Second in command Dreadnoks, assasin, master of disguise
Zarana's past is as much a mystery as that of her brothers, Zartan and Zandar. She became a very talented actress, with the ability to lose herself in her characters. Whereas Zartan disguised himself visually, Zarana created a new persona. She may have a had a promising career in acting if not for her cruelty, selfishness and greed. Her talents made her a perfect infiltrator and, consequently, a skilled assassin. Zarana worked with the Dreadnoks for a brief time in Australia, though she never met the three Dreadnoks that Zartan brought with him to America. Years later, Zarana and Zandar arrived at the Dreadoks' gas station hideout in New Jersey, where they learned Zartan had been captured by the G.I. Joe team. Zarana immediately insisted on rescuing her brother, partially due to a large amount of gold he had hidden away. Using Buzzer's knowledge of Joe headquarters -- the Pit -- Zarana and Zandar disguised themselves as Army personnel sent to interrogate Zartan. They managed to escape with their brother, but the Joes caught on at the last moment, and chased them into the Jersey swamps. With help from the Dreadnoks, the siblings escaped from the Joes and headed to Cobra Island.Zarana soon began working for Cobra, usually alongside her brothers. As Zartan became increasingly less involved with the Dreadnoks, Zarana became their de facto leader. While Buzzer had filled that job to some extent, Zarana proved to be smart, resourceful and something the other Dreadnoks had never been: ambitious. She slowly gained more power in Cobra, even replacing the Baroness as commander of the Cobra Consulate in New York for a time. Her promotion however, was likely Serpentor's way of punishing the Baroness, and was short-lived. Serpentor later placed Zarana in command of Cobra's Terror-Drome launch base in Sierra Gordo, along with Dreadnoks Monkeywrench and Thrasher. Interested in self-preservation more than anything else, Zarana abandoned the Terror-Drome to the small nation's revolutionaries, allowing many of the Cobra soldiers there to die while escaping in Thrasher's Thunder Machine. She and the others soon found a G.I. Joe transport plane and forced the pilot to take off, taking a large group of refugees hostage. The pilot, Wild Bill, had no choice but to take off, but the plane was quickly hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the jungles below. The Joes and the Dreadnoks became fast allies, and worked together to escape the war-torn country. Zarana arrived back on Cobra Island just in time for the Cobra civil war, fought between the forces of Serpentor and Cobra Commander (actually Fred VII in disguise). Zartan and his siblings allied themselves with Cobra Commander during the war, and Zarana even commanded some of his forces. The war finally came to an end when Zartan killed Serpentor with an arrow. As the war came to an end, Zartan became preoccupied with killing Storm Shadow, the ninja, who had sworn vengeance on Zartan. The master of disguise disappeared for months, though Zarana didn't seem to mind. She continued to lead the Dreadnoks and was put in charge of Cobra's new community on the Jersey shore, Broca Beach. Zarana and Zandar ran a real estate scam that brought investors into the town, and Zarana remained in charge there, even capturing two members of the Joe team -- Clutch and Rock & Roll. She ingeniously discovered that Cobra's Brain-wave Scanner could be used to plant memories in a subject's mind, and proceeded to brainwash the Joes. Her project even impressed the Baroness, with whom she had an antagonistic relationship. Her attempts to turn the Joes into assassins to wreak havoc in the Pit eventually failed, but Zarana continued to work for Cobra.When the original Cobra Commander returned to lead his organization, much of his original high command had turned their backs on him. Destro and the Baroness left to lead the Iron Grenadiers, and Zartan, Firefly and Dr. Mindbender were all buried in a frieghter on Cobra Island and left for dead. Thus, Zarana became one of the Commander's closest advisors. Though she was no where near as valuable as Destro or Zartan had been, the Commander appreciated her cunning mind and cruel, sadistic nature. After losing the town of Millville to the Joe team, the Commander set his sights on Eastern Europe, allying himself with a rebel leader and taking control of the small nation of Borovia. At that time Zarana lost interest in Cobra, or Cobra Commander lost interest in her. Either way, the Commander brainwashed Destro, the Baroness and Zartan to serve him, and he never gave Zarana a second thought. Zarana rounded up the down-on-their-luck Dreadnoks, leading them off into a America, undoubtedly wreaking havoc all the way.A short time later, Cobra was defeated by the military, and its high command scattered. Zartan returned to the United States, where he began organizing the Dreadnoks into an organized, national biker gang and started building a small army of Dreadnoks. Zarana eventually joined her brother, but was angered to see that her niece, Zanya was being groomed to become the next leader of the Dreadnoks. Zarana believed she was "rightful heir", but bowed to her brothers wishes and took control of the Chicago chapter of the new Dreadnoks. She has had minimal contact with Zartan, and so far has had no involvement with Cobra's fight against the reinstated G.I. Joe team.
