TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 27

 By Mark Rodriguez

Krang and Hob forced Lotus to betray the Turtles and steal their portable portal generator. Despite the Turtles and Lotus tricking Krang with a purposely damaged portal, it still worked well enough to being in the Pantheon and the Shredder! Now what will happen?

"Does whatever an Iron Can" opens with Donatello showing the gang his new Shellacker Armor System, which was turtle-shaped armor. Michaelangelo asks if their shell aren't already enough armor. Leonardo isn't sure about this. Raphael asks if Donatello wants to go back to his 'Dark Turtle' roots or if he wants be Bugman's new sidekick. Donatello reminds them that Lotus told them that Old Hob and Krang were working together so he wanted to be ready for anything. 

 

Raphael says that as ninjas they shouldn't need a suit of armor. Master Splinter comes in and reminds them that being a ninja is about adaptability. He says if their current situation calls for the use of this new device, a ninja will happily make use of it. 

Michaelangelo asks how the armor works. Donatello says he built it using Dimension X tech from the Neutrinos so it works on mental commands. He says the suit can even fly. He aims his palm at the wall and says all they have to do is think. Donatello accidentally blasts a hole through the wall and says he must have overthought. Raphael says he does do that. 

Meanwhile at the villain's lair, the Pantheon is now reunited and Old Hob introduces them to their newest member Krang. Shredder also adds himself and Hob says he didn't name him. Shredder says he's the greatest ninja on the planet and commands the Foot Clan, so he deserved to be a part of this. Krang says that Shredder's embarrassing him.

Hob tells Shredder that he's just an Earthling while the Pantheon is made up of the galaxy's greatest criminal minds. He add that Shredder just doesn't have what it takes. Drako asks who Hob is to decide that. Hob says he's the leader. Drako says lately he has only led them to failure. Aka says Hob has been too busy obsessing over the Turtles when they're in the business of making money.

Hob tells the gang that were nothing before he brought the gang together. Drako asks what Hob had done for them other than failing. Hob gets in Drako's face and Manmoth asks if they stop fighting and get back to getting rich. Rat Queen says she doesn't care who's the boss. Golgotha says he doesn't mind taking the role and uses his siren song. Rat Queen tells him not to bother since they're all immune to it. Hob says they don't understand how serious the Turtles' hero complex really is. Earth is too good a prize and the Turtles will never let them have it. They're a problem that need to be dealt with.

Krang offers a solution that will kill two birds with one stone. Whoever wants to become the new leader of the Pantheon can take turns trying to destroy the Turtles for that chance. Drako offers to go first and pulls out a device that activates his collapsible artificial wings.

 

Hob asks Krang what he's doing. Krang says he wants to lead the Pantheon and even though Hob is still leading them for the moment, he will still call the shots. He'll manipulate fools like Drako. Hob says things will be worse when it all backfires. Krang says the Pantheon has powerful individuals, and promising them a leadership position might be the motivation needed to destroy the Turtles. 

Later on, across the city, the Turtles are fighting gang of breakdancers that attack by swinging cassette players around. Raphael drops some puns that go ignored as he takes one of them down. The Turtles tie the bad guys up and Raphael says at least they weren't fighting the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang again since it seems they've been popping up a lot lately. Leonardo says these guys weren't much of a challenge.

Just then Drako calls out to the Turtles, offering the challenge they're been looking for. The Turtles move out of the way and Drako lands, slamming onto the ground. He says he's been looking all over Queens and Hell's Kitchen until he finally found them. Raphael says he was probably reading the wrong comic books since those neighborhoods belong to other guys. Leonardo asks Drako what he wants and the dragon says he's there to destroy them. As the Turtles dodge the flames, Leonardo is concerned that he might burn down a building.

Leonardo runs into a nearby pizzeria and grabs one of the fire extinguishers. He sprays Drako with it, which makes him cough and puts out his flames. Leonardo tells him to give up since it's four against one. Donatello says they should ask him what he's doing on Earth to begin with, which could be a big problem. Drako says the problem is bigger than he realized and he's not going to give up the chance to lead the Pantheon over a minor setback. He decides to switch to a divide and conquer strategy and grabs Leo and Don and flies off with them. Leonardo threatens him and Drako says he wouldn't fight him too hard, since it's a long way down.

Drako takes them to the top of the Red Sky building (subtle) and knocks them both out. He ties them up with their own ropes. Drako ponders freezing them in biomechanical carbon to decorate his office, but he liked Hob's earlier idea of brainwashing them to become their minions. He finds the Turtle Comm and uses it to call the Turtles and lure them in.

Raphael and Michaelangelo are in the Turtle Van trying to track down the other Turtles by their Turtle Comms. Just then they get a call and Michaelangelo hope that Leo and Don get away. Drako is on the line and he has an offer. He says Raph and Mikey can come over willingly so he can brainwash all four, or they can resist and he can destroy them. He says they will meet at the top of the Red Sky building in an hour.

Raphael says he wishes Leonardo was here, and if Michaelangelo tells him he said that, he'll deny it. Michealangelo says he had a plan, they just need to return to the lair. Raphael is scared if Michaelangelo has a plan.

Less than hour later, Leonardo and Donatello wake up and try to sneak out of their situation. Drako says he took all their weapons away while they were unconscious. Just then, Michaelangelo flies in using the new armor that Donatello invented. Drako recognizes Michaelangelo and asks why he insists to be the sharpest thorn in his side (Mikey was the first one to break free from the brainwashing back in issue 15). 

 

Drako breathes his flames all over Michaelangelo but the armor is fire proof. Mikey flies off and Drako gives chase. Leonardo is in disbelief and Donatello can't believe that Michaelangelo can operate the armor better than he can. Raphael show up and says Mikey doesn't know how to overthink. Mikey was the decoy to distract Drako while Raph sets them free. He says they can make plans too. Donatello says they should return to the van and track the armor. Michaelangelo might know how to use it but Drako is still dangerous.

Drako finally grabs onto one of Michaelangelo's ankles and tries to claw up the armor. Michaelangelo closes his eyes and his hands fire energy blasts. Drako says he missed and Michaelangelo asks if he's sure about that. Drako's wings are now full of holes and the dragon laments that they were one of a kind.

Drako hangs on to Mikey, begging him not to let him fall. Mikey says he won't, but he'll take him to Professor McGuffin until they can figure out what kind of jail can hold him. Drako says he won't submit himself to an Earthling prison and scratches up the suit, despite Michaelangelo's warnings. The suit breaks down and they both fall into the river below.

While underwater, Drako tries to breathe fire again but chokes in the water. He swims away and Mikey can't believe he was dumb enough to try breathing fire since he knows the suit was fireproof (and they're underwater). Mikey comments they were in the East River so maybe he was trying to set it on fire. Mikey wishes he could swim after Drako, but he doesn't know how to kick-start the suit. Donatello radios Michaelangelo via the suit. The surfer turtle asks him how long the air will last in the suit. 

Later on, back at the lair, Donatello laments the condition of the suit. Mikey says it worked perfectly and he's in one piece. Don says the river rusted the mental control cogs, and he doesn't have extras. Raph says the suit served its purpose like a good little plot device. Master Splinter says that even if the armor is no more, Donatello was still wise to be prepared since it looks like the Pantheon is going to be a regular adversary. Leonardo says that they'll be ready. Michaelangelo asks if anyone made dinner. Donatello says they deflated his inspiring moment.

 

My Thoughts-

So the Pantheon is here and they're going to be taking turns trying to take out the Turtles in an attempt to gain leadership. Of course, Krang's greediness is going to lead to their downfall, because no matter who wins this competition, he still wants to lead them anyway. I also doubt Hob is going to willingly hand over the leadership to a group he lead, presumably, for year, so we'll see what tricks he might have up his sleeve.

One thing that was a bit odd was leaving Shredder in the backseat, especially after all the efforts to bring him back. The Shredder is going to be another wild card as you know he will not be ignored and usually his arrogance leads to self-sabotage. I find it funny how Shredder keep boasting about leading the Foot Clan when the Foot Clan has been reduced to being robots. I mean technically speaking, Bebop and Rocksteady aren't even Foot Clan members.

The story was fun and Drako made for an interesting enemy since he's new to the 80's show and the Turtles wouldn't know what to expect from him. Yes, he is based on the 2003 character, but he is very different. There is (so far) no Battle Nexus in the 80's Turtles series and this version of Drako has no personal beef with Splinter. This version seems to be rather devious. Sure he attacked the Turtles directly, but he also came up with some plans and wasn't too proud to borrow one of Hob's plans.

 

As for the Turtles, I wish they'd lay off of Michaelangelo. The poor dude has proven himself time and again in the comic (and the show) and yet they continue to act so surprised whenever he does something helpful. I can get the 'you have a plan, now I'm scared' from Raph because that's Raph and he does say stuff like that in the show. I can get Donatello being jealous that Mikey used the armor suit better than he did. But c'mon, Leonardo had to be all 'I can't believe this is happening' as if Mikey can't take two steps without tripping over himself or something.

The comic threw in the usual deep cuts. The Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang got a shout out, as did Bug Man and Donatello's brief stint as the Dark Turtle. Drako taking Leo and Don to the Red Sky building is as subtle as a mack truck. Those later seasons with Lord Dregg and such were referred to as the Red Sky seasons by fans because for some reason the sky was always red during those episodes.

 

The only thing that stood out were those weird breakdancer guys with the boom boxes. I don't remember any episode with them in it and this comic usually goes as far as bringing in random thugs that only appeared for 2 seconds in some forgettable episode. Maybe some of the readers in the comments can fill me in, but I just don't remember those guys. NECA never made any Breakdancer Gang figures.

 

The Shellacker Armor was pretty cool, considering it'll mostly be a one-time thing. I'm confused why Donnie only made one. He made no mention of making three more, and when the current one broke, he said he didn't have any 'mental control cogs' to spare. If was intending to make three more, he should have had spares. I mean, what was the plan Donnie? You fly around blasting things while the other three just stand and watch?

Either way, interesting story and now we have more characters to look forward to. New enemies with new gimmicks and different ways of handling things. Let's see how the Turtles will handle Golgotha next issue.