TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Despite their origins in the Mirage comics, for many people the 'real' Ninja Turtles are the ones from the 80's cartoon show. It's the reason why the 80's cartoon exclusive characters keep returning in things like the 2012 cartoon and the IDW comics and most of the merch out there is based on this show rather than the later versions. While the Archie comics started off adapting episodes based on the 80's cartoon, it eventually became it's own thing. Now IDW comics brings a comic mini-series based on the show directly. Let's check it out.

"VR in Deep Trouble" begins with April reporting the news on the heavy rain without any end in sight. A supercell storm is also on the way to make things worse. Donatello wonders why April is the one covering the weather and Leonardo is disappointed that they can't go on patrol. Splinter has some ideas for some new training exercises but the turtles are too stir-crazy to want to do anything. Donatello has a better idea.

Donatello shows the gang a VR machine and explains how it plugs into their brains and will literally put them into the game. Splinter asks how this will be useful and Donatello explains that reflexes are the result of the body's physical memory, so training their brains should help improve their skills. Leonardo has doubts of using such a device during a lightning storm and Raphael says he sounds more like a chicken than a turtle. Michealangelo wants to go first but Donatello explains that all four of them can use it at the same time. Donatello tells the gang to grab a VR helmet and he'll see them on the other side. 

Michealangelo is amazed by how realistic the VR world looks. Donatello explains that they'll play a game of capture the flag. If they can't capture it, it will disappear and they'll have to play several mini games to get to it again. The only way to leave the simulation is to capture the flag or to use his emergency failsafe that looks like a Turtlecom. Michealangelo recognizes some of the game assets from his own videogames and Donatello admits he used them for the simulation. To make things more interesting, the boss characters were designed to look like their enemies to give them a good workout. Leonardo is eager to get started.

The Shredder appears before them and the Turtles jump in to attack, minus Donatello. Shredder seems faster than expected and he defeats them in battle. The Turtles notice the pain feels very real and Shredder disappears. Since they couldn't capture the flag, they have to do a mini game. Donatello didn't join the fight since he was observing ways to make the simulation better.

As expected, the storm gets worse and it makes one of the lightning rods above ground pop. Lightning goes down the sewer pipes and wiring and zaps the Turtles while they're still in the VR game. The Turtles feel this and Donatello says he must have underestimated the lighting storm, so he tries to reset the game so that they can try again. The kill switch doesn't work so now the only way out is to actually beat the game. 

Michealangelo panics because they were supposed to eat pizza that April and Casey were going to bring over. Raphael bops Michealangelo upside the head and tells him to calm down since they'll win. The mini-games will be random but only one of them has to win. 

As they start the mini-game, Donatello is sent into a go kart game called Krazy Kart as Groundchuck and Dirtbag are racing behind him tossing explosive barrels at him. This was not one of the mini-games that Donatello programmed, so the lighting storm scrambled something into the game's code. Now the mini-games can literally be anything.

Raphael appears in front of a building and recognizes the game as Soda Jerks. Soda bottles are thrown at him as he tries to climb the building. He says he's never beat the game before but there's a first time for everything. 

Leonardo is in a fighting game, SNES TMNT Tournament Fighters to be exact, where he just defeated Baxter Stockman. The next fighters are Tokka and Rahzar, which surprises Leonardo since this will be a handicap match.

Michealangelo is in the game Wrath of Tempestra where he gets to face the titular villainess. Raphael complains about littering as he continues to climb the building while dodging the soda bottles. Bebop and Rocksteady are the ones tossing the bottles as they're dressed as waiters. Rocksteady doesn't want the soda to spill on their uniforms. Bebop tells him they're bad guys so they fight like they dress, dirty. Rocksteady then throws a barrel, knocking Raphael off the building. 

Leonardo is about to defeat Rahzar but he tags in Tokka. The Turtle decides to use one of his special moves, the Millennium Wave. Tokka tags Rahzar back in and Leonardo notices that their health refill every time they tag in. He says he'll have to fight harder as he notices he does yell Turtle Power a lot. 

Donatello is about to hit the finish line but Groundchuck tosses dynamite at him. The explosion throws Donatello and his go kart through the air and past the finish line. He's now ready for the next race, but his go kart is a mess. 

Michealangelo dodges Tempestra's lighting blasts. He remembers that there's a cheat code to beat her. If he waits until her eyes flash pink, he can do a double hop and smack her with a special move. 

The Turtles all appear back at the flag where Shredder is waiting for them. Donatello explains the simulation has gone berserk. Raphael chastises him on how stupid it was to plug an experimental system to their brains during an electrical storm. Leonardo tells everyone to attack the Shredder. Raphael reminds him to yell out Turtle Power and Leonardo says he figured it was implied.

Leonardo fights Shredder and asks Donatello why he made him so fast. Shredder attacks Leonardo which makes him disappear. Michealangelo is worried that Leonardo was vaporized and Donatello explained that he was sent to another mini-game. Leonardo is now stuck in Krazy Kart. Raphael says they're not bad guys in a kung fu movie, rather than fight Shredder one on one, they should just gang up on him and capture the flag. Donatello says they do have the tactical advantage. Shredder asks if they do, as almost every bad guy they ever faced appears round him. 

Raphael asks Donatello if he had to make the game this 'interesting'. Michealangelo says every bad guy is in here except Alpha-One. Just then Alpha-One starts attacking Donatello. Raphael fights against Slash while complaining to Donatello. Slash defeats Raphael and sends him to another mini-game. Donatello blocks Leatherhead's tail attack with his bo but he gets blasted by the Rat King. As he fades way, he tells Michealangelo that it's all up to him now.

Shredder taunts Michealangelo that there is no one left to help him and it's time to meet his doom. Michealangelo says there are so many pizza toppings he hasn't tried yet. Just then he realizes that Donatello just said they needed to capture the flag, he never said anything about actually fighting the bad guys. Michealangelo uses the Kangaroo Jump (from TMNT III Manhattan Project) and dodges the bad guys and goes for the flag. He grabs onto the flag just as Shredder is about to attack him. 

The Turtles are now free from the VR game and take the helmets off. Raphael says he was just at the end of Soda Jerks and Donatello says they can go again once he makes some adjustments. Splinter asks if they are finished with their training exercises, as they have a visitor. April brought the pizzas she promised and also a special gift, a brand new videogame. She asks who wants to play it first, and Leonardo throws his sword at it. April asks if it was something she said. 

My Thoughts-

When I first heard in the previews that the Turtles were going to go into VR and face simulations of their enemies, I knew we were gonna see the guys on the cover, but I never expected so many cameos and references. Aside from the villains you'd expect, Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady and so forth, they really went all out including a few surprises like Alpha-One, Lotus Blossom, Scumbug, Mutagen Man and more. They even included Slash, not just the mutant turtle, but the other Slash, the leader of the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang.

Man, they even got the Turtle Terminator (evil Irma) up in here

They did a good job capturing the look of all the characters based on how they looked like in the cartoon, especially ones like Leatherhead and mutant turtle Slash. They also took advantage of the VR theme to go into references from the actual Ninja Turtle games. Leonardo gets to be in Tournament Fighters with the actual game stages. He even got to use his Ultimate Attack Move from the game. Raphael also did the Drill Attack and Michealangelo uses the Kangaroo Kick like in several games as well. Michealangelo almost blurted out the Konami code as well.

They even got Leonardo in the same battle stance as in the game!

There are some minor nitpicks here and there when compared to the show. The Turtles would rarely, if ever, call themselves by the shortened nicknames we're most used to now on the old show. They mostly used their full names but there were a few times they used the nicknames here, maybe to make more space in the speech balloons since some of their names are pretty long. Raphael in particular seems a little more aggressive and closer to his newer incarnations. I don't remember him ever smacking Michealangelo on the head on the 80's show, that was more common in the 2K3 and 2012 versions of the characters. Also Michealangelo implies that Casey Jones hangs out with them a lot more often while in the 80's cartoon he was more of a guest character. These are minor inconsistencies that don't detract from the story too much, but for a hardcore 80's TMNT fan like myself, they do stand out.

The story was fun, and it's a shame that it's a mini-series and not something longer. We got a lot of cameos here and it'll be a shame that the series will end before we get an issue about Baxter or the Rat King for example. If anything, this issue pretty much has you covered in terms of nostalgia, cameos and videogame references. If this was a one-time Free Comic Book Day special or something, I would have been satisfied. 

Can't wait til issue 2 where things gets pretty weird, even for the 80's cartoon.