TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

The 80's Turtles are back with a new comic book series from IDW. While it was initially a 4-issue mini series, IDW decided to go ahead and bring them back for a longer on-going series. This time they face the Rat King, only now he can control the Turtles instead of rats!

"The Turtle King Part 1" opens with two guys driving towards a dump site in a pick up truck full of canisters. They almost hit a blind guy crossing the street and as they swerve to avoid him, one of the canisters falls into the sewer. The guy in the passenger seat tells the driver to be more careful as they could have spilled the entire load of canisters. He says who knows what would happen if this stuff got out. In the sewers, two rats find the canister and pick it up.

The rats bring the canister to the Rat King, who is accepting offerings from his loyal rats. Rat King grabs the vial and checks it out, but it's cracked and some of it sprays his eyes. He drops the canister and tells his rats to bring him a towel, but the rodents just run away. The Rat King is confused as they are not following his commands. 

Elsewhere the Turtles are on their way back to the lair with some pizza, trying to make it back in time before April's news report. Raphael says they would have gotten home sooner had Leonardo not made them chase away some hoodlums that were spraying graffiti. Leonardo says vandalism is a gateway crime and if they don't stop those kids now, they might have another Shredder on their hands someday. Raphael says he doubts the kid spray-painting 'Chet was here' would be teaming up with a warlord from Dimension X.

Michealangelo says they have plenty of time before they miss the show. Donatello asks how he would know since he doesn't wear a watch. Michealangelo says his stomach tells him, and April always comes on between dinner and his first pre-midnight snack. Donatello says that doesn't make sense when he suddenly hears a voice calling out to him. He asks the others if they heard that and they all start hearing some sort of voice, commanding them to go towards it. The Turtles decide to check it out and Michealangelo makes sure they don't leave the pizza behind.

Rat King keeps calling for his rats but they run off. He says he threw away the musical instrument he used to control the rats when he learned to control them mentally, but now he lost that ability as well. He refuses to give up, but the Turtles suddenly arrive.

Rat King asks them why they invaded his domain and Leonardo says he called them. Raphael and Michealangelo explain how they heard his voice and how it got louder the closer they got to him. The Rat King commands the Turtles to stand on their heads, and they do so. He figures out that somehow he gained the ability to control the turtles, but he still wants to regain his control over rats. Raphael says Donatello would be able to help him out since he's a scientist. Donatello says he does machines, he's not a biochemist. Raphael points out he always has whatever expertise the plot calls for.

Rat King gives Donatello the canister and tells him to go examine the remaining contents and figure out a way to have him regain control over rats. He then tell the others to help him take over the city. Their first step will be to find weapons. 

The Turtles take Rat King to TCRI and break in. Raphael admits this is sort of a stab in the dark, there aren't as many next generation research and development labs in the city as one would think. Rat King tells them to proceed, but if they fail he will punish them the way he punishes his rats, no cheese for an entire month.

Meanwhile, April and Splinter are waiting on the Turtles and wonder where they could be. April tells Splinter that one of her sources told her a 'guy in a rhino costume' broke into a shipping container but left when he saw it was empty. Splinter asks what was in the container, but all April knew is that a crew from TCRI went to pick it up. Whatever the contents were, April feels Shredder will try to go after it again.

Just then Donatello comes in and walks past April and Splinter, saying he is busy. Splinter asks for an explanation and Donatello says he might be his sensei but he is not his king. Splinter asks about this and Donatello says the Rat King told him to examine the canister and he's happy to do it. Splinter says that the Rat King is controlling his mind and he must stop so they can talk. Donatello smacks Splinter back and tells him to stay out of his way.

Back at TCRI, the Rat King is not impressed at the lack of weapons. The Turtles explain they're just being thorough and don't like the lack of security, not even a single guard. Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady are already there and explain that they already took care of security. Shredder is holding onto some sort of rock. Rat King says there can only be on victor on the field of battles and commands the Turtles to destroy them. They call him 'your highness' and leap into action, a detail that Shredder takes note of. 

The Turtles fight Bebop and Rocksteady and Leonardo goes after Shredder, swinging his swords at him. Shredder is surprised the Turtles are fighting with their weapons rather then their usual humor, and also using more ferocity. Leonardo tells Shredder that he can't dodge him forever, and the villain says he can escape, now that he knows that the Rat King is controlling them. Shredder tells Bebop and Rocksteady to fall back and kicks Leonardo off of him. Rat King tells the Turtles to destroy them, and Shredder says they'll never have the chance because they'll be too busy worrying about him. Shredder shoves Rat King out the window as he makes his escape. Rat King calls for help as he hangs off the window sill and his grip is slipping.

Michealangelo grabs Rat King's wrist and Raphael helps pull them both up. Leonardo says the Shredder got away but they can go after them. Rat King says the Shredder can wait. He says they will first help him take over the city with their ninja skills and the weapons in this lab. They can destroy other enemies after that. 

Moments later the Turtles are dressed in special suits that also have a mouse-like motif to them. Michealangelo thinks they're costumes but Raphael says they're from the psychological warfare lab. Rat King, naturally, thinks these outfits are perfect and leads them to attack the city's power plants. 

Splinter knocks Donatello to the ground and tells him that he must break free from the Rat King's control. Donatello picks up his staff and starts trying to hit his sensei with it. Splinter reminds him that once the Rat King controlled him and made him attack the Turtles, but he found the strength to break free with their help. Donatello says the Rat King is a lot stronger now and suddenly gets tased by April's stun gun. Splinter was not aware she had one and April reminds him that it's a dangerous city and a girl has to be prepared. 

Donatello recovers and is back to normal. He ponders how the brain communicates with the rest of the body with electrical impulses. He figures if electricity can disrupt the Rat King's signal they can shut him down for good. Splinter says Donatello must work fast before the rest of the Turtles are forced to do something they will regret. 

My thoughts- 

Fun issue with something completely different, the Rat King gaining a new set of powers. Now that this is an on-going series, the stories will be two-parters, so things will feel a bit less rushed.

I had no idea what to expect when the Rat King gained control of the Turtles, but I definitely was not expecting for this to also include another Shredder plot. There's the mystery concerning what that rock was that the Shredder ran off with. We usually have either the villains explain their plans beforehand, or have April describe a certain item that you'd expect the bad guys will go after. In this case, April herself wasn't even sure what was in TCRI and the Shredder just ran off with whatever he was after.

Speaking of TCRI, the comic continues to throw in references to other forms of Turtles media. I was going to say the original show never did that, but I guess it really couldn't anyway since other than using Mirage characters, Leatherhead, Rat King and Casey Jones, the 80's cartoon was what many considered to be the only form of Turtles media back then. Not only do we get the TCRI and Chet references, we also get the first page which was a reference to the original Mirage TMNT comics origin of the Turtles. Very clever callback there. 

There are some callbacks to the show here and there too. Splinter refers to the first time they met the Rat King "Enter: The Rat King", in which he did take control of him and sent him after the Turtles. I am a bit confused where Rat King didn't know Donatello was a scientist, since he brought up that point in the episode "Donatello's Duplicate", but to be fair, Shredder seemed to be the only villain to consistently remember the Turtles' names. 

I did like the comment Raphael made about Donatello always knowing whatever type of science was needed for the plot, which was true. Donatello was also shown to be more in making inventions and fixing machines, but whenever the plot called for it, he was also shown to be into chemistry and create antidotes for whatever chemicals Shredder and Krang cooked up. To be fair, I seem to recall that the 2K3 and 2012 Donatellos were also able to work with chemicals. 

The only other comment I noticed was that the art was a bit different. While the cover seemed to be drawn by the same artist that worked on the first mini-series, this time it seemed someone else took over for the interiors. The art is close enough to the classic show, and I love all of the Rat King's facial expressions. 

I can't wait to get my hands on the next issue. We not only have the Turtles doing whatever the Rat King wants, but also Donatello trying to find them, as well as whatever plan the Shredder is up to. I can't wait.