Publication date: February 26, 2014
Story: Kenny Byerly
Art: Dario Brizuela
Colors: Heather Breckel
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow
Summary:
On their way home from Murakami’s noodle shop, the
Turtles and April suddenly get the feeling that they're being watched. April feels it even moreso thanks to her
latent psychic powers. Suddenly,
thousands of rats flood the alley and everyone flees to a rooftop. The rats eat away the ceiling and the Turtles
and April come tumbling down into an abandoned building. In the darkness, they’re greeted by the Rat
King, looking for revenge.
Someone else is looking for revenge, though, and it’s Dr.
Rockwell (or as Mikey calls him, “Monkey Brains”). The mutant simian uses a special headband to
amplify his own psychic powers, overwhelming the Rat King and knocking him
out. Dr. Rockwell then carries the Rat
King off, motioning for April and the Turtles to follow him.
At an abandoned warehouse, they find that Dr. Rockwell
has created a new lab for himself. He
straps the unconscious Rat King onto a stretcher and then attempts to
communicate with the Turtles. When they
don’t get anywhere, Leo suggests that April use her psychic powers to form a
link with Dr. Rockwell’s and communicate telepathically. With some effort, she manages to get the
story from Dr. Rockwell. He created the
headband to disrupt the Rat King’s powers and now that he has his old ex-partner
held prisoner, he hopes to create a serum to neutralize the Rat King’s abilities
for good.
The Rat King awakens and begins mocking his ex-partner,
who needs to concentrate in order to continue disrupting the Rat King’s psychic
abilities with his headband. Dr.
Rockwell’s primitive monkey instincts eventually succumb to the taunting and he
attacks the Rat King, breaking his own concentration. The Rat King wastes no time in summoning
thousands of rats into the lab, which overwhelm Dr. Rockwell. The Rat King steals the headband and puts it
on, using it to amplify his psychic powers over the rats. He instructs the rats to bond together and
create giant rat-men homunculi that keep the Turtles and April busy while he
escapes with the unconscious Dr. Rockwell (swept away in a wave of rats).
The Turtles and April escape through a window, but the
alley begins to fill up with a river of rats.
The Turtles leave April on a fire escape and take off after the Rat
King. The Rat King has taken the
thousands of rats and fused them into a towering rat-man in his own image. As the rat-man attacks the Turtles, Don gets
an idea and fetches April. He takes her
back to the lab and hands her one of Dr. Rockwell’s headband prototypes,
suggesting she use it to amplify her own psychic abilities and stop the Rat
King. Through the rats, the Rat King
hears of this scheme and sends his rat-man stomping toward the lab.
April attempts to use the headband, but being a novice
psychic, can’t get it to work and is absorbed into the body of the
rat-man. Leo and Mikey grab the
Shellraiser and attempt to ram the rat-man, but it reforms at the last second
into a giant ramp that sends the vehicle flying. The Rat King is about to declare victory when
April uses her amplified powers to break apart the rat-man. Dr. Rockwell also emerges from the pile of
rats and snatches the headband from the Rat King. The Rat King tells Dr. Rockwell that his
psychic abilities are no match for his own, even with the headband. April joins with Dr. Rockwell and their
combined psychic powers overwhelm the Rat King and knock him out.
Dr. Rockwell is about to take the Rat King back to his
lab, but all that's inside the Rat King's cloak are dozens of rats. The villain has escaped again. Dr. Rockwell is disappointed, but Leo cheers
him up by thanking him for saving their lives twice in one night. Mikey also thanks “Monkey Brains”, a name Dr.
Rockwell finds infuriatingly distasteful.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT New Animated Adventures #7. The story continues in
TMNT New Animated Adventures #9.
*Dr. Rockwell and Dr. Falco (who later became the Rat King) first appeared in the season one episode
“Monkey Brains”. The Rat King first appeared (as the Rat King) in the season one episode “I, Monster”.
*The origin of April’s psychic powers were explained in
the season two episode “The Kraang Conspiracy”.
*This issue was originally published with 2 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Brizuela, and Cover RI by Ciro Nieli.
Review:
So the Rat King is my favorite recurring TMNT villain. I think I’ve made that clear in the past, but
in case I haven’t, now you know.
The Nick TMNT cartoon produced one of my favorite
incarnations of the Rat King, even if to date he’s only appeared in one episode
(as the Rat King and not Dr. Falco). The
zombie-esque features, the creepy Southern Baptist preacher motif, freakin’
Jeffrey Combs doing the voice… Just a fantastic update.
It was great to see him make a comeback via IDW’s tie-in
comic, since again, he’s only been used once in the TV series so far (though I’ve
got my fingers crossed he’ll pop up in season two). Byerly once again writes a tight script that
feels like a compact episode of the actual show. Great banter and characterization as usual
and even some self-awareness to top it all off (Mikey not remembering if he
ever openly nicknamed Dr. Rockwell like he has every other mutant in the
series). The thousands of rats being
treated more or less like liquid, I’m not so sure I liked, but it did make for
a pretty grim conflict (getting swept away by a river of nibbling, gnawing
vermin is pretty horrifying when you stop to think about it).
What disappointed me with this issue is that there’s no…
atmosphere. Go back and watch the Nick
TMNT episode “I, Monster” and you can see for yourself how much the boarders,
directors and animators labored over that one to make it feel like a miniature
horror movie. They wanted this Rat King
to be SCARY.
Brizuela’s art and Breckel’s colors, while excellent on
any other issue, don’t make an attempt to capture that same quality of
horror or really any “atmosphere” to speak of.
The Rat King is not an enigmatic horror movie monster in this story, but
just another super villain that gives cheesy monologues while BWA HA HA-ing
about his evil scheme. The visuals don’t
capture the feel of the Rat King from the cartoon and that rubs me as being
kind of a waste or a missed opportunity.
Another artist might have painted the shadows on thicker in the inking
process or laid the pages out with more disorienting, expressionistic angles to
keep the Rat King obscured and dark.
While Byerly’s script certainly captures the voice of the
characters and the formula of the cartoon, the visual execution, at least on
this issue, just doesn’t show enough ambition.
I like Brizuela’s art and Breckel’s colors and I’ve been digging them
throughout this series, but this issue featured a character whose whole deal is
that they’re supposed to be scary and the mood just isn’t there.
All that said, it’s still a good story. And unlike a lot
of these New Animated Adventures issues, it actually feels like it ties in more
directly with the TV series and gives a greater illusion that it’s continuing
character and story arcs.
Grade: B- (as in, “But I always felt that the Nick
writers missed a golden opportunity for another horror movie reference when
they decided to give the Rat King a real name.
Instead of Dr. Victor Falco they should have gone with Dr. Ben Willard”.)
