[HISSTANK]

Originally posted by: Shin Densetsu @ Hisstank.com

Quote:

USA Today has posted an article featuring commentary by G.I. Joe Cobra II writers Christos Gage & Mike Costa. Starting in June, G.I. Joe Cobra will be promoted to an ongoing monthly series starting with G.I. Joe Cobra II #5! The article mentions a new character to the IDW continuity, Crystal Ball!

"We have a lot of opportunity to take things that are beloved but inherently silly, and really find the pieces that really could work," says Costa, who reveals his pet character, the Rasputin-esque Cobra hypnotist Crystal Ball, in Cobra II No. 2 (in stores Feb. 17). "I loved the idea of a Svengali-like villain, someone who was so creepy and magnetic. He doesn't have supernatural powers, but it doesn't matter. He's so good at manipulating people that he might as well have."

Costa also describes their take on Cobra Commander, who will debut in G.I. Joe Cobra II #4:

"Who is that guy who somehow has unlimited resources to fund a private war to take over the world? Why would you even want to take over the world? It's a totally cartoon, silly idea that makes no sense," Costa says. Yet they figured it out, and he looks like no other Cobra Commander seen in the course of nearly 30 years: This dude wears the familiar reflective mask (a needed touch, Gage says) but is clad in European-flavored business threads that make him distinctly foreign to American eyes. When readers see him in the fourth issue, Gage says, "he is going to be looking like the guy who runs the biggest, evilest corporation in the world."

Also brought up was another popular dictator from Cobra lore, none other than Serpentor! Serpentor debuts in G.I. Joe Cobra II #5:

And it was Gage's idea to incorporate Serpentor in the second story arc that begins in issue No. 5. In the cartoon mythology, Serpentor was the Cobra emperor genetically engineered from the DNA of Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible and some other dug-up conquerors, and Costa says that when Gage first pitched him as a plot point in a conference call, the idea was met with laughter. But Gage came up with a way to make the whole concept less ludicrous and still keep a part of the genetics angle. "It might be the best idea in terms of taking a ridiculous character and making the concept work that we have had for the entire series," Costa says.

With the popular G.I. Joe Cobra series promoted to an ongoing monthly title this summer, which other iconic Cobra characters will debut? How will Gage, Costa, and Fuso up the ante once summer starts?

Read More: Crystal Ball And Serpentor To Debut In G.I. Joe Cobra II @ G.I. Joe - HissTank.com.