TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 30

 By Mark Rodriguez

Krang had sided with Old Hob and the Pantheon and started a contest where the first member to defeat the Turtles will lead the group. So far Drako, Golgotha and the Rat Queen have tried and failed. It looks like in this issue Shredder got tired of sitting on the sidelines and will step into action, alongside Mutagen Man? Let's see what happens in this issue.

 "Revenge of the Mutagen Man?!?" opens with Seymour out on a date and embarrassing her with a lame joke. It looks like the dork can change his looks, but he's still a dork. Suddenly he has a headache. Suddenly, Seymour turns back into Mutagen Man. A waiter shows up and tells him that the restaurant does not accept random mutations and he's grossing out the customers. As Mutagen Man tries to keep the waiter from touching him, he grabs his arms and the waiter mutates into a penguin. The waiter laments that now he's the one breaking the rules. Seymour's date asks what he did to the waiter.

Seymour says he didn't do it on purpose and he is no longer Mutagen Man. He stares in a nearby mirror and realizes he's back to his mutated form. A police man arrives and grabs his arm, despite Seymour's warnings. The police officer mutates into a bear. Mutagen Man runs out of the restaurant.

 

Later on, Apil is on the scene and interviewing the penguin waiter at Kutruff's Village Steakhouse. The waiter says it happened so fast, the guy touched him and he transformed. He's told TCRI can undo the mutation but for the time being, he's craving fish in his new form and he doesn't even like fish. April asks if there are any leads. The waiter says he heard the man call himself Seymour Gutz.

The Turtles are watching the news and remember that name. Raphael says he had an awful date with April in which he tried to haggle the price of the appetizers. Splinter admits they live in an expensive city. He asks if Seymour was also Mutagen Man and says he thought he was cured. Donatello says he was, but Mutagen Man's powers let him transform into other things, but not to transform other people, so this is a new problem. Raphael laments that this is now a new problem for them too.

Meanwhile, Shredder also saw the news and tells Krang about it. Shredder and Krang determine they can use Seymour's new powers to add more mutants to their ranks without wasting mutagen. Krang says Shredder would still have to find him in such a large city. Shredder says he already has a plan.

At TCRI, Professor McGuffin takes a sample from the penguin waits and should be able to cure him after he runs a few tests. The Turtles show up and the Professor asks how he can help them. After a recap, the Professor understands that at one time Mutagen Man could only transform himself. He says he can probably cure him too if they can bring him in. He adds that these new mutations aren't permanent and are more like a new coat of paint one can scrape off. Michaelangelo says that's a weird way to describe it, and McGuffin asks if he understood the concept. The hamster wheel runs in Mikey's brain for a moment and he finally gets it (or not? It's not clear.)

Donatello asks if he has a device that would help track him down. McGuffin says that Seymour's mutations are shedding a unique chemical and he has a device that can track it down. As Donatello grabs it, Raphael snatches it and says he loved a good tracking device and they head out to find Mutagen Man.

Mutagen Man is hiding in an alley lamenting his current form and how everyone will hate him again. A cat climbs out of a nearby trash can and touches him. The cat mutates into Ice Cream Kitty and wanders off. Mutagen Man says he never meant to do that to the cat or anyone, and Turtles, leaping off the Turtle Blimp, say they know he didn't.

Mutagen Man asks how they found him and Raphael says they used their Turtle-Sense. Seymour asks if that's a thing and Donatello says they found him with TCRI equipment. He tells him that the scientists there can cure him and anyone else he transformed. Mutagen Man is excited and Michaelangelo says he just has to follow them.

Just then Shredder arrives with Aka and Manmoth on a floating platform, offering Mutagen Man riches beyond his wildest dreams. Mutagen Man thinks it over and Raphael says he can't be serious. Mikey reminds him that Shredder used him last time. Shredder says the powerful makes use of the weak, and Seymour doesn't have to weak. Shredder says that since he didn't decide to join them, he will be taken by force. He commands Aka and Manmoth to grab him. 

While they intended to grab him anyway, Manmoth reminds Shredder to not presume that he can order them around. Mutagen Man says he wasn't even given a full minute to decide, and the Turtles grab their weapons.

Manmoth swings his fist down towards Donatello, hitting the pavement instead. Donatello says to watch it since they don't like to fix these streets. Mikey tells Mutagen Man to make a run for it. Aka says he has no say in the matter as she lets out a sonic scream. Raphael grabs a trash can lid and tosses it at her.

Leonardo and Shredder fight as the turtle asks him how he was able to find Seymour. Shredder knew the Turtles would be looking for him so he checked the skies and followed the Turtle Blimp. Leo tells Donnie that they really needed a cloaking device. Donatello says this isn't 'Space Hike' and cloaking devices don't exist. As Donnie goes into the specifics of why it wouldn't work, he slips over Ice Cream Kitty and right into Manmoth's grasp.

Manmoth tosses Donatello through the air to crazy heights. Donatello manages to use his grappling hook to wrap around a nearby fire escape to land safely on a rooftop. As he looks down he tries to warn Michaelangelo of an incoming attack. It's too late as Aka's sonic scream knocks Mikey into Mutagen Man, as they both tumble into trash cans. Mutagen Man tries to make a break for it. Shredder tells the Pantheon members to grab him and laments that Bebop and Rocksteady weren't around to help since they snuck off the Atlantic City. Aka grabs Mutagen Man and takes to the sky. Mutagen Man says he doesn't do well with flying.

Realizing that she touched him, Aka lets him go. She is unaffected and says his powers might only affect Earthlings. Manmoth tosses Raph into Leo and then grabs Mutagen Man. Manmoth sees that his powers also don't work on him. He joins Shredder and Aka on the floating platform and make their escape.

Raph complains about how they failed, but Donatello says they can still catch up with Shredder on the blimp if they really gun it. Leo asks where's Mikey. Raph says he'd better not be unconscious again because he doesn't want to carry him. Michaelangelo says he's not zonked out but he does feel 'mondo funky'. Michaelangelo has been mutated into an off combination of things including a furry claw, extra arms and huge moth wings.

 

My thoughts- 

So in the original show's episode 'Enter Mutagen Man', Seymour Gutz was a geeky delivery man that somehow wandered into Shredder's hideout as he was working on a new type of Mutagen. Bebop and Rocksteady tried to blast him and he fell into the vat of mutagen. Seymour literally fell apart and the bad guys put him in that containment suit. While Mutagen Man can turn into other people, he couldn't turn back into himself. Shredder sent him to steal the chemical Bindex-3 which make the mutagen, as well as himself stable. 

After the bad guys were defeated, the Turtles helped Seymour use the Bindex-3 so he had one last chance to turn back to normal. Instead he chose to look 'tall, dark and handsome' and even got a date with April.

As usual the guys behind this series did they homework and started the story off with Seymour looking like this before the effects wore off. I wonder if the next issue will explain how the chemical effects wore off and changed his powers. You gotta feel for the guy. You live your normal life, you get turned into a jar of internal organs, get cured and now back to that form.

It was good to see Shredder back in action. At first I was asking what happened to the Pantheon members since they weren't seen when Shredder first talked to Krang. It was a nice change of pace to see Shredder working with Aka and Manmoth, which also shows that the Pantheon are still around. Of course we can't have too many stories happening at once, but what are the rest of them doing in the meantime? Don't they still want to defeat the Turtles and take over?

A few things stood out about the mutations, mostly the penguin guy. The cop turned into a anthropomorphic bear, but the waiter turned into some weird penguin/human hybrid rather than a human-sized talking penguin. Mutagen Man's power have no effect on beings from another dimension like the Pantheon members. As for Michaelangelo, I assume he turned into a bizzare hodge-podge of animals because he already was a mutant.

The one cameo (or double cameo) I never expected to see was 2003 Klunk being turned into 2012 Ice Cream Kitty. Not only was he a cameo, he also caused Donatello to trip and fall into Manmoth's grasp, thus actually affecting the fight. Though I have to say, Donatello sure is lucky Manmoth decided to play shot-put rather than just punch him into mush. 

 

Other highlights include Splinter's line about the city being expensive in regards to Raph talking about price haggling. There's also the part where Shredder found the Turtles... by checking the skies for their incredibly obvious blimp. I am surprised it never occurred to anyone before in the show, or that there was never a situation where the bad guys were looking for the Turtles and 'oh look, a blimp with the TURTLES logo on it'.

 

Overall a fun issue, great energetic art from Sarah Myer as always. My only two nitpicks are my not being a fan of 'Michaelangelo is dumb' jokes, and that disturbing fact that Professor McGuffin can cure mutations. Let's hope he never turns evil or the Turtles might get a one-way trip back to the pet shop.