G.I. Joe #106 (November 1990) – “I Lift My Lamp” – Larry Hama/Mark Bright/Randy Emberlin
This one starts in Borovia, with Snake Eyes still in his “ninja trance” storming the gulag where Strawhacker (his dead sister’s fiancé) is being held. White Clown and Orlovsky are with him, hoping to find the Clown’s old love, Magda, but Orlovsky is worried about Snake Eyes’s lack of feeling. None of them know that the American government prefers that Strawhacker not come home and has hired Major Bludd to kill Snake Eyes. Bludd makes his presence known when he tries to shoot Snake Eyes in the back and misses. Snake Eyes heads into a sewer tunnel where he finds some
holdouts threatening to shoot Strawhacker and Magda. Snake Eyes drops his gun but takes out a couple of guards with knives. Bludd tries to shoot Snake Eyes again but White Clown and Orlovsky deal with him, while Snake Eyes slices up the gulag commandant, freeing the hostages. A train full of rebels arrives to take over the gulag, but their leader (Metz) ants to use the camp to imprison the ex-security police and the Lower Borovians, who he considers complicit with the old Marxist regime. Magda points out the hypocrisy of filling the gulag along racial lines instead of ideological ones and the kid whose father was 
shot back in town (Marina) gives Snake Eyes shit for not saving him. Metz is ready to kill the kid but Strawhacker confronts him, so Metz shoots him instead. Snake Eyes is ready to kill Metz and Bludd backs him up (since Strawhacker’s death basically completes his mission), so the mob turns on Metz and prepares to hang him. Magda pleads for justice over revenge, but the crowd wants blood and they hang him anyway. Snake Eyes shoots the rope after Marina pleads for mercy for the man who killed her father and Snake Eyes later agrees to take Marina to the States where she can have a real family again. Back in New York, General Crowther has sent some goons to kill Storm
Shadow and Stalker in the Statue of Liberty to tie up loose ends. But they’ve already gotten loose and ambush the ambushers, taking over the boat they came on and blasting the back-up helicopter before climbing onto a ferry to make their escape. This is a pretty good issue the wraps up two related storylines (at least temporarily), but it does come off as a bit rushed. Maybe Larry Hama had to rush things to fit both stories into one issue, but the first half with Snake Eyes seems especially fast, moving from one plot development to another with no time to breathe. We find do out why the American government wants Strawhacker dead (he was unknowingly spreading disinformation, so 
if he were rescued it might make foreign governments suspicious), but it’s sometimes hard to follow all the twists in the story. There are also some continuity problems, like Strawhacker recognizing Snake Eyes as a ninja … I thought Snake Eyes didn’t study ninjitsu until after the war. Unless Strawhacker kept in touch with Snake Eyes and did know him as a ninja? But when Stalker and Storm Shadow are trying to get loose from their bonds, Storm Shadow implies that Snake Eyes knew ninja techniques during the war, even though every other story says he didn’t learn that stuff until afterwards when Storm Shadow invited him to Japan. Other than those inconsistencies, it’s a pretty cool story.
G.I. Joe #107 (December 1990) – “Enter the Night Creepers” – Larry Hama/Lee Weeks/Randy Emberlin
This one starts with a bunch of ninjas (the Night Creepers) offering their services to Cobra Commander. He agrees to hire them and gives them their first assignment … kill Storm Shadow. The Night Creeper leader (Aleph) knows Storm Shadow and Stalker have been taken into custody by the government and tells Cobra Commander they have to be cautious, but that they can complete the assignment. Aleph’s intel is a little behind, since (as we saw last issue) Stalker and Storm Shadow have escaped from the government hit team sent after them and are now riding the subway heading for Storm Shadow’s secret hideout in a water tower. The Night Creepers go to the Statue of Liberty and find it empty, but Aleph knows
about Storm Shadow’s hideout, so they prepare to head there next. At the hospital, Crowther is badgering Scarlett to find out where Storm Shadow’s hideout is and Hawk tries to get info from Crowther about what’s going on. Since she’s been confined to her room, Scarlett ties her sister up and takes her place to get out of the hospital. The Night Creepers attack Storm Shadow’s lair and he and Stalker fight back, taking several of the ninjas out. The fight among ninjas moves down the outside of the building (leaving Stalker behind) and into the subway. Scarlett is in the subway and has a knife she took from some muggers. She’s so pissed off at Storm Shadow for sending Snake Eyes to Borovia, she doesn’t even notice the ninjas chasing him. To keep both of 
them from getting wasted, Storm Shadow pulls Scarlett into the path of a train. Aleph figures they were mangled by the train, but Storm Shadow manages to get himself and Scarlett up between the cars. HE tries to explain why he sent Snake Eyes on such a dangerous mission but can’t finish because Scarlett’s knife is stuck in his back. This is a pretty goo issue with plenty of ninja action, although some of it seems to be leaning towards superhero territory. I also have trouble believing a professional like Scarlett would ignore a horde of bloodthirsty ninjas just to give Storm Shadow shit, but maybe she’s still addled from her head wound.