Publication date: July 10, 2013
Story: Kenny Byerly
Art: Dario Brizuela
Colors: Heather Breckel
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow
Summary:
Down in the sewers, April is practicing the stealth
lessons Master Splinter taught her, but she’s quickly caught by
Michelangelo. Splinter compliments her
technique, saying that her skills as a kunoichi are improving. April, however, is impatient and wants to use
her skills in the field (mainly in trying to find her missing father). Donatello jumps at the chance for a little
alone time with April, asking if she’d like to join him on a stealth mission to
a military junkyard for some parts. April
is happy to go, much to Leonardo’s disapproval.
At the junkyard, April puts on a dark wig to disguise
herself in case she’s seen, then she and Donnie cross the barbed wire and begin skulking around. Donnie says that the place is a dumping
ground for failed, state-of-the-art military prototypes, as well as a great
place for scavenging parts for his inventions.
Donnie yanks a diode module from a laser cannon and hands it to April,
just as a guard comes by on his rounds.
The two flee for the exit, but April is cornered by a guard dog and
taken into custody. Donnie immediately
calls his brothers for assistance in springing April.
Down in a sublevel facility, the Officer in charge
questions April as to what she was doing with their diode module. April insists that her name is “January
McAndrews” and that she was just on a silly teenage dare. The Officer points out all her ninja gear they took from her and demands the truth.
Donnie meets up with his brothers and they formulate a
plan. They want to get April out without
being seen by the military, but also without hurting any of the soldiers (as
they aren’t bad guys). They start
blowing up some of the prototypes to create a distraction, but it isn’t good
enough to clear the entrance to the sublevels.
April overhears on a walkie talkie that someone is causing a disruption
above and decides to help her friends out.
She tells the Officer that she’s really a spy and her friends have
arrived to steal the military’s experimental laser cannon. The Officer immediately orders all hands to
guard the laser cannon, thus clearing the entrance to the sublevels for the
TMNT.
Using smoke bombs, the Turtles begin subduing all the
soldiers in the sublevels as Donnie deletes the security camera footage for the
night. In the confusion, April manages
to judo-flip one of the guards, steal his key card and make a break for it
(though she loses her wig in the process).
The Turtles find themselves chased into a corner and out of smoke bombs
to hide with. Luckily, April finds the power
controls and shuts off all the lights.
The Turtles sneak/fight past the guards, find April and escape into the
sewers through an access shaft. As
Donnie removes April’s handcuffs and they all head back to the lair in the Shellraiser, April
gives Donnie a little gift: The diode module.
Later, Splinter expresses his disappointment with April
for going on a mission she wasn’t ready for.
She apologizes, saying that she let her impatience get the better of
her. Leo gets her back, though, saying that
she exhibited great ingenuity and skill in escaping. Donnie then invites everyone into the kitchen
to witness his latest invention: The laser pizza slicer. He sets it too high, however, and slices the
table to pieces.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT New Animated Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2013.
The story continues in TMNT New Animated Adventures #2.
*The government junkyard was first mentioned in the episode "I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman."
*Michelangelo mentions how he isn't allowed to use smoke bombs because he doesn't appreciate them, a reference to the episode "The Gauntlet".
*April uses the T-Phone's automatic self-destruct command, first utilized in the episode "Mousers Attack!".
*Donnie introduced the Shellraiser in "The Pulverizer".
*The government junkyard was first mentioned in the episode "I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman."
*Michelangelo mentions how he isn't allowed to use smoke bombs because he doesn't appreciate them, a reference to the episode "The Gauntlet".
*April uses the T-Phone's automatic self-destruct command, first utilized in the episode "Mousers Attack!".
*Donnie introduced the Shellraiser in "The Pulverizer".
*This issue was originally published with 5 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Brizuela, Subscription Variant by Kevin Eastman, Cover
RI by Ciro Nieli, San Diego Comic Con Variant by Tony Fleecs, and Awesome Con
Variant by Steve Conley.
Review:
New Animated Adventures looks to be a fun diversion from
all the continuity and long gestating story arcs of IDW’s main TMNT comic
series. While I don’t know how long it
will keep to these brisk, one-shot adventures, I hope the format sticks around
for a while. Of course, the one-shot nature
of New Animated Adventures is kind of necessary, as it has the unenviable task
of trying to take place in-between episodes of the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon
series. Easier said than done, honestly,
as one creative team trying not to contradict another creative team without
having any control over what that other creative team is doing… can’t be anything
less than a headache. The Free Comic
Book Day 2013 issue of this series was already contradicted by an episode of
the Nick cartoon that aired a week after the comic was released, for example.
Still, whether the folks behind New Animated Adventures
decide to branch out and follow their own path diverging from the Nick show, or
whether they stick to the “one-shot adventures in-between episodes” format, I
think this looks to be a solid book. It’s
a bit like Mirage’s old Tales of the TMNT volumes, in that manner.
As for the story by Kenny Byerly (who is a writer for the Nick cartoon), I quite enjoyed it. The Nick show’s April has been one of the
better versions of the character, so I was happy to see this proper first issue
of the comic devote the greater focus on her.
It’s always nice to see April with a few flaws, as writers tend to make
her a bit overpowered in other universes (a tech guru as intelligent as
Donatello and a ninja as skilled as any of the Turtles… yeah, that’s pretty
overpowered). Here, she’s still learning
from Master Splinter and faltering in her training, as expected. While I’m not entirely caught up on the show
(as of this writing, I think I stopped watching around “The Pulverizer” and
haven’t gotten back into it), the cartoon wasn’t devoting a whole lot of time
to April’s actual training, so it’s good to see this comic picking up the slack.
Better yet is the way April manages to think her way out
of a serious situation. She never loses
her cool and applies Splinter’s lessons to craft a more subtle strategy. This method manages to SHOW us her
intelligence and resourcefulness rather than TELL us about it. Most stories that focus on her “hacker”
skills to convey her intellect to the audience tend to fall among the
latter (telling us, not showing us), as that sort of talent is a “take our word
for it” deal in comics (much like “the character is really good at singing, we
swear”).
In regards to the Turtles, I was pleased that they
understood not to injure any of the guards (though they sort of do,
anyway). In this situation, THEY’RE the
bad guys (stealing military hardware) and the guards are just trying to protect
their property. It may not seem like a
vital distinction on the surface, but even a throwaway line where the Turtles
acknowledge that they’re in the wrong and have to be “gentle” goes a long way
in keeping them from looking like a bunch of bullies, jerks or criminals.
Dario Brizuela was the perfect choice for art
duties. He’d previously worked on Mirage’s
second volume of Tales of the TMNT, where he did great work, but his art style
wasn’t always an ideal match for the grittier material. There’s one issue of his in particular, Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #67, where he tries to apply those exaggerated “anime
style” facial expressions to the characters and it just wasn’t a good fit for
that universe. The Nick cartoon, on the
other hand, employs over-the-top “anime style” reactions and expressions
relentlessly, so Brizuela is free to indulge in that vice as much as he likes
in this comic series. The action’s well
laid out and the characters emote both subtly and outrageously (the
aforementioned “anime style” effects).
April still looks like a plastic mannequin, but that’s admittedly a
problem inherent with her animation model and less Brizuela’s fault.
Overall, it’s good stuff.
Like I said before, it’s nice to have a TMNT book that’s “light reading”,
so to speak. And even though the events
of the title are tied into a cartoon series you may or may not have seen, the
stories seem perfectly capable of surviving on their own merit. I certainly haven’t watched every episode of
the show and I’m following these New Animated Adventures just fine.
Grade: B (as in, “But damn, April, you’ve got some big
feet!”)
