Batman/TMNT Adventures # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

So we've seen the Ninja Turtles team up with Batman before. To date, the IDW versions of the Turtles have met which is sort of the main DC version of Batman and his Bat Family. We even got an animated special in which the Turtles met Batman and both were pretty much 'the best of' mix-and-match versions of the characters. Now we have a slightly different version of this crossover as the Nick 2012 Turtles meet up with Batman from the 90's Animated Series. Let's check it out.

The story opens with a guy running from someone. It turns out to be Mikey, asking him if he knows a place to eat since he's hungry. The guy passes out and Raph and Don tease Mikey about it and Leo tells them to scatter.

Elsewhere, Batman sneaks into a broken down building. As he wanders the halls he beats up two thugs and continues on his mission. Batman finds Two-Face, watching TV and tells him it's time to go home. Two-Face says he's been home, a different home, a world without Two-Face or Batman. Batman asks where the rest of the inmates are and Two-Face says they all went down the rabbit hole, as he traces a triangle shape on the dust of the tv screen.

I'm confused if Two-Face was free.... why did he come back so he could get captured again?

Back to the turtles, Leo is lecturing everyone about being more like ninjas, when April calls out to everyone to watch the TV. Don says it's portals being used and one is still active, which means the Kraang are back. Mikey is tried of dealing with the Kraang and comments on how he can't do things like fight crime as awesome superheroes or throw things in Donnie's room. Raph says if the Kraang is back they gotta fight them and Leo comments that it's like Splinter says, they go where they're needed.

Batman sneaks into one of the cells in Arkham and notices a triangle shape on the wall. He scrapes some of the dirt off it to study it. The guards comment on how Two-Face is the only one back thanks to Batman, but they still have no idea how everyone else escaped. 

The Turtles and April wander the sewers, following Donnie's device and they find the portal. Leo warns to be careful because if anything came through that portal it would be near. Mikey is suddenly pulled underwater. Globs of clay hit Leo and April's flashlights. Just then Mikey re-emerges, only it's Clayface in disguise. 

Clayface starts attacking everyone and asks them if they brought him there looking for a fight. Leo says he's the one attacking them. Mikey appears behind Clayface, taunting him and calling him mudbutt. Don notices that the water is dissolving Clayface, so he and Raph open a sewer pipe and the gush of water splashes Clayface back into the portal closing it. Mikey asks if anyone else is in the mood for pudding.

At the Batcave, Alfred asks Batman if he wants dinner while he studies the Batcomputer. Batman is too busy and Alfred reveals he actually didn't make anything, knowing him too well. Batman says he though Two-Face's ramblings about another world were too crazy, even for him, until he found a mysterious energy residue at his cell. Batman looks for similar energy signatures and finds there's a lot more than he realized. He runs off and tells Alfred to tell Robin to meet up at the computer's coordinates.

Elsewhere in New York City's China Town, several Foot Ninja arrive to see some of their own being taken down. Joker and Harley Quinn are behind the beatdown and the Clown Prince asks them to take them to their leader. 

Favortism aside, I kinda have to call BS on this. Yeah the Foot Ninja go down like punks but the Turtles are trained martial artists. When it comes to fisticuffs, the Joker is just a normal guy with some gadgets and Harley can only swing her huge mallet so many times before the Ninja Robots will eventually overwhelm her. 

My Opinions- 

Oh man... the art is all over the place. While most of the Batman characters look OK, the Turtles in particular look cartoony as all hell, like overly stylized. And just look at Joker and Harley on the last page. I mean, the overall design is there, but I'd rather things be more 'on model' if you want to go the the 'Batman The Animated Series' style. 

Speaking of which, wow did this one really come out of nowhere. Over the years we've gotten some new animated movies that revisit that world and art style, there's been a new comic series and there's also talks about potentially making a new cartoon series that continues where the 90's cartoon left off. But I think this crossover was before all that. To make it even more interesting, this comic is actually taking place during the earlier seasons when the series had its original look before the designs changed in what would be 'The New Batman Adventures'. 

As for the Turtles, it's kinda hard to place where their story is taking place. Mikey talks as if this happens after they finally defeated the Kraang for good. Splinter is mentioned but not seen, so it's hard to say if this happened after his death, but it's implied Shredder is still around and I'm sure he was already in his mutated Super Shredder form at that point of the series. It's hard to tell until we get deeper into the story. 

It's an interesting set up as so far, it seems random Kraang portals are letting the Arkham inmates roam free in the Turtles' version of New York. We'll have to see where things go. I did feel a little cheated since after the cliffhanger there was a good 6-8 pages of advertisements and alternate covers and things. I only skimmed through this comic the first time so seeing so many pages left made me think I forgot there was a back-up story or whatever, but nope, just tons of ads. We'll see how this goes next issue.