Publication date: November, 2008
Story and art: Jim Lawson
Inks and letters: Eric Talbot
Cover: Jim Lawson and Steve Lavigne
“The Third Kind, Part 3”
Summary:
With New York City under curfew and the National Guard
moving in to try and quell the unrest, gang violence and looting begins to
break out. H.A.A.R.M. members seem to be
at the epicenter of the worst of it, even going so far as to bomb power substations in
addition to looting shops.
Mikey gets a call from Klag to meet him in Union Square
and leaves the lair (against Leo’s orders).
Klag picks him up on his hovercraft and tells him that he’s been researching
H.A.A.R.M. and has found out where their headquarters is (Oberon Bros. Garage)
and who their leader is (a guy named Jingo). Klag
wants to try and talk things out with Jingo but asks Mike to come with him in
case things get violent. Things get
violent as soon as they approach the garage and while Mikey and Klag fight off
the thugs, Jingo flees.
At the same time, weird energy rings appear above the
city. Ambassador Cesse Mon Zir Te comes
on TV to tell the public that the rings were an atmospheric after-effect of a
scan for weapons of mass destruction. He explains that the scan was performed with the cooperation and approval of the
US Government and the energies that were used would cause no harm to anybody. Nevertheless, this puts people on edge. The news then picks up a story about a
strange object appearing in Central Park.
The NYPD evacuates and cordons off the park until the situation can be
examined.
After dark, Mikey sneaks into the park to get a look at
the weird monolith. He imagines that it
might be a giant box containing a killer robot, but snaps out of his daydream
when he notices a signature at the bottom of the monolith. Mikey hears voices and flees to the
trees. Jingo and a mob of H.A.A.R.M.
thugs come storming in with a small alien in tow. Jingo gives a speech about taking back
America from their cowardly government and suggests they start by lynching the
alien on his own monolith.
Mikey drops down from the trees and protects the alien
from the thugs. Suddenly, Detective
Clover appears from the bushes, flashes her badge and all the H.A.A.R.M. thugs
(and the little alien) scamper off.
Clover tells Mikey that the monolith was a piece of modern art stolen
from a recent exhibit. Jingo and his
H.A.A.R.M. lackeys put it in Central Park to stir up trouble and unrest. Clover then tells Mikey that he’s still
wanted for being an unregistered “alien” and pulls out a pair of
handcuffs. Mikey immediately vanishes
into the night.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from Michelangelo: The Third Kind #2. The story continues in
Michelangelo: The Third Kind #4.
Review:
Well, the most exciting part of this issue turned out to
be a daydream sequence (the giant robot), so we’re still in dullsville with “The Third Kind”. There are a lot of interesting ideas floating
around in here, like the City being under lockdown with xenophobic gangs
rioting and blowing up buildings and the citizenry panicking as aliens scan the
skies… But damn if Lawson isn’t sapping all the life out of it. I know he’s going for a really grounded look
at the whole scenario, but it’s hard to believe such a tumultuous period in the
TMNT timeline can yield such a tiresome yarn.
And most of the metaphor and subtext is pretty on-the-nose,
particularly in regards to the character Jingo. So we have a guy with a name that invokes the term “jingoism” giving
long-winded anti-government speeches about taking back America from
the bureaucratic fatcats in Washington.
And I think he’s a black guy maybe (hard to tell with his model fluctuating in every panel), so the scene where he
tries to rally a mob to lynch an innocent alien is supposed to be, like, cruel
irony or something. Yeah, real deep,
man.
I guess if one good thing came from this chapter, it’s
that Mikey’s screw-up at Pier 41 is finally catching up with him. I complained last issue that Mikey shouldn’t
have been thanked for causing a huge publicity crisis for the aliens and here
he’s actually being invited to suffer the legal consequences for his
behavior. He bails, of course.
Ah well, we’re nearly at the finish line for this thing.
Grade: C- (as in, “Can’t say I find a giant killer robot
LESS horrifying than a modern art sculpture.
I work at a college and that shit is littered around the campus like
breadcrumbs”.)
