By Mark Rodriguez
The Turtles found out that Shredder and Krang sent some sort of item from Dimension X to the Florida swamps. Donatello and Raphael went to check it out with the Punk Frogs, Attila and Rasputin and ran into Leatherhead. In the meantime Genghis and Napoleon join Leonardo and Michealangelo on their own adventure.
Genghis and Napoleon arrive in New York and Splinter says he appreciates them coming to help. Napoleon says they used their friend's Shep's pick up truck to drive over and asks why they didn't just ask them to look for Shredder's device in the swamp. Leonardo says that Donatello felt he could use his tech to find it faster and Raphael went with him to help with the drive. Leonardo asks the crew if they want to go on patrol.
The Turtles and Frogs patrol the city in the Turtle Blimp. Leonardo tells them that they might not find the Shredder, but the city has other dangers. They are spotted by the mutant fly, Baxter Stockman, who finds it lucky to have run into them so soon after he 'inexplicably' escaped from another dimension. He will get his revenge on the Turtles, and then go after Shredder, Krang and the rest of the world. First he will need some supplies.
The Turtles and Frogs beat up some criminals that were trying to break into a shop. One of them has a crowbar but Genghis grabs it with his tongue, and then whips it right back into his face. Michealangelo is hungry, and Napoleon agrees but wants something other than pizza. Leonardo says they can take a break and find something besides pizza for the frogs. They decide to head back to the lair.
Meanwhile at Channel 6, Burne Thompson is chewing out April and Vernon for having horrible leads. He tells them he needs something guaranteed to get people talking. April says she just had an idea but they should duck. Burne is confused, but April yells out to duck as they avoid an energy blast.
Baxter flies in with a gun and says he wants April O'Neil. Burne says this is a story. Baxter tells him to shut up and goes after April. Irma tells him to take her instead. Baxter asks why he would do that. Irma asks if he wants to turn April into a mutant insect queen. Baxter says he's kidnapping April so that the Turtles will come to her rescue. Baxter flies off with April and says he should file that insect queen plan away for future consideration.
Burne says this is a story, but Vernon didn't capture it on film. Vernon says he was paralyzed with fear. Burne says Irma has more guts than him. He rushes Vernon out to catch this on film and also tells Irma to get maintenance to fix the broken window.
At the Turtles' Lair, the frogs are eating deep-fried cupcake and onion burritos, and Michealangelo isn't liking them. Splinter tells him the Frogs are guests and he shouldn't insult their choice of meal. Leonardo gets a message from the Turtle Com and thinks it's Donatello. It's Baxter on the line and he says he took April's device to reach them. Leonardo says he better not hurt her. Baxter says he won't since she will cover their destruction once he has his revenge.
Michealangelo tells Baxter to chill on the revenge and try meditation and yoga. Baxter said he tried it and was sore for a week. He says if they want to see April again, they will meet at his location. Michealangelo says first he said he won't hurt April and now he's threatening her, and says he should pick one. Leonardo says not to give Baxter any advice. Baxter says to meet them at the Floxy Theater in an hour.
At the theater, April asks what Baxter is trying to do. Baxter says while trapped in another dimension he put his inventing skills to use on devices for his revenge. April says he gave the Turtles an hour when it won't take that long for them to arrive. The Turtle Blimp soon arrives at the theater. Genghis asks if there might be traps. Leonardo says he'll go with Michealangelo first to disarm any traps, then the Frogs can distract Baxter so they can rescue April.
Baxter continues to monologue as April breaks free. Baxter then activates a remote that zaps Leonardo and Michealangelo into the seats a few rows away from April. April throws a punch at Baxter, which he flies out of the way to avoid. He jokes that she's too violent and might be playing too many video games. Leonardo asks what Baxter is doing to them. Baxter points to his prototype, designed to deliver great pain to reptiles. He then notices that there are only two of them.
Napoleon whips the remote out of Baxter's hand. Baxter notices that Napoleon and Genghis are frogs, and thus not reptiles. He starts to shoot at them as they dodge the blasts. Genghis whips out his tongue, trying to get the gun away but Baxter is too fast for them. April takes this chance to run up to the remote and stomp on it.
Leonardo and Michealangelo are free, and Leo throws his sword to destroy Baxter's gun. Baxter is unarmed and isn't flying anywhere within tongue length of the Frogs, so he escapes. Genghis asks if all villains laugh like that. Michealangelo says he thinks it's in the super villain manual.
As everyone flies off in the Turtle Blimp, Michealangelo tells the others that Donatello told them they couldn't find the device. After seeing a giant fly, Genghis figures they could stop for some food. April is starving but she needs to head to Channel 6 and cover the story regarding the Floxy getting blasted by a laser gun she happened to save pieces of. Leonardo feels bad they didn't find Shredder though.
Elsewhere, Shredder tells Krang that he has the Zero-Matter Scalpel... but it's out of power. Krang says once he returns from Florida he can easily recharge it and start working on 'that stupid rock'. Shredder says he'll soon change his tune, for once they forge the Forever Sword, nothing will stand in their way.
My Thoughts-
Wow, what an issue. This was pretty much a very basic 'Baxter kidnaps April' plot but it's entertaining due to Baxter being such a goober. In the show Baxter usually gets stuck in another dimension once he's defeated, so in the next episode there usually is some sort of explanation as to how he returned to our dimension. The line of him 'inexplicably' returning still goes with the cheesiness of the show. Although, hey, if you really want to make sense of it, you could say when Traag sent the Zero-Matter Scalpel to Earth it also somehow caused Baxter to come back.
While the art captures the look of the show to a tee, there are a few details missing to make it 100% show accurate. Normally I wouldn't nitpick but the comic is so painfully close, the minor details get me. Just like Leatherhead missing his catchphrases last time, they missed the perfect opportunity to have Burne say 'go-go-go-go!!!' like he always does, especially when he was rushing Vernon and Irma out the door.
There's also a lot of 'modern day' jokes and dialogue. I'm sure there were other examples in previous issues I missed, but it was kinda weird having April say 'well gee, tell us how you really feel' and Krang saying 'and there it is', which are kinda/sorta modern day types of expressions and phrases not used in the 80's. I mean on one hand it's funny, but it does take me out of the story a bit since it reminds me of things the characters wouldn't say on the original show.
It was also kinda weird to see April actually throw a punch, something she's definitely never done before. I do wonder if when Baxter said 'she played too many videogames' it was possibly a clever reference to seeing April kick ass in 'Shredder's Revenge' and 'Nickelodeon All Star Brawl'. If you only go by the comics and cartoons, 80's April and possibly IDW April are the only versions to not be actual fighters, so maybe the classic April is finally starting to catch up some.
The Frogs got a little more to their story, which helps since they don't really have much to their characters. It seems over the years they made friends with someone named Shep, and now burritos are their favorite food. Similar to the Turtles, their burritos also come with weird and gross ingredients. Not sure why Michealangelo is so grossed out. I'm sure he's eaten cupcakes and onions on a pizza.
The most confusing thing about the comics was what exactly Baxter's device did. It wasn't clear if Baxter knew Leonardo and Michealangelo were sneaking around the theater seats when he activated his device, or if his device just teleported them there. The Turtles didn't say anything like 'how did we get here' so I guess it's the former, but some clarification would've helped. One thing to note is that Floxy Theater was actually seen in the episode 'Menace Maestro Please'. Again, it is this attention to detail that makes me wonder why some catch-phrases and other things are missing or inaccurate.
The last thing to bring up is the fact that this comic is probably one of the first times Irma is officially called Irma Langenstein in print. She never had an official last name in the show, she was always just called Irma, even though her co-worker Vernon eventually got the last name Fenwick. Over the years, for whatever reason this last name was given to her by the online fanbase, and it just became a thing. Now we finally have it in print.
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