TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures # 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

The 80's Ninja Turtles are back in a 4-issue mini series with some new adventures. While the Archie comics started off adapting the show, it quickly became its own thing. This time around the comic is based more on the actual show. In this issue the Turtles get to rock out with a Stone Warrior. Let's see what happens. 

For Those About to Rock- begins with Shredder contacting Krang at the Technodrome for his help. Shredder hears of a Professor McGuffin that will unleash something that will give any army on the planet an advantage. Krang asks exactly what this device is, and Shredder isn't sure but he knows it will be unveiled live on Channel 6 News that night. Krang says Channel 6 would mean that April O'Neil will be involved and that also involves the Turtles. Shredder says that's why he needs help. Krang says he should be able to sneak in since he's a ninja. Shredder whines and Krang says he'll send a Stone Warrior to help him out. 

The Stone Warrior Thrum steps through a portal from Dimension X as Bebop and Rocksteady are listening to music on their stereo. Thrum asks what that terrible noise is and blasts the stereo to bits. Bebop and Rocksteady are upset and said they could have just changed the song. Shredder says they can steal another stereo later, they have to prepare.

At Channel 6, Vernon is the cameraman as April interviews Professor Albert McGuffin. Albert holds up his device and says violence has been a problem for too long and he feels he has a solution for that. Shredder arrives, taking what he said to mean that this is a weapon after all. He sends Bebop and Rocksteady after him. Vernon panics that they are no longer live and no one will come to help them. April quickly grabs the Turtlecom to call the Turtles.

The Turtles are flying around on the Turtle Blimp. Raphael says every time they use the blimp they feel like they should be in a Thanksgiving Day Parade. Donatello says that the Turtle Van needed fixing unless they want the ejector seat to go off randomly. Leonardo got the message on the Turtlecom and tells the others that April is danger. 

Raphael says they would have been there by now if they had the van. Donatello argues that they'd be stuck in rush hour traffic. Raphael says it's still faster than the blimp. Donatello says he installed an enhanced propulsion system for this type of situation. The Turtle Blimp launches at full speed as Raphael and Michealangelo just barely hold on. 

Bebop and Rocksteady make their way through security and Shredder takes the device away from the professor. Just then the Turtles drop in. Vernon says they arrived so quickly, they're probably working alongside the other guys. McGuffin says to never complain about a lucky break. Shredder is about to use the device but Michealangelo snatches it from his hands with his grappling hook yelling out Cowabunga. Shredder says he hates that word. Donatello and Leonardo say that Michealangelo uses other words like Radical and Mondo, as they take care of Bebop and Rocksteady. The Turtles surround Shredder and Raphael says they'll get him a thesaurus to read in jail. Shredder says he still has one trick left as he calls in Lt. Thrum. 

Lt. Thrum smashes through the wall. Leonardo says Stone Warriors are no laughing matter and they have to stop him before he hurts someone. He gets socked out of the air by Thrum before he can finish saying Turtle Power. Raphael says they could have stayed on the blimp and kept going to Pizza Plaza. Donatello says Splinter would have called it fate that they happened to be flying overhead. Raphael says he calls it bad luck.

Leonardo continues fighting the Stone Warrior. Shredder tells Bebop and Rocksteady to stop watching the fight and go get the device. The mutants run towards Michealangelo, but he jumps out of the way and they crash into each other. April says they should leave but McGuffin and Vernon are too paralyzed with fear. Thrum throws Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael off of him. He then heads over to Michealangelo and tries to snatch the device. As they fight over it, the device starts to break and it explodes. 

Shredder is angry that the device is ruined and asks why he can never work with competent henchmen. Bebop says he should think about profit sharing and Rocksteady mentioned dental. Shredder says it's time to escape and Rocksteady asks about Thrum. Shredder says he's on his own for now.

Leonardo says that Shredder is leaving, so they win again. Raphael points out that Thrum is waking up. Thrum asks if they caught the number of the truck that hit him and asks if everybody is ok. Raphael is surprised that he asks if they were ok. 

McGuffin is happy, and he explains his device was never a weapon. He says it was attuned to end conflict by helping aggressive people see the perspective of the ones they attacked. Donatello asks more about this. Vernon tells April not to let them hurt him. April sighs and tells him they saved them. McGuffin explains that even if the Turtles weren't heroes the device would have caused an altruistic impulse to replace the compulsion for violence, but the effects aren't permanent. Michealangelo asks if it also transfers ninja skills because Thrum has escaped.

Leonardo says they have to track him down before the effects wear off and asks the professor how long they have. He says there's no way to know.

Meanwhile Krang is furious to find out that Shredder left Thrum behind. Shredder says he was compromised and electrocuted by the same device they were trying to steal. Krang asks if he knows what a Stone Warrior costs in today's economy. He then asks if what Shredder said about Thrum being electrocuted was true. Shredder confirms this and Krang says it's hard to incapacitate something made of stone, so the device must be useful after all. If the device was destroyed, then Krang wants Shredder to bring him Lt. Thrum. He can probe his brain for the information and reverse engineer the process as a weapon. Shredder says they'd have to find him first, and Krang says he'll show them how to find him.

The Turtles search for Thrum in the Turtle Blimp figuring a Stone Warrior in New York shouldn't be that hard to find. Donatello says Thrum is seeing things from Michealangelo's point of view, so where would he go. Michealangelo says he'd go for some pizza, but he's not a walking rock. If he can't have pizza then there's a made-up band concert in Central Park he'd check out. Raphael says it would be pretty convenient if Michealangelo was right, and the party dude says they only have 20-some pages to work with these days. Raphael agrees and then says, 'wait, what?'

The Turtles go to the band concert wearing disguises and sure enough, Thrum is living it up and having a good time. He tells his new turtle friends that he used to hate music, but loves it now. Shredder and his minions arrive in a floating vehicle and ask Thrum why he's fraternizing with the enemy. Thrum says he no longer wants to fight, he wants to listen to music. Raphael says they still want to fight. The tourists enjoy the concert and the 'stunt show'.

Nice to see Shredder get some hits in and he's not a complete pushover.

As Leonardo and Raphael fight Shredder, the villain explains that he will find out what they did to Thrum and use that process to take over the world. Bebop and Rocksteady tell Michealangelo and Donatello to step aside, for now they just want Thrum. Michealangelo flips over Rocksteady as the mutant rhino tells him he's supposed to be slow. Thrum tells everyone they don't have to fight, they can just enjoy the music. Bebop and Rocksteady are surprised by how much Thrum has changed. 

Michealangelo and Donatello take down the mutants and tell Thrum to run. Thrum says he already feels his true nature returning, he wants to enjoy the music while he still can. Michealangelo tells him that he's a mellow music loving dude, he should hang on to that and go. As Thrum runs he overhears the music singing about 'being who you want to be, not the person you were yesterday'. Thrum cracks his knuckles and says he needs to be who he wants to be, even if it's for a short amount of time, and he doesn't want to be a bad guy.

Bebop has gotten hold of Donatello's bo and says now he'll see how it feels to get hit by it. Just then Thrum knocks Bebop and Rocksteady down with a double clothesline. Shredder has hit Leonardo and Raphael with his stun ray and plans to slice them up. Thrum comes in and socks him in the face. He then stomps on the stun ray, smashing it.

Thrum tells Shredder he's almost back to his regular self but he's not going back to Krang. He won't hurt people for him anymore. He's using his portal device to go to a dimension where they'll never be able to find him, and he's never coming back. He tells the Turtles goodbye and that he needs to go before he can't stop himself from attacking them. He thanks Michealangelo for helping him understand music. As Thrum leaves through the portal Shredder asks why he can never have at least one competent henchman. 

Later on the Turtles tell Splinter what happened and how Shredder escaped. Michealangelo is bummed out about Thrum and asks if he thinks he'll turn bad again. Splinter says sometimes who we are and who we are meant to be are temporarily irreconcilable, but one should never give up hope that one can become one's best self. 

In Dimension Q, Thrum ponders that he can still return to Krang and help him conquer Earth. He decides not to and smashes the communication device in his hand and walks off singing 'gotta be who you wanna be'.

My Opinions-

Loved the comic. It really has the look of the characters down, love the bright colors, the cheesy jokes, and the action. In fact with how the original show got more and more toned down, I can't remember an episode actually showing a punch connect in the later seasons.

Thrum has his own unique design.. and well.. a name. In the original show only General Traag was ever named, none of the other Stone Warriors got names. Even his partner in the first season was only named in the videogames. 

Shredder was fun in this issue with the usual insults and being whiny and all that. It's good to see him fight competently against the Turtles since on the show there were times they would get the upper hand on the them. Though I never thought he'd be as silly as to steal some new invention without knowing what it does. Usually either April, the scientist in question or Krang would give some exposition on exactly what the device does or how it would help re-power the Technodrome or something. Here it was pretty much 'new invention? gimme!'. 

The only thing that stood out the most here was Vernon acting like he'd never seen the Turtles before. That part was very odd, but it's hard to tell where in the series the comic would have taken place. For a show that relies on status quo, one way to tell where the series is going is where Shredder and Krang are. In this case, it looked like Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady are on Earth requesting help from Krang from Dimension X, so maybe season 2? It's hard to tell just how seriously to take this comic, since they could have just as easily made the Technodrome be underwater or in the Artic or wherever else it was in the series. That Vernon part was still very weird though. Plus the last issue showed that the Turtles have already faced all their enemies from the show's run so maybe each issue takes place someplace different in the series... or maybe we just don't think about it too much.

Very enjoyable issue. Possibly the most random thing in an 80's TMNT comic is the random Pesto cameo from the Goodfeathers, who was in the original Animaniacs show. The Turtles and Animaniacs never had anything  to do with each other, not even having been run on the same networks. Or maybe IDW is telling us they're getting the rights to make Animaniacs comics?