Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Black White & Green # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

So this is an interesting idea. This new series is a collection of short stories done by different artists and not necessarily taking place in the IDW continuity. Also these comics are black and white, but also green for an added twist and go along with the Ninja Turtle vibe. Let's take a look.

"Green Screen" opens with Donatello trying to get into the federal database to locate every crime happening in the city. The rest of the group wants to go on patrol, but Donatello wants to stay behind and continue working. Splinter is worried that Donatello hasn't left the room for a while, but the Turtles decide to head out without him. Donatello feels he's more useful to his brothers staying behind and working on the computer. 

Donatello suddenly loses contact with the Turtles as in unable to track them. Splinter arrives and tells him he will have to get his hands dirty and go search for them in person. Donatello agrees that right now his brothers need a ninja, not a keyboard warrior. 

Donatello arrives to help his brothers fight against Leatherhead. During the fight, Leatherhead whips his tail towards Donatello's face and is knocked out. 

Donatello wakes up and he thinks he finally figured things out. Raphael says they seemed to have worked it out without him. Donatello asks if everyone is alright. Raphael says that Leatherhead was laughing so much after knocking Donnie out that the others were able to take him down. 

Leonardo apologizes for pulling Donnie away from his work, saying her understands how important it is. Donnie says the experience helped clear his head, even though it also hurt. Raphael says it's good to know, and they'll call him whenever they need him to get knocked unconscious again.

The Turtles head home, hoping to get some pizza. Donatello ponders that he likes to isolate himself but it is good to get distracted once in a while, especially when his distractions are only a few feet away.

"The Brutal Sword of Leonardo" opens with a myth about a great leader from another time. The warrior would be known by his weapon known as the Brutal Sword of Leonardo.

Donatello is working on a theory on interdimensional travel, and when he activates his device it sucks Leonardo through a worm hole. Donnie says Master Splinter is going to kill him.

Leonardo arrives into another land and fights his way through it, soon earning himself the moniker The Warrior King. During a battle, a lizard creature gets away from him, telling the Warrior King that his people will no longer feed off the energy of the Crystal Shard of K'Azz. He takes the crystal and says now Leo's people will know the hunger his does. The lizard takes the crystal and escapes through a worm hole.

Leonardo knew he would have to travel through the wastelands and the swamps of madness to reclaim the crystal. He asks among the villagers who would be the bravest to join him upon his quest. At this point, Leonardo has gained the trust of his men and several brave warriors offer to join him. 

The crew approaches what Leonardo calls 'Demon Water' and he tells them to leap across the stones, without disturbing the water. A pig slips and falls into the water and this awakens a snake monster. Leo tells a fox to hit it with his arrows. He misses, so Leo takes down the monster himself. Leonardo tells the fox that when they return, he will practice fifty bull's eyes every morning for a week.

The crew arrives at Castle Death, and Leo tosses a grappling hook through one of the windows. They climb into the castle and take out one of the monsters before it can warn the others. The crew run up the spiraling staircase and make it right before the lizard can use the crystal. Leonardo takes hold of the crystal and a worm hole opens in front of him. The other Turtles show up and Donatello says he just needed the data blip to find Leonardo.

The Turtles take down all of the lizard man's forces. Leonardo thanks his brothers for the help but tells them that he's staying behind. He feels that the people here need his order, supervision and strength to survive. One of the Turtles says he is also needed back home as New York has gone wild in his absence. Leonardo says the people would be lost without his vision. Donatello points out that Leo says 'his vision' and he's supposed to help people, not rule over them with an iron fist.

Leonardo agrees and says that maybe he lost a part of himself in the day-to-day struggle. He says he might be meant to be a Warrior King. Leo leaves with his brothers. Mikey says he always knew Leo was a goody-goody... which is why he'll buy an extra large anchovy Sicilian-style pizza when they get home. Leo asks if the pizza delivery boy will take a jade fertility statue as payment. Mikey says anything's possible in New York.

"The Flame That Fuels You" opens with the Turtles being battle-beaten and Leonardo berating Raphael over going after the Foot alone.  He reminds him that there are thousands of them and only one of him. The other remind him that they're a team. Raph says he doesn't want to hear another lecture and he'll gladly put himself on the line as long as innocents are saved. Leo says they're not martyrs. Raph says he's done with the conversation and locks himself in his room. Raph angrily punches the wall and goes to sleep.

A floating creature named Opie appears in Raph's dreams and tells him that his soul is in danger. They're now in the city and Opie tells the 'green guy' the creature is in the sewers. Raphael tells Opie to call him by name and not 'green guy' and the creature hears them. 

A demon appears, which Opie calls the Thieving God. Raph says his brothers held him back earlier, but he won't be so lucky as he starts to fight. The demon knocks Raph back and not both fighters are surrounded by a circle of fire.

Raph hears Leo's voice telling him to put out the fire. Raph says he can't even do this on his own and Leo always needs to be in control. Raph says he's much more than Leo thinks and he manages to take down the demon. Raph tears the demon's mask off to see that it was actually himself.

Opie explains the Thieving God is attracted to anyone that takes, and Raph took away his own sense of self preservation. Raph notices that the circle of fire came from him and he needs to fix this. Opie says that Raph already recovered his soul and asks what else he could want. Raph says this isn't about himself. 

Later on, the Turtles return to see Raph looking a lot calmer. Raph says he's been through a lot, and he;s not good with words, so he brought a plant from the surface. The Turtles appreciate it and will watch over it since they'll all be out of commission for a few days.

"Identity Theft" opens with Mikey bringing Donnie a jar of green goo he left behind. Mikey notices a hover board in the lab and leaves with it. Donnie pours the liquid into another container, set up against a smartphone that has a video of the turtles training. 

Leonardo comes in and asks Donnie if the hover board he made was nuclear since Mikey and Raph are crashing into sewer grates with it. As they both leave, the video keeps playing of the turtles trying out different moves in front of the liquid. The liquid bubbles up and explodes out of its container.

The Turtles return from hover boarding, which Donnie laments as it's now broken, when they suddenly hear a noise coming from the lair. They see the goop has taken form of one of the Turtles. It forms a sai in one hand and a nunchuck in the other and starts to attack the Turtles using the phrases they used in the training video. 

Leonardo slices the goop turtle in half, and both halves form into separate turtles. One of the goop turtles uses the 'sneaky sai sling' that Raph used in the video against Raph himself. Then he tries using the 'Donnie Bo-Arang' against Donnie. One of them uses his arms like tendrils and ties up Leonardo. Donnie remembers the containment cube and runs to get it.

The goop Turtles wraps on of his tendrils around Donnie's leg and trips him up. Donnie manages to smack the containment cube off the table with his bo and tosses it towards the others. Mikey manages to catch the cube between his teeth. The goop turtle wraps itself around the gang telling them they're all bros and goes back into the cube. Mikey asks if anyone has a tissue as they walks off. We see the smartphone on the floor, as their video ended with the Turtles posing together happily.

My thoughts-

I rather enjoy these stories. They remind me of the Tales of the TMNT comics where the Turtles would have random one-shot adventures, except a lot shorter and more to the point. The art styles vary as different artists and each one has their one different has their interpretation of the Turtles. They seem to vary between either the more simplified classic look (just the bandanas, belts, shoulder pads, knee pads and the belt) and some have the extra fighter tape. The most notable one is 'Green Screen' where the Turtles had the initialized belt buckles like they did in the classic cartoon.

Overall I enjoyed all four stories. Possibly the strangest one is the story about Leonardo being the Warrior King. Who knows how long he was trapped in this other world where he had to adapt to his new surroundings. One of the things Raphael always argues with Leonardo about is letting the power go to his head.. and who knows. Maybe being stuck in an alternate world where everyone seems to worship him and never talk back did give him an ego. Out of all the stories, this one had the most potential. Imagine if it was expanded and when the brothers showed up, Leonardo wanted to fight them off because he didn't want to give up his Warrior King status until they finally made him see reason. Of all the stories, that one is also the most condensed, cramming as many panels as a page can fit to squeeze in the action scenes.

The weirdest story was the one about the green goo turning into a turtle and copying everything is heard from the video. What exactly was what stuff?

The black, white and green coloring style is used very creatively and it varies from story to story and sometimes even from page to page. In 'Green Screen' the pages would vary from having the Turtles be colored green while their masks are not to them being 'black and white' with their bandanas being what's green. Sometimes the speech bubbles are green, sometimes the bubbles are white and the letters are green. I like the uniqueness and hoe playful every artist is in where they decide to throw green into things.

I liked the story, I liked the art. I've added this one to my pullbox, so I'll be looking forward to the next issue.