Arise, Serpentor, Arise!, Part 1

After being inspired by a strange dream and fed up with Cobra Commander's failures, the fiendish Doctor Mindbender plans to obtain the DNA samples of history's greatest conquerors in order to make a new Cobra leader. The Joes embark on a mini-remedial recruit training and intercept and destroy a Cobra Night Raven, retrieving a Cobra message pod. The Joes find a letter detailing the Dreadnoks' mission to break into tombs of history's greatest leaders and conquerors. Meanwhile, the Joes gain an ally in Sgt. Slaughter (based on the professional wrestler of the same name), while the Dreadnoks gain new members Monkeywrench and Thrasher and his Thunder Machine as well as Zartan's brother Zandar and sister Zarana

"Now you know. And knowing is half the battle." The Sunbow run closed every episode with a public-service spot delivered by a Joe character, addressing kids on a real-world hazard or virtue. The cartoon's deeper ethic, threaded into the writing across the run, was that Cobra's worldview was based on fear and the Joes' was based on responsibility.

Chris Latta as Cobra Commander

Michael Bell as Duke, Lifeline, Xamot, Blowtorch

Arthur Burghardt as Destro

Morgan Lofting as Baroness

Mary McDonald-Lewis as Lady Jaye, Cover Girl

Bill Ratner as Flint

B.J. Ward as Scarlett

Neil Ross as Shipwreck, Doc, Tomax

Frank Welker as Torch, Wild Weasel, Junkyard, Zandar

Zack Hoffman as Zartan

Charlie Adler as Low-Light

Dick Gautier as Serpentor

1. Sunbow Season 2 daily run (1986). 30 episodes, the final Sunbow-Marvel-Toei run. This was the season that introduced Serpentor (the Cobra Emperor cloned from history's greatest tyrants by Dr. Mindbender) and the Battle Force 2000 sub-team. Followed by G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) which concluded the Sunbow run.
2. Production code: 600-73
3. Studio: Marvel Productions / Sunbow Productions / Toei Doga
4. Originally aired: September 15, 1986 in afternoon syndication.