There's something my roomate and I have been discussing as of late as we find ourselves watching G.I. Joe late night on Cartoon Network.
Why the hell did Cobra ever lose? They always had great plans. They had more people, some of which were actually expendable. Nearly all the characters were awesome. They usually had tons more firepower.
Their only flaw was they couldn't shoot the ass off an elephant. Hell, they couldn't even hit the elephant at all. If they just spent a LITTLE time at target practice they would have killed all of GI Joe on day one.
And personally, I never liked the G.I. Joe characters, except for Scarlet, and that was mostly because she had the gall to go into a laser fight armed with a crossbow.
Yes, I realise I basically answered my own question, but maybe this will spark up some interesting nostalgic-based discussions.
Then again, maybe this thread will die alone and unremembered. 
I had forgotten about Snakeeyes. That's 2 out of how many though? hehe Edit: Decided to link it for those poor modem users.
Was it shadowstorm or snowstorm? Argh, it's too late/early! [ 12-23-2002: Message edited by: Ragabash ]
Hell Cobra had the B.A.T.s! ROBOTS WITH GUNS FOR ARMS! AND FLAMETHROWERS! still got their asses kicked.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
Cobra had B.A.Ts, those one man flying ship things, Gene spliced creations. I wouldn't be surprised if they thought up the lasers first and G.I. Joe just stole it from them.
On the other hand, Cobra had the Terrordrome.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
Language: As you may recall, the people in charge of Cobra all spoke English when ordering troups around. However, most of their main line troups were from countries that would be actually better off with Cobra in charge. Often, they didn't speak any English at all.
When they see Cobra Commander or Destro pointing at someone and yelling, they just know that they're being paid to try and fight whomever's being pointed at, but they don't know why. So, they don't really get into it, and fight half-assed. Plus, with leaders like Cobra Commander and Zartan, they surrender just to get away from their own side.
The few that DO speak English appear compentent in comparision, and quickly get promoted to jobs such as communications and supply. They're not really able to handle these jobs (if they were, they would have real jobs), so they tend to mess things up.
This also explains the BATs. They may be impressive robots, but how often do think Cobra gets trained robotics programmers?
Drugs: Between missions, Cobra has to deal with large amounts of bored people with laser weapons, namely the Cobra troops. So, drugs are allowed during down time.
Even if the main effects of the drugs have worn off by the time they go into battle, withdrawl's wonderful effects tend to help create the incredible performance that Cobra troops are known for.
Tactical surprise!
Destro: You intend to take your ragtag militia of an army, merge with a glorified bike gang, and give them control of the most powerful weapon since the atom bomb? YOU BUFFOON!
Cobra Commander: But this is how Cobra has always run!
Edit: And the new GI Joe comic kind of fixed some of those things. Like the number difference.. I stopped reading the new comic at issue five or so since I don't live near any comic book shops nor have a car so I just stopped getting them, but at that point the "new" GI Joe was the "old" GI Joe come out of retirement to lead a new branch of the Military. It's more than just the core members now, they have just as many expendable nobody's as Cobra. In fact, the second issue had Cobra beating GI Joe in a battle while wiping out an entire platoon of Joes. [ 12-24-2002: Message edited by: Comrade Snoota ]
quote:
Freschel Spindrift had this to say about Punky Brewster:
As I remember Cobra Commander had a son. I wonder what ever happen to him.
He became one of Snakeye's students and tried to live his own life in Scottland, or somewhere out there.
Snoota, although I own like 50 old G.I. Joe comics, I have yet to actually read any of them, let alone the new ones. I was mainly referring to the Tv series. That's cool that they actually got expendable Joe's now though.
As far as Serpentor, I only ever saw the episodes(movie?) where he was created. I didn't like Cobra Commander being overthrown though, I'll tell ya that! heh.
I admit, I know very little about G.I Joe though. Maybe if I read the comics I would find that Cobra in fact does win some of the time or something. *shrug*
Was Cobra Commander's son human?
