[Captain Nash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pravus Prime

Are these both organizations at the height of their power? Both have waxed and waned over their respective fictional years.

Cobra would have the edge in sheer overall assets, they have a seemingly endless supply of industrial/military assets, divisions of fighter planes, tanks of every type, etc. They even came up with a railgun design that impressed even Megatron (In the comics, it's Cobra that rebuilds G1 gun Megatron into the tank design that he'd later use to kick ass with). I mean, they could lose like 15 jets an episode and not effect their bottom line somehow!

Hydra certainly has their own supertech, but I never got the impression that they had it in anything approaching equal quantity to what Cobra would routinely field and had available to them, they've got a few and can put up a fight, but not on the same level. However, where they excel is in infiltration (in terms of planting agents, subverting the goals of other organization, etc.), and in the capabilities of their "hero" units. While Cobra has specialized troops and soldiers with gimmicks, Hydra has literal supervillains. Several of whom can be a reasonable threat to the Avengers and other hero groups; Zemo put together the Masters of Evil, who was an anti-avengers team for example. Add in some heavy hitters like Absorbing Man and I don't think Cobra has any sort of a solution against him.

Military force to military force, Cobra would take it I'd say, they have a lot more specialized agents and troop variety, idealized for almost any environment and assault.

However, everyone on everyone all out everything on the battlefield at once, I'd say Hydra would win, just because of their supervillains being too overwhelming.

In a both organizations are on the same world suddenly (without their respective hero factions to slow or stop them) and we see what happens, it would be more interesting as both can infiltrate and subvert, and both would try to skew the odds to their favor before any large scale commitment of resources, but I'd still give the slight edge to Hydra just because that was their modus operandi for so long in the comics, while Cobra seemed to yo-yo between "evil" armed forces and other gimmicky applications that would use infiltration but not center themselves around it. After all, it's hard to get brand recognition on a logo to a secret organization.

BTW, just an armchair theory, in full disclosure, I'm pretty far from a big expert on either organization (Which for Hydra is pretty hard to do with all those decades of stories), but it's not like I had to google either organization either. So it's just how I see both organizations with what I've been exposed to over the years.

All Cobra's gotta do is play "Cold Slither" and they'll mind control everyone!

Admittedly, there's a big difference in if we're talking comic or cartoon Cobra. Both had elements of pure cheese, but the cartoons somehow got away with having both the best AND the worst ideas (sometimes in the same episode!) Also the point about the seemingly limitless funds as you also mentioned, they can lose rattler after rattler to no ill effect, and their bases were amazing. But the comic Cobra was more steeped in realism, somewhat anyways, but had more absurd characters vs. absurd ideas. I honestly would give cartoon Cobra a better shot at beating Hydra than comic Cobra. The main thing comic CObra has going for it is that characters are more ruthles; which was a necessity given that the cartoons had to show them in a more merciful light. I don't know if I'd say they are as ruthless as Hydra's leaders, and your point about supervillains is as big one, but I think their army gathering abilities were quite similar in technique and effect, so the rank numbers are probably fairly close. As you say, on personal battlefield Hydra may have the edge. Militarily speaking and especially long distance wise, Cobra might.

Plus, let us not forget about...Cobra-lalalalalalalalala!