Zandar is the brother of Zartan and Zarana. He is as mysterious as the rest of his family. Like his siblings’, little is known about Zandar’s past. It is believed that he worked with the Dreadnoks for some time before Zartan brought them to Florida to join with Cobra. Even as a child, Zandar was the kid no one noticed. Teachers never called on him, and people barely remembered having met him. He used that to his advantage, and learned to easily hide from or sneak up on people. He took an almost perverse pleasure in not being noticed. Over the years, he became an expert at concealment and camoflauge, and became skilled in the use of silent weapons. Zandar was also an expert at disguise like his brother and sister. He never used any of these skills to do anyone any good, and became involved in criminal activities, following in the footsteps of his brother. Usually grim and silent, Zandar was not beyond cracking a joke on occasion.
Years after Zartan began working almost exclusively for Cobra, Zandar and Zarana 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. Zandar and Zarana 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, they escaped from the Joes and headed to Cobra Island. For the next few years, the siblings spent most of their time working for Cobra. As Zartan became increasingly less involved with the Dreadnoks, Zarana became their de facto leader. Zandar spent much of his time with the Dreadnoks, but as usual, he stayed in the background, quietly working behind the scenes as Zartan and Zarana followed their own ambitions. Zartan and his siblings allied themselves with Cobra Commander during the Cobra Island Civil war, and even commanded some of his forces. The war finally came to an end when Zartan killed Serpentor with an arrow. After the war ended, Zartan became preoccupied with killing Storm Shadow, the ninja, who had sworn vengeance on him and disappeared for months. Zandar and his sister didn’t seem to mind, and kept working with Cobra, running a real estate scam in Cobra’s new New Jersey community, Broca Beach. The town was essentially run by the Dreadnoks for a time. Zandar and Zarana were later put in charge of Cobra’s semi-legitimate telemarketing business after fighting the Joes in the New York sewers to tap into the city’s telephone system. During this time, Zandar was also involved in an incident that neither his brother or sister knew of. He was approached by Dr. Mindbender to serve as his representative during a business transaction between the Cobra scientist and a rogue general who was part of the cabal known as the Jugglers. Under the false identity of James Nurss, Zandar helped broker the sale and transfer of an item to the general. The item turned out to be a clone of the late Serpentor, that Mindbender had experimented with for some time. He altered the clone’s appearance and artificially aged it so it would not resemble Serpentor. Many years later, the Jugglers would activate the clone under the guise of General Philip Rey. As more of Cobra’s high command, including Zartan, turned their backs on Cobra, Zarana became a close ally of Cobra Commander. Zandar, meanwhile, returned to obscurity and was not seen working for Cobra for years.
After Cobra was broken up by the military in 1995, Zandar resurfaced among his brother’s Dreadnoks, who grew over the years to become an organized national biker gang. Zandar helped see to the security of the Dreadnok’s main compound in the Florida Everglades. He was rarely seen by the other Dreadnoks, spending much of his time lurking in the swamps, leaving many uncertain as to where he was at any given time. Unknown to his older brother, Zandar had, for years, had a growing resentment towards Zartan, who he believed was ignoring him, and leaving him behind as he became more successful. He continued to kept these feelings to himself as he worked for the expanding organization. After the Dreadnoks once began working for Cobra in 2001, Zandar fought invading members of the reinstated G.I. Joe team at the Everglades compound. Some time later, Zandar was involved in Cobra’s dealings with the terrorist Tyler Wingfield and tried to kill the Joes’ undercover agent, Chuckles. Zandar continued to be difficult to keep track of for the next few months until he reappeared in a surprising place. A secret group known as The Coil had revived the body of Serpentor years earlier and the former Cobra Emperor secretly built a new army on Cobra Island to challenge Cobra and begin conquering the world. When Cobra Commander was captured and brought before Serpentor, his kidnapper was revealed to be Zandar. He had been spying on Cobra ever since it reformed. Tired of being subordinate to his brother, Zandar believed he was being left behind and pushed away by Zartan. Both Cobra and G.I. Joe soon staged an assault on Cobra Island, and during the fight a masked Zandar confronted his brother. In the ensuing fight, Zartan stabbed his unknown attacker, and was shocked when Zandar revealed his identity. Zartan immediately took his Dreadnoks out of the fight and left the island, carrying his wounded brother in his arms. The wound Zandar recieved was potentially lethal, but he eventually recovered.
Fearing the retaliation of Cobra Commander, Zartan made a deal to take the Commander’s place when he was being baited into a trap by the G.I. Joe team. Disguised as Cobra Commander, Zartan fought Hawk during the battle that followed and shot the Joe commander in the back, paralyzing him. Afterwards, Zartan was shot by the Baroness (not knowing his true identity) and was captured by the Joes and held in a government facility. Cobra Commander eventually led the Dreadnoks on the rescue of Zartan. They all headed back to Cobra Island, where Destro was now running the organization. Many of the Cobra agents betrayed Destro and allowed the Commander to get past the Island’s defenses. Zandar and Zartan then watched as the Commander took control of the weapon known as the Tempest, a device that could make it rain. With Dr. Mindbender’s help, it was used to make the flesh-eating Death Angel virus rain down upon a chosen area. Zartan decided that he had no interest in helping commit mass murder, and he, Zandar, and the rest of the Dreadnoks left the island. They remained in the Everglades while the Joes defeated the Commander’s plans and dealt with a new threat known as the Red Shadows. In the wake of their defeat, at the hands of the Joes, and an attack by the Red Shadows, Cobra was once again scattered across the globe. Zandar later encountered the Joes; Duke and General Philip Rey when the pair came to the Everglades searching for answers about Rey’s past. In one of Zandar’s many aliases, Zandar had some connections to the men who used the process that created Serpentor which gave life to General Rey. Zartan turned Zandar over to the two Joes, believing that anything Zandar was involved with on his own did not concern him. Duke and Rey got the information they needed and left the swamps. Zandar, Zartan, and the rest of the Dreadnoks have since had no contact with G.I. Joe or Cobra.