Publication date: July, 2007
Script: Simon Furman
Pencils: Andres Ponce
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colours: Junior Tomlin
Letters: Jimmy Betancourt/Comicraft
“No Place Like Home”
Summary:
In Cody’s pad, Serling is sick and tired of cleaning up
after the Turtles, who have been getting increasingly lazier thanks to the
modern conveniences of the future.
Splinter is even more perturbed by this than Serling, and when Cody
relays a news report about a major sewer blockage and missing repair crews,
Splinter immediately sends his sons to investigate the danger.
Traversing the old sewers of Manhattan, the Turtles feel
somewhat nostalgic for their proper time and place. Suddenly, they’re attacked by a tentacle-monster
covered in toxic waste canisters calling itself Sludge. The Turtles retreat down the tunnels as
Sludge chases them, but soon discover that the layout has changed considerably since
they were last in the sewers (which to them was only a month ago).
Reaching a waterfall, the Turtles grab some wooden planks
at Michelangelo’s instruction and surf their way down. Sludge follows them, but the Turtles trick
him into taking the wrong pipe. The
monster ends up blasting out a drainage pipe and getting tangled in a
chain-link fence. The Turtles hand
Sludge over toe Constable Biggles and head home.
Once there, the Turtles immediately return to their slovenly
lifestyle of pizza and video games, failing to have learned any lesson from
their adventure. This disappoints both
Splinter and Serling.
Turtle Tips:
*This issue also contained the next 11 pages of TMNT Movie Prequel #1: Raphael with new colours by Junior Tomlin.
Review:
Simon Furman?
The Transformers guy?
I guess if it’s a kid’s comic being written in the UK,
Furman was bound to show up sooner or later.
Furman doesn’t seem to have been too familiar with the
then-current 4Kids incarnation of the TMNT when he wrote this. I imagine he was still picturing the Fred
Wolf versions from the ‘80s when he hammered out the script. So as a result, there are lots of pizza and surfing
antics; the kind of stuff more prevalent in the older show than what was on TV
at the time. I suppose we should be
grateful he didn’t call them Hero Turtles, at least.
What brings this short comic down isn’t really the plot
or the faux-80s characterization, but the lousy lettering. Betancourt could not for the life of him seem
to differentiate between any of the Turtles.
So the characters are constantly finishing each other’s sentences by mistake. Raph finishes Mike’s sentence on pg. 14,
Mikey finishes Don’s sentence on pg. 16, Don finishes Leo’s sentence on pg. 17,
and Don finishes Mikey’s sentence on pg. 18.
It’s pretty bad.
