Publication date: Late Summer/Early Fall, 1991 (approximate)
Originally published by: Dark Horse Comics
Art and story: Bob Burden
Editing and Lettering: Roxanne Starr
Assisted by: Joe Pruett
Cover: Todd McFarlane
“Battlemania”
Summary:
Frontispiece: The Flaming Carrot and all four Ninja
Turtles rush into battle on a rooftop, charging down a faceless foe.
In the alleys, the Turtles remind the “Dark Avenger” that
he’s Raphael. But even with his memory
back, Raph knows he still has to help Flaming Carrot defeat the Fearless Umpires,
so all four Turtles race to the Empire State Building.
Upon arriving, they find the Umpires trying to attach
rockets to the corners so they can steal the whole building. Flaming Carrot invites them in through a
window. He’s defeated the Umpires that
were interrogating him, but more are on the way. They take those Umpires out, then start
throwing office equipment out the window and onto the rockets. A lucky shot activates one early, sending it
flying and making it impossible for Robert Babo (the ringleader) to steal the
building with only three rockets. Not
happy, Babo tells his henchmen to prepare his hot air balloon for a potential
escape.
The Turtles and Carrot make their way to the roof, taking
down more Umpires along the way. Finding
a command center, Carrot sends a message to the Mysterymen to come help. The message is picked up by Screwball and
Mystic Hand, who are still out driving.
Because Screwball doesn’t understand how a vehicle works, he
accidentally activates the passenger ejector seat without first opening the sun
roof. Mystic Hand is knocked unconscious
by the bump on the head and has to be taken to the hospital, leaving Screwball
to head to the Empire State Building alone.
Using his nuclear powered pogo stick, Carrot takes down
some more Umpires. He interrogates one,
who informs him of Babo’s escape balloon.
As Carrot and the Turtles continue on their way to the roof, Screwball
arrives and drives his car straight through the door and up the stairs.
On the roof, Babo is resorting to plan B. He asks Frankenstein’s Head to use his
magical abilities to levitate the roof.
Meanwhile, his Umpires are keeping the police and the Mysterymen on the
ground at bay by throwing pennies at them from the roof (and killing several
people). The Turtles and Carrot arrive
and start wrecking Umpires until Babo unleashes his Barbecue Ray. One zap from it and the heroes will smell
like barbecue sauce forever. Before he
can fire, Screwball bursts through in his car and mows down the ray. In the confusion, Raphael snatches Frankenstein’s
Head and the Turtles play a game of keep away with it.
Finally, Carrot tosses it to Screwball and tells him to
fly away with the noggin on his rocket boots before he can levitate the
building. Frankenstein’s Head mentally
attacks Screwball with thought power and Screwball responds with his own mental
attacks. The two are locked in
telepathic battle until Screwball’s pet shoelace crawls inside Frankenstein’s
Head’s ear and tickles him. The
momentary lapse of concentration hands Screwball the victory and he flies off
with him.
In the scuffle, several spare fuel tanks for the hot air
balloon are ruptured and about to blow.
Carrot and the Turtles escape on the balloon before the tanks left on
the roof explode, killing Babo and his Fearless Umpires. Meanwhile, Frankenstein’s Head recites a
spell and vanishes from Screwball’s hands.
Undeterred, the Turtles, Flaming Carrot and Screwball decide to go get
some Nathan’s hotdogs. Elsewhere,
Frankenstein’s Head’s spell, intended to give him the body of vicious Viking Rudolf
the Remorseful, failed. Frankenstein’s
Head is now stuck with the body of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from Flaming Carrot Comics (Vol.1) #26.
*The Turtles will meet the Flaming Carrot again in
TMNT/Flaming Carrot #1.
*I put the publication date for this issue as Late Summer/Early Fall, 1991
because, for the life of me, I cannot find an indicia anywhere in this issue
with publication information in it. So I
don’t know exactly what month this issue was released. All I have to go by is that last issue was published in June and releases typically skip a month when they aren’t running
late.
*This issue also included a “What is this Flaming
Carrot?” strip by Burden, and a Flaming Carrot Pop Quiz.
Review:
And the first crossover between the Ninja Turtles and the
Flaming Carrot comes to an end.
Honestly, I think my biggest grievance with this story isn’t
that I found it unfunny, as humor is subjective and all that. It’s more that Burden didn’t seem to
understand the Turtles or their personalities and makes no attempt at
distinguishing between any of them.
There’s nothing distinct about how any of the Turtles act; they spew all
the same vacuous non sequiturs as every other character in the comic and their
identities are entirely interchangeable (and by "identities", I mean a "cowabunga" here and a "radical" there).
In that regard, the whole idea of the “crossover” seemed
entirely needless, as why would Burden even bother if he wasn’t going to make
an effort to write the Turtles AS the Turtles?
They could have been any other generic Mysteryman and it would have
changed nothing. I guess Burden just
wanted the guaranteed sales boost that would accompany having a Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle on the cover of your comic in 1991, but didn't feel up to putting forth the effort
to write them in-character.
As far as other elements of the story go, we never found
out what the deal with the Vague Dudes and their extendable eyes and amnesia
ray was. I guess they played a part in
later Turtle-free stories, but for those of us only tuning in for the
crossover, it’s sort of a dangling irritant.
The cover by Todd McFarlane sort of took me by surprise,
as I’d never have guessed it was him had I not noticed his unmistakable
signature in the corner. I wonder if it
was redrawn in any way, or if he was making a point to draw the Turtles in
Burden’s style as opposed to his own. It’s
a pretty good cover, either way, and probably my favorite thing about this
whole issue.
As I said when I began, Flaming Carrot just isn’t for
me. There’s still the 4-issue crossover
miniseries from Mirage that I’ll have to get through, but maybe I’ll enjoy that
one a bit more. I’ll tackle that sometime later.
Grade: D+ (as in, “Donatello’s the smart one,
Michelangelo’s the immature one, Leonardo’s the leader and Raphael’s the jerk…
These aren’t complex personalities, man”.)
