By Mark Rodriguez
While the 80's cartoon led to Turtlemania in the 80's, it also served as a vehicle to promote the Playmates toyline. Characters like Chrome Dome, Slash, Mondo Gecko, Metalhead and many others had action figures and they would appear on the show. Likewise vehicles like the Cheapskates, Footskis the Sewer Tubes, and Retrocatapult would make cartoon appearances just in time for them to hit the toy aisles. However with Playmates bringing in more and more characters, not everybody made it to the cartoon, the Archie comics or videogames. Panda Khan was one such character that never made past his action figure and re-releases. Until now. Let's check it out.
"Black and White and Rad all over" opens with Irma being mugged and wondering why there isn't a ninja around to rescue her whenever she's in trouble. The thief is low enough to even want to steal her pastrami sandwich. Just then someone leaps out from the shadows to rescue her.
Later on at Irma's apartment, Iram tells the Turtles and April about her encounter. Leonardo asks if her hero was a rabbit and Donatello says Usagi should be back in his home dimension and would find a way to contact them if he returned. The hero moved too fast for Irma to get a good look, but thinks it might have been a bear. Raphael says if it was a football player, that would be more of a league issue. Leonardo says they will investigate and asks Irma what part of town she was in when this occurred.
Later still that night, the Turtles are on the lookout for this new mutant. Raphael says this is pointless due to how large the city is. Micheaelangelo says the guy could be the next block over and they'd never know. Raph agrees and suggests they check out the new all-night Cajun pizzeria. Just then they hear a cry for help and Leonardo leads the charge.
The Turtles see a bunch of jerks knocking over a food truck since the vendor was out of ketchup. Raphael says ketchup on hot dogs is gross (???) and the guys attack them with baseball bats. Raphael says it's a good thing they don't also have hockey sticks or it would drive Casey Jones up a tree. Someone watches the fight from a nearby rooftop and notes the Turtles outnumber the men four to one and are armed with deadly weapons.
Raphael pins one of the guys down and say if they apologize and pay for the hot dogs they ruined, they can skip calling the cops. Just then a trash can lid is thrown into Raphael, knocking him off. The guys run off and Raph asks Donatello what hit him. Donatello points towards the bear that is charging towards them.
The mutant bear jumpkicks Donatello and tosses Raph into Leo. He introduces himself as Panda Khan and says he won't allow warriors to prey on the weak. Raph says he definitely hits like a bear. Leonardo explains that they were helping out the hot dog vendor as he blocks the panda's sword strikes. Leo says they're not lying and he can prove it as he knocks the sword out of his hand.
Leonardo puts his weapons away and points out that the other Turtles are doing the same. He says they don't have to fight anymore. Michaelangelo hands the panda back his sword and says he helped out a friend of theirs earlier. Panda Khan asks if they mean the nervous woman with the brown hair. The hot dog vendor leaves and considers going back to the stock market.
The Turtles ask if Panda Khan is another mutant, or if he's friends with a samurai rabbit. Panda Khan doesn't know any rabbits and he's not a mutant. He comes from another world.
Panda Khan explains he was tracking down two evil sorceresses named Twixt and Tween who were stealing gold and magical artifacts from several villages a few months ago. He had been injured by their magic but he refused to give up and finally located them. The witches are impressed by his perseverance, so Tween offers him a riddle. If he gets it right they will heal his wounds, but if he fails, he will be destroyed. Panda Khan accepts the challenge. Twixt says if he gets it right, not only will his injuries heal, their magic will never be able to harm him again.
Tween's riddle is 'I am the trace, the darkness trace, where light cannot embrace the space, what am I?" Panda Khan says she is a shadow. The witches are shocked he got it right and Tween says it's unfair. Panda Khan's injuries heal immediately. Tween says they won't be able to injure him anymore with their magic, but pain of the mind can be even more agonizing. Tween blasts Panda Khan with a stolen amulet and he now found himself in New York.
Panda Khan devoted himself to helping people in need as he explores his new home, but he recently found out that the same spell has brought Twixt and Tween to Earth as well. Donatello asks how he knows they're here. Panda Khan found sort of electric webbing that they produce. Donatello thinks he can use its energy to create something that can track them down. Leonardo says they will be happy to help if he trusts them. Panda Khan shakes his hand and says he is willing to try.
Two days later, Panda Khan and the Turtles are on the Turtle Blimp and Donatello has pinpointed the location of the witches. They find an empty warehouse and get in from the roof. Raphael asks who the realtor is that always sets bad guys up with warehouses and if there's a way to suspend his license. Leonardo says they should stay sharp since they don't know what they're dealing with. Raph finds several empty buckets of Lieutenant Fried Chicken and says it's probably a couple of slobs. A voice calls out saying that it's the only true delicacy the city has to offer.
Twixt and Tween fire off their webs, saying they haven't tried the turtle soup yet (Shredder would have something to say about that). Leonardo and Panda Khan use their swords to slice through the webbing, but Michaelangelo, Raphael and Donatello have been snared. Now brainwashed and under their command, the witches send the turtles after Leo and Panda Khan.
Leonardo tells Panda Khan not to hurt them since they don't know what they're doing. Panda Khan says they are very well trained. The witches says they will be fantastic minions now that they are in Manhattan. Panda Khan asks why they followed him and if his exile wasn't punishment enough. They wanted to make sure his suffering was the worst it could be so they used the amulet to follow. They were not expecting to find a world full of many resources including Ninja Turtles to use as their minions. Leonardo says his brothers won't be his minions.
Twixt warns Leonardo that Panda Khan might be immune to their magic, but they are not. She fires off a web blast but Panda Khan gets in the way and blocks it with his sword. Leo asks if cutting the webs will set his brothers free. Panda Khan says the witches will have to choose to let them go, and he knows how how he will make them do it, if he trusts him. Leonardo agrees and Panda Khan throws his sword.
The sword knocks Twixt's scepter out of her hand and Panda Khan grabs it. Twixt wants it back saying she stole it fair and square. Panda Khan says by that logic it's his now. She begs to have it back and Panda Khan offers two conditions. The first is to release the Turtles from their mind control and swear to never use magic on them ever again. The second is to leave this world and never return. Twitx honors the deal and says their powers are pathetic without the scepter, to which Tween tells her not to tell their enemies that. Panda Khan offers to return the scepter... after he snaps it in half.
Twitx says he broke the deal since the scepter won't work like that. Panda Khan said he agreed to return the scepter but never mentioned in what condition. Tween hates to say that the bear was right. The witches start to disappear but even so, Twixt lays a curse on him. Panda Khan says their magic will not work against him or the Turtles anymore. Twixt says no harm will fall to him or the Turtles, but he will still be cursed for a lifetime. He will remain in this world and will never be able to return home or go to any other dimension and magic won't help him. They vanish as Panda Khan realizes he will be trapped on Earth forever.
Michaelangelo says there's a lot room in the sewers. Donatello says he has gotten a lot better at finding multiversal frequencies so he should be able to zero in on Panda Khan's home dimension and send him back. Panda Khan asks about the curse. Donatello says they only said they couldn't use magic, but they're going to use science. Raphael says they're lucky Donatello's got it all figured out since it took him two years to send Usagi back home. Panda Khan freaks out upon hearing that but Donatello tells him he has everything figured out.
Three days later in the Turtles' Lair, Donatello finds Panda Khan's home dimension. He steps through the portal and nothing happened to hold him back. Splinter says evil forces often use fear of consequences to control people as much as they do with their own power. Donatello tosses him an interdimensional turtlecom so he can contact them in case he needs help. Panda Khan waves goodbye and says he'll be giving Twitx and Tween an unpleasant surprise.
My thoughts-
While it was cool to see Panda Khan make his comic debut, now that we're here it's kinda bittersweet since now we know the series is coming to and end. I'm not sure if they ran out of ideas or if the sales just weren't there, but the series will end with issue 41. There are rumors that it was supposed to end after issue 50 or at least that there were plans for at least 50 issues... so maybe between now and then we can find out why it was cut short.
We have seen Erik Larsen himself post on the Technodrome forums every now and then and he would sometimes give us little tidbits like hints of an at-the-time upcoming Lotus Blossom issue. Maybe he can give us some insight once he's legally allowed to.
As for this story, it was fun to see Panda Khan see print. I like all the comparisons with Usagi, seeing that he's also another samurai animal from another world of anthropomorphic animals. I forgot exactly when I found out that Usagi was a guest character and not a regular TMNT character, but when I did I would look back and assume Panda Khan was from the same comic.
Panda Khan seems pretty cool. He seems to fight for what's right but without adhering to a strict honor code the way Usagi does. We get the typical 'new good guy character thinks the heroes are bad guys at first' thing.
Looking at the action figure, Panda Khan did get a slightly different design. He's wearing a gi-style shirt in the comic as opened to what appears to be golden armor in the action figure version. The comic gave him a red belt as well as one of those 'Raiden-style' straw hats, which are cool additions. Overall a nice updated design, and it flows well with the 80's cartoon style. It works since most of the characters got cleaner, more cartoony looks when compared to the sometimes overly detailed action figures. I mean, just compare the Slash figure to how he looked in the cartoon.
Not sure what to think of the new villains Twixt and Tween. The most interesting things about them is how their magic compels them to keep their promises. Sure they can find loopholes around things, but they can't outright break their promises. It's something greater than just words, since their magic can no longer harm Panda Khan after they declared it can't, even when they try.
In a vacuum, it was a decent story, and I did like some of the jokes like Raph lampshading how so many bad guys from cartoons always choose an empty warehouse as their hideout. The art is fun and energetic as always. The only problem is, we're running out of issues and we're running out time for classic characters to make their final appearances. Hell, since they love cameos so much, they could have had the random guys causing trouble with the food truck be cameos of former henchmen, like Big Louie's men or the someone.
The weirdest line the comic had was when the Turtles were acting as if ketchup on hot dogs was something weird or gross. I admit, I personally don't like ketchup either, but even I know it's probably one of the most common things people would put on a hot dog. That's almost like acting that cheese on a pizza is gross.
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