Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

 By Mark Rodriguez Before the cartoons, the toys and live action movies, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in the Mirage comics. Over the years the original volumes have been re-printed several times, especially under the IDW label. I picked up the first issue of what IDW calls TMNT Colored Classics Volume 3, even though it was still part of Mirage volume 1. This one deals with Casey Jones and his personal demons, which leads to another vigilante coming after him. Let's see how this goes. "Shades of Grey" starts with Casey running across the rooftops of Springfield and Leo, Raph and Mike getting ready to chase as part of some game. Don opts out since he wants to debug some systems he's working on and Raph considers it a weak excuse. Splinter allows Don to stay and the Turtles head off. Splinter explains that April will drive the Turtles to the Memorial Bridge where Casey already has a three hour head start. If they haven't found him by 1AM, he will ...

 By Mark Rodriguez Talk about a blast from the past. I remember reading part of this as a young teen back in the day. For those wondering what would happen if both comic book universes ever clashed... This is as close as we'll get. This is an interesting read, if at least to remember at what place the characters were back in the mid-90's as opposed to how they are now. Thanks to the Bent Wookee comic store I was able to grab all the issues for a cheap price. This is a 4 part story and while being far from perfect, it's cool for all the cameos alone. One thing to mention are some of the fights were actually decided by reader's votes... So if some of the results seem kinda lame and nonsensical... Well it was the readers fault or the character's own fanbase. As for some others, we just see the characters in 'about to fight' poses or stare downs... but never actually see them come to blows. Like I said.. Far from perfect. Anyways lets dive into the 90s DC and Ma...

By Mark Rodriguez  If it's one of the things left out in the animated Superman Doomsday movie that woulda been cool is seeing Doomsday take down several DC superheroes before Superman himself stepped in. Kinda like in DBZ where the villains take out the regular fighters before Goku shows up, the Justice League of America all took a shot at Doomsday and were ripped apart to showcase just how powerful this new mystery monster was. Let's all see how this plays out as Bloodwynd, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, Maxima, Fire and Ice try to stop this unstoppable menace. Last time a mysterious monster broke out of some sort of underground containment unit and started wrecking havoc wherever it went. Superman and Lois Lane were dealing with Clawster and some Underworlders, as the monster caused a truck to overrun and explode. Some people see this and decide it's time to call in the Justice League.   Justice League of America # 69 (heh) opens up with 'Down for the Count...

 By Mark Rodriguez I still remember the media uproar when DC announced the death of Superman. Of course nowadays superhero deaths don't mean much, but back then DC was really trying to sell that they were killing Superman off for good. I wasn't even that much into comics then and that news hit the papers and the evening news. I mean, everybody knew who Superman was, so this was a huge deal. In current day I don't remember all that many comic book events actually making it on TV news. I remember classmates saying it was a dumb idea and if DC was going to put everything on Batman since they killed off their main cash cow. The funny thing is that nowadays, whether Superman is alive or dead, DC is still putting all their bets on Batman. "Doomsday Part 1" starts 'somewhere else' (it literally says so) as a gloved hand is punching away out some sort of metallic prison. After six pages of Kraanging against the metal prison, this mystery monster finally breaks fr...

 By Mark Rodriguez I've run across different parts of this one here and there but never wanted to buy an incomplete story. This was way before I discovered sites like Hipcomic where I could just buy the missing issues. One time at Sci-Fi Valley Con back in 2015 where I actually found all three parts at the same time, so I finally nabbed them.    The issue opens on a stormy night as police cars rush down the dark alleys. A local bum points towards something and they see Batman, hanging from a wall of wooden planks, seemingly dead. He's rushed to the hospital where they try to do what they can (a doctor even stops a nurse from trying to unmask him) but the Caped Crusader flat-lines and is taken to the morgue.   The doctors are all saddened and one of them in particular goes to a bar to drink away the pain. A guy in a tacky green suit, (looks like a reporter to me) enters the bar and talks to the doctor. He then arrives at the morgue and bribes the guard there to let hi...

 By Mark Rodriguez Bebop and Rocksteady stole a time scepter from Savanti Romero and after running into the Turtles and Renet, went back to the year 2000, running into their past pre-mutated human selves. Both the human and mutant Bebop and Rocksteadys go through time in their Foot Cruiser, running into another pair of them in another car. They both appear in front of the Turtles and Renet and crash into each other. One pair of human Bebop and Rocksteadys didn't survive the crash, so the surviving mutants ran into the car of the other 4 and they all escaped through time, all in front of the very shocked and confused Turtles and Renet. Mikey freaks out and asks Renet if they were sent to the crazverse, which she says she wouldn't take them there. Leo is worried that Renet just confirmed that there is a crazyverse, while Renet and Don explain time travel theories as to what happened. Savanti Romero arrived where they are now and had the scepter stolen from him by Bebop and Rockst...

 By Mark Rodriguez The Turtles find fossils of Bebop and Rocksteady in a museum and Renet shows up. They go after the mutant duo in Rio de Janeiro who use the time scepter they apparently took from Savanti Romero to escape. They then end up in New York City but back in the year 2000 and run into their younger pre-mutated selves. Let's see what happens. Renet and the Turtles are wondering what to do now and Leo asks why Renet thought it was weird to see Bebop and Rocksteady's bones in their timeline. Renet explains when you time travel, you change the universe you visit, so you can no longer return to the exact time you came from. The fossils must belong to another Bebop and Rocksteady from some other timeline. Don asks is they took the scepter from Savanti Romero, then where is he now? Renet and the gang decide to go back to the Cretaceous Period and find him. Meanwhile back in the year 2000, Bebop and Rocksteady rock out with their younger selves. They hang out and talk for a ...

 By Mark Rodriguez Bebop and Rocksteady have always been everyone's favorite henchmen when it came to the TMNT. Even though other series gave Shredder assistants like Tatsu, Tokka, Rahzar, Hun, Karai, Fishface and Dogpound, this mutant duo will always be the favorite. IDW did a great job of making them nearly unstoppable threats, while still keeping their trademark stupidity and incompetence. I mean a few years back would you have believed that there was a comic where Rocksteady beat Donnie to death with a sledgehammer??? Well, their first IDW one-shot dealt with their mutation and their first missions for the Foot. Now let's see what other trouble these mutant morons can get themselves into. The story begins within the Mirage Universe as Savanti Romero gets defeated by the Turtles and Renet. Savanti gets banished through time, losing his wife, his body and everything. He is then visited by two very unlikely time travelers, Bebop and Rocksteady.   Elsewhere, in modern day, Don...