By Mark Rodriguez
The Turtles have had a few crossovers in their day, like Usagi Yojimbo and the Power Rangers, but mostly they seemed to have been crossing over with other versions of themselves. Now they stepped up to the big leagues as they meet up with The Dark Knight himself. Now that there is an animated movie based on this crossover event coming soon (which may or may not be based on this comic plot), let's take a look at the comic that inspired it.
The story opens with scientists trapped in their lab, surrounded by Foot Ninja. They were working on a power generator that would be a clean energy source for years to come, but now they fear that they won't live to see it. The security guards bust in, but before they can fight, everything goes black and the scientist could only see glimpses of the Turtles come in and fight the Foot. When the lights are back on, the power generator was missing and the Turtles were staring her down, now giving them a clearer look at them. We see that the lady was relating this story to Batman. She fears that what the generator could accomplish in the wrong hands and they must be stopped. Batman says that he will.
As news reports of the robberies of the generator and other similar equipment as well as the kidnapping of a scientist, a pizza delivery boy wanders around, looking for where to set his order down. He sees money taped to a post with a note that says 'leave it on the street'. The pizza boy is confused but does so anyway, and after he leaves the Turtles reach out from under the sewers to get it.
In the Batcave, Batman ponders that these mystery men, as well as the four inhuman fighters were ninjas, and not working for Rahs Al Ghul. They're only stolen machinery but not weapons, so he must be building something. Alfred notes that they are one week away from the anniversary of the murder of Bruce's parents and every year around this time, Batman works on some sort of project that he calls the Intimidator Suit. Damian is on a mission abroad and Batman decides to take this mission on solo. A possible target is Wayne's own R&B Department, and he tells Alfred to call off security.
In the sewers, Killer Croc and his men have a device that can track the Batmobile. They know he'd be headed towards the Wayne Enterprises R&B Facility, and plan to strip the Batmobile for parts once the Dark Knight leaves it parked and heads off the fight crime. His men hope this is a good idea since they left a good deal with the Penguin for this caper.
Croc and his men wander into what appears to be the Turtles Lair, confused by the living arrangements. Croc calls out to the 'teens who live there' wanting to kill them in case they heard their plans and go to the police. Croc grabs one of the Turtles' videogames and crushes it to bits in his hand. Mikey is upset but Leo keeps him quiet as the Turtles hide from view.
At the R&B Facility, the Foot Ninja sneak in as the scientists continue to work, unaware of their presence. The ninja try to kill the scientists but their attacks go right through them, proving to be only holograms. Batman appears and asks what the ninja would want with an experimental signal amplifier. It sees to be the only thing they're after since any other equipment in the lab was already at the previous labs they've hit and they left it untouched. Batman wants answers.
The Turtles sneak up on Croc's men and take them down without being seen. One of them asks what they are and Mikey jokes that they're aliens. Donnie takes the term literally and says they're technically not aliens, but they're not from this world either. He also mentions that back where they're from Gotham is basically a big field in the middle of some state. Raph reminds him to focus on Killer Croc. As the Turtles jump into battle, Mikey declares that this is for the videogame he broke earlier.
Batman has defeated the Foot Ninja and is holding one up by the neck, demanding answers. The Foot says they're only trying to get home. Batman asks about the metahumans helping them. The Foot Ninja starts to say that the Turtles are their enemy when he is killed by a shuriken. Batman faces Shredder who tells him that their secrets will remain their own. Shredder says his city will be safe as long as he leaves them be, but if he crosses them, he and his city will burn. Shredder vanishes with a smoke bomb and Batman is left thinking about the Turtles that the Foot Ninja mentioned.
Raph is upset that they need to find a new lair now and that they lost track of the Foot. He wants to get back home and is worried about Casey and April. Leo tries to calm him down and Raph points out that even Mikey is upset as he suffers the loss of his videogame. Splinter shows up and says they have all done well but this place is no longer safe for them. As they climb up out of the sewers, they see the Batmobile. Donnie marvels over it, Mikey points out that the car seems to already be taken, as they are now face to face with the Dark Knight himself. Batman narrows his eyes as he finds the Turtles that he heard about.
My Opinions
Wow, this is an interesting turn of events. So the Turtles and the Foot have been stuck in Gotham for quite some time, for some reason. At least long enough for the Foot to have already committed some robberies and kidnappings and the Turtles to have established their own lair. Somehow long enough for Mikey to have also started building a videogame collection. I do like that the Foot are just as eager as the Turtles to get back home and are stealing the equipment they need to do so. Most of the time in crossovers the bad guys rarely question where they are and are more than happy to start spreading evil with their new surroundings rather than wanting to go home, and the good guys have to stop them.
My only complaint were the non-fights between Batman and the Foot, and the Turtles with Croc. Much like one of the non-fights in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, both scenes start with a fight about to start, we cut away to something else, then we cut back to see that Batman has defeated the Ninjas and the Turtles have defeated Croc. Now the Foot Ninja are so-so and we've seen Batman defeat all sorts of ninja before, but skipping out the fight against Croc? Come on now. I know this was kinda rushed to 'get to the point' so the comic ends with the cliffhanger of Batman being face to face with the Turtles... but still. Come on.
Since Leatherhead was not properly introduced in the IDW series at this point of their run, there was no opportunity to have the Turtles compare him to Croc.
The scene where Mikey said 'we're aliens, brah!' makes me wonder if it was a subtle jab at the Micheal Bay Turtles since at some point in time the original script was calling for them being aliens. Plus.... I can only kinda hear BayMikey using the term 'brah', to be honest.
Now that we're getting an animated movie, I hope that we get to see the fight between the Turtles and Killer Croc that we never got to see here. I do wonder why they chose to go for the classic 90's Batman design rather than his more updated look during the New 52 era.
The Turtles have had a few crossovers in their day, like Usagi Yojimbo and the Power Rangers, but mostly they seemed to have been crossing over with other versions of themselves. Now they stepped up to the big leagues as they meet up with The Dark Knight himself. Now that there is an animated movie based on this crossover event coming soon (which may or may not be based on this comic plot), let's take a look at the comic that inspired it.
The story opens with scientists trapped in their lab, surrounded by Foot Ninja. They were working on a power generator that would be a clean energy source for years to come, but now they fear that they won't live to see it. The security guards bust in, but before they can fight, everything goes black and the scientist could only see glimpses of the Turtles come in and fight the Foot. When the lights are back on, the power generator was missing and the Turtles were staring her down, now giving them a clearer look at them. We see that the lady was relating this story to Batman. She fears that what the generator could accomplish in the wrong hands and they must be stopped. Batman says that he will.
As news reports of the robberies of the generator and other similar equipment as well as the kidnapping of a scientist, a pizza delivery boy wanders around, looking for where to set his order down. He sees money taped to a post with a note that says 'leave it on the street'. The pizza boy is confused but does so anyway, and after he leaves the Turtles reach out from under the sewers to get it.
In the Batcave, Batman ponders that these mystery men, as well as the four inhuman fighters were ninjas, and not working for Rahs Al Ghul. They're only stolen machinery but not weapons, so he must be building something. Alfred notes that they are one week away from the anniversary of the murder of Bruce's parents and every year around this time, Batman works on some sort of project that he calls the Intimidator Suit. Damian is on a mission abroad and Batman decides to take this mission on solo. A possible target is Wayne's own R&B Department, and he tells Alfred to call off security.
In the sewers, Killer Croc and his men have a device that can track the Batmobile. They know he'd be headed towards the Wayne Enterprises R&B Facility, and plan to strip the Batmobile for parts once the Dark Knight leaves it parked and heads off the fight crime. His men hope this is a good idea since they left a good deal with the Penguin for this caper.
Croc and his men wander into what appears to be the Turtles Lair, confused by the living arrangements. Croc calls out to the 'teens who live there' wanting to kill them in case they heard their plans and go to the police. Croc grabs one of the Turtles' videogames and crushes it to bits in his hand. Mikey is upset but Leo keeps him quiet as the Turtles hide from view.
At the R&B Facility, the Foot Ninja sneak in as the scientists continue to work, unaware of their presence. The ninja try to kill the scientists but their attacks go right through them, proving to be only holograms. Batman appears and asks what the ninja would want with an experimental signal amplifier. It sees to be the only thing they're after since any other equipment in the lab was already at the previous labs they've hit and they left it untouched. Batman wants answers.
The Turtles sneak up on Croc's men and take them down without being seen. One of them asks what they are and Mikey jokes that they're aliens. Donnie takes the term literally and says they're technically not aliens, but they're not from this world either. He also mentions that back where they're from Gotham is basically a big field in the middle of some state. Raph reminds him to focus on Killer Croc. As the Turtles jump into battle, Mikey declares that this is for the videogame he broke earlier.
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| An awesome fight... that we won't get to see |
Batman has defeated the Foot Ninja and is holding one up by the neck, demanding answers. The Foot says they're only trying to get home. Batman asks about the metahumans helping them. The Foot Ninja starts to say that the Turtles are their enemy when he is killed by a shuriken. Batman faces Shredder who tells him that their secrets will remain their own. Shredder says his city will be safe as long as he leaves them be, but if he crosses them, he and his city will burn. Shredder vanishes with a smoke bomb and Batman is left thinking about the Turtles that the Foot Ninja mentioned.
Raph is upset that they need to find a new lair now and that they lost track of the Foot. He wants to get back home and is worried about Casey and April. Leo tries to calm him down and Raph points out that even Mikey is upset as he suffers the loss of his videogame. Splinter shows up and says they have all done well but this place is no longer safe for them. As they climb up out of the sewers, they see the Batmobile. Donnie marvels over it, Mikey points out that the car seems to already be taken, as they are now face to face with the Dark Knight himself. Batman narrows his eyes as he finds the Turtles that he heard about.
My Opinions
Wow, this is an interesting turn of events. So the Turtles and the Foot have been stuck in Gotham for quite some time, for some reason. At least long enough for the Foot to have already committed some robberies and kidnappings and the Turtles to have established their own lair. Somehow long enough for Mikey to have also started building a videogame collection. I do like that the Foot are just as eager as the Turtles to get back home and are stealing the equipment they need to do so. Most of the time in crossovers the bad guys rarely question where they are and are more than happy to start spreading evil with their new surroundings rather than wanting to go home, and the good guys have to stop them.
My only complaint were the non-fights between Batman and the Foot, and the Turtles with Croc. Much like one of the non-fights in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, both scenes start with a fight about to start, we cut away to something else, then we cut back to see that Batman has defeated the Ninjas and the Turtles have defeated Croc. Now the Foot Ninja are so-so and we've seen Batman defeat all sorts of ninja before, but skipping out the fight against Croc? Come on now. I know this was kinda rushed to 'get to the point' so the comic ends with the cliffhanger of Batman being face to face with the Turtles... but still. Come on.
Since Leatherhead was not properly introduced in the IDW series at this point of their run, there was no opportunity to have the Turtles compare him to Croc.
The scene where Mikey said 'we're aliens, brah!' makes me wonder if it was a subtle jab at the Micheal Bay Turtles since at some point in time the original script was calling for them being aliens. Plus.... I can only kinda hear BayMikey using the term 'brah', to be honest.
Now that we're getting an animated movie, I hope that we get to see the fight between the Turtles and Killer Croc that we never got to see here. I do wonder why they chose to go for the classic 90's Batman design rather than his more updated look during the New 52 era.
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