Publication date: August 27, 2014
Writer: Erik Burnham
Artist: Ben Bates
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
“Turtles in Time, Part 3”
Summary:
The Caribbean, 1726.
The Captain of the Shirley’s Revenge is disturbed when he sees a ship
belonging to the mysterious tyrant known as the Kraken speeding toward
him. The Kraken’s men, led by the
shrouded Captain Rhodes, board the Shirley’s Revenge and attack. Suddenly, the Turtles blip in, dressed in
their samurai gear. Captain Rhodes
thinks the Turtles are part of one of the Kraken’s schemes and orders his men
to retreat on their high tech ship.
The Captain of the Shirley’s Revenge is immediately suspicious
of the Turtles, but Raph disarms him.
The First Mate tells the Turtles that the crew of the Shirley’s Revenge
aren’t marauding pirates like most others, but simply trying to find a free
land where they can settle and only kill when they’re threatened. He tells them that the Kraken is a
mysterious, supposedly demonic entity who gives his minions (led by Captain
Rhodes) supernatural powers. The Turtles
suspect there’s more to the Kraken than meets the eye and suggest that they all
go track him down and end his tyranny.
The Captain is against the idea, but Michelangelo gives an inspiring
speech about standing up for yourself.
The crew immediately makes Mikey the new Captain. The First Mate says
that there’s an island where the Kraken is rumored to hide out, but it’ll take
three days to get there.
Over the course of those three days, the Turtles teach
the crew what they know about weapons, fighting and cooking, while the crew
teach them basic seamanship. Mikey has a
talk with the Ex-Captain, who is still against the idea of looking for
trouble. Mikey gives another longwinded
speech, this time about running from the past and fearing the future, which is
how the Ex-Captain has been living all this time.
Meanwhile, at the island… BURNOW Island… Captain Rhodes
meets up with the Kraken when a proximity alarm goes off. The Kraken turns out to be Krang and he’s
rather miffed that the human he hired to keep trespassers away from his
facility has failed. Captain Rhodes
claims he could better fend off intruders if he had some of Krang’s strange
weaponry and Krang reluctantly gives him the use of a single laser pistol. Krang then leaves to attend to business
elsewhere, but informs Rhodes to get the job done or pay the price for failure.
Offshore, the Shirley’s Revenge is rammed by the Kraken’s
high tech ship and once again boarded.
During the skirmish, Renet blips in and Captain Rhodes fires his laser
pistol at her. Mikey pushes her out of
the way, but takes the blast right to his plastron and falls into the
water. The other three Turtles dive in
after him as Renet blips away again. The Ex-Captain uses his
cutlass to destroy the laser pistol and challenges Rhodes to a duel. The two clash swords and Rhodes accuses the
Ex-Captain and his crew of not being real pirates because of their code against
lawlessness. The Ex-Captain tells Rhodes that he’s the phony, as he surrendered his freedom to a lord and
master. The Ex-Captain defeats Rhodes
just as the Turtles climb back on deck.
The Ex-Captain offers Rhodes’s men the opportunity to either
work with him or join Rhodes in the nearest prison. The men choose to join the Shirley’s Revenge
and Mikey gives the Ex-Captain some words of encouragement before he and his
brothers blip away. The
Now-Captain-Again then tells his crew that they won’t be stealing any of the
Kraken’s bedeviled weaponry for themselves, however, they will endeavor to make
the area safe once more.
They invade Burnow Island and use kegs of black powder to
detonate one of the facilities. One of
the Kraken’s former marauders tries to steal a vial of ooze, but the Captain
tells him to discard it in the river. He
does so, smashing it on the rocks, and the glowing gunk gets all over a
nearby alligator…
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT: Turtles in Time #2. The story concludes in TMNT: Turtles in Time #4.
*This issue was originally published with 2 variant
covers: Regular Cover by David Peterson, and Subscription Cover by Ben Bates.
Review:
“Turtles in Time” seems to be going back and forth in
terms of tone, from lighthearted to serious and now back to lighthearted. While the attitude might be inconsistent, it
at least keeps us on our toes. Burnham’s
go with this installment is mostly comical and goofy, perhaps a little too much
at times, but it’s a welcome break from the seriousness of the main title. Anyway, it functions as a reminder that the
IDW universe isn’t all business, all the time.
Of the issues so far, I think this one was the weakest. It’s in more of a hurry than the
last two stories and Burnham has to resort to some storytelling cheats to move
things along. He tries to cover up some
of the shortcomings (such as the crew of the Shirley’s Revenge mindlessly
following Mikey for the sake of narrative convenience) by putting a lampshade
on things and playing them for laughs.
While it takes the edge off, the story is nonetheless rushed because
of it. I know the writers have to keep
each era to a single issue and so matters of convenience are a necessary evil,
but there’s just way too much of it in this installment for any lampshade to
obscure.
And silliness doesn’t always come to the rescue,
either. This was the first era visited
in the miniseries that required exposition and setup. The Mesozoic era didn’t need any of that
since its all dinosaurs and even the stuff with the Utroms was established
during the “Utrom Empire” mini. Feudal
Japan didn’t need any because the main title has been visiting that era since just
about the beginning and we’re already familiar with the setting and cast. This issue was essentially an untapped point
in time and so Burnham didn’t have the convenience that the other issues
had. So what we get are lengthy
monologues from the Captain and First Mate explaining everything and it can get
a little tiresome. Add in Mikey’s exhaustive
and corny speeches and it can get REALLY tiresome.
All that said, this issue continues the world-building of
the last two, as the Turtles inexplicably have a hand in major events that
would impact their present. It looks
like Krang was exploiting other humans besides Oroku Saki throughout
history, and whereas the whole “Iron Demon” persona failed, the “Kraken”
identity seemed to work out a bit better (a bit).
And of course, I’m excited about what that last panel teaser implies.
Ben Bates returns to the Turtles, though you might not
recognize him at first. He colored this
issue and his personal style is very different from Ronda Pattison’s. He gives everything this white-washed,
sun-bleached look and it befits a tale set in the Caribbean. Actually, it REALLY fits and I absolutely
love it. When you look at these pages,
you want to rub your eyes like you’re sun blind and it’s a perfect example of a
coloring style that complements the artwork 110%. His layouts and his pencils are great, too,
don’t get me wrong, but the colors deserve a special notice.
Art and colors aside, I wasn’t too thrilled with this
installment in “Turtles in Time”, though I still enjoyed it. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t (especially
in regards to the jokes), but there’s a lot to like about the issue from any
angle.
Grade: C+ (as in, “Could’ve used a boss battle against
Bebop and Rocksteady in pirate gear, but that’s just asking for the moon, I
guess”.)
