Publication date: June 8, 2016
Story: Ben Bates & Dustin Weaver
Script: Dustin Weaver
Art: Ben Bates (pgs. 1, 18-20), Giannis Milogiannis (pgs.
2-3, 14-17), Sophie (Ross) Campbell (pgs. 4-13)
Colors: Bill Crabtree & Sophie Campbell (pgs. 4-13)
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Publisher: Ted Adams
Summary:
Rio De Janeiro, 2016.
The Turtles and Renet consider going back in time after Bebop and
Rocksteady. However, Renet warns them
that whenever anyone travels through time, it creates an alternate timeline
to prevent paradoxes. So they could go
chasing after Bebop and Rocksteady, but that would mean they wouldn’t be able
to return to the same timeline they left from (ya know, like in Back to the Future Part II).
With Savanti Romero nowhere in sight and the two mutants their only
lead, they decide to follow the trail Savanti's scepter has left and go back in
time anyway.
New York, 2000. The
mutant Bebop and Rocksteady are busy bonding with their younger human counterparts
via a jam session. Afterward, the older
mutants try to dispense wisdom on their younger selves, who aren’t getting
along very well at this point in their history. Mutant Bebop then has a great idea and
suggests that their human counterparts join the Foot Clan now so they can get
an earlier chance at success.
The Cretaceous period.
Savanti Romero, Bebop and Rocksteady ready their dinosaur steads (a
T-rex, a velociraptor, and an ankylosaur) while simultaneously kicking a baby
raptor out of the “gang” for being too small.
Romero intends to attack an Utrom research camp with his new henchmen
and use the advanced technology to send himself back to the 79th Dimension. They attack the Utroms (Churk among them)
while the baby raptor wanders off and bumps into none other than Pepperoni, the
baby protoceratops that befriended Raph.
The Turtles and Renet soon arrive in the Cretaceous and,
witnessing the attack on the Utroms, the Turtles surmise that they’ve arrived
shortly after their first visit. Raph
immediately calls for Pepperoni, who comes scampering to him with the baby
raptor in tow. Their reunion is
interrupted when another time portal shows up and an elderly Lord Renet of the
Time Mistresses arrives to challenge Romero.
With Bebop and Rocksteady’s help, Romero steals Lord Renet’s scepter and
mortally wounds her. He escapes through
a time portal, leaving Lord Renet and the similarly wounded Bebop and
Rocksteady behind. Young Renet rushes to
her older self’s side and Lord Renet tells her to get the scepter back and
remove the gem from it. Renet, the Turtles,
Pepperoni and the baby raptor head into the portal.
As they chase Romero, he escapes down a separate path,
sending the Turtles, Renet and the baby raptor to an alternate timeline. Pepperoni gets separated from the group and
also vanishes down an alternate route.
New York, 2000.
The two sets of Bebop and Rocksteadies pile into the younger versions’ cruiser and head to Foot HQ. They’re
dismayed to find out that at this point in time, the Foot are primarily
involved in white collar crime and insist they’re a legitimate business. Mutant Bebop then suggests that they use
their magic wand to travel to 2016. They
pile back into the cruiser and Bebop opens a time portal.
As they travel through the portal, they cross paths with
another version of themselves, also in a cruiser. They like what they see and the four sets of
Bebop and Rocksteadies travel through the portal together, albeit diverging
through two separate exits.
Rio, 2016. The
Turtles and Renet arrive a week before they left, but they’re in an alternate
dimension from the one they departed from, meaning they can’t see or interact
with Romero, who is also there at that time.
Suddenly, two time portals open up and out pop both cruisers loaded with
Bebop and Rocksteadies. The cruisers
crash, totaling one of them. The two
sets of mutant Bebop and Rocksteadies and one set of human Bebop and Rocksteady
then pile into the remaining cruiser, leaving one set of human Bebop and
Rocksteady behind in the flaming wreckage.
As the other Bebop and Rocksteadies escape, the remaining human ones are
caught in a fiery explosion as the cruiser blows.
The Turtles and Renet look on in total confusion and horror.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything! #1. The
story continues in TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything! #3.
*The Turtles visited the Cretaceous era, meeting the
Utroms and Pepperoni, in TMNT: Turtles in Time #1.
*Bebop and Rocksteady’s cruiser is based on the Foot
Cruiser vehicle from the original 1987 Playmates TMNT toyline.
*The Foot Clan being a “legitimate business” while under the stewardship of Karai’s father, Oroku Yori, was established in TMNT Villains Micro-Series #5: Karai.
*This issue was originally published with 2 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Nick Pitarra and Michael Garland, and Subscription
Cover by Sophie Campbell.
Review:
What the fuck is going ooooooon!?
Yeah, this is gonna be one of THOSE miniseries. A “don’t think too hard about it right now,
it’ll all make sense when the story’s over, or maybe it won’t, just enjoy the
ride” kind of miniseries.
With all the alternate dimensions and intersecting
timelines, I get a feeling everything that seems inexplicable and unexplained
NOW will loop back around in the last couple of issues. Stuff like where the Cretaceous Bebop and
Rocksteady came from, or what was up with the other set of Bebop and
Rocksteadies in the cruiser that pops up in the time portal. Man, I hope it does, because right now I’m as
baffled as the Turtles and Renet in that last panel.
Maybe
all will be explained or maybe it won’t.
Who the FUCK cares? PEPPERONI’S
BACK!
The next three issues of Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy
Everything could be 60 consecutive pages of this:
And I couldn’t give a shit. I’ve already gotten what I wanted. Check please.
Admittedly, Pepperoni isn’t as cute when artists that lack the last name “Campbell” draw her, but I can live with that. Yeah, it’s superficial, but dammit if Pepperoni isn’t
adorable and I feel there’s plenty of storytelling potential in the Turtles
having a pet dinosaur in New York. I
mean, she’s not going to stay tiny forever, right?
“Alright, but you people remember: Baby dinosaurs may
seem like a cute idea for a pet… But they grow up.”
Anyway, the tone of this miniseries is strictly being played
for laughs, so Weaver’s script is appropriately silly. The Turtles talk with catchphrases and
converse in an overall casual and playful style; maybe not a perfect fit for
their IDW counterparts, but again, it aligns with the tone of this miniseries.
Likewise, the art features more cartoonish exaggerations
than the usual IDW stuff, further inciting you to let your guard down and have
fun. This isn’t serious business. The same set of artists from the first issue
handle this one and I’ve a feeling they’ll stick with it in this back-and-forth manner through to
the end.
I didn’t talk much about Milogiannis’s work last issue
because he contributed the least number of pages, but he gets more
to work with in this installment. He
does all the pages taking place in 2000, and while his style doesn’t have quite
as much cartooning to it as those of his partners, he still gets the comedy
aspect. The scene where Bebop and
Rocksteady confront the receptionist got more of the humor across in body
language and layouts than exaggerated expressions. And the jam session on page 2 looked pretty
great.
Anyway, I’ve read some conflicting reviews of this mini
so far. I know the “flying by the seat
of your pants and not knowing what’s going on” storytelling style can be off-putting
to some, but I think it’s a good fit for the kind of ridiculous nonsense you’d
expect from a Bebop & Rocksteady mini.
