G.I. Joe #47 (May 1986) – “Sea Duel” – Larry Hama/Rod Whigham/Andy Mushynsky
This one starts where last issue left off, with the Joes loading the wounded Ripcord into the Killer Whale after finding him on Cobra Island. Of course, we know that this isn’t actually Ripcord, it’s Zartan in disguise hoping to infiltrate Joe headquarters, while the real Ripcord is in the Cobra Firebat plane that just launched from the island. Destro, Baroness, Buzzer, and Dr. Mindbender show up in a Cobra helicopter, but before they can fire on the Joes (who are technically breaking the law by violating Cobra Island’s sovereignty), the Whale blasts them first. Meanwhile, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are fighting their way to
the airfield hoping to steal a Cobra jet, but when Baroness crash-lands the chopper she wipes out all the jets on the tarmac, so the two ninjas head for the docks to steal a boat. Hawk shows up with Wild Bill in the Dragonfly and stays behind so “Ripcord” can be taken back to the Pit. When Doc was tranquilizing the fake Ripcord, he noticed him almost changing into Zartan for a second or two, but before he can mention it to Hawk, the action on the island distracts them. As Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow try to steal a Cobra hydrofoil, Hawk takes a couple of new Joes (Wetsuit and Beach-Head) with him in the Devilfish motorboats to keep Cobra from attacking the ninjas. Dr. Mindbender leads the attack with a couple of Cobra sea-skimmers (which he apparently designed) and manages to blast Hawk’s Devilfish and disable 
the stolen hydrofoil. While Storm Shadow deals with a couple of Eels who were hiding in the hydrofoil’s chain locker, Mindbender comes around for another shot at the remaining Devilfish. But the Joes detonate the torpedoes before they hit and capsize the sea-skimmers by driving between them at high speed. The fight between Storm Shadow and the Eels has attracted some sharks, so Snake Eyes jumps in the water to kill one. The Joes rescue Snake Eyes, but Storm Shadow goes down in a shark frenzy. He somehow survives, staggering onto the beach only to be shot down by Baroness. Snake Eyes freaks, but there’s nothing he can do about it. In the meantime, the pre-programmed Firebat has landed in Springfield and the unconscious
“Zartan” (who’s really Ripcord) is taken to hospital by Torch and Ripper, while the real Zartan (still disguised as Ripcord) is taken to the Pit … just like he’d hoped. This is another issue I had as a kid, so I’ve read it plenty of times. We get our first look at Beach-Head and Wetsuit, as well as the Devilfish and Cobra Sea-Skimmers. The biggest thing in this issue is Storm Shadow being shot by Baroness, which looks pretty bleak … but we all know you can’t keep a good ninja down.
G.I. Joe #48 (June 1986) – “Slaughter” – Larry Hama/Rod Whigham/Andy Mushynsky
This one starts with Cobra retrieving Storm Shadow’s body and reminding us that ninjas can feign death very convincingly. Dr. Mindbender takes charge of the body, saying that such “good genetic material” shouldn’t be wasted. In the Pit, Scarlett tries to cheer Snake Eyes up and Doc takes a blood sample from “Ripcord” that doesn’t match his medical records. Of course, “Ripcord” is really Zartan and he quickly changes into Snake Eyes to catch Doc by surprise, knocking him out and taking off. In Springfield, Buzzer (who was on Cobra Island last issue but must’ve made a return trip to Springfield) tries to explain to Zartan about stealing his motorbike (in issue 35), but when he mentions his escape from
Joe headquarters with Candy, “Zartan” freaks out … because he’s actually Ripcord in disguise. In the Pit, Scarlett and the real Snake Eyes find Doc and realize there’s an intruder in the Pit, so they sound the alarm, but Zartan has already switched disguises from Snake Eyes to Trip Wire. In Springfield, Ripcord pounds Buzzer until the other Drednoks stop him and Buzzer figures they’d better get “Zartan” out of town since he seems to have gone nuts. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., an ambassador from Cobra Island is trying to get the United States to establish formal diplomatic relations with them by threatening to lease space for missile bases to hostile foreign powers. In the Pit, Zartan causes chaos by switching from one disguise to another, while a new Joe named Sgt. Slaughter reports for duty, making some of the Joes suspicious since 
they weren’t told of his arrival. The Dreadnoks stop for lunch and Ripcord gets away long enough to call the Pit before leaning fully into his Zartan persona so he can find Springfield’s location. (I thought the Joes already knew where Springfield was, but maybe Cobra moved it … or they had two Springfields?) Anyway, thanks to Ripcord’s call, the Joes know it’s Zartan they’re after, but that doesn’t help much. Sgt. Slaughter pounds some Joes to establish his cred and takes charge of the manhunt, directing the Joes to cover the ventilation shafts. Zartan does try that route and ends up slugging it out with Gung Ho. When Sgt. Slaughter is confronted with two Gung Ho’s, he decks one at random and ends up getting lucky, knocking Zartan out. Meanwhile at the Pentagon, Hawk is told that Cobra Island is strictly off-limits from now on, so Cobra’s threats must’ve worked. This is a good issue, with Zartan running around sowing anarchy in the Pit. It’s interesting that both sides now know the locations of each other’s secret headquarters, although Buzzer hasn’t actually shared
his knowledge with Cobra yet and Zartan has been captured, so that would seem to give the Joes the advantage. We get another new character, Sgt. Slaughter, who’s based on a real-life (so to speak) wrestler of the time. I think this is where the comic starts getting a little too weird, with wrestlers joining the Joes and Dr. Mindbender creating Serpentor from various corpses (as we’ll see soon). I realize Larry Hama had no choice since he had to incorporate whatever characters Hasbro came up with, and he actually does a pretty good job of making them fit into the overall story with at least a certain amount of logic, but I wish some of these goofy bastards had never been conceived.