G.I.Joe, Commando/Ninja, Snake-Eyes

As much a mystery as he is a man

No one actually knows his real name and very few have seen his disfigured face.

One of if not the most popular of all G.I.Joe characters. Snake-Eyes is one of the most skilled and dangerous figures in G.I.Joe.

A Ninja master, black belt of 12 different fighting systems. Trained in mountaineering, underwater demo, jungle/desert and arctic survival, a NATO and Warsaw Pact small arms expert as well as an expert in the use of edged weapons. Snake-Eyes flawlessly combines both edged and small arms weapons in battle to become the fear of G.I.Joe.

Snake-Eyes greatest friendship/rivalry is with the ninja Storm Shadow

Storm Shadow and Snake-Eyes both served together in a Long Range Recon Patrol unit during the Vietnam war. During service Snake-Eyes was wounded in battle and was rescued by his friend Tommy (Storm Shadow). Upon his return home Snake eyes was greeted with the news that his mother, father and twin sister had been killed by a drunk driver on the road to collecting him at the airport. It was at this time through a lot of soul searching that Snake-Eyes decided to go with Storm Shadow to train in the arts of the ninja with Storm Shadow's family. The rivalry between Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow began here as Snake eyes took to the training like a duck to water.  After the Hard Master (Storm Shadow's uncle) was killed by an unknown assassin (Zartan) Snake-Eyes left Japan and returned to the Sates. When General Hawk then a Colonel was recruiting for the G I Joe team Stalker and he recruited Snake-Eyes, on an early training mission Snake-Eyes was disfigured by a helicopter blast rescueing Scarlett. Snake-Eyes is like a sharp blade, G I Joe has put a sheath on that blade but it still remains razor sharp.

Toy Origins

G.i. Joe and Snake-Eyes is one of the few characters that started as a toy before becoming a comic and animated cartoon favorite, the other major toy-comic hit to come from toy makers "HASBRO" is of course the Transformers.

Originally conceived in military colors similar to the rest of the 1982 "Straight-Arm" GI Joe line, Snake-Eyes was instead issued in all-black to save on tooling costs! Such is fate in forming a pop-culture icon.