Kobra is the name used by two supervillains published by DC Comics. The Jeffrey Burr incarnation of Kobra and his brother Jason first appeared in Kobra #1 (February 1976), and were created by Jack Kirby. Jason Burr debuted as Kobra in Faces of Evil: Kobra #1 (March 2009) by Ivan Brandon and Julian Lopez. The Kobra identity is later established as an international terrorist organization that frequently clashes with superheroes associated with the Justice League.

Both Jeffrey and Jason Burr were created by Jack Kirby for a proposed DC Comics series called King Kobra, the first issue of which was both written and drawn by Kirby. This first issue then sat in DC inventory for over a year, during which time Kirby left the publisher to return to Marvel Comics.

Co-creator Steve Sherman commented on the character's creation. He stated that Kobra was originally created for a one-shot comic and was inspired by Dr. Phibes, a character who used different means of killing his opponents. Sherman created Kobra's name and aesthetic by combining Phibes with thugees - Indian robber gangs. Sherman met with Jack Kirby, who created the idea of the Burr siblings. He was inspired by The Corsican Brothers, a novella about conjoined twins who were separated at birth, but continue to share pain. By the time the meeting was over, Sherman and Kirby had written outlines for several stories beyond the initial one-shot.

The concept was handed over to writer Martin Pasko with orders to make a series out of it. Pasko was unimpressed with King Kobra, feeling it to be a throwaway idea churned out by Kirby as he was preparing to leave DC, and tried to make the best out of the assignment by whiting out all of Kirby's original dialogue, rescripting the issue, and having Pablo Marcos redraw some of the art. Now titled simply Kobra, the first issue of the series appeared in late 1975 (cover-dated February 1976). It was cancelled after seven issues, though the contents of the unpublished Kobra #8 saw print in DC Special Series #1. Pasko later reflected: "I wrote all of Kobra with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek—it was a preposterous exercise dumped in my lap, and it helped pay the rent on a very nice place in the Village".

Kobra is also featured in a January 2009 Faces of Evil one-shot, written by Ivan Brandon.

Kobra is an international terrorist and mad scientist who has crossed paths with the majority of Earth's costumed heroes during his attempts to usher in the Kali Yuga, an age of chaos. His real name is Jeffrey Burr, and he was born part of a set of conjoined twins, but was stolen at birth by the Cult of the Kobra God, since a prophecy claimed he would lead them to rule the world. Under their teaching, he became a dangerous warrior and a sadistic criminal mastermind. He led the cult into using advanced technology to menace the world. Followers of Kobra frequently address their master as "Naja-Naja", the binomial name of the Indian cobra. This later became "Nāga-Naga", a meaningless title which translates from Sanskrit as "snake-snake". Whether this change was intentional or an error is unknown.

Unbeknownst to the cult, Jeffrey possesses a psychic link to his twin brother Jason, causing the two to share pain. At first, Kobra is unable to kill or even hurt his brother; eventually, however, he uses a device that "shut off" their psychic link, allowing him to kill Jason. Kobra was subsequently haunted by visions of his brother. Whether it really was his ghost or just Kobra's imagination was never revealed.

In subsequent years, Kobra would clash with assorted superheroes, including Batman, whom he first met over a Lazarus Pit of his own creation. Kobra had learned to build modified Lazarus Pits, which allowed him to control the minds of those he killed and resurrected. Kobra is the only person in the DC universe ever to decipher the formula for the Lazarus Pits. Kobra had special concerns about Wonder Woman and sought to ensure her death, first by hiring a cartel of international assassins who were led secretly by corrupted UN Crisis Bureau chief Morgan Tracy (also Diana Prince's boss), then by kidnapping and irretrievably damaging environmental activist Deborah Demaine, forcibly transforming her into a new Cheetah, and ultimately, facing Wonder Woman in combat in Egypt, faking his own demise after being defeated by the Amazon Princess. A short while later his various Strike Force Kobra teams would fight two different incarnations of Batman's Outsiders. Kobra also fought the third Flash, the Suicide Squad led by Amanda Waller, the original incarnation of Checkmate, Captain Atom, a Superman whose personality had been swapped with Ambush Bug's by exposure to red Kryptonite, and others.