| “ | Kobra is the next messiah, Amazon! The peoples of the world will bow the knee to me - but you will not live to see it! | „ |
| ~ Kobra (Jeffrey Burr) |
| “ | The Age of Chaos is coming, counsellor. A great darkness will spread its wings over creation. | „ |
| ~ Kobra (Jeffrey Burr) |
Jeffrey Franklin Burr, also known as Kobra, is a major antagonist in the DC Comics universe.
Kobra was just a man, but his worldwide influence and cold intellect made him far more dangerous than any superpowered thug. He believed himself to be the most important person in the world-the only one who could lead the Kobra Cult though the Kali Yuga, or time of great chaos. At first, the U.S. government used the psychic link that he shared with his brother Jason Burr to gain advance warning of Kobra's plans. Kobra killed Burr, but the spirit of his twin haunted him.
History[]
Origins[]
On May 25, in a New Delhi hospital, Burr gave birth to conjoined twins, Jeffrey and Jason. After delivery, the infants endured a twenty-one-hour operation to separate them. Then the hospital was raided by members of India's Kobra Cult, fulfilling a prophecy that every forty-four years a new naja-naja, leader, would be born. Jeffrey, clearly the chosen one, was snatched, and the stunned hospital doctors informed Mootama and her husband, American industrialist Jerome Erskine Burr, that the weaker child had died. For the next twenty-three years, Jeffrey was raised by the cult, revered as Kobra-Prime, their "naja-naja," the foremost symbol of the followers of the serpent god known as Nulla Pambu.
Kobra Cult[]
Through the years Jeffrey was raised with the cult, he never questioned his life. That changed when he was overcome with depression and grief for no explicable reason. He was then hospitalized for some undisclosed minor ailment; there he met and fell for a fellow patient, Natalie Crawford-Thomas. Young and in love, Jeffrey began to question what else life had for him. He decided to investigate his past, leaving the cult behind. As they traveled together, Jeffrey was horrified to learn that Crawford-Thomas was an international jewel thief, who was then shot and killed by an Interpol agent.
For three years, Jeffrey traveled the planet, avoiding the cult that sought him and still trying to learn about his past. During that time he formulated a plan to take those who worshipped him and turn them into a force to be reckoned with. They would no longer be a religious operation, but a global criminal organization. He returned to them and continued their training, while laying the groundwork for his new plan. On his twenty-first birthday, Jeffrey was required to drink cobra venom, the last test to prove worthy of leading the cult.
Lord Kobra quickly accessed the cult's resources around the globe to begin creating the technological infrastructure required to bring his dream to fruition. Cult members bought what they could and stole the rest, and in rapid order the cult had grown fangs. They expanded their bases, including Manhattan-based Ajan Enterprises. Chicago's Anaconda Industries, and an international electronics firm known as Cortex Ltd. Established prior to Kobra's birth, circa 1962, was California's Peterson State College, a religious school. In a short two years Kobra transformed the cult from a religious order to an efficient criminal enterprise.
Scholarly research allowed members to find artifacts and ancient technology that could be harnessed for new purposes. They also took to acquiring weapons from other villains. As a result, Kobra's ceremonial garb was laced with hidden weapons and tools, including venom sprayed from his gloved knuckles, a "serpent's tongue" fired from the hand that worked as a garrote, and chain mail powered to emit a charge capable of rendering an opponent unconscious. The outfit also had a built- in emergency teleportation beam, hot-linked to an aircraft called the Ark. He also took to carrying a staff that fired bursts of energy. As Kobra became known to intelligence agencies around the world, the CIA started to piece together the long-ago kidnapping of Jeffrey Burr.
Lost brother[]
Agent Ricardo Perez found Jason Burr at much the same time as Kobra found his long-lost brother. The two men realized they shared a sympathetic link that grew stronger with the passage of time. Kobra could not abide the notion and wanted Jason dead. Things built to a climax when Kobra captured Jason and brought him to the cult's lair. By then, Kobra had acquired their parents' bodies and prepared to resurrect them using one of Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Pits. Batman helped free Jason, who then escaped with his girlfriend Melissa McNeil, unaware that the woman had fallen in thrall to Kobra. As they rode a ski lift away, McNeil stabbed and killed Jason, forever severing the link with his brother.
Outsiders[]
Kobra was now a known threat to the super-hero community, and he began to cross paths with them with increasing frequency. When he wanted to unleash poison gas over Portugal, just to prove his deadliness, he was thwarted by Batman, Aquaman, and Green Lantern. After that, Kobra ensured that he always had an ever-growing number of minions to support his schemes, and that he had several going at once; should one fail, he had other avenues to amassing power. He was shrewd, recognizing the super heroes would be a recurring impediment. He began to find failure at the hands of Batman and his Outsiders.
As a result, when he discovered a handful of items that Batman had dealt with, he chose to take two radioactively altered villains, the Zebra-Man and the Elemental Man; devices created by the Planet-Master; and the mystic liquid that transformed Matt Hagen into Clayface. He created all-new versions: Elemental Woman, Planet Master, Zebra-Man, and a female Clayface to act as Strikeforce Kobra and fight the Outsiders on a level playing field. Batman's training of the Outsiders proved the difference, though, and Kobra had to teleport his team away before they were apprehended.
Aftermath[]
Kobra managed to recover the legendary Spear of Destiny in Russia. He used it against the Spectre, only to lose it. The covert agencies Checkmate and the Suicide Squad managed to thwart Kobra's attempt to unleash a massive electromagnetic pulse that would interrupt technology, exposing the Western Hemisphere to an attack. A stay at Belle Reve prison did not last long, and Kobra was soon back scheming for global domination. He went to Russia to try his EMP idea once more, only to be stopped by King Faraday and Sarge Steel working with Russian forces.
As one defeat was handed to him, another project got activated, placing him in opposition to other super heroes including the Flash, the Birds of Prey and Superman. At one point, frustrated by constant defeat, he thought he heard taunting from his dead brother Jason, so he tried a bolder move, taking over the Justice League's Watchtower on the moon, only to lose out once more.
Justice Society[]
He even resurrected a new Strikeforce Kobra (including Dervish, Fauna, Spectra, Syonide, and a duped Windfall from the Outsiders) to once more oppose the Outsiders. This defeat caused a split in his ranks: His closest ally, a woman named Eve, took a splinter cell and continued to operate more covertly. Kobra took over Blackhawk Island and began a new offensive against the world, starting with causing a civilian jetliner to crash, killing all passengers, including the mother of the Justice Society's member Atom-Smasher.
Using the captured teen hero Air Wave, Kobra seized control of the world's communications and demanded obedience. Instead, the JSA finally brought him to justice. Eve's forces tried to kill Kobra in his hospital room but he escaped. Eve immediately filled the vacuum, tasking her people with seeking out the next naja-naja ahead of schedule. They found one-indeed, they had been monitoring him for nearly two decades. Danny Temple was assaulted in an attempt to bring him to the cult. At the time, Danny was rooming at the Brentwood Academy with Tim Drake, so when he was taken, Robin was soon on the case. When the Teen Wonder arrived, he found not only Danny about to be taken into the cult, but also his nemesis King Snake trying to usurp the leadership for himself. He was half buried under rubble whenthe mountain fortress came tumbling down. In the end Robin rescued Danny, King Snake seemingly fell to his death, and the cult was left rudderless.
At his trial, Kobra denounced the proceedings, proclaiming that his enlightened soul would survive. His followers broke him free, and Atom-Smasher teamed with Black Adam to trail him. When he was located, they ripped his heart out, hoping it would bring the world a measure of peace. Cult members loyal to Kobra-Prime found themselves plunged into a civil war of sorts with the faction formerly led by Eve.
Other Media[]
Television[]
Young Justice[]
Kobra the namesake leader of the Kobra cult as seen in Young Justice.
The Jeffrey Burr version of Kobra (alongside his cult) appears in the Young Justice episode "Drop Zone", voiced by Arnold Vosloo. The cult is in conflict with Bane over the production of the drug Venom and ultimately revealed to be combining it with the Blockbuster Formula to create a more powerful and permanent transformation for The Light. With the inclusion of some unnamed members, Kobra is served by Mammoth (who was created from the Venom/Blockbuster formula) and Shimmer. He and his cult ended up fighting Bane and Young Justice at the time when the Light's operative Sportsmaster came to pick up the formulas. He does fight Robin in the climax of the episode but manages to get away.
Kobra appears in issue #16 of the comic book tie-in to Young Justice. He plotted to perform a ritual on his twin brother Dr. Jason Burr by having Mammoth and Shimmer abduct him. The ritual was crashed by Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, and their protégés. In issue #17, Kobra had to prick his brother's finger in order to step up the ritual despite the interference. After feeding some of Jason's blood to a snake, Kobra drank the Blockbuster formula and some of the blood in order to finish the ritual. Jason was absorbed into the dagger as Kobra gains snake-like abilities. After the mutated Kobra was pricked with the dagger, the mutation was undone and Jason Burr was restored. Unfortunately, Kobra was nowhere to be seen.
Film[]
- Jeffrey Burr appears in the animated film Batman: Soul of the Dragon, voiced by Josh Keaton.
Gallery[]
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