G.I. Joe Special Missions #11 (June 1988) – “Sheep’s Clothing” – Larry Hama/Herb Trimpe
This one starts in Frankfurt, Germany, where a group of four armed robbers have taken over the main PX building at the American base and are holding hostages inside. Chuckles, Dial-Tone, and Lowlight are on the scene, but Chuckles calls in Scarlett, Lady Jaye, and Jinx from New York for back-up. Chuckles tells the trio (and us) how everything went own, using security footage to show how a robbery turned into a hostage situation. Apparently,
the robbers are terrorists trying to fund their activities by robbing the PX, which does a substantial cash business in American currency. Scarlett wonders why the terrorists haven’t made any demands and Dial-Tone supplies the answer when he gets a report of a hijacked plane at Frankfurt airport. Obviously, that’s going to be the terrorists’ means of escape, so the Joes head for the airport. But Dial-Tone overhears the terrorists radio frequency and realizes they have a lookout in a tall building somewhere, relaying the Joes’ every move to the terrorists at the PX. They plan to take the hostages on the plane as a shield, but before Dial-Tone can get any more info, they change frequencies. Chuckles figures they can use he terrorists’ plan to watch the 
Joes to their own advantage. When the terrorists make their demand for transport to the airport, Chuckles convinces them to swap the PX hostages for three nurses from the local base; of course, it’s Scarlett, Lady Jaye, and Jinx playing the nurses. Unfortunately, the terrorists blindfolded and handcuff the three women before loading them into the armoured car to go to the airport. Chuckles trusts that his teammates will find a way to deal with the terrorists and decides to go ahead with his part of the mission. That entails switching from their jeep to a streetcar while inside a tunnel so the terrorist spotter won’t see them. By looking at a plan of the city’s buildings, they’ve figured out that the spotter won’t be able to see his confederates in the armoured car for one block because his view will be blocked by buildings. Chuckles signals the women in the armoured car with the
streetcar bell and they start pounding the terrorists, even though they’re still cuffed and blindfolded. Chuckles shoots the driver and takes his place in time for the car to emerge back into the spotter’s sight, without letting him know anything is wrong. At the airport, they pretend to be terrorists to get onto the plane and take out the hijackers, then they head back with a chopper to grab the spotter. This is a really good issue that shows the Joes dealing with a realistic threat. It’s cool to see the women of the team kicking some ass, and doing it under less than ideal circumstances. Once again, Larry Hama doesn’t shy away from showing people getting killed, and the terrorists’ brutality isn’t toned down either.
G.I. Joe #73 (July 1988) – “Divided We Fall” – Larry Hama/Ron Wagner/Randy Emberlin
Last issue, the genetically-modified Star Viper successfully infiltrated the new Pit and stole a top secret electronic black box from the Joes. This issue opens with them trying to figure out how he got in undetected, but they’re interrupted when General Hollingsworth arrives. He tells Hawk the top brass at the Pentagon aren’t happy about the theft and want the black box back. Since Cobra Island is a sovereign country, Hollingsworth can’t legally order the Joes to go in, but he “suggests” Hawk send a covert team in to scope things out for a bigger force. Meanwhile, the Star Viper returns to Cobra Island with the black box expecting accolades, but Serpentor and Cobra Commander (who’s actually
Fred VII in disguise) too busy fighting with each other to even care about the black box. Dr. Mindbender ends up taking it but doesn’t try to open it yet … which is lucky for him, since the box has an anti-tamper device that’ll explode if it’s not disarmed. The Joes are preparing the recon team (consisting of Lt. Falcon, Dial-Tone, Tunnel Rat, Spirit, Sneak Peek, and Gung Ho) for a covert insertion onto Cobra Island from the USS Flagg. But Cobra has stepped up their defenses, so the only way in is by subterfuge, using a captured Mamba helicopter to land in plain sight. But the Cobras might not notice anyway, since the strife between Serpentor and Cobra Commander has broken out into a civil war. Serpentor has the Crimson 
Guard and Mindbender’s BATs on his side and tries to plan a way to counteract Cobra Commander’s plans, but has trouble reconciling the multiple personalities of various historical leaders in his head. Mindbender realizes the black box could be the key to everything, since they can simply offer to trade it to the Americans in exchange for help against Cobra Commander. The camera Fred installed in one of the BATs transmits everything to him and Baroness, so Fred decides to shoot down Mindbender’s chopper before he can get to Washington. Cobra Commander sends up a Mamba to take out Mindbender’s chopper, but it runs into the Mamba containing the Joes. Mindbender gets away while Lift-Ticket blasts the other Mamba and lands the recon team on the island. They’re immediately spotted by Captain Minh, who’s still hiding in the swamps. But unknown to the Joes or Cobra, Destro is also on the way to the island with a ship full of
Iron Grenadiers, hoping to take over everything for himself. This is a pretty good issue, that features the first shots fired in the Cobra Civil War. I’m interesting to see the Joes using the chaos to their advantage, although they obviously don’t realize Mindbender has taken the black box off the island already. I’m thinking the recon team may end up hung out to dry if the government makes a deal with Mindbender to get the black box back. It’ll be interesting to see how Destro plays into everything; he represents a third side, not allied with either Cobra Commander (who he’ll immediately recognize as a fraud) or Serpentor (who he’s never liked). Of course, he probably still has feelings for Baroness, which could be his weakness.