G.I. Joe #25 (July 1984) – “Zartan” – Larry Hama/Frank Springer/Mike Gustovich
This one starts with a squad of Joes taking Storm Shadow (who was captured last issue while he helped Cobra Commander escape Joe custody) to Alcatraz Prison. Storm Shadow doesn’t seem bothered about being taken to an inescapable prison and assumes he’ll be breaking out right away. In Florida, Cobra Commander, Destro, and Baroness are in the Everglades to meet Zartan, who introduces himself by showboating on his Swamp Skier.
(If you’re wondering where Major Bludd is, he’s in a cell at Cobra headquarters after trying to betray Cobra Commander in Switzerland.) Zartan takes them to his hideout, which is a high-tech headquarters disguised as a dilapidated shack. In the Gulf of Mexico, a team of Joes gets ready to go into the Everglades in search of whatever Cobra is hiding. (They’re following the postal receipt to Chokoloskee that Storm Shadow had on him when he was caught.) We get to see some new Joes including Deep Six (a Navy diver with the personality of a cold fish) and Mutt (the dog handler who’s a lot more vicious than his dog, 
Junkyard). We also learn that Zap is qualified to fly helicopters but hasn’t flown in a long time, so he’s a nervous wreck. In Bethesda Naval Hospital, Snake Eyes is visiting Gung Ho when Gung Ho notices the weird tattoo on Snake Eyes’s wrist and mentions that Storm Shadow has one just like it. That causes Snake Eyes to take off like a bat out of hell. Gung Ho calls Hawk to warn him about the possible connection between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, so Hawk calls Alcatraz to tell the Joes there to be extra careful with the Cobra ninja. When they check his cell, he’s already gone. In the Everglades, Zartan releases Firefly and Wild Weasel from the cell he’s been keeping them in
after ambushing them last issue. Zartan demonstrates how he can actually change his skin to mimic patterns like a chameleon and when the Dreadnoks announce some Joes are approaching, he sends Wild Weasel to go take care of them. The Joes come in on two choppers, dropping off Torpedo, Trip Wire, Mutt, and Junkyard just before Firefly and Wild Weasel engage them in the Water Moccasin. (There’s no sign of Copperhead, the usual Moccasin pilot.) After a quick firefight, Deep Six shows up in the SHARC to take out the Moccasin, although Firefly and Wild Weasel survive. Baroness questions Zartan’s competence 
and he questions her loyalty. Cobra Commander seems to agree, but when Baroness hints at her knowledge of the secrets he’s keeping (mostly that he’s the one who hired Major Bludd to kill Destro), he claims to trust her completely. In the swamp, Junkyard races ahead and trees Firefly and Wild Weasel, allowing Mutt, Torpedo, and Trip Wire to capture them. Junkyard takes off again, pissing Mutt off. Deep Six returns to the ship and ignores Wild Bill’s handshake attempt, which pisses him off until Cutter explains that Deep Six just isn’t a people person. Meanwhile, Junkyard finds Zartan’s hideout and Zartan is ready to blow the dog away. This is a good issue that introduces a bunch of new characters (and vehicles) from the toy line. I can’t help wondering if Larry Hama resented having to fit every new toy into the comic; if he did, it
doesn’t really show. The new characters fit in organically and all have their own personalities. We get our first looks at Cutter, Mutt and Junkyard, and Deep Six (whose “cold personality” thing is almost overdone here … he’s even drawn to look like a basset hound). We also see the main Dreadnoks for the first time (Buzzer, Torch, and Ripper, although there seems to be a fourth one in one panel). Many of these characters will end up being fan favourites (or maybe Larry Hama favourites) and I wonder how much backstory he’d already worked out for them. Zartan and Firefly will tie into Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow’s background, but I don’t know if that was planned right from the start or added later. Speaking of the two ninjas, this issue sets up the next two where Snake Eyes’s background is finally explored and we see his connection to Storm Shadow.
G.I. Joe #26 (August 1984) – “Snake Eyes: The Origin” – Larry Hama/Steve Leialoha
This issue continues from the last one, with Destro intervening to stop Zartan from shooting Junkyard … not just out of humanity, but because he thinks Junkyard probably belongs to the Joes. Meanwhile, in Spanish Harlem, New York, a kid tries to hold up a café but is neatly disarmed by the owner (a polite, older Japanese man), who has a box full of guns he’s taken off would-be robbers. The old man’s skill impresses the place’s only customer, who turns out to be Snake Eyes … and the two of them apparently know each other quite well. In the Pit, Hawk and Scarlett are trying to figure out the connection between
Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and Stalker helps by talking about how he served with Snake Eyes in Vietnam. We get a flashback to a Long Range Recon Patrol returning from being ambushed in the jungle; Snake Eyes, Stalker, and an Asian-American kid named Tommy from Fresno were the only survivors and were heading for the nearest LZ for a fast extraction. They were ambushed at the LZ and Snake Eyes was wounded, but Tommy ran through a hail of gunfire to get him out, seemingly dodging bullets the whole time. As Tommy used his wristbands to bind Snake Eyes’s wounds on the chopper, 
Stalker saw the tattoo on his arm. Turns out Tommy’s Japanese surname translates to “Storm Shadow” in English. In the Everglades, Cobra Commander, Destro, Baroness, and Zartan follow Junkyard into the swamp, hoping he’ll lead them to the Joes. Torpedo, Trip Wire, and Mutt decide to retreat to high ground, but when they go to pick up Firefly and Wild Weasel (they left them tied to a tree), they’ve already escaped. In New York, the old man (who we’ll soon learn is called the Soft Master) returns some of Snake Eyes’s possessions to him, including some war medals and a photo of his twin sister that was almost a talisman for him in Vietnam. At the Pit, Hawk recounts how he was the junior officer who had to meet Snake Eyes when he
returned from Vietnam and tell him that his family had been wiped out in a car crash with some drunken veteran. The thread of Snake Eyes’s story is taken up by Soft Master in New York, who’s now reminiscing about how Snake Eyes took up Tommy’s offer to work for his “family business” in Japan … not realizing until he got there that the family were all ninjas (including the Soft Master and his elder brother, the Hard Master). Snake Eyes trained with them and became part of the clan, even receiving the same hexagram tattoo as the others. Snake Eyes became a better fighter than Storm Shadow, but could 
never match his archery skills, since Storm Shadow was so good he could hit targets behind solid objects by hearing them. But Storm Shadow’s casual attitude about killing bothered Snake Eyes and drove a wedge between the two friends. The Hard Master wanted to make Snake Eyes heir to the clan leadership instead of Storm Shadow, but Snake Eyes turned him down. Hard Master was demonstrating how to change your breathing and heart rate to mimic someone else, thus fooling someone like Storm Shadow who could pick targets by hearing their heartbeats. While Hard Master was imitating Snake Eyes’s heartbeat, someone put an arrow through him. Soft Master saw Storm Shadow running away, but Hard Master insisted he
wasn’t the one who shot him. (Hard Master had earlier heard someone outside, but dismissed him as “a person of no danger to the likes of us”. The clan kind of fell apart after that and Soft Master believes Storm Shadow did kill his brother, which is why he’s been keeping tabs on the Cobra ninja. He points out that Hard Master was killed while imitating Snake Eyes, meaning he was Storm Shadow’s real target. In the Everglades, the Cobras are gaining on the Joes … until Junkyard leads them right into some quicksand. This is a classic issue that delves into Snake Eyes’s past for the first time, setting up the mystery of who killed the Hard Master. Storm 
Shadow is the obvious choice, but will turn out to be innocent, so I have to assume Larry Hama already knew who the real killer was. If you look at the flashbacks, it seems obvious that Hard Master knew someone was trying to kill Snake Eyes and that’s why he imitated his heartbeat, to save his life. But maybe I’m just seeing that in hindsight, since I know the whole story and who the killer is. It’s interesting to see the Vietnam flashbacks, with the young Stalker, Snake Eyes, and Storm Shadow serving together (and is that supposed to be Wild Bill flying the extraction chopper?). We’ll get more about their time in South-East Asia in future issues, where we find out what happened to the rest of their LRRP team … one in particular.