Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #1
Publication date: November, 1991
Story and art: Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney
Colors: Guy Romano
“Turtle Power!”
Summary:
Flying in the Turtle Blimp, the TMNT finally locate
Krang’s secret base and prepare to attack.
Spotting them on his security system, Krang fires a harpoon missile which bursts the blimp. The Turtles
crash-land in the moat and then infiltrate the base through a sewage pipe.
Krang, thinking the TMNT are finished, returns to his
fiendish experiments. He feeds tainted
dog food to a Scottish terrier, which mutates into a lumbering dog
monster. Krang bellows with joy,
believing that he can sell his “retromutagen dog food” on the open market and
use it to mutate an army of vicious monsters under his control.
The Turtles finally arrive on the scene and tell Krang
the jig is up. Krang sics the dog-mutant
on them, but the TMNT take it down with a net.
They corner Krang, but he ejects from his bubble-walker with a rocket
pack and escapes. Suddenly, a countdown
mechanism initiates and the Turtles escape the base just before it self-destructs. Having foiled Krang’s evil
scheme, the Turtles celebrate their victory with a catchphrase or two.
…In the real world, the entire adventure is revealed to
have been imagined by a small boy named Bart, playing with his TMNT action
figures. Bart’s mom comes home and finds
the living room a mess (the Turtle Blimp toy submerged in the aquarium and
their Scottish terrier bound up in a blanket).
Bart’s mom scolds him for playing too messily in the house.
Turtle Tips:
*Fans often identify the dog-mutant as being Rahzar. However, the monster is never named in the
comic and the only similarity it shares with Rahzar is being a canine. "TMNT II: The Secret of the ooze" (Rahzar's first appearance) was released in March of 1991, only a few months before this issue was published.
*A Roachmill comic (along with a TMNT comic) can be seen
on the last page. Roachmill was a title
created by Hedden and McWeeney.
Review:
Hedden & McWeeney at perhaps their least offensive, “Turtle
Power” is a fun little story with some REALLY lavish coloring by Romano. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the best-looking
stories in Turtle Soup #1, which is a pretty high compliment considering it
keeps company with stories by Michael Dooney and Anderson/McCollum.
It’s a bit strange to be seeing all these Fred Wolf and
Playmates TMNT-isms in a Mirage publication, but more surprisingly is that they’re
implemented without any cheap jabs. By
1991, the Mirage comics seemed desperate to distance themselves from the
popular kids arm of the franchise, often taking potshots at every “Cowabunga” or what have you. While one might interpret
the ending as a subtle way of reminding the audience that the Fred Wolf and
Playmates TMNT aren’t the “real” TMNT, I couldn't find any malice in it. If anything, it was just a
refreshing reminder that when kids play with their toys and tell their little
stories, they don’t see the same things adults do when they’re watching.
Not a heck of a lot to say about it, other than that
Hedden and McWeeney make a few errors (Leo and Don getting mixed up on page 2,
Krang referring to regular old mutagen as “retromutagen” when retromutagen is
supposed to undo mutations). Still, the
elaborate art and excellent coloring make up for any setbacks and at 6 pages,
this kind of story is exactly as long as it needs to be.
Grade: I (as in, “I wonder why they colored the Turtles
with red bandanas, though, if this was all a reference to the Fred
Wolf/Playmates stuff? Guess it was
another error”.)
