Cobra Commander is a Cobra character from the G.I. Joe film.

“	The time has come for the Cobra to rise up and reveal himself! You will call me 'Commander!'	”
—Cobra Commander to Destro

Born Richard "Rex" Lewis, he was a military scientist, former team mate and friend of Conrad "Duke" Hauser, and the brother of Ana. During a U.S. military mission a horrible explosion scarred his face all over, he became the Doctor, head of Nanomites projects at M.A.R.S. Industries, working with James McCullen. Secretly, he had his own agenda, and would set himself up as Cobra Commander, supreme leader of the Cobra organization.

Contents 1 Fiction 1.1 Rise of Cobra (2009 Movie) 2 Personality 3 Appearances 4 Toys 5 Behind the scenes 6 External links 7 References

Fiction

Rise of Cobra (2009 Movie)

Rex Lewis appears in the live action G.I. Joe movie, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

“	Science requires sacrifice!	”
—A saying Rex learned from McCullen and Dr. Mindbender

Four years prior to the events of Rise of Cobra, Rex Lewis was in the U.S. Military alongside Duke and Ripcord, his best friends. His sister, Ana, was in a loving relationship with Duke, who would propose to her at a party before the team was deployed to their next mission. Ana agreed to marry Duke as long as he kept her brother safe. Duke promised her that he would.

During the mission, Duke sent Rex into a building to get information on some mysterious weapons project being constructed. An airstrike was set to destroy the building in five minutes. Rex ran inside to download the information while Duke and Ripcord defended the area against enemies outside.

When in the building, Rex saw a computer recording of a project known as "Nanomites", which were far more advanced than any project he had known of in today's scientific affairs. Rex was quite fascinated, being a scientist himself, not a soldier like the rest of the unit. Rex found Dr. Mindbender, creator of the Nanomite project for M.A.R.S., in the building. However, as Rex downloaded the info, the computer sounded a warning that the airstrike was inbound - it was coming too early, and he needed to evacuate fast. However Mindbender sealed the door of the bunker, blocking Rex's means of escape and telling him that if they survived, he would tell Rex everything about the Nanomites. The explosion from the strike destroyed the building as Duke tried to rescue Rex. Ripcord held him back, and Rex was presumed dead.

Rex and Mindbender survived, and Rex was given the proper medical equipment to live onward. Though Rex himself confirmed Mindbender's survival, his status within M.A.R.S. projects after the incident was not revealed. At Rex's funeral, an empty coffin lay in a grave as Ana looked down on it, greatly saddened.^[1] The unit honored his sacrifice with a 21 gun salute, and his sister held a neatly folded American flag in her arms over his casket. However, after the "moving ceremony", he went with Mindbender to M.A.R.S. and learned all about the Nanomites. He joined M.A.R.S. and James McCullen, perfecting Mindbender's research and becoming McCullen's assistant. Rex, going by the alias of Doctor, felt sympathy for Ana, as Duke had "abandoned" her, being too depressed to face her. He also gained a great hatred for his former best friend, as he had left him for dead.

The Doctor broke into Ana's house one night and injected her with Nanomites, using her as his first test subject. Rex expressed that he truly did love his sister despite his corruption, and believed that he had given her life purpose and a way to deal with the pain of being "truly alone" by programming her to work for McCullen so that she could move on from her broken heart. Over the next four years, the Doctor managed to bring his Nanomite projects into the Neo-Viper project and Nanomite warhead designs. He showed his fascination with the Cobra snake and made it the symbol of his research. His assignments also including placing one of his 20 Neo-Vipers in Washingtion, D.C. and giving Zartan the ability to shape-shift into any person.

When Duke was captured in Paris, Rex revealed himself by removing the wig he was wearing and his breathing mask. Duke was angered by Rex's betrayal and swore to kill him as he attempted to inject Duke with the Nanomites and make him a slave like the Neo-Vipers. By then, Baroness overcame her programing, attacked her brother, and saved Duke. Amazed that Ana was the first to overcome the programming, Rex held the switch that would cause the nanomites in her system to kill her from the inside, revealing he had become corrupted enough to willingly kill his own sister. McCullen was angered by her sacrifice for Duke because he loved her as well, and attempted to kill Duke with a flamethrower.

Duke shot McCullen with Baroness' powerful shockwave pistol, which backfired the flamethrower on McCullen, badly burning his face. Rex decided to escape as the M.A.R.S. base was destroyed by G.I. Joe. He grabbed the scarred and burned McCullen and forced him to come with him on his way out. They made it to a submarine (specifically given the Cobra insignia by Rex) and fled the crumbling base as Duke and Ana pursued them. The sub's propeller was damaged by a lucky missile shot from Duke, slowing them down. Rex revealed that he created special nanomites precisely for McCullen to be his servant, and used them to heal his face.

Rex gave McCullen the name "Destro" and programmed him against his will to be his right hand. He then donned a transparent, artificial mask in place of his Doctor breathing equipment that he had been designing among his research. He then took the name "Commander," and planned to replace the M.A.R.S. Industries with his Neo-Viper army and a new organization, Cobra. However, Destro and Cobra Commander were placed in high security prison by Duke, despite the Commander's vow that things had only just begun.

Personality

Rex Lewis was originally a friendly man who was good friends with Duke and Ripcord. He was a clever scientist and Ana affectionately referred to him as her "genius, egghead brother". However Rex appeared to be obsessed with science even saying that the nanotechnology created by Doctor Mindbender was "beautiful".

After his apparent death, Rex was badly scarred, and was unable to breath properly without the mask he wore. He developed a great hatred of Duke, thinking that Duke had abandoned him. The trauma of being caught in an explosion, along with the hatred he felt towards Duke, caused him to go mad and he became sadistic, vengeful and powerhungry. Rex gained the trust of James McCullen whilst secretly planning to take over M.A.R.S Industries and replace it with a new organisation named Cobra. He was determined to make Duke suffer for abandoning him displaying both his sadism and his lust for revenge.

Rex claimed that he had loved his sister Ana and originally injected her with nanomites to spare her from the pain she felt over his "death" and Duke's abandonment. However as time went one, Rex became so corrupted that he was willing to kill his own sister.

Appearances

• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Toys

Generation 3
	The Rise of Cobra (2009) Cobra Commander was released in 2009 as part of Series 4 of the Rise of Cobra toys. Appearance: transparent helmet; black coat; silver chest plate; black pants; black gloves; black shoes. Accessories: black and blue coat; silver spring-loaded missile launcher; green missile; silver pistol; silver and green syringe; silver communicator; brown cobra; black display stand. Variations: The figure was originally available with holes in his chest and in the back of his head, then with the head-holes filled and holes still in the chest, and finally with no holes. Earlier figures had a large hexagonal hole in the back of the coat while later figures had a smaller hole in the back of the coat. Finally, his head was changed from bright red to a paler pink, matching the film. YoJoe.com page/Filecard
	The Rise of Cobra (2009) The Doctor was released in 2009 as part of Series 5 of the Rise of Cobra toys. Appearance: black hair; black facemask; black coat with silver Cobra logo on the right breast; black pants; tall black boots. Accessories: silver claws; machine gun; pistol; briefcase; three green and silver canisters; silver drone; black display stand. Variations: The Doctor's coat was originally black; later shipments had the character in a white coat. YoJoe.com page/Filecard

Merchandise
	The Rise of Cobra (2009) 12" action figure. Seems to be heavily based on the Action Man figure "No Face." Removable helmet shows heavily damaged face.
	Combat Heroes (2009) Cobra Commander was packaged with the Conrad "Duke" Hauser Combat Heroes action figure in Series 1.

Behind the scenes

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Channing Tatum also co-starred in Havoc and Stop-Loss.
• Levitt wore a mask – which was redesigned from the comics because the crew found it too reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan - and prosthetic makeup underneath. Upon seeing concept art of the role he was being offered, Levitt signed on because; "I was like, 'I get to be that? You're going to make that [makeup] in real life and stick it on me? Cool. Let me do it.' That's a once-in-lifetime opportunity."
• Levitt described his vocal performance as being half reminiscent of Chris Latta's voice for the 1980s cartoon, but also half his own ideas, because he felt rendering it fully would sound ridiculous.
• When the first pictures of "The Doctor's" filecard were leaked online, many fans assumed that would be Cobra Commander's final look in the film, since the dual roles and the evolution of the character were not yet known.
• When seen in the film wearing his class A blue uniform, Lewis's decorations can be visually identified as the Combat Medical Badge, Parachutist Badge, Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal with bronze star, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, and Army Service Ribbon, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and Army Superior Unit Award.
• Joseph Gordan-Levitt told in a interview that he'll not return as Cobra Commander.
• Faran Tahir is replaced Levitt as Cobra and voice actor Charlie Adler is voiceing Cobra for the third time in the sequel.

External links

References