I've been digging through my GIJOE team figures fairly heavy lately. The bad guys haven't been getting as much attention. When I do give them attention, multiple bad guy factions that exist in my Joeverse divide my attention. (and conquer it!)Even though I had the Iron Grenadiers early on, and even acquired my best buds Destro (pictured above), there was never any one day that I remember thinking to myself, "I should totally separate the Iron Grenadiers from Cobra."
But I did. The new 1988 Destro pretty much stood distinct from Cobra. The Marvel comic story line helped lead my own imagination into separating Destro from Cobra. It even got to the point in the Marvel comic where it almost seemed more like Destro was more neutral, almost on the "good" side with the GIJoe team helping him out (what seems) often.
But Destro and his Iron Grenadiers sort of slipped right back into Cobra on the media and modern toy side of things, didn't he? A lot like Storm Shadow just went right back to being a Cobra ninja. I mean, Undertow became a COBRA frogman. Even right through the various media over the last decade, Destro was back with Cobra it seemed.
I kept things separate, but I can definitely see why many fans would keep Destro and his Iron Grenadiers within Cobra, though.
Lately, with me trying to "simplify" my GIJoe fun, I now wonder if I should bring MY Destro, with his forces, back into MY Cobra?
After so many years of imaginary Joeverse separation, what would I need (imagine) to have happen where it would make sense? I know in reality it is just as easy as saying, "hey, now they are one." But, I want something more, I want some reason for MY Destro to want to work with Cobra. And for some reason for Cobra Commander to want, or need, Destro.
If you have Destro as a part of Cobra, how does it work in your GIJOE universe?
One possible angle I could play up is the "death" of the Baroness. I am currently without a Baroness from my recent "no swivel head articulation" rule. Even though that figure was Chameleon that I did have. (Chameleon had that big Cobra logo on it, too.)
So, perhaps after the "death" of Baroness, Destro gets down to "business." With renewed goals of market share, perhaps Destro needs Cobra's manpower?
Or, even perhaps Cobra Commander, after his own forces have been "trimmed" back, simply needs a good weapons supplier, as well as some elite troops?
Maybe both Destro and Cobra Commander realize that they have built up such large fortunes and small, but powerful empires, and that they have lost much of what they had gained by staying adversarial?
Perhaps both of these strong characters have realized they have become soft by "sitting" at the top of their mini-empires (in some respects), instead of being out in the midst of action?
What would you do? Would you keep these forces separate? Would you have had them together all along?