The Coil

Background
The Coil is an international terrorist organisation which split off from Cobra. Led by a former Crimson Guardsman known only as 'Overlord', the group has been one of the principal threats to global security in the mid 1990s. Overlord founded the group after Cobra Commander returned following his apparent death at the hands of the Crimson Guardsman known as 'Fred VII'. Overlord wasn't pleased with the direction Cobra Commander was leading the organisation in and quit, stealing a prototype assault vehicle known as the Dictator in the process. He began recruiting followers from Cobra cells around the world, stealing weapons, vehicles and equipment in the process from Cobra caches. The Coil came to the attention of GI Joe in 1994, shortly before the unit was disbanded, when a Coil safe-house was uncovered in the US state of Georgia. Intelligence collected at the site by a GI Joe assault team led to Coil activities being severely curtailed as cells were neutralised by Federal agencies over the next few months. A bomb-making facility in Pakistan was also neutralised by Sky Patrol on a covert operation weeks after the raid. During 1995, the Coil began attempting to gain possession of weapons of mass destruction as part of a plan known to them as 'Operation Volcano'. The acquisition of chemical weapons from Iraq, by Skull Squad mercenaries, was thwarted by SAS Force. An attempt to gain nuclear warheads from a decommissioning plant in Russia was stopped by the Oktober Guard. An attempt to gain chemical weapons from North Korea by Black Dragons mercenaries as also thwarted by SAS Force.

The Coil and Overlord apparently abandoned Operation Volcano following these failures. Their next major attack was the kidnapping of American weapons designer Simon Masters from a exhibition in South-East Asia. Masters was taken to a camp in Than Dat where Overlord demanded he build an unmanned aerial vehicle. Masters was subsequently released by the GI Joe 'Night Force' assault team and the camp destroyed. The Coil's next attack came in early 1996 as they took several EU defence ministers hostage at a conference in Sweden, before the hostages were freed by SAS Force. In May of that year, a Brazilian intelligence officer attempted to infiltrate the group, but was found out as he tried to meet with Task Force 282 and was killed.

List of Coil Personnel
Overlord – commander

Onslaught – second in command

Massacre – assassin

Ravage – battlefield sniper

Coil Troopers - infantry

Aqua-Snakes – frogman commandos

LAW-Snakes – Light Anti-tank Weapon specialists

Blitz-Snakes – machine-gunners

Tread-Snakes – vehicle drivers

Sky-Snakes – pilots

Helo-Snakes – helicopter pilots

Commo-Snakes – communications specialists

Polar-Snakes – Arctic Warfare specialists

Zilant – hang-glider pilot

Naja Bhoot – motorcyclist

Shrike – elite troop commander

Sidewinders – elite troops

Stories
The Coil appears in the following stories:

The Coils of the Serpent

Operation Archangel Michael

In Blackest Night

Real Scandinavian Heroes

The Kill Zone

Nuclear Oktober