Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Battle Nexus # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Turtles have been captured by Savanti Romero as he had taken over the Battle Nexus tournament so he could take his revenge upon them. The Turtles met a mysterious figure that explains that Savanti chooses opponents based on people they have a connection with. Leonardo was defeated by the Mirage version of the Shredder. Now Raphael faces a very angry Alopex. 

The story opens a year prior in the world of Shen'Kir. Umeko of the Ninjara Tribe visits a seer as she seeks to possess the Black Blade. The seer says the sword is one she will someday use to cut down a destined prey. Umeko takes the sword and asks how soon her destined prey will appear. The seer says the time is now as Savanti Romero appears.

Savanti calls her Ninjara and the fox warrior tells him her name is Umeko of the Gnawed Forest and she is part of the Ninjara clan. Savanti dodges the sword strikes and says Ninjara is enough for a ring name. Umeko tells him that he is destined to die by her Dark Blade. Savanti says her seer didn't tell her everything and that the sword is actually cursed. She is doomed to wield the sword as a tool that is to be wielded by a master, and now he is her master. 

 

Umeko yells out that she has no masters, and gets caught by Savanti's immobility spell. He appears behind her and says he heard all about her people. They believe their souls are in their tails and they will lose their soul is the tail is severed. Savanti does just that, chopping Umeko's tail off. Savanti holds her severed tail and says he now has power over her. Savanti opens a portal and tells 'Ninjara' to follow. She has to obey and follows. As she leaves, the seer smiles.

Back to present day in the Battle Nexus, Savanti offers a 'more appropriate landscape' for the lover's spat and makes it snow in the arena. Raphael tells Savanti that this is low and says he won't fight Alopex. Alopex angrily attacks Raph, saying she knew he'd show up someday. She says she left New York so he would stay out of her life. Raphael says she should blame Savanti for this.

Raph manages to kick the foxwoman back and tells her he thought they left on somewhat good terms. He adds that he hasn't bothered her once since he left. Alopex yells that she had to leave an entire city because of him. Raph admit training under Saki wasn't the best idea and she was right to leave. He says he hates himself for it as he blocks her attacks. Raph know what Saki did to her, but they teamed up with him anyway. He says they thought it was the only way to stop the Rat King and they should have found another way. He says he should have put her first and they would have listened if one of the Turtles had refused to work with Shredder. They didn't listen to her even though she's supposed to be family. Raph blocks one of her strikes and gets sliced across the arms.

 Alopex says Saki killed her family, and even killed Raph's, but his family got to come back (the IDW Turtles and Splinter were humans killed by Shredder back in feudal Japan era and they just so happened to get reincarnated as animals that would get mutated). Alopex yells that Shredder burned her home, brainwashed her and enslaved her. She says she was supposed to be one of them. She swings her weapon down and Raph catches it, cutting his hand in the process.

Alopex says she loved the Turtles, since they made her feel safe. Mostly, she loved Raph, and he threw it back in her face. Raph stands up and says he apologized enough and now he's sick of it. He punches her in the face and both of them lose themselves in their anger and start beating each other bloody.

 

Michaelangelo and Donatello can only watch from their cell. Mikey approaches Slash and tells him he missed him. Slash is stoic and unresponsive. Mikey says he wished he had a candy bar to give him like the old days. Donnie watches Raph and Alopex fight and the mystery turtle asks him who's winning. Donnie says Savanti is.

Raph and Alopex continue to fight as Savanti watches on, apparently having fallen asleep. Alopex kicks Raph back and he punches her down. Alopex gets him in a choke hold and Raph starts to laugh, calling the whole thing stupid. Savanti is surprised to see them laughing. Raph and Alopex start making fun of each other's fighting moves and now they're both laughing. Savanti yells that this isn't funny and they're supposed to be killing each other.

Don and Mike smile as they see Raph and Alopex continue to laugh. Savanti says none of this is funny and declared that the fight ended without a winner. He sends them both to the prison dimension.

 

One of the captured Time Lords tells Savanti that his own rules say only the losers get banished and this match technically did not have any losers. Savanti angrily blasts the mask off her face, revealing her to be Big Mama from the Rise TMNT series, and says he's changing the rules. He declares that Donatello will be in the next match.

Savanti asks Donatello if he's wondering who he'll be up against. Donatello says he already knows who he chose. He says he figured out his pattern of choosing people with some sort of emotional connection to them, which is why Leo faced Shredder, Raph faced Alopex and he assumed Mikey will be facing Slash. Donnie says the answer was so obvious he's surprised Savanti actually went with that choice. Donatello will be pitted against Metalhead... except this version of the robot Turtle comes from the 2012 TMNT series.

Back Up Story

This time Ogg pits the Mirage TMNT up against the Rise TMNT, asking how trained ninjas will fare against turtles with mystic-powered weapons. The Half-Shell Heroes version of Donnie bets 40 on the superheroes. Mirage Leonardo tells his team that the Rise TMNT have the power advantage so they should stay hidden and strike hard from the darkness. Mirage Donatello asks what darkness since they're in an openly lit area, and Mirage Leo tosses a smoke bomb.

The Rise TMNT can't see their opponents, but Rise Donnie uses his high tech goggles to locate them. He points to a direction and Rise Mikey tosses his mystic-powered yo-yo towards that direction but hits nothing. Rise Raph notes that Rise Leo's swords are gone. Rise Leo can't use his teleportation powers without them and says they can't lose that edge. 

Rise Leo runs among the smoke saying they couldn't have gotten far with his swords. He then trips over Mirage Leo's foot, sticking out of the smoke. Mirage Leo plant his foot on Rise Leo's sword and says ninjas don't need magic, using stealth, misdirection and skill is enough. Rise Leo says they should fight an overpowered warrior scientist and see if he still feels that way. 

 

My thoughts- 

I figured this fight would start Savanti's downfall. No matter how angry Alopex is at Raph, I know she wouldn't want to flat out kill him-kill him. Savanti jumped the gun and should have had more research on the exact level of love and hate they had for each other. Embarrassing the Turtles is one thing, but if he wanted the job done he should have just sent Ninjara after him.

Speaking of Ninjara, we get to see some backstory on the IDW version of herself. For a quick comparison, the original Archie version of Umeko named herself Ninjara and willingly worked for the villain Chien Khan until his plans went too far her to align with. The IDW version is named Umeko of the Gnawed Forest and she is a member of the Ninjara Clan. Savanti just calls her Ninjara because it's easier for him and to humiliate her, and she's forced to work for him. 

I am curious about the seer though. Since she can see everything, was she smiling because she willingly betrayed Umeko... or because she already foresaw that Umeko will lead to Savanti's downfall?

I already mentioned the fact that this fight, as well as the upcoming match between Mikey and Slash are all tied to the IDW universe instead of going all-in with the multiverse concept. The most we got this issue is the Big Mama cameo as one of the captive Time Lords. From what I hear we'll see more of the multiverse characters in the later issues, but as of now, three issues in and we've seen the bare minimum so far. Mostly Mirage Shredder and a few one-panel cameos.

 

As for the fight, damn, I didn't expect Raph to go in so hard. Both Raph and Alopex were raised and trained to be martial arts warriors, but wow, neither of them pulled their punches. I guess I'm not used to see one of the Turtles, not even Raph, punch a woman away. Sure there are fights against the likes of Karai, but she's usually difficult to land that kind of hit on. The intent is there, but it's rare to see those kind of attacks actually land on a woman's face, especially when the fist is coming from one of the Turtles.

The Mister Ogg portion was fun as always, though with a single page devoted to these fights, we'll be seeing more trickery than actual fighting and the characters will barely have enough time to reference their shows and what makes them different. 

I think by now the Mirage TMNT have appeared in enough crossovers to point out that at least their Issue One versions play things seriously. Yes, the Mirage TMNT are not serious 24/7 and they do joke around and whatnot, but most crossovers take them right out of their introductory issue where their individual personalities were minimal and they were pretty much four guys sent out on a mission to kill the Shredder. In that case the Rise TMNT got to showcase their personalities and mystical weapons a bit more. I haven't seen much of Rise, but I could have sworn Leo's new weapon was a single mystical sword. Both Rise Raph and Rise Leo acted as if he had two.

The next match will be interesting since it'll be the 80's TMNT VS the Archie TMNT.... especially when they were both pretty much one in the same until TMNT Adventures # 5 started to take the series and the characters in a whole other direction.

We'll see how this goes down next issue.