Publication date: April 30 – May 27, 2015
Script: Jesse Leon McCann
Art: Iain Buchanan
Colours: Jason Cardy & Kat Nicholson
Colour assist: James Stayte
Letters: Alex Foot
“April’s Fools”
Summary:
Having just finished dinner at Murakami’s, the Turtles,
April and Casey race across the rooftops on their nightly patrol. Donatello and Casey, both infatuated with
April, try to protect her from minor hazards along the way, only succeeding at
getting on her nerves.
Suddenly, April’s telepathy picks up the Kraang and she
guides everyone to a van being loaded with mutagen by Kraangdroids. Donnie thinks he could make enough
retro-mutagen with the payload to restore a number of mutants and the Turtles
attack. April tries to attack, too, but
Donnie and Casey continue to get in her way in their efforts to protect and
impress her.
In the chaos, April is captured by the Kraang, who load
her into the van and drive away. April
gets free and prepares to take down the drivers, when Donnie and Casey again
interfere by trying to rescue her. They
end up fighting with each other and Leo winds up saving April.
The van continues onward with Donnie and Casey in the
back, arriving at the Kraang base.
Donnie and Casey are surrounded by Kraangdroids, leaving the Turtles and
April to rescue them. April climbs to a
rooftop to take down some Kraang snipers, but the two rivals see her and
distract themselves by trying to call out to her. They only succeed in warning the two Kraang
snipers, who send April tumbling over the ledge.
She lands in a dumpster full of bubblewrap and survives,
only to be accosted by the Purple Dragons.
The Dragons want to take her to the Shredder for a reward, but April has
a better proposition. She suggests they
steal the van full of mutagen, as Shredder will surely reward them more for
that. Then, while the Dragons and the
Kraang battle over the mutagen, April sneaks in and whisks Donnie and Casey out
of the chaos.
Later, Donnie and Casey apologize to April for underestimating
her ninja skills.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT Magazine (Panini) #26. The story continues in TMNT Magazine (Panini) #28.
Review:
The April/Casey/Donatello love triangle is one of the
many ongoing plot lines in the Nickelodeon cartoon that shouldn’t be going on
anymore. They had a chance to resolve it
near the start of season 3, but the writers instead opted to prolong it even
further. Now we’re stuck with that shit,
a season after it began to overstay its welcome.
“April’s Fools” draws from this dry well for its primary
plot and you can guess how well that works out for the story. Donnie and Casey are misguided in their chauvinistic
attempts to both protect April and impress her with their competing
masculinity. It’s really hackneyed and
out of character, even for those two.
And in regards to April, I think we’ve had enough “April
proves her skills as a warrior” stories to get the message across that she doesn’t
need protection. This is just laboring
the point.
There are other, smaller problems with the story beyond
the annoying plot. Alex Foot messes up
some lettering, so Donatello calls Casey an “egghead” and Casey calls Donatello
a “hockey puck”. Because that makes
sense.
Also, why would the Shredder want mutagen stolen from the
Kraang? At this point in the series, the
Foot and the Kraang were allied and the Shredder was receiving all the mutagen
he could ever want for Stockman’s experiments.
Perhaps the Purple Dragons were just stupid and this was intended to
emphasize it? I think, more likely, the
writer didn’t do enough research.
Iain Buchanan’s art is stiffer than usual with this
installment, too, and much of the action and character expressions feel
static. Altogether, not a particularly
good installment in the series.
