Publication date: June 15, 2016
Story: Ben Bates & Dustin Weaver
Script: Dustin Weaver
Art: Ben Bates (pgs. 1-3), Damien Couceiro (pgs. 4-20)
Colors: Bill Crabtree
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Publisher: Ted Adams
Summary:
Rio. Michelangelo asks Renet to explain what all those sets
of Bebop and Rocksteadies were doing together and why they aren’t in the same
dimension as Savanti Romero even though they’re in the same time. Renet tells them that they’ve created a T.T
Alter-Stream, a very rare alternate timeline.
Donatello then explains in 21st century lingo that before
they could return to the present from the Cretaceous era, Bebop and Rocksteady
traveled to an earlier point and messed up the time stream. As a result, Savanti (who was ahead of them)
returned to the original timeline, but they’re stuck in a slightly alternate
one (Savanti, meanwhile, prepares to recruit Bebop and Rocksteady as his minions).
The only way to fix things is to
get to Bebop and Rocksteady at the earlier point they returned to, which
happens to be 2012… at a place called Stockgen.
2012, Stockgen.
SWAT teams surround the building as Bebop and Rocksteady and their human
selves slaughter scientists (Baxter Stockman among them) in search of
mutagen. April, Lindsey and Chet attempt
to sneak out with the turtle specimens, only to encounter the TMNT and Renet,
who have just arrived through a portal.
The Turtles and the bad guys get into a fight and Chet is
damaged in the chaos, revealing his identity as the Fugitoid. Renet charges April with escaping with the
turtle specimens and Anchovy (the baby raptor).
Bebop and Rocksteady order their human selves to keep the Turtles busy
while they find the mutagen.
They find some in a storage room, but as soon as they do,
another portal opens up and out pops another cruiser loaded with a mutant Bebop
and Rocksteady and a human Bebop and Rocksteady (who think they’re in
Vegas). They crash into some containment
pods, releasing Slash, a mutant bat (Wingnut), a mutant mosquito (Screwloose),
a mutant cockroach (Scumbug), a mutant
seahorse (Soakorr) and a mutant angler fish (Angleron).
And then the fight REALLY gets out of control. A portal opens and an army of Rock Soldiers
charge in, determined to salvage the ooze for General Krang. Just then, the SWAT guys decide to make their
move and charge into the building. Pepperoni
also arrives through the time slip she was lost in and Raphael is happily
reunited with her. Unfortunately, in all
the chaos, the mutagen canisters spill all over various SWAT guys, Rock
Soldiers and even April, mutating them into hideous freaks rather than cool
animals.
Angered by all the crowding, Bebop and Rocksteady use their
time scepters (they now have two thanks to their set of alternate timeline
duplicates) to open several portals.
They begin shoving everyone into the portals, including the scientist
who was working on the sea mutants, April and Fugitoid.
Eventually, they pile into the cruiser with their human selves and
decide to cut and run, escaping into another portal (stepping on and killing
Splinter, still a rat, in their haste).
Renet is mortified.
Everything is too messed up for her to even begin fixing. With no alternative, she opens a portal and
takes the Turtles to the one place where she might be able to set the time
stream right: The 79th Dimension.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything! #2. The
story continues in TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Destroy Everything! #4.
*April took care of the turtle specimens and named them
in TMNT (IDW) #1.
*Chet was revealed to be the Fugitoid in TMNT Micro-Series #8: Fugitoid.
*Slash was released from his containment pod (though the
other pods remained undisturbed) in TMNT Micro-Series #7: April.
*You all certainly know who Wingnut, Screwloose and
Scumbug are.
Soakorr and Angleron, however, are super fucking obscure, existing only
as concept art for a Mighty Mutanimals cartoon that was never produced.
*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers:
Regular Cover by Nick Pitarra and Michael Garland, and Subscription Cover by
Couceiro.
Review:
Man, I’m loving the insanity of this whole
miniseries. I know I’ve said that
before, but it bears repeating.
The irreverent attitude is probably the best part. I mean, it’s not like we, as the jaded
readership, don’t already KNOW that things will eventually be restored to the
status quo by mini’s end. What, Bebop
and Rocksteady are just going to eliminate the time stream as we know it and
IDW will be forced to cancel all their TMNT titles as a consequence? C’mon.
And because of that, this mini has the freedom to go
balls to the wall and just do whatever the fuck it wants to do. Maybe everything will be reset at the end and
maybe some events will have consequences, but we’re getting to have a metric
ton of fun along the way.
The irreverent attitude I mentioned crops up not just in
the spontaneous weirdness of the action, but in how all the characters are
behaving. I might have failed to mention
it thus far, but the series has had these little moments where it’s revealed
that Donatello is the host, explaining plot points and talking directly to the
audience. It breaks the Fourth Wall,
something IDW’s Turtle books don’t ever do, but in the case of this miniseries
it feels appropriate.
Ben Bates gets really cartoony with his opening 3 pages, squashing and stretching it up with his character expressions. It might not be a good fit in other IDW TMNT
stories (he didn’t utilize them to this extent during his stints on the ongoing
or other minis), but again, it feels appropriate here. This comic is just plain SILLY so get as
cartoony as you please.
Damien Couceiro takes over for the rest of the issue
after that and he nails all the chaos of the story. Two sets of Bebop and Rocksteadies arguing
and fighting amongst each other, then FOUR sets of them, a ton of mutants,
Rock Soldiers, SWAT guys, the Turtles, Renet, scientists, baby dinosaurs… It’s
hectic and it’s goofy and he doesn’t disappoint.
With so much action going on, his panels are packed, but
packed with stuff to look for. There’s
something spectacular about Bebop attaching his chainsaw to a chain and then
swinging it around in circles over his head.
And Weaver finds all sorts of ways in his script to
maintain that balance of “terrible monsters who mercilessly murder people” with “aw,
I can’t stay mad at YOU” characterization that defines Bebop and
Rocksteady. Little things like their
referring to shuriken as “knife stars” or Wingnut as "a Dracula" (not "Dracula", but "A Dracula").
It’s right on the money.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t know how much of this
miniseries is going to “count” when it finally concludes. Will Wingnut and the others still exist in
IDW continuity or will things be reset and they’ll be returned to their
containment pods (where they were presumably killed before when Hob blew up
Stockgen)? That scientist who created
the sea mutants and got thrown into a portal with them, he isn’t named but I
dunno. Maybe he’s Ray Fillet, who has
already been appearing in Mutanimals-related stories in the ongoing and
minis? Beats me.
Also, Angleron and Soakorr?
I’m honestly not sure if you can get more obscure than that.
I’m honestly not sure if you can get more obscure than that.