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TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures (Mini-Series) #3

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Walt

tmnt_adventures_revisited

tmntadventuresmini003Heroes in a Half-Shell!

Written and Pencilled by: Michael Dooney
Adapted from the Scripts by: David Wise and Patti Howeth
Inked by: Dave Garcia
Lettered by: Steve Lavigne
Color by: Barry Grossman
Cover by: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Lavigne
Published by: Mirage/Archie
Cover Price: $1.00
Cover Date: December 1988

This issue picks up with the rock soldiers interacting with Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady. Krang freaks out upon learning Neutrinos are loose on Earth. Meanwhile, the turtles have just about found the technodrome when they’re buzzed by flying cars and opt to chase these instead. The rock soldiers show up and rather than put up a fight, launch a weather-making device (which our heroes promptly ignore), and everyone meets back in the technodrome (where Donatello instantly figures out the alien controls, opens the portal, and the rock soldiers are thrown back through to Dimension X and the Neutrinos voluntarily follow, to continue the fight against Krang (but without ever dealing with Krang in the technodrome). Shredder and his forces leave rather than confront the turtles here in the heart of the technodrome, and the turtles simply leave rather than even trying to find and deal with Shredder or Krang.

The next day, the Shredder re-baits the turtles, who wind up fighting Bebop and Rocksteady again. The turtles and Splinter split up to deal with different facets of the current threat. Krang gets put into the stomach of an android body and electrocuted (er…the body is activated). Shredder then sends Foot robots after the turtles as a diversion until Krang wakes. After having the turtles on the run while growing to a gigantic size, Krang simply turns and punches his way to the surface so the turtles can follow him, rather than dealing with them where they were. Donatello shows up with a blimp he’s been working on, and turns it loose with the others while he and Leo enter the android body to shrink it down. Krang calls Shredder for help, Shredder abandons his imminent victory over Splinter and shows up to point his retromutagen ray at the turtles, Splinter shows up as well and destroys it, then the story shifts back to the technodrome where the Donatello finishes some complicated thing with the portal, and everyone gets out as the whole thing is sucked into Dimension X. We see Shredder and Krang bicker, the turtles chill at home…and the story (mercifully) concludes.

Much as with the previous issue, this is ultra-compressed with an extremely fast-pace and abbreviated scenes such that the characters–from simply reading this–seem interchangeable and inconsequential. As noted also with the previous issue, this is not so much a fault of the writing of the comic as it is a shared problem between the writing of the episodes this issue is based on and trying to cram the contents of more than one episode into a single issue.

The art continues to be good–it’s a welcome visual style that as I’ve said before, holds its own without mimicking the art of the animated series. Yet, the characters are all recognizeable and nothing’s so far off as to seem otherwise (except the coloring can be kinda iffy…especially on a comic that’s got slightly yellowed pages and carries a cover date from nearly 26 years ago).

The cover would make for a decent poster, and the image alone promises something a lot more dramatic than what I read inside.

While in recent years I’ve found the “classic” TMNT animated series rather hokey and have been rather put-off by it, revisiting this miniseries and the episodes themselves has admittedly made me rather nostalgic, and rekindled my interest in the old series. I may not binge-watch the entire thing or even finish tracking down all the seasons…but I’ve been reminded of how much my younger self loved this stuff, and failed to notice the level of hokiness my present-day adult self sees.

From looking at this simply as a comic series, it’s nothing special for the content by itself. What makes this special is that it’s a color series starring the turtles, designed and aimed at the audience of the 1980s cartoon, and is a #1 issue I can actually afford (and have a duplicate or two somewhere, too).

Though I missed this mini-series when it was originally published, it was still something I was able to track down relatively easily a number of years ago, far moreso than ever the original Mirage #1, which I content myself to this day with reprint editions of that.

I can’t imagine something like this mini-series–or this issue–being published today; but it’s certainly a product of its time, and quite worthwhile to get as a fan of the TMNT in general, and the Archie-published stuff in particular.

Filed under: 2016 posts, 2016 Reviews, The '90s Revisited, TMNT Adventures Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures (Mini-Series) #2

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Walt

tmnt_adventures_revisited

tmntadventuresmini002Heroes in a Half-Shell!

Written and Pencilled by: Michael Dooney
Adapted from the Scripts by: David Wise and Patti Howeth
Inked by: Dave Garcia
Lettered by: Steve Lavigne
Color by: Barry Grossman
Cover by: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Lavigne
Published by: Mirage/Archie
Cover Price: $1.00
Cover Date: October 1988

As noted in my post about the first issue, this mini is based on the first 5-episode mini-series/season of the animated TMNT cartoon. However, where that was 5 episodes, the comics adaptation is a mere 3 issues…leading to a couple weird issue-breaks that do not match up with the episode-breaks in the cartoon.

This issue picks up with the turtles facing some random/weird robots. After dispatching these, they deal with another deathtrap, and then find Splinter…and meet Bebop and Rocksteady. Escaping to the surface, the turtles are followed, but quickly trap Bebop and Rocksteady, and that’s that.

Continuing on, Shredder has a new scheme, and coopts bumbling scientist Baxter Stockman’s “mouser” invention. He sends some after Splinter, but the turtles rescue their master with no problem. However, Shredder’s built hundreds more and they do prove to be a problem. Michelangelo “volunteers” to infiltrate the mansion Shredder’s commandeered, but is captured the the villain…though set free behind his back by Krang. The Mousers are stopped, no one’s dead, and again, that seems to be that. Shredder still won’t give Krang a body, and initiates yet another scheme: opening a portal to Dimension X he lets a flying car into the Technodrome (which promptly blasts a hole and skidaddles), followed by a flying tank of sorts with rock soldiers…and that’s the end of the issue.

The art for this issue is consistent with the first…much of my thinking on the first issue applies here as well (cool to see the Mirage team on the issue, etc). While the visuals are stylistically their own thing, they are clearly based on the cartoon and fit well without seeming particularly “off.” Essentially they’re simply comic versions structurally, but based on the cartoon elements.

The story is where most of my problems lie…particularly where the cartoon itself seems choppy and just runs from points ‘A’ to ‘B’ to ‘C’ and following that so closely, the comic seems super-compressed, well beyond any preference I’d have to avoid “decompression.”

And therein I find the issue–it’s not so much the writing of this comic that’s the problem as much as it’s the source material. I’m consciously aware that this issue’s story is itself based on another story, and the writing keeps faithfully TO said source material. The faults come from the ludicrous, goofy, weird stuff that (in remaining faithful) had to be translated into this adaptation.

While the first episode of the cartoon–and therefore, the bulk of the first issue–was charming enough in its own way (and gave a roughly whole story without tying up plotlines and such), this is the middle chunk of the overall 5-episode arc and middle of this particular 3-issue series. Sadly, it’s really choppy and all over the place, and the only real fondness I find in it is the art as mentioned, and its “place” as an artifact of history.

Taken by itself, I had to force myself through the issue, and force myself not to just quickly eyeball the pages and move on.

Filed under: 2016 posts, 2016 Reviews, The '90s Revisited, TMNT Adventures Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures (Mini-Series) #1

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Walt

tmnt_adventures_revisited

tmntadventuresmini001Heroes in a Half-Shell!

Written and Pencilled by: Michael Dooney
Adapted from the Scripts by: David Wise and Patti Howeth
Inked by: Dave Garcia
Lettered by: Steve Lavigne
Color by: Barry Grossman
Cover by: Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird
Published by: Mirage/Archie
Cover Price: $1.00
Cover Date: August 1988

It’s rather interesting to consider that this was–I  believe–the first color TMNT comic. Sure, First Publishing had colored the original black and white issues, but this issue began as a color production rather than the color being a conversion. And where the original Mirage TMNT comics were certainly of a more mature nature for violence and language, this is based on the animated series that was aimed fairly squarely at kids.

Reading back through the issue, it has–for this fan of 26+ years–a lot of familiarity, both from the cartoon as well as the visual style of the art. Which ultimately makes sense, given Dooney‘s involvement with the Mirage stuff in particular. The character designs are obviously those of the cartoon, though.

Being such an old comic–at least a quarter-century–it’s immediately clear some differences from modern comics physically; and my copy in particular isn’t a particularly clean copy…it definitely is a bit yellowed from age and all that, as the paper is classic newsprint, one can see the dots to the coloring, and so on.

As a whole, the art’s not bad in and of itself, though the style is a bit “interesting” having gotten used to more “modern” renditions of these characters. I rather like the realization that even though this was published by Archie, it was created by the Mirage folks…thus lending a certain authenticity to this as a Ninja Turtles thing, rather than just being some thrown-together adaptation of a kids’ cartoon.

Story-wise, this suffers the same as the cartoon itself does in my mind…overly-simplistic and full of glaring plot-holes and such, requiring a lot more suspension of disbelief than most comics I’m used to. There’s also something rather wonky about the pacing, with this first issue covering maybe an episode and a half of the cartoon, rather than just one episode. In that way it’s a rather “compressed” storytelling that (especially looking at it now) really needs a lot more room to breathe. And as a comic, it misses so much potential in terms of “enhancing” the cartoon with narration or thought balloons or such that just wouldn’t fit the cartoon but would a comic.

Other than some abbreviated dialogue and missing the show’s music, this is absolutely a straight up adaptation and it doesn’t begin to even try to be anything else–different or additional. In and of itself, unfortunately, I can say with honesty I find this issue rather hokey, choppy, and other than the art “working” it’s nothing particularly stand-out or impressive to me.

At the same time, this goes back to the very beginning of the TMNT in tv and “popular” comics, so it has a huge bit of historical significance and is in itself quite the “artifact” of its time. This is the first issue of 3, a mini-series, which adapts the entire first “season” or 5-episode mini-series of the TMNT cartoon. At a time when home media (VHS) was still relatively rare (especially compared to our contemporary age of everything being on DVD and so readily available to purchase and watch whenever we want) this was the closest I personally would get to “owning” the episodes to consume whenever I chose. Back in the late-’80s/early-’90s, though, I’d acquired a rather thick comic that came with an audiocassette, which actually collected all 3 issues into a singular volume…but was not itself a bookshelf volume or graphic novel…it was more an 80-page Giant or such.

Publish this as-is today and I’d be rather disappointed. But looking at it as a singular piece, and in context of its time, it’s not bad, and makes for a fairly interesting sort of read.

Filed under: 2016 posts, 2016 Reviews, The '90s Revisited, TMNT Adventures Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Fourth Fifty: IDW’s TMNT

Posted on October 13, 2015 by Walt

four_fifties_banner

I remember picking up the Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 back in the summer of 1992. I didn’t fully “get” the issue, but it was a significant milestone in an age of round numbers (25/50/75/etc), anniversary issues and all that. It was apparently the first full collaboration between Eastman and Laird on an issue of the series in quite some time, plus it kicked off the City at War storyline, which to this day holds plenty of significance to the TMNT mythology 23 years later. In retrospect, the issue came out “only” 8 years into the turtles’ existence…basically in the first quarter of the entire time they’ve been around.

Only the year following, the 50th issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures from Archie hit, concluding a 3-part Black Hole Trilogy that picked up/integrated the alien Sarnath and “canonized” the 2-part The Incredible Shrinking Turtles story from issues 3-4. The issue included a pull-out poster, and gold ink on the cover, lending it a bit of a special look compared to other covers of the series.

In 2008, the second volume of Mirage‘s Tales of the TMNT reached its 50th issue, which was again a pretty significant milestone…all the more for me, personally–it was the first series that I ever followed uninterrupted from the very first issue TO its 50th (and/or beyond).

Now, in 2015, we have the 50th issue of IDW‘s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, another that I have followed uninterrupted from its very first issue to this 50th, and have every intention of continuing as far beyond as they’re willing to go without renumbering.

tmnt_four_fifties

Filed under: 2015 Non-Review posts, 2015 posts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures Reprints, part 1

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Walt

tmntadventures_thereprints_02

Full Post at TMNT Revisited

TMNT Adventures: The Reprints, part 2

Filed under: The '90s Revisited, TMNT Adventures Revisited | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures #4

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Walt
tmntadventures004

Full Post at TMNT Revisited

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #4

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TMNT Revisited: TMNT Adventures #3

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Walt

tmntadventures003

Full Post at TMNT Revisited

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #3

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TMNT at 30

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Walt

While it’s just as likely that I’ve simply MISSED any such stuff already out there, it’s occurred to me that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Of course, half a decade ago at the 25th anniversary it was a huge deal for Mirage. Now just a handful of years into Viacom/Nickleodeon‘s tenure as the owners of the property, it may not seem a huge deal.

But to this fan of 25+ years…it is!tmntat30_02

I recall the 30th anniversary stuff for Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, etc. 35th Anniversary stuff, 40th, etc… but while those are significant milestones for THOSE characters…

The TMNT are a property created AFTER I was born. That I actually CAN reasonably fill in every last gap of the official comics and such, to have the entirety of the run (maybe not FIRST PRINTS, but I’m not concerned about which printing if I have the issue).

tmntat30_01

So, while I’ve had plans in the past to do more specific TMNT coverage in this blog, I’d like to think I’ll get into the swing of things with more this year, outside of spotting TMNT Toys in the WIld (Squirrelanoids, Kirby Bat and Casey Joines, etc) and get to more coverage of the various comics and such…and my own “history” with the characters through the years.

As always, time will tell.

Filed under: 2014, NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Tales of the TMNT #69 [Review]

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Walt

Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Dark Shadows

Shadow seeks out her old sensei as her world falls apart around her.

talesofthetmnt069Script/Art: Dan Berger
Letters: Eric Talbot
Frontiespiece: Michael Dooney
Cover: Dan Berger and Steve Lavigne
Published by: Mirage PUblishing

Continuing the usual format of the book–with stories from all different points in the TMNT timeline–this story picks up sometime in the future. Shadow, now a young adult, fights her way through the Foot to confront her Sensei. Upon reaching him, the two exchange bitter words as hints abound as to some major stuff having gone down, leading this girl and a mutant turtle to the point they find themselves at in this issue.

In many ways, the story is quite cliche. We have an enormous global disaster that leads to the in-story “present” being a sparsely populated wasteland with the Big City nearly deserted, and what remains of destroyed/fallen-apart buildings is covered in plants, with survivors operating on a fairly gang-like means of living…survival of the fit.

We’re given vague glimpses at things–cryptic comments and hints at what’s gone down during the time between this issue and the last chronicled point in the Turtles’ timeline; the family falling apart and what drove them–and kept them–apart.

The art itself seems both familiar and yet slightly “off”–as a story that seems pretty core to the TMNT mythos, I’m used to seeing Jim Lawson‘s depiction of characters here. Berger provides visuals that are not entirely dissimilar to Lawson‘s, and more than holds its own in establishing a tone for the story and getting across what’s going on. He gives us a rather brutal panel toward the end, that seems to indicate that a certain disfigurement is practically a “given” for a particular turtle, as I’m pretty sure this is the third time (across the various comic continuities/universes) this has been a point the character’s wound up.

Shadow is pretty much the youngest of the extended TMNT cast. She was introduced in the final story of the original TMNT series, and has been a firm fixture ever since–on a level very similar to her father Casey and characters like April or Splinter. Seeing her as an adult lends to the fact of much time having passed, and experiencing the world through her eyes–glancing back to events that have unfolded particularly in the main “Volume 4” TMNT series–makes her “present” that much more real and believable in this story.

This is only the penultimate issue–there’s one more to go–of this series. But the way this issue unfolded, we get a sense of history for the characters; a sense of destination for where they’re going to wind up, and yet there’s also a sense of hope, that the future is ever-changing with every choice we make.

The initial read-through is quick, particularly with the action sequences…but sitting back and thinking about what was going on…this is very much an issue for the long-time fans, and particularly those willing to consider deeper stuff between the lines and not simply taking the story at its surface/face-value.

Not exactly a timeless classic or other “instant classic,” nevertheless, this issue would serve as a fine cap to the entire Mirage continuity even if there were no more issues due out.

Ratings:

Story: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

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Tales of the TMNT #67 [Review]

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Walt

Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Schooled

Shadow starts at a new school, and must resist the urge to tell everybody about her mutant “uncles.”

talesofthetmnt067Script: Dan Berger
Pencils and Tones: Dario Brizuela
Inks: Andres Ponce
Letters: Eric Talbot
Cover: Dario Brizuela and Steve Lavigne
Frontispiece: Michael Dooney
Published by: Mirage Publishing

Unfortunately, this series has what I can only describe as a “lame duck” feeling about it. There are just a couple more issues due out before the series goes away completely. And being the sole presence of the TMNT in comics for the last few years, there are no other books for these characters to show up in, or co-feature in, and so on. With the property having been sold off, and zero word on any new comic series and whether any of the existing/ongoing continuity would be maintained or if the entire property would be restarted if comics are done…it makes the long-term effect of this issue seem pretty low-key and like it has little point to it. Of course, taken by itself, this is quite an enjoyable story.

This issue sees Shadow–the adopted daughter of Casey Jones and April–getting into a new school, and everyone dealing with that. At the same time, Mikey and Don are out and about on the streets, keeping each other focused as to what’s right and wrong. When Shadow’s first day at school arrives, her family is excited and proud, though they warn her of the danger that would come by her talking about her “uncles” and whatnot…which of course leads to trouble. Still, the resolution is mostly satisfying…at least in keeping with the nature of Casey in particular.

I’ve realized throughout this series that despite the differences in the various visual styles of the artists involved, each largely has something to really like. For example, this issue reminds me of the recent TMNT animated series–particularly Casey’s appearance. The turtles themselves look quite different in detail but still seem like they’d fit in rather well with the animated series’ visual style. My only real gripe is that I don’t think I’ve ever pictured Shadow as a blonde–and I don’t know if that’s me simply never noticing, or what the deal is–but other than that, the art’s good stuff.

As with many issues of this series, this is a done-in-one tale, so you don’t really need earlier issues to follow the story (though they’ll add plenty of context). You can pick this up by itself and enjoy it as a one-shot thing, or as another untold tale from this period in the Turtles’ lives.

It’s just unfortunate that this doesn’t seem like just the latest untold tale to add context to a present-day story…nothing’s really going to come of this or refer back to this.

Recommended for TMNT fans in particular…and whether this issue or most of the prior issues, this series in itself is well worth reading, and its lengthy run these past 6 years is second only to the TMNT Adventures series from Archie back in the 1990s.

Ratings:

Story: 3.5/5
Art: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5

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