TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 24

 By Mark Rodriguez

While the Turtles have been having their adventures, Krang was still busy trying to pull Shredder and Rocksteady back into their dimension. After trying to use a Technodrome from the future, Shredder got caught between dimensions and is now in a ghostly form. Further attempts to undo this ended up in Rocksteady also being trapped in a similar state. Old Hob from the Pantheon has ended up stranded on Earth and has allied himself with Krang. What will happen when those two finally manage to fix the portal?

"Three Nasty Turtles and a Sharp-Dressed Brain" opens in Shredder and Krang's hideout as Old Hob has finally fixed the transdimensional portal and just needs to give it a test run. Shredder asks Hob what he's waiting for and demands to be returned to his physical form at once, and Rocksteady agrees. Krang tells Shredder that the slightest miscalculation might not bring Shredder back, but might create a wobble in time and space with unpredictable and possibly catastrophic results. Shredder says he doesn't care and orders Hob to push the button. Hob tells him to watch his tone and he's only able to get away with this because he's intangible. Hob presses the button and the portal turns on. A huge energy field flashes over the building and then vanishes.

The Turtles on a rooftop when suddenly Leonardo says he felt he got washed over by an unsettling vibe which suddenly disappeared. Raphael asked if it wasn't just gas. Leonardo says it wasn't gas. Raphael asks how he would know and if he has a degree in gastroenterology. Raph tells the kids reading that it's a long word but a great career. Leo face palms and tells Raph to knock it off. Michaelangelo says he hears someone calling for help. The Turtles leap off the rooftop and into action.

Meanwhile, Rocksteady has turned solid again, but Shredder is still in his intangible form. Krang is now suddenly wearing an upgraded version of his android body. Krang explains the wobble in time and space might have swapped the atoms of his bubble walker with that of a new android body. Krang says they can't expect good luck all the time and must be doubly sure before they try to untangle dimensions again. He reminds Shredder that this could have easily destroyed him rather than free him. Shredder just sighs.

As Krang wonders what other effects this time wobble would have had, we see Slash (of the Slash for Cash Dojo, not the Turtle Slash) instruct two new members of the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang in robbing tape players while the police are tied up. Off-panel voices are angry that this crew are calling themselves the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang. Slash turns and says he was betting on the fact that the Turtles were patrolling the upper west side this time of week.

The Turtles show up, but these are the evil alternate reality Turtles from a world where Michaelangelo was never mutated. Dark Don says Tribeca belongs to them and Dark Raph adds that Mayor Shredder told them so. These Dark Turtles waste no time in attacking and defeating the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang. As Dark Leo slams a garbage can over Slash's head, he tells him that this what happens to anyone that tries to hone in on their turf.

A newspaper falls from the trash and Dark Leo picks it up. Dark Raph says they don't pick up litter. Dark Leo notices an article about a mayor scandal, and Don notices that the mayor is some other guy and not the Shredder. Dark Leo says that weird wobbly feeling he felt earlier sent them to some other reality where the Shredder isn't running the town.... which leave it open for them to take over.

A few days later, Vernon is covering the news on how people have been terrorized by what they describe to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Vernon asks why they haven't stepped out to clear themselves from these accusations. Irma asks April if she thinks the Turtles really did go bad. April says someone must be impersonating them, like the guys with the paper bag masks. Burne says rating are up and advertisers are happy, which is what the news is all about. April says she thought the news was about keeping the public informed for the greater good. Burne says that's funny and tells her to get back to work. Irma asks if she's going to take that, and adds that she would because she likes being able to buy food.

Later on April is in the sewers with the Turtles and Leonardo tells her they've been trying to hunt down these copycats without much luck. Donatello says it's a big city which is why he created a computer program to predict where they might strike next. They seem to pick cash-heavy businesses with little security so their next target might be The Low Key Cat Cafe.

Sure enough the cafe is being robbed by the Dark Turtles. The cashier asks why they're doing this and Dark Raph says it's because he hates places with punny names. The fiends tun out, happy to get another easy score. Dark Raph asks if they can rob a hot dog cart next since he's starving. Just then the regular Turtles show up and Raphael says they can send them to jail where they'll get three meals a day and a great view of the planes flying into the airport. 

Dark Leo notices that these other turtles are real mutant turtles and not the posers they scared off earlier. Dark Raph asks if the turtle with the orange mask the same one they caught sneaking around in their lair some time ago. He thought they took care of him. Dark Don says multiversal theory suggests it's not the same guy, so they'll have to kick his shell again for the first time. Dark Don lands a flying kick on Michaealangelo knocking him into Donatello.

Raph clashes with his dark counterpart saying they're bad at match since they outnumber them four to three. Dark Raph says the numbers don't matter. Raph says he'll never become an accountant with that attitude. Dark Leo tells regular Leo that they don't know how to exploit an advantage so they'll win. Leonardo says they won't lose so easily and yells out 'TURTLE POWER!' Dark Leo kicks him back and asks if that line works when they're fighting against other turtles.

Donatello tells his dark counterpart that he overheard them mention they don't belong in this world and they can help them get back. Dark Don asks what if they don't want that. Dark Don lunges out his bo, which Donatello dodges, and he calls Dark Raph for an assist. Dark Raph grabs Raphael and tosses him into Donatello and Michaelangelo.

Raphael says these doppelgangers are real jerks. Michealangelo says he told them he met them before. Donatello says he thought that was just some sort of weird dream. Raphael asks where they went and Dark Don calls out to them from their Turtle Van. He says they shouldn't leave the keys in the ignition in such a dangerous city. The other Dark Turtles hop into the van and they drive off. 

Raphael is angry that Donatello left the keys in the ignition. Michaelangelo reminds him that there are pedestrians during their fights and it's still the middle of the day. Donatello smirks and says he actually got them right where he wants them. Leonardo is confused.

The Turtle Van drives past Baxter's old rebuilt mouser-themed bulldozer (from the episode Return of the Shredder) as the Dark Turtles say they should have gotten a similar vehicle years ago. Dark Don asks the others to check what kinds of weapons the van might have. Dark Leo checks the menu and sees that they're locked out. Donatello appears on screen and says they probably figured out that they're locked out of the weapons menu by now. Dark Leo tells the others that these turtles can read their minds.

Donatello tells the dark crew that he's a genius and isn't about to leave a fully loaded battle wagon sit around without security. They're finding out what any other thief would... they just trapped themselves. Donatello locks all the doors and has taken control of the steering. Dark Don says they can't do this and they can just break the windows. Donatello says that costs a lot of money and hits them with sleeping gas. 

Raphael asks Donatello is the sleeping gas is a little too superspy. Donatello says he borrowed some from Dirk Savage. He says it's 100% nonlethal and comes in three different flavors. Raph says he guesses he picked the mint chocolate coma. Leonardo tells Raph to let Donatello concentrate on remote controlling the van. Michaelangelo asks how they're going to send the Dark Turtles back if they don't know where they came from. Leonardo asks him how he met them the first time. Michaelangelo says he ran into a genie. Leonardo doesn't quite believe that but says they can't throw them into a random dimension and they also can't hand them over to the authorities. Donatello says there might be someone that can help them do that. They will just need to take them back to the lair and use his portable dimensional portal. Raphael complains that they're going to have to carry them there.

Later on the Dark Turtles wakes up in a golf course in Dimension Z. Dark Don can only remember last being in the Turtle Van.  Dark Don gets hit in the face with a golf ball. Mr. Ogg appears and complains that they ruined his perfect game in a members-only god course. He snaps his fingers and banishes them from Dimension Z and back to wherever they came from. Mr. Ogg tells the readers that he played nice and cleaned up a dangling plot thread with a cameo. He tells us to to tell corporate that his check better clear.

 

Back to the lair, Leonardo tells the others that now they'll have to focus on clearing their names from the crimes their dark versions committed. Michaelangelo tells the others to check out the news. April reports that the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang were caught trying to rob the TCRI building. They said they were trying to gain 'powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men'. They said they needed this to get an edge on the evil mutant turtles that were terrorizing the city and putting the blame on them. The police were already familiar with their criminal record and weren't buying the story. They got arrested without bail.

Donatello and Michaelangelo are happy that everything worked out in the end. Raphael says they must be getting close to end of the issue. Raph winks to the readers and says he hopes this sudden good luck isn't a sign that something nasty is on the horizon.

Back to the villains' hideout, Krang is overjoyed with his new body. Old Hob says they still have to get back to work. The portal is still stuck and without it he can't free the Pantheon and take over this planet. Krang says since he has a stronger new body, he is suddenly of the mind to renegotiate their arrangement. Hob says he's listening. The cost of offering his technology just went up. Krang now wants leadership of the Pantheon handed over to him. Hob says they'll never follow an Utrom. Krang says he'll find a way to convince them, and reminds Hob that there's more than one way to skin a cat.

My Thoughts-

The issue took a different turn from what I was expecting. I was expecting the Dark Turtles to appear next to Krang and have them work together. Once I saw that they appeared elsewhere, not even aware of Krang, I was expecting the cliffhanger to be them meeting and teaming up with Krang. I mean, how could we miss out on seeing how they'd interact with Shredder? 

The Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang seems to keep popping up in the series. They first appeared in the Season 2 episode 'Return of the Shredder'. Slash was just running his karate dojo, in a way similar to John Kreese. They only became criminals because Shredder threatened them into doing so in a way to distract the Turtles while he continued his own plans. It seems that afterwards, they either loved robbing people so much they decided to continue their life of crime on their own, or maybe Slash lost his dojo in the aftermath and was forced to resort to crime. 

 

I'm not sure the term 'newbies' was used back in the 80's. And yes, it is bear mentioning that Slash was voiced by Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime.

It's also funny that we saw a random cameo of Baxter's mouse-catching machine from the same episode. I guess it just got stuck there after all those years as it's racking up parking tickets.

As for the story itself, it was pretty cool and there was a good fight between the Turtles. It's cool seeing the 80's Turtles get a lot more physical in their fights in thee comics. Sure, they're not drawing blood and breaking bones, but they're also not hiding behind throwing trash can lids and steaming hot pizza slices. Liked the Mr. Ogg cameo too as it was a quick and clean way to solve the issue. I wish there was some sort of comment or discussion regarding that these evil turtles were evil because in their world Michaelangelo was never mutated. I would have liked their thoughts on that fact. I don't know, maybe the issue could have started with Raph making some crack about 'Mikey, who do we even keep you around?' and then have some sort of 'oh... that's why' after they ran into their evil selves. I mean, Raph even pointed out that they were outnumbering four to three, with no comment on 'so where's the evil Michaelangelo? Left him at home?'

Another thing that came to mind was that these guys were causing trouble for a week, so where they holding up when they were not committing crimes? In the other issue, Michaelangelo headed to the lair and bumped into the dark versions of the Turtles and Splinter. Shouldn't these guys have just randomly shown up in their lair since it seems the lair is in the same location in both realities. I feel this issue left several things left to explore if the whole dark turtle part of the story was a two parter. 

I'm also surprised a week of evil turtles committing crimes somehow went on without Shredder and Krang finding out about it through the news. The same things happened when Chrome Dome ran for Mayor without Shredder and Krang somehow finding out the whole time. I guess that is the limit of cramming a story into a single comic book issue.

One last interesting thing to note was Old Hob calling Krang an Utrom without Krang correcting him or asking him 'what's that?'. If we go by the old cartoon, there was an episode called 'Invasion of the Krangazoids' where Krang created clones of himself that ended up regrowing the original bodies he once had. I don't know if they count since they're just clones of Krang and I forgot if it was ever stated that his alien race was a 'Krangazoid' or that was just a nickname thrown in by the characters. The 2012 show however, added the bizzare fact that Krang actually came from the 2012 version of Dimension X and was banished to the 80's world by Kraang Sub-Prime due to him being such a screw up. 

The 2012 version of the show called the evil Utroms the Kraange (since the show later revealed that regular good guy Utroms existed too). It seems in this version Kraang Prime's real name was Kraang so all the evil Utroms also called themselves Kraang due to the hivemind effect (thanks to fellow Dromer ToTheNines for that factoid). It's odd that Kraang Prime had a subordinate named Kraang Sub-Prime who also had a cousin named Krang (our 80's Krang). I guess in Dimension X Krang/Kraang is a common a name as Smith.

Krang wasn't that much of a screw up as Sub-Prime said. Most of his failings come from Shredder's bumbling, and especially Bebop and Rocksteady's bumbling. It seems that this comic's take on 80's Krang is both a renown alien warlord as well as an Utrom?

We'll see what happens next issue as Krang has already started to plant the seeds to his downfall. I'm sure Old Hob was planning on double-crossing Krang sooner or later, but with him now wanting to lead the Pantheon.... that just gave Hob even more of a reason to do so. Hopefully Shredder gets his corporal form back somewhere during this whole ordeal.