One of the biggest knocks against Steven Sommers’ G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is the design of Cobra Commander’s mask. Whereas the 1980s Cobra Commander often wore either a chromed helmet, hood or metallic battle armor helmet, Sommers’ Commander was an all-new concept that resembled a fish bowl with tubes protruding from all over it.
With G.I. Joe: Retaliation director Jon M. Chu comes a nerdy appreciation for the Joe lore preceding the live action films. Chu understands Cobra Commander being at least identifiable with his former incarnations is as important as Snake Eyes wearing all black, Storm Shadow all white, and Transformers Autobot leader Optimus Prime being a red and blue truck. Chu and Paramount made sure from the first G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer that fans knew they were being thought of when a chrome-masked Cobra Commander debuted.
Though we have had several glimpses of black clad Chu’s Cobra Commander, we haven’t had a clean full body shot from the film yet. That changed on Saturday when the Cobra Special Forces Facebook Page added a fantastic new image of Cobra Commander, looking over “something” with his armed crossed in front of a massive Cobra emblem. His design is unmistakably 1980s influenced right down to the padding and half-skirt. He means business and looks good doing so.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra stars Dwayne Johnson, Channing Tatum, Ray Park, Byung-hun Lee, Adrianne Palicki, D.J. Cotrona, RZA, Ray Stevenson, Walton Goggins and Elodie Yung. It opens in theaters everywhere on June 29, 2012.
