Originally published in: TMNT Magazine (Panini) #22.
Publication date: December 11, 2014 – January 7, 2015
Script: Erik Burnham
Art: Bob Molesworth
Colours: Jason Cardy & Kat Nicholson
Colour assist: James Stayte
Letters: Alex Foot
“Whodunit”
Summary:
After falling asleep eating pizza and reading Bill Anvil
– Private Eye comics, Mikey wakes up to a horrible sight: His last slice of
pizza is missing! Grabbing a trench
coat, fedora and magnifying glass, Michelangelo becomes Mike Angel – Private
Eye!
First, he interrogates Raphael, searching his body for
crumbs. This annoys Raph, who threatens
to knock him senseless if he doesn’t quit it.
Mikey comes to the conclusion that he’s clean.
Next, he puts a lamp to Donatello’s face and grills him
for answers. Donnie tells him to stop
interrupting him, as he’s working on a project.
Realizing that whenever Donnie works on a project he loses focus on
everything else, meaning he couldn’t have stolen the pizza, Mikey moves on.
Finally, he decides to get tough. He threatens bodily harm to Leonardo’s
collectible Robo Mecha Force Five Captain Dash action figure if he doesn’t spill the beans. Leo freaks and Mikey comes to the conclusion
that he’s telling the truth.
At last, Mikey calls the whole family into the living
room to tell them he’s cracked the case.
Through process of elimination, he has determined that SPLINTER stole
the pizza! Master Splinter has a better idea and tells Mikey to inspect his
back. Mikey finds the slice stuck to his
shell, having rolled over on it in his sleep.
Much to the disgust of his brothers, Mikey eats the revolting thing.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from “Competitive Edge”. The story continues in TMNT Magazine (Panini) #23.
Review:
Sort of a corny script, but I kinda like these silly
detective noir parodies. It’s been done
to death, but the situation can be pretty fun.
“The Maltese Hamster” was one of David Wise’s best episodes of the Fred
Wolf cartoon, after all.
Burnham paces the story out well and it actually fits the
short-strip length perfectly; it doesn’t feel lacking for want of page
space. I think if I liked any element
the best, it’s that Burnham remembered that Nickelodeon Leo is supposed to be a
huge dork who likes sci-fi cartoons. The
actual Nickelodeon series has pretty much forgotten about that element of
characterization in favor of the typical dull-as-dishwater Leonardo, so it’s
nice that the comic writers are keeping it alive.
Other than that… Yeah.
Pretty good.
Grade: C (as in, “Come to think of it, detective noir
parodies are sort of a TMNT cliché at this point, what with ‘Casey Jones – Private Eye’, ‘The Unmentionables’ and the aforementioned ‘Maltese Hamster’
just to name a few…”)
