Rise of the TMNT (Halloween Comicfest 2018)

By Mark Rodriguez

So the first episode of the show kinda gave me an idea of what to expect from this hyper fast paced action shows about the Turtles using magical weapons against all-new enemies. This comic was my main objective for this year's Halloween Comicfest, but I was surprised it was a smaller book than the regular sized comic book. Oh well, let's take a look.

The story starts with Raph and Leo balancing themselves on Mikey as he rides his skateboard and April holding on as Don flies using his Quadcopter attached to his high-tech shell down the nightly streets of New York. They're chasing the mutant former celebrity chef, Meat Sweats, as he had just stolen a food truck from April's boss to use as his new kitchen (and also stolen a pizza that April just made for the guys). Don hands Raph some of his homemade ninja magnets. Raph leaps off of Mikey's shoulders and crashed against the back of the truck.

How in the shell is Mikey able to support both Leo and RAPH on his shoulders?!

Don told Raph that he has to power up the magnets first, so Raph struggles to hold onto the back of the truck. Raph is still able to hang on and get into the truck and locate the pizza. Meat Sweats smacks him across the inside of the truck, and Raph decides to dive out while holding onto the pizza. Raph grabs onto Don's tech-bo and asks him to fly him back onto the truck to take care of Meat Sweats but Leo and Mikey have their own plan B.

Mikey tosses his Kusari-Fundo at the truck's steering wheel while Leo drove his Odachi sword into the ground to keep them still. The truck swerves so fast it sends Meat Sweats flying out of it and into the alley. The truck spins around Mikey and Leo and April tells them to please not break her boss's truck. The Turtles and April are glad to get the pizza back.

Meat Sweats gets up and it ready to beat up the Turtles, leaping up with his Tenderizer Hammer. Raph blocks the attack with one of his tonfas. The gang all attack Meat Sweats and Raph says he has an idea. He tells Don to do 'that thing with the Tech-Bo' and Don coverts it into a mallet. Don slams his Techo-Bo mallet onto the mutant pig's butt and Mikey wraps his Kusari-Fundo around him and swings him into Leo's magic portal created by his sword. As Meat Sweats would bounce back and forth through the magic portals ala Halo, April would smash him with a giant grill spatula, and Raph would punch him in the face.

Raph would uppercut Meat Sweats and send him flying. As he lands the Turtles and April gang up on him with their magic weapons. The Turtles and April eat their pizza and she thanks the gang for saving her boss's truck as well as her job. The Turtles are also glad to see they're getting the hang of their new mystic weapons.

My Opinions

Well, this was a pretty short and simple story, and I don't know how they did it but it somehow captured the insane and manic energy of the actual show. Maybe too manic since I had to check the panels a few times to know what the heck was going on, especially the part of Mikey making the truck swerve around. Similarly, I've heard the show has a lot of 'blink and you miss it' super fast action and animation.

There's not too much to say about the story since it was a simple story. You get a bit of the Turtles' personalities and the comic includes mini bios for them. Everyone also got a chance to show off their new weapons so new readers can get into the new stuff in this show when compared to other versions of the Turtles.

Also I have to scratch my head at how in the hell Mikey can support the weight of the giant sized Raph on his shoulders, as well as Leo. And then Don able to hold onto his Tech-Bo while Raph was hanging off it while in mid-air. Cartoon physics for the win. What else can I say except, hey, it was free.