TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 23

 By Mark Rodriguez

In this issue Donatello is some sort of James Bond super spy working for Dirk Savage. In the cartoon episode 'Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter!', Dirk was going after all mutants, good or bad, which included the Punk Frogs, Mondo Gecko, Tokka and Rahzar. He saw the errors in his ways at the end the episode, so let's see what happens here.

"Donatello: Agent of D.U.D.E" opens with the Turtle in question, wearing a black suit, standing on top of an air craft of sorts as he faces off against the nefarious Dr. Bro. Donatello aims a gun at him and tells him to give up. He says he might be a teenager but he's been stopping the plans of megalomaniacs for what feels like a decade. Dr. Bro says he just want to destroy Rockaway Beach.

Donatello fires off immobilizing gel, that misses the villain, but goes get all over the remote he had. The Turtle says this super spy stuff isn't hard at all. Dr. Bro tells Donnie not to get too overconfident as he has one more trick up his sleeve, or rather, in his hat. The hat has some sort of lens on it, and it fires a blast that knocks Donatello off the floating platform. As he falls, Donatello wonders how he got into this mess.

We go back several hours earlier, as Donatello is buying pizza flavored cough drops at the Somni Deli & Grocery. Donnie pays the cashier and says she can keep the change. The cashier says it's only 17 cents and now she can quit her job and dedicate her life to her passions. I haven't heard a variation of that joke in a good while now. Donatello asks his bros, via Turtlecom, if they need anything else before he returns home. Just then a voice calls out saying he was looking for him.

Dirk Savage is glad to have found Donatello and asks where the rest of the Turtles are. Donnie says they're feeling under the weather and asks how he found him. Dirk says he got a new gig that gives him all sorts of experimental gadgets. He needs help and there's no one better than the mutant that once saved his life and then asks if he was one of the ones that saved his life.

Donatello says he'd love to help but before he can say anything else, Dirk considers that to be 'legally binding language' and calls for the Boomerang Beam. They are teleported to a secret base of some sort. Donatello asks if they're in space, a flying air craft carrier or under the ocean. Dirk says they're in Staten Island, which doesn't impress Donatello.

Dirk explains that after their previous encounter he decided to quit freelancing and joined an organization dedicated to the protecting the world. He also got tired of paying his own doctors. The group is called D.U.D.E  and Donatello says that not even Michaelangelo would go that far. Dirk says he never kids about the Daring Undercover Department of Espionage. They keep the world safe from the Global Institute of Violence and Evil. Donatello says that would be G.I.V.E and he feels they're messing with him. Dirk says the only thing that organization wants to give to the world is destruction.

Dirk says they learned that G.I.V.E is planning an all-out assault on North America. Donatello notes that the targeted areas as in Victoria, Mexico City, Minneapolis, Baltimore and San Diego and wonders why more capitols weren't targeted. Dirk explains those areas are vital D.U.D.E assets as well as their favorite taco places. He says they can spread out and stop the assaults, but that will leave them stretched thin, which is part of the plan.

Dirk shows Donatello an image of Dr. Bro, one of G.I.V.E's top evil scientists and surf aficionado. Dirk has a grudge against New York and plans to cause destruction there while the rest of D.U.D.E is stopping all the other attacks. Donatello figures that if they stop him, one of the other targets will get destroyed, and if the don't stop him, New York will get destroyed.

Dirk says this is why they need Donatello. As a master ninja, he can sneak into Dr. Bro's lab and stop his plans while the rest handle the other threats. Donatello asks why they don't call the police or the marines, or use the teleporter to help them save time. Dirk explains the Boomerang Ray is only good for warping the agents back to base. They use regular transportation for everything else. He says the police and military don't have experience dealing with a madman like Dr. Bro but Donatello does. Donatello sighs and says he's addressed any possible argument he could think of and decides to take a look. He asks if he can get a lift to Brooklyn since public transit won't get him there on time. Dirk says he can do something better than give him a lift. 

 Donatello is soaring across the city in a jet pack and now wearing a suit in tie. He says this makes him feel like a real super spy. He arrives outside of the building where Dr. Bro would be hiding and uses his special goggles to see through the wall. He sees only four guards playing cards, and they're also mutants. 

The guards play cards as Donatello tries to sneak up on them. He suddenly falls and smashes through their table. He tells the men he's not used to sneaking around the rafters wearing dress shoes. The mutants go after Donatello, who dodges their attacks without trouble. He figures he can't waste time with them since he needs to stop their boss. He shoots them with the immobilizing gel which leave the mutants stuck in place. 

Donatello hears a sound and runs down the hall to see Dr. Bro on his platform, which is starting to take off. Donatello remarks that Dr. Bro sounds more like Michaelangelo than Michaelangelo himself does and leaps onto the platform.

We get back to the present, Donatello is still falling off the platform and wishing he still had the jetpack with him. Suddenly Michaelangelo grabs him. Mikey is hanging off a rope from the Turtle Blimp as Leonardo and Raphael pilot it. Donatello asks how they knew he'd be in trouble. Michaelangelo says Donatello left the Turtlecom on and they heard everything. Raphael knew he'd need their help so they rushed over, even though Donnie left the cough drops in Staten Island. Leonardo tells Raph that they can survive a 24 hour turtle flu. 

Leonardo activates a grappling hook that attaches itself to Dr. Bro's flying platform. The turtles zipline from the blimp over to him. Michaelangelo says he won't let him take out the only good non-sewer surfing in the city. Dr. Bro says he can still use his concussive energy blasts on him. Leonardo coughs, which happens to help him duck in time to avoid the blasts. Michaelangelo swings his grappling hook but sneezes just at the moment he tosses it. Even so, the grappling hook manages to knock the hat off of Dr. Bro. The hat blasts one of the motors and the platform is going down.

Raphael grabs Dr. No as he says that with the ship destroyed now 'we are all going to die'. Raphael asks what he means by 'we' since their blimp works fine. Leonardo snaps at Raph saying his joke was NOT funny. Raph says it was a little funny. Leo tells him to just grab the bad guy so they can leave. Leo asks Don if he can stop them from crashing. Donatello says he can guide the ship into the bay. The remote he is holding is still covered in the gunk from earlier. He says he won't let the 'Michaelangelo wannabe' score a win on his first spy mission.

Leo, Raph and Mikey swing back towards the blimp with Dr. Bro as Donatello stays on the platform to guide it. He figures the remaining turbine should be enough to take the platform to water, but one of the remote's buttons doesn't work. Michaelangelo worries that the ship still looks like it's going to hit land. Donatello tosses the remote and gives the turbine a kick. The ship changes direction, though Donatello says the angle is still wrong. He gives the turbine another kick and the platform hits the ocean. Doing so causes a huge wave that impresses Dr. Bro, saying he wish he could ride it. Michaelangelo also admires the epic wave but then catches himself and tells the guy to shut up, not wanting to agree with a bad guy. Leonardo asks if anyone sees Donatello. Raphael points out to Donatello raising a thumbs up out of the ocean.

Later on, Dirk Savage tells Donatello via Turtlecom that D.U.D.E recovered the weapons and Dr. Bro is in custody. He says it's the second time he helped him out and asks if he can officially join the team. Donatello, now sick, says that he's rather stay with his own team but can help if he's needed. Splinter says Donatello should focus on recovering since his temperature is at 103. Donatello says he's not even warm blooded. Raphael says Donatello probably bets he had some pizza-flavored cough drops since it's his turn to have a cold. Raph turns to the reader and tells us not to groan since Donatello was the one that forgot them.

My Thoughts- 

So um... this was an issue. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly awesome. I guess due to the limited space a one-shot story can hold we didn't see all that much of Donatello sneaking around and spying and whatnot. Maybe go into a club to get info or something. I feel that most of the exposition between Dirk and Donnie could have been done on smaller panels, or maybe put into one or two pages tops so that it would free up more space for action. 

Other than Dirk Savage himself, the other deep cut this time around were the other members of Bebop and Rocksteady's gang from the first five episodes of the classic series. While Bebop and Rocksteady were mutated first, the rest of the gang would later get mutated as well but would only appear in cameos throughout those early episodes. One of them, which later on the NECA toyline would call Scrag, was the one Shredder de-mutated to show off his Retromutagen Gun to the Turtles and Splinter. I guess somehow Scrag got re-mutated and all four of them ended up working for Dr. Bro and G.I.V.E.

The other thing that was kind of enjoyable was Dr. Bro and his surfer-isms. In my opinion he needed a few more 'dude', 'whoa', 'totally awesome' and whatnot. We can't exactly hear his voice in a comic book and most of the time Donatello is the one informing the reader that he sounds like Michaelangelo. Most of his dialogue was typical supervillain stuff and some extra 'mondo bummer dude' and whatnot would have really sold it. I did like the part where Michaelangelo agreed with him regarding the awesome waves.

Another thing that stood out was Raphael getting a wee bit edgey as he joked about them leaving Dr. No to die as his ship went down. Leonardo didn't like it and put a stop to that real quick. It's funny Raph said that considered he was worried about Tempestra blowing up in the last issue and he's usually the one say things like 'that's not how we get rid of bad guys in this show' in the cartoon. 

There's not much else to say. It was just an average issue and would have been one of those average non-Shredder episodes back in the CBS days. I guess I shouldn't have expected much given the 'Donatello becomes a spy!' premise, but we went all over town trying to hunt this issue down.

Thing heat up next issue though as not only does Krang get a new and improved android body... those alternate reality evil turtles also return somehow.