TMNT (Dreamwave) incomplete material

Originally published by: Titan Books

Taken from: TMNT Volume 2: Out of the Shadows

Publication date: 2007

Story material: Peter David

Artwork: Lesean Thomas

Summary:

Dreamwave’s TMNT comic ended at issue #7.  However, Peter David had completed the script for issue #8 and had plotted issues #9-10 prior to cancellation.  Lesean Thomas had also completed rough pencils for part of issue #8.  The available material was collected by Titan Books for their TMNT Volume 2: Out of the Shadows trade paperback.

TMNT (Dreamwave) #8: “T4 – The Turtlenator”

(Script and rough pencils completed for most or all pages)

Although the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles previously succeeded in destroying PIT, the super computer built by Baxter Stockman to manufacture his Mousers, the machine has gained sentience and sworn vengeance.  

Collecting all the data gathered by its Mouser “children” during their previous battles, PIT creates T4 – The Turtlenator, a robot duplicate programmed to hunt down and destroy the Ninja Turtles.  After training the robot, PIT sends it on a mission to avenge its "brethren".

T4 begins its search with the sewers and spies Michelangelo waving goodbye to April as she exists a manhole.  Once April leaves, T4 descends into the sewers and attacks Mikey.  Subduing him with its chain and cutting him with its scythe, T4 analyzes Mikey’s blood and determines it has learned everything this particular Ninja Turtle has to teach it.  And so, T4 prepares to kill Mikey.

TMNT (Dreamwave) #9: “See ya Later, Turtlenator”

(No art available)

The other Turtles arrive in time to save Mikey.  Donatello, having studied the Mousers after their last encounter, uses a device that creates electrical feedback to severely damage T4’s programming.  T4 retreats as it begins to biologically assimilate Michelangelo’s DNA.

The malfunctioning Turtlenator, now looking organic, escapes to the surface.  Cut off from its wireless connection to PIT, its memory banks tell it that April O’Neil is an ally, so it heads to her apartment for help.  April, thinking T4 is one of the TMNT she hasn’t met, lets it in and takes care of it.  Over time, T4 develops a sense of trust toward humans.

Later, T4 overhears the Purple Dragons committing a robbery and stops it, making no attempt to stay out of the public eye.  Reporters and gawkers then praise T4 as a superhero in a “frog” costume and T4 proceeds to publicly fight crime over the next few weeks.  The Turtles, observing all this on TV, are mortified, as the new Ninja Turtle is blowing their cover.

TMNT (Dreamwave) #10: “Domo Arogato (sic), Turtle Robot-O”

(No art available)

The Turtles inform April that T4 is not one of their brothers, but an evil robot.  April encourages them not to attack the robot, as she believes it is capable of learning and changing.  With T4 about to receive a medal from the city for all its good deeds, April assures them that it has learned right from wrong.

The Turtles watch the ceremony in secret, but just as T4 is about to get the medal, PIT regains control of the robot and causes it to go berserk.  Don uses his feedback machine to try and stop it, blowing open a chest compartment and revealing to the public that T4 is a machine. 

PIT won’t let T4 be defeated the same way twice and regains control.  T4 chases the Turtles through the alleys and along the rooftops, besting them in combat at every turn.  Eventually, T4 is about to execute one of the Turtles when April intervenes.  She gives a speech about “who you really are” and T4 hesitates, unable to strike.  The Turtles use the momentary opportunity to destroy T4.

Later, Don sends an e-mail virus to a Stocktronics employee.  The employee, opening the e-mail, infects all of Stockman’s computer systems, including PIT, wiping the AI from existence.

Turtle Tips:

*This material covers the issues that would have followed TMNT (Dreamwave) #7.

*The T4 - The Turtlenator storyline was previously advertised in TMNT (Dreamwave) #5.

*The Turtlenator, known as the Turtlebot in the cartoon, toyline and Konami video game, appeared in the 4Kids TMNT episode “What a Croc”.

*The Turtles destroyed Baxter Stockman’s Mouser factory in TMNT (Dreamwave) #3, albeit primarily off-panel.

*The bonus material in this volume also included a sketch and character model gallery, rough pencils on selected pages and rough cover art for released issues.

Review:

I thought I was done with Dreamwave’s revolting TMNT comics, but then a fan sent me the bonus content from Titan’s trade paperback collection.  I pride myself in being thorough, so here we are.  Special thanks to Adam Winter for sending me the stuff, but you’ll understand if I don’t I send you flowers.  These comics are bad.

The bonus content related to the T4 storyline is mostly just summaries and script excerpts; there are only 5 pages of rough pencils to look at.  As much criticism of Lesean Thomas as I’ve made in the past, I will say that his pencils look a lot better in the rough stages than how they wound up appearing in the finished comics.  Dreamwave’s coloring style evidently did him no favors whatsoever.  That said, there isn’t really a lot to judge; it’s just five pages of roughs.

Peter David’s plot summaries sound about as ho-hum as possible.  This is a story we’ve seen done a thousand times over; it’s the whole “can robots learn to love?” bullshit.  We have an artificial monster that starts out wanting to destroy, relents and ultimately is destroyed itself by the new sense of “compassion” its logic circuits cannot quantify.

“Query: What is this program you call ‘love’?  Err-OR!  Err-OR!  It does not compute!”

David is a great comic writer; one of the best.  I love almost all his stuff.  But hoooooo-ly shit, he was phoning this book in long distance.  None of those plot summaries sound even remotely original, with every twist and turn boorishly telegraphed.

As for T4 – The Turtlenator, I think I liked him better as the Turtlebot, which was his more prominent name.  He was a one-off opponent and facilitated a good fight scene in his episode, made for a well-sculpted action figure and provided a decent-enough boss battle in a video game, but that’s about all he was ever good for.  

T4, I guess, tries to go a route a bit closer to Metalhead from the Fred Wolf TMNT cartoon; the robot Turtle programmed with the thought patterns of the TMNT and built to destroy them, but eventually starts to learn right from wrong.  However, even the Fred Wolf cartoon didn’t play it this close to the clichés and Metalhead’s single head-lining episode was actually pretty fun.

Anyway, it probably isn’t fair to judge these stories based on paragraph plot summaries and rough art, but I’ve already endured the seven completed issues that were published.  So call my estimation of their potential quality an “educated guess”.  It just would’ve been more hackneyed plots, amateurish art and atrocious coloring.  Be thankful the series ended at #7.

TMNT (Dreamwave) #7

Publication date: December, 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander

Colors: Stuart Ng, Jong-im Lee, Sigmund Torre

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

Cover: Skottie Young

“Kali Flower”

Summary:

Outside the Second Time Around shop, Dheeraj and Jaya are having a makeout session.  April interrupts them, as it’s time for Dheeraj to get to work.  Inside, Dheeraj brings up the Turtles within earshot of customers and April pulls him aside for a little chat.  She tells him that their existence must remain a secret, and if he respects the Turtles, he’ll keep his mouth shut.

That night, in the alleys, Casey Jones and Leonardo bust up some punks.  Leo asks Casey what he knows about the Thoogs and Casey says that they’re a weird gang of pseudo-cultists, out to resurrect ancient gods.  Casey tells Leo where he can find their hideout (an old theater), then hops on his motorcycle and leaves.  Leo heads to the roof where he’s met by his brothers.  The other Turtles insist on helping him deal with the Thoogs and Leo reluctantly accepts the offer.  Together, all four Turtles pile into the Sewer Sled and head to the theater.

Elsewhere, Dheeraj arrives at his family’s apartment only to be greeted by Mangesh, the leader of the Thoogs.  Mangesh explains that the Thoogs have taken Jaya hostage and if Dheeraj doesn’t join up with them, they’ll kill her.  Dheeraj agrees to join their gang and Mangesh tells him to meet up with the Thoogs at midnight at the old theater.

The Turtles arrive at the theater through the rear entrance and spot the Thoogs on stage.  Jaya is tied up and they’re performing a ritual to summon Kali.  Leonardo thinks and realizes that just beating the Thoogs up won’t be enough to stop them from tormenting Dheeraj; they need to scare the punks straight.  Donatello looks around at the leftover theater props and figures he can work something out.

Dheeraj makes it to the theater and attempts to hoist Jaya up to the catwalk by her ropes.  He’s spotted and Mangesh prepares to kill their sacrifice.  Suddenly, a giant robed, four-armed figure wielding swords and sais appears on stage.  Its Leonardo disguised as Kali, of course.  Using the booming audio equipment, Mikey tells the Thoogs that Kali is outraged at their impudence.  He swears to swears to destroy all the Thoogs for bothering him with their foolish ritual.  On cue, Don shuts off the lights and the Turtles beat down all the Thoogs.  Mangesh attempts to flee, but is knocked out by Dheeraj.  “Kali” vanishes and Dheeraj and Jaya leave together.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #6.  Although it is the last issue, material for the partially completed issues #8-10 were later published as bonus content in the trade paperback collection.

*Contrary to popular belief, the cancellation of Dreamwave’s TMNT comic had NOTHING to do with Dreamwave’s bankruptcy.  Dreamwave closed down in 2005, almost two years after this series was canned.  The Dreamwave TMNT comic was cancelled because it sucked, end of story.

Review:

This has to have been the absolute WORST string of TMNT comics I have ever read.  Every issue ranged from bad to terrible, with boring stories, boring characters, incompetent pacing and incompetent art.  There is nothing redeeming about Dreamwave’s Ninja Turtles comic; it’s only saving grace is that you can get each issue for a quarter, I suppose.

This final issue (which wasn’t meant to be the final issue) finishes up Dheeraj’s storyline, as the Turtles find a way to keep the Thoogs off his back.  Hey, remember when the Turtles used to fight bad guys like the Shredder?  Apparently, that stuff is dullsville, man.  Episodic tales where the Turtles teach valuable life lessons to inner city children, THAT’S where it’s at!

Dheeraj is as obnoxiously milquetoast a character as ever.  Needless to say, he hasn’t the charisma to carry a two-issue story arc.  I wonder if David had plans to keep him around as a major supporting character in the series?  I’m grateful the comic didn’t last long enough for me to find out.

Apparently, the next issue would have begun a story arc called “T4: The Turtlenator” which the comic had been advertising for a few months.  The solicit says that Baxter Stockman’s Mouser mainframe would have gained sentience and, angered that the Turtles “killed” her “children”, seek revenge by building a robotic doppelganger called the Turtlenator.  The ads even call out that it’s featuring the enemy from the 2003 Konami TMNT video game, trying to make some sort of tie-in with it.  Wasn’t the evil robot called the Turtlebot in the Konami game?  Whatever, it doesn’t matter.

While the teasers for the Turtles fighting the Turtlenator may have looked promising, let’s not kid ourselves.  The issues would have suffered from all the same scripting and art problems that plagued the entire run of the Dreamwave series.  It may not have been as boring as three straight issues of the Turtles helping kids deal with “real life” problems, but it would have been terrible in its own unique sort of ways, I’m sure.

As for the art in this issue, I’m tired of pointing out all the same fundamental problems.  Instead, I’d just like to mention how hilarious it is that this issue had FOUR colorists and they STILL got bandana colors wrong on a couple pages.  All that and the lettering is screwed up, assigning the wrong dialogue to the wrong Turtle.

Anyway, I’m just glad to have this dark cloud lifted from over my head.  I’ll never have to read these fucking things ever again.

Grade: F (as in, “Finally.  I can live again”.)

TMNT (Dreamwave) #6

Publication date: November, 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander

Colors: Shaun Curtis, Rob Ruffolo, Ramil Sunga, Winter Bell

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

Cover: Lesean Thomas, Erik Sander, Rob Ruffolo

“Bend it Like Turtles”

Summary:

While in Central Park, teenage martial artist Dheeraj protects his crush Jaya from a gang called the Thoogs.  He wins the day, but unfortunately for Dheeraj, it’s all just a dream.  April wakes him up, telling him that he’s helped enough around the antique shop for one day.  Dheeraj tells April good night and heads home.  After he leaves, Leo steps out of the shadows and asks April about him.  April says that Dheeraj is a good kid who gets straight-As and is a black belt.  Leo fears that good kids like him often wind up dead in this city.

Down the street, Dheeraj sees Jaya being bullied by several Thoogs.  Dheeraj comes to her rescue and tells the Thoogs to leave her alone.  The lumbering Heramba intimidates Dheeraj and he freezes in the middle of the fight.  Dheeraj is pummeled and the Thoogs only leave after a nearby shop owner (Mr. Chen) calls the police.  Jaya tries to help Dheeraj up, but he refuses her and hobbles away in shame.

He makes it back to the Second Time Around shop and April helps him up into her apartment to rest.  Once Dheeraj gets his head together, Leo reveals himself to the teen.  Leo tells Dheeraj that having knowledge of the martial arts is meaningless if you lack confidence.  He tells Dheeraj that he’s going to stab him with his sword unless he does something about it.  Leo swings his blade and Dheeraj manages to instinctively kick it from the Turtle’s hand.  Leo compliments Dheeraj’s move, but warns him not to get overconfident, as his opponent may have a second blade (as Leo puts his second sword up to Dheeraj’s neck).

The next day, Jaya is talking to Mr. Chen when they’re both approached by the Thoogs.  The Thoogs aren’t happy that Chen called the police and they want to send a message.  Suddenly, Dheeraj arrives and tells the Thoogs to leave.  Heramba steps up to him and Dheeraj begins to get jittery.  He spots Leo on a rooftop watching him and regains his confidence.  Dheeraj takes out the Thoogs with ease and they run away.

Later, Leo tells Splinter of what he taught Dheeraj and is confident that Dheeraj’s troubles are over.  Splinter scolds Leonardo, saying that such troubles are rarely resolved so easily.  Indeed, as elsewhere, the Thoog leader tells his underlings that they’re going to offer membership to Dheeraj.  And if Dheeraj should refuse, they’ll kill him.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #5.  The series concludes in TMNT (Dreamwave) #7.

*In the letters column, Matt Moylan claims that this issue contained a special foldout poster for “T4: The Turtlenator”.  That poster was actually included in the previous issue, as this issue contains a Transformers Armada poster.

Review:

People often say that the Dreamwave TMNT comic improved once it “came into its own” and began featuring original stories, but then I read shit like “Bend it Like Turtles” and wonder what they’re talking about.  For whatever reason, Peter David’s idea for a TMNT comic was to do an anthology not about the Ninja Turtles, but about the people whose lives they’ve made an impact on (be it intentionally or accidentally). 

While that’s certainly an unorthodox approach, the end result is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic that isn’t about the freakin’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  It’s about everyone BUT the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  When the Dreamwave series began as adaptations of the 4Kids cartoon shown from different POVs, you could almost forgive the approach, but even with free reign to tell any kind of story he wants, David STILL eschews telling stories focused on the Turtles.

And I just don’t care about these brand new characters David is introducing.  Dheeraj is so incredibly bland.  A straight-A student with a black belt in martial arts and a heart of gold whose only weakness is that he’s just too nice… Oh yeah, what a fascinating character.  Truly enthralling.  And of course, Leonardo teaches him to overcome his one character defect in this story, so by the end of the comic he’s absolutely perfect.  How boring can you get?

And jeez, I’m sick of whining about Lesean Thomas’s terrible art.  Instead, here are some selections.

Way to stay on model between panels, April.  Also, Dheeraj can see in two directions at once.  Is that a ninja move?

Behold!  Lesean Thomas: Master of the ctrl+c ctrl+v maneuver!  And it would be nice if he’d settle on a shape for April’s eyes before penciling the issue instead of experimenting with every variety from panel to panel.

Scale?  What the fuck is scale?  Either that or Dheeraj is 2 feet tall.  Or maybe Heramba is 15 feet tall?  I sure as hell can’t tell.

God dammit, he even draws the PIZZA separately in his tablet and then pastes it onto the characters?  Can Thomas actually draw people holding stuff or not?  And, again, what is up with April’s eyes?

I’m not sure what cards Lesean Thomas played to get into the industry, but this stuff is Amateur Hour, plain and simple.

Everything about the Dreamwave comic is bad.  Except for the fact that it’s almost over.

Grade: F (as in, “For maximum hilarity, check out the Dreamwave Mega Man comic advertised in the back of this issue.  It’s the second worst Astro Boy adaptation ever created!”)

TMNT (Dreamwave) #5

Publication date: October, 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander, Rob Armstrong

Colors: Shaun Curtis

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

Cover: Lesean Thomas, Erik Sander, Edwin Garcia, Rob Ruffolo

“Shadows of the Mind’s Eye”

Summary:

Brooding on a rooftop, Raph is ticked that he can’t be thankd by the people he helps; that ninja have to stay concealed in the shadow.  Seeing a cat stuck in a tree, Raph discretely throws his sai, cutting the branch so the cat can land safely in the arms of the little girl (Pammy) below.  Raph figures he deserves one small thanks; just one.  A vision of Splinter warns him not to, but Raph approaches Pammy anyway.

Fishing for praise, he tells the little girl that he cut the branch and saved her cat.  Pammy is grateful, then runs back inside her apartment to tell her mom all about “Raffle”.  Listening in, Raph hears the mother (Sheila Shaunston) tell Pammy not to lie and then a smacking sound.  Thinking Mrs. Shaunston is abusing her daughter, Raph leaps in through the window to yell at her.  Turns out Mrs. Shaunston was just swatting flies, but one look at Raph causes her to faint.  Raph panics and calls 911, but Pammy tells him that her mom faints all the time and that she’ll get better.  Raph decides to leave before he makes things worse.

The next night, Raph comes back to the stoop outside the apartment to check on Pammy.  Pammy tells him that when her mom told the paramedics about “an armored frog”, they took her away to the Belleview Psychiatric Hospital.  According to her daddy, Pammy may not be seeing her mom for a long time.  Raph promises Pammy he’ll make things right and leaves.

At Belleview, Dr. Benton is examining Mrs. Shaunston.  He hand waves away all her claims about “an armored frog” as nothing but a symbolic hallucination; the same sort of stuff he hears day in and day out.  He has a nurse escort Mrs. Shaunston to her room and then gets down to her paperwork. 

Suddenly, Raph appears in the doctor’s chair.  He threatens the doctor, telling him to release Mrs. Shaunston with a clean bill of health or else.  Dr. Benton responds by zapping Raph with a taser.  As Raph collapses, immobilized, Dr. Benton proceeds to have a mental breakdown.  He now sees that all the things his patients told him they saw were real.  He proceeds to put a “CURED” stamp on Mrs. Shaunston’s file, then casually exists the office.

Raph struggles to his feet and is greeted by the sound of gunshots from the roof.  A nurse outside the office says that Dr. Benton has lost it and gone to the roof with his deer hunting rifle.  Out in the street, pedestrians scramble as bullets strike everywhere.  Among them is Pammy, who has come to Belleview with her father to visit her mother.  Dr. Benton lines Pammy up in his sights, but before he can squeeze the trigger, Raph knocks him out.

Back at Pammy’s apartment, the whole family is reunited for a trip to the zoo.  Pammy tells her mom that “Raffle” was actually a nice armored frog.  Mrs. Shaunston says that, at the very least, he tried very hard.  Below them in the sewer, Raph is pouting over the chain reaction of misery his presence caused.  Splinter appears next to him to remind him that they do not hide in the shadows, but live within them as a part of them.  Raph asks Splinter if he ever wants more out of life.  Splinter tells Raph that wanting more isn’t his job, it’s his son’s.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #4.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #6.

*This issue also included a promotional poster insert for “T4: The Turtlenator”.

Review:

Dreamwave finally takes a hint and gives the readers their first completely new story… And it’s more introspective character study stuff.  Whoopee.

Unlike the previous four issues, though, this one has the benefit of not trying to force a new story into the framework of an existing cartoon episode.  As a result, we get a pretty clean narrative from beginning to end.  As a oneshot story about Raph and his misguided attempts to get some recognition for his good deeds, it’s actually pretty amusing.  The domino effect of everything getting worse and worse the more Raph tries to “fix” things makes for a funny series of events.  Or, at least, I hope they were intended to be funny and not completely serious.

I think what bugs me with this story is more that David didn’t seem to have a clear idea how to end it.  The whole concept is that by involving himself, Raph only makes things worse and worse for everyone.  So you would think that the solution would be for Raph to suppress his ego and let things work themselves out.  But no, the lesson is obscured because Raph proceeds to meddle and meddle until things finally reach a more or less neutral position.

Well, “neutral” might not be the word for it, as Dr. Benton’s life is now completely destroyed because of Raph’s interference.  David struggles to find a villain for the issue and eventually settles on Dr. Benton.  But Dr. Benton never really does anything wrong until Raph drives him insane.  Up until that point he was just a guy working in a psychiatric hospital helping people with delusions on a day to day basis.  Okay, sure, he didn’t believe Mrs. Shaunston’s story about “an armored frog”, but why should he?

And then there’s that awkward, clumsy bit where Dr. Benton decides to stamp “CURED” on Mrs. Shaunston’s case file just to conveniently resolve her conflict.  Because that’s what it takes to get released from a psychiatric hospital, right?  A big red stamp on your folder that says “CURED”?

At the center of “Shadows of the Mind’s Eye” there’s a decent story, but it’s fumbled about way too much.  It’s hard to sympathize with Raph, because of how selfish and petty he's acting.  It’s hard to feel that a lesson has been learned at the end, because Raph solves the problem by doing the same stuff that caused it in the first place.  And it’s hard to feel like Raph saved the day at the end, anyway, when his actions drove a normal person nuts.

Dreamwave has mercifully pared down the coloring crew to just two people; Li on flats and Curtis on colors.  With less cooks in the kitchen, the pages are actually comprehensible for a change.  The colors are brighter and the lines are sharper; thanks in large part, I’m sure, to a 50% decrease in useless photoshop filters.  That aside, many of the same problems remain, such as everything being drawn separately on a tablet and combined after the fact, blah blah blah looks like shit.

Though man, Thomas is not very good at drawing facial expressions appropriate to the situation.  Here’s Pammy, telling Raph that her mother has been committed to a psychiatric hospital:

Why is she giving Raph the bedroom eyes?  And really, if you took that head all by itself, would you think it belonged to a 5 year-old?  Because it’s supposed to.

Anyhow, issue #5 is supposedly where Dreamwave’s TMNT comic turns a corner and improves.  However, it feels more like one step forward, two steps back.  Old problems are solved in exchange for brand new ones.  But who cares?  There’s only two issues left, anyway.

Grade: D+ (as in, “Decided to give the extra ‘plus’ there because of an included Simpsons quote and nothing else.  ‘Can’t sleep, clown will eat me’.”)

TMNT (Dreamwave) #4

Publication date: September 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander, Rob Armstrong

Colors: Shaun Curtis, Yvonne Poon, Pamil Sunga, Alan Wang

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters and design: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

“Meet Casey Jones”

Summary:

In his apartment, Casey Jones is pumping iron and listening to his neighbors next door.  The dad is tired and irritable with his son.  Casey flashes back to one of his last memories of his father…

The past.  Casey is a little kid, worried that his dad should give into the Purple Dragons and their protection racket, lest something bad happen.  Mr. Jones becomes violent and tells Casey that he’s playing on HIS team and that a Jones never gives in (nearly punching Casey in a violent rage).  Mr. Jones hears something and figures it’s the Purple Dragons breaking into his store.

Casey snaps out of his flashback and decides that it’s time to make the Purple Dragons pay.  He puts on his hockey mask and golf bag full of blunt instruments and goes to work.

The past.  Casey watches as his father’s store burns to the ground.  The Purple Dragon leader, Hun, then smacks Casey aside with the encouragement that his father pay up.

Prowling the streets, Casey spots some punks about to mug a woman (mother of the kid next door).  He beats them up, but even after they surrender, he continues to wail on them with his hockey stick.  Casey is suddenly subdued by Raphael, who tells him to chill out.  Casey isn’t in the business of being told what to do and bashes Raph over the head before chasing after the fleeing punks.

The past.  Casey breaks a bottle and stabs Hun in the leg with it.  Furious, Hun has his thugs beat Casey to a pulp.  Before being thrown out of the hospital because he lacked insurance, Casey is diagnosed with brain damage from the beating.  Shortly after that, Mr. Jones goes searching for Hun to get revenge and vanishes.  Casey’s mom then goes searching for her husband and vanishes, too.

Casey continues beating on the thugs until Raph intervenes.  Raph tells him that his heart is in the right place, but he’s meting out punishment with too much violence and not enough thought.  Casey still isn’t listening and the two of them thrown down.  Raph knocks Casey down, but Casey hits him with a surprise attack and flees on his motorcycle.  Before he leaves, he tells Raph to meet him in Central Park on Friday night to finish things.

Climbing the fire escape to his apartment, Casey overhears his neighbor about to get violent with his wife and son.  Casey smashes through the window, prepared to beat the man down.  The man stands between Casey and his family and vows to protect them from the vigilante.  Casey realizes what Raph was trying to tell him and runs away.

In his apartment next door, Casey overhears the family telling a cop about the masked psycho that tried to kill them and the son calls his father a hero for protecting them.  Casey drifts off into a delusional state, reassuring himself that his father and mother are still alive, just waiting for Casey to clean the streets of all the Purple Dragons before they can return.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #3.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #5.

*This issue was adapted from the 4Kids TMNT animated series episode “Meet Casey Jones”.

Review:

This is probably the first issue of Dreamwave’s TMNT comic to actually be readable.  The story follows Casey Jones and gives us deeper glimpses of his past, while the Turtles are again reduced to cameo status, but I think the difference in this issue is that it doesn’t feel like there’s a larger story we’re missing.  Yes, there is an entirely separate subplot from the 4Kids episode that got excised (Raph coping with his own anger after nearly braining Mikey), but David wisely ignores all that crap and gives us just ONE plot to follow.  No confusion about stuff being referenced that we aren’t seeing; just a single coherent storyline.  A Dreamwave first, ladies and gentlemen.

While it’s still the familiar story from the 4Kids episode “Meet Casey Jones” (or Raphael microseries #1, if we're being honest), it’s interesting to actually SEE the relationship between Casey and his father that we’re told was so important, but the cartoon never bothered to explore.  There’s a rather shocking revelation involved, as we learn that the father Casey worshiped was really a violent, stubborn, frightening man.  There’s nothing pleasant about him, as he calls women stupid, puts his pride before the safety of his family and proceeds to teach Casey a lesson about courage by nearly punching a hole through his head. 

I think this did a decent job of illustrating Casey’s delusional state, as the person he’s describing isn’t the person he’s remembering.  In fact, it was satisfactory enough that the issue REALLY didn’t need to end on Casey desperately trying to convince himself that his parents are still alive and watching him and waiting to come back, but only after he cleans up the streets.  That was laying it on a bit thick (likewise with the overstatement of his brain damage; a briefer mention would have gotten the point across just as well).  I did like the dichotomy of the neighbor family; a violent, irritable father neglecting/abusing his son, but the son looking up to him regardless of treatment.

It’s likely a matter of coincidence, but a few elements from David’s expansion of the “Meet Casey Jones” episode seem to have seeped their way into other TMNT continuities.  Mirage’s Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #56 adapted the idea of Hun killing Casey’s father and burning down his store (something the 4Kids cartoon writers thought up), but the issue also incorporated the idea that Casey took on brain damage after the violent beating he took from the Purple Dragons.  To my knowledge, David is the first author to ever pitch the idea that Casey is legitimately mentally handicapped.  There’s also the portrayal of Casey’s father as a violent brute; something IDW adopted early on with TMNT (IDW) #1.  The two Mr. Joneses don’t share any similarities beyond that, but being a child-endangering scumbag seems to be a consistent portrayal for the character.

So yeah, on a script level, this was a pretty solid issue.  It overstates some stuff to get the point across, but all in all, it’s actually a GOOD expansion of a 4Kids episode.  So what brings it down?

The lousy art, of course.

I’ve gone on ad nauseum about Lesean Thomas’s numerous failings as an artist and I’m really in no mood to repeat the same old critiques.  All I will say is that he isn’t getting any better; Thomas is not an artist in any hurry to improve his craft.  In fact, believe it or not, he may actually be getting worse.  He copy-pastes the splash on page 1 and recycles it for the last page of the issue, repeating it to fill 4 panels.  Now, I understand the intent: to illustrate how the same pose can represent both grim determination and pathetic defeat, distinguished only by the context of the inner monologue bubbles.  But for the love of god, REDRAW the damn panel!  Even if there are just subtle differences between the two versions of the same basic layout, it still keeps the damn thing from looking like a cheap, lazy shortcut.

Also, hey, scroll back on up there and take a closer look at that scan of Casey getting kicked by Raph.  Notice how when he goes flying his bag is over his right shoulder, but when he lands it's over his left shoulder?  Crap like that everywhere.
 

And once again, we’ve got 5 colorists and 2 inkers just to get a single issue onto the stands.  This thing is a mess of conflicting lighting, toning and photoshop effects between pages and panels.  Worse yet, most of the colorists on this issue are completely new to the book, making the look even less consistent than usual.  A competent publisher would assign a dedicated colorist to a title to maintain a steady look; that’s just a fundamental.  But then, Dreamwave went bankrupt for a reason.

Grade: D+ (as in, “Dreamwave once again posts fanart in the letters column that looks considerably better than the art in the actual comic”.)

 

TMNT (Dreamwave) #3

Publication date: August 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander

Colors: Rob Ruffolo, Shaun Curtis, Stuart Ng, Susan Luo

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters and design: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

“Attack of the Mousers”

Summary:

At a bank cleverly named “BANK”, Mousers tear through the vault from below and make off with millions of dollars in cash and jewelry.  As they return to Stocktronics, Baxter Stockman enjoys his success.  In the back of his head, however, he ponders that all of Man’s achievements have been made in the pursuit of women...

The past.  Baxter is a teenager in high school.  A geek at the bottom of the food chain, he’s bullied by the football jock Cirrone.  Baxter covets Cirrone’s cheerleader girlfriend, April, and plans to win her for himself by sabotaging the bully.  He reaches into his locker and pulls out a football.

The present.  Down in the sewer lair, the Turtles and April watch news of the bank robbery.  Mikey uncharacteristically spots teeth marks on the debris and deduces that the Mousers were behind the theft.  April spills the beans that she worked for Stocktronics, but when she discovered the Mousers, Baxter Stockman tried to have her killed.  Raph suggests they all head to Stocktronics and shut things down, not only to stop the robberies, but because the Mousers destroyed their original lair.  April then awkwardly recites the TMNT’s origin to them, having heard the story recently from Master Splinter.

At Stocktronics, Baxter receives a message from his mysterious benefactor.  Baxter mouths off to him, telling him that he procured the funds he promised and demands not to be bothered again.  The mysterious benefactor warns him about the price of failure and then signs off.  Baxter mutters that everyone is stupid but him, then takes a stroll down Memory Lane…

The past.  Hiding below the bleachers during The Big Game, Baxter whips out a device to guide his remote control football.  As Cirrone runs to catch the ball, Baxter guides it through the air toward the goal post.  Cirrone crashes into the goal post, breaking his arm and ribs and ending his high school football career.  Baxter gloats at the top of his lungs that his plan was a success and now, with Cirrone out of the way, he has a chance with April.  Unfortunately, his gloating gave away his entire scheme to the nearby cheerleaders (April amongst them) and band members.  Baxter is summarily curb-stomped by the angry teenagers.

Baxter awakens in a body-cast in the hospital.  He’s approached by Hun, leader of the Purple Dragons and an agent of the Foot Clan.  Hun tells Baxter that with guidance from his backers, he could one day have his very own company.  Baxter is intrigued and accepts Hun’s business card.

Some years later, at Stocktronics, Baxter is approached by April O'Neil, applying for the job of lab assistant.  He isn’t impressed with her until she tells him her name.  Rather attached to the name “April”, he decides to hire her.

The present.  The Turtles infiltrate Stocktronics and run a gauntlet of laser beams.  They interrogate Baxter, who is baffled as to what they are.  April tells him that they have enough evidence to put him away for years.  Baxter quickly recalls the Mousers and orders them to tear the building apart.  Don and April attempt to override the command while Baxter escapes down a secret passage.  As the building collapses, he bumps into Hun.  Hun clutches Baxter by the scruff of his neck and tells him he’ll have to report his failure to the Master in person.

At Foot HQ, Baxter tries to play things off as a minor setback, but Oroku Saki isn’t having it.  As Hun drags Baxter away to be punished, Saki tells his technicians to give a report from the Mouser memory banks.  The tech says that a Stocktronics employee, likely April, triggered a self-destruct on all the Mousers.  Saki awkwardly scoffs that there’s always a woman somewhere in the mix.  The tech then shows Saki the last image in the Mouser’s memory: a heat signature of the Turtles.  Enraged, Saki hurls a razor blade through a window.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #2.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #4.

*The flashback in this issue covers events (the TMNT’s origin) from TMNT (Dreamwave) #1.  The destruction of the TMNT’s original lair by the Mousers happened in the cartoon episodes, but didn’t make it into these adaptations (despite being referenced in the dialogue).  I guess it wasn’t important.

*This issue is adapted from the 4Kids TMNT animated series episode “Attack of the Mousers”.

Review:

This issue is just all over the place.  Peter David wants to continue telling the episodes from the POV of a different character, but he’s also trying to do a better job of working the Turtles into the scripts so a book titled “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” can feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for more than 3 pages per issue.  There’s a terrible spotlight imbalance in this installment, and despite an increased presence, the TMNT’s story arc seems more confused than ever (again, if you haven’t seen the episode this comic is adapting, you are hopelessly fucked).  The lair got destroyed?  When did THAT happen?  April’s their friend now?  Guess that occurred off-panel.  And this Splinter guy sounds like a real cool dude; maybe we can meet him someday!

As for Baxter’s expanded origin, it’s probably the best of the “new POV” side stories David has written so far, in that it actually tells us something new about the established character.  Unfortunately, it’s really uninspired: Baxter was a nerd in high school who got picked on by jocks and now he uses his intellect for evil.  Wow, David, did you come up with that all by yourself? 

And the overarching “theme” is embarrassingly half-formed.  Baxter claims that everything a man does is to impress women and that, as muses, women secretly hold all the power in the world.  Okay, sure.  But David never develops this.  Baxter’s crush on (high school) April only comes up in two panels: When you see pictures of her in his locker and when he shouts that with Cirrone in the hospital, he can win April for himself.  While his actions are still motivated by the pursuit of a woman, any obsession or romantic inclinations on his part are barely touched upon.  And when Shredder coincidentally recites verbatim Baxter’s opening statement about how “there’s always a woman”, it reads like a total non sequitur to what the Foot technician was telling him.  Why is Shredder going on about women-this and women-that when all the tech did was mention, off-handedly, that Stockgen employed an individual named April?  It is INCREDIBLY forced, and while it wouldn’t have “saved” this issue by a long shot, the whole thing might have read better if David had just dropped his oh-so-clever message about women.

Seriously, it’s not like Peter David was new to comics when he wrote this thing.  The guy had celebrated runs on the Incredible Hulk and X-Factor, for crying out loud.  Heck, I loved his original run on X-Factor in the ‘90s!  It’s pretty much the only X-book of the era that sincerely withstands the test of time as being genuinely GOOD storytelling.

So why the fuck are these Turtle comics so amateurish and terrible?  Did Pat Lee emit pheromones that made all his employees suck as badly as he did?

And on the subject of “sucking at their job”: Lesean Thomas, everybody!

Okay, so I’ve droned on in my previous Dreamwave reviews about how obvious it is that Thomas draws everything separately on a tablet and then tries to paste all the pieces together after the fact, but man, it just gets worse every issue.  Check out this panel where teenage Baxter is holding the remote control for his football device: 

 Does it ACTUALLY look like he’s holding that thing to you?  It’s really clear that Thomas went so far as to draw even the handheld props separately and then cut ‘n pasted them onto the characters.

Or maybe it’s just the coloring?  That remote looks like it alone is in soft focus while Baxter isn’t.  Unfortunately, I don’t know which colorist to blame: This issue had FOUR of them!  And one guy doing “flats”, so technically five.  Oh, and an inker.

“Too many cooks…” and so on.

And for anybody who says that Thomas’s lineart was perfectly fine and it was just the inept coloring that butchered his work, just look at these damn Turtles:

 Boy, those sure are some dynamic expressions on the top panel!  I especially like the way the chin wrinkles make it look like they’re all perpetually biting their bottom lip.  And look at Raph in that bottom panel.  I spent WAY too much time trying to figure out where the hell his left hand went.  Eventually, I deduced that it was folding under his elbow joint, but if Thomas was aiming for an “arms folded” look, the composition is just awful.  The wrinkle lines on Raph's right arm are placed in such a bad spot, they look like lines extending from his wrist, terminating into thin air so that it seems like Thomas just didn’t bother drawing his hand.  The “arms folded” pose might have been clearer if, say, Raph’s right hand was visibly resting on his left arm, but that entire arm is blocked by two of Mikey’s fingers in the foreground, desperately trying to motion toward Raph.

The reason I’m scrutinizing this one panel is because EVERY panel has fundamental failures in basic composition and layout like this.  This is what happens when you draw your characters separately and then arrange them overtop each other in a panel.  You don’t plan ahead, vital details get cropped out or covered up, the characters look like they're floating over the environments instead of interacting with them and perspective?  FUCK perspective!  Perspective is for chumps!

Jeez, I expect this kind of half-assed cut ‘n paste junk from places like CTRL ALT DEL.  But then, I guess it was my mistake to hold Dreamwave to a higher standard than a webcomic.

Also, this issue is the first to include a letters page!  Incidentally, all the letters are so flattering and full of advertisements for Dreamwave exclusives (such as the ultra-rare, "get it now before it sky rockets in value" Pat Lee variant cover of TMNT #1), that I largely suspect Pat Lee wrote the letters himself.

Grade: F (as in, “Fan art.  The fan art printed at thumbnail size in the letters page of this issue looked better than the actual art filling out its pages.  That’s Dreamwave quality in a nutshell, folks”.)

 

TMNT (Dreamwave) #2

Publication date: July 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander

Colors: Rob Ruffolo, Shaun Curtis

Flats: Kenny Li

Letters and design: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

“A Better Mousetrap”

Summary:

At the old O’Neil homestead, Li’l April is practicing to be a news reporter by interviewing her mom.  She asks what’s for dinner and Mrs. O’Neil says turtle soup.  Suddenly, the Ninja Turtles come bursting out of the pot as Mousers come crashing through the windows.  As the Turtles fight the Mousers, Li’l April wants to get a better look.

Now it’s the present (maybe) and Baxter Stockman is rehearsing the announcement of his new Mousers with his lab assistant, an adult April.  April is distant, feeling like only moments ago she was a little girl.  Baxter is not amused and wants to get the rehearsal right.

April is now in her Dad’s VW Beetle (with the oh-so subtle license plate “BMBLB”).  Mr. O’Neil refuses to let her attend journalism college, saying that her scores in science are too high to be wasted on the wrong major.  April reminds him that she’s already attending college and that she changed her major to science a while ago.  A manhole in front of them explodes and out pop the Turtles, still fighting the Mousers.

Back at the lab, April and Stockman record their demonstration of the Mousers.  As Baxter gives his speech, April sees Li’l April sitting in the corner playing with Ninja Turtles dolls.  The Raph doll warns April that her boss is evil.  April is incredulous, but the Raph doll reminds her of what just happened to her not a few minutes ago.

Now it’s the future (maybe) and April is running diagnostics on the Mousers.  She finds a transmission anomaly and wants to go over it, but Baxter tells her it’s nothing.  All the while, Li’l April is sticking a microphone in her face, encouraging her to use her journalistic instincts to get the scoop on Baxter.  April overhears Baxter in another room, talking to a mysterious benefactor.  After Baxter leaves for the evening, April messes around on his computer (at the behest of the Raph doll and Li’l April, while her father leans over her shoulder and tells her not to go through with it).  She finds the symbol of the Foot Clan and clicking it opens a secret elevator.  On the ride down, Mrs. O’Neil (still cooking dinner) warns her that things aren’t safe.

April exits the elevator to find a mass production line of Mousers.  Baxter appears behind her and tells her that she’s seen too much.  He sics the Mousers on her and they eat Li’l April (who tries to interview them).  Donatello (dressed as Sigmund Freud) thinks that its striking symbolism as April flees into the sewers.  She’s cornered by the Mousers and Mr. O’Neil tells her that this is where “reporter’s instincts” inevitably lead.  At the last second, she’s saved by the Ninja Turtles and faints.

April awakens a moment later, realizing the entire surreal, out of joint experience was nothing more than a dream.  She sees the Turtles and faints again.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Dreamwave) #1.  The story continues in TMNT (Dreamwave) #3.

*This issue is adapted from the 4Kids TMNT animated series episode “A Better Mousetrap”.

Review:

A quick anecdote, but back in the summer of 2003, this was the first issue of Dreamwave’s TMNT series I bought.  And after reading it, it was the last.  I didn’t get the remainder of the run until a couple years ago when every single issue turned up in the quarter bin at my local comic shop (along with pretty much everything Dreamwave ever published).  So coincidentally, exactly 10 years has passed since I last read this comic.

Well, I didn’t like it then and I don’t much care for it now.

“A Better Mousetrap” is definitely an improvement over the first issue of the series, primarily because the focus is on an established character readers care about and not a pair of nobodies who won’t have any impact on the series whatsoever.  Writer Peter David tries to crack the lens on this episode a little bit more; whereas before, we saw events from the cartoon through a different POV, now we’re seeing them through a different POV AND as part of a dream.

The disjointed effect is kind of neat, but it’s mostly incoherent.  Once again, David is writing these issues under the assumption that all readers have watched the animated series as a prerequisite.  If you’re coming into the Dreamwave comic blind, you don’t stand a freakin’ chance.  With that in mind, this issue is especially unforgiving to newcomers with its dreamlike “jump from one moment to another out of chronological sequence with no rhyme or reason” approach.

I think the desired effect was for us to learn more about this incarnation of April, but what all does David actually tell us?  That when she was a little girl, she wanted to be a reporter but her father wouldn’t let her?  That’s the long and short of it, really.  It explains her inherently curious nature, which is neat (and, of course, is a throwback to the old Fred Wolf cartoon and the live action movies), but aside from that, we’re afforded no greater glimpse into April’s personality or history.  If anything, the “dream sequence” effect seems to have been applied just to keep this from being a straight retelling of the episode and to try and jazz the story up a bit.

On the subject of Lesean Thomas's art, you can tell he lacks ambition (or motivation) and doesn’t like to step out of his comfort zone; namely, what he knows he can draw easily.  As a result, look at April throughout this issue.  I hope you like the ¾ view of her face:

 Because that’s the angle she’s drawn in for practically every panel.   The same angle, over and over, with an expression that only slightly changes between what could very easily be cut ‘n paste work.  I mentioned this in my review for the last issue, but Thomas represents everything wrong with using tablets for artistic shortcuts.

And I honestly can’t say if the coloring is better or worse in this issue than the first.  On the bright side, I can mostly tell what’s going on this time around, but on the down side, there are so many “shiny” highlights added to the characters, I think Ruffolo and Curtis were under the impression that people are made of plastic.

Oh yeah, and once again, the Turtles are only guest stars in their own comic.  Sorry I’m saving that comment for the end, but it’s a problem epidemic to the entire Dreamwave series and I kind of think it ought to go without saying.

Grade: D- (as in, “Dreamwave, Dreamwave, Dreamwave… Couldn’t you do ANYTHING right?”)

TMNT (Dreamwave) #1

Publication date: June 2003

Written by: Peter David

Pencils by: Lesean Thomas

Inks: Erik Sander

Colors: Rob Ruffolo

Flats: Kenny Li and Sigmund Torre

Letters and design: Matt Moylan

VP/Editor in Chief: Roger Lee

President: Pat Lee

“Things Change”

Summary:

Fifteen years ago.  Two little kids (Johnny and Frank) are getting their photos taken in a booth.  Johnny wants each of them to keep one of the pics so that they’ll always remember that they’re best buddies for life or something.  Suddenly, a nearby truck gets blindsided by a car and a canister of ooze comes rolling out.  It hits a bowl of four baby turtles and sends them careening down a storm drain.  Johnny wants to go down and steal the turtles, while Frank wants to help the guy in the truck in case he’s been hurt.  A stranger walks past and is impressed with Johnny’s self-interested attitude.  He tells the kid to look up the Purple Dragons when he’s a little bit older.

The present.  Frank is a rookie cop, enjoying his first day on the job.  Walking his beat, he’s shocked when a robot (a Mouser) appears from below ground and snatches on old lady’s dog.  Frank grabs the leash, but is dragged into the street (past his superior officer, Sarge, who thinks Frank is putting on a show).  The robot drops the dog and Frank is nearly run down by an armored car.  He glimpses into the vehicle and thinks he sees Johnny driving.  It IS Johnny, who is now a Purple Dragon, but Johnny pretends like he’s never seen Frank before.  Frank returns the dog to the old lady, unaware of four strange figures leaping across the rooftops overhead.

Later, Johnny and the Purple Dragons shake down a store owner for some cash, stuffing it into the back of the armored car (unaware they’d just locked Raphael inside).  Two Ton (one of the Dragons) asks Johnny what the guy who hired them to do the job is like.  Johnny says he’s really scary but organized and will likely take them straight to the top.  Driving off, they pass Frank and Sarge in their squad car.  Frank wants to give chase, but Sarge insists the armored car did nothing illegal.

Elsewhere, the Purple Dragons park in an alley to deliver the case.  They’re confronted by Leonardo and Michelangelo, who start beating on them while Donatello picks the lock to the armored car to free Raph.  The Purple Dragons gang up on the Turtles, but prove no match for the ninja.  A unit of Foot Soldiers arrive and the fight looks like it’s about to really get started.

Not far away, Frank is whining to Sarge when the armored car (being driven by the Turtles) comes roaring by.  Leo throws the stolen money at the cops and the Turtles disappear.

At Foot HQ, Johnny desperately tries to explain himself to his employer, Oroku Saki.  Saki tells Johnny he will never have the chance to fail him again and rises from his seat.  As the doors close, Johnny screams in agony.

Back in the alley where the Turtles fought the Foot, Frank and Sarge are doing some investigating.  Sarge thinks it’s a waste of time, as who care about a bunch of gang members, anyway?  Looking around, Frank passes over the old photo of him and Johnny as kids.  He looks at it and realizes that… things change.

Turtle Tips:

*The story is continued in TMNT (Dreamwave) #2.

*This issue is an adaptation of the first episode of the 4Kids TMNT animated series, “Things Change”.

*This issue was originally published with a 4-page preview of NecroWar #1.  Like anybody gives a shit.

*This issue was originally published with a variant cover by Pat Lee.

Review:

Oh great.  The Dreamwave series.  Might as well get this shit out of the way; it’s been lingering over my head for long enough.

I’m a bit conflicted about Peter David’s approach to this series.  I’m sure he was under some mandate from 4Kids Entertainment to make the comic a tie-in to their animated series, and that usually means dull episode adaptations.  So to David’s credit, while he adapts the episodes from the cartoon, he tries to show them from the perspective of different characters involved, so it’s still a “new” story.  Sometimes it works okay, as when episodes are seen through the eyes of recognizable characters like Baxter Stockman, and sometimes… we get the episodes through the eyes of nameless generics.

For those who have seen the episode “Things Change”, Johnny is the lead Purple Dragon with the blue hair and Frank is the cop designed after Kevin Eastman (while Sarge is the cop designed after Peter Laird).  While I think David might have been onto something with his “same story, different POV” approach, the fact remains that I bought this comic for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… not a couple of nobodies whose animation models probably didn’t even have names.  This is the very first issue of the series, meant to grab readers who want to relax with some TMNT action.  What they receive instead is the trite life story of two characters nobody gives a shit about.

And even the back story for Frank and Johnny is pretty awful.  The dialogue is stilted and insincere, as Johnny drops “best buddies for life” phrases incessantly, then goes off on some awkward rant about “looking out for number one if you want to make it in the big city”.  It’s way too clunky to make me care about these characters whom the issue is focusing on (again, this is the first issue of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic and it’s not even about the Turtles).

Speaking of the Turtles, since the actual episode of the cartoon this issue is supplementing is told from their POV, they hardly play into the plot of the story.  It is just assumed on David’s part that anybody reading the comic will have seen the cartoon, so he doesn’t bother trying to string their narrative together coherently.  One minute they’re jumping along the rooftop, the next Raph is in the back of the armored car somehow, then Raph and Mikey are arguing over something that David didn’t even bother to show in this issue, then the Foot Soldiers show up for a fight, then we skip the fight and it’s the Turtles just driving away.

There’s a LOT of narrative disconnect from their side of the story, and if you haven’t seen the cartoon, you won’t be able to “fill in the blanks” on your own.

As for Thomas’s art, well, this is Dreamwave we’re talking about.  One of the major problems they had (besides Pat Lee’s lack of business ethics) was a tendency to absolutely positively DROWN their line art in computer coloring and photoshop effects.  Picking out what’s going on in the line art can be a major hassle, as the colorists are competing with the penciler for the reader’s attention.  I’m sure being a colorist isn’t the most gratifying occupation in the comics world (right up there with letterer), but you’re there to complement the line art, not try to show it up.

But if you can fight your way through the lense flares and make it to Thomas’s lines, then you’ll be met with some other obstacles.  Thomas is an artist who puts “style” above “fundamentals”, so while he tries his best to make things look dynamic, he can’t get so much as a limp grasp on basic principles such as “scale” and “perspective”.  Just look at the truly awful attempt at foreshortening on Johnny’s hands on page 2. 

It also seems evident that Thomas drew the characters and the backgrounds wholly separate from one another, then tried to combine them on his tablet after the fact.  So you end up with characters who don’t appear to be in the same plane of existence as the environments they’re supposedly standing on (look at the page where the Mouser bursts out of the ground and grabs the dog; the people in the background are just floating).  Cut and paste some clip art onto a photograph and tell me how that works out for you.

“But… But… My style!”

Guess I can’t argue with the old “style” defense.  It’s impregnable.

Anyway, the Dreamwave series is just bad.  From its very conception, it is incapable of standing on its own (you HAVE to have seen the 4Kids cartoon to read this comic) and while it earns points for a creative approach to storytelling, for the last time, people buy Ninja Turtles comics to read about the Ninja Turtles!

Grade: F (as in, “Frank, if you wanted an excuse to convince Sarge to pull the armored car over, you could have mentioned its complete lack of license plates.  Either Thomas forgot to draw them or the colorists drowned them out in photoshop effects”.)