Season 2 opened with the 5-episode mini-series "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" in which elements of Cobra, disillusioned by Cobra Commander, decide to literally create a new leader to replace him. Acting as an operation to create a super-soldier, Cobra agents are sent around the world to collect DNA samples retrieved from the tombs of history's most notorious despots to genetically craft Cobra Commander's successor, Serpentor, who immediately assumes charge of Cobra and deposes the erstwhile Commander to the status of "lackey." Fortunately for the Commander, G.I. Joe interferes with the gene collection to deny Serpentor the critical inclusion of Sun Tzu's DNA, and it is instead replaced with Sgt. Slaughter's. The substitution makes Serpentor prone to impulsive foolhardiness, which shows during a full-scale attack on Washington, D.C. Cobra Commander rescues the high command from certain disaster, and saves himself by convincing Serpentor that he truly needs him as a scapegoat.