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Is Cobra Racist?


novax213

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Well they are fascists as they are reactionaries. But that does not mean they are racists.

 

No, but often that is the fact, especially with European fascists.

 

Man, it really sounds like everyone's defending Cobra. I mean, yeah they're cool, but they ARE evil.

Personally, I think fans make Cobra out to be "romantic" (for lack of a better word). Like Cobra stands for something besides tyranny, terrorism and greed. The whole organization exploites anyone and anything it can get its hands on. At the top is Cobra Commander who doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself. I found amusing that apprently Headman and the Headhunters were created because even Cobra wouldn't sell drugs. Blackmail, slaverly, murder, theft, terrorism, polluting, creating and selling WMD's are are everyday activities for Cobra, but selling drugs is too evil! :rolleyes:

 

Incidently, there's an ACTION FORCE story where Major Bludd and the Baroness seize an African village and try to recruit the locals. You can read it at Blood for the Baron though the link isn't working as of this writing.

 

I seem to recall Larry Hama saying Cobras are NOT Nazis, I think it was in a Marvel Age interview.

 

Also Cobra is derived as much if not even more from James Bond and other fictional spy enemies like SPECTRE, THRUSH and comic book organizations like Hydra and AIM, than Nazi Germany. And D.C. comics had a short lived series in the late 70's call KOBRA, about a villain with a serpentine organization bent on world conquest (Kobra appeared in cartoon form on BATMAN BEYOND). I wonder why DC never sued?

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Personally, I think fans make Cobra out to be "romantic" (for lack of a better word). Like Cobra stands for something besides tyranny, terrorism and greed. The whole organization exploites anyone and anything it can get its hands on. At the top is Cobra Commander who doesn't give a crap about anyone but himself. I found amusing that apprently Headman and the Headhunters were created because even Cobra wouldn't sell drugs. Blackmail, slaverly, murder, theft, terrorism, polluting, creating and selling WMD's are are everyday activities for Cobra, but selling drugs is too evil! 

 

Incidently, there's an ACTION FORCE story where Major Bludd and the Baroness seize an African village and try to recruit the locals. You can read it at Blood for the Baron though the link isn't working as of this writing.

 

I seem to recall Larry Hama saying Cobras are NOT Nazis, I think it was in a Marvel Age interview.

 

Also Cobra is derived as much if not even more from James Bond and other fictional spy enemies like SPECTRE, THRUSH and comic book organizations like Hydra and AIM, than Nazi Germany. And D.C. comics had a short lived series in the late 70's call KOBRA, about a villain with a serpentine organization bent on world conquest (Kobra appeared in cartoon form on BATMAN BEYOND). I wonder why DC never sued?

 

Cool - thanks for the info. I had forgotten about the drugs thing... Not altogether unrealistic, though. I figure Cobra must have some sort of idealism that may or may not include provisions for drugs and other vices. It reminds my of The Godfather - how Brando's character was absolutely against drugs, even though he had no problem with tyranny, murder, etc...

 

I had completely forgotten about the Bond influence, but you're absolutely right.

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Man is this thread still up???

@loll@

 

I thought we had discussed the fine workings of race and the Cobra Empire enough already!!! @smilepunch@

Thats exactly what I was thinking. This thread screams nothing

but flame war, and by the number of responses and people disecting

cultural differences, it seems like the original posters true intentions worked.

The poster sits up and post a sensitive topic, rather than looking at the facts

and then is never heard from again! don't even want to participate in his own thread.

I really doubt that the original poster is even a minority.

 

There are plenty of minorities within the Joe universe, therefore

be happy and content, its nothing to make a whole thread about, because all it

does is cause division among us, and we don't need that.

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yeah they've been advertising that King of the Hill episode where Kahn (Sp?) moves to the 'hood with the "so are you chinese or japanese?" "i'm from laos, stupid!" landlocked country bla bla. doesn't seem racist towards kahn (sp? still) but more like making fun of hank & them for being ignorant and thinking all asians are chinese or japanese instead of listening to kahn (still not sure how it's spelled lol). oh hank's dad, cotton, looks at him and can tell he's laotian and tries to correct them on it.

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Moistly they just make fun of that ONE asian. And he's a jerk. And Peggy adores his daughter because she's the only girl who gets within three feet of Bobby willingly. And his wife's fairly reasonable too.

 

One episode had an amusing incident that the conspiracy freak Dale hated the Japanese. So they pointed out Hank's neighbor to him and Dale just walks right up to him, removes his shades (A rare occurance) scrutinizes him, then turns around and yells at Boomhauer and that other guy "This guy's Laotian you morons. Dont waste my time!" One of my favorite Dale moments.

 

If you want to negative connotations, theres a Native American that's boning Dale's wife, and is obviously the real father to Dale Jr. But thats more of an individual caseof moral bankrupcy than any sort of stereotyping.

I didn't mean to push your buttons on that subject. There are times (rare when making fun of ppl other than Khan) when they make fun of other asians from time to time where the ep Hank goes to Japan and finds out he has a half brother; in this case it was more poking fun of the Japanese culture. I too, loathe Khan and find it funny that Khan is american born, yet they use the stereotype of him not speaking english well.

You didnt push any buttons dude. I was just stating the way things were on the show as I saw it.

 

 

And my parents hometown Whitesboro is almost exactly like Arlen. Grandpa Evil had volunteered to oversee the local internment camp back in WWII for the lone Japanese family in the area. Mostly he wanted to see them treated fairly because youve no doubt read how folks can get wrapped up in war stuff and perceived enemies. Actually because he could vouch for the Nakatomi familys behalf no one but a couple drunks gave him much trouble.

 

Whoops I segued again. Remind me another time to tell you how the MacEvil household got the first electric lights in Whitesboro. And the subsequent first electrical fire.

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I found amusing that apprently Headman and the Headhunters were created because even Cobra wouldn't sell drugs. Blackmail, slaverly, murder, theft, terrorism, polluting, creating and selling WMD's are are everyday activities for Cobra, but selling drugs is too evil! :rolleyes:

 

I thought Cobra used drugs on their own troops to both influence them mentally, ensuring loyalty, and to enhance their physical abilites. Of course, that doesn't count as selling drugs, which we can all agree is just plain wrong.

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dont forget that under all those viper helmets, crimson guards, neo vipers, etc. there are bound to be some more ethnic folks

 

I know when i was in the army-infantry for 4 years, there wasnt many African-Americans represented...maybe 1 out of every 10 folks. But out of those 10 was usually 2 Hispanic guys. Much less on Asian though, probably <0.5. Perhaps same applies to Cobra.

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hey i painted a few troops black skinned to make it equal. at least one of each of my troops is black including a snow serpent. and you dont see black guys in antartica to much. so my cobra follows "affirmitive action."

close this topic

remember iceberg, but anyways, forget this thread, shut it down, and doc evil, i agree with you on one subject

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hey i painted a few troops black skinned to make it equal. at least one of each of my troops is black including a snow serpent. and you dont see black guys in antartica to much. so my cobra follows "affirmitive action."

close this topic

remember iceberg, but anyways, forget this thread, shut it down, and doc evil, i agree with you on one subject

why add more into my post. i wasnt being an ass if you feel that was attempt. i try to diversify my troops. and iceburg is one out of like 9 joe troops for the arctic. if you feel this topic should be locked because of that, thats your opinion, but i think you took that way wrong.

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Well they are fascists as they are reactionaries. But that does not mean they are racists.

 

No, but often that is the fact, especially with European fascists.

 

Man, it really sounds like everyone's defending Cobra. I mean, yeah they're cool, but they ARE evil.

Not even Cobra wants to be associated with Hitler.

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well he is a white male trying to dominate the world sooooo prbably.

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Cobra's more sexist than racist. Where's all the women?!?

I thought the same thing.

 

The answer is having to make new molds to make female figures and somebody made the claim that female characters don't sell well for some reason.

It's probably true.

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Cobra's more sexist than racist. Where's all the women?!?

Nah. The Joes are more sexist than Cobra. Think about it,the women that do work for Cobra are pretty high ranking. How many female officers do the Joes have?

Well Cobra has the Baroness.

 

That's it.

 

Vypra is just a vehicle driver.

 

As for the Joes, other than a handful of them, we don't KNOW their ranks. But I would guess Scarlett at the least would be pretty high ranking. Maybe Lady Jaye too.

 

Besides, it is more the fact that there are more Joe females (Scarlett, Lady Jaye, Cover Girl, Jinx, Volga, Diana) than Cobra ones (Baroness, Vypra). Unless you count Zarana and the two female ninjas.

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Sorry guys,

I have to add in my two cents. I see several references in this topic that say certain characters are "oriental." The term "oriental" is derogatory. It should be Asian. The continent is Asian, hence Asians. Oriental should be used to describe items such as rugs, not people. Sorry this doesn't really add to the discussion, but the term "oriental" really bothers me. Ask any "Oriental." He will tell you that it is like calling a black guy that n word.

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Sorry guys,

I have to add in my two cents. I see several references in this topic that say certain characters are "oriental." The term "oriental" is derogatory. It should be Asian. The continent is Asian, hence Asians. Oriental should be used to describe items such as rugs, not people. Sorry this doesn't really add to the discussion, but the term "oriental" really bothers me. Ask any "Oriental." He will tell you that it is like calling a black guy that n word.

Somebody beat you to it.

 

Should read the whole thread.

 

Besides, the topic was beat to death. We've moved onto Cobra being sexist!

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Lady Jaye (E-7)

Scarlett (E-6)

Jinx (E-5)

 

With the exception of the Navy, these are all Sergeant ranks, in the Navy, they are Petty Officers

 

Cover Girl (E-4)(SP)

 

Her rank is Specialist, which is the same in the chain as Corpral (in the Army)

 

With Cobra, true they only have Baroness and Vypra, but Baroness is among the commanding ranks, and I believe Vypra is also a high ranking member.

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Yeah but with the Joe females,they're all just sergeants unless it's changed with the new line.

Well, like I said, we have no real way of knowing, unless it says specifically on the filecard or was mentioned in the comic.

 

Where did you get they are all sergeants?

If their grade is between E-5 to E-9 they are sergeants.

 

E-5: Sergeant

E-6: Staff Sergeant

E-7: Sergeant First Class

E-8: Master Sergeant (or First Sergeant)

E-9: Sergeant Major (or Command Sergeant Major)

 

If their grade is anything with an 'O' in front of it (i.e. 0-2), then they are officers.

 

If it has 'WO' in front of it, or 'CW', then they are warrant officers.

 

If I'm not mistaken, there are not very many high ranking females on the Joe team. I believe they were initially put in to kind of even the playing field some. Barbie has Ken, so Joe has Scarlett. Whatever. The Joe team is a pretty accurate representation of the male to female ratio in the armed forces, so I wouldn't say they were sexist. As for Cobra, well, they very well could be. The Cobra organization was built on the ideals of one man. Cobra Commander. So the organization doesn't stand on it's own rules, it stands on his. If he was racist, or sexist, it would show through his organization. I believe it started off as CC simply getting together people he knew. It is obvious he is a white guy, so generally speaking, he probably knew more whites than minorities. Those guys branched out to people they knew, and it just continued to grow that way. Most of the big powers like Destro and Baronness, and Mindbender come from mostly European countries where the population is mostly caucasion. It could be safe to say that CC was simply searching for powerful people, not a certain race of people. If Destro was black, or Baroness was Asian, I don't think that would have stopped CC from recruiting them. And while the ratio of whites to minorities may not be an equal representation of the world, you'd be hard pressed to find any elite, select organization that is. Racist? No. Elitist? Yes. That does not mean I am saying whites are elite, or other races are not. I'm just saying they pick who they want. They don't have to answer to equal opportunity. They pick you, or they don't. If they like what you have to offer, I really don't think race comes into play.

 

#US1#

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Yeah but with the Joe females,they're all just sergeants unless it's changed with the new line.

Well, like I said, we have no real way of knowing, unless it says specifically on the filecard or was mentioned in the comic.

 

Where did you get they are all sergeants?

If their grade is between E-5 to E-9 they are sergeants.

 

E-5: Sergeant

E-6: Staff Sergeant

E-7: Sergeant First Class

E-8: Master Sergeant (or First Sergeant)

E-9: Sergeant Major (or Command Sergeant Major)

 

If their grade is anything with an 'O' in front of it (i.e. 0-2), then they are officers.

 

If it has 'WO' in front of it, or 'CW', then they are warrant officers.

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Thanks Crimson Twins for elaborating.

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