Publication date: Summer 1993
Adapted by: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy) and Chris Allan
From the screenplay by: Stuart Gillard
Inks: Brian Thomas and Jon D’Agostino
Colors: Steve Lavigne, Bill Fitts, Michael Gaydos
Letters: Mary Kelleher
Edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
“TMNT III: The Movie”
Summary:
1593. Japan. Prince Kenshin attempts to escape from his
evil father, the Daimyo Lord Norinaga, but is wrangled by the Honor Guard. He is brought back to Kumano Castle where
Norinaga admonishes him before postponing a weapons-for-gold deal with
the English arms dealer named Walker.
Kenshin seeks solace in the castle’s temple and a divine wind unfurls a
scroll detailing his wicked ancestor’s defeat at the hands of four Kappa. Spooked, he places his hand on a nearby
sceptre.
1993. New York
City. April visits the Ninja Turtles in
their subway lair with some gifts she bought at a flea market. Among them is an old Japanese scepter. It begins to glow in her hand and suddenly April
trades place across time with Kenshin.
The Turtles and Splinter are, naturally, shocked and grill Kenshin for
answers.
In Feudal Japan, April is immediately taken prisoner by
the Honor Guard for being a witch and spiriting Kenshin away. She is brought before Lord Norinaga and
Walker insists that she is no witch, but merely a trickster. Norinaga has her sent to the dungeon to be
tortured until she reveals the whereabouts of his son.
Back in the present, Donatello deduces that the sceptre
is a mass-displacement device that can swap entities of identical weight across
time and space, but only for 60 hours.
The Turtles decide to go back in time and save April. Leonardo
fetches Casey Jones to help Splinter keep an eye on Kenshin and whoever swaps
places with them. The Turtles activate
the sceptre and trade places with Norinaga’s Honor Guard, who brought the
sceptre into battle against some villagers as a good luck charm.
The Turtles immediately fall off their horses and lose the
sceptre in the madness. Michelangelo is
carried off by his horse and is knocked out by the leader of the villagers, a
woman named Mitsu. She mistakes Mikey
for a Kappa and tells the other villagers to take him back to their village, as
he might be able to help them.
Meanwhile, an unseen figure recovers the sceptre.
At the castle, the other three Turtles, still disguised
in the Honor Guard’s armor, decide to infiltrate the place. They sneak into the dungeon, beat up Walker’s
guards and save April. They also rescue
a man named Whit (who looks just like Casey), who was imprisoned for inciting
mutiny on Walker’s ship. They escape
through a sewage drain before reinforcements can arrive.
The next morning, while freshening up by a stream, they’re
attacked by Mitsu and the villagers.
Mitsu recognizes the “Kappa” as being similar to the one she helped the
previous day and invites them back to the village. They arrive just as Walker and his men begin
ransacking the place. Mikey reunites
with his brothers and together they scare the men off, pretending to be
demons. They also save a young boy named
Yoshi from a burning house. In doing so,
they’re accepted as friends by the villagers.
Mikey immediately becomes smitten with Mitsu.
Back in the present, Casey and Splinter are having
trouble sedating the restless Kenshin and the Honor Guard. Luckily, they manage to keep them occupied
with a little television.
Back in Feudal Japan, Walker meets with Norinaga. Norinaga tells him of the ancient scroll and
how his ancestor was killed by Kappa. Fearing the Kappa have returned for him, he
agrees to buy Walker’s weapons.
At the village, Don has had no luck finding the
sceptre. Leo has taken to horse-riding
with the village soldiers while Raph has formed a friendship with Yoshi (whom
he sees much of himself in). Mikey,
meanwhile, tries to spend time with Mitsu, but she cannot relax due to her concern
for Kenshin (her beloved) and for the people of her village.
The Turtles hire the village blacksmith
to build a new sceptre. He does so and
Michelangelo immediately breaks it with his butterfingers. All hope for going home seems lost until
Yoshi reveals that his sister, Mitsu, has been hiding the real sceptre in their
house. The Turtles are pissed at her,
but Mitsu’s grandfather reveals that she knew nothing of it. HE hid the sceptre, hoping to keep the “Kappa”
around so they would fight. The Turtles
decide that even though they could go home immediately, they’ll stay and fight
with the villagers against Norinaga and Walker. Suddenly, Whit shows his true colors and
steals the sceptre, taking Mitsu hostage in the process.
Whit takes Mitsu back to Walker to make good with his old
boss. Mitsu is taken prisoner by
Norinaga while Walker takes the sceptre as a bargaining chip.
That night, April surrenders herself to Norinaga’s men
and the distraction allows the Turtles to break into the dungeon and save
Mitsu. They infiltrate the castle and
confront Norinaga. Norinaga attempts to
kill Mitsu, but Mikey intervenes, getting badly slashed in the process. Leo then traps Norinaga in a huge bell and
the battle seems over.
However, Walker appears, holding April hostage. His men then surround the Turtles and take
aim with their guns. Whit tells Walker
that the deal was he’d just take the gold and leave without hurting
anybody. Walker throws Whit and April
into the circle to die with the Turtles.
Leo tells the superstitious men that he and his brothers are demons and
if they shoot them, the bullets will magically bounce back and kill them. The men become too frightened to shoot, so
Walker lights a cannon. The Turtles duck
their heads into their shells and the cannonball misses.
Walker flees to the roof of the castle with the sceptre as the Turtles give chase. He holds it over the ledge overhanging a
precarious drop into the rocky sea, stalling the Turtles. He then lets down a rope to climb to freedom, but just as he begins his descent, Whit
launches an explosive from a catapult that severs Walker’s line and sends him
plummeting to his death. The Turtles
form a human chain and catch the sceptre.
Back in the present, Casey takes the Honor Guard to a bar
for one last glimpse at the future. They
get into a fight with some drunks and have a great time before
heading home.
Back in Feudal Japan, the Turtles and April prepare to
return home, however, Leo, Raph and Mikey want to stay. They prefer life in Feudal Japan, where they
can live openly among humanity. However,
April and Don insist that if they stayed behind, they’d be stranding Kenshin
and the Honor Guard in the future. Mikey
says his goodbyes to Mitsu and they all grab the sceptre which begins to glow.
The Turtles and April return to the present (Mikey a
little later than the others). April and
Casey flirt and everything seems like a happy ending, although Mikey is bummed
that he lost Mitsu to Kenshin. That is,
until he remembers that the 20th Century has something Feudal Japan
doesn’t: Pizza!
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT Movie II: The Secret of the Ooze. If you consider the 2007
“TMNT” film by Imagi to be a sequel, then the story continues in TMNT Movie Prequel #1 - Raphael.
*If you don’t, then the story continues in the Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation television series.
Godspeed.
*Obviously, this comic is an adaptation of the 1993 film
“TMNT III” from Golden Harvest.
*2 versions of this comic were published simultaneously
by Archie:
**Archie Newsstand Edition (flat colors by Barry
Grossman, cover by Chris Allan, 13 bonus pages)
**Archie Prestige Edition (painted colors by Lavigne,
Fitts and Gaydos, cover by Kevin Eastman and Eric Talbot, no bonus pages)
*Yes, that is correct.
The newsstand edition has the bonus pages and the prestige edition
doesn’t. Weird.
*This isn’t the only comic adaptation of “TMNT III”. It was adapted twice for the Japanese market:
A version serialized in six chapters in Comic Bom Bom (by Haato Mikaeru), and a
version released as a graphic novel from Dengeki (by Yasuhichi Konoha).
Review:
Note: The only version I own is the Archie Prestige Edition,
so that is the version I will be reviewing.
As always, I don’t want to review the story too
thoroughly, since I’d rather save those thoughts for an inevitable review of
the actual “TMNT III” film. I will say,
however, that the plot is much, MUCH more endurable in comic book format. The awful costumes, special effects and
acting are really the hardest part of “TMNT III” to suffer, and when all THAT
is taken away… It’s much easier on the intellect.
Of course, there are still all the plot holes to reckon
with; those don’t go anywhere. You know,
pointless bullshit like the blacksmith making a duplicate magic sceptre (because
blacksmiths can do that?) and Mikey stupidly breaking it seconds later. There was absolutely no need for that entire
subplot other than to kill time. Just…
why was it even in there? But I’m
criticizing something present in the original film, so I’ll stop myself for the
time being.
Steve Murphy does a much better job adapting this film
than “Secret of the Ooze” and eliminates dialogue and gags that interfere with
the flow of the story. Not ALL the
meandering bullshit, no (the aforementioned replacement sceptre bit remains
intact), but it’s a pretty tidy rendering of the film. He rewrites dialogue to a greater degree than
with “Secret of the Ooze” and overall it reads much better. As a matter of fact, thanks to the episodic
nature of the film-itself, this could have almost been serialized as issues of
TMNT Adventures without much disconnect (save for the presence of Casey Jones).
The art is provided by Chris Allan, which should
immediately make the adaptation more interesting to collectors. What’s strange is that he adapts the look of the characters as they appeared in the film rather than use his
typical Archie style. It’s a little
weird, but I wouldn’t say that it’s ugly, either. He actually makes those awful Turtle costumes
and that pathetic Splinter puppet much more palatable.
Casey looks like he’s about 50 years old, though.
I think what really hurts this adaptation is that it
lacks action. With the whole film
condensed down to 48 pages, the moments that further the plot take priority
over the fighting. As a result, the
Turtles hardly get a chance to do anything “cool” and it’s mostly just bland
rescue missions. The comic adaptation of
“TMNT: The Movie” also suffered from a decrease in the action to make room for
the story. Looking over these movie
comics, I think “Secret of the Ooze” is the only one of them to effectively
balance the action with the story (although it was oddly the worst of the three
adaptations).
The comic version of “TMNT III” is probably the best way
to enjoy that story. It isn’t that good,
mainly because it’s sort of just polishing a turd, but I appreciate that it
made the effort. There’s some very
unique Chris Allan art to enjoy in here and the coloring in the Prestige Edition is
really nice (save for a few moments of bandana fuck-upery, but that should
almost go without saying by this point).
I’d say it’s “the best TMNT III will ever be”, but I
actually enjoy the Comic Bom Bom manga adaptation better. And even then, I only dig it because it
chucks 75% of the movie out the window and does its own thing. But I guess as a fairly straight adaptation of
the film, then yeah, this is the best TMNT III will ever be.
Grade: C (as in, “Come on, they actually thought they could follow Super
Shredder, Tokka and Rahzar up with a prissy British guy as the lead
villain? It’s like they weren’t even
trying”.)
