It's very American to want to deal with problems by shooting them, and it doesn't work here metaphorically or literally.

From 1992, G.I. Joe #125, "Diptych!" Written by Larry Hama, pencils by Andrew Wildman, inks by Randy Emberlin.

As the title implies, two stories run intermittently this issue: in Broca Beach, NJ, Joes Shockwave, Mutt, and Junkyard are in a shootout with Headman's drug ring; while in the Gulf of Mexico, Cesspool has set up an "off-shore toxo-lab" and has captured Clean-Sweep and Flint. The Joes do have back-up, though: Broca Beach was a secret COBRA front, but rank-and-file Ike and Mike are sick of Headman running their town; while Flint orders their mini-copter pilot Ozone to execute "Plan B" with the "secret weapon."

Also in Broca Beach, Cutter and Bullet-proof comfort new orphan Fred, Junior: he was a junkie, whose Crimson Guardsman dad confronted Headman and caught killed, then his mom was killed trying to avenge him. Fred Jr. does help himself to her assault rifle, though. Cesspool does have his hostages roughed up a bit, although Flint would argue having to hear his origin was the real torture: he had been a ridiculously corrupt corporate CEO, who caught a faceful of toxic waste while trying to ditch the evidence. He had a pretty good racket, though: corporations would pay him to take toxic waste off their hands, which we would weaponize and sell to COBRA.

Ike and Mike buy the farm, and while Headman is seemingly trapped, he had an escape route ready and gets away. The Joes start to wonder, why did Ike and Mike have COBRA weapons, and didn't they leave another one with Fred Jr? Flint's secret weapon arrives, as Cesspool gloats that he's untouchable: the Joes couldn't blow up his drilling platform without spreading crap everywhere. But the secret weapon is from the attorney general's office, who has already seized Cesspool's assets and filed a mountain of injunctions against him: the Joes there just kind of leave, knowing polluting was no longer going to be profitable to Cesspool, who kind of resembles an older, sputtering Cable there. And Fred Jr--"Freebase Freddy"--tries to trade his gun for drugs: apparently, COBRA kids aren't taught "teach a man to fish," real lack of foresight there. I think that's supposed to be a sad commentary on the depths someone could sink to in the throes of drug addiction; but it's kind of funny? Sorry.

Headman expresses a bit of surprise that COBRA and the Joes would team up against him, which possibly foreshadows his later animated fate: I believe he was the only character explicitly killed in the cartoon. While Larry Hama does his best, as always, both Headman and Cesspool are cartoony in the negative sense of the term; although they do make Cobra Commander and Destro seem positively nuanced in comparison.