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Batman/TMNT # 5

By Mark Rodriguez

After Batman tells Raph his backstory that shows that he isn't just some rich guy running around in a costume for thrills, the Turtles and Batman are all on the same page. The Turtles and Splinter need to return to their own world ASAP before they de-mutate back into normal animals since mutagen doesn't exist in the DC Universe. Shredder and Rah's Al Ghul have teamed up and destroyed the portal machine. Casey Jones comes with more mutagen for the Turtles, but he gets hijacked by the bad guys. Now Shredder and Rah's Al Ghul head towards Arkham, ready to use the mutagen on the inmates. Now what will happen?


Gordon is at his limit with everything that is going on, and Batman arrives with the Leo and Raph. Seeing giant talking turtles makes Gordon wish for retirement, but he tells them that the Foot have taken over Arkham. Penguin steps in and explains that the Shredder wants to build an army that will burn Gotham to the ground. Shredder has taken all of Penguin's resources as his own. Leo asks why they should listen to him, and Penguin says Shredder is going too far. He also tells Batman that Shredder has now allied himself with Rah's Al Ghul.

Casey hangs with Don and Mikey as they play videogames in the Batcave. Casey says they need to gather the gang since Harold told him what's happen to them. Just then Damian arrives and demands to know what they're doing in the Batcave. Casey brushes him off since he's a kid, but Damian quickly flips him to the ground.

As you'd expect, Damian is a whirlwind and gives Mike and Donnie a run for their money. He is distracted to see that the Turtles have hooked up his 'QBox' into the Batcomputer and asks why thieves would be playing videogames. Casey tells him that they're not thieves and they're with Batman. Batman arrives telling Damian to stand down as he carries an unconscious Leo, with a worried Raph running behind them.


Casey says Leo is going into shock since the Mutagen is reverting. Soon his mind will start to go too. Casey has a portable device that can take them home but it will only work this one time and won't be able to be used again until several weeks, which by the then it would be too late for the Turtles. Leo says they have to stay and stop the Shredder. Casey says they can leave Shredder behind and focus on stopping Krang back home. Batman says he and Robin have faced worse and can handle the Shredder. Damian wants to speak to Batman alone but he says it can wait. Damian says that he noticed the League of Assassins gathering in Gotham.

Splinter warns that Batman might have foreseen Rah's doublecrossing Shredder to reap the benefits of his conquest, but he forgets that Shredder will also doublecross him and go to any lengths to win. Alfred tells Batman that now is a good time to show off the Intimadator Suit he was working on. The Turtles leave everything to Batman and Robin, and Mikey hugs the Dark Knight goodbye. Robin asks about the car and Batman says they're not taking the car.

Batman and Robin arrive at Arkham by Batplane and skydive off it. As they arrive Robin apologizes for not stopping the League, but Bats says that giving him the info in time was well done. Robin says the anniversary of Batman's parents' death is coming soon and he meant to be home for that. As they arrive in Arkham they see the Penguin has been mutated into a literal penguin by Shredder as punishment for spilling the beans on his plan. Penguin tells them that Shredder sees the Arkham inmates have been tearing down the city countless time, now they will push it to the limits.The rouges gallery appears, all of them mutants now, and all of them are ready to take down Batman and Robin!



My opinions

This was mostly set up for the grand finale. Leo is already the first to succumb to the effects of the Mutagen in his body and the others are soon to follow. I know stories usually do this to one character as an example of what will happen... but why isn't this affecting the other Turtles and Splinter too? Didn't they all enter Gotham at the same time, so wouldn't this also affect them all at the same time? I wonder how much time they have left. Although I know it looks like the Turtles are leaving pretty much everything up to Batman and Robin, I kinda of doubt they'll sit out the last issue of their crossover. I wonder what they'll do.

I'm glad to see Damian in this. He's an annoying arrogant little prick, but the character is just so much fun. I know people might be pissed to see him take down Mikey and Raph, but the kid really is THAT good. I'm also glad that the crossover does remember that Batman does have quite a bit of sidekick helpers. I doubt we're gonna see Nightwing and Batgirl, but at least Damian is a must since you know... he lives there and everything. As we saw, the animated re-telling of this story will be adding Batgirl into this.



One more issue left to go. Let's see what happens!


One last thing I'd like to add is that I actually managed to ask Peter Laird himself about the deal with the Mutagen being active in the Turtles' bloodstream when I feel it should have already been out of their system since they've already mutated and aren't going to change any further. When you really think about it... it's not like the Turtles were injected with the stuff, they were doused in it. I mean, what exactly was Casey going to do had Shredder not taken the Mutagen from him? Inject it into the Turtles' arms? Feed it to them?

I know Peter Laird didn't have a hand in this crossover but this concepts have appeared several times in the Mirage series. Anyways, here's what he said.

Mark Rodriguez- 


I hope it's not too late to answer this one since this came up in the recent Batman crossover, and it has been seen in the Mirage comics.
How is it that the ooze is still somehow in the Turtles' bloodstream and still able to affect them like the vampires did to Raph in Vol 4 and Bloodsucker somehow sucking the ooze out of Raph in Vol 1 (it seems this affects Raph the most). I always figured the ooze mutated the Turtles and that was it. I mean, they stayed the same and didn't continue to mutate any further. I figured the ooze would eventually be out of their system just like drugs will eventually leave the system of someone who gave them up. I just wonder what your thoughts on this are and how that works.
Peter Laird-

Although I have never given it a lot of consideration, I have often thought that the "ooze" which transformed the Turtles into their mutated forms was still present within their bodies, albeit inactive (at least until needed for story purposes!). -- PL

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