Sonic the Hedgehog #10

Publication date: May, 1994

Script: Angelo Decesare
Pencils: Dave Manak
Inking: Art Mawhinney
Letters: Bill Yoshida
Colors & production: Barry Grossman
Editors: Victor Gorelick and Paul Castiglia
Editor in Chief: Richard Goldwater

“Revenge of the Nerbs!”

Summary:

While “juicing” through the sewer tunnels beneath Robotropolis, Sonic the Hedgehog (“the world’s most way past cool hedgehog”, in case you didn’t know) laments that he’s lost his way.

Behind him, going completely unnoticed, are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are also lost in the sewers. Michelangelo remarks that they’re more lost than they think, as they appear to be in the wrong comic book altogether!


Turtle Tips:

*This issue was reprinted by Archie in Sonic the Hedgehog Archives Vol. 3.


Review:

All you furries can just calm down already, this was a one-panel gag cameo, not some epic crossover between the two anthropomorphic animal franchises.

Under normal circumstances, I’d probably ignore pop culture jokes such as this, as the Turtles also made similar cameos in episodes of “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “Animaniacs” and I’m not about to list every comic or cartoon that’s ever referenced or poked fun at the brand.

However, their cameo in Sonic the Hedgehog #10 earns a scrap of extra credibility since Archie Comics had a TMNT comic being published at the same time, so it’s at least a “legal crossover”.

And furthermore, I’m really only listing this thing here for completion’s sake and because I don’t feel like writing a full length article right now.

The Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck #1

Publication date: November, 1996

Written by: Steve Gerber
Penciled by: Chris Marrinan
Inked and edited by: Erik Larsen
Lettered by: Chris Elliopoulos
Colored by: Steve Oliff and Olyoptics

Summary:

In an alley in New York City, a man trapped in a high-tech suit of armor known only as Specimen Q breaks into a street repair truck to purloin a jackhammer. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles take exception to this and leap down from the rooftops.

Specimen Q, whose dialogue is barely intelligible through the armor, encourages the Turtles to rough him up as much as they possibly can. The Turtles oblige and after a cartoonish battle within a conveniently action-obscuring dust cloud, concede that they cannot so much as put a dent in their foe. Disappointed, Specimen Q tries the jackhammer out on himself, only to break the equipment on his impregnable outfit. Frustrated, he storms off.

Raph bitterly demands they go after their enemy, but Don and Leo talk him out of it, as Specimen Q appears to be less of a villain and more of a victim. Mike simply suggests they head home and grab a brew.


Turtle Tips:

*As the none of the Turtles are disfigured, this story must take place before TMNT (Vol. 3) #1.

*The Turtles will encounter Destroyer Duck again (or appear in the same crowd as him) in The Savage Dragon #41.

*My summary only covers the Turtles’ involvement in the story. The actual plot of the special focuses on Destroyer Duck escaping from his Specimen Q armor and teaming up with Officer Dragon to rescue “Leonard the Duck” from an angry foe and defeat Dr. Brainard, the man who trapped him in the armor in the first place.

*Destroyer Duck was last seen (as Specimen Q) in Image’s Codename: Stryke Force #14. The sequence in which Destroyer Duck rescues “Leonard the Duck” from Homicidal Elf is actually a sly quasi-official crossover with the events of a Marvel comic also written by Gerber, Spider-Man Team-Up #5.


Review:

The Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck #1 is, quite frankly, a fascinating look at the behind the scenes politics of the comic book industry and a story I’d recommend to anyone interested in such a subject.

The issue was basically done as a means for Steve Gerber to take back his creation, Howard the Duck, from Marvel Comics by any means necessary. By cleverly writing the same event into two comics at once (Spider-Man Team-Up #5 and Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck #1), albeit from two separate perspectives, Gerber successfully managed to sneak his creation back from Marvel’s clutches, albeit in a rather abstract and out-of-the-box manner.

Spider-Man Team-Up #5 features Howard entering a warehouse fight and leaving with the titular webhead. This comic shows us what really happened, as the “Howard” that left with Spidey was no more than a soulless clone created by the Elf, while the real Howard escaped with Dragon and Destroyer Duck, joining the witness protection program and changing his name to “Leonard” (after a quick dye-job and a pair of glasses for disguise).

It’s a very sly way of sticking it to the corporation that stole his creation and a clever maneuver I applaud Gerber for making. Sure, Marvel remains free to use their “Howard” as much as they want, but all it’ll ever be is a “soulless clone” without Gerber. A not-so-subtle metaphor, sure, but an apt one at any rate.

The issue also featured two editorials, one by Erik Larsen and one by Steve Gerber, both featuring some very unkind words about Marvel and corporate comics in general. Larsen’s turns into a massive advertisement for Image Comics toward the end, as he expounds their integrity when it comes to creator-owned properties. He briefly mentions that they “aren’t perfect”, but quickly brushes that under the rug to continue his advertisement. Todd McFarlane basically trying to steal characters away from Neil Gaiman and tying him up in legal battles for over a decade is treated by Larsen as little more than a “meh”, which I find laughable, as it is a tremendous blemish on Image’s integrity and in direct opposition to their business plan and promise of creator ownership. Not something to just pass up with a “hey, nobody’s perfect”, Larsen.

Gerber’s extended editorial, which is more of a history lesson, is far more interesting, as he describes the trials and tribulations that Marvel put him through in regards to his fight to reclaim Howard, as well as how that battle led to the birth of Destroyer Duck back in the 70s. This puts much of the antics from this issue into perspective if you weren’t already aware of the politics, but doesn’t diminish the entertainment value by “explaining the joke”, either. I think it’s something a lot of comic readers should learn about, especially if they hope to one day “break into” comics, as it illustrates the precarious situation working for corporate comics can be.

Oh, and the Turtles were in this comic, too!

Yeah, I almost forgot all about em. Their participation is completely random and they could easily be swapped out for any guest star from Image’s stable, as they provide nothing more than a brief fight scene to showcase the durability of the Specimen Q armor Destroyer Duck is locked in. There really isn’t a whole lot to say about them beyond that, other than the fact that Chris Marrinan seems to draw them with Erik Larsen’s models.

TMNT & Other Strangeness: An Overview of the Palladium RPG Sourcebooks

*Foreword

In past reviews, I’ve mentioned that I never felt the drive to own any of the Palladium sourcebooks for their 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roleplaying game. It’s not so much that I held any distaste for them, just simply that I’ve never been into RPGs and so I figured it was just one scrap of TMNT merchandise among veritable tons that I wouldn’t be inclined to pursue.

However, what I found out later was that Palladium’s “TMNT & Other Strangeness”, as well as its many supplements, offer a look into a brief period of time in Turtle history, 1984 through 1987, that I’ve become particularly fascinated with in recent years. The Palladium RPG was introduced in 1985, two years before the TMNT would be picked up by Playmates Toys and Fred Wolf Films to be transformed into a children’s marketing war machine and global phenomenon. The Turtles were still in their infancy at this point and were still little more than just another independent black and white comic book. Licensed Turtle merchandise at this time was scarce and interest in the property was strictly niche. Only dedicated fanboys who hung around in comic shops read the book (as it was a direct market title, not a newsstand publication), and tapping into a similar demographic, the Palladium RPG was only going to entice the most acne-ridden of basement-dwelling Dungeon Masters.

The content of these sourcebooks, particularly the early ones, paint a very interesting picture of the Turtles as they were just beginning to license themselves out to appeal to wider audiences. We get to see ideas that were spawned in these sourcebooks which would go on to become standards across all Turtles mediums, we get to see early renditions of the characters, their personalities and their histories when they were still incredibly young on a conceptual level (the first sourcebook came out when the Mirage comic was only four issues in!) and, perhaps more fascinating to readers of the TMNT series, we get to see a lot of alternate origins for supporting characters created at a time when they had no origins to speak of! Many of these concepts didn’t stick and were contradicted by later Mirage publications, but seeing what other ideas (often radically different from the finished product) that the guys were throwing around can be especially enthralling.

All this and each volume is punctuated with page after page of artwork provided by Mirage’s stable of artists, most prominently Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson, as well as Palladium’s own staff of talent.

So let’s take a brief once-over from the top of this small but enlightening look at the Turtles before they “hit it big”.


*TMNT & Other Strangeness (1985)

Before I get started, I should say that these sourcebooks were primarily written and conceptualized by the late Erik Wujcik, co-founder of Palladium Books. Wujcik was a very talented and creative man, who tragically fell victim to cancer in 2008. Though I never roleplayed, I still found a great deal of entertainment simply from reading these volumes, and the care and craftsmanship that went into them is obvious even to the uninitiated like myself.

“TMNT & Other Strangeness” is the base from which all the other supplements spring out from and having been released in 1985, only a year after the TMNT were first introduced, it takes a great deal of creative license in fleshing out the characters, their universe and crafting numerous new elements to make their world more interesting for the gaming public. This first volume only features familiar characters and settings up through TMNT (Vol. 1) #4, giving some idea of what little material Wujcik had to work with.

A staple of these volumes which I’m afraid I’m not going to go on about in detail, as I’m simply too RPG-illiterate to appreciate them, are pages upon pages upon pages of charts, graphs and tables detailing the skill levels, powers, weapons, environments, vehicles, politics, technology and every other nuance needed to run a scenario within the confines of this fictional universe. As these games deal heavily with mutants, every volume has sections dedicated to specific animals, detailing their physical stats and inherent abilities. These features are more appealing to gamers than myself, I’m sure, as I’m primarily in this for the story summaries, character profiles and artwork.

“TMNT & Other Strangeness” offers outlines for several adventures to get players started, each with their own selection of unique characters and creations. The second is my favorite of the bunch, “The Terror Bears”, which sees the titular mutant bear cubs (Pain Bear, Fear Bear, Doom Bear and Nightmare Bear) causing nocturnal havoc in suburban neighborhoods while trying not to be recaptured by the laboratory they escaped from. There’s also a scenario with the villainous Doc Feral, who’d prove to be a recurring enemy throughout these volumes, as well as several other adventures that I won’t list for the sake of brevity.

The Terror Bears are freakin’ creepy, by the way.

The character profiles for the established Mirage TMNT cast offer several insights from a time when, in the TMNT comic-itself, not all the Turtles had yet to display individual identities. Raph’s profile, for example, informs us that his best friend among his brothers is Michelangelo, an idea that was prominent in early issues of the Mirage series which eventually fell by the wayside in favor of the pair following a much more antagonistic relationship. Michelangelo’s profile includes this curious and discomforting sentence: “In many ways he is the hedonist and the sensualist, appreciative of the pleasures of the flesh”.

Moving on.

In addition to the Turtles and Splinter, April, Baxter and Casey Jones are also given fleshed-out biographies, though aside from perhaps their ages and physical characteristics, nothing is really offered that can’t be found in the comics-themselves. The profile on the Shredder and the Foot offers some rather interesting tidbits, though. The description of the Foot references the unseen organizational structure; they’re ruled by the Council of Eight with “The Faceless One” being the head of the entire global syndicate. I presume the concept was taken from this lone panel in TMNT (Vol. 1) #1, though only seven council members are shown (presumably the missing eighth man is the mysterious “Faceless One”):

Doing a little research, I learned that the first printing of “TMNT & Other Strangeness” contained a section describing the various mental insanities you could apply to your character, ranging anywhere from kleptomania to extreme sexual deviancy. Parents naturally objected to a sourcebook encouraging their kids to roleplay as rapists and future printings omitted this section, which was about three pages long.

The section was hilariously thorough, even going so far as to include tables for Affective Disorders, Psychosis, Neurosis and Phobias. Or, if you'd suffered some generic "trauma", you could take a roll from the "Random Insanity Table"! There were also sections devoted to drug addiction and withdrawl symptoms, which you had to roll for to see how well you were recovering (assuming you even wanted to recover). While I already mentioned that I didn't care much for the charts and graphs and tables sections of the volume, I found this to be comedy gold. Don't want to take my word for it? See for yourself. It is three jam-packed pages of nothing but this:

“TMNT & Other Strangeness” also features an original short comic, “Don’t Judge a Book...”, and interior artwork by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, consisting of both original material and art recycled from the Mirage comic. I dig much of the profile art, particularly for the established characters. And this is easily my favorite piece of Utrom art ever:

Look at that smug little bastard, sipping his space juice or whatever the hell that is.


*After the Bomb (1986, with supplements in 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1994)

Now I’m going to take a moment to talk about “After the Bomb” and its multitude of supplements. “After the Bomb” was something of an alternate route that players could take, veering away from the world of the Ninja Turtles and pitting them in a post-apocalyptic Earth populated by radiation-born mutant animals and monsters.

Though it was born as a supplement to “TMNT & Other Strangeness” and focuses almost exclusively on mutant animals of every shape and size, you’ll find very little actual TMNT content within the pages of “After the Bomb” and its sequels. This made reading through the volumes less interesting for me, but I figured I’d list them anyway, as they each still bear the subtitle “A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle supplement”.

“After the Bomb” spawned five of its own supplements: “Road Hogs”, "Mutants Down Under”, “Mutants of the Yucatan”, “Mutants in Avalon” and “Mutants in Orbit”. Of the entire six volume series, only “Road Hogs” boasted any directly TMNT-related content: a short comic aptly titled “Road Hogs”, featuring an elderly Raphael training a new generation of Mutant Turtles.

Though the Ninja Turtles were almost completely absent, the volumes rotated between Palladium’s staff and Mirage artists providing pictures for the books. Peter Laird did artwork for the first volume, while Kevin Eastman would provide cover paintings for future volumes as well. Jim Lawson, Mirage’s number one “go-to guy”, did all the art for volumes like “Mutants Down Under”.

Each successive volume focused on different locations in the post-nuclear Armageddon setting, with each geographic location yielding its own unique set of mutant animals. The concept wears thin as early as “Mutants Down Under”, but the artwork is still a treat. When Palladium ceased producing TMNT RPG sourcebooks, they eventually edited the “After the Bomb” series to remove any scant references to the Turtles so that they could still publish the volumes.


*TMNT Adventures! (1986)

Getting back on track with the actual Turtles, though, Wujcik next brought out a more proper sequel in “TMNT Adventures!” in 1986 (still a year before the Fred Wolf cartoon!)

With all the stats, graphs, vehicles and technology specifications listed out in excruciating detail in “TMNT & Other Strangeness”, “TMNT Adventures!” was given the benefit of focusing exclusively on new adventure scenarios, some following the original characters created in the first volume and some following brand new challenges.

The volume opens with a scenario focusing on those creepy little Terror Bears wreaking havoc in a US nuclear missile silo. Cleverly, the adventure describes itself as a means to segue your game into the “After the Bomb” supplement by suggesting to the “Game Master” that he make the challenge unwinnable, thus resulting in the nuclear destruction of the planet and a means to move onto a new supplement. Very clever indeed.

Not all the included adventures feature very enthralling villains or challenges. While Doc Feral returns for another round, there are some very dull threats like a cyborg named “Mr. Bionic” or a heavy metal band called “The 666”. However, even the most boring of adventure summaries are made at least a little interesting by divvying up the background material between “Media Reports”, “Inside Information” and “Game Master Information”, sort of requiring you to piece the elements together on your own.

“TMNT Adventures!” came with an original comic, “New York Ninja”, as well as entirely original interior art by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The comics included in both this volume and “TMNT & Other Strangeness” sort of confuse me, as they don’t really have anything to do with the material covered in the books or even seem to set up any potential roleplaying scenarios. They’re just typical comics that could have been published anywhere else.


*TMNT’s Guide to the Universe (1987)

Having been written following the TMNT’s outer space adventure arc in the Mirage comic, “TMNT’s Guide to the Universe” focuses primarily on the extraterrestrial elements introduced in that storyline.

We get a map of the galaxy the Turtles were teleported to, as well as historical info on a number of the alien races seen populating the backgrounds of those issues. Since this installment takes us out of the comfort zone of Earth, Wujcik creates a brand new set of vehicle, technology and creature stats to take up the first fifteen pages of the book.

Interestingly, “TMNT’s Guide to the Universe” appears to be the very first piece of TMNT media to designate the T.C.R.I. aliens with the name “Utroms”. This name would stick, being used in both later issues of the Mirage comic and in the 4Kids cartoon series. There’s also a lot of background describing the politics behind the aggressions between the Triceraton Republic and the Human Federation; the two warring factions featured prominently during the outer space arc of TMNT (Vol. 1). Lots of alien races, such as the Ka’Trib and the Spiney are fabricated for this volume, while others such as the D’Ants are lifted from background characters, and even still others, such as the Varlesh (the crab people from Fugitoid #1) are given identities for the very first time.

The adventure section offers the third appearance of Doc Feral as well as several other challenges both out of this world and inexplicably terrestrial.

“TMNT’s Guide to the Universe” also offered an original comic, “Terror by Transmat!” (my favorite of all the comics published in these sourcebooks), and loads of new art by Eastman, Laird and Ryan Brown.


*Transdimensional TMNT (1989)

Coming two years after the premier of the Fred Wolf cartoon series, it was surprising to find that this volume had yet to feel any effects from the now-kid-friendlier franchise.

“Transdimensional TMNT” is the thickest volume since the original “TMNT & Other Strangeness” and offers quite a wealth of fresh content. It was billed as a sourcebook compatible with “Heroes Unlimited”, “Beyond the Supernatural”, “Robotech”, “Ninjas and Superspies” and “TMNT & Other Strangeness”, so I guess it just had more mouths to feed.

This volume sees the TMNT facing down temporal anomalies across space and time, with the Time Scepter or Lord Simultaneous and Renet (from TMNT (Vol. 1) #8 and Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #7) being the catalyst for all this madness. As a result, interior artist Jim Lawson gets to draw the two things he loves best: mutants and dinosaurs! Like the original “TMNT & Other Strangeness”, the majority of this volume covers stats and technological characteristics from multiple time periods, which isn’t exactly my cup of tea.

On the bright side, “Transdimensional TMNT” boasts the most fascinating character profiles of any of the volumes, as it covers several supporting Mirage characters who at the time were so new they didn’t yet have any background histories in any of the comics. The histories and identities presented in this volume are almost all completely contradictory to what would later be revealed in the Mirage comic, but are none the less fascinating for the glimpses they give us at alternate takes on the familiar characters and the directions they just might have gone in. Meanwhile, other characters have still yet to receive detailed backgrounds in the Mirage comics, making their histories here the only ones ever provided.

Lord Simultaneous (real name Marcus Sandelheim) is described as not an all-powerful god, but simply just another Joe filling in a job and living a standard human lifespan (it is stated that by the time of TMNT #8, he’d only been a Time Lord for 16 years). Simultaneous originated from the Middle Ages, before being selected to study as a Time Lord. Lord Simultaneous is only one of several Time Lords who form the Council of the 79th Level. Meanwhile, Renet (real name Renet Tilley) was a spoiled brat from the 79th Level whose parents forced her into Time Lord apprenticeship so she could learn discipline. Lord Savanti Romero, unfortunately, is given no historical information, other than a ridiculously long real name (Savanti Alfonso Juanito Geriero Santiago Romero).

None of the above characters ever got any background info in the comics, making this the only histories we’ve ever received for them. Considering how contradictory the other background profiles for established characters are in this book, you may want to view them with a grain of salt, but I’m happy with having “something” over “nothing”.

Complete Carnage and Radical have easily the most bonkers origins of any of the characters, in every way incongruous with their origins as later seen in the Mirage comic. Here, both Complete Carnage and Radical were extraterrestrial entities from 612,468,914 years ago, each chosen by their races to do battle. Their essences were sent hurtling through space by a supernova where they came to Earth and possessed a pair of humans: Max Wilsocci, a down-on-his-luck wannabe pro athlete, and Hazel McIntyre, a spoiled-rotten rich girl with no positive personality qualities whatsoever.

It’s amusing to see how radically (ha ha) different both their origins and their personalities are, as Complete Carnage, the villain, is presented in a more likable light than Radical, the heroine.

Last but not least, we learn about the continuing adventures of Kirby King after he was trapped in his “Kirby World” at the end of Donatello (microseries) #1 (he was hailed by his people as a great sorcerer hero and taught their various martial arts and crafts) and we get some sparse background on the Rat King, who here is known only as “Monster”. Since the name “Rat King” is not used here, I’m left with the impression that that moniker was created by Ryan Brown for the Playmates toyline and the Fred Wolf cartoon series, where it proceeded to stick as his identity. Here, “Monster” is given little background, only that he’s a crazy guy with multiple personality syndrome who thinks he has command of the rats but actually has no powers whatsoever.

The adventure summaries are a bit thinner than usual, though we get a fourth and final altercation with Doc Feral. For the first time, an adventure is summarized featuring actual TMNT supporting characters rather than original creations, detailing an adventure with Complete Carnage and Radical.

Incidentally, this is one of my favorite volumes in the series, thanks in large part to the very interesting alternate and early takes on the supporting characters of the Mirage comics.


*Truckin’ Turtles (1989)

Okay, see, now HERE is where the absurd, idiotic and childish elements of the Fred Wolf cartoon series and the TMNT’s new status quo as children’s characters began to pollute the Palladium sourcebooks.

Written by Jape Trostle and Kevin Siembieda rather than Wujcik, “Truckin’ Turtles” dials back the alarming, frightening and violent elements from the earlier TMNT sourcebooks to create a much lighter and kid-oriented adventure filled with goofy characters and challenges. The primary plot of this supplement sees the Turtles chasing a misunderstood trucker, Melvin “Bert” McClusky, across the interstates and back roads of America. Along the way, they do battle with Shriner Ninja (you read that right), engage in outrageous food fights at diners and deal with supervillains such as Ener-Tron, the Energy Alien.

Despite guns and the occasional utterance of the word “shit”, “Truckin’ Turtles” represents a notorious downward spike for the Palladium TMNT series. Previous installments dealt with insane storylines before, but this one overloads on the goofy with none of the intense or dark elements that made the earlier sourcebooks so engaging.

While other sourcebook supplements boasted a variety of stories, “Truckin’ Turtles” is a single adventure with the sourcebook holding your hand every step of the way. It tells you what dialogue characters can say and when, how they should act in every situation, how other characters should react to them and, in an ultimate display of “control freak”, even goes so far as to dictate precisely what kinds of restaurants your characters can eat at, the food they can order and even the sorts of names for the waitresses and cooks.

At the end of the day, it basically reads like a very poorly formed multipath adventure rather than anything encouraging players to think for themselves and construct original obstacles and solutions. The terminally bland artwork from Tom Baxa doesn’t even make this thing fun to flip through on a glance.

Disturbingly, it isn’t even the worst of the series…


*Turtles Go Hollywood (1990)

That would be this pile of crap.

In a 2007 interview for “Space Station Liberty”, Palladium co-founder Kevin Siembieda lamented the downward spiral of the TMNT RPG series, which he claims was a direct result of the Fred Wolf cartoon and the brand’s newfound kid-friendly reputation:

“No self-respecting teenager, even if he thought the Turtles were cool, or thought the Ninja Turtle game was cool, was going to be caught dead playing it.”

Well, maybe you shouldn’t have written that stupid “Truckin’ Turtles” volume, Kevin?

Anyway, “Turtles Go Hollywood”, written by Daniel Greenberg, goes the extra mile of not only being mindless and terrible, but actually tries to pass itself off as a thinly-disguised public service announcement against illegal drugs.

The story sees the Turtles traveling to Hollywood where they do battle with corrupt producers, ridiculous mutant animals, robots and a badly watered-down version of the Shredder and the Foot. The Turtles bust the drug running operation of the evil Labb Ratt (a mutant rat in a zoot suit), whilst engaging in various hilarious hijinks all the while. I said “thinly-disguised” earlier, but the anti-drug message isn’t really "disguised" at all. The book even opens with the message, “Drugs are not a means to adventure. Drugs are not cool. And despite how things may appear, everybody is not using drugs!” You know, just in case kids walked away from this 48-page public service announcement with the wrong idea.

The interior art from Kevin Long is a step up from the last guy, as Long is really a very good artist, but he simply isn’t given much of anything good to draw.

"Turtles Go hollywood" was the final nail in the coffin for Palladium’s TMNT RPG and, after a decade of not producing any new material, Palladium passed on renewing the license in 2001.


*Afterword

Despite that rather sour note to end on, the Palladium RPG series was a very fun ride for me to take. As a pretty dedicated Turtle fan, I’m not often confronted with fresh material to dig into. These sourcebooks proved a completely new and fascinating experience for me, especially as someone with a greater interest in the TMNT comics.

Though I can’t say I got the full intended experience from these volumes, as I don’t game, I got a real kick out of them, regardless. Their quality as gaming material I cannot comment on, so for all I know, they could actually have been terrible for their intended purpose. I’ll let you wistful RPGers of the 80s educate me on that. But if you’re a fan of the Mirage series and the history of the Turtles, particularly that brief span of time before the Fred Wolf cartoon came along and placed the “kid’s stuff” banner on the franchise, you’d be doing yourself a favor by looking into the early volumes of this series. The art from the familiar faces is some of their very best (and most seldom seen), while the background info on characters, whether it stuck in the comics or not, illustrates a fascinating offshoot in the series’ creative process.

While I don’t care much for gaming, I’m happy I took the time to buy these (and, believe it or not, they go for ridiculously low prices on the aftermarket).


*Addendum (November, 2011)



Turtle Fan Adam Winters recently contacted me with information from issue #9 of The Rifter (published 2000), Palladium's fanzine/newsletter publication that circulated in the late 90s. The issue features an article by Siembieda explaining why Palladium would be letting the TMNT license go, cancelling their plans for a second edition of "TMNT & Other Strangeness" featuring characters and concepts from the "Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation" live-action TV series.

The cover of the issue was done by none other than Simon Bisley (who is no stranger to the Turtles). It was originally commissioned for the second edition of "TMNT & Other Strangeness" but went unused (obviously). The select black and white artwork featured in the issue was done by Paulo Parentes Studio in Italy, originally commissioned in 1997 by Palladium.



In his editorial, Siembieda goes into detail explaining how the mass market appeal of the TMNT franchise, particularly geared exclusively toward children, effectively murdered the "TMNT & Other Strangeness" RPG. After referring to TMNT as "The Pokemon of its day", Siembieda continues, "On the other hand, the successful 'mass marketing' killed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the comic book and role-playing game markets where they first took off... The once gritty, satirical, hard-hitting Turtles became cuddly, fun-loving, pizza-swirling heroes to little kids - ages 3-10 - and joined the ranks of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the Smurfs! ...It didn't matter that the role-playing game (and the b/w comic book) was the same gritty, butt-kicking, imaginative and fun game it had always been. The Turtles were taboo to the teen market".



He then gets into numbers, explaining that the RPG, which once moved 4000+ units a month, suddenly had sales plummet "overnight" to less than 1,200 units. And shortly after that, it went to maybe 100 units a month. Even sadder, he describes Palladium's 3-year, $20,000 promotional blitz for the second edition of "TMNT & Other Strangeness" via high profile outlets such as Marvel Comics publications, their own The Rifter newsletter and even at conventions. And after 3 years of promoting, they had only received 30 advanced mail orders; a pitiful number. Retailers outright refused the book or only offered to pay for "test" samples.

Mirage offered to renew Palladium's license for another 2 years, but Siembieda declinded, as both companies had been keeping the RPG afloat for a financial loss for years and there was simply no more sense to keep throwing money at the thing. He then proceeds to thank everyone at Mirage for all their help and cooperation for the last fifteen years and, after bidding the TMNT a fond farewell, encourages readers to check Page 9 for a major TMNT RPG liquidation sale.



I really appreciate Adam sharing this information with me, as it shines some much needed light and context on the whimpering death of one of the last remaining (and longest running) "young adult" pieces of TMNT media at a time when the children's mediums were redefining the entire franchise. If my selected quotes make it appear that way, I just want to assure you that Siembieda's editorial was not bitter in any way, but highly respectful of the people who helped "TMNT & Other Strangeness" flourish for over a decade and genuinely melancholly to finally see it go.

Gen 13 (Vol. 2) #13B

Publication date: September, 1996

Written by: Brandon Choi, J. Scott Campbell and Jim Lee

Pencilled by: J. Scott Campbell

Inked by: Alex Garner and Peter Guzman

Coloured by: Joe Chiodo and Martin Jiminez

Lettered by: Bill O'Neil and Chris Eliopoulos

Edited by: Sarah Becker

Cover by: J. Scott Campbell with Jeff Smith & Alex Garner

Summary:

Stuck in the Land of S.A. (a weird version of the Land of Oz), Grunge and Roxy (in the form of a tiny fairy named “Tinker”) stumble across the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles buried beneath an enormous pile of their own merchandise. The Turtles beg for Grunge’s help and Roxy encourages him to assist, as the Good Witch told her that the Turtles would help them on their quest to find the Wizard. Grunge, however, simply recognizes the Turtles from his favorite childhood TV show and is psyched at the chance to meet them.

Grunge digs Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael out from the heap of toys, Nintendo cartridges, plush dolls and breakfast cereals then sits down to have a little chat. Grunge asks whatever happened to them and Don and Leo explain that things were going along just fine until they were blindsided by the Frenzy Beast and his Power Ranger minions (ha ha ha). Mike takes it in stride, being happy that they at least got three movies out of the ride before their time in the spotlight expired. Raph sighs and says that all they really want to be are comic book heroes again like back in the old days.

Grateful for his help, the Turtles offer to do anything they can in return. Grunge wants to find the Valley of the Dolls, but Roxy slaps him back into focus, and he asks if they know where to find the Wizard. The Turtles tell them to simply follow the Frenzy Beast’s path of destruction (a huge trail dug into the landscape), as the Wizard has been tailing the fiend for some time. Grunge and Roxy wave goodbye to their new friends and head after the Beast.


Turtle Tips:

*Due to the surreal and self-aware nature of this story, I wouldn’t consider it canonical to any of the Turtles’ adventures.

*Gen 13 (Vol. 2) #13A, #13B and #13C are three completely unique issues that tell a single story arc rather than simply being the same issue with three variant covers (as the #+A, #+B, #+C designations typically imply in comics).

*My summary only covers the Turtles’ appearance at the beginning of the issue. Afterward, Grunge and Roxy also encounter characters from Jeff Smith’s Bone, Mike Allred’s Madman, Larry Marder’s Mr. Spook, Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon and Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. Additionally, they also encounter parodies of Marvel’s Hulk, DC’s Wonder Woman and Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood.


Review:

Coinciding with the publication of Image’s TMNT (Vol. 3) series, Image did their level best to shoehorn the Turtles into as many of their publications as conceivably possible. While their one-panel cameos in books such as Shattered Image #2 and Mars Attacks Image #1 were positively inane and obnoxious, their two-page guest spot in Gen 13 (Vol. 2) #13B was actually remarkably amusing.

I never got into Gen 13 when it came out back in the day, and I’m still not much of a fan, but the title from what I’ve read has a consistently goofy and irreverent nature that makes it a fun read when I’m in the mood for something that oozes 90s and isn’t out-and-out terrible (and believe me, finding something 90s that isn’t out-and-out terrible is slim pickings).

This particular story was a fun romp through self-awareness and “subtle” jabs at the comics industry of the day. Grunge’s further journey takes him through places such as “Image Town”, where he glimpses Dragon tossing thinly-veiled approximations of the Hulk and Wonder Woman out of “The Highbrow Club” for “not having a sense of humor”, and most hilariously of all, past the dilapidated Top Cow barn to the boarded up “Bloodquarters” where some very obvious parodies of Rob Liefeld’s Young Blood are being evicted and left destitute.

I’m glad I put “subtle” in parenthesis because they straight up address the current status quo of the Image characters in the comic book industry, the rapid deterioration of the so-called Image “universe” and the mass-evacuation of the publisher’s fanbase. Then there’s the “Frenzy Beast”, who brings upon destruction to any character experiencing a string of success.

It reminded me a bit of issue #10 of McFarlane’s Spawn series, the one with Cerebus. However, the writing for this self-aware satire was actually clever and amusing and not just 20+ pages of uninspired metaphor that thinks its deeper than it really is followed by a string of tasteless jabs at corporate comics and freelance creators.

As for the Turtles, I got a good chuckle out of their bit in this whole shebang. The cameo had a smidgen more relevance at the time of publication (as did this entire storyarc, which seems rather “quaint” fifteen years later), but it’s good to see them cracking wise at themselves. The Turtles will likely never regain the "Indie Cred" they had between 1984 and 1987, and the Image series certainly felt like it was trying way too hard to do so, what with all the gore, thongs and gratuitous swearing, but I’m sure they’ll never stop trying (and I’ll never stop laughing at all the fans wondering why we haven’t gotten a rated-R TMNT feature film yet).

J. Scott Campbell is a very popular artist… but then, so was Rob Liefeld. I’ve never been a fan of Campbell’s, as he tends to employ the “same face” method of art I find utterly repulsive. All his characters feature identical countenances: Jack Nicholson eyebrows, wrinkled noses and cold, dead eyes.  And why does he give EVERYONE freckles?  Even the Turtles have freckles!

Still, he has a good handle on dramatic layouts and action staging, so while everyone looks terrible, they’re at least in dynamic poses.

Overall, this is one of the more amusing and creative uses of the Turtles by Image at a time when they didn’t know what the Hell to do with them outside of their own (barely selling) series. However, as the Turtles only appear for two pages, it’s more a thing for serious collectors out to snag their every measly appearance.

Grade: N/A (as in, “Now, the Turtles all suffer from ‘same face’ syndrome, but a very different kind of ‘same face’ syndrome than Campbell usually employs”.)

TMNT (Vol. 3) #16

Publication date: July, 1998

Writer: Gary Carlson
Penciler: Frank Fosco
Inker: Mark Heike
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Erik Larsen
Jail bait: Josh Eichorn

Summary:

On the rooftops, Leo remarks to himself how he, Don and Mike have at last located the temporary HQ of the Foot Clan and are preparing their assault to rescue Raphael and Splinter. Suddenly, Leo is ambushed by the Shredder! Or so he thinks. It’s actually Donny, whose armor has subconsciously taken on a form similar to the Shredder’s. Don apologizes, as controlling his armor has become more difficult ever since the central computer was evicted. Mike tells them both to shut up, as he spies on the nearby Oriental Palace Theater: temporary HQ of the Foot.

Don reminisces how he and his brothers used to sneak over there when they were younger to watch the porn flicks, but Mike and Leo have other things on their mind. They spot a pair of Shredder’s Elite Guard, whom they thought were all wiped out during the Foot Clan’s civil war. Leo ponders if this Shredder that they’re after can really be Oroku Saki, but Mike reminds him that anything is possible, especially since they just encountered Shredder’s supposed daughter, Pimiko. Leo concedes the possibility and orders his brothers to leap into action.

As Leo and Mike take out the Elite Guard (stealing their garb for disguises), Don securely opens the rooftop door for entry. The Turtles sneak onto a balcony overlooking a Foot training exercise. From a throne situated at the head of the army is none other than the Shredder and vampire-Splinter (who is locked in a cage). Don forms his own Elite Guard disguise from his armor and the Turtles sneak down to the ground level to close in on their foe.

Unfortunately, Splinter senses the approach of the “Turtle-Demons” and alerts the Foot Soldiers to the intruders. As Don guards Splinter and Mike takes on the Foot Soldiers, Leo heads for the primary target: The Shredder. Mike’s disguise is quickly lost in the battle, and as soon as the Foot see that he is one of the Turtles, they drop their weapons and bow, thoroughly perplexing Mike. Meanwhile, Leo demands that the “imposter” remove his armor. The Shredder declares that he’s earned the right to wear the armor and fights back. As Leo mentions that he’s perfectly capable of killing the Shredder a third time, Raphael realizes who he’s really fighting and removes his helmet. Leo is shocked, but the brothers quickly share a laugh at the whole situation as Mike demands to be brought up to speed.

Later, after some explaining, the Turtles decide to focus on saving Splinter from his condition. Leo recommends using some of the rabies vaccine he acquired in Midway City, but the Foot medicine man (Cheng) informs him that Splinter’s condition is as spiritual as it is physical and no vaccine can save him. After much argument, the Turtles agree to journey into the Astral Plane (Donnie most reluctantly of all) and keep Splinter’s spirit busy as Cheng cleanses it with their own physical and spiritual energies.

Within the Astral Plane, the Turtles find themselves “healed” from their various physical mutilations, though Splinter remains a psychotic vampire bat. The Turtles engage Splinter in battle, but their desire to keep from harming him puts them at a severe disadvantage. Cheng then appears to Don with the bad news that, so far, all of Splinter’s mind that he’s been able to unlock are his ninjutsu skills. Now an insane vampire with all the knowledge and ability of a ninja master, Splinter proceeds to seize Leo’s katana and trash his sons. Raph has had enough, however, and stabs Splinter in the back with one of his sai. As Raph cradles Splinter in his arms, the sensei changes back to his form as a rat, apparently cured of his vampirism. Splinter thanks Raph for saving him and drifts off into oblivion, leaving Raph to cry for help.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 3) #15. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 3) #17.

*Before starting their next adventure, though, the Turtles will take time out to attend the wedding of Barbaric and Ricochet in The Savage Dragon #41.

*The central computer evacuated Don’s cyborg body in TMNT (Vol. 3) #14.

*Pimiko claimed to be Oroku Saki’s daughter in TMNT (Vol. 3) #5.

*The Shredder’s Elite Guard were thought to have been wiped out after TMNT (Vol. 1) #61.

*Leo got the rabies serum and fought vampire-Splinter in TMNT (Vol. 3) #9.


Review:

TMNT #16 is one of my favorite issues of the entire Image series and the best story to come from the book since the “kidnapping of Shadow” arc from issues six through eight. We finally get to see the Turtles, all in their right minds and at full health for the first time in what feels like forever, teaming up for some good ole fashioned ninja action. While I would have preferred a longer battle between Leo and Raphael, I understand that the tenuous façade could only have lasted for so long and I was perfectly pleased with what I got.

For readers put off by the various “mutilations” of the Turtles, you should appreciate the entire Astral Plane sequence from the end of this issue, as it puts the Turtles back in their familiar bodies with their familiar weapons, leading to some more “classic” TMNT action. While I might take issue with Donny being portrayed as rather ineffective without his armor (he even doubts his battle prowess now that he’s without it, despite his lifetime of martial arts training), I’ll just chalk that up to being “rusty”.

It’s good to finally see some closure on the vampire-Splinter arc, as the old rat has been an old bat for over ten issues, now. The subplot dragged on a bit too long, mainly thanks to the insipid Deathwatch arc waylaying the storyline for four issues, but it reached a worthwhile climax as the Turtles are forced to do battle with their father. Though Raph’s remorse for stabbing Splinter at the end of the issue was a nice touch of drama, it felt a tad insincere as Raph was just moments ago spouting various threats and machoisms as he plunged the weapon into his dad’s back. Still, for the Image series, even a smidgen of emotional concern leaking from the Turtles is something to be excited about.

Fosco really knocks it out of the park with this issue which is packed with so many exciting and dramatic panels that I had a real dilemma in choosing which ones to scan in for this review. I think Fosco’s work shines best when set in the dark, noir storylines involving the Foot and the mob, moreso than the outrageous sci-fi and superhero adventure stuff that he’d been slogging through for the past half-dozen issues. His talents are particularly on display during the sequence where the Turtles infiltrate the theater and find the Shredder lounging on his throne in a posture of smug, confident authority. Leo’s brief battle with the Shredder, followed by Raph’s unmasking, looks especially good.

Heike’s inking is really picking up. I was fairly harsh toward it when he first joined the book, but the man’s definitely found his comfort zone. Cheng could probably stand to be a little less “shadowy” in appearance, as you can scarcely discern any distinguishing facial features, but that’s a minor grievance if anything. All the sequences taking place in the Astral Plane are done without any shading or toning of any kind; strictly character outlines and nothing more. This can make picking the characters apart and even telling them apart from the puffy clouds a bit difficult, at least when the line-weight isn’t varied enough.

TMNT #16 is one of the better issues of the series and a real highlight of the run. It definitely marks an improving direction for the volume, as it leaves the gratuitous crossovers behind it and rediscovers its focus and plot progression.

Grade: A- (as in, “And I count 20 Foot Soldiers in that training exercise. Fallen on hard times, indeed…”)

TMNT (Vol. 3) #15

Publication date: May, 1998

Writer: Gary Carlson
Penciler: Frank Fosco
Inker: Mark Heike
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Erik Larsen
Ignorant slut: Josh Eichorn

Summary:

From his apartment in April’s building, Mikey pets Klunk and writes about how crazy the past two weeks have been; chasing Deathwatch across the country and Donnie being stuck in paralysis. Though Donnie’s condition has stabilized, he isn’t getting any better, floating mindlessly in a giant medicinal tank. Leo enters and delivers some worse news to Mikey: the Shredder has returned! Or so eyewitness testimony would indicate. Mike is hesitant to believe it, but Leo reminds him that the Shredder has come back before in the form of worm clones. Unfortunately, the Turtles have to tackle one crisis at a time and Leo enters the astral plane to search for Donnie’s consciousness. As Leo meditates, Mike is greeted by April, Casey and Shadow, who lay eyes on the paralyzed Donny for the first time.

At the temporary HQ of the Foot Clan, several Foot Soldiers have carried the unconscious body of Raph to a bedroom, as well as the vampire-Splinter to a cage. Splinter’s rabid bite has made Raphael ill and a Foot medicine man (Cheng) has to heal Raph in body and spirit in order to save him.

Cheng's work sends Raph’s spirit plummeting into the Astral Plane, where he’s reunited with Donnie and the insane spirit of vampire-Splinter. Splinter flees and the brothers are approached by another familiar face: Leo! Leo helps Don follow the path back to his body before suddenly being sucked into a bright light, leaving Raph trapped all alone.

At the temporary Foot HQ, Leo awakens in Raph’s body, sees the Shredder helmet and the Foot Soldiers and freaks out. Cheng blasts him with some sleeping powder and decides to take another whack at awakening Raphael.

At Mike’s apartment, Leo’s body wakes up… with Don’s spirit inside! Don sees himself floating in the tank of goo and faints. A day later, Mike keeps watch over both his brothers while working on his latest novel (a romance novel). April enters with plenty of good news for his burgeoning writing career (he’s sold two more poems and a short story) and his burgeoning romance with Sara “Horridus” Hill (she’s sent him a grape jelly-scented letter).

Two more days pass and Don eventually wakes up. Enraged at still being stuck in Leo’s body, he hurls a radiator at the tank. When all is said and done and the goo has drained into the sewer, Leo and Donnie awaken in their proper bodies (the tank apparently having kept them from switching). Mike and Leo are overjoyed, though they fear that Donnie will still be left a vegetable and consider calling either Dragon or Vanguard for help in getting his cybernetics repaired. An unnecessary gesture, as Donnie regrows his cybernetic parts to full functionality and informs them that the computer is gone and there’s no one in his noggin but himself. The reunion isn’t happy for long, as Leo gets right down to business. He recalls what he saw when he briefly inhabited Raph’s body and their mission is clear: They must rescue Raphael and Splinter from the Shredder!


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 3) #14. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 3) #16.

*The Turtles fought Shredder’s mutant worm clones and the resurrected Shredder-himself in TMNT (Vol. 1) #21.

*Raeburn removed Donatello’s soul from his body and trapped it in the Astral Plane in TMNT (Vol. 3) #11. Mikey last met Sara “Horridus” Hill in that same issue.

*In the letters column, Carlson explains that Raph’s face has already begun healing and that his eye is now only sensitive to light rather than completely blind.


Review:

The Deathwatch arc is mercifully behind us, Donnie’s returned to his body and Splinter is once again a focal plot point: This book is back on track!

Although there’s a bit of a narrative disconnect between where the last issue left off and where this one picked up, it still functions as a nice breather between the ongoing plot lines, as all the Turtles rebuild their strength and slowly but surely reunite. Donnie’s malfunctioning body wasn’t exactly a subplot I was entirely enthralled with, so I was pleased to see it at last resolved in this issue, albeit through the somewhat trite plot device of “body-swapping”. Thankfully, though, Carlson doesn’t play it for laughs or milk too much nonsense from the overused gimmick, instead simply employing it as one last aggravating hurtle between Donatello and his much-deserved wellness.

The New York branch of the Foot Clan seems to be in dire straits at this point in the TMNT’s timeline, as only a handful of surviving Foot Soldiers represent a large enough majority to summarily elect Raph as the undisputed new Shredder. The New York branch haven’t exactly had the most competent and prosperous history for the past few years, primarily thanks to intervening from the Turtles and in-fighting amongst themselves, but “City at War” was supposed to clean all that rigmarole up. Since the Japanese branch of the Foot appears to be the primary authority of the Clan, you’d think after this catastrophe they’d finally just say “screw it” and dissolve their New York operations entirely. Or maybe just move to Chicago or LA or somewhere else in the US. Because these New York Foot Soldiers just can’t seem to do anything right.

Of the various plot and character advancements on display in this issue, it was Mike’s continuing prosperity that hooked me more than any other. Mike’s aspirations in this volume are the most down to Earth of any of the Turtles, as all he wants is a good job and a loving girlfriend, so to see him effectively on his way to ensnaring both of those was a nice touch. Both successes are built up from plot points going all the way back to the beginning of the volume, too, so they felt like entirely natural accomplishments.

So to wrap things up, if the previous Deathwatch arc left a bad taste in your mouth as it did with me, then you should be pleased to see some definitely positive plot progression happen in this one issue. The “body-swapping” may not have been the most original story concept, but at least it got everyone back where they belong.

Grade: B (as in, “But the official TMNT newsletter used to be hosted on a Fortune City site? Man, this comic takes me back...”)

TMNT: Smash-Up

Publication date: September 22, 2009 (date of game release)
Published by: Ubisoft (comic came packaged with Ubisoft video game)

Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Eric Talbot
Script: Peter Laird and Matt Leunig

“TMNT: Smash-Up”

Summary:

Frontispiece: Somewhere, the Fugitoid addresses the audience as pigeons land on his head. He tells his origin; how he was a scientist named Professor Honeycutt who had his mind transferred into a robot body and thus became the Fugitoid. He continues by describing the transmat device he has been hounded by evil forces to create and how he’s been on the run for years. In fact, he’s actually on the run right now, even though he doesn’t appear to be moving. Funny thing about that…

Down in the sewer lair, Splinter addresses his sons. He tells them that he has taken it upon himself to begin a tournament amongst them; winner gets to choose any prize from his private trophy case. The Turtles leap at the opportunity, though Splinter shocks them with the news that he’ll be making it more interesting: Casey Jones, April O’Neil and even he-himself will be participating.

More of a free-for-all than a “tournament”, the seven brawlers spring into friendly competition: Mike takes on Don, April takes on Casey, Leo takes on Raph, Raph winds up fighting Casey, Leo gets trounced by Splinter and Casey gets struck by the old rat as well. Splinter then calls for a break, teasing the contestants with a peek at the various goodies in his display case.

Suddenly, the Fugitoid appears on the lair’s emergency communicator with terrible news: he’s been captured by the Shredder! The Shredder picks up the phone next and taunts the Turtles, insisting that they will never rescue the Professor in time. Angered, the Turtles, April and Casey head to a rooftop for no readily apparent reason to discuss the dire situation. They lament that they haven’t a clue where the Fugitoid might be, but luckily for them, one falls right into their lap. Karai appears, informing them that the Shredder intends to force the Fugitoid to build a transmat device. He has the Professor held hostage at the Foot’s Tokyo base. The Turtles ask why she’s helping them, since she’s a member of the Foot and all, but she gives a “none of your business” and ninja-vanishes.

Back in the lair, Don announces that he’s jerry-rigged a device that’ll allow him to control Renet’s Time Scepter. Then, for no reason whatsoever, a giant alligator bursts through the wall of the lair and attacks. The Turtles, April, Casey and Splinter do battle with the behemoth as the Scepter activates, whisking them all away to the swamp. Splinter and Leo defeat the reptile, but knock it into a bee's nest by accident. Seeking asylum from the stinging insects, Don activates the Scepter again.

This time, he gets the location right but the time wrong. The Turtles and co wind up in Tokyo, only in the distant past. They are approached by an army of samurai and quickly do battle. In the fray, Raph kicks off one of the samurai’s helmets, revealing him to be an Oni (a demon). All the samurai reveal themselves as such and Splinter insists Donnie try the Scepter again.

Third time’s the charm and the gang end up right where they want to be: a rooftop in modern Tokyo. Finding the Fugitoid’s disembodied noggin sitting on top of a pole, the Turtles reunite the Professor with his body. Alas, the Professor has more bad news: it was all a trap! Dozens of Foot Soldiers drop down and engage in battle. Naturally, the good guys beat them with ease.

But the fight is far from over, however, as the Shredder finally makes his way onto the scene, declaring his intent to kill them all…


Turtle Tips:

*This full-length, 24-page comic came packaged with the TMNT: Smash-Up video game by Ubisoft. To date, it has not been made available in any other format.

*The art style and character selection are a mish-mash of those seen in the 4Kids cartoon series and the Imagi 2007 feature film, “TMNT”. In the game (though not seen in this comic), one of the environments happens to be the Technodrome from the Fred Wolf cartoon series, too. Precisely what continuity, if any, “Smash-Up” may fit into is hard to determine and probably an unnecessary effort.

*The Fugitoid’s origin as he describes it can be seen in Fugitoid (microseries) #1 or the 4Kids TMNT episode, “Turtles in Space, part 1: The Fugitoid”.

*A helmet belonging to the Nightwatcher is seen among Splinter’s trophies. The Nightwatcher was the alter-ego of Raphael, as seen in 2007’s “TMNT”. How he became the Nightwatcher can be seen in TMNT Movie Prequel #1 - Raphael (incidentally, the Nightwatcher was a playable character in the Smash-Up game).

*In the 4Kids cartoon the Time Scepter appeared belonging to Renet and Lord Simultaneous in the episode “Time Travails”. In the Mirage comic series, it was first seen in TMNT (Vol. 1) #8.

*The credits for this comic were not published within the pack-in booklet. Credits for the in-game artwork and story appear at the end of the game-itself, which were likely the product of the same team of Mirage staffers.

*The game kinda sucked.


Review:

Well, this was a comic I wasn’t expecting to review today, but thanks go to The Technodrome Forum’s “Abnormal Freak” for providing me with the comic’s scans!

“Smash-Up” looks and feels like an issue of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2), albeit with the unenviable task of having to act as product placement for a rather lackluster movie tie-in video game. It has all the same length, “production values” and even frontispiece of any given issue of Tales of the TMNT, making it far superior to the sorts of 5-page minicomics that usually come packaged with games and other assorted merchandise, but the “cramming in” of as many elements from the game as possible makes it read just as awkwardly.

With the exception of the Utrominator (and perhaps the Raving Rabbids), the creative team manage to work-in all the featured characters from the game’s line-up, sometimes to rather meaningless effect (they go to a rooftop for no other reason than to “accidentally” stumble upon an unusually helpful Karai). Several locations from the game are showcased; as are elements from the game’s many “interactive environments” that Ubisoft was so proud of (that stupid, random alligator and bee's nest, for instance). I won’t hold any of this against the guys, as they had to do what they had to do, and like I said before, the fact that this thing is 24 pages and, on a visual level, could almost pass as an issue of the (then-running) TMNT comic puts it heads and shoulders above similar pack-in tripe.

Where Lawson’s artwork is concerned, I actually found myself preferring his adapted designs for April and Karai seen here over his contemporary Mirage versions of them. They certainly have more personality in their countenances and more striking outfits than his Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) and TMNT (Vol. 4) interpretations of the characters. His Turtles look like his Turtles, nothing new here, though I swear some of them sported Talbot-esque heads (maybe that was just an influence from his inking?).

The Shredder’s behavior in this comic kind of took me by surprise, as he talks not with the uber-serious tone of the 4Kids or Mirage Shredder, but with the ostentatious attitude of the Fred Wolf Shredder. He makes bad jokes and bad insults and even Mike mumbles an aside commenting on his stupidity (as Shredder referred to them as “amphibians” when they’re reptiles).

Overall, the awkward tie-in nature of the story (to say nothing of its incompletion) keeps it from really feeling like a “lost issue” of Tales (Vol. 2), but the visuals, length and variety of characters make it an attractive novelty for collectors. The bad news is that you have to buy a pretty lousy video game to get a hold of it, but two years after the fact, I’m pretty sure you can procure a copy from Gamestop for pocket change. Just check the case first to see if the comic’s still in there.

Grade: N/A (as in, “Now just be grateful Lawson didn’t have to try and work-in the cruise ship/killer whale level”.)