G.I. Joe #54 (December 1986) – “Launch Base” – Larry Hama/Rod Whigham/Sam De La Rosa
This one opens with Snake Eyes and Scarlett honouring Destro with a bouquet of flowers on the site where the Pit collapsed last issue. They’re not the only ones, as Baroness glides by to drop a wreath for her dead boyfriend. Meanwhile on Cobra Island, Serpentor is enjoying his new position as Cobra leader (since Cobra Commander supposedly died alongside Destro) and makes a deal with the new provisional government of Sierra Gordo to buy a Terror Drome from Cobra. (The Terror Drome is a launch base for a Firebat jet, which can take down pretty much any plane that gets too close.) At Fort Wadsworth, Wild Bill and Airborne meet Slipstream, the new Joe pilot, who impresses them with his video game prowess. We also find out
that Cobra Commander and Destro aren’t dead yet, just trapped under tons of rubble. A week later, Cobra has constructed a demonstration model of a Terror Drome in Sierra Gordo and the Joes notice from satellite footage. Airtight inadvertently gives Hawk an idea on how to get someone inside the Sierrra Gordo base to gather intel, since they’re strictly forbidden from going to Cobra Island. Slipstream shows up in Sierra Gordo flying the new X-30 jet, with a curiously silent Flint as a passenger. Cobra sends up a Firebat and after a brief dogfight, the X-30 is hit and crashes, leaving Flint to bail out alone—or so it 
seems. Actually, Slipstream fakes a crash and takes off in stealth mode, leaving Flint behind to be captured by Tomax and Xamot. (The Sierra Gordo dictators are so impressed they’re ready to order six more Terror Dromes immediately.) We see Flint back at Joe headquarters listening to Slipstream’s report, so who just got grabbed in Sierra Gordo? Scarlett seems very worried, so I think that gives us a pretty big clue. Tomax and Xamot notice something strange too, since this version of Flint isn’t the brash asshole who almost strangled Tomax in issue 37. Dr. Mindbender decides to use the
brainwave scanner on the prisoner (who’s obviously Snake Eyes in disguise), which freaks him out. Back at Fort Wadsworth, it starts raining like hell and Destro and Cobra Commander worry that they’ll drown from the runoff. This is a pretty good issue, bringing Sierra Gordo back into the story and letting us know that Destro and Cobra Commander are still alive. We also get our first look at Slipstream and the X-30 in action, although we already caught a glimpse of him in issue 49.
G.I. Joe Special Missions #2 (December 1986) – “Words of Honor” – Larry Hama/Herb Trimpe
This one starts with Hawk briefing a team of Joes about a World War II German plane that was recently found sticking out the side of a glacier in Greenland, apparently having crashed on its way to New York. That’s not unprecedented, but according to a Nazi scientist who’s been hiding in Brazil since the War, the plane was loaded with nerve toxin that could still be deadly. The aging Nazi (Otto Totenschadel) says he’s the only one who knows how to safely disarm the nerve gas canisters and wants to make a deal for immunity, since he’s tired of hiding in the jungle. The deal has to be kept secret, since Totenschadel
doesn’t want his fellow Nazi exiles to know about it. The Joes aren’t happy about making a deal with a Nazi, but the nerve gas could spread halfway across the Northern Hemisphere if it got into the wind currents. Snow Job, Airtight, Alpine, and Breaker are heading to the glacier, while Clutch, Roadblock, Recondo, and Dial Tone go to Brazil to make the deal with Totenschadel. Clutch is especially bothered by that, since his grandmother was Jewish and spent time in a concentration camp. In Brazil, the Joes see how fortified Totenschadel’s place is but before they can figure out how to 
get inside, they’re surprised by some guys pretending to be locals, but who are actually Mossad agents after Totenschadel. Roadblock figures the Joes should play along and knocks Recondo out before he can mention the deal with Totenschadel. Inside the house, Totenschadel is paranoid as hell, worrying that someone is coming to kill him. His guards (who are the sons of ex-SS officers raised to consider guys like Totenschadel as heroes) assure him they’ll protect him. In Greenland, the Joes can’t land on the glacier or rappel directly onto the plane without breaking it loose, so they winch down to the glacier so Alpine and Airtight can rappel to the plane. Unfortunately, a Cobra team shows up (led by Firefly) on a snow-sled,
having apparently already made a deal with Totenschadel. In Brazil, the Mossad commander (Ibrahim) argues with Clutch about making a deal with Totenschadel, detailing the Nazi’s crimes and how he developed and tested nerve gas on camp prisoners. Ibrahim figures Totenschadel is lying about the nerve agent on the plane to save his own ass. Meanwhile, the supposedly-unconscious Recondo has sneaked into the Nazi compound and made it to Totenschadel’s bedroom. The Nazi isn’t too surprised and is ready to make a deal. On the glacier, both sides have to be careful not to shake things up and dislodge the plane, but Breaker uses a grenade to send 
the Cobra snow-sled over the edge. In Brazil, Totenschadel tells Recondo he doesn’t need money (since he has plenty of gold from the Reich treasury), just protection from the Israelis, which Recondo says the Americans will provide. Outside, Clutch convinces Ibrahim that the Joes an help assault the compound, even though their final goals are contradictory. Ibrahim agrees to let them help in the assault, but afterwards all bets are off. In Greenland, Airtight and Alpine get inside the plane and Airtight finds the decades-old anti-tamper devices a joke. Alpine finds something interesting in the pilot’s log book, but before he can reveal it, the Cobra pilot (who survived the snow-sled’s fall by clinging to the side of the glacier) starts shooting, piercing one of the nerve gas canisters. Luckily, the nerve agent is binary, so
it’s only deadly when two separate chemicals mix. The leaking gas is flammable though, so Airtight and Alpine decide to vent it all outside, rendering the nerve toxin useless. Unfortunately, Cobra is still shooting at them and rappelling down to the plane. Snow Job and Breaker haul their teammates up quickly, just before the Cobras blow themselves up by striking a spark on the plane’s wing with their crampons. In Brazil, Mossad and the Joes assault the compound and make it to Totenschadel quite easily, but have to figure out what to do with Totenschadel. Clutch gets a call from Alpine, who tells him what he found in the plane’s log book. Apparently, there were two planes heading for America back then, one with nerve gas and the other full of gold looted from camp prisoners. Totenschadel was flying one of the planes and pretended to have engine trouble so he could get the other plane 
to land. He knew the Americans would go all out to find him if the nerve gas actually made it to New York, so he killed the other crew and left the plane with the gas on the glacier, taking off in the other plane with all the gold so he could live like a king in South America. Totenschadel’s fellow Nazis know he’s no hero now and the Joes and Israelis leave so the Nazis can exact their own form of justice on him. This is a pretty good story, with the Joes having an interesting moral dilemma, one that was true to life. A lot of ex-Nazis did make deals with various governments, especially the Americans, whose space program was full of ex-Nazis. Having Totenschdel be extra scummy and even betray his own beliefs was appropriate, although it certainly was convenient that the Joes didn’t have to make that tough moral decision in the end. By the way, Totenschadel means “death skull” in German, so I guess that’s appropriate for a Nazi who experimented on prisoners with his own brand of nerve gas.