Snake-Eyes
- Snake-Eyes is a human member of G.I. Joe from the Generation 1 continuity family.
"...."
"I hear you, brother."
Snake-Eyes is a ninja. As such, he has been known to flip out and kill people. He is also a mammal. It is rumored he plays guitar in his free time. He doesn't talk much and it's not clear what his face looks like under his mask, but at least one woman thinks he's pretty darn cool.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
Snake-Eyes was one of the Joes stationed at Fort Lewis in Seattle to guard Power Station Alpha, the world's first mobile solar/nuclear power station. The base was attacked by the Dreadnoks and also investigated by the Autobots and the Decepticons. Snake-Eyes managed to shut down Alpha after it was set moving by the Decepticon Bombshell, Blood on the Tracks then was part of the team who tried to deal with the angry Autobot Superion. Power Struggle Snake-Eyes remained stationed at Fort Lewis and subsequently had to work in an alliance with Cobra against the Decepticons. ...All Fall Down!
Years later, Snake-Eyes was part of Ninja Force, a team of, er, ninjas. Unfortunately for him, around this time he had to stab fellow Ninja Force member Scarlett, a spy within COBRA, to preserve her cover. Unfoldings! When COBRA upgraded Megatron and transported the captured Ark to Milleville, Snake-Eyes and his team were sent in. Goin' South He fought the Night Creeper Leader. Sucker Punch
Later, Snake-Eyes and Hawk tried to help Hot Spot in destroying the alien technology Cobra had obtained, but Hot Spot was wounded and chose to activate his self-destruct rather than risk being captured. All or Nothing!
G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers
The soldier nicknamed "Snake-Eyes" enjoyed a reputation among his military comrades for being incredibly talkative, enough so that the other soldiers bet on how long he could shut up during a mission to Washington, D.C. When the city was attacked by Cobra's giant robots, Snake-Eyes opened fire on Starscream, who in turn blasted him with a giant laser. While Snake-Eyes survived, his face was hideously scarred and he lost his ability to speak. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #1 It later turned out that Snake-Eyes's parents and twin sister had been killed in the same attack, and with nothing to live for but revenge, Snake-Eyes got Hawk to pull some strings and let him join G.I. Joe. After donning a ninja outfit, he impressed the rest of the Joes by defeating both Quick Kick and Roadblock during a sparring session. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #2
Whilst defending the SPS Research Facility from a Cobra attack, Snake-Eyes decapitated Laserbeak with his sword. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #3 Along with the other Joes, he later boarded a plane to Cobra Island. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #4 After airdropping onto the island with a hang-glider, Snake-Eyes met his former attacker, Starscream. While the Decepticon was busy taunting him, the ninja sliced open his eye and shoved a grenade in it, thereby getting his revenge. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #5 Snake-Eyes later helped fight Megatron by throwing something at his leg. When Cobra and the Decepticons were defeated, the Autobots thanked them for their help by providing Snake-Eyes and a few others with battle mechs. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #6
G.I. Joe continued to hunt down stray Cobra members, and two years later, Snake-Eyes helped stop the Dreadnoks from trading Cybertronian technology in Boston by using his mech suit to rip the turret off a Cobra vehicle. Without the mech, he later participated in an attack on a different Cobra project, and ended up being teleported to Cybertron when Cobra's wormhole technology malfunctioned. The Joes and Cobras stuck on the planet learned that Teletran 3 had placed Earth in severe danger, and that they only way to save their planet was by retrieving several Transformers that had been lost in different points Earth's timeline. Together with Lady Jaye, Zartan and enemy ninja Storm Shadow, Snake-Eyes traveled to 1970s San Francisco and disguised himself with a hat that handily shadowed his face at all times. After locating four time-lost Transformers, the team returned to present-day Cybertron. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #1 Snake-Eyes silently looked on as Lady Jaye and Roadblock offered to sneak past Shockwave and save the day, and later returned to Earth along with everyone else. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #4
After the time travel issues, it was decided that humans probably shouldn't have access to Cybertronian technology after all, and Snake-Eyes's mech suit was set to be decommissioned. At Area 52, Scarlett offered to play a final game of "robo-tag" with Snake-Eyes before they got rid of their mechs, but they were interrupted when the facility was attacked by Cobra. With help from a visiting team of Autobots, the Joes fought back against Cobra's Battle Android Troopers. The Art of War #1 They later met the powerhungry biological android Serpent O.R., who took control of Snake-Eyes's mech and forced it to fire on Scarlett. In the aftermath, the ninja was devastated when Scarlett was nowhere to be found, but she quickly turned out to okay. The Art of War #2
Together with Scarlett, Hawk, Roadblock and the Autobot team, Snake-Eyes followed Serpent O.R. to Cybertron, where his firepower proved completely useless against a cannibalizer. By the time the group found Serpent O.R., the android had already recruited dozens of Decepticons for his cause, and Snake-Eyes and the others were captured. In captivity, he and Scarlett shared a tender moment, as she saw past his damaged face and kissed him. The Art of War #3 After that, Snake-Eyes just sat down and stared blankly into a wall, attracting the attention of their guard, Breakdown. When Breakdown looked in his eyes, Snake-Eyes used an Arashikage hypnotism technique on the Decepticon to force him into breaking them out of jail. The Art of War #4
After freeing the other prisoners, Snake-Eyes fought his way through the Decepticon base, at one point stabbing Overkill through the eyes to save Hawk. As Overkill let it slip that Serpent O.R. had captured Optimus Prime, the Joes and Autobots went to save him. When they arrived in Serpent O.R.'s control room, they found that Cobra Commander had taken control of Serpent O.R.'s body; he used its tentacles to simultaneously knock out Snake-Eyes and Grimlock. After Hawk managed to defeat Serpent O.R., Snake-Eyes continued his game of tag with Scarlett, only this time without giant mechs. The Art of War #5
A few months later, Snake-Eyes was part of a team of Joes sent to stop Destro from selling S.N.A.K.E.'s in Cuba, but found that the Autobots had already dealt with it before they arrived. Black Horizon, Part 1 The Joes were later sent to Tibet, where Snake-Eyes fought against Cobra-La's Royal Guard. Black Horizon, Part 2
Transformers/G.I. Joe
In his youth, Snake-Eyes was part of the Arashikage clan alongside Stormshadow [sic], but one day, he somehow ashamed Stormshadow before the clan. He left the clan in an attempt to spare Stormshadow further shame, but the enraged ninja took revenge on Snake-Eyes by taking away his ability to speak. Wolves
Snake-Eyes grew up, and in 1939, he enlisted with the newly formed G.I. Joe. Flint was not amused when the ninja identified himself by throwing dice at him. During his first day with the Joes, Snake-Eyes pointed out to Duke that they were being spied on, and started watching Scarlett from the shadows. The very next day, they were sent to attack Cobra's headquarters on the Fera Islands, where Snake-Eyes was reunited with Stormshadow, who wouldn't mind some more revenge. The Line Snake-Eyes attacked his old comrade, but was blinded and repeatedly cut in the face. Stormshadow was chased off by Stalker, but Snake-Eyes refused to come back with him for medical care—their medic was Scarlett, and he didn't want her to see his injured face. Chasing after Stormshadow, he found and killed several Cobra troops, and used their ammunition to cauterize his wounds using fire. While this stopped the blood loss, it scarred his face even further. After grabbed a sword and a helmet from an old suit of armor, he confronted Stormshadow again, only to be attacked by Ravage. Transformed
Snake-Eyes bested the robotic cat and the Cobra soldiers sent his way, finally getting into an honorable fistfight with Stormshadow. He was victorious, but Stormshadow ran off again. Trial by Fire He soon reappeared and attacked Snake-Eyes with a halberd, causing both of them to fall off a cliff into the ocean. As Snake-Eyes struggled with Stormshadow and reminisced about how they were once brothers, a giant shark appeared and attacked them. Wolves Snake-Eyes survived and carried the fatally injured Stormshadow out of the water, where he realized the error of his ways before passing away. Making his way back to the other Joes, Snake-Eyes was attacked by Ravage again, but killed him easily. Upon reuniting with the team, he refused to talk to Scarlett, still not wanting her to see his face. Trenches
However, he soon got over it, and swam to the Cobra Terrordrome alongside Scarlett. Snake-Eyes planned to take out the enemy's main cannon, but instead found Bruticus. Dodging the giant's destruction, the two made their way to his creators, Destro and the Baroness, and captured them. Next, Snake-Eyes took the Matrix of Leadership from Cobra Commander's corpse, only to be attacked by Megatron for it. Optimus Prime came to his rescue, keeping Megatron busy and ordering the ninja to smash the Matrix in an attempt to destroy the unstoppable Bruticus. Snake-Eyes complied, tossing the artifact at Bruticus's swinging fists and causing a flash of light that deactivated all the Transformers. As the other Joes reflected on Prime's sacrifice, Snake-Eyes embraced Scarlett. The Iron Fist
Over five decades later, Snake-Eyes participated in an attack on a Cobra smuggling facility in New York, and was sent running for his life when Cobra defended themselves using Flight Pods. A while later, he and several other Joes were sent to investigate a mysterious crash site in Oregon. They found that Cobra troopers were already there stealing stuff, so Snake-Eyes helped take out a few of them. Targets of Opportunity
Animated cartoon
Snake-Eyes is a video game character in Ninja Gladiator, a fight game enjoyed by Bumblebee. Where Is Thy Sting?
IDW comics continuity
A young boy named Jimmy was busy playing with a Snake-Eyes action figure when Ravage suddenly broke into his room. Maximum Dinobots #4
Merchandise
- Snake-Eyes & Optimus Prime Statue (2007)
- First revealed at the 2006 UK Toy Fair, First 4 Figures produced a statue based on the cover of issue 1 of G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers, featuring Snake-Eyes standing in the palm of Optimus Prime in his HISS tank body.
Notes
- Snake-Eyes was (and is) a hugely popular character in the comics. By the time the G2 crossover took place, he'd usurped the cover box and the cover title read "G.I. Joe Featuring SNAKE-EYES".
