Creators: Larry Hama writer/breakdowns), George Roussos (colorist), Steven Leialohla (finishes).
Story: Storm Shadow arrives at a Cobra castle with a captured Scarlett, much to the surprise of Cobra Commander. High above, Snake Eyes makes a parachute jump out of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules towards the castle. Storm Shadow imprisons a defiant Scarlett while Destro sees that the computers have picked up an intruder. Snake Eyes lands and begins to take out some Cobra troopers while Scarlett begins her escape and Destro looks over his "chess board" with custom chess pieces of various Joe and Cobra characters, pondering the Baroness' piece. Scarlett is able to escape and quickly overpowers a surprised Storm Shadow while Destro leads some troopers to the roof to deal with Snake Eyes, who fools them into going in the wrong direction. Storm Shadow gathers red ninjas while Scarlett steals a COBRA C.L.A.W. and makes her escape. Snake Eyes finds Scarlett's oubliette prison and is able to take down the ninjas, ending with a one-on-one fight with Storm Shadow. Scarlett sees their fight and quickly lands as Storm Shadow throws a Katana towards Snake Eyes, intent on blocking it, though Snake Eyes is able to grab it and get rid of it. The two Joes are then able to fly off, away from the castle as we see that both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes have the same Arashikage Clan tattoo on their arm.
Writing: This is the classic "Silent Issue" from G.I. Joe's original run and is an important issue, not just for G.I. Joe but for the comic industry as it shows you can tell a comic book story without dialogue or words. We get a quick story of a captured Joe who is then getting rescued (though she doesn't really need to be rescued). One great thing about this issue is that Hama has never made the female Joe's "damsels in distress" to be constantly rescued. Scarlett is a member of the Joe team for a reason and shows it off here, easily escaping on her own.
Art: While by today's standards, the art may not be up to par with a lot of modern comics, back in the day, G.I. Joe still had some pretty good art. Scarlett gets a couple of close-up shots with great expressions, easily showing her defiance to being captured to her joy at seeing Snake Eyes. With the reprinting, Skybound has gone through and reinvigorated the colors as well so they really pop. While it does take place at night, at no point are you struggling to make out details of the art because the coloring is too dark.
Overall: An important issue within comic book history, Silent Interlude continues to entertain to this day. With a nice afterward by Larry Hama explaining the issue, this is a nice addition to any Joe fan's comic collection, whether you have the original issue or not.
