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03-22-2009, 01:52 PM | #4141 |
I Ride with Claymore!!!
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I wouldn't consider Cobra leftist at all. At least not the original comic book version. The Soviet Union was enough of a looming "Left" threat back in the 1980s that making Cobra a "leftist" terror organization would just be redundant. Larry Hama's characterization of Cobra, to me, was capitalism taken to the extreme: the pursuit of profit above all else, regardless of ethics, morals, and the rule of law. Cobra started out as a get-rich quick pyramid scheme/scam run by a former used car salesman, after all.
This wasn't so clear during the early days of the comic, when Cobra was just another generic comic book terrorist group with a vague mandate to rule the world and a slight neo-fascist inspired look, but later in the series, when they became all about stirring conflict in developing nations to create markets for their Terror-Drome sales, I think it became clear that Cobra wasn't so much an "evil" organization bent on conquering the world as they were an amoral corporate entity all about profiteering from war and conflict and consequently, the suffering and pain of others. In my mind, this makes them more dangerous in certain respects than almost any ideological adversary: ideologies come and go and fade with the times (just look at how poorly traditional communism survived the transition into the 21st century), but inhuman greed (whether in the form of rogue individuals and organizations, unchecked corporations, or corrupt governments) constantly threatens to undermine civil society, regardless of political climate and trends.
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03-22-2009, 02:04 PM | #4142 |
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I agree. I think they started as a neo-fascist group and later became greedy or desperate or both. It seems that the images of the Cobra Army were deliberately drawn to illicit memories of the Nazis. Considering that the October Guard fought Cobra - it would seem clear that Cobra was not Communist... but the USSR would have had no love for a fascist organization.
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03-22-2009, 04:04 PM | #4143 |
#voteblackjack
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How big are the DA units? 12men?
Who is the LRRP team members? As far as the names go for your DA Squads, the book o Delta Force I'm reading has the teams broken down into about 4 six man squads. Each lead by a Sgt Major. Each team is given the Team Sgt Maj's nickname/codename. Like Team Mercer. They break the teams up further when they need to. The rolled into Tora Bora with 6-8 Snipers 3 or 4 Combat Controllers. These two specialties are hugely important to their missions. LRRP is 4 man: Sneak Peek, Ambush, Sidetrack and Recoil.
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03-22-2009, 04:12 PM | #4144 |
#voteblackjack
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I want to save the big Hama question for last:
"What would have been different if there had been no Hasbro interference and not having to 'sell the toys'?" For the next question, would like something Cobra related. The only Snake-Eyes question I can think of would be: "How much influence did Hasbro have over making Snake-Eyes such a focal point of the comic series? Why is his name 'classified' and was he always envisioned as a ninja or did that evolve over time?"
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03-22-2009, 04:17 PM | #4145 |
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I don't see Cobra has having a political agenda, and definately not facist.
It was started out by a disillusioned man, disillusioned over the business world, disillusioned over the government and disillusioned over life. It's how alot of the militia organizations start up and recruit. "The man getting you down? Tired of those less skilled then you getting higher then you?" Stuff like that. There are political undertones and racist undertones, in so much as the "leaders" use those undertones to help push their message forward and recruit people. "Tired of the illegal immigrants taking your jobs? You can thank a government that does nothing about them for that." You take that worldwide and you get Cobra. They can't be political, that would lose a large chunk of their recruiting power worldwide. They're more "standing up for the little man". Everybody has had someone pushed over them, who didn't deserve it, or had something taken away because of the system; where others that you know cheat the system get away with it. That's the message that Cobra put out there. Remember, that's how Serpentor was able to recruit from within Cobra and create the COIL in the DDP comic, by this time CC had strayed away from his original message and Serpentor played upon that to recruit those that felt disillusioned by Cobra and now saw CC as the "man". There was a time, not that long ago, just after my divorce, when I was struggling to pay the bills. Had lost my job, barely keeping my apartment, barely keeping the kids fed and such (and they were my ex-wives kids that I still took care of, long story..). I had neighbors, boyfriend and girlfriend with a 3 year old. Neither of them worked. She had an anxiety disorder where she couldn't deal with people, so she got social security. They basically lived off welfare. Here I was, working my ass off, not taking handouts, and as far down as I could go, and there were people that didn't do anything and didn't work (even though they could have if they really wanted to) and they survived. Even now I get annoyed. My ex-girlfriends sister and boyfriend can afford 60" HD tvs and they barely work and live off the state and "workman's comp" (he can't work because he's "hurt", but he's okay enough to go and buy a nice truck and do some plowing and snowblowing on the side and still get his nice check). It's stuff like that that made it easy for Cobra to recruit.
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Join the New England G.I. Joe Collector's Group: Battleforce New England Join the March of Cobra. Read the epic adventure on Kindle Worlds and visit the page to learn more. https://www.facebook.com/marchofcobra/ Last edited by Troynos; 03-22-2009 at 04:22 PM.. |
03-22-2009, 04:19 PM | #4146 |
W.O.R.M.S. Commander
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What I'm wondering is what direction Hama will take Cobra in the GI Joe: Origins universe. It's a bit too early in the series to speculate, but he's already established this new iteration of Cobra Commander as a former Special Forces officer suffering from a pathological persecution complex (who also just happens to be a genius and corrupt business tycoon worth billions).
Maybe we got a question for Larry out of this. Just why did he not make Cobra Commmander a military guy at all in the first incarnation. |
03-22-2009, 04:34 PM | #4147 |
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Hama had already developed the characters of Snake-Eyes, Stalker, Scarlett, Hawk, Tunnel-Rat, Steeler, and Leatherneck sometime in the late 1970s in a pitch for a new Marvel comic book to be called "Fury Force," a spin-off of the then-popular Nick Fury/SHIELD comics. When the pitch for "Fury Force" didn't get off the ground, Hama re-used many of the same character concepts and names when coming up with the backgrounds and personalities for the toys Hasbro hired him to write filecards for in 1982. I guess one interesting aspect to the story is that the original team that would eventually become ARAH had its roots as an "international" strike force (since SHIELD is a UN-backed organization). I think there's a funny sense of symmetry that the upcoming film will feature a French Snake-Eyes and an Australian Duke, much to the outrage of seething fanboys everywhere (although I very much doubt if the upcoming film's producers and writers actually have any inkling of Hama's original "Fury Force" plans... from the half-baked impression I've formed from interviews so far, it doesn't seem that many of the people behind the film are any more knowledgeable about GI Joe than the casual fan). |
03-22-2009, 04:38 PM | #4148 |
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I don't see Cobra has having a political agenda, and definately not facist.
It was started out by a disillusioned man, disillusioned over the business world, disillusioned over the government and disillusioned over life. It's how alot of the militia organizations start up and recruit. "The man getting you down? Tired of those less skilled then you getting higher then you?" Stuff like that. There are political undertones and racist undertones, in so much as the "leaders" use those undertones to help push their message forward and recruit people. "Tired of the illegal immigrants taking your jobs? You can thank a government that does nothing about them for that." You take that worldwide and you get Cobra. They can't be political, that would lose a large chunk of their recruiting power worldwide. They're more "standing up for the little man". Last edited by zuludelta; 03-22-2009 at 04:45 PM.. Reason: edited for spelling |
03-22-2009, 04:39 PM | #4149 |
#voteblackjack
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Yeah, I knew about Fury Force. I just meant with the question, that how much did Hasbro's interference and having to sell toys interfere with the G.I. Joe storyline. Not the origins of Joe, but in the stories he was trying to tell and the tone of the stories.
We know he didn't like Serpentor and wasn't a fan of Duke (he even mentions in an interview about the new IDW series that he's glad for the chance to make Duke and Hawk more then just 2 dimensional).
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03-22-2009, 04:55 PM | #4150 |
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Also, re-reading his replies in the letters pages ("Postbox: The Pit") from the classic Marvel comics as an adult, by around issue #60 or so, it really seems like Hama was beginning to chafe under all the creative controls and editorial mandates set by Hasbro and the unreasonable demands of the toy fans on one side, and the older fans clamouring for "realism" on the other. |
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