Iron Grenadiers

## Background

The Iron Grenadiers were founded by Destro, the Scottish leader of the armaments corporation known as M.A.R.S., as a private military force to sell weapons to governments of nations the Iron Grenadiers would work to destabilise. Destro had, at the time, separated from Cobra and sought to thwart Cobra's own move into arms sales. Both organisations clashed with the GI Joe team as well as with each other. After barely a year of existence, the Iron Grenadiers were officially folded into Cobra as Destro seized control of Cobra from the ersatz Cobra Commander, who was secretly the Crimson Guardsman Fred VII.

Unofficially, however, a Russian brigadier Destro had hired to help lead the Iron Grenadiers named General Mayhem opposed the merger and instead took the unit he commanded away from Cobra and maintained the name. General Mayhem led the new Iron Grenadiers in negotiating deals with several African nations to provide training to their professional forces, to provide close-protection security to both governments and corporations in Africa and to act as private security for several corporations.

In 1990, a junior defence minister in the Central African Commonwealth hired the Iron Grenadiers to liberate the country during its occupation by Cobra Europe. As a result, the Iron Grenadiers clashed with both Cobra Europe forces and those of Action Force, who were operating under the authority of the CAC President. The Iron Grenadiers were ordered by the president to stand down after a three-day pitched battle in the suburb of Eastchurch when two transport planes were shot down. They subsequently left the country within hours of Cobra's surrender. Initially, Action Force commanders believed the Iron Grenadiers were operating under Destro's direction. It wasn't until later that they discovered General Mayhem was in charge.

## Personnel

Most of the Iron Grenadiers are nameless, faceless soldiers, only a few commanders are known by individual names.

Destro - Scottish arms dealer, founder and sometime Cobra operative.

Voltar - senior commander, joined Cobra with Destro's merger.

Darklon - prince of a small European nation. Briefly joined Cobra, before returning home.

Metal-Head - anti-tank specialist.

General Mayhem - Russian officer who formed his own splinter group.

## Stories

The Iron Grenadiers appear in the following story:

Operation Cheetah

## Notes

The Iron Grenadiers were, of course, a faction in the GI Joe toyline introduced in 1988. They appeared in several stories in the US Marvel comics between 1988 and 1989 before they were written out. I used them in Operation Cheetah as a means to a. feature them in a story, b. cause Action Force a new complication and c. have Bodycount score some kills of Iron Grenadiers. With the story set in 1990/1991, I discovered, as I've been working on this site, that I goofed. The backstory around General Mayhem's formation of the rogue faction is something I've done to cover this cock-up. General Mayhem was created by the GI Joe Collector's Club for their 2005 Convention set, and I'd decided to use him in Operation Cheetah to avoid any potential continuity problems to using Darklon or Voltar. (You can laugh if you like) In one way, though, it was fortuitous I did, since it enables me to create this retcon.