G.I. Joe Special Missions #13 (September 1988) – “Washout” – Larry Hama/Herb Trimpe
This one starts in the (fictional) country of Trucial Abysmia, in northeast Africa. Dusty and Outback re with a couple of provisional Joes (Lightfoot and Mangler) on an evaluation run to see how they perform in the field. The mission is supposed to be easy, but they get ambushed by some government troops. The soldiers are led by Captain Yusif, who seems to have a sense of honour and actually cares about his men. But Yusif is being “advised” by a political
officer named Aman, a product of the Marxist University system who values personal glory and political gain above everything. Aman is ready to waste soldiers in a running firefight, but Yusif orders snipers to shoot out the Joes’ tires and they’re captured without much bloodshed. Aman has his men beat the shit out of Lightfoot as an interrogation technique, which Yusif doesn’t like. Lightfoot eventually breaks when Aman uses the field phone generator to torture him with electrical shocks. Lightfoot tells them they’re there to destroy a secret cache of weapons and electronics left behind from before the revolution, when the Americans were still supporting the previous leader. Mangler gets pissed off at Lightfoot, calling him a traitor for spilling 
his guts but Dusty tells Mangler to shut the hell up. Aman figures he can turn the discovery of the weapons cache into big political points and heads out immediately, leaving Yusif to kill the Joes. Yusif doesn’t want to kill them in cold blood, so he gives them a canteen of water and tells them to head east to the coast twenty miles away so they can get out of the country. The weapons cache is to the west, twice as far away, s Dusty figures their mission is over. But Lightfoot (who’s an explosives expert) convinces him that they have to go west and Dusty finally agrees. Mangler is still pissed off at Lightfoot, especially since he’s so fucked up from the torture that Mangler has to carry him. The Joes run all night, eating lizards and drinking the radiator water from an old armoured car they find. They make it to the
cache site where Aman’s troops have just dug up the underground bunker. Aman and Yusif find all kinds of American weapons and electronics, as well as food and even some Scotch. Aman gives the booze to his troops to celebrate, which makes it easier for the Joes to sneak into the cache. Lightfoot uses some flour and cocoa to help spread the explosive power of the detonator and they blow the cache up, stealing an armoured car for a getaway. Aman leads another car in chase and it looks like he’s going to catch up, so Mangler (after apologizing to Lightfoot for being such a dick) stays behind to confront their pursuers. He manages to disable both chase vehicles but gets 
crushed by one of them, leaving the Joes to escape and ponder the meaning of the word hero. This is a pretty good story that uses a couple of new Joes to illustrate how complicated military operations can be. Mangler seems like an overly gung-ho asshole (and he is), but he saves the others in the end by sacrificing himself. On the other side, Yusif is a true solder, who fights when he has to but objects to torture and murder, while Aman only cares about results and how he can advance his own career. There’s some poetic justice at the end because Aman will end up taking the blame for letting the Joes escape, while Yusif will still have a career with the army.
G.I. Joe #75 (September 1988) – “Holding Actions” – Larry Hama/Marshall Rogers/Fred Fredericks
This one continues from last issue, with the civil war between Serpentor and Cobra Commander (who we know is really ex-Crimson Guard Fred VII in disguise) fighting for control of Cobra. But since Dr. Mindbender returned the stolen black box to the Americans, the Joes have been ordered to help Serpentor’s side win. But Destro has led a shitload of his own Iron Grenadiers to Cobra Island to take it over for himself. Hawk was grabbed by the Dreadnoks but their Thunder Machine crashed into Destro’s command tank, so Destro figures he can grab Hawk and Cobra Commander at the same time. Hawk manages to get loose long enough to be picked up by his teammates, while the Dreadnoks find themselves caught between
Destro’s forces and Serpentor’s rapidly approaching troops. Zartan has a column of Maggots nearby, but waits to see what Destro will do. As Zartan and Serpentor take up positions at opposite ends of the airstrip, the Joes are kinda stuck in the middle, especially the recon team led by Lt. Falcon, who are still in the control tower, their presence unknown to anyone but the Joes. Serpentor has Baroness strapped to the front of his command vehicle to keep Cobra Commander from shooting at him, but Zartan doubts the Commander will hesitate if he gets the chance to kill Serpentor. The Joes hesitate to take orders directly from Serpentor, but do give him artillery and air support against Cobra Commander and Zartan, while Destro observes everything (and enjoys some tea on the beach). Both Cobra Commander and Serpentor bring in air support, which results in a huge aerial duel in the 
skies over the island, but once they’ve decimated each other and returned to base to refuel and re-arm, Destro makes his move. He rolls a bunch of artillery and manpower onto the airfield, causing both Cobra Commander and the Joe/Serpentor alliance to retreat. Destro decides to use the control tower as his headquarters, so the recon team have to retreat down into the sewers with Captain Minh, who got them inside in the first place. This is a good issue, with plenty of action, although it’s hard to describe it all. It’s good to see the Joes aren’t just blindly following Serpentor’s orders (and even make a formal protest about his treatment of Baroness), and we get to see both Serpentor and Cobra Commander using military strategy to try to win. I can’t help wondering if the real Cobra Commander would do better as a field leader; Fred sometimes seems out of his depth here.
G.I. Joe #76 (September 1988) – “All’s Fair” – Larry Hama/Ron Wagner/Fred Fredericks
This one continues from last issue, with Destro establishing his headquarters in the control tower. His security sweeps force the recon team and Minh to retreat into the sluice pipes, which are half full of water since it’s raining like hell. Zartan urges Cobra Commander to attack Destro while Serpntor’s forces are still in retreat, but Cobra Commander is hesitant, hoping to rescue Baroness first. He tries to use the camera he put in one of Serpentor’s BATs to spy on his rival, but Serpentor has found the camera and destroyed it. The storm hampers the Joes’ resupply, but they manage to send out a ship covered by a new Joe in a
stealth fighter, who knocks out Cobra’s early warning systems to cover the supply ship’s approach. (It becomes running joke that the stealth pilot is so stealthy that nobody can remember his code name or even what he looks like; for the record, I think his code name is Ghost Rider.) The Joes plan to land covertly and cross the swamps, hitting Cobra Commander from one side while Serpentor attacks from the other. Zartan warns Cobra Commander to beef up his defenses in case of attack (and Zarana tries to put the moves on him), but Cobra Commander puts too much faith in his radar and other electronic warning systems. Once Ghost Rider knocks those out, it leaves 
the Commander vulnerable to the Joes’ and Serpentor’s flanking maneuver. But Serpentor moves early, before the Joes have crossed the marsh, so Cobra Commander puts everything he has into fighting Serpentor (ignoring Zartan’s advice that someone could attack through the marsh). Meanwhile, the recon team climbs up out of the sewers only to find the airfield deserted, with all Destro’s troops gone. As things heat up, Cobra Commander finds himself overwhelmed, so Zzartan kills Serpentor with an arrow to the face. Dr. Mindbender immediately defects to Cobra Commander’s side, suggesting they combine forces and throw Destro off the island. (Both Hawk and Zartan can’t believe what they’re seeing.) But Destro tells them
he doesn’t want to fight, he just wants Baroness, which Cobra Commander gladly agrees to. Naturally, that means the alliance with the Joes is over and they have to leave, so it seems like Destro is the real winner since he got what he wanted all along … the Baroness. This is a good conclusion to the Cobra Civil War, showing all the treachery and backbiting that we’d expect from people like Cobra Commander and Mindbender. Zartan wasting Serpentor was unexpected (why didn’t he do it earlier?), but at least it settles the question of who’s going to lead Cobra from now on.