• Command Roster: The "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" mini-series that opened Season 2 reveals the Joe chain of command: Hawk to Duke to Flint to Beachhead to Sgt. Slaughter.
• A Father to His Men: Needless to say, none of them buy into We Have Reserves.
• Artistic License – Military:
  • All of the Joe commanders have taken direct part in fighting, despite the fact that as a general Hawk really ought to be directing things from afar.
  • Likewise, Duke's rank is First Sergeant, and yet in the Joe chain of command he outranks the higher-ranked Flint. Cutter and Ace outrank them even more as a Lt. and Captain, respectively, but they are never seen actually participating in the planning of missions unless they're related to Marine, underwater, or Air operations. Their otherwise not even mentioned in the Joe chain of command.
  • Ranks don't seem to matter. For example, Shipwreck technically outranks Beachhead while Ace outranks just about everyone except for General Hawk, Doc and Cutter.
• Do-Anything Soldier: While the filecards state the Joes have particular military specialties and skills, in the cartoon nearly any Joe can take part in any mission. For example, despite Deepsix, Torpedo and Airtight being the Joe underwater specialists, in the episode "Worms Of Death" many of the other Joes like Duke participate. Likewise, the "Revenge Of Cobra" miniseries shows several Joes manning their space station in orbit, including Dusty (a desert specialist) and Mutt.
• Mildly Military: The Joes aren't exactly a typical military outfit.
• Redshirt Army: The Joes have their own. While there was no term for them in the original cartoon, they were later given the name "Greenshirts".
• Universal Driver's License: While some Joes have a trademark vehicle, most of them seem to be able to fly or drive just about anything in their arsenal.

Voiced by: Ed Gilbert (Sunbow series and first season of DiC series), David Kaye (DiC series, season two)

The 2nd leader of G.I. Joe after taking over from Duke at some point in-between seasons 1 & 2. As with Duke, he is rarely behind a desk. In Marvel's GI Joe comic book, as well as in the first line of action figures, Hawk was the team's original commander, with Stalker as his second-in-command.

• Four-Star Badass: Kind of. A scene of him using a rocket belt in Paris showed he's a one star in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise".
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Averted. He is always seen in action with his on, the goggles fitted over that helmet however...
• Remember the New Guy?: He suddenly appears as leader at the start of the second season, with everyone already familiar with him.
• Sunglasses at Night: He is always seen wearing sunglasses in the second season of the DiC series.

• All-American Face: He's basically the non-superpowered Joe version of Captain America - chiseled good looks, blond hair, blue eyes, intensely loyal, and a natural-born leader.
• Avengers Assemble: He's usually the one to shout "YO JOE!" when leading the team into battle.
• Badass in Distress: He constantly gets captured in spite of being a formidable fighter.
• Sergeant Rock: He's the Joes' First Sergeant and prefers to lead from the front.
• Standardized Leader: Compared to even the Joes in the original mini-series Duke was pretty straight-laced and "regular" military. By the series proper you'd swear he came from a completely different show.

• The Cameo: Makes an appearance as an older man in The Transformers season 3, though only as a hologram to trick his daughter into a trap.
• Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: A confusing case. Flint generally comes off as being smoother than the more boisterous Duke and looking at their ranks, Flint is actually higher up the military totem pole. However, Duke is explicitly higher up the Joe chain of command.
• Establishing Character Moment: His exchange with Lady Jaye in her javelin made oxygen bubble during the Pyramid of Darkness arc.
• The Lancer: He's the tactician and planner while Duke's the "man of action".
• Official Couple: With Lady Jaye. Their daughter, Marissa Faireborn, makes several appearances in the third season of the Transformers cartoon.

The G.I. Joe drill sergeant. He's a mean, by the book military man who acknowledges the Joes are the best there are, but they could still use a bit more military discipline. He's no slouch himself: as an Airborne Ranger he's often the first one into a firefight and can be counted on to lay down covering fire for his comrades.

• Always Someone Better: When a recruit is such a screwup even Beachhead can't do anything with him, then the Joes call in Sergeant Slaughter.
• Butt-Monkey: Outside of Shipwreck, Beachhead often gets this treatment partially because he's the Comically Serious.
• By-the-Book Cop: The military equivalent. Beachhead accepts that a certain amount of leeway and improvisation is crucial on the battlefield, but off the field he generally prefers things to be done according to military regulation. This has sometimes been used against him, such as in "The Most Dangerous Thing In The World" he complies with orders to inform Shipwreck, Dial-Tone and Lifeline that they've been made colonels (despite correctly pointing out Shipwreck isn't even in the army) or being fooled by Zarana's forged papers in "Computer Complications" and allowing her access to the Joe computer center because said papers claimed she was authorized.
  • However, in the latter case Beachhead's insistence on sticking to regulation makes him a Spanner in the Works to Zarana's infiltration, since her forged papers only give her Secret access while her target is in the Top Secret area. Mainframe manages to get her inside by pointing out to Beachhead that his orders come straight from Duke, and so Beachhead reluctantly allows her in.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Was definitely this in the movie, topped only by Sgt Slaughter. This is his actual function, making sure the Joes stay sharp.
• Honest Advisor: If Beachhead thinks something is wrong, he's going to speak his mind. It doesn't matter if he's talking to Flint, or Duke, or General Hawk himself.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In the first episode of the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" he spends much of his time either complaining to General Hawk, Duke and Flint that they're letting discipline lapse too much or yelling at the other Joes for not taking their duties seriously. Him yelling at Mainframe gets the tech expert to show him that everything is fine by displaying the security camera feed... just in time for them to see a fleet of school buses drive up to Joe HQ. General Hawk barely has time to order a general alarm when Cobra launches their attack, and even then the Joes were almost wiped out.
  • In the movie, he's extremely hard on the "rawhides" for their unorthodox methods and refuses to let them go into battle against Cobra-La because relying on half-baked plans is a good way to get yourself and the rest of your team killed.
• Married to the Job: Beachhead has trouble seeing things in anything other than through a military lens. The best example is likely after the Joes recovered the MacGuffin device: when Lifeline observes the Joes have done well Beachhead agrees, listing off the capture of a Cobra vehicle, the recovery of the MacGuffin device and the successful repelling of Cobra's counterattack. Lifeline clarifies he was talking about rebuilding an orphanage that had been destroyed in the crossfire, the rescue of some orphans, and the fact the Joes helping out managed to cheer up the kids.
  • This might be averted by Beachhead having a photo of somebody on a desk in Iceberg Goes South, and by the likelyhood that he's related to a character from COPS.
• Mildly Military: He's the last person who'd ever be this. He sometimes makes it clear he thinks the Joes really ought to be more professional, or at least more by-the-book.
• My Greatest Failure: In a blink and you'll miss it moment, in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" Part One after Sergeant Slaughter has just almost single-handedly turned back a Cobra attack that almost wiped out the Joes and is then berating the Joes for letting themselves get soft and sloppy, Beachhead looks away as if he was ashamed. Considering his actual job is keeping the Joes sharp and Sergeant Slaughter is a sort of professional rival, Slaughter's (well-deserved) criticism must've felt very personal.
• The Neidermeyer: A very mild example, but his ideas of running a tighter ship if he were in charge of the Joes aren't exactly popular with most of his comrades. No one really holds it against him, though, since they know Beachhead's very much Married to the Job and even harder on himself than he is on them.
• The Pig-Pen: Doesn't use deodorant. His filecard said he eschews all sorts of hygiene products, saying that it's a lot easier to track someone in the jungle when they smell of soap. This is actually Truth in Television.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: While he hates when people don't do things by the book, he's more than willing to swallow his pride when the reasoning behind those actions are explained.
• Sergeant Rock: While he can sometimes come off as a Jerkass compared to some of the more easygoing Joes, Beachhead is often one of the first into a battle and his bio notes that he does this in order to provide covering fire for his fellow Joes.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: On a few occasions, it's pretty clear that Beachhead isn't happy with how Mildly Military or Military Maverick tendencies among the Joes is overlooked simply because such things bring results. As an example, in "Computer Complications" he grumbles "Blast Duke and his rule bending" when he's forced to let Mainframe bring in Sgt Carol Weaver (a disguised Zarana) into a Top Secret zone despite her only being authorised for Secret zones.
• Virtuous Character Copy: Of Frank Burns as The Neidermeyer who dislikes how Mildly Military the unit he's in is, only in Beachhead's case he's occasionally right and he hasn't alienated everyone he works with to the point Frank did.

Yes, that Sgt. Slaughter. Special Drill Instructor for G.I. Joe. Runs his own boot camp called "The Slaughterhouse", which is the last stop before someone washes out of the Joe team - if he can't whip you into shape (and he means whip), then no one can.

• The Ace: He's arguably THE toughest Joe in the organization, being introduced almost single handedly wiping out Cobra's new B.A.T. androids after the rest of the Joe's are having a hard time. He's the only one of the leaders to succeed in stopping Cobra from getting some historical DNA for Serpentor's creation, thwarting Mindbender from getting Sun Tzu's. Instead Mindbender takes Slaughter's DNA as a replacement because he's just that good. In the movie he single handedly defeats Nemesis Enforcer, who'd been unstoppable throughout the film.
• Always Someone Better: Is this to Beachhead in their roles as Drill Sergeant Nasty. The really big screw ups get sent to him.
  Sgt. Slaughter: There are only two ways out of my command; on your feet like a man, or in a ditty bag. An itty-bitty ditty bag. Got it?
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: When General Hawk orders Sergeant Slaughter to put the Joe team through the "Slaughterhouse Routine" to whip them back into shape, Slaughter agrees... before noting that General Hawk is also a Joe and needs to start running along with the others. Hawk doesn't argue the point and starts running.
  • He's not strictly speaking part of the Joe command structure, but no one really wants to argue with him when he gives orders.
• Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Actually Battle Android Trooper wreckage, but same basic principle.
• Badass in Distress: In spite of ordinarily depicted as among the strongest, if not the strongest, of the Joes, his getting captured and held prisoner was part of Cobra's goal during their plot to create Serpentor in the latter half of the season 2's first few episodes.
• Cool Shades: Always wears mirrored sunglasses, even at night.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He looks exactly like Bob Remus.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: He has a big chin and he's affiliated with the Joes.
• Worf Effect: Makes quick work out of the previously unbeatable B.A.T.s in his first appearance.

A Skystriker pilot.

• Ace Pilot: Naturally. Tends to be a steamroller (when he's leading the air assault) or plugger (when he's been ambushed).
• Captain Crash: Comes with the territory, given how hard he pushes the envelope.
  Ace: I'm going in!
  Duke: Every time you say that, it gets expensive!
• The Gambling Addict: Zig-Zagged Trope. To quote from his Action Figure File Card:
  Ace has one major character flaw: cutthroat poker. A predilection for gambling would ordinarily disqualify an applicant for the G.I. Joe team but in Armbruster's case you can hardly call it gambling since he NEVER LOSES. That's why we call him Ace!
• Improbable Piloting Skills: He's a natural at the stick, but half the things he does in a Skystriker flagrantly violate the laws of physics and aerodynamics.
• Transplant: Sabre Jet from Inhumanoids is implied to be the same character as Ace due to having the same real name. (That said, he looked and sounded completely different there than he did in G.I. Joe, implying a lack of communication on that part.)

• Enemy Mine: He's forced to work with the Cobra pilot Raven to survive in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies" when they shoot each other down over an island that houses Dr. Mindbender's abandoned experiments.

• Adaptational Personality Change: Comic Shipwreck was a tough, no-nonsense sea-dog. The cartoon one is a very laid-back, almost lazy guy.
• Butt-Monkey: If something funny can happen at Shipwreck's expense, it probably will. To be fair, he kind of invites it with his goofy, slightly Manchild-ish behavior.
• The Cameo: Was planned to make one in My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) before it was cut by Hasbro higher-ups (as it would've had him thinking the flying ponies were the result of him having had too much to drink; Hasbro's reaction was "Very funny...no").
• Casanova Wannabe: He flirts with every pretty girl he sees, and gets shot down more than a Cobra Rattler.
• Expy: Based on Jack Nicholson's character from "The Last Detail."
• Friend to All Children: Is very good with kids, as seen when he's the one to takes the time to comfort and tell stories to a group of orphans while the Joes rebuild their orphanage. It likely stems from his relationship with his young adoptive nephew Jesse, who he helps come to terms with the revelation that he was adopted.
• General Failure: In "The Most Dangerous Thing In The World", Shipwreck gets promoted to Colonel (even though he's in the Navy) as part of a Cobra plot. He's terrible in command because he lacks both the desire and the ability to lead, which he overcompensates for by becoming The Neidermeyer. All this does is piss off everyone under his command, making him even less effective than Lifeline (who could be a leader, but doesn't like commanding troops to hurt others) and Dial-Tone (who wants to command but is too fastidious to be effective at it).
• Grounded Seadog: Shipwreck, despite being a sailor, was popular enough that he appeared in numerous episodes that were inland and had no major bodies of water around.
• Large Ham: If someone's gonna do something big, brash and stupid, it'll be Shipwreck.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His appearance and voice were based on Jack Nicholson's portrayal of a Navy non-com in The Last Detail.
• Plucky Comic Relief: If a scene needs a laugh, Shipwreck can be counted on to provide. His off-the-cuff remarks and willingness to take risks makes him a perfect comedic counterpart to The Comically Serious types.

• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Mostly averted, since he only had it off in Computer Complications and "Grey Hairs and Growing Pains".
• Highly Visible Ninja: While not a ninja, his filecard suggests he has the patience of one... despite having an outfit you can spot from a mile away.

• Berserk Button: Leatherneck's presence. It's mutual.

• I Choose to Stay: At the end of "Worlds Without End, Part 2", when Steeler decides to stay in the dark alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to fight against them, Grunt decides to stay too (as does Clutch).
• La Résistance: Steeler, Clutch, and Grunt choose to stay behind in the alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to rebuild G.I. Joe and defeat them with the help of that universe's Baroness.
• Put on a Bus: Elects to stay behind in an alternate universe to help overthrow the Cobra world order.

The Joes' Chief Medical Officer.

• Actual Pacifist: His filecard mentions he's a pacifist, and as a medic he isn't supposed to be armed anyway.
• Non-Action Guy: As the chief medical officer, he's not normally seen on the battlefield.
• Outranking Your Job: As a Captain in the US Army, he outranks his superiors on the Joe team Duke (First Sergeant), Flint (Warrant Officer), Beachhead (Sergeant) and Sergeant Slaughter. He's not normally involved in planning of operations unless some sort of particular hazard is involved and his medical expertise is needed.

• Meaningful Name: While his tank isn't a Sherman, Sherman is still type of a tank.

• Ace Pilot: Best helicopter pilot on either side. He once pulled off a loop-de-loop in a F.A.N.G. gyrocopter, something even Cobra's ace Wild Weasel thought was impossible.
• Cowboy: And how. Talks with a thick Texas drawl, loves roping, riding and shooting, and punctuates shooting down Cobra aircraft with a "YEE-HAW!"

• Action Girl: She is this more than the other two in the series, if only due to having slightly more screentime.
• Badass in Distress: She is often in peril in spite of being a capable Joe.
• Combat Tentacles: She's encountered these on five of her missions; four in the series, and once in the movie.
• Demoted to Extra: Past the 80s series, she's always slidelined for Scarlett despite being one of the more prominent Joes.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: One of the season one episodes makes her a distant relative of Destro.
• Mistress Of Disguise: She's often the Joe relied on to disguise herself as part of a mission, though nowhere near as often as the Baroness does.
• Official Couple: She's in as much of a relationship with Flint as a 1980s cartoon would allow.
• Tap on the Head: She gets knocked out multiple times throughout the show, often being hit by someone in the back of her head.
• Trick Arrow: She carries javelins with a whole host of gimmicks. Among others, she carries explosive tipped javelins, rope bridge javelins, and pole vaulting javelins.

• The Big Guy: The team's heavy machine gun operator, Roadblock is one of the strongest Joes around.
• Demoted to Extra: He appeared regularly in the Sunbow series, but the DiC continuation only features him in a handful of episodes.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Starting from the third 5-parter, he frequently speaks in rhyme.
• Scary Black Man: Subverted. He's big, bald and muscular, but he's one of the most easy-going and jovial members of the team.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Until the second season, the only reason he'd subvert this was during cold-climate missions, or when off-duty.
• Supreme Chef: His secondary specialty is as a cook (he joined the Army because they promised they'd teach him how to be one), and ends up being a gourmet chef who can take combat rations and make them into fine dining.

• American Eagle: Has a pet bald eagle named Freedom.
• Braids, Beads and Buckskins: Wears a very stereotypical outfit.
• The Rival: He is Storm Shadow's rival instead of Snake Eyes. One can only assume it's because of Snake Eyes' muteness. Later, he's rivals with Quick Kick instead.

• BFG: As the Joe's anti-armor specialist, he's never without his rocket launcher.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He's not the brightest Joe, but he can flatten Cobra grunts like there's no tomorrow.
• The Klutz: You'd think a man constantly carrying around a rocket launcher would be more careful, but Bazooka is often shown tripping over something (Just as often his own feet) and firing his weapon when he pratalls. Very nearly taken to Lethal Klutz levels in the opening of The Movie where he trips, falls, and almost kills Shipwreck in the bargain.
• Shout-Out: His shirt is based off of a New England Patriots jersey from the late 70's-early 80's (specifically, quarterback Steve Grogan's)
• Terse Talker: As an indicator that he's not the brightest, Bazooka rarely said more than two words in the cartoon.
• Those Two Guys: With Alpine. Alpine's the brains, Bazooka's the muscle.

• Communications Officer: His job in the Joes.

• Chickification: Inverted as she was a simple fashion model, but a case of restlessness caused her to join the army.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Zig-Zagged. In the first five-parter, she had long blonde hair. Every other episode she appeared in showed her with short auburn hair. She regained her original hair length, but kept the color, in the animated movie which is set after the second season, but aired while the first season was only half finished.
• Official Couple: Zig-zagged: Sunbow's original character description stated she would be paired with Thunder, she kissed Duke once, which Scarlett never did... but on-screen, Cover Girl was most often seen with Shipwreck.
• Wrench Wench: She's the only female Joe assigned to the base's motorpool.

• Berserk Button: Only two groups of people really piss Gung-Ho off - Cobra operatives and Russians. He and Horrorshow of the October Guard really don't get along.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Gung-Ho loves a good fight.
• Chest Insignia: Has a tattoo of the "Eagle, Globe and Anchor" on his chest (a Writing Around Trademarks version of the USMC's insignia)
• The Clan: There are 137 members of the LaFitte family that live in and around Gung-Ho's Louisiana birthplace. And when The Baroness and a squad of Cobra troopers tried to capture them, the snakes found out what a Badass Family they were before the Joes showed up.
• Lethal Chef: The Joes joke that the last time Gung-Ho made his famous "Cajun gumbo" they used it to fuel the Skystrikers.
• Mama's Boy: The loud, brash, tough Gung-Ho only really knuckles under to one person in the whole world - his Grand-Mère, who scolds him for being late to the LaFitte family reunion.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Unless the mission explicitly calls for specialized clothing like cold-weather or scuba gear, he spends all his time wearing just a sleeveless blue vest, camo pants, boots and his Marine cover hat.

• Demoted to Extra: In the toyline, comics and on the filecards Stalker is mentioned as being the first Joe ever recruited to the team and essentially acted as General Hawk's second-in-command until Duke arrived. In the cartoon, while he is prominently featured in the M.A.S.S. Device and Revenge Of Cobra mini-series, he makes fewer voiced appearances as the cartoon goes on.
• You Are in Command Now: He basically shares leadership with Scarlett during the clashes over the M.A.S.S. device after Duke is inadvertently kidnapped by Cobra.

• All Asians Know Martial Arts: He's an Asian martial artist. His toy bio says he started doing martial arts because he was too short for basketball.
• Demoted to Extra: All his appearances on season 2 are silent.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Presumably in reference to General MacArthur, for some unknown reason.
• Unusual Hiring Practices: He's a random guy who isn't and never was in the army, but he saved two Joes and helped them save the day, so he's hired.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: At all times, even in the arctic.

• Abusive Parents: Implied in "Nightmare Assault" that RAH Low-Light's father was at a minimum verbally and psychologically abusive to him.
• Badass Boast: In "Computer Complications" he spots Zandar's attempt at breaking into the Joe computer centre and fires upon him, chasing the Dreadnok all the way out of Joe HQ with a steady stream of fire. Iceberg notes that he'd never seen anyone move so fast, and Low-Light responds, "That's cause you never saw me shooting at 'im."
• Cold Sniper: An expert marksman haunted by demons in his past, not as sociable as most Joes as a result.
• Disability Immunity: In Nightmare Assault Doctor Mindbender invents a device which allows him to alter the Joes' dreams into horrific nightmares, robbing them of the ability to sleep restfully. After two weeks, most of the Joes are falling apart physically and mentally. However, Low-Light, who has been plagued by nightmares since childhood thanks to his abusive upbringing and sleeps as little as possible as a result proves resistant, even fighting back against the nightmare machine at full power.
• Gadgeteer Genius: An expert in image intensification, mostly self-taught, who holds two patents in the field.
• The Insomniac: In RAH, thanks to his horrific past he suffers from unremitting nightmares that have essentially trained him to get by on as little sleep as possible. After overcoming his trauma and saving the day, he has his first good night's sleep in years.
• Multiple-Choice Past: All versions of him have suffered from severe childhood trauma, though exactly which kind varies according to the medium.
  • In the original toy filecard, he apparently suffered a terrible childhood fear of the dark, which his father attempted to help him overcome by taking him on nightly hunts. Unfortunately, during one of these hunts he became separated from his father. After surviving for three weeks in the forest with nothing but a .22 rifle, the dark was scared of him.
  • In the RAH cartoon, his abusive father stranded him in a junkyard and told him he couldn't leave until he'd hunted twenty rats with his bare hands.
• Night-Vision Goggles: He always wears them, due to his childhood fear of the dark scarring him.
• Plagued by Nightmares: His childhood fears and his abusive father cause him to continue to suffer night terrors as an adult. Lifeline says that the sleep he's getting at the end of "Nightmare Assault" is the first peaceful rest he's gotten in years.
• The Stoic: Low-Light isn't sociable, speaking only when necessary and even then using only a few words.

• Berserk Button: Wet-Suit's presence, which is mutual.
  • For some reason, Leatherneck doesn't antagonize any other Navy Joes.
• Determinator: Due to having been an academy instructor, he survived being chased by an entire class of Cobra marine recruits.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Averted. Leatherneck was a stern instructor, but when one of his top-scoring recruits deliberately injured a comrade and then gloated about it Leatherneck didn't hesitate to chew him out as a bully rather than a leader, and that he was making sure the recruit didn't get into officer training.
• Good Is Not Nice: He doesn't think twice about hovering a pirate's face over an ingredient to Dr. Mindbender's mind control gum, even if the latter part wasn't known at the time, or when Beachhead calls him out on it.
• Lazy Alias: "Leatherneck" is a term for a US Marine, which is exactly what he is. It's liek if a trucker went by "Trucker".

The G.I. Joe comms officer.

• Communications Officer: Takes Breaker's place as the primary comms technician in the second season.
• General Failure: In "The Most Dangerous Thing In The World", Dial-Tone gets promoted to Colonel as part of a Cobra plot. Dial-Tone is terrible at it because his fussy nature as an equipment technician hampers his ability to make decisions under fire. Hawk later apologetically explains that he simply isn't cut out for leadership, in contrast to Lifeline who — in theory — does have the capacity for leadership, but whose unwillingness to command troops in battle makes him just as ineffective.
• The Peter Principle: What makes him such a General Failure. His fussy nature makes him very effective at maintaining and running the team's communications equipment, but it leaves him completely incapable of making decisions, especially during a crisis.
• Tragic Dream: Neither Lifeline nor Shipwreck desired a leadership position, but Dial-Tone did. His inherent quirks, however, mean he just doesn't have the ability to lead. Learning that firsthand is a sad realization for him.

• Action Girl: She mixes it up just as well as the male Joes.
• Badass Family: Her father and brothers are all karate instructors and held their own against Storm Shadow and a group of troopers.
• Girliness Upgrade: In the DiC series, she's still as capable as ever, but the gray parts of her uniform were recolored pink and the episode "Chunnel" has a scene of her dragging Duke into a shopping spree.
• Southern Belle: Downplayed. She occasionally will use an exaggerated antebellum Southern accent for laughs. Her name is "Scarlett" O'Hara, after all.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Played with. Scarlett is close enough to the latter in that she is more a gymnast while Lady J's a boxer.
• Trick Arrow: Has a few. Mostly explosive or incendiary, though she also has a grappling one to pull her out of traps and pits.

One of the Joe tech experts alongside Dail-Tone. Where Dial-Tone specialises in communications, Mainframe specialises in information technology.

• Badass Bookworm: His file mentions he'd already completed two tours of duty in the US Army before getting a degree at MIT.
• The Charmer: Appears to be this in "Computer Complications", when he realises that Sgt Carol Weaver is a very attractive woman. He immediately suggests dropping military protocol (though that might be because G.I.Joe is a fairly Mildly Military outfit) but then suggests they go out with the excuse that he can bring her up to speed. Carol (actually a disguised Zarana) shoots him down and even threatens to hit him with harassment charges.
• Dating Catwoman: Develops an attraction with Zarana in "Computer Complications".
• Taking You with Me: In "Grey Hairs And Growing Pains", he claims to Doctor Mindbender to have used his knowledge of computers to set the factory they're in to overload and explode. Doctor Mindbender accuses him of bluffing, but since Mainframe is the only combat capable Joe around (with the others in no shape to assist), the other Cobras fear he plans to pull this and so flee, a furious Mindbender chasing after them. Mainframe admits that he was indeed bluffing.

• Dog Stereotype: Junkyard averts stereotypes, being an unusual breed for a war dog and only being aggressive towards enemy combatants.

• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Uses one when he needs extra power to launch his ropes.
• Motor Mouth: Is one of the most talkative Joes in the series.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Al Pine being the Joe's mountain warfare expert. Go figure.
• Those Two Guys: With Bazooka. Alpine's the brains, Bazooka's the muscle.

A Joe who's done with being a Joe, upset about being dumped by his girlfriend, almost getting blown up, and about nothing seemingly changing or mattering and nobody rver winning the conflict.

• I Choose to Stay: At the end of "Worlds Without End, Part 2", Steeler decides to stay in the dark alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to fight against them, and because he doesn't have anybody to miss him back home (and the alternate Baroness is sad about losing him again).
• La Résistance: Steeler, Clutch, and Grunt choose to stay behind in the alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to rebuild G.I. Joe and defeat them with the help of that universe's Baroness.
• Minor Symptom Foreshadowing: After being bitten by the strange pink bug in "Worlds Without End, Part 1", Steeler quickly starts sweating. Over the course of the episode, this evolves into fever, red spots all over him, and some kind of bluish areas on the skin around his eyes. It's later confirmed to be a disease caused by a Cobra bioweapon, and the alternate Baroness cures it.
• Offscreen Breakup: In the beginning of "Worlds Without End, Part 1", Steeler's girlfriend broke up with him because she was tired of worrying about him all the time, which is why he's complaining about becoming a Joe "ruining his life".
• Put on a Bus: Elects to stay behind in an alternate universe to help overthrow the Cobra world order.
• Replacement Goldfish: It's implied that he gets into a relationship with the good alternate universe Baroness, who was in a relationship with that universe's Steeler before Cobra killed him. Clutch and Grunt also stay behind with him.

• Collector of the Strange: The comics show that he collects plastic dinosaurs, and more helpfully, scorpions.
• Practical Joke: Airtight's filecard states that he pulls these constantly.

• Demoted to Extra: In comparison to other versions, he wasn't a particularly major character in the Sunbow run, possibly because of it being difficult to build plots around a silent character.
• Ninja: He's a ninja.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Originally he was just a quiet, highly competent Joe operative. By the DiC seasons, he's known as "the greatest ninja in the world".
• Universal Driver's License: Averted. Unlike most of the other Joes, Snake Eyes is rarely seen piloting or driving.
• The Voiceless: He never speaks in the series. Unlike his depictions in other media, it is never clarified on whether or not he actually can't speak.
  • A line from Duke in Sunbow episode Jungle Trap implies he is able to.

• Actual Pacifist: He's such a pacifist he can't bring himself to touch a rifle even when it's being used to try to pull him to safety.
• Adaptation Personality Change: His original filecard says nothing about him being a pacifist (unlike the case with Doc). In fact, Lifeline's action figure came with a handgun, whereas Doc's only had a flare gun and a stretcher.
• Badass Pacifist: His debut comic reveals that he is a master of Aikido, which he uses to win fights against much tougher opponents without harming them. Also, fighter or not, he's still a medic in an elite military organization, so this is a job requirement.
• Black Sheep: His father considers him this for joining a military outfit like G.I. Joe, due to being an even more extreme pacifist than Lifeline is.
• Combat Medic: Subverted. In theory, Lifeline is this, but he refuses to take part in any of the combat-oriented aspects of warfare, limiting himself strictly to the Medic part.
• A Day in the Limelight: "The Million Dollar Medic".
• General Failure: A Cobra plot in "The Most Dangerous Thing In The World" involved hacking into the Pentagon and promoting him to Colonel, specifically because Lifeline has no desire to be a combat leader due to his beliefs. He'd much rather just be a medic.
• Obstructionist Pacifist: Averted in most cases, as Lifeline's pacifism is usually only a danger to himself. However, anytime he's put in command of troops, he tends to do things like command troops to fire at the ground or make them train with disarmed tanks.

• I Choose to Stay: At the end of "Worlds Without End, Part 2", when Steeler decides to stay in the dark alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to fight against them, Clutch decides to stay too (as does Grunt).
• La Résistance: Steeler, Clutch, and Grunt choose to stay behind in the alternate universe where Cobra rules the world to rebuild G.I. Joe and defeat them with the help of that universe's Baroness.
• Put on a Bus: Elects to stay behind in an alternate universe to help overthrow the Cobra world order.

• Coast Guard: The only "Coastie" on the team. His filecard says he found out that there wasn't anyone from the Coast Guard in G.I. Joe, so he kept pestering his superiors about it until they transferred him there to get him out of their hair.
• Hollywood New England: Has a somewhat exaggerated Boston accent.
• Meaningful Name: "Skip A Stone", which is very similar to how a hovercraft operates.

• Psychic Powers: Him and his brother Tommy have psychic powers.

• Legion of Doom: In theory, Cobra is a single organization under Cobra Commander's absolute rule. In practice however, the Cobra High Command works more like one of these. Xamot and Tomax, despite being in command of the Crimson Guards, often threaten to cut off funding from their Extensive Enterprises business empire. Likewise, Destro often complains about Cobra Commander's plans (he's only really working with Cobra because he's selling them their weapons and vehicles), while Zartan sometimes has to be outright bribed (he's a mercenary, go figure). Cobra Commander often has to convince them to go along with his plans. When Cobra Commander is supplanted by Serpentor following the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" multi-parter, Serpentor is able to rule with absolute power the way Cobra Commander was never able to.
• No Honor Among Thieves: One of the reasons why Cobra fails is due to chronic backstabbing. Copperhead explained this to an undercover Joe named Scoop who he was friendly with:
  Copperhead: In Cobra if your best friend gets in your way, you step on him.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When things are going well, they work... reasonably well together. But it's very clear that none of them really trusts the others.

The original and the most notable leader of the terrorist organization Cobra, this mysterious masked man rules over the organization with an iron fist, though his competency levels differ between the animated works and the comics.

• Aborted Arc: Cobra Commander spends the latter part of Sunbow's season 2 crafting an elaborate plan to dethrone Serpentor. The final episode sees most of the Cobra forces returning to Cobra Commander and Serpentor realizing what is going on. The movie ignores all of this, seemingly picking up where "Arise Serpentor, Arise!" left off.^note The movie was developed alongside the 2nd season, so its writers were unable to account for those episodes that did not yet exist.
  • If Sunbow's third season had been greenlit, they would have picked up on this: Cobra Commander would have been restored to a humanoid appearance by the supporters he acquired at the end of season 2, only to discover that Cobra had splintered into smaller syndicates - most notably M.A.R.S. (Destro's organization) and the Crimson Coil (led by Tomax and Xamot). He would have gone to work re-unifying them into a cohesive whole.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: In G.I. Joe: The Movie, he is shown to have light blue skin due to being a member of a secret civilization of humanoids evolved from reptiles. This is despite earlier episodes consistently showing a human skin tone around his eyes.
• Adaptational Wimp: Rather than the cunning, ruthless, and brilliant mastermind he is in the Marvel comics, he's a buffoonish, cowardly, and impotent manchild whose defeats are often the result of his own incompetence.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The story of “Operation: Dragonfire” is often described as certain Cobras getting tired of Serpentor and deciding Cobra Commander was a better leader anyway. After Cobra Commander is restored and the initial high of humiliating Serpentor wears off, Cobra Commander gets right back to the usual routine of constantly getting defeated by G.I. Joe and will spend most of the DIC seasons reminding the audience why Serpentor was created to begin with. By the end of the series Cobra Commander himself has comprehensively refuted the idea that he was a better leader.
• Big Bad: As the leader of Cobra, he is the main antagonist.
• The Blank: His helmet comes with a featureless mirror mask.
• Butter Face: Rare male example. What we see of his body doesn't look bad, but he has an unseen facial disfigurement which unsettles Destro.
• Butt-Monkey: Even compared to his contemporaries, such as Skeletor, Shredder, and Megatron, all whom are infamous for their ineptitude, he's somehow an even bigger failure than them all combined.
• Catchphrase: "COBRA, RETREAT... RETREAT!"
• Childish Villain, Mature Hero: Cobra Commander is attention-hungry, short-tempered, impulsive, petty, and prone to screaming and violent tantrums when things don't go his way. In contrast, the Joes act their age and are usually serious and professional, especially Duke and Beach Head.
• I Control My Minions Through…: Money. Cobra Commander is a very big believer in the power of money to open doors. His filecards and bios often mention that part of the reason he rallied so many people to his cause is because he pays very, very well. When he loses the money in "Cold Slither", everybody except Firefly abandons him immediately (which is somewhat interesting, as Firefly is an outright mercenary).
  • An episode reveals that Cobra offers a medical plan, much to Shipwreck's surprise. In addition, Cobra actually has recreational facilities all over the world where Cobra's troops can relax and enjoy themselves.
• Creepy High-Pitched Voice: He has a quite high and shrill voice, especially when he's yelling. Chris Latta does, however, sometimes use a lower tone for the Commander's more serious moments.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Although generally portrayed as inept and imbecilic, his plans were often very dangerous, to the point that sheer luck was several times the only thing that saved the Joes. At the end of the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" mini-series, he actually saves the Cobra leaders from the Joes and uses this to talk Serpentor into keeping him around as The Dragon, as opposed to killing him.
• Demoted to Dragon: In the Arise, Serpentor, Arise mini-series, Dr Mindbender and Destro are so tired of his incompetence they create Serpentor to supplant him. Cobra Commander manages to convince Serpentor to keep him around as a scapegoat that can be blamed when things go south. The DiC continuation has him back as the Big Bad again after being restored to human(oid) form thanks to The Baroness and turning Serpentor into an iguana.
• Dirty Coward: Among the 80s villains, Cobra Commander is particularly known for screaming "Retreaaaaaaat!" the moment something goes wrong. At least Megatron usually got his behind kicked by Optimus Prime first before calling for a retreat, while Skeletor generally could actually stand up to He-Man before he decided to cut his losses.
• The Dog Bites Back: In Operation: Dragonfire, after returning to a humanoid form and slowly re-rallying Cobra back under his command, he's able to capture Serpentor and transforms him into an iguana. He does point out that he'll return to normal shortly, but it's the idea of the humiliation of it all that gives the transformation a pass.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Will often point out the flaws in Serpentor's plans.
  • While people both in and out of universe tend to make fun of him for ordering retreats the moment the tide seems to turn against Cobra, when Serpentor takes over and is a much more aggressive leader Cobra's military losses mount heavily. G.I. Joe has the might of the US backing them: an outright war of attrition is just not something Cobra can win.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In DIC's cartoons, Cobra Commander doesn't allow the sale of drugs.
• Evil Genius: When he wants to be, he can actually be reasonably quick-witted, like the time he reprogrammed an entire squad of B.A.T.s to kill both Serpentor and Sergeant Slaughter, and did it within a few minutes.
• Evil Laugh: A high-pitched, raspy shrieking guffaw that he eagerly belts out when it looks like he's winning.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: One of the best examples and likely one of the Trope Codifiers.
• The Faceless: The few times he was unmasked, Cobra Commander's head was obscured by some object or they only showed the back of his head for a split second. The movie technically reveals his face, but that's only pre-incident and also inconsistent with the glimpses of him seen earlier.
• Facial Horror: In "Lights! Camera! Cobra!" Destro walks in on Cobra Commander having a meal to make a report, and the following conversation take place:
  Destro: "I've located the captured Firebat! It's...!!! *turns his head away* Commander, your hood. Put it on."
  Cobra Commander: *laughs* "It takes a strong stomach to watch me eat, doesn't it, Destro?"
  • G.I. Joe: The Movie shows exactly what is under the hood; about a dozen Extra Eyes, all serpentine in appearance, scattered asymmetrically over his face. In the DIC cartoons, even after restored to humanoid form, he retains a reptilian appearance with green scales for skin and snake-like fangs.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride, which often causes him to celebrate prematurely when extra vigilance could have ensured his total victory.
• Faux Affably Evil: Whenever he was being interviewed by the media, especially Hector Ramírez (the Hasbro-verse Geraldo Rivera expy), he would be a man of class and taste, the epitome of good manners, and made a compelling case that Cobra was "merely misunderstood" rather than evil, but when the cameras were off...
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Cobra Commander claims to once been a humble cadet at a military academy... where he led a mutiny. In the movie he's revealed to actually be a member of Cobra-La, a race of lizard people.
• Frontline General: Often gets involved in combat.
• General Failure: The animated version of Cobra Commander wasn't the greatest leader out there to the point where the rest of Cobra eventually overthrow him in favor of Serpentor.
• Got the Whole World in My Hand: In the episode "The Wrong Stuff", Cobra Commander dances with a globe in an obvious homage to The Great Dictator.
• Groin Attack: He gets to be on both ends of this. In one episode he straight-up stomps on a man's crotch, and in another a guy throws a bag at Cobra Commander's crotch so hard that he's sent flying backwards.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Sunbow's season one episode "The Gamesmaster" is a perfect example; he gets kidnapped by a Mad Scientist right out of his own base, he has to be saved several times by Flint and Lady Jaye, he almost drowns in liquefied butterscotch and ends up stumbling around — and falling into — a marshmallow swamp (yes, It Makes Sense in Context).
• Karma Houdini: Zigzagged; as the third season episode "Only Human" of The Transformers reveals, although Cobra was ultimately eliminated, the Commander escaped and survived without ever being brought to justice. However, although he got away with all his crimes, he never was able to achieve his goals, and Cobra was apparently put down so hard that even he was never able to revive it. This leads to his involvement in the episode, which ends with "Old Snake" forlornly lamenting that they don't make terrorists like they used to and trying to give a Cobra battle cry... only to trail off into spluttering coughs because his lungs can't handle it anymore.
• Malevolent Masked Man: As silly as he can seem, never doubt Cobra Commander is a very, very bad man. Several episodes show that he makes heavy use of slave labour, and that he isn't above a bout of watching people fight to the death in a gladiator ring.
• Masking the Deformity: Cobra Commander always wears a mirror mask or a hood and all the viewer ever sees are his eyes. However in one episode, Destro catches a glimpse when he walks in while the Commander is eating, and whatever he sees horrifies him so much that he looks away and tells him to put the hood back on. Despite feeling the need to hide his face at all times, the Commander doesn't seem bothered by this reaction and makes fun of his squeamishness. While G.I. Joe: The Movie later shows that Cobra Commander is a blue lizard man with about a dozen extra eyes scattered around his head, the episode's writers probably intended to imply a more mundane kind of a disfigurement.
• Miles Gloriosus: There are times when Cobra Commander's actual strategy is sound, but his insistence on being there on the field coupled with his Dirty Coward tendencies means he'll scream "retreat" the moment someone shoots at him. His dialogue in the first episode of "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" suggests he insists on being on the battlefield because he wants to be the one to claim victory over the Joes.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: While he's pretty thin and has a reputation as a wimp, Cobra Commander is shown ripping metal chairs off floors and Neck Lifting adult men with no apparent difficulty.
• The Napoleon: Downplayed. He's not abnormally short, but he's the shortest man in the cast and a short-tempered, megalomaniacal wannabe world-conqueror.
• Narcissist: Is he ever. Standout moments include having a meeting room full of photos of himself in pinup poses in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" and, in the DiC series, stopping in the middle of being chased to pose in front of a random mirror and wink at his reflection.
• The Neidermeyer: Cobra Commander is an incompetent, cowardly, and Psychopathic Manchild who only cares about himself, retreats the moment somebody shoots in his vague direction, and most of his plans are demented and/or pointless. All his officers, Baroness and Destro and the Crimson Twins and even Dr. Mindbender all have designs against him. Unfortunately, their replacement for him is even worse.
• Never My Fault: Unsurprisingly for someone as egotistical as him, he tends to blame his screw-ups on others.
• NO INDOOR VOICE: He's almost always shouting when he speaks.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Zigzagged. He might call a retreat pretty quickly, but he's also often on the front lines. His most notable action was rescuing the entire Cobra High Command following Serpentor's ill-advised occupation of Washington D.C. by holding off the pursuing Joes with a flamethrower. In addition, he sometimes demonstrates a certain level of superhuman strength, ripping metal chairs right out of the floor or performing the occasional Neck Lift.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Some of his plans were genuinely clever and only foiled by sheer good luck on the part of the Joes.
  • He built a space station solely for the purpose of seizing all the communication satellites and monopolizing the airwaves for the sake of pro-Cobra propaganda; it was so effective that Cobra was even receiving voluntary charitable donations. Even Destro couldn't fully understand the value of this until it went into effect. That plan only failed because Zartan and his merry men neglected zero-G training while the Joes did not.
  • A second notable example is the episode where Cobra managed to get within a hair's breath of completely obliterating American currency — no, not the economy, the currency (dollar bills would turn to ash in people's hands; money in vaults would be safe only while the vault doors were closed and turn to ash the instant the vault door opened). For reference, imagine waking up to find your bank's records were all overwritten with zeroes, and your bank had to go to paper ledgers.
  • In addition, Cobra Commander had certain media figures, like Hector Ramirez, wrapped around his finger.
  • In his appearance as Old Snake in season 3 of The Transformers, he easily helps the actual villain of the episode disable Rodimus Prime, Springer, Arcee and Ultra Magnus. He's also the one who makes the suggestion to use their inactive bodies as weapons, rather than simply scrap them as his employer intended.
  • He also destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge with a Kill Sat.
• Off Screen Villain Dark Matter: While there are several episodes that involve Cobra trying to refill their coffers or even going bankrupt, Cobra Commander somehow manages to pay for massive flying aircraft carriers, at least three gigantic snake-themed temples, and a lot of soldiers.
  • Several episodes hint that part of this is because he makes use of slave labor and cuts costs wherever he can. Filecards also mention he has a steady stream of income from weapons sales outside of the US.
• Powered Armor: The battle armor he wore during the DiC series.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Cobra Commander is prone to violent tantrums and screaming fits when his plans fail.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Zigzagged: At least in the 80's cartoon, he had a surprisingly open door policy towards his underlings for a criminal organization. A notable example was the DIC series when one of his Crimson Guardsmen came forward with a plan to attack a heavily armed and armored drug cartel alongside GI Joe. C.C. accepted the proposal because it was creative, original, and the Guardsman laid out very sound tactical and strategic reasons to undertake the endeavor (while keeping quiet over the fact the drug cartel had hooked his younger sister on drugs, and he wanted revenge). This lead to one of the few on-screen grand tactical victories for Cobra. The cartel was destroyed and its leader killed (the only explicit death in the series) even if GI Joe ultimately wound up with the spoils (the cash) while Cobra wound up with client lists, that served no purpose for Cobra's goals and aims.
• Religion of Evil: Downplayed, but, in one of the last episodes, Cobra Commander pledges to worship an Eldritch Abomination — complete with offering it Human Sacrifices, no less! — if it will destroy Serpentor for him, an act to which the creature agrees, leveling a path of destruction across Cobra Island. It's only stopped by Destro pulling an Enemy Mine with the Joes, as even Destro (who was shown leading a cult to keep the beast appeased in an earlier episode) was horrified by this.
• Retcon:
  • In one episode, he tells a journalist that he led an insurrection at his military academy, indicating that he was a human with a military background. Later, G. I. Joe: The Movie reveals that he is an exiled scientist from Cobra-La.
  • In Season 1, he appears to be a Caucasian man with brown eyes and thick black eyebrows. Yet, his face apparently has some disfigurement which horrifies and disgusts Destro. Then the movie reveals that he's actually a blue-skinned snake-person (with extra eyes which would probably make the hood very uncomfortable), which makes Destro's reaction seem very understated in hindsight. Then Cobra Commander gets turned into a yellow snake but manages to reverse the transformation at the start of the DiC series, becoming a human/snake hybrid, but a few episodes later he's clearly a human (or at least looks like one with his suit on). But during his cameo in Transformers he has yellow, scale-covered fingers.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Appeared in a season 3 episode of The Transformers, providing mob boss Victor Drath with the resources he needs to put Autobots into humanoid bodies. At this point, he's a washed-up lowlife going under the alias of "Old Snake".
• Serpent Staff: Sometimes carries a scepter modeled after a snake.
• Snake People: It is revealed in G.I. Joe: The Movie that he's a member of a hidden civilization of light blue skin humanoids who evolved from reptiles millions of years ago. He ends up being devolved into a giant snake by Golobulus.
• Sissy Villain: Cobra Commander, often described as a "faceless effeminate screechy man", is a short, lean man who appears to be wearing tight womens' pants and sometimes sports a pink cape and a golden scepter. He has a high-pitched screechy voice (originally with a snakelike hiss that often gets called a lisp) which gets even higher when he's throwing his frequent hissy fits about not getting his way. He's also whiny, grandiloquent, very narcissistic, histrionic, and cowardly, retreating the moment somebody starts shooting in his vague direction and often doing badly in actual physical fights. The Baroness even calls him an "unmanly peasant" in The Gamesmaster.
• Smug Snake: Pun not intended. Cobra Commander sometimes comes up with genuinely clever plans, but he almost always starts gloating before victory is assured and is prone to make stupid mistakes because of his ego and histrionic personality.
• Sssssnake Talk: In the very early episodes of the series, he recognizably hissed his S's. Even when this was downplayed later on, he was prone to ending bouts of laughter with a sinister hiss.
• The Starscream: Becomes this after being supplanted by Serpentor. Fitting, considering his voice actor also voiced the Trope Namer.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The DiC series has him regain his humanity and control of Cobra, and he manages to get revenge on Serpentor in the process. His appearance on The Transformers shows that, while he fails to Take Over the World and loses control of Cobra, he was able to escape justice and become a legend to the criminal community.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: If you thought he was a General Failure in Sunbow, DIC will make you wonder if restoring Cobra Commander to humanoid form somehow glitched his brain.
• The Un-Reveal: Destro walks in on Cobra Commander eating, but the back of the chair hides his head until he puts the hood back on. In a different episode he switches headgear on-screen, but is only seen from behind.
• Villain Decay: His schemes become less effective and more buffoonish over time. This becomes deconstructed later; Cobra eventually becomes sick of him and wants a more effective leader, resulting in them creating Serpentor as his replacement. CC's decay continues after he regains power in the DiC series, at one point getting defeated by random schoolchildren.
• Villainous Friendship: He seems to really like Zartan, in part to get on Destro's nerves but in part genuinely. Zartan only seems interested in CC's money, but also likes antagonizing Destro.
  • Particularly notable is the episode where Zartan betrays him and steals a Weather Dominator part to auction to both Cobra and the Joes, and despite being quite mad about it earlier, once Zartan is captured and the part recovered, CC immediately forgives and absolves him of consequences for... reasons. Then they laugh while Destro seethes.
• Visionary Villain: While some of his plans are certainly out there, others are actually quite clever, such as the Synthoid infiltration plan (which would've worked if he hadn't pissed off Destro to the point Destro allied with G.I. Joe to put him in his place). He also understands the value of PR and propaganda, using them more than once against the Joes.
  • Most notably, he's a firm believer in the power of money; one of his more notable schemes involved causing all the paper money in the US to turn to ash, and then taking advantage of the subsequent economic chaos to get everyone to invest in "Cobra Currency". Even in his appearance in Transformers, when asked if his Synthoid technology is still available and for sale, he laughingly responds, "This is the world. Everything is for sale!"
  • The episode "The Wrong Stuff" demonstrates just how much of a Visionary Villain he is: he takes over all TV signals in order to indoctrinate people into his line of thinking, uses the monopoly this gives him to make a killing on advertising, and when G.I.Joe launches an attack on Cobra's space station, he broadcasts it live in an example of If It Bleeds, It Leads.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He has a faint accent.

Cobra's weapons manufacturer and supplier. He wears his title and metal mask as a family tradition.

• Arms Dealer: His profession is selling weapons.
• Consummate Professional: He's just as petty and evil as any of the other Cobra High Command... but he really, really hates to see shoddy workmanship. If you buy weapons or equipment from Destro, you can be certain it works.
  • He's also not very fond of Zartan, as Zartan's Only in It for the Money tendencies makes him rather unreliable: during the battles for the pieces of the Weather Dominator Zartan outright stole one of the components and tried to auction it to either G.I. Joe or Cobra. Both sides simply sent their forces to take it from him.
• The Dragon: He generally operates as Cobra Commander's right hand man... when it suits him.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The MASS Device miniseries has Destro usurp Cobra Commander and try to take over the world himself after one too many mistakes on the latter's part. Nearly all subsequent materials show Destro as uninterested in world domination and more concerned with making a profit. "Destro" trying to Take Over the World in the Devil's Due series is the first indication that it's not the real Destro.
• Enemy Mine: Has occasionally teamed up with the Joes
• Evil Brit: He's a Scottish arms dealer who supplies and even works for an international terrorist organization.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He's evil and has a deep voice.
• Expressive Mask: Inexplicably, his mask's lips (and only the lips) move when he speaks and makes faces.
• Gentleman Snarker: Most of the time while dealing with Cobra Commander, in spades at the Sunbow cartoon.
  "Militarily speaking, it is only fair to say that Cobra Commander is a world class... BUFFOON!"
• Honest John's Dealership: Averted. When you buy from Destro, you buy quality. He actually gets offended by inferior or shoddy workmanship.
• Long-Lost Relative: He and Lady Jaye have a common ancestor.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Destro's outfit shows a lot of chest.
• Not So Above It All: He fancies himself as a more practical and effective leader than Cobra Commander, but he's just as prone to histrionics and mad schemes when properly aggravated.
• Mad Scientist: Is credited with the creation of the Weather Dominator.
• Malevolent Masked Man: Wears a metal mask (which inexplicably has moving lips), verging on a Cool Helmet; it goes from silver to gold during the DiC run.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In the Sunbow series:
  • In the "Synthoid Conspiracy" two-parter, Cobra Commander and Zartan create a Synthoid duplicate of Destro to show how easily he can be replaced. Angered by this insult, Destro helps the Joes shut down the operation.
  • He sides with Dr. Mindbender after Cobra Commander had one temper tantrum too many, leading to the creation of Serpentor in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" 5-parter.
  • He loses patience with Serpentor's impulsiveness fairly quickly, covertly assisting two of the Commander's plans against Serpentor, though he did spend about half the time commenting how insane said plans were.
• Official Couple: With the Baroness.
• Only Sane Man: For the Cobra High Command. He genuinely believes that Cobra Commander is a lunatic (even outright says so to the Commander's face), and can be reasoned with more easily than the rest of Cobra's leadership.
• OOC Is Serious Business: In the first five-parter, after not seeing his demands fulfilled, the normally composed and proper arms dealer shifted gears to the sadly Real Life ruse of slaying one prisoner per hour, starting with Gen. Flagg!
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Destro is usually the most reliable of Cobra high command to keep a firm grasp of the situation. Throughout the pilot, he's critical of Cobra Commander's early celebrating of a victory they've not yet guaranteed and even attacks him when he finds out that he used up their resources in a failed attempt to destroy New York. Destro himself later attempts to destroy New York, but only after he's made sure they have enough resources to make sure their threats aren't empty.
  • In Part 2 of "The Synthoid Conspiracy", he temporarily teams up to help the Joes get back into power because Cobra Commander dared to replace Destro with a Synthoid clone, and he is mainly concerned with his dignity, showing Cobra how indispensible his services are.
• Religion of Evil: In this version he runs a secret cult dedicated to worshipping or at least appeasing the "Great Old Ones" which are imprisoned beneath his ancestral castle, and Destro makes an annual Human Sacrifice to keep the beasts contained. The cult once attempted to sacrifice Lady Jaye, whom he learned he was distantly related to. In a later episode thr Cobra Commander frees one of said creatures in an attempt to destroy Serpentor, forcing a horrified Destro t call a truce with the Joes in hopes of getting the beast back into its' slumber.
• The Starscream: More than willing to work against Cobra when it suits him... or when he wants to remind them how valuable he is. He realizes how inept Cobra Commander is. Unlike the narcissistic Commander, however, Destro genuinely believes that being a ruler is an empty gesture unless said ruler has someone to share their empire with.
• Villainous Breakdown: When his plans are failing at the end off the M.A.S.S device miniseries, Destro loses it and tries to use his superweapon to destroy Earth's core. He doesn't have any apparent way off-planet either, he intends to leave on a helicopter.

Cobra's Intelligence officer and infiltration specialist.

• The Baroness: the Trope Namer. Fittingly, she's a mesh of the Sexpot and Rosa Klebb types. She's sexy, icy and a bit sadistic, but she (usually) only has eyes for her comrade Destro; nobody else—Cobra or Joe—matters.
• Blue Blood: In the Real American Hero animated series, there's a line of dialogue (in "Spell of the Siren") where she claims her family has been "bred as rulers", implying that being called "the Baroness" has more of a basis than a nom de guerre.
• Captain Ersatz: Heavily inspired by Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle and even had a very similar voice. In one season 2 episode, Baroness even uses the alias "Natasha" while undercover.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Towards Destro. On at least one occasion, she sent an inherantence notice to Lady Jaye to Destro's manor house after a blue-shirt got a little too grateful... Destro implying their relationship was always a mistake on her part to her while disguised didn't help.
• Co-Dragons: She and Destro are usually this to Cobra Commander.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In "Spell of the Siren", she outright states that she should be leading Cobra, and is only passed over because of her gender.
• Fanservice: Besides her usual catsuit, there was also "The Gamesmaster" where she spent the entire episode in a bikini.
• Femme Fatale: A kid-friendly version, at least.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Baroness is a sadistic intelligence officer in a cryptofascist terrorist organization, and wears glasses. Her good alternate universe self from "Worlds Without End", who's a double agent, doesn't have glasses at all.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: In one Alternate Reality Episode, her counterpart was a double agent.
• Mistress Of Disguise: She's impersonated everything from tourists to doctors to high-level American officers. She even once impersonated a male cameraman working for Hector Ramirez.
• Ms. Fanservice: She even spent an entire episode wearing nothing but a quite revealing bikini.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: One episode has her wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline that reaches her stomach.
• Not So Above It All: Aside from what's mentioned below, there was the time she got a hypnotized crowd to say "All hail Destro and the Baroness".
• Official Couple: It's pretty much acknowledged that she and Destro are an item. Cobra Commander once called them and was outraged when the screen came on to show them making out.
• Purple Is the New Black: Her catsuit is purplish blue in the first miniseries, before necoming the iconic black for the rest of the series.
• Spy Catsuit: Wears a black catsuit with the Cobra logo.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her accent slides from German to Russian to something vaguely Eastern European.

Twin brothers who by day work in the world of high finance and by night serve as Cobra's Crimson Guard commanders.

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: They're both high-ranking Cobra leaders and skilled businessmen, running Extensive Enterprises. They're also master acrobats who enjoy showing off their skills; their first appearance has them arrive at work by jumping from a plane to the building's roof without parachutes.
• Combat Parkour: As stated above, they used to be circus acrobats. Bordering both with Fragile Speedster treatment as they are as swift as nimble.
• Coordinated Clothes: Both their business suits and battle outfits mirror each other.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: They run a company called Extensive Enterprises, which gives Cobra its funding.
• Creepy Twins: They can come off as very eerie. It's like they're a hivemind.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They do not appear in the DiC continuation. Their company Extensive Enterprises does appear in the two-part episode "Long Live Rock and Roll", but the fates of the twins themselves after the events of G.I. Joe: The Movie remain unaddressed.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Their cover is running "Extensive Enterprises", which is a front for Cobra's financial interests.
• Expy: They are similar to the twin villains Mischka and Grischka from Octopussy.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Their usual pattern of speech is for one to speak, then the second, then for them to speak in unison and/or finish one another's sentences.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Xamot has a wicked-looking scar on his face. They also part their hair on opposite sides (Tomax to the right, Xamot to the left), which goes along with their mirror-image outfits.
• Open Secret: Just about everyone knows that Extensive Enterprises is one of Cobra's biggest, if not the biggest, backer.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Their first names are also mirrors of each other.
• Red Baron: As stated above.
• Shout-Out: Their characterizations as identical twins from Corsica who share a Twin Telepathy link is taken from Alexandre Dumas' novel, The Corsican Brothers. They're also from Corsica.
• Single-Minded Twins: Tomax and Xamot only have one personality between them.
• The Starscream: They hate Cobra Commander as much as Destro and the Baroness do.
• Thrill Seeker: The more daring and dangerous the stunt (such as riding a ballistic missile), the more they enjoy it.
• Twin Telepathy: They have a deep mental connection, which allows them to finish each other's sentences but also means any pain inflicted on one twin is felt by the other.
  • The "Pyramid of Darkness" episodes reveal that when separated (e.g. one has been captured by G.I. Joe), they can pinpoint each other's location. The only issue is they have to be roughed up first.

Pronounced "Sir-PEN-tor", Serpentor was the creation of Dr. Mindbender and Destro who, tired of Cobra Commander's constant failures, scavenged the graves of the greatest military minds throughout history and used their DNA to create the greatest leader the world has ever seen. Among his "donors" were Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Rasputin, Vlad the Impaler

• Adaptational Wimp: He's nowhere near as effective as a villain or leader as his comic counterparts.
• Animal Assassin: He often threw live snakes as missile weapons. These serpents either wrapped themselves around their targets' necks and choked them or could also be thrown as javelins.
• Artificial Human: He is a human being artificially created by Dr. Mindbender.
• Artistic License – History: Many of the alleged DNA donors for the composite clone that would become Serpentor come from historical figures who probably have no DNA samples left to be found. The final resting places of Attila, Julius Caesar, Hannibal, Vlad the Impaler, Sun Tzu, Genghis Khan, and many others have never been found. Many of them were cremated so no mortal remains exist for DNA to be obtained. The otherwise source of the DNA for these ancient figures is not explained.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: This is generally his main strategy. To be fair, several of his DNA donors like Napoleon and Genghis Khan put a lot of value on offensive maneuvers ^note  Napoleon made use of speedy maneuver and combined arms, while Genghis Khan likewise mastered the Mongol tactics of hit-and-run to wear down enemies, but Serpentor tends to prefer straightforward frontal attacks.
• Badass Boast: Upon his "birth" at the end of the penultimate chapter of his premiere miniseries, he delivers this awesome speech to Sgt. Slaughter and the Cobra leaders in attendance:
  "Now that I am the one you seek- I am the one born to rule! Destined to conquer! Let those who fear me, follow me! Let those who oppose me, DIE! For I am Serpentor, and THIS, I COMMAND!!!"
• Bad Boss: As annoying as Cobra Commander's histrionics and temper tantrums can be, Serpentor is worse, even more arrogant, never listens to reason, consumed with his own ego, and caps it all off by being extremely physically abusive. He actually maims the Baroness at one point, which ultimately leads her to depose him.
• The Beastmaster: In the season 2 episode "My Favorite Things"; after awakening the genetic essence of the mythical Naga king "Takshaka" inside himself, Serpentor is able to command the loyalty of snakes, most notably his gargantuan cobra "pet".
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Cobra High Command wanted a new leader who would be more effective, more powerful than Cobra Commander. They got one... but unlike Cobra Commander he's more than physically strong enough to manhandle them and force them to obey him through sheer brute strength, while being much less likely to actually listen to them.
• Born as an Adult: He is created in a fully-grown adult body and with the knowledge of all the historical figures he is cloned from.
• The Caligula: Power hungry and egomaniacal, even moreso than Cobra Commander.
• Catchphrase: "THIS I COMMAND!"
• Designer Babies: Artificially engineered with bio-technology.
• The Emperor: Serves as this role to Cobra, and this was his designed purpose; to be a superior leader to Cobra Commander.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In "My Favorite Things" Serpentor proudly boasts of the many genetic templates that form him, referring to them as "conquerors, tyrants and kings". When a Strato-Viper arrives and presents him with a portrait of Rasputin, he wryly notes, "Ah, Rasputin. What an evil scoundrel he was."
• Eviler than Thou: Becomes the new Big Bad in the "Arise Serpentor, Arise!" five-part storyline.
• Flawed Prototype: Serpentor was created from many brilliant, yet incredibly egotistical and sadistic, individuals. The end result, without Sun Tzu's disciplined mind to balance it out, is a boastful and hot-headed leader who can't strategize his way out of a paper bag.
• Forced Transformation: In "Operation: Dragonfire", the opening arc of the DiC continuation of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Cobra Commander usurps control of Cobra from him and turns him into an iguana.
• Frontline General: Serpentor has no problem sharing the danger of battle with his troops, even if this is just for show.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: In the cartoon, he was created to be a different kind of leader to Cobra Commander. They got one, alright. He's bolder and more determined than the Commander... but also suicidally overconfident, just as prone to temper tantrums, even more egotistic, refuses to be swayed, will not take advice from anyone, and will physically abuse his underlings both to enforce his will and just for kicks.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Mainly in the cartoon, the incomplete DNA samples left him without the calm thoughtfulness of Sun Tzu, making him prone to violent and enraged behavior.
• Improbable Weapon User: He has some kind of infinite snake generator mounted on his headdress, and fights by pulling those snakes out (quickly replaced by new ones) before shaping them into spears or staves that he then throws or fights hand-to-hand with.
• Incoming Ham: From the moment he achieves consciousness in the cartoon, he makes a speech boasting about how incredible he is, ending in:
  "For I am Serpentor! AND THIS, I COMMAND!"
• Informed Attribute: He's supposed to be created from military conquerors and legendary commanders like Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan... but he rarely shows any actual strategic ability. Most obvious is his ill-advised invasion of Washington: if he has Napoleon's memories like he claims, he ought to remember what happened the last time he thought taking a nation's capital city automatically meant he'd win the war.
• Knight of Cerebus: Subverted. In his first appearance, he nearly takes control of Washington D.C. right away... then the Joes thwart him, and that winds up being his only (nearly) successful plan throughout the entire series. After that, he becomes just as bad, if not worse, than Cobra Commander.
• Lamarck Was Right: Invoked. The man was made with DNA samples from great military conquerors like Napoleon, Julius Caesar and Attilla the Hun specifically in hopes that he would inherit their ruthlessness, their charisma, and their military expertise. It worked... but he also got their ambition, arrogance and cruelty. Alternatively, given Serpentor's track record, it could be that Mindbender only thought that Lamarck was right.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He is a physical powerhouse and likes to lead from the front... but he's even worse about launching attacks than Cobra Commander ever was. In the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" mini-series, shortly after his creation and usurpation of Cobra he immediately orders a full scale assault on Washington DC. Cobra Commander points out the foolishness of this: you can't just invade US territory and expect to hold it. Serpentor does actually take Washington... but because no planning went into the invasion when the Joes launch their inevitable counterattack the Cobras crumble almost instantly because they're out of ammunition and fuel. Serpentor apparently thought taking one city, even one as important as Washington, would be enough to get the entire US to surrender.
• Neck Lift: Was a fan of this in the Sunbow cartoon, with Cobra Commander usually the intended victim. At the end of "Arise Serpentor, Arise!" he seems intent on literally choking the life out of him, but the Commander manages to convince him he is still valuable to the organization.
• The Neidermeyer: Serpentor is even worse than Cobra Commander. After attempting to occupy Washington, DC, despite not having the manpower to fight the US army, he leads them to failure after failure. Unlike Cobra Commander, Serpentor is also physically violent against his subordinates and never listens to anybody. Because of this, Cobra Commander is able to gain support for a coup against him towards the end of the second season (until the movie picks up from where "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" left off and completely ignores this subplot).
• NO INDOOR VOICE: His normal tone is an elevated shout. When he starts ranting or bellowing orders, it rattles windows.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Serpentor is even worse than Cobra Commander. At least he has the excuse of actually being less than a year old.
• Serpent Staff: Serpentor has a pair of cobras that rest on his shoulders. In the movie, he can command them to become rigid and throw them like javelins, probably as a reference to Thulsa Doom.
• Super-Soldier: A variant in that he was created to be a Superhuman General, rather than a Living Weapon. Mindbender and Destro's hope was that this living conglomeration of great military leaders would be a superior master for Cobra than Cobra Commander.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: He is the embodiment of this trope. Never listening to any differing opinions or tactics, resorting to violence on anyone who didn't obey his orders to the letter without question, refusing to prepare any exit strategy if things go wrong, would often win short-term gain at the loss of long-term sustainability, and focusing purely on offense while neglecting defense.
  • One of the first things Serpentor does after his "birth" is to try to conquer Washington D.C., which is incredibly ambitious, to say the least. After that attempt fails, some members of Cobra became disillusioned with him, though who supports Cobra Commander and who prefers Serpentor changes over time. Some members of Cobra went on to form the Coil, a faction aimed at overthrowing Serpentor, led by Cobra Commander. At the start of G.I. Joe: The Movie, an argument breaks out over who is responsible for the failings of Cobra, Sperpentor, or Cobra Commander. Destro and others side with Serpentor against Cobra Commander. However, in the sequel series by DiC, the Baroness ended up betraying Serpentor and restoring Cobra Commander, because he'd continued the same destructive methods of leadership and gotten worse.
  • There's also the question of how much of this might come from Sgt. Slaughter (in the cartoon). Slaughter was used to replace the lost DNA of Sun Tzu, as tough as they came and while he knew when to back down, he rarely did, as he preferred to cover other Joes backs when they needed to retreat. The Large Sarge was also supposedly a brilliant tactical mind, it's likely Slaughter's Defiant to the End nature and greater than normal strength are the only things Serpentor may have got from them.
• Uncertain Doom: He is last seen in the DiC series being chased by Gnawgahyde after being turned into an iguana and being informed that the transformation is only temporary. Since Serpentor never appeared again, it's unclear whether Gnawgahyde killed him or if he actually managed to escape the Dreadnok before the transformation wore off and simply never came back out of the shame and disgrace the experience brought him.

A ninja in Cobra's employ. One of their most competent agents.

• Even Evil Has Standards: Is definitely not one of the good guys, but lives by his own personal code of honor that has seen him give up his objective or refuse to fight in order to maintain it.
• Fake Defector: After defecting to G.I. Joe in between the Sunbow and DiC series, Storm Shadow pulls this on Cobra, pretending to come back.
• Heel–Face Return: During the DiC seasons, he's switched sides and joined the Joes.
• Highly Visible Ninja: Sometimes, particularly when he wants to be seen. The white outfit with the large Cobra sigil on the front doesn't help.
• I Owe You My Life: Storm Shadow and Spirit find themselves trapped in a cavern with rapidly depleting air in "Battle on the Roof of the World," when fighting over a piece of the Weather Dominator. Spirit finds a way for them to escape and Storm Shadow lets him keep the piece of the weapon as thanks.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: Uses a katana and shuriken as his primary weapons.
• Worthy Opponent: With Spirit. They have saved each other's lives more than once, and Storm Shadow regards him as a kindred spirit even when fighting him.

An Australian mercenary who exclusively works for Cobra.

• Eyepatch of Power: Averted. He wears an eyepatch, but that's about it.
• The Heavy: Is often the one who goes out to actually carry out Cobra's plans, if none of the top leaders aren't doing it themselves.
• Mook Lieutenant: Generally takes this role. He's actually fairly good at it, generally lasting just long enough to succeed at his objectives before retreating.
• Pet the Dog: During the MASS Device multi-episode miniseries, his forces corner a group of Joes in a mine and he unleashes a radioactive mist into the mine. When Snake Eyes, irradiated to the point he's glowing, staggers out of the mine with a canister containing samples of the rare mineral both sides were trying to seize, Bludd orders his men to hold their fire. Seeing Snake Eyes' condition, Bludd refers to him as "the poor devil" and orders his troops to let him go, reasoning he was as good as dead anyway. He was wrong because Snake Eyes survives, but still.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He does not appear in the DiC continuation.
• The Dragon: Because Destro is technically an outside contractor (and because Cobra Commander didn't fully trust him), Scrap Iron effectively acts as his confidant and right hand man despite his comparatively low rank.
• Evil Genius: While not on Destro or even Cobra Commander's level, he's generally entrusted with building weapons and equipment.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Michael Bell gives Scrap Iron the same raspy tone he used for the Constructicon Scrapper.
• Undying Loyalty: Averted. He seems to like Cobra Commander well enough, but after Serpentor's creation he sometimes has to be outright bribed to go along with Cobra Commander's schemes.
• Villainous Friendship: A strange example. While he shifts his loyalties from Cobra Commander to Serpentor, Cobra Commander is still fairly willing to share his plans with him or at least explain them. Scrap Iron basically acts as the Watson to Cobra Commander's Holmes.

A mercenary in Cobra's employ. Especially skilled at demolitions.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He does not appear in the DiC continuation.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite being the single most dangerous Psycho for Hire on the planet, Firefly rarely did much than be a more competent than usual soldier for Cobra in the cartoon.
• Mad Bomber: If it needs to be blown up, Cobra calls on him.

Cobra's ace pilot.

• Ace Pilot: Is this for Cobra. The Joe pilots hate him, but begrudgingly respect his skills as a pilot.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He does not appear in the DiC continuation.
• Worthy Opponent: Is generally seen as this by Joe pilots like Ace and Wild Bill, and the reluctant respect is returned.

Cobra's Mad Scientist and the creator of Serpentor.

• Bald of Evil: He's a bald villain.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's one of the most noticeable Cobra members to cease appearing in the DiC continuation.
• Cowardice Callout: In The Movie, Dr. Mindbender casually calls Cobra Commander out on his "frequent displays of cowardice" among the many criticisms of his incompetent leadership.
• Depraved Dentist: At least according to his filecard, he was a nice dentist who attempted to alter brainwaves to reduce pain during dental procedures...and he tested it on himself, turning him into the mad scientist he is now.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: He runs around shirtless, wearing a purple cape and a monocle, even in the arctic, and also sports a handlebar mustache. Justified in that he's actually insane.
• High-Class Glass: He wears a monocle.
• Mad Scientist: His deal is using his genius to create inventions and chemicals that can be used to assist in Cobra's schemes.
• Remember the New Guy?: He just abruptly appears in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" five-parter and is treated as if he was an established Cobra member from the start.
• The Starscream: The first thing he does when he shows up is create Serpentor to usurp Cobra Commander.

• Defector from Decadence: Leaves Cobra with the help of G.I. Joe, but departs to the sea at the end because she's still unable to live a normal life again because of her mutations.
• Females Are More Innocent: Raven and the also female Mara are the only two Cobras to defect in the Sunbow series (though DiC has Mercer and Storm Shadow defect offscreen).
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Mara and Shipwreck develop feelings on each other, but they can never be together because Mara is unable to survive out of water, and she leaves him at the end.
• Water-Breathing Humans: Cobra turned her into one with their experiements.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She appears to defect to G.I. Joe at the end of "In the Presence of Mine Enemies", the second-last Sunblw episode, but is never seen or mentioned in the subsequent DiC series.
• Defector from Decadence: Initially devoted to Cobra, she defects after the B.A.T.s at the base try to kill her.
• Enemy Mine: Raven and Slip-Stream shoot each other down over Dr. Mindbender's island, and they have to team up to survive the experiments left behind.
• Females Are More Innocent: Raven and the also female Mara are the only two Cobras to defect in the Sunbow series (though DiC has Mercer and Storm Shadow defect offscreen).
• Meaningful Name: Night Raven pilot codenamed Raven. Though it could also be her actual name, since she looks Native American.

• Large Ham: A very over-the-top screwball villain.
• Laughably Evil: With his "goofy" personality, he tends to get used for comic relief.
• Manchild: Acts like a hyperactive kid... with explosives.

• Satellite Character: To the extent that it's unclear if Vapor is an individual or a Moon class.

Cobra's nameless footsoldiers.

• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Some episodes show female Troopers.
• Faceless Goons: Played with. The Troopers all wear bandanas that cover the bottom half of their faces but leave their eyes visible.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: These guys are at the very bottom of the Cobra hierarchy. Larry Hama made no distinction between the Troopers and the Vipers, but most fans agree the Vipers are the next step up.
• Universal Driver's License: At first, Cobra Troopers are seen driving or flying just about every vehicle Cobra has. As time went on, more specialized drivers or pilots like the Strato-Vipers and S.T.U.N Drivers/Motor-Vipers were introduced to the toyline and cartoon, causing the Troopers to be phased out in that role.
• Zerg Rush: How they generally overcome Joes in hand-to-hand combat.

• Faceless Goons: The Vipers wear faceplates resembling Cobra Commander's, and thus their faces are completely concealed.
• Goggles Do Nothing: They all have goggles on the top of their helmets, despite the fact said helmets include unremovable mirror mask faceplates. Predictably, the goggles never get pulled down.
• Last Stand: In the finale of the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" mini-series, several Vipers stay behind to cover Serpentor and Cobra High Command's escape. They surrender once their leaders are clear.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The Vipers are the first step into the more specialized branches like Strato-Vipers (pilots), Eels (underwater warfare) or Snow Serpents (cold climate specialists). This is part of the reason why fans consider them the next step up from the Cobra Troopers.
• Undying Loyalty: Strangely enough, Serpentor gets this treatment from them partially because he's so charismatic, and partially because he's usually leading them from the front... and unlike Cobra Commander does not scream "Retreat!" at the first sign of trouble.
• Zerg Rush: Like the Cobra Troopers, this is how they get the better of Joes in hand-to-hand combat.

Cobra's elite troops. Notable for their bright red uniforms.

• Bling of War: Their uniforms are very snazzy.
• Elite Mooks: Are much rarer than the regular Cobra Troopers or Vipers, and are generally seen in important Cobra facilities.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: In one episode, a couple of Cobra Troopers see a Crimson Guard arrive and refer to him as "one of the Crimson elite". They also grumble about it.
• Informed Attribute: Their filecards mention that the Crimson Guards are nicknamed Siegies in-universe (from the pronunciation of CG) and that all of them have at least a college education (most often in law, business administration or economics) that makes them even more useful off the battlefield than on. Neither of these really come up in the cartoon.
  • Despite being described as elites, they rarely if ever perform better against the Joes than the regular Cobra troops.
• Mook Lieutenant: On the occasions when one of the more famous Cobra operatives isn't leading (e.g. Major Bludd), a Crimson Guard can sometimes be seen leading squads of regular Troopers.
• Praetorian Guard: Function as this for Cobra Commander and other high-ranking Cobra leaders.
  • Funnily enough, a group of Crimson Guards were among those who forced Cobra Commander into going along with Dr. Mindbender's Serpentor project, the way the historical Praetorian Guard eventually gained a reputation for making emperors instead of defending them.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!

The elite among the Air Vipers. Specifically trained to pilot the Firebat interceptor mini-jets.

• Retcon: The writer's bible for the Sunbow cartoon defined A.V.A.C. as "Air Viper Attack Corps", but later filecards would give it the meaning "Air Viper, Advanced Class".
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The next step up the Cobra air forces, just below the Strato-Vipers in terms of skill and prestige.
• Thrill Seeker: Filecards note that the A.V.A.C.s have plenty of applicants because there's just no greater thrill than piloting a Firebat... a jet so basic that it has no instruments outside of the basic control panel, stick, pedals and weapons control. There are no engine status readouts, navigation aids, or even an ejection seat (but a parachute is at least provided). An A.V.A.C. relies purely on their skill and ability to keep track of a dogfight without the aid of sophisticated technology.

Cobra's elite pilots. Normally seen piloting the Night Ravens.

• Ace Pilot: While not to the level of Wild Weasel, the Strato-Vipers are Cobra's best pilots. The Strato-Viper in "In The Presence of Mine Enemies", for example, manages to pull off a Mutual Kill against Slipstream, shooting down his Conquest at the cost of her Night Raven.
• Elite Mook: Sometimes treated as this, as they're often entrusted with high profile missions. They even sometimes share the Praetorian Guard role with the Crimson Guards, like in "Grey Hairs And Growing Pains" where a couple of Strato-Vipers successfully convince Serpentor to retreat rather than risk himself in combat.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Female Strato-Vipers are seen every so often, most prominently in "In The Presence of Mine Enemies" (where the Strato-Viper Raven pulls a Mook–Face Turn) or the Movie, where a large number of female Strato-Vipers are seen in the TerrorDrome.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The pinnacle of the Cobra air forces.

• Ancient Conspiracy: They have been plying their trade for about a thousand years.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Don’t be fooled by their self-presentation-they are no more competent than the average Cobra grunt.
• McNinja: They are meant to cash in on the ninja craze, but the one episode that focuses on their background implies at least their founding members were Thai.
• Only in It for the Money: They are independent contractors who fight because Cobra pays them.
• Undying Loyalty: Downplayed. They are sworn to serve the Night Creeper Leader. They are not characterized as especially fanatical, but will back him over Cobra Commander if the two men butt heads. "Revenge of the Pharaohs" is the most fascinating example because, even though Night Creeper Leader is characterized as being out of his mind for most of the episode, they are still impeccably loyal to him and eagerly participate in his campaign to "reconquer" Egypt.

Robotic infantry created by Cobra. Their threat level tends to vary.

• Conservation of Ninjutsu: After their first appearance in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" miniseries, they are generally and quickly gunned down by the Joes by the dozen (as mentioned under Villain Decay). However, whenever a single B.A.T. is present, you can be sure it'll be a lot harder to bring down than its brethren. A prime example is the solo B.A.T. from "My Favourite Things", which among other things successfully steals a painting of Rasputin from a hotel in the Swiss Alps before surviving a mountain fall with little damage and then walking back to base, gets impaled on a spike in Vlad the Impaler's castle and then snaps the spike to continue attacking, and is only brought down when Wet-Suit splatters it with a highly potent acidic venom during the climax.
  • Another example appears in "In The Presence of Mine Enemies", where despite an entire squad of B.A.T.s hunting Slipstream and an injured Strato-Viper, the one B.A.T. that corners them is basically a Boss in Mook's Clothing and only goes down when Slipstream manages to smash it in the faceplate with a beaker of concentrated hydrochloric acid, causing its internal mechanisms to short out. The remaining B.A.T.s aren't quite as threatening.
• Implacable Man: When not brought down straight away, the B.A.T.s come off as this.
• Informed Attribute: Their filecards state that Cobra troops tend to dislike the B.A.T.s because their rudimentary computers sometimes are unable to tell the difference between friend and foe on the battlefield. This isn't really seen on the show.
  • That said, in "In The Presence of Mine Enemies" one of the things that triggers Strato-Viper Raven's Mook–Face Turn is the B.A.T.s repeatedly attempting to kill her alongside Slipstream. That could simply be chalked up to the Cobra officers simply deciding she was expendable.
• Mecha-Mook: It's right there in their name.
• New Tech Is Not Cheap: In their first appearance, the B.A.T.s seemed unstoppable, easily shrugging off Joe firepower until Sergeant Slaughter started taking them apart in hand-to-hand. Cobra's High Command were furious with Cobra Commander squandering them, since they were both expensive and now the Joes knew what they were to their shock value was lost. Later B.A.T.s are implied to be much cheaper made and are nowhere near as dangerous as the first batch.
• Villain Decay: In their first appearance, the B.A.T.s freak the Joes out and almost finish them until Sergeant Slaughter arrives and devastates them with his bare hands. They're never quite the same threat again, partially because now that the Joes know what they are, they know how to handle them. Knowing is half the battle indeed.

• All Bikers Are Hells Angels: They're all violent criminals that follow the stereotypes of biker gangs.
• Badass Biker: Most of them are bikers and they are very tough and formidable enemies of G.I. Joe.
• British Accents: The key members of the Dreadnoks (Zarana, Zandar, Torch, Buzzer and Ripper) all speak with Cockney accents... despite most of them not being from the UK.
• Cool Bike: They have their own cool hogs.

Leader of the Dreadnoks and a master of disguise.

• Chameleon Camouflage: A legitimate super power the origin of which is never given, Zartan can change his skin color to blend in with whatever background he's standing in front of.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Even though the Dreadnoks continued to appear in the DiC continuation, Zartan himself was conspicuously absent.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being as quick to mock Zarana for being attracted to Mainframe as the other Dreadnoks, in "The Glamor Girls" when he learns that Buzzer, Ripper and Torch tricked her into the same trap as the various other women he's beside himself with rage. He even goes so far as to aid the Joes to save her.
• Evil Is Petty
• Master of Disguise: His special skill is being able to disguise himself as anyone.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Is prone to screw things up thanks to his mercenary tendencies and nasty, Evil Is Petty personality.
  • In "The Revenge of Cobra" mini-series, his interference directly prevents Cobra from securing the parts of the Weather Dominator quickly (and thus gives the Joes a chance to fight back).
  • In "Computer Complications" Zarana has already succeeded in her mission to seize control of the Joe robot subs, but as the Dreadnoks retreat he mocks Zarana by referring to her as "Delilah" ^note  She was successful because Mainframe was attracted enough and trusted her enough in her disguise to allow her access, the way that the Biblical Deliah took advantage of her feminine wiles to bring down Samson. This prompts her to taser him and turn back to save Mainframe from the bomb the Dreadnoks left behind.
• Voice of the Legion: His voice frequently had a reverberating effect in earlier episodes, presumably to emphasize his ability to disguise himself.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Direct sunlight is apparently painful to him, and robs him of his Chameleon Camouflage power.

Zartan's three main underlings.

• Beard of Evil: Ripper and Torch both have beards.
• Chainsaw Good: Buzzer's signature weapon is a chainsaw.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: None of them were anywhere to be seen in the DiC continuation.
• Sinister Shades: They're all villains with sunglasses.

Zartan's sister introduced in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" five-part episode. Becomes the go-to Cobra operative for infiltration when a woman is needed, whenever the Baroness isn't present.

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Part of the reason she develops an attraction to Mainframe in "Computer Complications" is just because he's nice to her.
• Dating Catwoman: Averted. While both Mainframe and Zarana acknowledge that their attraction was real, they also both know that there's no way it'd work out. That doesn't stop her from giving him valuable assistance in "Grey Hairs and Growing Pains", while he tells her to hurry and get away before someone sees her and realise she's just betrayed Cobra.
• Fiery Redhead: She's no quiet wallflower, and her temper is bad enough that the other Dreadnoks scatter when she gets riled up enough.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: When Mainframe proves to be a hindrance to her mission, she tries to crush him by unsettling some crates of parts down onto him. Unfortunately for her, the crashing crates cause a domino effect that almost crushes her too if not for Mainframe tackling her to safety.
• Master of Disguise: Like her brother, she is adept at disguising herself.
• Rescue Romance: What actively triggers her interest in Mainframe is him pushing her out of the way of some falling crates (not realising she'd tried to crush him using said crates). He then follows up by apologising for hitting on her, and then taking her out to dinner, and then defending her honour from an overly familiar waiter that turned out to be Zartan in disguise.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: As her disguises can attest, she can be outright beautiful when she wants to be.
• The Smurfette Principle: She's the sole female Dreadnok.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: During her undercover operation in "Computer Complications", she and Mainframe develop an attraction to one another. It's powerful enough that in "Grey Hairs and Growing Pains" she quietly assists him by informing him where to go and providing him with valuable information. This relationship was dropped in the DiC continuation, where she'd suddenly hooked up with Destro while Mainframe didn't even appear.

Zartan's brother introduced in the "Arise, Serpentor, Arise" five-part episode.

• The Brute: In regards to infiltration. While both Zartan and Zarana infiltrate facilities by using masks, forged papers and acting skill, Zandar does so by simply sneaking in (e.g. scaling walls and the like).
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like his brother, he ceased making appearances in the DiC continuation.
• Highly Visible Ninja: Unlike his brother and sister, Zandar isn't much of a Master of Disguise. He is, however, almost as good as they are at infiltration. He does this despite wearing bright red warpaint and no shirt.
• This Means Warpaint: He wears bright red warpaint on his chest and face.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: He doesn't wear a shirt.
• Worf Had the Flu: In "Computer Complications" he attempts to infiltrate the Joe computer centre. Unluckily for him, one of the Joes on duty that night happens to be Low Light, the Joe night vision specialist.

One of two additional recruits who joined the Dreadnoks in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise".

• Beard of Evil: Another Dreadnok with a beard.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Nowhere to be seen in the DiC continuation.

One of two additional recruits who joined the Dreadnoks in "Arise, Serpentor, Arise".

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Yet another Dreadnok who doesn't appear at all in the DiC continuation.
• The Engineer: He maintains the Dreadnoks' vehicles.

A Dreadnok introduced in the DiC series.

• Evil Poacher: He has the motif of being a hunter.
• I Am a Humanitarian: Technically at least. He may or may have not eaten Serpentor (currently an iguana, but really a human) in "Operation Dragonfire", if he caught him. Serpentor was never seen or heard from again despite the transformation being stated to be temporary, so...
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Sided with the Baroness in restoring Cobra Commander to power in the DiC series' premiere because he couldn't stand Serpentor's abuse.

A Dreadnok introduced in the DiC series.

• Adaptation Dye-Job: The cartoon changed his hair from white with red streaks to orange with greens streaks to match his second action figure.
• The Brute: He's a big muscular thug on the Dreadnoks' side.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In "Cobra Land", he and Metal-Head are distracted from Cobra Commander's orders near the end of the episode because they're too busy fighting over a giant teddy bear.

Commanding officer of the U.S.S. Montana, who chooses to turn traitor and join Cobra when the Navy decides to scrap his battleship and send him into retirement.

• Fate Worse than Death: His honor is tarnished, his reputation destroyed, and he's headed for court-martial and imprisonment for treason. But to him, the worst part is that his beloved ship was sunk.
  "It would have been more merciful to let me drown."
• Going Down with the Ship: Once it's clear the Montana is doomed he refuses to leave her. Hawk has to overpower him and drag him off before the stricken battleship sinks.
• Old Soldier: Has been at sea with the Navy (and specifically aboard the Montana) for most of his career.
• Rank Up: Cobra offered him a promotion to Admiral as well as letting his ship serve them.
• Regretful Traitor: After he betrays the Navy and joins Cobra, he spends most of his time brooding about it and wondering if he made the right choice.
• Reluctant Retiree: For both him and his ship - he's being forced out of the Navy, and the Montana is headed for the cutter's torch, before he defects.
• We Used to Be Friends: General Hawk considered him one, until Lattimer joined up with Cobra.

Commanding officer of G.I. Joe's assigned aircraft carrier.

• Old Soldier: Navy variant. In the episode he debuts in, he brags that whales ask him for directions.

A top military officer who often has dealings with G.I. Joe.

• Colonel Badass: During the Weather Dominator multi-part episodes, Colonel Sharp is on his way to the Blackwater Prison when he receives word that Cobra Commander has been captured and on his way there. When he comes under attack by the Dreadnoks on the way, Sharp draws a pistol and trades shots with them while ordering his boat pilot to get them out of there. He's still overcome and captured, but props for being willing to fight.

A recruit from Japan who took part in an Explosive Ordinance Disposal exercise.

• All There in the Manual: A databook made decades after the only episode she appeared in gave her the surname Sasaki.
• Meaningful Name: Taeko can be translated as "Child of (Many) Benefits", which fits with how she aids the Joes against Storm Shadow and Scrap Iron.

The Eastern Bloc's equivalent of G.I. Joe, who depending on circumstances appear as either allies or opponents to the Joes.

• Chummy Commies: They're the GI Joes' opposite number in the Soviet Union, but all the same their still just as dedicated to destroying Cobra.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Oktober Guard and GI Joe teaming up against Cobra invokes the Soviet Union and America fighting the Nazis.
• Fair-Weather Friend: The Oktober Guard is very quick to drop any alliance with the Joes when circumstances change. To be fair, that is because of the Cold War.
• Friendly Enemy: When they're fighting the GI Joes, there is a lot of respect and usually an Enemy Mine situation.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When the Joes and the Oktober Guard team up, they are usually at each other's throats.
• You Have Failed Me: Brekhov often states that he feels the Oktober Guard will suffer this if they fail their missions.

Real Name: Ivan Nikolevich Brekhov

• Adapted Out: In the comics he was frequently seen smoking a cigar. He never did this in the cartoon.
• A Father to His Men: A characteristic he shares with Hawk and Duke. Alongside Dmitri Bukharin/Crimson Dynamo he stands out as one of the few Cold War-era Soviet Colonels that is not depicted as a Bad Boss.
• Jerkass: On a mission to Cobra Island, he refuses to do any rowing, chiding Daina as not being sufficiently patriotic when she complains, then makes her do all the work digging, claiming he and Horrorshow are keeping lookout.
• The Leader: He commands the unit and is pretty much the Soviet counterpart of Duke.
• Smart People Play Chess: He and Daina can be seen being in the middle of a game when the Joes arrive at their headquarters.

Real Name: Daina L. Janack

• Ace Pilot: Not shown in her home series but she appears in Transformers piloting an experimental fighter jet, that's stolen by the Egomaniac Hunter, Lord Chumley.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: Blonde in the comics, brunette in the cartoon.
• Continuity Cameo: Makes a brief cameo in the Transformers episode Prime Target.
• Pink Means Feminine: In the cartoon, Daina wore a bright pink Telogreika, even in the desert.
• The Smart Guy: One of the smartest members of the team, with Colonel Brekhov acknowledging that her skills as a tactician are second only to his own.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Horrorshow. She tended to be offended by his sexism and annoyed by his brutishness, but in a pinch, the two would have each others' backs.

Real Name: Stepan Drukersky

• Big Eater: On a mission to Cobra Island, he brings along a backpack full of roast chickens. He later stuffs them full of grenades to feed to Croc Master's crocs.
• The Big Guy: Horrorshow is the burliest, most aggressive, member of the Guard.
• Dumb Muscle: Downplayed. He wasn't particularly stupid, but he was also nowhere near as intelligent as Brekhov and Daina, so compared to them he didn't seem like the brightest bulb.
• The Rival: He and Gung-Ho develop an instant dislike for each other upon meeting and even come to blows a couple times. They eventually come to respect the other.
• Stout Strength: Horroshow's bulk belies some serious muscle lying underneath.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Horrorshow and Daina commonly argued like teenage siblings; Horrorshow would make a sexist comment that Daina didn't appreciate, and she retaliated with a biting snark about Horrorshow's weight. But when push came to shove, the two would have each other's back.
  Daina: Where's that fat Georgian Horrorshow? He probably stopped for a snack.

• Badass Bandolier: Wears a metal bandolier over his uniform.
• No Name Given: His real name is classified.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Expressed discomfort at having to fight Scarlett for this reason, citing there was no honor in it. It becomes a moot point, though, as Scarlett proves so much better at close-quarters combat that she knocks him down before he can even get within arm's length of her.

Real Name: Wen-Yun Wong

• Canon Foreigner: Wong was created specifically for the Sunbow cartoon. In the comics, the Guard's Recon Man was an East German soldier named Schrage.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Like a lot of Soviet personnel, he's actually a big fan of Western cinema. If the cowboy hat didn't give it away.

A cartoon girlfriend of Quick Kick.

• I Just Want to Be Badass: She is a college student without military training who infiltrates Joe headquarters and tags along on their missions, admittedly showing some skills, because she wants to be part of their work (and later also because of Quick Kick).
• Red Herring: It seems like she might be a spy for a while but it is really the Baroness posing as a captured Lady Jaye.

• Lovable Coward: He is very anxious throughout his captivity but is committed to anti-terrorism despite being a civilian. He also bonds some with Spirit over their shared captivity and Gung-Ho over their shared fondness for gumbo.

• Properly Paranoid: As soon as Cobra makes overtures to use his new invention, he arranges a covert meeting with the Joes to request sanctuary before he ends up a Kidnapped Scientist. He is indeed kidnapped during that meeting, but the Joes rescue him.

A famous journalist. His relationship to the Joes is acrimonious; he has no problems taking them to task on his news show if they screw up.

• Badass Bystander: On one occasion he assists the Joes by interviewing Cobra Commander, buying the Joes time to come up with a counter strategy.
• Canon Welding: His presence is used to prove that G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, The Transformers, Jem and Inhumanoids all take place in the same universe, despite his appearance and voice varying across the four cartoons.
• Catchphrase: "This is Hector Ramirez!"
• Kent Brockman News: Hector's an investigative reporter with more foolhardiness than common sense. Which is how he got turned into a 15-foot tall living zombie by D'Compose. Don't worry, he got better.
• Mr. Exposition: After his first appearance, he mostly is used for info dumps.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: A parody of "investigative journalist" Geraldo Rivera.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The DiC series episodes "Injustice and the Cobra Way" and "Cobra Land" feature a journalist named Jose Riviera, who is basically the same character as Hector Ramirez except for the name and a drastically different wardrobe. The reason he was used in place of Hector Ramirez is unknown, but it's speculated to be legal issues involving Sunbow (it's to the point a newspaper article is credited to Ramirez and not Riviera).
• You Don't Look Like You: His appearance was never quite consistent both within this show and the others he appeared in.

A lounge singer Shipwreck and Snake Eyes encountered while MIA during the third 5-parter.

• Badass Bystander: If having a van with bulletproof plates, personally chasing off someone named Col. Slash (who had 5 goons backing him up), and shoving Cobra Commander himself isn't this, then what is?
• Noodle Incident: After temporarily parting ways with two Joes, she tells them that Cobra framed her father somehow.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Played with. As with others in the entertainment world, Satin was probably just her stage name.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns for a season two episode that shows that she met Low-Light and his sister at some point.

• Model Scam: Una thinks she's going to a modeling audition. Instead, she and Satin get trafficked by Cobra to Madame Veil, who stays young by stealing womens' faces.

• Asian Store-Owner: The Japanese Itos are grocers and appear to be the only merchant class family members kidnapped, although they and their Pop-Cultured Badass son are mostly free of stereotypical traits beyond All Asians Know Martial Arts.
• Badass Family: They all have relatives in the G.I.Joe force and all of the families have other brave or tough members. Mr. Breckenridge, firefighter Mr. Kelly, the LaFittes, storekeeper Mr. Ito (who even matches blows with the Crimson Twins), Mr. Iron-Knife, and the four karate trainer O'Haras all give trouble to the Cobra troops who go after them and/or take up arms after their rescue (Jesse Delgado also braves gunfire but is too young to contribute any notable aid).
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Vena and her grandfather are kidnapped from the ceremony celebrating her transition from a girl of their tribe to a woman.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Scarlet's three brothers have brown, strawberry blonde, and dark red hair, respectively.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Thunder's sister Chrissy is introduced sunning herself, listening to music, and reading a teenzine rather than doing chores, although she is more oblivious (due to her headphones) than deliberately bratty.
• I Have Your Wife: All of them besides the LaFittes and older Delgados are captured for leverage against their Joe relatives.
• Old Master: White-bearded Mr. O’Hara runs a dojo with his sons and is only captured after he submits, rather than being defeated, to save his sons from Storm Shadow.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Since Spirit's parents and the parents of his cousin Vena aren't listed among his surviving relatives, his grandfather has presumably outlived at least two of his children.
• Stout Strength: Pot-bellied suburbanite Mr. Breckenridge is strong enough to knock away two Cobra soldiers at once.

• Abandoned War Child: His father went back to America, leaving him and his mother in Thailand.
• The Artful Dodger: Downplayed. He and his friends fend for themselves and are used to running from the police, but more because they are constantly scapegoated out of Half-Breed Discrimination than because they are genuinely up to no good. He does speak against returning a lost bag of money at one point, but only because he is bitterly resigned to acts of kindness and honesty making no difference in whether his group will be accused of theft anyway. His group ends up helping a G.I. Joe mission and bonding with the soldiers.
• I Choose to Stay: Despite his life in Thailand having difficulties, once he is offered a job and home there, he would rather make the best of that than start over in America.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Being of mixed Western ancestry earns him and his friends automatic antagonism from many of the people in their town.
• Ironic Name: He is a half-Thai boy named after a white supremacist (although he mostly just goes by Jeff) and is discriminated against over his white heritage.

• Cool Shades: His ever-present sunglasses emphasize the status and glamour surrounding him.
• Intrepid Reporter: A filmmaker version, as he will go speeding after people firing military weapons at each other to get good footage for his war movie.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His status as a premier young director of the 1980s and his name are reminiscent of George Lucas, John Landis and Steven Spielberg.
• Prima Donna Director: He is a loud man who will boss around the government or have a sit-down with Cobra in order to make sure his creations reach the artistic purity he desires.

A lunatic armed with weaponized toys who once kidnapped Flint, Lady Jaye, the Baroness and Cobra Commander in an attempt to have them all killed as part of some twisted game.

• Bad Vibrations: His weight and strength is enough to make a rumbling sound everytime he moves or strikes something.
• Bald of Evil: He's both.
• Beard of Evil: He has a beard.
• Expy: Of Lord Chumley from The Transformers episode "Prime Target", being a similar rich asshole who threatens hero and villain alike for the sake of his ego. Both episodes were written by the same person, so it was probably intentional.
• Fat Bastard: He is very hefty.
• Outside-Context Problem: He's a completely independent threat to both the Joes and Cobra with no explanation given for how he acquired a toy and game themed island staffed by robotic minions.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He captures Flint, Lady Jaye, the Baroness and Cobra Commander with the intent of killing them all for his amusement, has an obsession with toys, taunts his prisoners childishly and throws fits when things don't go his way. It really says a lot when he makes Cobra Commander look sane and mature in comparison.
• Robot Buddy: His companion is a clown robot named Koko.
• Stout Strength: He's huge and strong enough to throw a man across the room. Basically an even bigger Wilson Fisk.
• We Will Meet Again: His episode ends with him escaping and vowing revenge.
• Wicked Toymaker: He uses lethal toys on his captives.

A drug lord who makes a profit off of selling a drug called Spark. He ends up being a mutual enemy of G.I. Joe and Cobra.

• Arc Villain: He is the main threat of the DiC continuation two-part episode "The Greatest Evil".
• Character Death: Has the honor of being the only named character in the cartoon to explicitly die, considering that Duke's intended death scene in G.I. Joe: The Movie was altered into him being in a coma at the last minute and it wasn't known if Serpentor survived Gnawgahyde pursuing him after he was changed into an iguana.
• Dead-Hand Shot: The final shot of the two-part episode featuring him is a close-up of his lifeless hand protruding from the rubble of his lair, confirming that he's died.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: While he died from a lethal overdose of his own drug in the DiC cartoon, the Devil's Due comic mentioned in the 31st issue of America's Elite that he was killed by Tomax.
• Getting High on Their Own Supply: Near the end of the two-parter he appears in, he prepares for his final battle against the Joes and Cobra by snorting some Spark himself.
• Karmic Death: The drug dealer ends up killed from an overdose of his own drug right when he attempted to use it on the Joes and Cobra. For good measure, the one who changed the course of the Spark spraying was Lt. Falcon, one of the Headman's victims.
• Last Breath Bullet: Right before his Spark overdose does him in, the Headman makes one last effort in defeating the Joes and Cobra by setting his lair to self-destruct. G.I. Joe and Cobra manage to get out with their lives before the base is reduced to rubble.
• Sinister Shades: He's a villain who wears sunglasses.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Zig-zagged. His counterpart in the Marvel Comics continuity was captured alive in his final appearance, but he was killed off in the Devil's Due continuity, which was eventually rendered non-canon due to being supplanted by IDW's own continuation of the comic, in which the Headman never resurfaced and presumably remained incarcerated.
• Stupid Evil: Intentionally killing, driving insane, or putting into a coma your customers is bad for a drug dealer's business. Yet, the Headman does it anyway, apparently For the Evulz.

• Face Stealer: She has a device she uses to steal womens' faces, which keeps her young. When the device is destroyed, something horrible happens to Veil's own face.