Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez Absolute Power deals with Amanda Waller working with both Failsafe and the Braniac Queen to achieve the story's namesake. Failsafe was defeated by Batman and his crew, but due to the military busting into Blackgate Prison, they had to escape, leaving the renegade robot behind. Recently, Damian discovered that Failsafe is gone, having been removed from Blackgate. "Be Better" opens with a man named Teddy sitting in a bar talking to the barkeep, Flannigan. During the events in the Gotham War, Teddy said he stumbled upon Batman's stuff, including his real name, and it must be worth something. Flannigan warns him not to mess with him. Teddy says he really needs the money and currently none of the major villains are hiring henchmen. Flannigan warns that something's changed with Batman, and he's become more dangerous. A few years ago, Flannigan recalls some people calling him as they found Batman lying unconscious right outside his bar. They can...

 By Mark Rodriguez Batman and his crew have defeated Daniel Captio and Failsafe, but one of their many plans involved creating a Robin of their own. While fighting Tim Drake, it's revealed that the clone was a younger Bruce Wayne in a Robin costume. After the defeat of Failsafe, the question remained, what happened to the clone? His story continues here. 'A Good Fantasy' opens with a man pulling a gun on someone over money owed to Cobblepot. A dark figure stops him and punches the guy out. Batman monologues that they've been looking for the clone and he figured that a Bruce Wayne that was lost and confused would eventually end up in Crime Alley. Batman confronts the Robin clone. The clone angrily lashes out at Batman, saying he killed his 'father' Failsafe. Batman catches the punch and restrains him as the clone breaks down, saying he's alone and doesn't know what to do. Batman monologues that Zur was still a part of him and all of this was his fault, s...

 By Mark Rodriguez The robot Failsafe, with the memories of Batman's split personality Zur-En-Arrh , has convinced the city that he is the 'true' Batman. He has locked away Bruce Wayne into Blackgate prison alongside other Gotham criminals. Bruce managed to escape and hide in a former Justice League hideout, where he eventually runs into Tim Drake. After time to heal and plan, Bruce suits up in a new Batman costume as he prepares to settle things. Meanwhile, Failsafe is assembling an army of Amazo robots. 'The Storm' flashbacks to when a younger Bruce was still training under Daniel. Bruce doesn't agree with the method of creating back up personalities, and says his plan won't work if he doesn't have full control of himself. Daniel says he's giving him ultimate control, he's giving him the tools to stop a storm by becoming a storm. Back to modern say, Bruce tells Tim to call the family and tell them that 'it's time'.  Damian is tied ...

 By Mark Rodriguez Mr. Ogg has returned and is angry that the Turtles continue to break the fourth wall. After getting rid of him once, he had returned with an event called the Ogglympics, and if the Turtles lose they'll be erased from existence. The Turtles defeated a dragon, but lost the second event which involved Creepy Eddie impersonating different versions of the Turtles from other shows. The tie-breaker involves the Turtles facing all of their enemies, past, present and future! "What rhymes with Melee? (The Ogglympics Part 3) starts with Shredder and Krang confused as to how they arrived. Shredder thinks Krang was the one that pulled him out of being stranded in between dimensions. Krang is confused how he got his android body back. Mr. Ogg appears in front of them and explains he gave Krang his body back since he likes it better than his walker. Shredder remembers Ogg. Ogg says he also remembers them and explains he brought all the villains together to destroy the Nin...

 By Mark Rodriguez One thing that seems constant in several versions of the TMNT is the guest appearance of Miyamoto Usagi from Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo series. In the 80's cartoon, Usagi arrived by accident while Donatello was working with his dimensional portal. He only appeared in two episodes with the unresolved story of Donatello eventually finding some way to take him back home. Let's see what happens in this issue.  Also note that the old cartoon didn't seem to read up much on the comic, so they named the character Usagi Yojimbo, which is the title of the series, while in the comic itself the character is named Miyamoto Usagi. The comic kept him as Yojimbo to follow the continuity (such as there is) of the old show. The issue opens in New York with the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang (which apparently is still operating) is trying to break into a store. Just then Usagi arrives and he tells the men to leave since the neighborhood is under his protection. The men stare...