G.I. Joe #138 (July 1993) – “Unfoldings” – Larry Hama/Andrew Wildman/Stephen Baskerville
This one starts with Scarlett having a nightmare about frying Hawk and Stalker last issue. Of course, she doesn’t know that the whole thing was a ruse to make her undercover infiltration of Cobra look more convincing, so she’s wracked with guilt over killing her friends. An alert goes off and Scarlett heads to the throne room where Cobra Commander is ready to send a full team into Destro’s secret tunnels to finish him off once and for all. Scarlett volunteers to go first, along with
Sidney Biggles-Jones (who’s anxious to test a hand-held version of her new railgun). Destro knows the Joes are coming to get him and Baroness out, so he figures they just have to evade capture for a while. The Joes drop Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow over the castle; they’re now both aware of Scarlett’s undercover mission, but are under orders to treat her like the enemy and not to let her know Hawk and Stalker are still alive. In the castle tunnels, Scarlett follows Baroness’s trail easily (by the scent of her perfume) and fails to warn some Vipers about a booby trap (as does Sidney). Destro and Baroness make it to the control room and reconfigure the castle to a weird Escher-type design, which confuses the hell out of their pursuers (and makes it harder for Snake 
Eyes and Storm Shadow to get in). Destro and Baroness take off as the castle keeps shifting, throwing a lot of their pursuers to their deaths. Scarlett and Sidney find the controls but have trouble deactivating them, as the whole castle threatens to collapse in on itself. The last switch is booby-trapped, but Scarlett takes care of it, blowing an escape route in the wall at the same time. She and Sidney head for the roof, figuring Destro will have an escape route ready. On the roof, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes are getting STABO rigs ready for a plane extraction. Destro and Baroness show up and get into the harnesses with the two ninjas, but Scarlett and Sidney are right behind them. Snake Eyes puts his sword through Scarlett’s chest, just missing her heart, right before he and the others are extracted. Snake Eyes missing a kill thrust on purpose lets Scarlett know that he’s aware of her undercover activities, but it also makes Slice suspicious. Cobra Commander decides to get Scarlett medical help instead of letting her die, but they’re interrupted when Megatron shows up.
Yeah, the Transformers are here. I think this comic may have just Jumped the Shark. This was a pretty good issue (until the last page), with Scarlett playing the long game and her Joe teammates having to go along with it. I’m wondering if Sidney is some kind of government agent or undercover Joe, since she seems pretty good at commando ops for a scientist. She also advocates for Scarlett all the way through, trying to convince the Cobras she’s legit. As for the Transformers thing, I really don’t like it but I suppose Larry Hama had no choice. Marvel had two hot properties back then aimed at kids, so a crossover was probably inevitable.
G.I. Joe #139 (August 1993) – “Realignments” – Larry Hama/Chris Batista/Stephen Baskerville, Keith Williams, Don Hudson, Chip Wallace
This one continues from last issue, with Megatron attacking the fortress (which he thought might be an unknown Decepticon because of its shape-shifting) after Cobra Commander accidentally insults him. With the Cobras running for their lives, Slice takes Scarlett to the OR, although he’s still not convinced of her loyalty to Cobra. Sidney is fascinated by Megatron’s tech but figures hers is better and apparently she’s right, as her railgun blast goes right through Megatron and into space, something no earth tech
should be capable of doing. Megaron is so impressed that he’s ready to trade Decepticon tech for the railgun and a full upgrade performed by Sidney, a deal Cobra Commander likes. On the extraction plane, Destro tries to reach out to Snake Eyes over him having to stab Scarlett last issue, but Snake Eyes blames Destro for them being there in the first place, so he’s not too receptive. At the castle, Megatron’s upgrade is underway. Naturally, Cobra Commander is planning to double-cross him, but Megatron’s sensors are operating even when he’s supposedly unconscious. Sidney goes o heck on Scarlett, who’s fine thanks to the precision cut Snake Eyes made. Of course, that just 
makes Slice even more suspicious of her. The extraction plane lands on Cobra Island, where Zartan is waiting to meet them (complete with a whole new look). Zartan tells them Cobra Commander set a fire to incinerate all the bodies in the junked freighter, but Zartan figures he might’ve taken Dr. Mindbender’s body, along with the instructions on how to revive him with cloning technology. Once Mindbender is back, he can revive anyone from history to serve Cobra. At the castle, Megatron has also gotten a new look and he lets Cobra Commander know he’s aware of his treachery … as well as his experiment to bring back Mindbender, which is apparently successful. This was all right,
but I really don’t like the whole Transformers crossover thing; it makes the comic too sci-fi (and all the clone-revival bullshit doesn’t help). Zartan’s new look seems pointless, probably just a way of selling a new action figure of him, which I assume was the reason for Scarlett’s new outfit as well.