Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Black White & Green # 4

By Mark Rodriguez

The Black, White and Green series has been an anthology mini-series as each issue has 4 stories all drawn by different artists and all taking place within the several TMNT continuities. The extra kicker is that all the stories are in black and white, with the only additional color being green. This is the fourth and final book in the series, so let's see what stories awaits us.

"Legends" opens with the Turtles still being children as Splinter sends them to bed. The Turtles want a bedtime story and Splinter offers to read them the story of the four Kappa. Splinter says there was once a beautiful forest that had four Kappa named Kenji, Ko, Kei and Kento that lived in harmony with the rest of the wildlife. They were beloved for their wisdom, kindness and strength. The forest thrived under their watchful eyes. Things were fine until one day a ferocious wind hit the forest. This was the wind of Kamaitachi, an evil force that brings destruction and devastation. They unleashed their fury upon the forest turning the sanctuary into a place of chaos and fear.

The Kappa could feel the fierce winds, but they were safe thanks to their shells. They could hear the cries of their animal friends. The Kappa realizes they were protected with their shells, but wondered about those that could not protect themselves. The Kappa stepped out of their shells and decided to help their friends against the vicious winds.

Ko was the strongest and he used his shell to protect a family of rabbits. His shell was as strong as iron and it deflected the Kamaitachi's claw attacks. We see a panel of Raphael's sai blocking a sword attack.

Kento was known for his speed and agility, and he led a family of hedgehogs to safety. Kento's shell would absorb the impact of the Kamaitachi's claws, keeping the hedgehogs unharmed. We see a panel of Donatello's blow blocking a sword from attacking a woman.

 

Kenji could use his keen senses to anticipate the wind's movements. He used himself as a barrier to keep a family of birds safe. We see Michealangelo swing his nunchucks into a Foot Ninja.

Kei possessed a brave heart and sharp mind. He helped rally the animals to hide behind the safety of the Kappa's shells. We see Leonardo swing his sword towards another Foot Ninja.

With the Kamaitachi's attacks thwarted, they are carried off by the wind, away from the forest. The animals left their hiding places as the danger passed. They gathered around Ko, Kento, Kenji and Kei. A rat elder approached the Kappa and thanked them for saving them. He asks why they left their place of safety to risk their lives for them. 

We see the woman thank the Turtles for saving her from the Foot. Later on we she see is reading the book 'The Legend of the Four Kappa' to her child. The story ends with the Kappa answering the rat's question. They risked their lives because not all creatures have shells. 

The story ends as the Turtles leap off the rooftops after rescuing the woman.

 

"Shredder gets caught on Things" opens with Michealangelo wearing a suit as he's hosting Turtles News Tonight. He has breaking news as he has exclusive footage of the Shredder doing what he does best... getting caught on things. He tells Donatello to run the tape.

We see a scene of the classic scene of Mirage TMNT # 1 as Shredder faces the Turtles for the first time. This time however, there is some laundry hanging behind him on a clothesline and the clothes get stuck on his blades. The Turtles laugh and attack the Shredder while he's tangled up with the laundry.

Michealangelo pokes fun at Shredder's costume design and says for the next clip, Shredder's not caught on something, he gets caught in something. This time we see a scene from the end of the TMNT 90's live-action movie. Shredder is holding on to his spear as he is hanging off a rooftop, the only thing holding up being Splinter's nunchucks wrapped around the spear. Shredder tosses a blade at Splinter, and as he catches it, the villain falls off the roof and lands into a garbage truck. Casey Jones pulls the handle on the truck saying "oops!". The garbage truck crunches down on Shredder. Michealangelo is shocked by the clip.

 

Michealangelo says some people might call that murder, but in comics it's called drama. The next clip shows the 80's Turtles facing off against Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady. Shredder says the Turtles won't defeat him this time since he will feed them to the monsters of Dimension Z. The beasts look like pterodactyls as they fly around the Dimension Portal behind Shredder. One of them peak their heads through the portal and bites onto Shredder's cape. The flying dinosaur eats Shredder, leaving the Turtles, Bebop and Rocksteady surprised. Michealangelo says the broadcast standards and practices did not like that clip.

 

Michealangelo says that Master Splinter would probably say Shredder deserved it, to which Splinter says he would not from off screen. The next clip takes place in 2023, and shows a scene from the 2003 TMNT episode 'Same as it never was'. In this one Donatello was sent to a dark future in which Shredder ruled the world. We see the final scene where Ch'Rell is boasting as he prepares to finish off Donatello. Donatello says he was only attacking Shredder to get him into position for his trap. A chain wraps itself around both Shredder and Donatello's mech as he jumps out. Shredder is pulled towards the Turtle Tunneler's drill, as it goes right into his face. 

Michealangelo says part of him thinks that was harsh, but then remember that Ch'Rell destroyed the world, kill him and his brothers, his father and Casey Jones... so he had it coming. Michealangelo ends the show holding up a newspaper showing the IDW Shredder. He says that Shredder will get caught in a paper shredder as he puts the newspaper in there. Michealangelo concludes the show and asks if Shredder is somehow watching, to please keep getting caught in things for them.

"Does this Android dream of Electric Sleep" opens with Donatello narrating from a first person view. The other Turtles are fighting against an army of Mousers, as one of them tried biting on Donatello's robot arm. Donnie says he loved defending the city with his brothers, but now that he's a cyborg, he processes things differently. Donnie fires a blast that wipes out all of the Mousers at once. Raphael is angry and says they were just getting warmed up.

Donatello apologizes to his brothers as he explains that the super computer's calculations are difficult to ignore. We see different battles as the Turtles have faced the Rat King, Bebop and Rocksteady and Leatherhead is separate occasions, each time with Donnie solving the problem before the others could do much.

Later on we see the other Turtles head off to patrol without Donatello. Michealangelo feels wrong about this but Donatello says it's for the best and he doesn't want to get in their way anymore. After they leave, Donatello narrates that they were getting in his way. They all trained in the way of the ninja, but he feels that his cybernetic body outmatches and outclasses his lifetime of training with a simple thought. He'd rather spend his time exploring his cyborg self. He notes his new body doesn't have any physical limits and he is in essence, immortal.

Donatello told his supercomputer to run complex calculations to determine his theoretical futures. He has found three potential future. The first one shows him killing Shredder with his own hands. The second shows a futuristic looking city. The third shows the galaxy. Donatello notices that all three of these possible futures don't include his brothers. 

Donatello asks himself who he is without his brothers. His head tells him that he is comprised of myriad individual choices... but his heart tells him his life can't exist without his brothers. Donatello notes that with each passing day, his intellect overpowers his emotions. Every time he checks, he sees less of his organic self. He notices that his brothers came back and Donnie asks if they forgot something. Leonardo says they did. Leonardo says that with or without calculations, going on patrol is not the same without him. 

Donatello figures if he can choose to stop focusing on outcomes he has no control over, he should chose to be present for the ones that still affect him. Doing so helps him get out of his head be himself again. Michaelaneglo says he missed Donnie, and he says he missed them too.

 

"The Book of Splinter" starts with Shredder having captured April and Splinter in the Technodrome as he tells his robot Foot Soldier that he was not programmed to fail and his hybrid brainalyzer mind must lead the Foot to victory. Footbrain says his Turtle Predictive Program stalled at 96% and he recommends uploading data found in Splinter's book. Shredder considers Splinter a failure. Footbrain says the book might contain secrets, locations and insight. Shredder says he trained him and he forbids failure. He orders him to destroy the book and to upload the location for the portal when he finds it and execute the prisoners. The Foot Ninja decides to study the book regardless.

 

The ninja sees that the loss of April will bring despair but losing Splinter will wound them further. The despair will separate the Turtles as they search for Splinter in vain. Eventually the Turtles will reunite at April O'Neil's farm where they resume Splinter's training. Later the Turtles will follow the firefly festival tradition of Splinter's youth, Hotoru.

Shredder now has April tied up with his machinery. The Foot Ninja returns and warns Shredder that he will not find the glory he seeks with this attack. Shredder asks if he has read the book, to which his student says he has. The ninja seeks honor, but he can never possess which has already been stolen. Shredder says some students must fail their test to discover the true lesson. The Foot Ninja says it was not programmed to failed and run in to try to kill April. Just then a cloaked figure swoops in and slices the robot's head off. 

The cloaked figure was Splinter as he ponders if his book will also lead the Turtles to failure. April says they don't have time for this as they have to open a portal before Shredder returns. Splinter worries that opening a portal will lead the Foot to the Turtles and they aren't ready. April says they have to believe they'll be ready since they are his students and sons. She is sure the Turtles will defeat the Foot.

 

Just then Shredder arrives, threatening to kill Splinter. April manages to activate the portal and the Turtles swoop in to save the day.

My Thoughts-

Very interesting mix of stories here. The first one was a bed time story, and I like how Splinter reading this story to the turtles as kids also juxtaposes with a woman reading that same story to child in modern after just having her life saved by the turtles. That was pretty cool and unexpected since I thought the whole story would be about the Turtle Tots. I like the irony of one of the turtles being the quickest and helping a family of Hedgehogs gets to faster. Gotta go fast.

The second one was completely random but I liked all the random callbacks to different forms on TMNT media. We had scenes calling back to Mirage, the 90's TMNT movie, the 80's TMNT and the 2003 TMNT. It was kind of odd that Mikey didn't bring up that these were all different continuities and different Shredders. I mean one of them wasn't even human. We pretty much watched a Shredder death clip show.

 

 

The third story seems to be about the Image TMNT, seeing as Donatello is a cyborg with a similar design to that comic run, and Raphael is missing an eye. I guess it's an alternate take on this, seeing as Raph's face looks alright otherwise, and there isn't any indication of Leonardo missing a hand. Out of all of the Image TMNT, Mikey was the only one that didn't suffer some extreme body damage. Then you still have Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady being shown, so it's not completely in continuity, which is the freedom these stories bring. In the Image comics, Donatello broke his shell and was merged with an android, and both of them were fighting for control of their now shared body. This story seems to be more in the line with the original Image run where it seemed that Donatello was going to be a cyborg permanently. It wasn't until years later that IDW got the rights to continue and conclude the story that it was shown that they were able to get the cybernetics removed from his body.

The last story was pretty confusing, with the Shredder constantly telling this robot Foot Ninja that he wasn't programmed to fail, and he wasn't trained to fail. The Technodrome was featured and April was dressed in her Channel 6 jumpsuit, but everything else looked darker and more serious. I have no idea what the deal was with Splinter's book and why Shredder would be against the Foot Ninja checking what secrets it might contain. Then how did Splinter somehow escape if Shredder had him captured along with April and then moved April to another location. I feel out of all the stories, this one suffered most from the 'super-condensed so that three other stories can fit' nature of the book. I did like April's confidence in the Turtles... but what was the deal with Splinter's book, especially since that was the title of the story.

I guess my favorite story was the first one. The second one comes close second, heh, due to all the callbacks to previous shows and movies. I also love the art styles for this one, especially the big pin up pages of the Turtles at the end of both the first and fourth story. I also notice we got a lot more Splinter in this one since he was barely in the last issue, if at all.

Overall this was a fun couple of issues. You'll get all sorts of madness whenever they collect all four into a paperback. I would have liked to have seen more issues, but I guess there's only so many different random stories of the Turtles one can do before the idea gets old. Due to the random nature of the stories, I wouldn't have minded some stories taking place in the 2007 movie universe, similar to how we got one that was kinda/sorta based on the Image universe. Or maybe extra stories based on the 2003 show. We already have an ongoing based on the 80's cartoon and IDW already had runs with the 2012 and Rise show, so more visits to the 2003 world would be greatly appreciated.

 I like the different takes and art styles, and with such a short amount of time, the stories are pretty good at explaining how those particular versions of the Turtles work. The only downside is that short amount of time since I feel some of the stories needed an extra page or two to breathe. Maybe some of the better ones could have been reserved for a special issue where you get three stories instead of four, so those chosen three get more pages. Either way it was fun, and I wouldn't mind if down the line we get a Black, White and Green volume 2.