TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 16

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Pantheon has been made aware of the Turtles existence and have decided to take care of them before attempting to attack Earth. They convinced the Turtles that they were fellow mutant good guys that needed their help. Suddenly Michaelangelo found himself in the party of all parties alongside all his friends and enemies. He figured out this was a simulation which ruins the Pantheon's plans to brainwash the Turtles into working with them. Now Michaelangelo faces off against all the members of the Pantheon by himself.

"Enter The Pantheon Part 2" opens as Michaleangelo asks the villains if they'll give up due to being so impressed that he was able to escape their simulation. Old Hob sends the members of The Pantheon after him. Michaelangelo dodges a tail whip from Drako and a bull charge from Manmoth. The Rat Queen jumps at him, saying she can take him down even without her legion of rats. Michaelangelo grabs her tail and swings her into Golgotha. 

Hob says he's wasting time that could be used in setting on shop on Earth. He tells Aka to give him a sonic screen despite the others being there. Aka screams at Michaelangelo, which also affects Manmoth and Drako. Michaelangelo thinks he can't beat all of these guys on his own and needs the others. He asks Aka if she does requests, since he wants to hear her pipes. Aka gets angry and releases another scream, even though Michaelangelo is standing in front of the glass tubes containing the other Turtles. 

The Turtles are now free, and they quickly avoid the incoming laser blasts from the Patheon. Leonardo tosses a smoke bomb and the Turtles vanish. Hob says they're in a pocket dimension so they can't get far.

Once a safe distance away from the Pantheon's base, Michaelangelo tells the others that the Pantheon tricked them and tried to brainwash them with simulations until they would help them take over Earth. Raphael asks how Michaelangelo figured that out. Michaelangelo says in his simulation, none of them have heard of pizza. Leonardo figures Earth does have a strategic value for intergalactic criminals, which explains why Krang never gives up. He asks how they can stop him. Donatello says they must have some sort of dimensional portal, and destroying it will slow them down. Raphael says they have no idea where the portal would be. Leonardo says he can make the Pantheon lead them to it.

Hob asks Golgotha to find the Turtles, but he tells them that there are many places for them to hide in a building that size. Hob tells Scratch to send their robotic minions after them. Scratch tells him they are currently being update and are offline. Golgotha finds Raphael and Michaelangelo in the warehouse where they are purposely taunting the camera. 

The Pantheon members arrive and note they only see Raphael and Michaelangelo and ask about the other two. Raphael leaps out of the way of Manmoth's charge attack and Michealangelo grabs onto Drako. Michaelangelo says they need to keep them busy long enough while the others find the portal room and call for help. Hob hears this and tells Aka, Drako and the Rat Queen to head towards the transport chamber and stop the other Turtles.

Hob and Manmoth try to attack Raph and Mikey, but they get away with more smokebombs. Hob tells Golgoth to find the Turtles. Golgoth reminds him they they don't have the whole place on camera since each member is very private.

Leonardo and Donatello hide and watch where Drako, Aka and the Rat Queen are going. Donatello commends Leonardo on tricking them into showing them where to do. Leonardo says a good leader knows when to work smarter and not harder. He uses the Turtlecom to send a silent ping to Raph and Mikey so he can tell them where they are.

Drako, Aka and Rat Queen arrive at the portal room and notice that the Turtles aren't there. Michaeangelo ties up Drako with his grappling hook and thanks them for showing them where the portal was. The Rat Queen says she didn't know the heroes would use trickery. Leonardo says that outthinking their opponents is part of being a ninja. Aka tells Hob that all four of the Turtles are in the portal room.

Drako snaps out of the ropes and makes no promises that the Turtles will be alive by the time Hob joins them. Michaelangelo ducks into his shell and throws himself at Drako. Aka prepares for another scream and Rat Queen warns her not to. She says if they damage the portal equipment, they'll be trapped in the pocket dimension. Donatello hears this and figures that the Pantheon only have one way out of here. He tells the others to cover him.

Manmoth overhears Donatello's plan and punches his way through the steel wall and into the room. He says he's the Intergalactic Champion of Combat and he will bodyslam them. Raphael asks how he was able to hear Donatello from outside the wall. Manmoth says his ears aren't just for show. Raph says he was going to comment on them but he thought Manmoth was the sensitive type. 

Hob fires his lasers at Leonardo saying that they don't understand their place in the grand scheme of things. Leonardo chops the barrel off of Hob's gun and says they understand that they're the good guys. The Rat Queen says that there are no good guys, only people that haven't found their price. Aka swoops in and says there is a lot of profit to make on Earth. Raphael ducks out of the way, letting the Rat Queen and Aka to crash into each other. Raphael says he's never heard something so cynical and he lives in New York.

Michaelangelo stands on Manmoth's shoulders and pulls his bandana down over her eyes. Leonardo dodges Hob's attacks and asks Donatello how his plan is coming along. Donatello says he is almost done, but their portal is different than the one he has in the lair. He then realizes the neutron flow was reversed the whole time, and he activates the portal. The Turtles sees Waltzy's Junkyard in the portal and know it's the way home. 

The Rat Queen says the Pantheon will prevail no matter how formidable they are. Donatello says she might be right, but they'll be too busy trying to keep the portal from blowing up to deal with them. The Turtles leap through the portal. Aka says they have to get through the portal before the system overloads.

The portal equipment is fried. Rat Queen says it could take years to fix. Aka asks Hob if he has a better plan, and she realizes that he is missing.

The Turtles are at the junkyard. Raphael wishes Donatello picked somewhere closer to to home. Donatello says the portal was so complicated they were lucky they didn't end up in the midwest. Leonardo says all that matters is that they stopped the bad guys and their plans. Donatello says the villains had Dimension X level technology and they don't need more of that in their lives. Since the transporter was damaged they should be in the clear for now. Michaelangelo says they should get some pizza as a reward.

Old Hob is hiding behind some cars in the junkyard and angrily watches the Turtles head off. 

My Thoughts-

It was a pretty fun story, though it would have been fun to get a short insight on whatever the simulations looked like for Don, Raph and Leo. With Don, he did mention that he was helping the Pantheon develop new technology, but we got nothing from Leo and Raph. 

A few things that stood out to me in this one was that fact that the 80's Turtles have never used smoke bombs in the old show. Yeah, the Ninja Turtles in several other incarnations have used them, but I don't recall the 80's version ever using them. Another thing is now the Turtlecom having 'silent pings'. There were several times in the old series where the Turtles would accidentally get April of themselves in trouble because the Turtlecom 'sound' would alert everyone around them and get them caught. That was not in the old show, but that's something that could have been useful. 

There's much else to say, expect the concept of Old Hob being stuck on Earth is an interesting way to end things for now. We can see what things he'll be up to now that he's running around, and it gives a reason for the rest of the Pantheon to return as they'll be looking for him. I'm curious to see what will happen next, and things like this make me glad the comic returned as an on-going series. 

We didn't get to learn much more about the Pantheon, but there's only so much one can do with so many characters in a two-part story. Possibly the character we know the least about is Drako. Galgotha comes close, but at least we know he's in charge of all the techy stuff.

The final pages advertise a three pack omnibus of the first three volumes of the IDW Sonic comics. There's also going to be an omnibus to the TMNT Amazing Adventures series which was based on the 2012 show. Even though it's a collection of reprinted material, it's interesting to see IDW return to the world of the 2012 TMNT.