G.I. Joe Special Missions #16 (December 1988) – “Tight Circle” – Larry Hama/Herb Trimpe/Andy Mushynsky
This one starts with Cobra moving a bunch of heavy crates on Cobra Island in preparation for airlifting them someplace else. The crates are labelled “Farm Machinery”, but the Joes (who are spying on Cobra with their satellite) don’t believe that for a second. When one of the crates breaks open, they see that it actually contains … a sofa? Hawk is doubly suspicious now and sends all the Joe pilots (Wild Bill, Lift Ticket, Ace, Slipstream, Maverick, and Ghost Rider) to the island for recon. Ghost Rider will fly low in his stealth fighter while the others distract
Cobra’s fighters and Wild Bill (with Mainframe and Lady Jaye) in the C-130 screws with their radar. Cobra’s pilots (who don’t get along nearly as well as the Joes) scramble some Rattlers, Night Ravens, and the Stiletto with the Star Viper in the cockpit. The two sides engage in a dogfight, with the Joes having a slight edge because they’re better at working as a team. Cobra realizes someone is jamming their radar and the Star Viper finds the C-130, but before he can knock it out of the sky, Lady Jaye shoots at him with a rifle. That 
pisses him off and he knocks out an engine, but runs into some aerial mines dropped by Mainframe. Meanwhile, Ghost Rider makes it to the island unchallenged and takes photos of the airfield. Cobra Commander recalls all the remaining jets to deal with Ghost Rider and the Joes follow, taking most of them out. The only two left are the Star Viper an Ghost Rider, who chase each other in an ever-smaller circle. Despite bragging earlier that his enhanced body could cut tighter turns and handle more G’s than anyone else, the Star Viper succumbs to the pressure and crashes. So the Joes’ ruse worked and they got the recon
photos, but we see later that they weren’t the only ones being sneaky. After dark, Cobra loads people and equipment onto a ship that has temporarily diverted from its course to the United States. So the whole thing at the airfield was a diversion and this is Cobra’s real plan, but we’ll have to wait to see what it’s all about. This is a pretty good issue, with some cool scenes of aerial combat. Herb Trimpe was really into airplanes, so doing issues like this must’ve been a lot of fun for him.
G.I. Joe #81 (December 1988) – “Plots and Tracts” – Larry Hama/Marshall Rogers/Randy Emberlin
This one starts with Battle Force 2000 (Blocker, Dodger, Avalanche, and Knockdown) testing their skills at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds against some other Joes in captured Cobra vehicles. They do pretty well, but Knockdown would’ve been dead if it was a real fight, so they need to step up their teamwork a bit. Duke assigns them to watch the Dreadnoks, who were released by Cobra’s lawyers on technicalities after being captured a couple issues ago. Mutt is still pissed off about the Dreadnoks almost
killing Junkyard, so when he hears Battle Force 2000 will be watching the Dreadnoks, he invites himself along. Elsewhere, we see Zarana and the Dreadnoks hanging out at a shoreside community they’ve christened Broca Beach. This place seems to have something to do with the real estate scam that Zarana has been running for Cobra lately, but she reminds the Dreadnoks they’re soon going to have some special guests. Those guests turn out to be the people who were covertly loaded onto the ship at Cobra Island in the above issue, most of whom seem to be ex-citizens of Springfield. When the Joes get to a toll booth on the Jersey Turnpike, they find out that the Dreadnoks blew through not too long ago, not paying the toll and smashing the booths 
up a bit. The local cops (led by a guy named Cohoe) are waiting for the National Guard, but Mutt doesn’t want to lose his chance at revenge on the Dreadnoks, so he forces Blocker to crash through the toll gate. The rest of Battle force 2000 follows, with the pissed-off cops right behind them. Zarana leaves most of the Dreadnoks behind to deal with the Joes and cops, while she and Zanzibar go ahead to meet the ship, which has already started unloading. Zarana tells the new citizens of Broca Beach that they need to get inside and out of sight immediately, in case the other Dreadnoks are stupid enough to lead the Joes straight there … which, of course, they are. The Dreadnoks and Joes engage in a running fight, but end up fleeing straight to Broca Beach. Luckily for Cobra, they’ve managed to get all the people and equipment
hidden before the Joes arrive, so the place looks like an abandoned seaside resort town. The cops arrive right after the Joes and are already pretty pissed off, so when Knockdown blasts Zanzibar’s air skiff and it lands on Captain Cohoe’s police car, he doesn’t hesitate to place everyone under arrest. This is a fairly quiet issue, mostly advancing the real estate plot. It seems like Cobra has suckered people into investing in their real estate scam to finance the purchase of Broca Beach, where they intend to set up another “small town headquarters” like they had in Springfield. Mutt’s obsession with revenge seems to have gotten the Joes in trouble and I’m betting the Army lawyers aren’t nearly as slick as the ones Cobra employs.