Serpentor

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Serpentor the Cobra Emperor

Serpentor is a fictional character from the G.I. Joe toyline. He was introduced in 1986 as a toy with an air chariot and introduced in the animated series that same year in the five part mini-series "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" He took over the leadership of Cobra in Season 2. He was created through a breakthrough in cloning research by Dr. Mindbender from the DNA extracted from the unearthed remains of the most ruthless and effective military leaders in history, including Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Genghis Khan, and Grigori Rasputin. Serpentor is often known for his catchphrase "This, I Command!", which Serpentor says after giving Cobra members orders.

Comics

Serpentor's character in the comics was somewhat different from the character of the cartoon. While the animated Serpentor was built to be a new, superior leader of Cobra, the comic counterpart was never intended to replace Cobra Commander, and was more akin to a general, someone to lead and inspire the troops, while Cobra Commander remained in power. However, this did not last, and Serpentor was ambitious, leading to power struggles between Serpentor and other members of the Cobra hierarchy. While there was initial tension between him and Cobra Commander, the latter was absent for much of Serpentor's tenure in COBRA. Instead, Serpentor had to contend with the impostor Fred VII. Fred took an immediate dislike to Serpentor and the two were often at odds. Their rivalry eventually escalated in to the COBRA civil war, in which G.I. Joe sided with Serpentor to defeat the forces of Fred and the Baroness. The U.S. Government decided to support Serpentor, looking at it from the angle that they were supporting a monarch over a dictator. During this conflict, Serpentor met his end at the hands of Zartan, who assassinated him via an arrow. After this, his body was preserved in cold storage by Dr. Mindbender, for "purely scientific reasons." The body was later put inside the landlocked freighter and buried inside a volcano on COBRA Island, along with a number of "traitors", by the real Cobra Commander.

Being a clone, Serpentor's story does not end there. He was reanimated (it was believed he was cloned again, but the printed story states he survived the arrow attack) by renegade scientists and soon formed a secretive faction called The Coil. The Coil is composed of these renegade scientists and COBRA operatives who are dissatisfied with Cobra Commander. The most elite of the Coil include the legendary saboteur Firefly, Zartan's brother Zandar, Overlord, and later the infamous SAW Viper Robert Skelton (who would become Overkill). Now with a sizable army in hand, Serpentor now targeted both G.I. Joe and COBRA alike from COBRA Island. He lured Mindbender back to his side, and launched a surprise attack, capturing Cobra Commander and several Joes. This resulted in a massive three way battle between G.I. Joe, COBRA, and the Coil. During the battle, several Joes were killed, Serpentor's forces were defeated, and COBRA reacquired the island. During a fight with Cobra Commander, Serpentor fell off a cliff, into the ocean below. His body was recovered by Overlord at the behest of the Jugglers. Serpentor was then placed in suspended animation and the Jugglers instituted a number of brainwashing programs in order to have Serpentor eventually become their instrument. Their plans never came to fruition through, as following COBRA's defeat in Badhikistan, the Jugglers were assassinated by one of their own in General Mars Harring, whose true loyalities were with the mysterious Red Shadows organization. Claiming that the Red Shadows hated loose ends, Harring took a fire axe and broke open Serpentor's suspended animation chamber. Whether Harring killed Serpentor or turned the body over to the Red Shadows for some other purpose has yet to be revealed.

G.I. Joe vs. Transformers

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Serpentor downloads a brief history of Cybertron and learns of the Matrix from Soundwave's memory in Devil's Due comics.

The Serpentor in the G.I. Joe vs. Transformers continuity depicted in the comics by Devil's Due has a very different origin. He's a US government built biotech android called Serpent O.R. (organic robot), created using processors taken from Megatron.

In the third volume of the Devil's due comics the android Serpentor downloaded information on the history of Cybertron from Soundwave. Mentioned among that information was the Quintessons, Alpha Trion, Megatron and Soundwave, the planet of Junk, a warrior named Optimus Primal and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Serpentor decides to gain power he will take the Matrix for himself.

Seeing himself as Megatron's son and heir, he set out on a quest to gain the Matrix for himself, believing it would grant him the power he needed to rule. Journeying to Cybertron, he used Megatron's memories to convince the Predacons and Seacons to become his first troops.

He manages to capture a group of G.I. Joes and Autobots, killing Bumblebee in the process. Calling all the surviving Decepticons together, Serpentor was at first mocked due to his size but convinced the Decepticons to rally against the Autobots. His attack came during the Autobots' celebration of peace following the Decepticons defeat. Serpentor then accomplished what even his "father" Megatron never could - defeating the Autobots and capturing Optimus Prime. It was then that Serpentor revealed his plan to Prime - the only emotion he'd ever truly felt was when he'd killed Bumblebee and observed the horror, grief and rage of his companions, even after such a grand victory. Therefore, he intended to use the Autobot Matrix of Leadership to give himself an equivalent to a human soul or a Transformer Spark and feel a full range of emotions. However, at that moment, Serpentor was distracted by the news of the Joes' escape, allowing Optimus Prime to break free and and smash Serpentor into the ground. But Prime was unwilling to actually kill him, allowing Serpentor's forces to beat him near death and steal the Matrix. Exposure to it was not all he expected however - in addition to being reformatted as a Transformer-sized mechanoid, the Matrix made him see the futility of all the fighting. However, before matters could be taken further, Cobra Commander was able to take control of Serpentor's body using a program developed by the scientists who created him. His rampage did not last long, as Hawk was able to open the Matrix, transforming Hawk into a mighty leader and rendering the Commander comatose.

Cartoon

Serpentor was created largely due to a dissatisfaction among COBRA's ranking officers regarding Cobra Commander's ineptitude to lead COBRA. A dream inspires Dr. Mindbender to create a new leader for COBRA. This would later be retconned in G.I. Joe: The Movie where it was revealed that Cobra-La's ruler, Golobulus, gave Dr. Mindbender the blueprint for creating Serpentor via subconscious means with a psychic motivator. Unfortunately, due to the fact that G.I. Joe stopped Cobra from obtaining the vital genetic essence of Sun Tzu, Serpentor's personality was fundamentally flawed upon gaining consciousness. The genetic material they failed to capture was replaced by genetic material taken from Sgt. Slaughter which never actually made it into Serpentor, as Sgt. Slaughter destroyed the canister of his DNA during the creation process. In addition, Cobra Commander subtly tried to interfere with this project to preclude being replaced, but ultimately failed.

Serpentor proved to be much braver than Cobra Commander, but he was also every bit the egomaniac that the Commander had been, if not more so, and his courage often bordered on stubbornness and foolhardy pride. Serpentor was usually portrayed as temperamental and prone to anger when things do not go his way which happened more often than he wanted to admit. For instance, his first major operation was an immediate full force direct assault on the U.S. Capitol at Washington DC over the protests of his subordinates at the foolhardiness of this attack. The attack turned out to be a total fiasco from which Serpentor and his immediate subordinates barely escaped with the help of Cobra Commander, who then persuaded the Emperor to keep him around as a scapegoat to hide his weaknesses. In return Serpentor allowed Cobra Commander to be his right hand man, and 2nd in command. Unlike Cobra Commander, he appeared more likely to inflict physical harm on those that would displease him.

Later in G.I. Joe: The Movie, he would learn his true origins and join Golobulus and Cobra-La in its bid to transform Earth's populace into primitive slaves. To do so, they needed to capture the BET Machine. He gets his revenge on Duke for defeating him earlier by stabbing him with a snake javelin. By the end of the movie, Lt. Falcon avenges Duke by confronting Serpentor. Serpentor seemingly perished when Falcon causes his Air Chariot to go out of control.

That was, however, not the end of Serpentor. He appears again in the DiC-produced mini-series, G.I. Joe: Operation Dragonfire. In an unusual turning of tables, Serpentor's troops, including Destro, betrayed him when Cobra Commander was restored to human form. He was turned into a lizard and never seen again.

His trademark line was "This, I command!"

Controversy

Some fans expressed disdain when Serpentor was introduced into the G.I. Joe universe. Some felt that he took away some of the realism of G.I. Joe (although the animated series frequently traversed into the realm of fantasy and science fiction) and a sign that it had jumped the shark. It was also criticized as an example of a character forced upon the comic book and cartoon writers, whereby they had to come up with an explanation of how a COBRA emperor would come from nowhere even though a COBRA leader already exsited.

Serpentor's DNA templates

Here is a list of the known genetic templates used in Serpentor's creation.

• Amon-Toth, one of the greatest generals in ancient Egypt.
• Alexander the Great, the young leader of ancient Macedonia who sought to conquer the known world.
• Attila the Hun, the greatest barbarian leader during the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Erik the Red, a Viking lord who once ruled the seas north of Europe. Generally credited with discovering Newfoundland.
• Erik the Batterer, though similar in description to the above, this is apparently a different Viking lord. One of his most treasured possessions was his battle-axe, Skullsplitter.
• Genghis Khan, the greatest known leader of the Mongols, who once conquered much of the continent of Asia.
• Geronimo, one of the greatest Native American heroes, who once lead a valiant effort to fight off the invaders of his homeland.
• Grigori Rasputin, a self-proclaimed holy man, popularly blamed for the destruction of the last royal family of Russia.
• Hannibal, the leader of ancient Carthage, who nearly forced the young Roman Empire to the brink of ruin.
• Henry V of England, a brilliant general who conquered much of France.
• Ivan IV of Russia, also known as Ivan the Terrible, a very efficient monarch known for his cruelty to his foes.
• Julius Caesar, a rising Roman politician who sought to unite the Roman Empire more closely.
• Moctezuma II, the last monarch of the Aztec Empire before the arrival of the Spanish.
• Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest military leaders in history and Emperor of the French.
• Ripcord, a G.I. Joe infiltration agent. Dr. Mindbender used Ripcord's brain patterns to give Serpentor limited knowledge about the G.I. Joe organization. (comics only)
• Sgt. Slaughter, one of the best field leaders of the G.I. Joe organization, whose DNA was almost (but not actually) used in Serpentor's creaton. His DNA was taken out of the mix when Slaughter damaged the DNA's container just before Serpentor was "born". (cartoon)
• Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander's body guard and trained ninja master. (comics)
• Sun Tzu, one of the best-known strategists of China and the author of the book, The Art of War. Note: Dr. Mindbender attempted to collect Sun Tzu's DNA, but was unsuccessful, forcing him to use Sgt. Slaughter's DNA as a substitute.
• King Tashaka, the Indian lord of all serpents. He kept a menagerie of various snakes and reptiles at his palace.
• Vlad Ţepeş Dracula, the most infamous monarch of Wallachia. Best known as the inspiration of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula.