G.I. Joe #91 (October 1989) – “No Simple Solutions” – Larry Hama/Tony Salmons/Randy Emberlin
This one continues from last issue, with Zartan and Blind Master squaring of in an alley in San Francisco. They’re pretty evenly matched and keep up a running argument over Zartan’s betrayal of Professor Onihashi and his killing of the Hard Master. A few blocks away, a skater kid named Tyrone is looking for Blind Master, who turned him away from his thieving ways by teaching him martial arts.
(I assume Tyrone is the purse snatcher that Blind Master befriended in issue 67.) Meanwhile in Broca Beach, Clutch is being brainwashed by Cobra with Dr. Venom’s modified brain-scanner. A bunch of Clutch’s real memories are wiped from his brain and replaced by false memories that make him into a Crimson Guard member since high school. In the mountains, Storm Shadow has gone alone to confront the leader of the Red Ninjas, but a bunch of other ninjas surround Snake Eyes, Scarlett, and Jinx. When Storm Shadow meets the Red Ninja leader, he finds out he’s the guy who was driving Zartan’s van (in issue 85) who almost died from the arrow Storm Shadow put into his back. The ninja tells Storm Shadow that the Red Ninjas 
are members of the Arashikage clan who blame him for bringing Snake Eyes into the clan, which (in their eyes) was the cause of all the shit that happened afterwards. Scarlett and Jinx are wounded, so Snake Eyes and Timber have to face the last Red Ninjas. Storm Shadow and the leader duel and Storm Shadow’s sword is broken, but he manages to grab the rifle that belonged to Crimson Guardsman Fred, who was apparently interred behind a waterfall. We don’t see the result of the fight, but Storm Shadow is pulled from the river by Snake Eyes and Scarlett a little while later. In San Francisco, Blind Master gets the advantage and is about to kill Zartan when Tyrone shows up and changes his mind before taking off again. Zartan stabs Blind Master in the back, but Blind Master tells him that Onihashi forgave Zartan with his dying breath,
so Zartan has been carrying around all that guilt for nothing. Zartan now feels guilty for killing Blind Master, so he decides to take his place and keep mentoring Tyrone. This is a pretty good issue, which seems to put an end to the feud between Zartan and the ninjas, although I’m not sure how long that’ll last. I’m not sure if the Red Ninja leader is really dead either, or if he’ll keep pursuing Storm Shadow. His logic seems flawed, blaming Storm Shadow (and Snake Eyes) for the actions of other people, but Storm Shadow seems to think he’s right, at least on some level. The brainwashing of Clutch (and presumably Rock N’ Roll as well) should be interesting if they’re sent back to the Joes believing they’re actually Cobra deep cover agents.
G.I. Joe Special Missions #26 (October 1989) – “Passing of the Guard” – Larry Hama/Herb Trimpe/Danny Bulanadi
This one starts at Voltar’s base camp in Sierra Gordo, where the Oktober Guard are launching an assault to free El Jefe, the new leader of Sierra Gordo. Despite their lesser numbers, the Oktober Guard does pretty well against the Iron Grenadiers and Cobra, but El Jefe doesn’t seem too grateful for the rescue, pointing out that there’s no point trading one overlord for another. The Guard take off, blowing up all the pursuit vehicles they can see, but Voltar had some disassembled vehicles hidden. Turns out the Joes were planning their own rescue of El Jefe, with Lt. Falcon, Recondo, and Shockwave already there disguised as indigenous workers, so now they have to get El Jefe back from the Russians. Colonel Brekhov and El Jefe are
discussing politics (with El Jefe admitting he wants to be a power-mad dictator with no regard for political idealism) and almost come to blows when they run into a trainload of revolutionaries looking for El Jefe. The Joes are nearby and realize what an asshole El Jefe is, but Lt. Falcon doesn’t want a potential dictator getting too friendly with the Russians, so he and the other two Joes quietly climb onto the train, taking out the occupants of the caboose. The Iron Grenadiers catch up to the train and lay an ambush ahead to stop the revolutionaries making it to Rio Lindo. The Oktober Guard uses their APC to go ahead and take on the ambushers, leaving Daina and Dragonsky behind 
to guard El Jefe. The Joes start crawling on top of the train towards the engine, but get a shock when they see what’s hidden inside one of the boxcars. The Iron Grenadiers have the tracks blocked and pepper the APC with bullets, wounding Brekhov and Horror Show. Brekhov has Schrage and Stormavik throw switches to put them on a siding that’ll take them around the blockade, but Schrage is killed just as he throws the first switch. The engineers bail out of the train, so the Joes take over and pour on the speed. Stormavik has to fight through a dozen men to reach the far switch and put the train back on the main line, but he does it, collapsing onto the switch just as he dies. (That scene reminds me of Colonel Nicholson’s death in Bridge on the River Kwai; I assume it’s a deliberate homage.) Meanwhile, Colonel Brekhov goes out in a blaze of glory, blowing up the explosives in the back of the APC and taking out the blockade in a suicide charge. Unfortunately,
their heroism is all for nothing when the occupants of the boxcar emerge. Turns out the train isn’t full of freedom fighters just mercenaries hired by the North American Banana Monopoly and their new representative, Delbert Swinson. North American Banana wants to protect its business interests in Sierra Gordo by putting a friendly dictator like El Jefe in power … as long as he lets them do whatever they want to maximize profits. Daina figures El Jefe won’t want anything to do with a capitalist bastard like Swinson, bu she’s wrong; El Jefe accepts the deal and orders the Joes and 
the last two Oktober Guard members to be shot. This is a pretty good story, bringing us back to the Byzantine politics of Central America, which parallels the real-life shit show that was going on down there at the time. It’s hard to believe the Oktober Guard are (mostly) dead, but I guess they were kinda relics of the Cold War, so once it was over they no longer fit in a post-Glasnost world. I’m wondering if Daina and Dragonsky will end up joining the Joe team, making it a more international organization instead of just Americans.