Cobra and October Guard battle in Afghanistan again.
Cobra scientists led by Dr. Mindbender succeed in creating Serpentor. At about that time, the Joes assault Springfield and Serpentor leads an evacuation of the Cobra base there. In addition, a Joe unit raids Libya to steal a new Russian fighter jet under the cover of a USAF bombing.
Trent is killed trying to rescue his daughter from the Dreadnoks. Action Force campaigns on two Middle East fronts against Cobra. Around this time was the last known incident involving the Black Major and the Red Shadows.
Action Force rescues the crew of a crashed Stealth Bomber in Indonesia.
Zartan breaks out of the US Joe H.Q. and returns to Cobra Command. Cobra use their knowledge of the Joe HQ to raid and destroy it. During the operation Cobra Commander and Destro are separated from their forces, and decide to abandon them (for the time being). The ninja Storm Shadow defects from Cobra and joins the Joes.
Flint captures Destro in Greenland and brings him to the London HQ. Within days Cobra sends a major strike force to "Blitz" the city and Destro makes his escape.
The Dreadnoks deal with Trent
The use of cloning technology in creating Serpentor is another indication of the technology shared between Ironblood and Cobra Command: Ironblood clearly was an expert in the field following his ground breaking work in producing the Kraken.
The Red Shadow hiatus may well have been a long term effort to re-strengthen and establish a more stable footing learning from Cobra's seeming resilience to repeated defeats.