Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #2
Publication date: December, 1991
Story and art: Michael Dooney
Colors: Steve Lavigne
Lettering: Mary Kelleher
Inking (dinosaurs only): Peter Laird
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Attack!!! Part 2”
Summary:
As Mikey, Don and Raph struggle with the hungry T-rex,
Leonardo enjoys a leisurely ride on the back of a brontosaurus (while a
confused struthiomimus dashes off).
Donatello groans to himself, as he thought he’d gotten enough of
fighting dinosaurs when he and his brothers visited the past.
Meanwhile, Betti is worried that the “nice turtle
monsters” are going to get eaten. Henry
assures her that he can figure his time gauntlet out and send the dinos back
where they came from.
The T-rex proceeds to pound the Turtles flat, but before
it can take a bite out of any of them, Henry successfully returns the
brontosaurus and the T-rex to prehistory.
Raph is not in a very thankful mood and is about to gut Henry with his
sai. Startled, Henry begins pressing buttons
on his gauntlet to send himself and Betti home.
Instead, he unleashes a bunch of mean-looking futuristic robots…
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles Attack!!! Part 1. The story
continues in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Attack!!! Part 3.
*Donatello references the time they fought dinosaurs in
the past with Renet in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #7.
Review:
Okay, so I’m just sort of guessing that the tiny yellow
dinosaur is a struthiomimus. I’m no paleontologist. Maybe it’s a gallimimus (you know, those
things from “Jurassic Park”). The only
reason I even suggest struthiomimus is because Phil Tippett did stop-motion
animation for one in a dinosaur documentary that I watched
endlessly as a child. The one hosted by Christopher Reeve. C’mon, you know the
one I'm talkin' about.
Anyway, more fun stuff.
My favorite part in this segment of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Attack!!!” is the panel where Raph scolds Leo for leaving the T-rex to his
brothers while he goes for a horsey-back ride on the brontosaurus. One of the better things about Michael Dooney’s
stories was that he understood that even dishwater-dull Leonardo liked to have
fun every once in a while. Leo’s segment
of “Challenges” gave a nice spotlight to that quality. And, I mean, honestly: When is he going to get
an opportunity to ride on the back of a brontosaurus again?
Laird’s inking on the dinosaurs definitely stands out as
Laird’s style of inking and not Dooney’s, but I wouldn’t say it clashes,
either. It does have the effect of
making the linework on the dinos look less “Dooney-ish”, though.
Grade: S (as in, “Stop-motion is the only way to render
dinosaurs, as far as I'm concerned”.)
