Publication date: April, 2002
Writing, lettering, inking, toning: Peter Laird
Layouts, pencils: Jim Lawson
Inking: Eric Talbot
Cover painting: Michael Dooney
Production assistance: Dan Berger
Summary:
On a remote tepui in the Guayana highlands of
southeastern Venezuela, a group of explorers (led by “Ken”) trek deeper and
deeper into the uncharted wilderness.
Ken hopes to make the discovery of living dinosaurs inhabiting the dense
jungle. What they find instead is a
large alien creature, seemingly made of wood, and wielding a bizarre
device. Before the explorers can flee,
the wood-creature zaps them with the device and they vanish.
Down in the abandoned subway alcove, Don, Raph and Casey
put the finishing touches on the old armored car. Don turns the ignition and gets the motor
running, but fills up the room with rancid exhaust smoke in the process. The trio flee from the fumes, but still find
time to celebrate their hard work.
At the U.S. Air Defense Headquarters, radar technicians
report signs of a large bogey lifting off from the dark side of the moon and
heading with purpose toward New York City.
The military scrambles all its forces in response to the incoming
invaders.
At Kurtzburg Hospital, a doctor shows Michelangelo out
through the facility’s secret exit and gives him a reentry card in case he or
his brothers are ever hurt again.
Raptarr offers to give Michelangelo a lift home and the two take off to
the skies.
Out in Earth’s orbit, smaller Utrom craft encircle the
larger cylindrical ship and prepare for descent into Earth’s atmosphere. The lead Utrom tells his subordinates that
under no circumstances are they to return fire to any attacking military
craft. The large robot tells the Utrom
that he’s done all he can and everything is up to the humans, now.
In Northampton, Shadow rides her dirt bike home from the
old farmhouse to Stainless Steve Steel's farmhouse. She
had a good time with Jay and wants to introduce him to her family, but feels
like doing so might ruin their relationship.
As soon as she gets home, Splinter calls her into the living room to
watch the news. A reporter is on the
scene in New York City, where the Utrom crafts are slowly descending. Panic has gripped the city and militant
organizations, in fear of “alien invaders” have begun attacking the local
superhero population in. That
includes Raptarr and Michelangelo, who are being fired upon by the Madhattan
Maulitia. Seeing this on the news fills
Splinter and Shadow with concern and Splinter suggests that Shadow call April and
Casey.
Down in the subway tunnel, Don, Raph and Casey drive the
armored car along the tracks, onto the platform, up the stairs and out into the
streets. Upon reaching the surface,
however, they find the city in a state of panic, as people are running through
the streets in terror.
As the Utrom crafts breach the atmosphere, several Air Force jets
engage and launch a volley of missiles.
Forcefields protect the crafts from attack, leaving the military
helpless to stop their descent.
Elsewhere in New York, April has no idea why the city is
in an uproar. She attempts to call
Shadow on her cell phone, but can’t get a signal. She looks up into the sky and sees the craft
preparing to land.
The large cylindrical craft comes down in New York
Harbor, near Liberty Island, creating an artificial island.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 4) #2. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 4) #4.
*The news reporter references the events of September 11th,
2001 as having occurred “last September”. Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #66 occurs on New Years Eve and takes place almost immediately prior to the events of Volume 4. With those clues in mind, that would place the events of
Volume 4 in January of 2002 (so close to "real time" for when the volume began publication).
*Raptarr will appear next in TMNT (Vol. 4) #15.
*Raptarr will appear next in TMNT (Vol. 4) #15.
Review:
So that’s a pretty big shift in the status quo. To be honest, while I’m itching to talk about
the Utroms making the presence of aliens known to humanity, I think I’m better
off waiting until the fifth issue for that discussion. That’s when the big change actually occurs
and this and the next issue are sort of just the build up toward that massive upheaval.
This was a pretty damn thick issue, by the way. We’re talking 48 pages and still at the
regular price of $2.95. Hey, love or
hate Volume 4, you got a pretty good bang for your buck. The increased page space gives the issue time
to initiate some new plot threads, most notably the one involving the explorers and
the wood-creature. The ball is rolling
now, but it’ll be a while before that arc truly kicks off. And once it does… Now, I may be misremembering
things since it’s been a few years, but man, that was an arc I thought would
NEVER end.
There’s also the whole deal with the armored car. How… exciting? Is that the word for this 3-issue arc involving
repairing an old truck? “Exciting”? Yeah, okay, sure. I was on the edge of my seat as Donatello
topped off that battery, Casey de-gunked that engine and Raphael tightened the
nuts on those tires. Three issues,
everybody. Three issues.
As Michelangelo checks out of the Kurtzburg Hospital,
there’s this inanely protracted scene as he and the doctor make tedious small
talk. The doctor tells Michelangelo all
about the hospital’s painkiller prescription plan, explains how their security
access system works, ponders the authorization process necessary for getting
the other Turtles access cards, exchanges e-mails with Mike… Jeez, it really is
a lot of unnecessary babble. I think Laird
was really, REALLY proud of this Kurtzburg Hospital idea and wanted to regale
readers with all the intricacies about how it functions, but it’s just a
frustrating waste of time that has no payoff.
Do we REALLY need to know that Michelangelo and the doctor will be
updating their security access and medical coverage via e-mail? Was that 3 pages well-spent?
The real highlight of this issue is seeing New York react
to the Utrom craft coming in for a landing.
Again, it references what the past two issues have been reminding
readers regarding the Mirage universe; that superheroes are common and
plentiful and the general population knows all about them. So you see the Madhattan Maulitia freaking
out and opening fire on anything they deem abnormal, including one of those
superheroes, and it does feel like all that foreshadowing and “reminding”
finally paid off. It’ll come into
relevance even more so in just a couple issues, when the Utroms finally extend
their hands/tentacles to the population of Earth to accept cohabitation with
aliens as well as super-beings.
This issue is another exercise in excellent plotting
gutted by a tedious execution, but that’s Volume 4 in a nutshell and I don’t
think I want to make that observation over and over again for the next 28
reviews. A lot of cool things happen in
this issue, but you wouldn’t know it just by reading it.
Grade: C- (as in, “Could have been worse. Laird could have included a 7-page sequence
where Mike gets his prostate exam and awkwardly describes his sexual history to
a nurse. These Turtles are middle-aged
by this point, after all”.)
