Part 2

Dossiers 02


Grade: E-5 (later E-6)
Primary Specialty: SEAL
Secondary Specialty: UDT (underwater demolitions)

Brian M. Forrest of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina may be mean to the bone, but he's also apparently quite bright, being well-read in both the classics and the standard texts of military tactics. His motto is "Well, with all due respect, nobody told me NOT to blow it up, SIR!"
In TAF, he's your environmental specialist for aquatic areas (of course), being free from the constraint of taking damage every couple seconds underwater that the other Joes have to take into account. His melee is stronger than Hawk's, and his jump is the fourth highest. Like most of the aquatic specialists on both sides of the board, Wet-Suit doesn't show up much in the comic.

He debuted on a mission to recover Snake Eyes and Ripcord from Cobra Island:




And he got to go back there a few years later, where he encountered Croc Master and the October Guard (the Russian equivalent of the Joe team), in a mission that ended up with the Joes in possession of a Cobra Mamba helicopter:








The Cobra heavy machine gunners, S.A.W.*-Vipers are equipped with gyro-stabilized, cryogenically-cooled mini-chain guns, scoped with an infrared night-vision, auto-ranging, optical sighting system. Or read another way, these guys have highly accurate, low-malfunction machine guns that don't burn out the barrel during long rapid-fire bursts. In TAF, they patrol back and forth, expending large amounts of ammo when they spot the Joes.
*Semi Automatic Weapon

The Saw-viper corps didn't show up a lot in the comic, but they managed to make up for this lack of focus, thanks to one particularly sadistic and blood thirsty member. The Crimson Guard commanders, Tomax and Xamot, captured a squad of 10* Joes at one point, and misunderstood Cobra Commanders somewhat vague orders about what to do with them. The nastiest Vipers on duty at the time seemed a bit less than eager to do the job, so a SAW stepped up and offered to do it -
*Lt. Falcon, Duke, Cross Country, Doc, Heavy-Metal, Thunder, Crank-Case, Quick Kick, Breaker, and Crazy Legs


As the Cobra forces moved out for their next objective, two of the Joes boosted a third up to see what was happening outside of the trench they were held in. This did not end well...



The remaining Joes (less Doc, Crank-Case, Heavy-Metal, and Thunder) managed to overpower the Vipers left behind, steal their vehicle, and get an SOS out to Joe HQ. The Twins sent a small force back to deal with them, including the not so dead Saw Viper:


The Joes' extraction showed up, and the Cobras were ordered to stand down by the Commander. Our purple-clad sadist didn't take this too well.


And somewhat unfortunately for him, Duke, Cross Country, and Falcon weren't about to just let it go:


And very unfortunately for this particular Saw Viper, two other Joes didn't let it go, either...






Hydro-Vipers are qualified EELS (Cobra Frogmen) who volunteer to be surgically altered to withstand nitrogen narcosis and other side effects of deep diving. Synthetic webs are implanted between their fingers and subcutaneous fat production is stimulated by chemical injections to provide natural insulation. The long term effects of these procedures is known to be psychologically destabilizing...
Hydro-Vipers in TAF show up only in the underwater areas of the game, and not at all in the comic series. I can only suppose that this Viper type falling under the "look, writing underwater stories is kind of tricky, okay??" umbrella made Mr. Hama just say "NO. Isn't having the Eels enough already?"




A casual visitor to Cobra Island might find his access to certain areas blocked by a maze-like system of shallow canals. These interconnecting waterways are abundantly stocked with ravenously hungry man-eating crocodiles which have been deliberately conditioned to be hostile, psychotic, and fast. The man responsible for these repugnant reptiles is Croc Master, a former alligator wrestler and burglar alarm salesman who founded Guard-Gators Inc. in an effort to commercialize the use of alligators for home security.
In TAF, Croc Master serves as a mini-boss with the same attack pattern as Road Pig, but slightly less HP and attack power.

Croc Master first showed up not too long before the Cobra Civil War broke out, encountering Wet-Suit and Torpedo of the Joes, and the October Guard:



Horror-Show of the Guard immediately got on his bad side:


Just before the Civil War:


During the Civil War, Croc Master was on Serpentor's side, and marked the safe paths for the Joe assault teams to drive through the swamp:


Shortly before the return of the true Cobra Commander, he was still working security on the Island:


Unfortunately for Croc Master, Cobra Commander considered him guilty by association, and had him buried alive in a freighter beneath a volcano, along with several other Cobra troops and leaders. All but two of these "traitors" died of botulism when they hit a bad batch of canned food, during their nearly year-long attempt to dig their way out of the internment.




Hailing from Newton, Massachusets, Vincent D'Alleva was the CEO of a huge multi-national corporation with vast holdings in oil refineries, chemical plants and mills. How he became Cesspool from there differs a bit, depending on the media. In the toyline, he was trying to placate environmental groups, and fell into a vat of his own "product" from a collapsing scaffolding during a tour of one of his chemical plants. The comic? Well, see below.
In TAF, he's Boss of the missile base area, with a predictable yet annoying pattern. He's also notable for being the only character on either side to throw grenades in this game (Frag-Vipers did it in the last game, and all 7 Joes could as well, but only upwards.)

Cesspool was given quite the debut when he showed up:



And he went toe-to-toe with the Joe team equivalent of his "Eco-Warriors" quite quickly, too:


His forces succeeded in apprehending two of the three Joe Eco-Warriors - most unfortunately for Flint and Clean Sweep:







However, the Joes were one step ahead of him, as Ozone had been sent to fetch "Plan B":


Cesspool's career with Cobra didn't go so well for him, really, as he was captured when Firefly seized Cobra Island:

And the last time he was seen was during a meeting of the remaining "top" Cobra brass.



Primary Specialty: Assassin (later Covert Operations)
Secondary Specialty: Intelligence (later Martial Arts Instructor)

Thomas S. Arashikage comes from a family business in an unusual trade - a clan of Ninjas. His family looked at a real shooting war (Vietnam) as a sort of graduate school for their prize pupil, when it was really more like a doctorate for him.
Various circumstances after the war conspired to cause him to join Cobra, but only to discover the identity of the killer of his uncle. After some time spent reflecting on life, Storm Shadow eventually joined the Joe team, fighting alongside Snake Eyes and Stalker once again. He's qualified with the long bow, samurai sword, throwing stars, nunchaku, and is an 8th degree black belt in five martial arts.
In TAF, SS is the second highest jumper, with the most powerful pulse rifle at any level. He and Snake Eyes both have an energy wave attack at melee level 2, with Stormy's being the more powerful one. Sadly, despite the lovely agility of Ninjas, he's something of a glass cannon, starting with only 3 HP.

Storm Shadow showed up in the Joe-Cobra conflict by capturing one of the Joes in midair during a parachute qualification test:


Stalker revealed his identity to Hawk and Scarlett when they were attempting to figure out the connection between him and Snake Eyes, based on the tattoo they both now have on their forearms:


Stormy ended up training a boy named Billy (who turned out to be the son of Cobra Commander) when the kid impressed him with his integrity:


Not long after, he and Snake Eyes were given the identity of the killer of his uncle, the Hard Master (discovered and sent by his other uncle, the Soft Master [look, just go with it and stop snickering, it's meant to be ridiculous]). They went to Cobra Island in pursuit of Zartan, but this... didn't go well for them:


Really didn't go well.

The creation of Serpentor had a small side-effect, thanks to Dr Mindbender deciding to "spice things up with some fresh meat" (read: Storm Shadow's apparent corpse):


During some of his downtime from active duty, Stormy discovered what had happened to Billy when he left to confront his father, to his dismay:


Not long after, the two of them worked with Snake Eyes and Scarlett to rescue Stalker, Quick Kick, and Snowjob from the gulag they'd spent months languishing in:


Along with his niece, Jinx, he and Billy were on the way to see what they could do for Hawk and General Hollingsworth after the Joe team was sold out for not winning the Cobra Civil War. The corrupt agents working for the Senator smearing their names attempted to apprehend them right out of airport security:


Storm Shadow was also present when Billy's mother came looking for her wayward son.

Tommy was having none of his carrying on.

Zartan and several ninjas clad in red attempted to send SS to an early grave. The Red Ninjas would show up again (and again, the persistent little pests):


The Baroness' pursuit of a personal vendetta with Snake Eyes led Stormy, Stalker, and their friend Wade Collins to enter the Cobra Consulate Building in New York. One explosion later and they started to wonder if Snake Eyes was the one who needed their help...


Once the Baroness discovered the truth of her vendetta, Storm Shadow refused to let her just suicide her way out:


In an attempt to shake a depressive Snake Eyes out of his funk following these events, Tommy got him an assignment in Eastern Europe. However...


After clearing up the mess caused by his good intentions, he and Snake Eyes put together a new sub team for the Joes: the Ninja Force.


Months and many misadventures later, Storm Shadow went to the Silent Castle on his own in an attempt to rescue Billy from his father's clutches:



It ended almost as badly as his attempt at bloody vengeance.


(no caption I make could do this scene justice)

Storm Shadow stayed in Cobra custody for quite some time, sadly (the series ended just 5 months after that last one), and when he broke free of the brainwashing all depends on which sequel you read.