Zarana: Difference between revisions

Zarana
G.I. Joe character
First appearance	1986
Voiced by	Lisa Raggio (Sunbow) Lisa Corps (DiC)
In-universe information
Affiliation	Dreadnoks
Specialty	Zartan's Sister
File name	UNKNOWN (Aliases too numerous to list: Friday, Heather, Sgt.Carol Weidler, Dr. Deborah Karday)
Birth place	UNKNOWN
Primary MOS	Infiltration
Secondary MOS	Espionage

Zarana is the sister of Zartan and Zandar in the G. I. Joe action-figure universe, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. She has short naturally auburn hair^[1] that has been dyed pink (or sometimes red) and is usually depicted with a tattered hot pink T-shirt and blue pants. Zarana is a master of disguise who can fool even the best military specialists. Unlike Zartan (who has a mysterious ability to appear as someone different) Zarana relies on masks, wigs, makeup and costumes and is a world-class method actress literally becoming the object of her impersonation to the extent that she not only thinks but reacts as they would. Her file card bio states that she has the same ability to change skin color as her brothers but this was never seen or portrayed in either comic or cartoon incarnations.

Along with her twin brother Zandar, Zarana was issued in a second wave of Dreadnok action figures from Hasbro in 1986. She carries a weapon that looked like a shotgun with a circular saw blade attached at the end. This weapon was never seen in the cartoon or comic book. She had several features in the comic, primarily in issues that introduced Dreadnok vehicles produced by Hasbro.

In the Marvel Comics G.I. Joe series, she first appeared in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #50 (August 1986).

Zarana was featured in the Marvel G.I.Joe comics and in the beginning was depicted as being somewhat cheap when it came to money. After she leads a successful rescue of Zartan by impersonating Scarlett, she tells her brother that he owes her for a number of expenses related to the rescue operation including that of the red wig she used in her disguise. Pursued by a large team of G.I.Joes, she and the Dreadnoks escape. They are technically tracked down by Sgt. Slaughter but her disguise skills help fool the man into believing he had found a simple gas station.

She was featured in issues #69 through #71. In order to escape the fictional war-torn country of Sierra Gordo, she and fellow Dreadnoks Monkeywrench and Thrasher hijack a G.I.Joe transport plane. This is accomplished by Zarana threatening to kill some of the civilians who are pleading with the Joes for a ride out. The Joes, Crazylegs, Wild-Bill and Maverick are forced to launch out with her, her allies and the refugee/hostages. The plane ends up shot down, though all survive. In an effort to escape the country, Zarana actually works with the Joe team, the Dreadnoks, and the refugees. In one instance, she punches Thrasher's broken arm in order to get him to be even more violent against a large group of adversaries.

Zarana and the Dreadnoks would work with the Joes again, like much of Cobra, in the aftermath of the Cobra Civil War. The stress gets to her, leading to a fist-fight with Lady Jaye.

Zarana is a fearless fighter and risk taker. She took on a lot of responsibilities for COBRA after Destro, Zartan and the Baroness left, effectively becoming Cobra Commander's second in command. She was captured by Firefly, but was rescued by Slice and Dice who found her by accident. She is reunited with Cobra. As revealed in her complaints, she had spent months in a dungeon on Cobra Island, abandoned there with Road Pig and Cesspool. ^[2] She was partly responsible for recruiting Scarlett (although Scarlett turned out to be a double agent). After Dr. Mindbender was revived by Cobra Commander, he "cut Zarana loose" and she returns to the Dreadnoks.

Zarana makes a big return in Devil's Due Productions' G.I. Joe comic series, successfully ferrying vital technological devices to Cobra, with the assistance of the Crimson Twins. She might have been captured before her escape, but she had recognized two of the men following her, long-time Joe veterans.

Until recently, Zarana was in charge of the Chicago-based chapter of the Dreadnoks. She was in line to succeed Zartan but they had a falling-out after the appearance of Zartan's daughter Zanya.

Zarana leads a Dreadnoks/Cobra squad against an out of control Battle Android Trooper. She loses several Alley Vipers. A grenade thrown by a G.I.Joe squad injures her, though she is still mobile. Zartan orders Zanya to leave with her; they try and escape in a Cobra Coil motorcycle but circumstances change and they are arrested with most of the other Dreadnoks. ^[3]

In G.I. Joe: America's Elite, the Phoenix Guard member Friday was revealed to be Zarana. It is not yet known how she came to be a part of that group. She was taken into custody following the Guard's attack on the Rock, and imprisoned in "The Coffin", a maximum security penitentiary located in Greenland. She later escaped imprisonment during Tomax's raid on the facility.^[4] At the conclusion of the World War III storyline, Zarana is revealed to have escaped the mass defeat and capture of Cobra's forces, and is back with the Dreadnoks (who are now sans Zartan).

The comic series Dreadnoks Declassified reveals that Zarana's given name is Zoe.

Zarana first appears in the G.I. Joe episode "Arise Serpentor, Arise" voiced by Lisa Raggio. She and Zandar join their brother Zartan when he is auditioning for new members of the Dreadnoks. In the episode "Computer Complications",^[5] Zarana goes undercover at a Joe base as "Carol Weidler". During that time, she and Mainframe develop romantic feelings for each other. At the end of the episode, the Dreadnoks joke to her: “Hey, Zarana, I’ve been thinking! Maybe you oughta quit the Dreadnoks, go marry that wimp, get a house in the suburbs, have kids.” to which she responds by shooting in their direction. The episode ends showing both Mainframe and Zarana, miles away looking at the moon, perhaps pondering the same question.^[6] She was briefly reunited with Mainframe in "Grey Hairs And Growing Pains" where Zarana supplied her paramour with the antidote that would restore he (and the other Joes) to their proper ages.^[7]

In G.I. Joe: The Movie, Zarana impersonates a blonde woman named Heather who gets Lt. Falcon to give her a "tour" of the place where Serpentor is being held. She uses mini-cameras in her earrings to take pictures of the prison. Her identity was confirmed to the viewers when the Dreadnoks arrive at the lake Zarana as Heather stops at. The devices Zaran plants in G.I. Joe's base helps Cobra/Cobra-la break Serpentor out. When Falcon and others sneak into Cobra-La, Zarana is knocked out by Jinx.

In the DIC-produced G.I. Joe cartoon, Zartan does not appear but his sister Zarana does, and the Dreadnoks are still working for Cobra, so it can be assumed Zartan is still around. Destro had left Baroness for Zarana as the two were dating during the "Operation: Dragonfire" miniseries. When Cobra Commander disposed of Serpentor, he told Destro to get back together with Baroness which ended with Destro sending Zarana down the trap door.

• Zarana's figure is briefly featured in the fiction novel 6 Sick Hipsters. In the story, the character Paul Achting spent four years collecting G.I. Joe figures to set up a battle scene between the Joes and Cobra. As he imagined the characters in his head, he described the Dreadnoks as "an elite team of maniacal mercenaries allied with Cobra for this battle", with the figures lying in the thick of the shag carpet, and to the left of Zandar and Monkeywrench was "the lovely Zarana, Zartan's sister, sharpening her knife and dreaming of warm flesh".^[8]

• She is mentioned as a strong female character in the non-fiction novel 'Action chicks: new images of tough women in popular culture'. ^[9]

Zarana is also a name for girls from India, pronounced Jhurna or Tarana. Though the name can be found written alternatively as Jharna, Zarana is the most common spelling. The word Jharna itself means house spring in Hindi/Urdu. The word Tarana means a song of praise Urdu.

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• MyUselessKnowledge Zarana entry