TMNT New Animated Adventures # 0 Free Comic Book Day 2013

 Originally written by Paige with Thoughts from Mark

Several years after the show ended, lots of Ninja Turtles fans still fondly remember the 2012 series. While at first people had doubts about the cartoon being CGI rather than traditional animation and the Turtles looking younger than we're used to,  a lot of the fanbase will love the show. IDW also brought out a comic based on the show. While the show never referenced the comic, the comic tried its best to not contradict the show and made many references to where the show was going at the time (it's status quo was ever-changing). Here are our thoughts of the comic series from back in 2013 when they first came out.

The comic opens up to Mikey showing off a jump and the other turtles not impressed by the display. As Raph and Don just brush it aside, Splinter enters the picture complimenting Mikey. Raph continues to say that they're not impressed because he believes they are "experts". Don attempts to stop him, but fails when Splinter asks the turtles to bring their weapons. Splinter agrees that each are experts, especially with their specific weapons, but he still sees them as students and they still have more to learn. He takes all the weapons and switches them between the turtles. And the bad part is, he gave the katana to Mikey! That has danger written all over it.

Splinter asks for the turtles to attack him. Each turtle attacks with their new weapons, and each failed. Splinter continues to explain that there is more to learn. He tells the turtles that they must continue to use their new weapons. Leo attempts to object to this new arrangement, and Splinter gives them an alternative of staying in to clean the lair.

The turtles are out on their patrol. Raph complains about the trade and having to use the staff. Don tells him to stop complaining and blames him for the situation they're in. As they patrol, they spot the Purple Dragons outside a pawn shop. The gang runs out of the pawn shop, only to be stopped shortly after by the turtles.  A fight breaks between the groups. During the fight, Leo fails at using the nunchucks against a gang member, only defeating said bad guy with a kick. They mostly defeated the Purple Dragons by kicks and punches. Leo comments it was an "ugly" win, but still a win. Don finds a device that can deactivate alarms and considers it too high tech for the Purple Dragons to be stealing.

As Raph demands to know where the gang got the device, a few robots appear announcing that they stole it from them. And who's controlling the robots? It's Banner Steakman...I mean Baxter Stockman. He tells the turtles that they are not involved and should leave. Obviously, that's not going to happen.

They decide to switch back to their original weapons to fight the robots. Baxter calls his robots N.I.N.J.A and Mikey gives them a better name that he actually likes. Unexpectedly, as each turtle fights, they are stopped by the robots. Baxter explains that he programmed martial arts into the robots, so they are able to keep up with the turtles.

Leo decides that the turtles should step out of their comfort zone, and all the turtles exchange their weapons. As they use their new weapons they start to defeat the robots. Honestly, it seems more like that it's pure luck of them defeating the robots. The turtles defeat all but one robot. As Baxter tries to escape, he says that he has recorded the fight. As he tries to flee, Leo stops the robot by tripping it with the nunchucks and it lands on a fire hydrant.

The turtles return to the lair to tell the night events to Splinter. He is proud of their accomplishment of going outside their comfort zone, but tells them there is an even bigger challenge, which ended up being to clean up the lair.

Paige's Thoughts

I loved the comic, but I haven't read any other comics to compare it to. I love that it was based on the latest turtles, and they act exactly the same and with the same sense of humor as they do in the show. Just recently the concept of the Turtles exchanging their weapons has been used in one of the episodes. The concept stayed the same, but the main difference was the bad guys they fought, since in the episode they fought Fishface and Dogpound. I'm still wondering why they would even consider giving Mikey the katana, lol. It did seem that in the comic when they fought using each other's weapons, they won mostly by luck rather than being able to adapt to them.

Mark's Thoughts

Pretty good for a free comic book day story and a good opener for this upcoming series. It's funny how this comic came out so soon after the episode 'The Pulverizer Returns' aired which also dealt with the Turtles switching weapons. This time Raph got the nunchucks instead of Leo and Leo ends up with the bo staff instead of the nunchucks. The idea of the Turtles switching weapons has been used before in an episode called 'What a Croc' from the 2003 show. This time Baxter created 'the evil Turtlebot' designed to fight like the turtles, so they switch weapons to confuse it. That was kind of a random thing, and not the main plot like it was here. I don't think there was ever a time the 80's Turtles ever switched weapons though. Also since it's easier and less expensive to draw a comic than design more CGI models on TV, the Purple Dragons feel like a real gang in the comic, instead of just three guys.