Creators: Joshua Williamson (writer),Tom Reilly, Andrea Milana (artists), Lee Loughridge (colorist), Rus Wooton (letterer)
Story: Flint, Beachhead, Lady Jaye, and Shooter are fighting some Cobra S.N.A.K.E (System: Neutralizer—Armed Kloaking Equipment) Battle Suits as training and officially reveal their name as Night Force. Hawk/Zartan fights the Baroness after the events of last issue and he issues an order to capture her but she gets away. Baroness was able to see something was wrong with Hawk. He orders the Joe team to take her out. Cobra Commander reveals his upgrades to Crystal Ball's D.I.R.E. (Dread-Inducing Responsive Energy) Tech and his new "left hand" Major Medusa. On her yacht, the Baroness is confronted by Night Force but tries to explain and that anyone who talks to her will probably be killed. The rest of the Joes show up to help the Baroness with Flint surprised to see Autobot Hound but then he releases Night Force's own surprise - G.I. B.A.T. (Battle Android Trooper)!
Writing: A lot of cool things going on here. First, Flint's team being called Night Force is awesome. Night Force was one of the original "Special Teams" back in the 1980's, though the toys were exclusive to Toys R Us. Then the fact that not all branches of G.I. Joe are aware of each other or even like each other. That's something we don't see too often either. And of course, Hawk/Zartan's machinations might be coming to an end sooner than later. The pace of the story is mostly rapid, though there is a bit of a flashback to get readers up to speed that does slow the story down a bit.
Art: Wow, Reilly and Milana do a great job and there are some cool throwbacks here. We see the S.N.A.K.E. Battle Armor, the Sky Hawk One-Man V.T.O.L. and the Killer W.H.A.L.E. Warrior Hovering Assault Launching Envoy vehicles, and a JUMP Jet Mobile Propulsion Unit jet pack. All classic vehicles. Also, when Hawk/Zartan's disguise starts to get exposed, that looks pretty good too. The sideways pages during the chase with the Baroness were slightly annoying.
Overall: A great 25th issue! Lots of stuff going on, Joe vs. Joe action, and the seeds for more plots are being laid down. We get to see some classic vehicles appear as well.
