Cobra
History
Back in the late seventies and the eighties, this pseudomilitary villain organization was the PITA laughingstock of the anti-democracy world. They had a lot of crooks, psychopaths, and Neanderthal thugs in their rank-and-file. Around the time Dr. Mindbender started trying to vat-grow the ultimate man, US forces managed to take the entire thing apart. Extensive Enterprises and ARBco Regional were confiscated by the FBI, people got locked up in simultaneous sting operations, a few hardware storage locations were firebombed throughout Eastern Europe and central Africa, and those officers who managed to avoid capture generally fled to the Netherlands. The analysis of several major world intelligence agencies since that time is that COBRA was finished, done and over with.
Since the destruction of Cobra in the early nineties, the veterans of Cobra went on with their lives in quieter directions: Tomax and Xamot Paoli became Rutger Xanatos. James Destro settled down to run MARS, the weapons research firm owned and operated by his ancestral clan. Baroness Anastasia Cisarovna purchased a small plane and took odd jobs as a pilot. Baron William Ironblood tried to open a career as a motivational speaker, but got arrested again for Ponzi schemes, and seems to have died in prison, leaving the Cobra Commander position open for elections if enough members of the Cobra Council still existed to vote.
Destro and the Baroness have quietly gotten rid of the inbuilt trouble in Cobra. Anyone who goes "muahahah" at any time is fit only for scapegoating and abandoning, or for shooting and burying. Cobra is back to being a class act: good military training, self-discipline, and egos are based on "got the job done", not "looked good doing it". They aren't necessarily taking over the world, but they are destabilizing small governments, then replacing them as a mercenary peacekeeping force, as a sort of "Peace Corps With Superior Firepower". They've gotten willing, secret custody of the abandoned US bases in Panama, for when they need a base in this hemisphere, and they're secretly in control of a few tiny nations in central Africa.
In general usage, "COBRA" (all capital letters) refers to the original terrorist organization of the 1970s and 1980s, which grew out of a pyramid scheme gone haywire.
"Cobra" (title case) refers to the much more competent pseudomilitary mercenary team currently for hire. At minimum, they are cordial colleagues of other villainous groups such as the Hammer Empire ... though theories abound in certain corners of the internet as to a closer connection.
"Cobra" (title case) refers to the much more competent pseudomilitary mercenary team currently for hire. At minimum, they are cordial colleagues of other villainous groups such as the Hammer Empire ... though theories abound in certain corners of the internet as to a closer connection.
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