TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 12

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Turtles finally defeated Shredder and Renet took the Forever Blades to a safe place. During these events, Mr. Ogg grabbed the Turtles and put them on trial for constantly breaking the fourth wall. Donatello tricked him into letting them go but he still wanted revenge. In this issue, Mr. Ogg returns and we get one of the biggest Ninja Turtles crossovers yet!

"Told You I'd Be Back" (The Ogglympics Part 1) opens with Mr. Ogg blasting his TV to bits since he can't find anything good on. He says everything is just remakes, sequels or adaptations and he's sick of it. Then he realizes what series he's in and he reminds the readers that he doesn't include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since they haven't even have 10 movies yet. Mr. Ogg is still angry that the Turtles constantly get away with breaking the fourth wall which he says is not for lesser beings. 

Mr. Ogg walks past a statue of the original Mirage Turtles and asks why the ones he deals with couldn't be more serious like them. Just then he has 'angel' and 'devil' versions of himself appear on his shoulders and they both agree that the Turtles got away too easily. They have a plan.

Meanwhile the Turtles and fighting off a new villain named Billy Boom, a mutated billy goat armed with gauntlets that send out explosive shockwaves. Raphael asks where this guy came from and Michaelangelo says he thinks he said Pittsburgh. Raphael says he looks more like Philly Goat. Billy says he's from Cleveland and he's here to make a name a for himself by defeating the Turtles when the Shredder could not. Donatello asks how a mutant from Ohio would know about their battle with the Shredder. Leonardo goes over and cuts Billy's sonic cannon off his wrist. 

Billy hits Leonardo with a headbutt, which takes him down. He then charges over and runs Michaelanegelo and Raphael over.  He turns his attention to Donatello, who tries to think of some way to stop him. Donatello notices that the sonic cannon on Billy's arm is sparking with electricity, so he throws a shuriken at it to make it worse. This causes the device to zap Billy and knock him out. Raphael tells Donatello he doesn't think technology works that way but Donatello is just happy it worked.

Just then a kid arrives, who recognizes the Turtles and wants an autograph. The Turtles sign his book, though they wonder what a kid is doing out so late and if his parents are worried. Donatello asks where Billy Boom went and the kid says he teleported away. With Donatello being the last one to sign, the book starts to glow with energy. The kid turns out to be Mr. Ogg.

The Turtles are annoyed and thought they were done with him. Mr. Ogg said he did promises to return and now he made them sign a waiver for what will happen next, according to multiversal law. Leonardo says it's unfair since they signed it under false pretenses. Mr. Ogg says it's not his fault they didn't read the fine print and they don't like it when they're the ones being tricked. He says he will play fair from now on as they will face epic odds and be entertaining while doing it. He spins the Turtles around and takes them to Dimension Z. 

Leonardo asks what Ogg really wants. Ogg says he wanted to punish them for breaking the fourth wall, but now he wants to punish them for tricking him. He will make them go through a series of challenges, and the best of two out of three wins. When he wins he will get to wipe the Turtles from existence. Michaelangelo says that's overkill, and Ogg says they signed the waiver. Michaelangelo comments that he liked Ogg better when he just ran around eating porcelain. 

Leonardo asks him what happens if they win. Ogg laughs and says assuming they even have a chance at winning, he will give up his power. Mr. Ogg says their first challenge will be to beat the person that lives beyond the arch. He points towards the arch in question. The Turtles walk through the arch and Leonardo figures they'll have to play along if they want to defeat Mr. Ogg. Michaelangelo notes that the entryway behind them disappeared. Then they notice that their opponent is a huge dragon.

The Turtles fight it out with the dragon, which doesn't seem to be able to breathe fire but seems invulnerable to attack. Michaelangelo thought Ogg was going to play fair. Donatello asks if he honestly believed him. Michaelangelo points out if Ogg didn't follow his own rules, he would have just zapped them all instead of letting them go the first time around. Donatello says they used strategy and they have to think three moves ahead to beat powerful enemies like Ogg. Michaelangelo says if you're is too busy thinking three steps ahead, you might miss the move that's right in front of you.

Michaelangelo suddenly starts dancing, and the dragon stops fighting and is mesmerized. Donatello finds this to be ridiculous. Michaelangelo then leaps up and takes the dragon out with a punch. The Turtles are shocked and Raphael asks how he did that. Michaelangelo says that Ogg told them that they'd be facing epic odds and to be entertaining while they did so. Donatello says that was too obvious. Mr. Ogg says it was so obvious they almost missed it if it weren't for Michaelangelo. He said he can afford for them to have one win but they'll never be able to score two. 

Raphael says Ogg sounds too confident, considering they beat him. Ogg says heroes always has advantages in stories like these, but now he will show them what it's like when the shoe is on the other foot. He warps everyone to an arena setting. Leonardo sees who their opponent are.

Mr. Ogg points out his 'new pals' and says that this time they're not the only heroes around. The 80's Turtles face off against the 2003 Donatello, the 2012 Michaelangelo, the Rise of the TMNT Raphael, the Mirage comics Leonardo and the IDW comics Jennika!

My Thoughts-

And so starts the major crossover that I mentioned a few times, where the Turtles get to meet up against not one version of themselves, but several. As for the story itself, it's clever how it started out with Ogg complaining about remakes and whatnot, so I figured his 'angel and devil' selves brought to his attention that the Turtles have also been rebooted and remade. I like the part where Ogg realizes he's technically a Ninja Turtles character too and quickly reminds the reader that they have to keep the Turtles going. Although, with a live-action trilogy, the 2007 movie, 2 Bay movies and Mutant Mayhem, they might not have ten movies yet but they're aren't that far behind. Even more if you count Turtles Forever as a movie. 

It was weird seeing the Turtles face a completely new made up villain with Billy Boom. The fact that he vanished after the fight and somehow knew about the Shredder makes me think he was just conjured up by Mr. Ogg. We get a cool shoutout to the Ninja Turtles arcade games when Billy Boom knocks Leonardo out and he falls in the 'shell shock' pose, stars and all.

The dragon was a good challenge and I like how Michaelangelo is paying attention to detail while thinking outside the box. He'd also be the only one wild enough to start dancing during a fight. He does have a point about rules, Mr. Ogg could just skip all the trials and contests and just zap them if he didn't have something holding him back.

Now for the big cliffhanger, what a cool combination of Turtles. This is also the first time where the other versions are visiting the 80's team rather than the other way around. I like the different art styles and the extra shading that implies that 2012 Mikey is a 3D CGI character among all the other characters that are different types of hand drawn animation. 

Jennika stands out from the crew since there obviously isn't a 80's version of her to match up against. I mean the closest they have is Venus and she wasn't in the 80's cartoon either. I wonder if one of the Turtles will call this out, as well as the fact that they're outnumbered. This is similar to the Street Fighter crossover where Jennika was also just... there... and there wasn't a fifth Street Fighter for her to be paired up against. I guess we'll see.

One thing I am curious about is if 2012 Mikey will recognize that he met the 80's Turtles before. Shredder said he found the new Technodrome in the future, so I'm assuming that means Turtles Forever will happen much later, or just happens in some alternate version of the show. I guess we'll find out next issue.