the Baroness
| Melee RV 30 |
Coordination RV 20 |
Brawn RV 6 |
Fortitude RV 20 |
Intellect RV 20 |
Awareness RV 10 |
Willpower RV 30 |
Lifestyle RV 40 |
Repute RV -20 |
| Health: Fortune: |
76 60 |
Origin:
As are the vast majority of men and women aligned with Cobra, the Baroness is but a normal human, lacking ascendant powers of any sort. While she wields advanced weaponry in the course of her anarchistic ways, she is otherwise normal in a biological sense.
Known Powers:
(none)
Limitations / Enhancements:
(none)
Equipment:
Bullet-Proof Vest: her original defense from lethal injury, this vest is typically worn over the Baroness' leather armor. This protective implement provides the Baroness rank value 10 defense against attack, a defense that breaks down in the following manner:
RV 10 / RV 4 / RV 0 / RV 0 / RV 0
High-Density Laser Rifle: her primary armament, this weapon can be used to lethal effect by the Baroness. Equipped with a scope for a +1 RS to hit under ambush conditions, this weapon can be fired to inflict rank value 20 Armor Piercing Energy damage per blast.
Padded Leather Armor: supplementing her bullet-proof vest, the Baroness also makes use of custom-fitted, skin-tight leather armor. It provides her rank value 4 protection against physical assault, as long as such attacks do not strike her in the head.
Sidearm: a backup weapon should her laser rifle fail her, the Baroness also wields this firearm when her laser rifle would be impractical. She can fire this weapon to inflict rank value 6 Piercing damage with a single shot, +1 RS in a semi-automatic hail of lead.
Quirks:
Dulled Sense / Sight: though she's in otherwise excellent condition, the Baroness has always had a vision problem. She wears corrective lenses to compensate for this, but should she lose them, the Baroness attempts all vision-based Awareness ACTIONs at a -2 RS.
Talents:
Advanced Guns: while she's proficient in the use of your standard, modern firearms, her time with Cobra has allowed the Baroness to master more advanced weaponry. When wielding directed energy weaponry, the Baroness may do so as though her Coordination was +1 RS in value.
Crime / Disguise: while not in Zartan's class, the Baroness is nonetheless rather good at disguising her true appearance to confuse her enemies. With the appropriate gear, she can disguise herself as almost any female she wishes.
Detective / Espionage: her specialty, the Baroness has become a master of shady dealings in her battle against the 'imperialist running-dogs' of America. She's highly proficient in surveillance, information gathering, and various methods of disguise and infiltration.
Guns: a self-taught marksman, the Baroness has learned how to wield most conventional firearms to focus her rage against the machine. When wielding any standard, semi-automatic, or fully automatic rifles or pistols, she may do so at her listed Coordination trait +1 RS.
Marksman: while she's basically self-taught in the use of various firearms, the Baroness has been educated in the use of heavier weaponry since she descended into international terrorism. When wielding line-of-sight ranged weapons, the Baroness does so at her Coordination +1 RS.
Military: though not a member of any formal military, the Baroness has learned quasi-military techniques and received true military education from the likes of Cobra Commander. This gives her a rather sound tactical mind, and lets her lead combatants into battle effectively.
Piloting: over the years, the Baroness has demonstrated competence behind the 'stick' of aircraft, whether they be fixed-wing or VTOL craft like the Rattler or helicopters such as the FANG. When flying aircraft of any stripe, the Baroness rolls all Handling ACTIONs at a +1 RS.
Contacts:
As one of the longest-standing members of the Cobra Command, the Baroness can readily rely upon that organization to assist her when necessary - unless it is more convenient for Cobra not to. Of course, she can always rely on Destro for help, no matter the situation.
Furthermore, the Baroness has numerous additional contacts in terrorist, espionage, and third world government circles that she has cultivated over the years. Sometimes she invokes these in the service of Cobra, but more often than not they serve her own ends.
Note: in the 'Disavowed' continuity branch written by Devil's Due comics, the Baroness was also the leader of her very own terrorist organization, Athena. However, nothing has been revealed about this group, its agenda, or its capabilities, so take that as you will.
Costume:
the Baroness's original costume consisted of a Cobra blue pair of slacks with a golden stripe down each leg, a Cobra blue, long-sleeved shirt with a golden 'choker' collar, zipper, and shoulder pads, a gold belt, blue leather boots, and blue leather gloves. *
After her reconstructive surgery, the Baroness donned black leather pants, a black leather, long-sleeved shirt under a black, bullet-proof vest with a red Cobra emblem on the front, black leather boots and gloves, a black leather belt, and a black holster for her sidearm.
* Note: this uniform is one that the Baroness wore in the GI Joe comic book long before an actual action figure was made of her character.
Personality:
The Baroness has a dark soul, having committed all the evil deeds that she has out of a need for vengeance and a desire for conquest. She used to work with Cobra out of no small anger towards America, but now (thanks to the Brain-Wave Scanner) does so to further her own, selfish ends.
Real Name: the Baroness Anastasia DeCobray
Occupation: international terrorist
Legal Status: citizen of unknown origin, later of Cobra Island, with a considerable criminal record in most developed nations
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: Cobra
Height: 5' 6"
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Weight: 105 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: Anastasia wears her infamous, round-rimmed, black-framed glasses at all times.
Story:
The Baroness was shamelessly spoiled by her wealthy European aristocrat parents. Her life of privilege didn't last, however, for her beloved older brother met a sad end in Vietnam, when a deal to sell medical supplies to Vietnamese 'villagers' went bad.
Eugen only meant to help these folk in a humanitarian fashion, but reacted rather negatively when he found out that his contacts in Vietnam traded the items he sold them to buy weapons. In order to deal with this problem, his buyers simply killed him off.
Immediately afterwards, an American GI burst into the Baron's warehouse, and shot his killers dead. Having journeyed to Vietnam with her brother, the young girl walked in just in time to see that GI standing over the dead, gun smoking, and assumed he killed everybody present.
Freaking out, the Baroness fled before the truth could be determined. Mad with rage towards this soldier and the nation that created him, the young Baroness descended into a life of international terrorism, wanting nothing more than to destroy all that America represents.
In time, she fell in with a charismatic shyster in command of an organization he called Cobra. This group, originally based in America, was working to corrode the nation from within, and relied on the lazy and disenfranchised among the American workplace to do its bidding.
A background in espionage that she'd picked up over the years allowed her to become the Commander's confidante, and she quickly learned many things under his tutelage. Of course, her ambition was nothing to be taken lightly, and the Baroness wanted Cobra for her own.
When Cobra Commander eventually hired Destro to be his field commander, the Baroness saw her opportunity to seize power. Having known and loved Destro since she met him on that fateful trip to Vietnam, the Baroness knew that she could rely on him to help her seize control.
The Baroness was critically injured before she could make her move, however, for she fell victim to Cobra Commander's paranoia; once he learned that the Baroness knew Destro from before her time with his group, he (correctly) assumed that they would try to take power from him.
That's why he hired Major Bludd. A mercenary and assassin by trade, Bludd had no problem with the task of taking out Destro. However, he had bad timing, making his move while Cobra was in the process of assaulting Washington DC, and the Baroness 'made' him in time.
Knowing that Bludd was going to kill Destro, the Baroness prevented him from making his shot at the last second, though she was seriously burned in the process. Unconscious for weeks, the Baroness woke up in the Bern Institute for Reconstructive Surgery in Switzerland.
She'd been rescued from GI Joe by Major Bludd during a Cobra assault on their headquarters, and having grown fond of her, Major Bludd had her 'patched up' as best as he could. It took some time for her to recover from the process, but she was back on her feet in short order.
After Bludd revealed that the Commander hired him to kill Destro, the Baroness went along with his plan to ransom her back to the Commander for a fortune. This plot failed, but the Commander was captured by GI Joe in the process, finally giving her the opportunity she needed.
Returning to Cobra headquarters, she assumed command of Cobra alongside Destro and Major Bludd. After the Commander was rescued from captivity by Storm Shadow, however, he displaced the Baroness's plans once more, throwing Bludd in one of his dungeons upon his return.
The Baroness eventually liberated him when she hatched a plan to kill the Commander, using his own son, Billy, as the trigger man! This plot also failed, for when Destro figured out just who she had chosen to kill the Commander, he had to stop it; he couldn't abide patricide.
Once this blew over, the Baroness laid low for a time, and did so for several years. During this time, Cobra Commander and Destro were apparently killed in another assault on GI Joe's headquarters, and Serpentor rose to power on Cobra Island - with her as his right hand woman.
This state of affairs couldn't last, however. When an armored man claiming to be Cobra Commander returned to the island some time later, the Baroness seized the opportunity to control Cobra through him, and lied to the Cobra Command by verifying his identity to them.
This led to the new Cobra Commander and Serpentor sharing control of Cobra for a short time, at least until their immense egos caused the two come to blows. This immediately led to the Cobra Island Civil War, which saw the Baroness captured by Serpentor early in the fighting.
Rescued by Destro, who everyone present thought was deceased until he arrived with his Iron Grenadier army, the Baroness was spirited away from the conflict. Destro quickly took control of Cobra, however, and placed the Baroness in charge of the Cobra Consulate in New York City.
She was working with Zarana in this, though, and the two simply couldn't get along. They schemed against each other constantly, a situation which came to a head when the Baroness set Zarana up to be captured by GI Joe while they tried to rescue Clutch and Rock 'n Roll.
Immediately after this, she received a call from Dr. Huntkinder, the Swiss plastic surgeon that repaired her burnt body several years back. He let her know that he was treating the one and only Snake-Eyes, to repair the man's damaged face once and for all.
Recognizing his 'normal' face as belonging to the man she believed responsible for her brother's death way back when, this totally set the Baroness off. As such, she rushed to Switzerland to exact vengeance on the man she's hated for so very long.
Though she managed to capture Snake-Eyes in Switzerland, the Baroness had to defeat considerable resistance on the part of his girlfriend, Scarlett, to do so. Having what she wanted, the Baroness simply shot Scarlett in the head to be done with her, and made off with Snake-Eyes.
She then had the Paine Brothers work him over within the Cobra Consulate, but before she could finish the man off herself Snake-Eyes escaped, and proceeded to tear the building apart. He couldn't finish her off, however, as his explosives pretty much demolished the place.
Closing in on her as the building collapsed, Snake-Eyes, the Baroness, and recent arrival Storm Shadow almost fell to their deaths as the Consulate's tower toppled. While the Joes were saved by their own Tomahawk, the Baroness was pulled to safety by Destro at the last minute.
In the process of doing so, he explained that Snake-Eyes hadn't killed her brother so much as his business partners. Snake-Eyes was just avenging the death of one of his comrades, who they had killed right before slaying her beloved Eugen. He knew this because he, too, was there.
the Baroness had simply fled moments before Destro and his father (as he was a teenager at the time) showed up to exonerate Snake-Eyes for the death of the Baron DeCobray. Realizing that her whole life of international terrorism was for naught, the Baroness no longer wanted to live.
Destro saved her anyway, and the two then retired to his Scottish palace for some time. As the Baroness came to terms with a misspent life, she and Destro finally had real quality time to spend together, at least while Destro wasn't off doing something with his Iron Grenadiers.
The couple was eventually dragged back into action again when the original Cobra Commander, having retaken control of Cobra, decided to deal with Destro once and for all. The Commander put a contract on his head, thus placing Destro and the Baroness in considerable peril.
After the Commander demolished Destro's Scotland palace, he captured the Baroness and used her as a bargaining chip for a time. When it became apparent that his Night Creepers couldn't take Destro out, he just entranced the Baroness with his diabolical Brain-Wave Scanner.
Though the Commander programmed the Baroness to maneuver Destro into a secondary Scanner he'd placed in his Trans-Carpathian palace long ago, this plot failed as well. After dealing with Cobra Commander's veritable horde of ninjas, the two retired from action again.
This, too, could not last for long. After reviving Doctor Mindbender, Cobra Commander realized that the mad scientist had secreted mind control implants into both Destro and Zartan in the past, and decided to use them to revive his command structure.
Since Zartan and his son, Billy, were guesting in Destro's palace, this was very easy. Traveling there, the Commander triggered the implants, and then had his new thralls capture Billy and the Baroness as well, subverting them with the Brain-Wave Scanner once more.
(Historical Divergence)
the Baroness served Cobra in this capacity until the group was dispersed by a heavy duty assault launched by conventional military forces. What the Baroness did after this time has yet to be revealed, but when the Commander revived his Cobra organization, she was quick to return.
Once the real Destro revived from the paralysis his son put him in, the Baroness helped him to capture his wayward child, Alexander, and his cohort, the Mistress Armada. She then took some time off with her beloved, though the Commander eventually came after Destro again.
After a brief scuffle between Destro's Iron Grenadiers and Cobra Commander's Neo-Vipers, the two came to an accord, and began to work together yet anew. Wanting to be with Destro despite her hatred for the Commander, the Baroness joined him in his return to terrorism.
During this time, the Baroness was rather busy, forming a small private army of her own. Called Athena, this force would be her ultimate reserve, ready and willing to do her bidding at a moment's notice anywhere on earth. Though not as powerful as Cobra, it was dangerous in its own right.
Staying with Cobra proved to be a serious error, however, for after her latest betrayal, the Cobra Commander had a plane she was being transported in destroyed. She survived this and escaped, but was quickly captured by American military forces.
While in custody, she gave birth to her and Destro's son, but the child was taken from her by the authorities due to her being an infamous terrorist, among other things. Flipping out, she vowed vengeance on the Joes (who were her jailers), and got it when she finally escaped.
Tracking down her son, the Baroness found that he was in the care of Cobra Commander, who had recently posed as a high level member of the US government, and knew all of its dirty little secrets. Of course the Commander only wanted one thing in exchange for the boy: MARS.
Though it was his life's work - and the work of several of his ancestors - Destro agreed to these terms, and he and the Baroness made off for greener pastures with their child. They weren't allowed much peace, however, for Cobra Commander used MARS to instigate World War III.
The two were eventually approached by Storm Shadow, who wanted the couple's help in neutralizing the MARS technology the Commander was using to hold the world captive. Though the Baroness was reluctant - particularly given the ninja's terms - Destro nonetheless agreed to them.
As such, the Baroness mobilized Athena, and Destro pulled in his Iron Grenadiers, and the two helped the GI Joe team to get the edge on Cobra again. Thanks to their assistance, the Commander was defeated once and for all, and jailed in an undersea jail at an undisclosed location.
At this point, Destro turned himself in to the authorities, per his agreement with Storm Shadow, though the Baroness wasn't about to do anything so silly. She escaped along with her child, and is in hiding despite being wanted by most every government and bounty hunter on earth.
However, she's retired from paramilitary action, content to raise the son she'd fought so hard to rescue.
1997 Variations
Costume:
The Baroness adopted a uniform reminiscent of her original in '97. It includes blue leather pants, a blue leather, long-sleeved shirt under a blue, bullet-proof vest with a Cobra emblem on it, blue arm guards, black leather boots and gloves, and a black leather belt.
2002 Variations
Equipment:
Rocket Pistol (v2): for a time, the Baroness made use of Major Bludd's trademark weapon, a rocket-firing pistol. This projectile inflicts rank value 30 Slashing damage, but requires a full turn to reload after being fired at the Baroness' foe.
Uzi 9mm (v1): when leading her Crimson Strike Vipers, the Baroness wields twin Uzi 9mm hand cannons. She can fire each of these to inflict rank value 10 Piercing damage in a short burst, or rank value 20 Piercing damage when opening them up fully automatic.
Costume:
When leading her Crimson Strike Team, the Baroness wears another variant of her original ensemble. It includes a crimson, padded leather bodysuit under a crimson, bullet-proof vest with a silver Cobra emblem on it, black and silver boots and gloves, and a black leather belt.
She otherwise wears black while active in 2002. Her fifth costume includes a black, padded leather bodysuit under a black, bullet-proof vest with a red Cobra emblem on its center, black and silver boots and gloves, a black leather belt, and a black sidearm holster.
2004 Variations
Costume:
The Baroness again switched to a blue ensemble in '04. It includes a blue, padded leather bodysuit beneath a blue, bullet-proof vest adorned with a red Cobra sigil, blue leather boots, black fingerless gloves, a black leather belt, black kneepads, and a black sidearm holster.
2005 Variations
Equipment:
Assault Rifle (v1): the Baroness occasionally makes use of heavier firepower. Her assault rifle can fire a short burst of rounds that inflicts rank value 10 Piercing damage, or a fully automatic discharge to inflict rank value 20 Piercing damage.
Furthermore, it has an underslung pistol as well, in the event that she needs to fire a bit more selectively. It may discharge a single shot to inflict rank value 6 Piercing damage, or a short burst of ammunition to inflict rank value 10 Piercing damage.
Costume:
The Baroness' seventh costume is similar to her second. It includes a black, padded leather bodysuit under a black, bullet-proof vest with a red Cobra emblem on its center, black leather boots, black fingerless gloves, steel knee pads, a brown leather belt, and a brown sidearm holster.
Her eighth, on the other hand, once again makes use of crimson. It consists of crimson, padded leather bodysuit under a crimson, bullet-proof vest with a black Cobra emblem on it, black leather hip-hugger boots, silver wrist guards, and a black leather belt.
2008 Variations
Equipment:
Diving Gear: when she must work underwater, the Baroness makes use of consistent diving gear. It consists of a wet suit, air tank, underwater breathing mask, and flippers, which allows her to function underwater for about four hours, and swim with +1 RS effectiveness.
Costume:
The Baroness' ninth uniform isn't an ensemble, so much as it is a diving suit! It consists of a skin-tight, neoprene red bodysuit with a silver Cobra sigil over the left breast, red flippers, red belts to hold accessories, a red diving mask, and transparent diving goggles.
2009 Variations
Equipment:
Grappling Hook: for those occasions when she has to infiltrate somewhere high up, the Baroness carries a conventional grappling hook with her. The hook is of m.v. 30, and is connected to a rope several stories long, allowing her to climb with ease.
Submachine Guns: the Baroness ocasionally wields dual hand cannons instead of her laser rifle. She can fire each of these to inflict rank value 10 Piercing damage in a short burst, or rank value 20 Piercing damage when opening them up fully automatic.
Costume:
The Baroness' tenth costume is a variation on her second. It includes black, padded leather bodysuit under a black and silver, bullet-proof vest with a red Cobra chest emblem, black and silver leather boots, black leather gloves, a black leather belt, and a black sidearm holster.
Extra Goodies:
Cobra directories featuring a version of the Baroness:
| 1984 | 1997 | 2002 | 2004 | 2005 | 2008 | 2009 |
* Note: 2002 saw two verisons of the Baroness being released (Versions 3 and 4), while 2005 saw two (Versions 6 and 7).
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