Publication date: August 21 – September 17, 2014
Script: Ed Caruana
Art: Bob Molesworth
Colours: Kat Nicholson & Jason Cardy
Colour assist: James Stayte
Letters: Alex Foot
“Truth Hurts”
Summary:
The Turtles are on a rooftop training run when suddenly
Raph gets hit in the neck with a dart.
He isn’t feeling sick so he isn’t sure of the purpose of the dart… until
he starts incessantly babbling his feelings to his brothers. Much to his embarrassment, he’s been hit with
a truth serum. Fishface and Rahzar then
reveal themselves, alongside a unit of Footbots, happy with their work. The Turtles don’t see their motivation for
this scheme, at least until Rahzar asks Raph where their secret lair is.
Before Raph can blurt out the answer, Leo muffles his
mouth and then orders him to go back to the lair while they take down the
Footbots. Raph hoofs it, but Fishface
and Rahzar catch a ride with some Foot Bikers and chase after him. They corner him alone and ask him once again
where the lair is. Raph is about to
spill the beans when the Turtles show up riding the Foot motorcycles. They scoop Raph up, but before they leave,
they nail Fishface with his own dart.
Back at the lair, Don reveals that the serum will
eventually wear off. The Turtles are in
no hurry as they ask Raph a string of embarrassing questions he has no choice
but to answer truthfully.
At Foot HQ, Tiger Claw scolds the hench-mutants for their
failure. Enraged, Fishface accidentally
blurts out the truth, insulting Tiger Claw’s scarf. The cat mutant angrily hurls him out the
window for his offense.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT Magazine (Panini) #17. The story continues in TMNT Magazine (Panini) #19.
*Tiger Claw has two eyes in this story. Unless this issue takes place between "The Manhattan Project" parts 1 and 2 (which is unlikely), then his two-eyed status would be a continuity error.
*Tiger Claw has two eyes in this story. Unless this issue takes place between "The Manhattan Project" parts 1 and 2 (which is unlikely), then his two-eyed status would be a continuity error.
Review:
This was one of Caruana’s best scripts. It was really tightly paced and really,
really funny. It’s a simple plot, but he
gets a lot of comedic value out of it, especially as Raph tries to keep himself
from telling the truth and the bad guys find ways to outsmart him. The best bit was when Raph plugs his ears so
he can’t hear the question, eliciting Fishface to write it down on a cue card.
Even more great art and coloring from the team of
Molesworth and Nicholson/Cardy/Stayte, too.
Normally, I hate it when a comic has a TEAM of colorists working on it,
as it tends to overshadow the pencils, but they all work together seamlessly
and the end result is a very cool-looking comic.
Funny, I just read this comic at the same time as IDW’s
TMNT New Animated Adventures #17 and in both these issues, Tiger Claw has two
eyes. He didn’t have two eyes for
very long in the cartoon and didn’t leave enough time for stories like this to
occur.
Anyway, they’ve started collecting these Panini TMNT
Magazine comics in trade paperback form, but they’re only available in the
UK. I would highly, HIGHLY recommend you
take on the expense of importing them (Amazon UK isn’t so bad). They’re, quite honestly, the better of the
two comics based on the Nickelodeon cartoon.
Grade: A (as in, “Although he’s still a chump, it’s still
nice to see Fishface every once and a while”.)
