Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Super Turtles Vol. 1 has begun!


Translations of Super Turtles Vol. 1: "Mystery of the Sacred Mutastones" has begun! Unlike the Mutant Turtles Gaiden manga, this graphic novel contained a complete 100-page story as opposed to multiple chapters. As such, I'm going to give the story to you in 20-something page segments as I translate them, making an attempt to separate them by appropriate cliffhangers.

For now, please enjoy the first 22 pages, which you can view by clicking this link!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

COMING SOON!!!


Thanks to the generosity of TMNT manga collector extraordinaire, Adam Winters, I will now be able to begin translating the complete three volume Super Mutant Turtles manga series for your consumption. Adam (who has the largest collection of Turtles manga in the Western hemisphere and provides me with all my raw Turtles manga scans) and I have been searching for the elusive Volume 1 for over a year and now that it has finally been found, my TMNT manga translation efforts can continue.

Reviews may be scarce for the next couple of weeks as I begin this endeavor, I'm afraid. But I hope to have the first chapter of Volume 1 available to you by the end of next week!

タートル パワー!!!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

TMNT (Vol. 3) #10



Publication date: July, 1997

Writer: Gary Carlson
Penciler: Frank Fosco
Inker: Andrew Pepoy
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Eric Larsen


Summary:

Night time in Midway City, and Don is busy hopping along the rooftops. He remarks that although he is happy that his new cyborg armor has made him bigger, stronger, faster and smarter, he also feels that he doesn’t really need it, since he’s also a ninja. Don finds an obscure water tower, which is really a secret entrance into a large chamber kept by Galahad. Don enters the chamber and finds Leo working. Don surprises him, intent on killing him for butchering his Triceraton aircar. Leo explains that it was stripped by punks, though he was able to get all the parts back. As Don hunkers down to repair it with his cyborg tools, he asks where Mike and Raph are. Leo says that they’ve gone to investigate a rash of “vampire killings” in Chicago.


In an alley in Chicago, the media have swarmed around the latest victim of the Vampire Killer. After answering questions, Officer Dragon shoes the media away only to be met by a pair of visitors in trench-coats and fedoras. Dragon sighs and removes Mike’s and Raph’s “disguises”, as there are so many freaks in Chicago, no one will notice two giant turtles. Mike and Raph explain that Splinter was behind the recent “vampirism” plaguing Midway City, but that now that he’s cured of rabies, he should no longer be a problem. They do, however, think he might have something to do with the Vampire Killer and want to track him down. Dragon explains that he’s already been briefed on their ordeal by Galahad and says that the Vampire Killer he’s after likely isn’t Splinter. He shows them the freshest corpse, which has been impaled rather than bitten and has been reduced to a withered husk. Content that it isn’t the work of Splinter, the Turtles and Dragon go their separate ways, as the Turtles decide to loaf around Chicago until Don and Leo can pick them up and Dragon wants to have a talk with the Vicious Circle (Chicago’s big gang).

Raph decides to get some beers at a strip club called “The Freak Outpost” while Mike wanders off to do something private. Inside the club, Raph enjoys some brews and the décor, including the head of a horned freak named the Chicago Bull who had his noggin mounted on the wall for insulting the Vicious Circle while in the bar. The chicken-headed freak, Powerhouse, doesn’t like all the noise Raph is making and promptly picks a fight with him.



Over at Rapture’s place (she’s Dragon’s girlfriend), Mike is standing outside with a bouquet of flowers and having second thoughts. Suddenly, Sarah (the spiky, reptilian freak) opens the door and recognizes him from the Turtles' last visit. Mike introduces himself and shyly offers the bouquet. Sarah takes it enthusiastically and invites him inside to watch cartoons and eat pop-tarts.

Back in New York, a suited spook knocks on April’s door. He says that Casey has won the lottery and wants to know where to find him (and his young daughter). April says she’ll go look for his address, realizing that the spook is from the mob and is after Shadow. April tells Shadow to hide in Mike’s room then informs the spook that she doesn’t know the address. The spook gives her his card and leaves.

Up above Chicago, Leo wakes up in the newly completed Triceraton aircar. He’s astonished that Don rebuilt it all in one morning. Don explains that the armor did all the work. Leo asks if the armor’s databanks can tell him where it came from, but Don laments that the armor won’t give him access to that info.



Down on the streets, Dragon is having a chat with a Vicious Circle representative, Cyberface. Cyberface won’t answer any questions, instead opting to have his goons kill Dragon. As the villains encircle him, the Turtles spot the altercation from the air and swoop in. Don sends them packing with one blast from his arm gun. As the villains retreat, one of the reporters from earlier approaches Dragon with a connection between all the vampire killings. She says that all the victims were involved in the conviction of serial killer Johnny Lee Raeburn. Raeburn was subsequently launched into space as part of an experimental NASA program, though his vehicle was lost somewhere beyond Pluto (the FUCK!?). She says that the next likeliest target is Judge Pulaski, the man who sentenced Raeburn.



The Turtles and Dragon hop into the aircar and fly to his retirement condo. They’re too late, though, as Raeburn (now a tentacled cyborg calling himself “Deathwatch”) has begun sucking the life out of Pulaski while screaming his origin (he was killed by an alien in the cold depths of space).


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 3) #9. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 3) #11.

*The Turtles last met Dragon and Mike first glimpsed Sara in The Savage Dragon #22.

*Raeburn's/Deathwatch's origin as described in this issue was seen in Vanguard (Vol. 1) #2. Deathwatch returned to Earth from outerspace in Vanguard (Vol. 1) #6


Review:

Well, the Turtles’ tour of the Image universe continues. While I’m not a humongous fan of the Savage Dragon, I don’t hate the book or anything. I’m just ambivalent toward it, at least when it isn’t crossing over with characters I DO care about, such as the Maxx, Spawn or, yeah, the TMNT. Being their third encounter, the TMNT seem to be pretty comfortable with the guy and hey, we didn’t even need an editor’s note to tell us that they’d met before!

There’s some good and bad going on in this arc, but to get the bad out of the way: Deathwatch. While his origin is pretty “what the…?” and hilarious, he’s still a lame relic of the 90s; the Carnage era where every villain suddenly needed to be a mass-murdering serial killer because it was edgy. Oh, and a cyborg. They all needed to be cyborgs, too. His origin story, as well as the set-up to his plot thread (his return to Earth), were published as back-ups three years before TMNT #10 in a rather overlooked miniseries starring a third-tier character, at that, making his appearance here all the more unexpected and uninvited. Chances are I’m going to harp on him more for my review of issue #11, so I’ll just stop myself right now.

There are also some ridiculous logical errors going on, though I suppose some could just be written off as standard comic book serendipity. The rough population of Chicago is 2,896,016 people. Yet somehow, the Turtles happen to fly over Dragon AND recognize him from a few thousand feet up. Likewise, Raph just happens to go to a strip club full of Savage Dragon villains. What’re the odds?

For me, the real highlight of this issue was Mike hooking up with Sarah. Despite my tirades against shipping TMNT fangirls, Ninjara and Leo/Radical, I actually am not adverse to the Turtle’s finding romance. I just like it to be done well, that’s all. From the handful of issues of Savage Dragon I’ve read, Sarah sort of became a favorite character of mine, primarily because she was so adorable (at least when she wasn’t… doing… that thing… she did). Mike asking her out was a nice throwback to their brief encounter in Savage Dragon #22 and, you know, they seemed like a good match for each other. I enjoyed the development of their relationship and it was just one more of those plotlines I was so irked at for being dropped when the book was cancelled. Not very gratifying at all.

So far as Raph going to a strip club is concerned, I actually thought that was pretty amusing and perfectly in character for a guy like him. I tend to eschew comics that try too hard to make characters badass, but pounding brews in a strip club and picking fights is pretty in-character for a guy like Raph. I was pleased that Mike felt uncomfortable about going into a place like that and dismissed the idea. Nice evidence that Carlson knows the characters and isn’t forcing bad 90s “look at how hardcore I am!” clichés onto all of them.

Overall, the one page of Mike and Sarah getting together is the only thing I remember this issue for and the one thing I really like about it. The villain is terrible and there are too many convenient coincidences to stomach.


Grade: C- (as in, “Come to think of it, though, Sarah is kind of… mentally-stunted. …She really is a perfect match for Mikey!”)


Saturday, August 14, 2010

Miscellaneous Publishers




Amazing Heroes (Fantagraphics Books)
The Aniverse (WeeBee Comics)
Anything Goes! (The Comics Journal)
Batman/TMNT (DC Comics)
Batman/TMNT II (DC Comics)
Batman/TMNT III (DC Comics)
  • Batman/TMNT III #1
  • Batman/TMNT III #2
  • Batman/TMNT III #3
  • Batman/TMNT III #4
  • Batman/TMNT III #5
  • Batman/TMNT III #6

Batman/TMNT Adventures (DC Comics/IDW)
Bell County Comic Con 2018 (Bell County Comic Con)
Boris the Bear (Dark Horse Comics)
CBS Action Zone (CBS)
Colt (KZ Comics)

Comics Interview Super Special (Fictioneer Books)
Cowabunga Comics: TMNT Benefit Book (Friends of Children, Inc.)
Creed/TMNT (Lightning Comics)
Digital Webbing Presents (Digital Webbing, LLC)
Equine the Uncivilized (GraphX Press)
Fan Comics
Flaming Carrot Comics (Dark Horse Comics)
Furrlough (Antarctic Press/Radio Comics)
Grimjack (First Comics)
How to Draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Solson)
  • How to Draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Il Giornalino (San Paolo)
The Independent Comic Book Sampler (Geoff Miller)
Ladies' Home Journal (Meredith Corporation)
Laffin' Gas (Blackthorne Publishing)
The Last of the Viking Heroes (Genesis West Comics)
Miami Mice (Rip Off Press)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT (BOOM! Studios)

  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT #1
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT #2
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT #3
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT #4
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/TMNT #5

Munden's Bar Annual (First Comics)
Muscle & Faith (Flying Colors Comics)
Mutant Turtles (Dengeki Comics)
  • See Dengeki manga index
Ninja Turtles Mutation Nation: The Green Pages (AJN Marketing/Playmates)
Nintendo Power (Nintendo of America)
Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos (Blackthorne Publishing)
The Puma Blues (Aardvark One International)
Quest for Dreams Lost (Literacy Volunteers of Chicago)
Radically Rearranged Rodent Ragdolls (Kevin Eastman Studios)

  • Radically Rearranged Rodent Ragdolls #1

Samurai Penguin (Slave Labor Graphics)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Adventures (Fleetway)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Annual (Grandreams)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles Special (Grandreams)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Cerebi (Aardvark-Vanaheim)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Cerebi #1

TMNT (Dreamwave)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Fox Box)
TMNT: Adventures in New York City (NYCGo Family Ambassadors Program)
TMNT & Other Strangeness (Palladium Books)
TMNT: Artobiography (Heavy Metal)
TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual (Solson)
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual #1
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual: Michelangelo #2
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual: Donatello #3
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual: Rafael #4
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual: Leonardo #5
  • TMNT Authorized Martial Arts Training Manual #6

TMNT Cereal Comics (Ralston Purina)
TMNT Coin-Toons (Chicagoland Processing)
TMNT Comic (Titan Magazines)
TMNT: The Coming Out of their Shells Tour (Pizza Hut)
TMNT Magazine (Welsh)
TMNT Magazine (Panini)
TMNT Movie II: The Secret of the Ooze (Tundra/Archie)
TMNT: Smash-Up (Ubisoft)
TMNT: Street Collector's Edition (AJN Marketing/Playmates)
TMNT Teach Karate (Solson)
  • TMNT Teach Karate #1

TMNT 25th: A Quarter Century Celebration (Heavy Metal)
Turtlemania Special (Metropolis)
Usagi Yojimbo (Fantagraphics Books)
Warriors of the Forgotten Sewer (Playmates)

TMNT (Vol. 1) #4



Publication date: May, 1985

Cover: Peter Laird
Story: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Pencils: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Inks: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Lettering: Kevin Eastman

“Rescuing Master Splinter” (title taken from official Ninja Turtles website)

Summary:

In April’s apartment, Leo laments that the week they’ve spent searching for their missing sensei, Splinter, has been agonizing. His brothers recommend they clear their heads with some late night rooftop exercises and Leo concedes.



As they leap across the roofs, Leo begins to feel a sense of relief… at least until a unit of Foot Soldiers show up! The Foot Soldiers swear to kill the Turtles in retribution for their slain master, the Shredder. The running battle takes them over several city blocks. By the time they dispatch the last of the Foot Soldiers, they notice they’re standing before a building with a familiar name: TCRI. They recall that name being on the canister of ooze that mutated them long ago.

Back at April’s apartment, the Turtles tend to their wounds while Don tries to dig up info on TCRI. Much to his confusion, there is absolutely no info on them at all, even at the Chamber of Commerce. Suddenly, April comes home, showing off her new hair style. She’s horrified at all the cuts and injuries the Turtles have sustained. As she rubs peroxide on Leo’s cuts, the Turtles assure her that the Foot did not follow them back to her home. Meanwhile, none of them notice a man watching them through a telescope from across the street.


Leo sends Don to retrieve the shattered TCRI canister that mutated them from their display case. The Turtles explain what they’ve discovered to April and that they’re going to temporarily suspend their search for Splinter to investigate TCRI. April wants to come, but they tell her to stay put, as they plan to do some illegal breaking and entering and don’t want her getting in trouble.

The next night, the Turtles return to the TCRI building, only to find it has no ground level doors or windows. They go to the roof of the next building over, throw a grappling line and Don “tightrope walks" over to the roof of the TCRI building. Don spots a security camera and several laser sensors. To get past the camera, he takes a Polaroid of the roof and places it on a holster. He then blocks the camera’s view with a pigeon puppet so that the security guard won’t notice him moving the photo into place (and the security guard doesn’t).

Avoiding the lasers, the Turtles enter the building. Strange writing adorns the walls and the rooms are filled with bizarre, high-tech equipment. The next three floors are all the same until they find a reception area. They find papers with weird schematics and an ID card. Suddenly, a pair of employees enter the room and the Turtles hide. They’re chatting about finishing up a dematerialization device and are excited about “quitting this world”.


After they leave, the Turtles prowl some more halls and use the ID card to enter the last room. There, they find Splinter held in a glass tube, surrounded by machines. In a break room, the weird octopus monsters in robot exo-suits are alerted to the presence of four intruders. In the lab, Raph thinks Splinter is dead and his body is being desecrated. Don stops Raph from destroying the tube, explaining that the machines are keeping him alive. Then, the aliens in their human-shaped robot bodies enter with laser guns and order the Turtles to surrender.


The Turtles refuse and the aliens open fire with their weapons set to stun. The aliens are too nervous about harming their machines to aim effectively and the Turtles escape. The Turtles enter the “translocation matrix chamber” where they're trapped. Mike spots a door and tells his brothers that he’ll distract the aliens while they escape. As the Turtles step over a platform, Mike (still injured from his battle with the Foot) attempts a leap but falls shell-first into a control panel. The aliens freak out, as Mike has accidentally activated their translocation device. Mike watches in horror as his brothers appear to fade away. Not wanting to lose them, Mike jumps onto the platform and vanishes as well.

To be continued…


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from Raphael (microseries) #1. The story continues in Fugitoid (microseries) #1.

*There are two printings of this issue:

**The First printing (May, 1985) features a Turtles Tracks letters column and advertisements for Dark Horse pewter miniatures and Albedo (another indie comic) on the front inside cover. Backmatter included an ad for iron-ons, an add for buttons (featuring a new pin-up page by Eastman and Laird, and an ad page for Fugitoid #1 and TMNT #5. The back inside cover features a pin-up of Leonard by Jason Sklaver.
**The Second printing (May, 1987) features a new cover by Michael Dooney and a new Turtle Tracks foreword from Eastman on the front inside cover. Backmatter includes a new back-up story, “The Survival Game”, an ad for Tales of the TMNT #1, an ad for TMNT #11, and an ad for Bade Biker and Orson #1. The back inside cover features a pin-up of all four Turtles by an artist whose signature I cannot read and who is not credited by Eastman in the Turtle Tracks foreword (sorry).

*Due to a printing error, an alternate version of the second printing of TMNT (Vol. 1) #4 features the cover for Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #1. Only a thousand copies of this version are known to exist.

*The Turtles have been searching for Splinter since TMNT (Vol. 1) #3.

*The Turtles killed the Shredder and put themselves on the Foot’s hit list in TMNT (Vol. 1) #1. The Foot will strike again in Leonardo (microseries) #1.

*For years, it was presumed that the mysterious man spying on April with a telescope was an agent of the Foot Clan.  Recently, Peter Laird rediscovered original story notes for TMNT (Vol. 1) #11 which included a blurb revealing the identity of the cigarette-smoking figure: "Casey has been developing a serious crush on April.  Since he had started spying on them (back in issue #4), he's been sweet on her".  So yeah.  While it doesn't explain how the Foot figured out where the Turtles were hiding, it does explain how Casey figured it out.  Also, Casey's a total creep (and he smokes?).

*The aliens featured in this story arc are simply referred to as "The T.C.R.I. aliens" throughout. They won't receive the designation "Utrom" until the Palladium RPG guidebook, "The TMNT's Guide to the Universe". The first comic to use the name "Utrom" will be "Terror by Transmat".

*CHET ALERT: “Chet Peace” can be seen written on a building on page 3. “Chet” was an in-joke slipped into many issues of the old TMNT comic as the creators… just liked that name!


Review:

This is a favorite issue of mine, which you might find odd, as the space adventure stuff has never been my cup of tea when it comes to the Turtles. It’s more that there’s just a whole lot going on in this story, with lots of action, humor and more of Eastman-Laird’s classic art.

The first time through, it actually came as a bit of a surprise to me when the Foot showed up. I had read the two-issue arc in Leonardo (microseries) #1 and TMNT (Vol. 1) #10 long before I acquired this story, so I had just assumed that the Foot had vanished from the narrative completely after TMNT (Vol. 1) #1, not to be seen again until then. This issue actually does a great job of setting up the vengeance of the Foot with a great rooftop battle and a single ominous panel of a mysterious voyeur. Really, though, I’m just a sucker for TMNT/Foot battles, that’s all.

The manner in which they break into the TCRI building is both ingenious, simple and absolutely hilarious. While the ole “Polaroid in front of the camera” gag is as played-out as the day is long, the pigeon puppet was a superb gag and, well, a great way to work through a potential logic error without being too dry. The callback to their origin is welcomed, though the upcoming outer space arc will only serve as a sort of distraction to the answers readers are probably craving at this point.

Not all of the characters are through developing, either. Leo has already revealed himself to be the stern leader type, Don’s mechanical expertise are all over the place in this issue, Raph has confirmed his badassitude, and Mike…? Mike’s got nothin’, yet. Raph seems to be very close to him in this issue, calling him his “best bud” and showing the most concern when Mike gets injured in the fight. It’s a far cry from their later dynamic, where they’re constantly antagonizing each other, which sort of makes me wonder if Eastman and Laird originally had a different direction in mind regarding their relationship (the close-knit group-within-the group sort of deal). Or maybe Raph was still feeling guilty about nearly caving Mike’s skull in with a monkey wrench last issue. I dunno.

Eastman and Laird’s art really shines in this story and they just go bonkers with all the loose equipment and wires cluttering the TCRI laboratories. The inking can at times make those pages a bit hard to read, as there’s so much mechanical detail, but it sort of adds to the claustrophobic weirdness, too. The Utroms are still some great designs, though these early Utroms look a heck of a lot meaner than they do a few decades down the line. Eastman and Laird still draw a pretty ugly April, I’m sorry to say. On page 18, she’s trying to look ravishing and that just isn’t happening, while on the next page they add so many excessive lines to her face you’d think she was made of leather. Typically, with females in comics, if you want them to look pretty, the rule of thumb is “the less lines, the better”.

Overall, this is a great issue even if it serves as the opener to an arc I don’t especially care for. There’s a whole lot going on and plenty of action from both the ninja and the alien camps. Plus, Michael Dooney’s cover for the second printing is all kinds of kickass. You may recognize it as the box cover for the old TMNT Nintendo game. It’s one of my favorite pieces of Dooney art, no contest.

Monday, August 9, 2010

TMNT Adventures #30



Originally published: March, 1992

Script/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Rod Ollerenshaw
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Managing edits: Victor Gorelick
Cover: Peter Laird and Steve Lavigne

“Midnight Sun, Part Three”


Summary:

In some bizarre, Hellish underworld, the oni (demon) Noi Tai Dar is addressed by the voice of Chien Khan (while playing pool with a set of skulls). Khan offers Noi Tai Dar all the souls on Earth and asks only that he plunge humanity into the Pit of Nothingness. Noi Tai Dar accepts and pledges to do so if Khan can open the doorway between worlds.


Back at Khan’s hideout, Oyuki and Fu Sheng are watching Khan meditate and make his demands. Sheng explains to Oyuki that the Pit of Nothingness is where soul-death (souls being devoured by demons) occurs. Holding a knife in the air, Khan exclaims that only two things must happen now in order to open the gateway. One, he can handle himself, while the other is up to the Warrior Dragon.

At the power plant, Warrior Dragon is demolishing a cooling tower in an attempt to cause a nuclear meltdown. Donatello foolishly remarks that you can only cause a meltdown by destroying a reactor, not a tower. The Warrior Dragon thanks Don for his “advice” and begins thrashing the reactor housing. Leonardo orders the Turtles to fight the Warrior Dragon off. From the Dragon’s shoulder, Raph decides to have it out with Ninjara once and for all. Ninjara, however, claims she had no idea that the Dragon was going to attack the power plant, only that there was a demon to be summoned.


Back at the hideout, Khan frees Oyuki with his knife, but only with the intent of sacrificing her.

On the Dragon’s back, Ninjara tells Raph that she never would have gone through with her mission had she known Khan intended to use nuclear radiation as a power amplifier to summon the demon. Splinter demands to know more about the demon before all is lost. It is too late, however, as Noi Tai Dar emerges from one of the cooling towers.

At the hideout, Oyuki is tied to a table. Khan has a knife raised over her and is finishing up the proper chants for her sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Noi Tai Dar blasts Warrior Dragon with his eye beams. Warrior Dragon comes to his senses, realizing what he’s done, as Splinter considers fighting sorcery with more sorcery. While Splinter meditates, the Warrior Dragon attacks Noi Tai Dar.


Ninjara has had a change of heart and sides with the Turtles in stopping Noi Tai Dar. She explains that the process for bringing the demon to Earth must not be complete, as Noi Tai Dar is still bound to his energy source. Leo orders Ninjara, Raph, Don and Mike to head to Khan’s hideout and stop him before he completes the process, while he and April stay behind to watch Splinter. Splinter, still meditating, senses a pair of spirits coming together.

As Khan prepares to plunge the knife into Oyuki, Sheng breaks free from his binds. Meanwhile, Noi Tai Dar defeats Warrior Dragon and begins to step out of the cooling tower. Splinter finally recognizes the spirits as Izanami and Izanagi.


Sheng tackles Khan, preventing him from killing Oyuki. Izanagi removes his blindfold and blasts Noi Tai Dar into oblivion. By tackling Khan, Sheng accidentally knocks off his helmet, revealing him to be a weird dog-man. As Noi Tai Dar is returned to his underworld as a disembodied head amid his own collection of billiard balls/skulls, Khan makes one last attempt to kill Oyuki.

Izanami and Izanagi vanish, leaving a puzzled Splinter to wonder why he felt them manifest originally from the A-Bomb Dome. As Khan brings down the knife, his weapon is knocked away by a pair of nunchaku. The Turtles and Ninjara have made it just in time! They pummel the last of Khan’s ninja while Ninjara subdues her former leader, betraying him once and for all.


Just then, Warrior Dragon rips the roof off and in the madness, Khan slugs Ninjara and escapes. Raph helps Ninjara up and the heroes reunite, happy that though they lost the mastermind, they rounded up all of his crew.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #29. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #31.

*Chien Khan will return in April O'Neil #2.

*Noi Tai Dar will be referenced again in April O’Neil #3.

*This issue was reprinted in the UK by Fleetway in TMHT Adventures #56.


Review:

You know, it was media sensationalism and demonizing (literally, in this case) of nuclear power back in the 80s and 90s that got one of the most efficieant forms of energy production (that only produces mere teaspoons of radioactive waste a year and not the barrels seen on The Simpsons) put on moratorium for decades. It’s disappointing to see Clarrain (Murphy) giving into all the press hype about the evils of nuclear power, and that it’s only a matter of “when” not “if” there will be a nuclear meltdown killing everyone on the face of the planet. But then, when taken in the grand scheme of Clarrain’s other story arcs in TMNT Adventures, the guy thinks that littering and whaling will bring about the certain destruction of mankind, so you know, I shouldn’t be surprised.

I was just disappointed that this arc, which managed to go two whole freakin’ issues without hitting on one of Clarrain’s ham-fisted environmental messages, managed to end on one, anyway. No, I’m not some global climate change denier or anything villainous like that. But thirty issues of in-your-face environmental messages are really starting to take their toll on my patience.

Anyhow, the cheap Captain Planet-esque moral about how nuclear power is destined to destroy the souls of every living person on Earth aside, the issue was very action-packed and pretty exciting, thanks in large part to Allan’s artwork. The layouts are very dramatic and the constant back and forth between the fight with Noi Tai Dar and Chien Khan preparing to sacrifice Oyuki really heightens the suspense. It’s nice to see a lot of the goofy, humorous elements are still around, such as Noi Tai Par playing pool with human skulls despite the grimness of everything else going on in the story.

Though April and Oyuki coincidentally wearing exactly the same outfits kind of bugged me. The colorist could have at least given them different-colored undershirts.

Story-wise, I didn’t really like how quick everyone was to accept Ninjara’s “change of heart”. She was willing to sacrifice the souls of all of humanity, but only relented when she realized that her homeland of Japan would be irradiated in the process. Clarrain just seemed in a hurry to give Raph a love-interest, so we’re kind of just supposed to roll with it even if, realistically, she’s still got a lot to answer for.

Overall, the “Midnight Sun” arc just wasn’t for me. As someone who can read Japanese, I dug that Clarrain went through the extra effort to get authentic Japanese dialogue throughout the arc rather than just resort to gibberish symbols (which a lot of writers do, assuming “no one will notice”), so I will gladly offer up that compliment. But, honestly, I don’t really care for Warrior Dragon, I can’t stand Ninjara and the environmental messages are really getting obnoxious by this point in the series. Obviously, I was doomed to disliking this arc from the start.

Grade: C (as in, “Capri Sun had a ‘Yo Yogi!’ flavor?”)

Saturday, August 7, 2010

TMNT Adventures #29


Originally published: February, 1992

Script/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Jon D'Agostino
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Managing edits: Victor Gorelick
Cover: Chris Allan and Rod Ollerenshaw

“Midnight Sun, Part Two”


Summary:

Sitting with the Turtles and April in front of Hiroshima’s “A-Bomb Dome”, formerly the Industrial Exhibition Hall, Splinter recounts a story of his youth. When he was younger, his Great-Uncle Gyogi was his sensei and first taught him in the ways of martial arts. On August 6, 1945, he and Gyogi were training on the rural outskirts of Hiroshima when America dropped the atomic bomb. Though Hamato Yoshi survived, Gyogi was blinded by the blast. Later, when surveying the destruction, they found that the only building left standing was the Industrial Exhibition Hall; hence its new name.


Splinter explains that to escape the nuclear fallout, he and his family fled Hiroshima. Though blind, Gyogi’s other senses blossomed and he continued as Splinter’s sensei until he went to university. This trip, however, marks Splinter’s first time being back in the city.

Suddenly, Ninjara (the fox-woman) leaps down and addresses them. Splinter explains they are not looking for trouble (while Raph calls her a “babe”), but Ninja refuses to listen. Since they are searching for the Warrior Dragon, they are her enemies. Ninjara raises her katana and several white ninja appear at her side.

Back at Chien Khan’s hideout, the villain has completed the basic mixture of powders to shape the Warrior Dragon. Still tied up, Fu Sheng asks the girl Khan had kidnapped her name. She introduces herself as Oyuki Mamisha, and she insists that he doesn’t have to help her, as her life is lousy, anyway. Sheng tells her that all life is valuable and concedes to help Khan complete the last parts of his formula. Khan sends Sheng over to his collection of rare herbs (all stolen by Ninjara), as he laughs over the unconscious body of Chu Hsi.


Back at the A-Bomb Dome, the Turtles, Splinter and April continue their battle against the white ninja as Raph fights/flirts with Ninjara. Ninjara takes Raph out with a back-flip and then faces Splinter. Splinter asks why her master has taken Chu Hsi, but she isn’t talking.

At the hideout, Chien Khan sprinkles something over Chu to make his transformation into the Warrior Dragon “less traumatic”. Sheng then reluctantly hands Khan the mixture and Khan prepares to awaken the spirit of the Warrior Dragon.

At the A-Bomb Dome, Leo strikes a white ninja with his katana only for it to vanish into smoke, leaving its clothes behind. Splinter explains that white ninja are born into ninjutsu and that their clothes represent their connection to sorcery and the spirit world. Picking up one of the white ninja’s katana, Splinter says he can use it to vanquish their foes and continue their search.


Meanwhile, the Warrior Dragon has awoken, only he seems mindless. Khan explains that the powder he sprinkled over Chu was mind-controlling. He then sends the Dragon out into the streets to do his bidding.

And back at the A-Bomb Dome (again), Splinter takes on Ninjara once more, but this time in a duel. He asks Ninjara if she was mutated by the A-bomb, but Ninjara explains that she is no mutation, but a member of an ancient race of fox-people. Suddenly, the Warrior Dragon comes stomping through, completely in a trance. The Turtles recognize something is wrong with him and they leap onto his back, making their escape. Ninjara, insistent on killing Raphael, manages to latch onto the Warrior Dragon as well.

At the hideout, Oyuki asks Sheng what Khan’s orders to the Dragon were. Sheng says that he ordered the Dragon to destroy a nuclear power plant so that he can use the raw power released to rip open a portal to the demon world.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #28. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #30.

*Splinter's Great-Uncle Gyogi will reappear in TMNT Adventures #45.

*Ninjara's race of fox-people won't be visited until TMNT Adventures #46.

*On page 19, the Japanese Chien Khan speaks translates as, “You will listen to my tale…” Fu Sheng describes it as an “obscure Japanese dialect”. It was just regular Japanese.

*This issue was reprinted in the UK by Fleetway in TMHT Adventures #54.


Review:

Well, I think I made my opinion of Ninjara pretty clear in my review for the previous issue, but to recap: I don’t like her.

She hits most of the overwrought “awesome new character introduction” clichés in this one issue, as she confidently proceeds to beat up every main protagonist of the series with relative ease, all while everyone makes remarks about how skilled and “hot” she is. It’s rather obnoxious, really. I know she has a pretty solid fanbase within the TMNT fandom, consisting mostly of furries who recall her as the source of their first boner, but I have no such affections for her.

The real highlight of this issue was the very beginning, as Splinter recounts a tale of his youth as Hamato Yoshi. It was very interesting, as the Fred Wolf cartoon very rarely gave us any insight into what Splinter’s life was like before he became a mutant rat. Most people recall the “Midnight Sun” arc for its introduction of Ninjara, but I enjoy it more for the character work it did on Splinter, as we get to see him remembering his bygone human days while strolling around his homeland.

Oh yeah, and there’s all that shit with the Warrior Dragon, too, but who cares about him? To be honest, despite being the supposed driving force of this arc, he sort of falls flat when compared to the other things going on in it. Odd, since you wouldn’t expect a Godzilla-sized fire-breathing dragon in samurai garb to be the least interesting thing in a comic.

Grade: C+ (as in, “Christ, I hate that furry bitch”.)