Snake Eyes is the most iconic member of the G.I. Joes. The constantly changing dynamic between Snake Eyes and his "brother" Storm Shadow, which has seen the pair shift from friends to enemies and back again many times, is one of the franchise's most complex bits of mythology. For a long time, the beginnings of their relationship were shrouded in mystery before secrets about their time in Vietnam and training in the same ninja clan were revealed.
In the original G.I. Joe comics' continuity, which began when the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero series was first published by Marvel Comics, many of the characters' histories were tied to the then-recent Vietnam War -- and Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's bond was no exception. Thomas "Tommy" S. Arashikage, the future Storm Shadow, served alongside the unnamed man who would become known as Snake Eyes as part of a U.S. long-range reconnaissance patrol during Vietnam. Also in their unit was Lonzo Wilkinson, who would become the Joe known as Stalker. Tommy and Snake Eyes had also served together during a previous tour, during which they became the only survivors of a battle that killed the rest of their unit. The two of them were shown to be very close, but the trauma of the earlier incident caused Snake Eyes to have trouble connecting with their new unit. During a battle in which most of the new team was killed, Snake Eyes was shot and Tommy used his ninja training to evade enemy fire and extract him. Snake Eyes was discharged but was in for an even more traumatic experience upon returning home. While waiting at the airport, he was greeted by Clay Abernathy, the future General Hawk, who told him that his parents and twin sister had been killed in a car accident on the way to the airport.
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Shattered by grief, Snake Eyes spent a short time working as a kind of vigilante alongside the man who would become Cobra Commander, whose brother was the drunk driver that killed Snake Eyes' family, before accepting Tommy's long-standing invitation to join his "family business" in Japan -- which he was surprised to learn was really the Arashikage ninja clan. Snake Eyes began to train under the Arashikage alongside Tommy but their relationship soon began to strain. Tommy became jealous of the favor Snake Eyes quickly earned from his uncle, the Hard Master, and was hurt by the harsh criticisms the Hard Master and their other teachers made of him. When Firefly and Zartan were hired to kill Snake Eyes by Cobra Commander they accidentally killed the Hard Master, who had been mirroring Snake Eyes' breathing at the time. The assassins had used an arrow with the same design as Tommy's, leading Snake Eyes and the rest of the clan to believe that Tommy's jealousy, furthered by the fact that the Hard Master wanted Snake Eyes to replace him as the head of the clan, led Tommy to kill his uncle.
Snake Eyes left the clan and lived in isolation in the High Sierras until Stalker and Hawk found him and recruited him into the first iteration of the G.I. Joe squad. Snake Eyes quickly forged a bond with Shana O'Hara, a.k.a. Scarlett. When equipment failure on a mission led their helicopter to crash, he risked his life to save her. He was horribly burned in the crash but was determined to complete the mission to rescue George Strawhacker, who had been engaged to his sister, Terri. Following the accident, Snake Eyes' face was scarred and he was unable to speak, leading him to adopt the masked persona he's famous for when he resolved to stay with the Joes. His bond with Scarlett would lead to his next encounter with Tommy, who was now serving Cobra as Storm Shadow after infiltrating their ranks with the goal of finding the Hard Master's killer. When Scarlett was kidnapped by Cobra, Snake Eyes went on a solo rescue mission, leading him to battle Tommy in the famous "Silent Interlude" issue by Larry Hama, Steve Leialoha and George Roussos.
Storm Shadow eventually discovered that Zartan killed the Hard Master and defected from Cobra, joining the Joes, but he would often switch sides again, usually under the influence of Cobra brainwashing. Although their backstories often change, his and Snake Eyes' rivalry has remained an important part of almost all versions of G.I. Joe, including adaptations for other media. Both characters are set to appear in an upcoming live-action Snake Eyes solo film, with Henry Golding playing the titular character and Andrew Koji portraying Storm Shadow.