Publication date: January 21, 2015
Originally published in: TMNT New Animated Adventures #19
Story: Caleb Goellner
Art: Dave Alvarez
Colors: Heather Breckel
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow
“Pipe Dreams”
Summary:
After seeing a commercial for “Stratosfear”, the world’s
longest waterslide, the Turtles can’t wait to hit the waterpark. Unfortunately, they’d never be able to keep
incognito in the crowds, thus squashing their plans. When Splinter recommends they use their resourcefulness to overcome their limitations, Donnie comes up with the idea to use the sewers as
one big waterslide.
The Turtles make it to the sewer run-off source, but find that
Fishface and a unit of Footbots have beaten them there. Fishface intends to show the Footbots some
sewer-swimming moves so they can add the skill to their repertoire. The Turtles aren’t thrilled about the Foot
using their sewers as a training ground and follow the bad guys down the pipe.
As the Turtles do battle with the Footbots while slipping
and sliding, Donnie looks at his map and gives directions on where to
turn. Meanwhile, Fishface chomps into
Mikey’s inner-tube, deflates it and then gets tangled in the wad of
plastic. Following Donnie’s directions,
the Turtles ditch the slide at the right moment and watch as Fishface is sent
screaming out the sewers and into the bay.
Back at the lair, Splinter asks how the slide was. Leo laments that even the longest waterslide
is over before you know it. Mikey, on
the other hand, thought it was “tubular”.
Turtle Tips:
*The story continues in TMNT New Animated Adventures #20.
Review:
As back-up strips go, this one was the usual cute comedy
shtick, but Goellner’s script was dotted with little details here and there
that popped out to me. He seems to be an expert on the Turtles; his "TMNT Fan-Comic" was pretty awesome.
I like how Splinter is the one who suggests that the
Turtles use their resourcefulness to find a way around not being able to go to
the waterpark. A lot of writers would
make him a stiff disciplinarian who would forbid the Turtles from having fun,
thus forcing them to work around his watchful eye. In this case, Splinter sees their lust for
wet ‘n wild fun as an opportunity to test their ingenuity.
Likewise, Leo isn’t a 100% stick-in-the-mud and is the
first to suggest that they “explore” Donatello’s waterslide alternative. Both the comic spin-off and the source
cartoon seem to have forgotten that Nick Leonardo had moments of goofiness when the show started. Unfortunately, he’s fallen into the usual Leo
rut of being all serious, all the time, so it’s nice when someone occasionally
remembers that he could be as juvenile as his brothers.
Other than that, the comic’s the usual back-up strip
stuff and not much else to talk about (though Alvarez’s energetic pencils
looked really good). I liked Leo’s
assessment that even the greatest waterslide in the world only lasts a few
seconds (ain’t that the truth) and Michelangelo’s groan-worthy closing pun reminded me
of the old back-up strips from the Welsh Publishing TMNT Magazine. So there’s that.
Grade: B- (as in, "But the Mt. Splashmore episode of 'The Simpsons' was sort of the zenith of waterslide-related comedy".)
