Batman/TMNT Adventures # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

Batman was on the hunt for Two-Face who told him he went to another world. The Turtles discover Kraang portals and run into Clayface. As Batman discovers that Two-Face was telling the truth, the Joker and Harley find themselves in New York facing off against the Foot!

This issue opens one week early as Harley is being brought into Arkham by security along a soapy floor. Harley 'slips' and takes advantage of this to take out the guards. She sets the Joker free and hands over his trademark outfit while she slips into her own. Joker complains that this break out was boring and lacks the flair he's used to. They both then see the shining Kraang portals. Joker gets and idea and drags the guards around to form a smile (with the portals being eyes) as they make their escape. 

The Joker explains this to Shredder as he and Harley makes fun of his name. Shredder already lost his patience and he tells Bebop and Rocksteady to get rid of them. Joker offers to show the mutants a magic trick and pulls out a rubber chicken from under his sleeve. He throws it at them and it explodes. Shredder tells his Foot to attack but Joker points to the ceiling showing that its full of hanging explosive rubber chickens. 

Robin meets up with Batman and Bats notes that he brought a friend, Batgirl. Robin says they were on a team-up mission which makes Batman smirk. Batman explains that they're looking for transdimensional portals which explains how the Arkham inmates escaped without leaving a trace. They soon find one of the portals and Batgirl wonders what's on the other side.

This is exactly what April is thinking as she and the Turtles found another one. Donnie says he can only track one at the time due to how the energy is being dispersed. Mikey reaches inside and wonder if there are other Clayfaces in there. He feels Batman's face and soon gets socked by his fist.

Batman leaps out in front of the Turtles and Mikey thinks it's a mutant bat creature from beyond. Raph jumps in to fight and Batman quickly socks him out. Batgirl leaps out of the portal as well and Mikey freaks out about a second mutant bat creature. Robin follows suit and Mikey freaks out even worse over 'a kid dressed in red.' 

Robin asks Batman for the situation and Batman explains they're most likely mutants trained in ninjitsu, and possibly hostile. Just then Batman catches a sai tossed at him and he says they're definitely hostile. Donnie tries to introduce himself to Batgirl and gets kicked in the face. April whips out her ninja fan and tells her to leave him alone. 

Mikey calls Robin a pirate, which he denies. The turtle trips Robin and says if he's not a pirate, how does he explain the R on his chest. Robin sends Mikey flying with a Dragon Punch (?) and is just amazed by his silliness. 

April and Batgirl continue to fight. April asks how Batgirl can be working with the Kraang. Batgirl doesn't know what the Kraang are, of course, and April remarks that she jumped through an alien portal without seeing any aliens in there. Batgirl says April is the one hanging around little green men, as she knocks her fan away with a batarang.

Leo and Batman fight and the Dark Knight notes that Leo is pulling his punches and not going got any lethal strikes. Leo notices the same and says they're both on the same side. Just then a scream is heard in the distance. 

Obligatory group shot of crossover characters working together!

A woman is being attacked by Snakeweed and Leo jumps in to cut her free. Leo says they've fought this guy before and Batman says this isn't one of theirs. Snakeweed is actually under control of none other than Poison Ivy!

My Opinions-

Oh my god.... the art.... just..... ughhh.... Like there are times where the artists perfect nail Batman and such, but I don't know, maybe they were rushed for time or whatever, but I know if they had more time it could have come out so much better. 

The worst offender is Robin. I don't know if the artist wasn't sure if he was going for the OG Dick Grayson version from The Animated Series or the younger Tim Drake from The New Batman Adventures, but this Robin looks like a very bizzare cross between the two. He almost looks like Tim's head on Grayson's body.... or if Tim had a very awkward growth spurt. Just.... oh gawd, watch some of the older TV episodes and gets some Google images if you need to remember what OG Dick Grayson looked like or something. I mean, Google is a thing, you know.

Took me less that a minute. It wasn't that hard to find a decent pic of the guy.

Another odd thing is, I know the Joker is the Joker, but aren't they in Shredder's hideout? How did he rig up a bunch of explosive chickens in his hideout? He's the Joker, not The Mask. I also don't know what he wants with Shredder. If he wants to have the Foot help him take down Batman, he's not doing a good job getting on Shredder's good side. 

Also not quite sold April has had anywhere the amount of training it would take for her to stand toe-to-toe with Batgirl.

Weird as hell nonsense aside, I'm still curious as to where the story is going. I do at least have to commend that it is very clever to have Poison Ivy take control of Snakeweed. That's a deadly combination and a good idea for this crossover. So far the story seems to be Batman's bad guys causing trouble in the Turtles' version of New York. It seems to soon to see if there will be any Ninja Turtle villains running around in Gotham, but I guess you can say the other crossovers have already covered that. 

We'll see where this goes, I have to admit though, I did like the part where Mikey was flipping out about 'a kid dressed in red'. I could actually hear the cartoon version saying it. Also Donnie just seems to love redheads.