander would done that heh heh heh.

Whoa, a Palpatine association!

I played around a little bit of that when I was doing GI Joe2050 (a comic). Cobra had developed a 'new' weapon that was placed all over the world. With a single touch of a button, he could detonate these and annihilate the whole world. He said that if any city/state/etc wanted to be spared, they'd have to side with him. He exampled it first off by destroying a few small U.S. cities (Billings, Mt, etc). That was just enough for some of the leaders of their countries to side with him.

That's the annihilistic side of Cobra Commander. Where it turns slightly cartoony is the relation between Destro and CC. See, Destro has a lot to lose if CC goes thru with this 'hair-brained' plan. As usual, they start arguing and a shoving match ensues. CC is pushed onto the controls that detonates these weapons all over the world.

The sci-fi element is that once the button is pushed, an energy shield resistent to the new weapon activates and protects the various cities around the world. (these were, of course installed by Cobra/MARs). The world is, for the most part, destroyed. All the Joes dies. Billions of people perish in an instant. Only a few members of the Cobra hierarchy survive. (ie; they jump into the equivalent of Michael Jackson's sleeping chambers)

WHEN they emerge from their sleep, a few years later (y'know, after the radiation levels have decreased), there have been side effects from the chambers (c'mon, they WERE built by Mindbender and Overkill, what do you expect?). The surviving Cobra 'elite' have changed drastically. For starters, their aging process has been slowed so they look pretty much like how they did when WE first met them.

Zartan becomes obsessed with looks and makes sure NO ONE know what he really looks like.
Cobra Commander becomes obsessed with turning the world into one ruled by him.
Tomax & Xamot, tired of their mirror images become the, uh, Matt and Jeff Hardy of Cobra. Tomax has become the fighter, Xamot the thinker.
Baroness has gotten smarter and is in charge of finding rebel forces. She also often serves as CC's bodyguard.
Zhen Ji is Mindbender's daughter. She's young and takes over Mindbender and Overkill's role in Cobra. She and Zanya get along very well due to their ages.
Buzzer joins the Cobra military and learns discipline.
Monkeywrench becomes MORE ecstatic about explosives and just loves to blow stuff up.
Ripper becomes more violent, much like a nutzoid Wolverine.
Thrasher enjoys cruising the lone highways of the US. He believes the 1950s were the best era of history and looks a lot like a greaser.
Torch's obsession with fire has become so fanatic that he's injecting nanonites into his brain so he can mentally control the flames from his weapons.
Zandar has gone, ahem, goth. A violent goth who act as the assassin for Cobra and the Dreadnoks.
And then there's Zanya and Zarana...

Since the Joes are all dead, a small group of people who survived "Judgment Day" have formed their own special rebel force. Calling it GI Joe, they barely remember the original GI Joe force. The team consists of :

Flint
Beach Head
Lady Jaye
Snake Eyes
Scarlet
LowLight
Spirit.

And don't think for a second that ANY of these characters are anything like the ARAH ya'll familiar with. ;)