Kobra

Kobra's ultimate purpose depicted in their insignia.

"Praise Kobra! Let all fear our might!" — Kobra worshipers

Kobra was a secret reptile-worshiping terrorist organization with aspirations for world domination. Every member of Kobra dressed like snakes, and most spliced their genes with snake DNA.

History

The fate of those who crossed Kobra.

Little is known about the origins of Kobra, but they had long admired the power of the dinosaurs. They envisioned them as the only life form capable of ruling the world once again. So, for years Kobra sought a way to splice human genes with dinosaur DNA. Until they could achieve their main goal, Kobra used cutting edge technology for robberies, extortion and terrorism, which led them to clash with Batman on a few occasions.

Kobra was ruthless and unforgiving. Every member of Kobra was expected complete allegiance and devotion to the organization, and any protocol breach was punished with a gruesome death in a pit of cobras.

Among their interrogation techniques, Kobra used a sensor device that turned one's thoughts into pictures. This way, they could weed out traitors among their ranks. (Though, this instrument was proved to be fallible, as young Miguel Diaz deceived it by sheer force of will.)

Ranks

One Kobra leader and two soldiers.

There were several Kobra branches around the world, and each cell seemed to have its own leader. The hierarchy of Kobra was depicted by color and garments. The ones on the bottom were foot soldiers, identified by their green spandex uniforms. They responded to members who donned an orange variation of the same spandex uniform, with golden bracelets on their forearms and forelegs, and a green exomis or hooded cloak. There were also scientists, technicians or assistants who wore these garments. However, Main Operators usually had a small amount of facial hair.

Within the infantry, there were assassins that ranked above the rest. They were trained in specific fighting techniques, or armed with special weaponry, such as an electrical flail or edge weapons. Altogether, these combatants were more dangerous and deadlier than the average foot soldier.

Employed Tactics

Despite having a resolute goal, Kobra lacked cohesive leadership. Therefore, they decided to genetically engineer the perfect Kobra leader. In the long run, they created Zander. They carefully monitored and controlled his gestation, striving to create a healthy and resilient makeup. Right from early infancy, Kobra started to groom Zander to become the perfect leader. They brainwashed and trained him in military strategies and tactics. They commissioned Dr. Cuvier to teach him about genetics, and Dr. Childes to look after his well-being and interests.

In the meantime, Kobra continued executing fiendish schemes to gain an edge and thrive. At one point, they developed a deadly super virus capable of complete biological devastation. They hired Falseface to smuggle the virus from Saint Denis to Gotham City, and then broke into Gotham Plastics, where they planned to coat millions of cred-cards with the virus, thus transmitting it by hand-to-hand contact. In case that plan failed or the government resisted their demands, Kobra secretly turned Falseface into a virus carrier.

Kobra planned to demand a ransom of 10 billion credits. Their actions were eventually intercepted by the NSA that had enlisted Stalker to track down and retrieve the virus. Kobra's plans were foiled by an unlikely alliance between Stalker and Batman.

When Zander finally reached adolescence and was ready to assume his leadership, Kobra could finally move on with their plan. They stole a vial from Dr. Padu Banjahri, a paleontologist who had been recovering dinosaur DNA, and spliced their lackeys into dinosaurs. However, there was still the problem of adaptability. Dinosaurs were cold-blooded, so they could only survive in a tropical environment. In order to raise the planet's temperature, Kobra had stolen the R12 thermal bomb from the Nova Research Center. They planned to plunge it into a dormant volcano standing on a riff that went down to the Earth's core, which would start a chain reaction that would raise the temperature of the whole planet. However, thanks to the combined efforts of Batman and Kairi Tanaga, Zander's guru, Kobra's supreme goal was brought to a naught, and in the process they lost their perfect leader.

During the subsequent years, Kobra carried on with their tactics, and eventually acquired another leader. They also secretly moved in to Platform 247, and used it as their new headquarters. In an undocumented occurrence, the police arrested Kobra Leader. Thus, Kobra designed a plan to imprison Static and then negotiate a trade. They forged a holographic message from Gear so as to lure Static into Platform 247, where he was ambushed, subdued and imprisoned in a stasis field. The negotiation, however, was never in Kobra's plans, as they never truly intended to give up the captive hero. It was but a ruse to provide their leader with an escape opportunity, while he was being transported to the exchange. After breaking out, Kobra Leader headed off to Kobra's headquarters to kill Static. However, Batman and Static's younger self broke in and took on Kobra's Leader and his soldiers. Static released his older self from the stasis field, and saw him single-handedly defeat a battalion of Kobra worshipers with a single jolt. Kobra's fate afterward remains unknown.

Trivia

• Kobra is an existing DC Comics concept: both the name of a terrorist cult and of the supervillain raised from birth to run it. In the DC Animated Universe, the latter role was filled by Zander.
• Kobra has appeared a few times in the Justice League Adventures comic series as 'current-day' counterparts to their Beyond era incarnations.
• As well as standing in for Kobra, Zander's backstory seems to be a homage to the G.I. Joe villain Serpentor: both are genetically created to be monarchs of Kobra/Cobra.
• The idea that Kobra had to alter the world's climate because Dinosaurs were cold-blooded is decidedly odd, seeing as though at the time of the show's production, there was more paleontological evidence that Dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded animals and could survive in a great majority of environments. This belief is still held to this day.

Appearances

Batman Beyond

• "Plague"
• "Curse of the Kobra"
• "Unmasked"

Static Shock

• "Future Shock"