TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures Continued # 41- Series Finale

 By Mark Rodriguez

Last time, Metalhead went haywire after he hooked himself up to Mondo Gecko's game console. Mondo called the Turtles for help. Michaelangelo used videogame logic and managed to shut Metalhead down. As things wind down, the Turtles and Mondo are suddenly captured by the geese villains that April ran into in a previous adventure.  What will happen next as the comic book series comes to a close?

"It's Fowl Over" opens at the sewer lair as April tells Splinter what happened. She says that evil geese from another dimension have kidnapped the Turtles so that she can give them a magic rock in exchange. Splinter says things were easier when all they had to worry about were Krang and the Foot Clan.

April explains some time back she was zapped away to another world that resembled World War II era Earth but with anthropomorphic birds instead of humans. The evil geese were looking for a gem called the Heart of K'Avila which could answer any question asked to it. They wanted it to find out how to rule the world permanently. April. with the help of Ace Duck, had taken the gem to keep it out of their world where it would be safe. She had completely forgotten about it until a few hours ago.

 

At the time, April was in her apartment with Irma as they discussed a pitch meeting for Wednesday's broadcast. Irma suggests a report on how women's clothing sizes are never consistent. April says she meant she wanted to cover a crime story. Irma says the fact she is swimming in a size small but being choked by another size small is a crime. April gets a call from the Turtle Comm and thinks it's the Turtles, but it's Ganz instead.

Ganz wants the stone April 'stole' from him. April asks how he got his hands on a Turtle Comm. The evil goose explains that he had captured the Turtles. He would have called sooner but a lot of the buttons on the device led to restaurants. He gives April 24 hours to bring him the stone in exchange for the Turtles. Irma told April that she saw the Turtles fighting earlier. When she went to check it out, she only found the Turtle Van with Metalhead inside. Metalhead suggested she tell Master Splinter, which led her into the current situation. 

April has the stone and figures they should ask it how to stop the geese's plans without anyone getting hurt. Metalhead can't use the stone (I assume it only works on living things, not robots) and April already used it once before. She was hoping Splinter could use it. Splinter says he can rescue the Turtles with his own ninja skills and could possibly use the stone to find out how to become human instead. April hands over the stone and asks if Splinter is sure the geese won't have any surprises he won't be able to handle. Splinter holds the stone and hesitates.

Elsewhere, the Turtles and Mondo Gecko wake up, chained to a wall and with their weapons missing. Donatello wonders if Shredder captured them. Leonardo sees the geese across the room and says Shredder doesn't have feathers. Raphael says there has to be a way out of this since they're the heroes of the story. Mondo says it's a shame all four Turtles were captured because they could really use some back up.

Back at the lair, Metalhead has entered the coordinates that the stone had suggested into Donatello's dimensional portal. They manage to contact Ace Duck. April explains that the evil geese from his world have come over to their world. Ace Duck is ready for action.

Shortly after Ace Duck is in the lair as he comments on being surprised the geese had the technology to travel to their world. April says they have her friends. Splinter says they asked the stone for advice and it led them to him. Ace Duck explains the geese's plans are very methodical but unexpected things throw them off. In this case, Ace Duck being in this world as well would be very unexpected. He says he needs time to study the city and figure out where the geese would hide. Metalhead also deduced that most of the Turtle Comm signals have been coming from Hell's Kitchen so they should be there. Ace Duck asks April why they didn't just send the robot after them.

Back to the heroes, Mondo Gecko asks Leonardo if they ever made a bunch of geese angry. Leonardo says he never seen these guys before they remind him of the guys from the Doc Michigan movie (I guess they couldn't pick a better not-Indiana Jones to use, but I guess even in-universe the geese are considered parodies). Leo asks Ganz what he wants. Ganz says the Turtles are bargaining chips. Leo says they have friends that won't let him get away with this. Ganz has they prepared for everything as they have done extensive research on their friends. He has countermeasures set to stop any other ninjas or 'the fool with the hockey mask' (poor Casey catching strays) from breaking in and they have a device ready to disable Metalhead. Just then there is a knock on the door.

Ganz sends his henchman Storch to check it out, and he gets socked out by Ace Duck. Ganz is surprised to see Ace Duck and Raphael asks him to explain who that is. Leonardo says he thought Ace Duck was just a movie character. Donatello asks if that's the guy April ran into the one time she was in another dimension. Raphael says he doesn't know since he missed that issue. Mondo Gecko is confused by Raph's comment, and Michaelangelo tells him not to sweat it, but asks why he's there. Splinter comes in and says he is serving as a distraction as he cuts the chains with a sword.

 

Ganz tries to shoot Ace Duck. Ace Duck dodges the blasts and asks if he already gave the speech about being prepared for everything. The Turtles have their weapons back and Leonardo tells Ganz they outnumber them seven to three. Ganz is ashamed he got distracted by his archnemesis but he was prepared for his enemies sneaking past his defenses. He tells his other henchman, Schwan, to activate the Hyde Device, which he wears around his wrist. Schwan complains that it's such a cliche, but Ganz tells him to do it anyway. Schwan activates it and turns into a large hulking figure. Raphael says they'll need a time out while they get back from the office on discussing trademarks. The hulked-up Schwan slams both fists on the floor, knocking everyone back with the resulting shockwave. Mondo Gecko says at least he didn't say 'Schwan Smash!!'

Leonardo falls on the floor, dropping his sword. Ganz says it's a shame that only Schwan can use the device (but why though?) but he will use him to destroy them all, starting with Ace Duck. Ace Duck says he's already busy fighting with Storch. Schwan tosses a create meant for Ace Duck but it crashes into Storch instead.

Mondo Gecko and Michaelangelo jump onto Schwan's back. Donatello swings his staff towards his legs to knock him down, but the weapon breaks in half instead. Donatello laments that it was his favorite staff. Schawn kicks Donatello towards the others.

Splinter tells Leonardo to help his brothers, as he will deal with Ganz directly. However, it turns out that Ganz can throw some hands as well, and is able to be cause Splinter some trouble.

As the fighting goes on, Ace Duck checks the situation and says it's too bad that Metalhead stayed behind to watch April. He tells the Turtles to take out Schwan's gauntlet, which is what they're already been trying to do. Ace Duck finds a gun lying near the defeated Storch. He grabs it and blasts the Hyde Device from Schawn's wrist. The henchgoose shrinks back to normal size and surrenders. 

Ganz calls out that they never surrender. Splinter quotes one of his sons (probably Raph) and says 'aw shuddup!' as he socks him out. 

Later on, everyone is back at the lair as the three geese are tied up and under Ace Duck's watch. Ace Duck and April hug as it was nice to see each other again. Raphael makes a comment on how Donatello's  portal had shown them dimensions that led to worlds for rabbits, pandas and now ducks. He says the portal should be renamed Old MacDonald. Ace Duck escorts the geese back through the portal and Michaelangelo says they'll be sure to keep the Heart of K'Avila safe.

 

Leonardo tells Splinter he found out what the magic stone can do, so he asks why he didn't use it to find out how to become human again. Splinter says he considered it but as a parent it was more important to save his sons. Leonardo says he can ask for him. Splinter says the Heart of K'Avila is too dangerous to play with. Leonardo wonders how they can it from harming anyone.

Leonardo sees a vision of the Shredder telling him to destroy it. He cuts it to bits with his sword. He apologizes and says he moved on instinct. He says it could have been used to answer so many questions. Splinter says they can find answers without the need of magical artifacts, and the experience of seeking is as valuable as the result. Splinter tells his sons that they can mediate on this. Michaelangelo agrees but asks if they can grab some pizza first as he holds onto a piece of the stone.

"Fifty or So odd Years Later" we see a much older Michaelangelo looking at the stone. A robot asks him what he's looking at. Michaelangelo says it's something from his past, a piece of the Heart of D'Avila. The Fugitoid says he read in Donatello's files that it could answer any question asked of it. Mikey says it doesn't work anymore and is more of a keepsake now. It's a reminder that there's a solution to any kind of problem. He says he's had a lot of crazy adventures after he picked up that rock.

Michaelangelo reminisces on a series of flashbacks of such things as an 80's version of Man Ray/Ray Fillet facing off against Ray (a Man Ray-ish character from the old cartoon), the Turtles eventually facing Tiger Claw, the return of Ptah, Vernon, Irma and Burne as crooks, Mr. Ogg influencing Kirby and his magic pencil,  the fact that they eventually met Karai and Old Hob turned into a cyborg (pretty much their version of the Archie Comics villain, Verminator-X), an older Shredder and the eventually running into Lord Dregg and Carter. Mikey says they always found a solution even without magical help. Fugitoid adds this was until the accident that happened ten years ago.

Years earlier, Donatello had adapted his dimensional portal to travel through time. Leonardo says that Lord Simultaneous told them that using time travel tech can be dangerous. Donatello says Lord Simultaneous is gatekeeping time, and they can use the portal to look ahead and prevent tragedies from happening. Raphael suggests using it for a few well-placed bets, but Donatello shoots that down. The machine is activated and the turtles are sent through time, leaving Michaelangelo behind.

Mikey says he's glad Fugitoid figured out they were transported somewhere and not disintegrated, but he's out of his depth with the tech stuff. Mikey says it doesn't matter where his brothers were in time and space, he won't give up until he finds them. Renet appears and says 'that's the spirit'. Michaelangelo says he hasn't seen her since the Battle Nexus. This was the Battle Nexus comic event in which this older Mikey got to meet the IDW Turtles (as well as the 2003 Leo, Archie Raph, Rise Donnie and Mirage Shredder). For Renet though, this happened just last week.

Renet says she was cleaning up the time library when she found records of mysterious time lapses, centuries apart, that mentioned 'man-sized lizard warriors'. Michaelangelo is happy they now have a place to start looking but asks if Lord Simultaneous won't stop them. Renet says what he know won't hurt him, and she apologizes for having taken so long. Mikey quotes Splinter is saying 'the path that leads to what we truly desire is long and difficult, but only by following that path can we achieve our goal'. Renet opens a portal as she leads Michaelangelo and Fugitoid on the quest to find the rest of the Turtles.

 

The End... For Now... 

My Thoughts- 

I know we all want to get to the back-up story, but first let's discuss the main story. It was a cool story as the Turtles got to finally meet Ace Duck. I like that since this was following-up on the previous issue we got to see more of Mondo Gecko. Even though this was not meant to be the final story, the way it ended with Mikey holding onto what was the left of the Heart of D'Avila was a clever way to lead into him still close to 50 years later.

The comic was always full of deep cuts and I like how Leonardo brought up that Ace Duck was from a movie (or at least looks just like the guy). So when the toyline first came out, we got the Turtles, Splinter, Shredder, April, Bebop, Rocksteady and a Foot Soldier, and they were all featured in those first five episodes. When we got a second season, four more action figures were made, Krang, Baxter Stockman, Genghis Frog and Ace Duck. Krang was a regular, Baxter got an episode where he was turned into a fly and Genghis got his own episode too. I guess at the time they couldn't figure out what to do with Ace Duck put they still had to push the toy... so a random cameo on a tv show the Turtles are watching was the best they could come up with? I also find it funny that not only was Ace Duck an Indiana Jones parody, the Turtles actually acknowledge that he's an Indiana Jones parody.

 

I do like the role reversal for this story, namely that this time April was the target. Usually April gets captured to lure the Turtles out. This time the Turtles got captured to lure her out. Even though it would have been dangerous for her come along, it's too bad she didn't. This was essentially the follow-up to her story. It would have been cool to see her do more than just recap her previous adventure. 

Another fun reference was Donatello saying 'that was my favorite staff' when it was broken in the middle of the fight. He would often say 'that was my favorite bo' several times in the later Saturday morning seasons (it was on CBS in Chicago). 

The chance to find out if there was a way to turn Splinter human again was kind of nowhere. The show only ever showed one time when Splinter lamented his life as a mutant rat, but it was never brought up ever again. I wonder what the answer would have been. I'm guessing either 'break into Shredder's hideout and steal the Retromutagen Gun' or possibly the designs so that Donatello can build one. 

As for the final story, we see that this older Michaelangelo is the exact same one we saw in the Battle Nexus mini-series. One of the flashbacks even show him facing Savanti, which would have been when he was captured. We always wondered what happened to the rest of the crew and if he was the sole survivor of Savanti's plan. It turns out the others were already missing by then and Savanti captured him when he was alone. From there, it's pretty dark, as Mikey has been watching Savanti's crew kill off several different versions of the Turtles, possibly hoping that each new set is not his set, or that they would somehow succeed when the others failed. On a similar note, this also shows that the Renet that was shown in the Battle Nexus comic is also the same one that has visited the 80's Turtles a few times in this series.

The montage was a lot of fun as it referenced several characters and possible 'what could have been' stories had the series been allowed to continue further. Some notable things, continuity-wise is how they'll eventually face Tiger Claw as he did crossover at the end of the Transdimensional Turtles episode of the 2012 series. We also see that eventually they will have the Red Sky adventures as we see April with her Red Sky look as well as Lord Dregg and Carter. While Karai was previously mentioned in a throwaway line in this series, it seems we would eventually have seen her. I would have liked a confrontation between Karai and Lotus.

One of the more 'deep-cut' references was having Ray Fillet meet his Ray counterpart. I'm not completely sure why Ray Fillet himself was not in the show but the cartoon used a similar character named Ray as a henchman for  Dr. Polidorius in the episode 'Rebel without a Fin'. Possibly everyone's favorite part was that Ray's whole personality was 'yeah, whatever, I don't care'.

We also see that the Turtles met Fugitoid along the way, and to keep him in sync with the rest of the series, he got his black and gold design that Playmates used for the action figure. The toy packaging used the same origin story so we can assume this Fugitoid is also Professor Honeycutt.

Of course, as most can tell, Mikey's outfit references the Last Ronin outfit. In that version of the story, Mikey is the last remaining survivor of his brothers. Keeping it more light-hearted, in this version the Turtles were lost through time but still out there. It's kind of funny since the 90's Spider-Man series went a similar route. When they did their take on 'The Night Gwen Stacy Died', the knocked Mary Jane through a portal rather than killing her. Also on a similar note, the last episode of the Spider-Man series ended with Madame Web taking Spider-Man off to finally find Mary Jane, which is pretty much what happens here.

And so this concludes the TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures series. I can, regrettably, say that I now own the full run including the specials and original mini-series. Overall the series gave us fun new adventures and challenges set in the world of the 80's TMNT series most of us grew up with. Nowadays almost everyone knows the crew premiered in the Mirage comics, but for most of us the 80's cartoon was our introduction to the characters.

This series did a lot of cool stuff. It brought in characters that got action figures back in the day but never made it in the cartoon such as Scratch, Wyrm and Panda Khan. We got interesting new villains with the Pantheon which are a mix-and-match of new versions of existing characters from other parts of the franchise. Characters that only appeared once in the old show like Mona Lisa, Tokka and Rahzar got to make more appearances. Mr. Ogg made a comeback and pretty much became Mr. Mxyzptlk which allowed the Turtles to meet and encounter other versions of themselves of cartoons that never existed during their era (though the first time it was Creepy Eddie, another character that got more appearances). We also found out what Lotus Blossom was up to after her last episode, and even found out her real name.

The series also added lingering plot threads that kept the story together. While the more episodic cartoons of the 80's and early 90's can be mixed around in reruns, you can't quite do that in comics. Issue 5 will always take place after issue 1, unless there's some flashback to explain it. Here we get both an on-going arc while the Turtles have episodic adventures. The main plot will have the Turtles take on Leatherhead or Slash, but in the background we got Shredder working on the Eddiku Sword or Krang and Hob fixing the dimensional portal. We also got little references to other forms of Turtles media, namely the crew using their nicknames (they almost always called themselves by their full names on the old show) and Raphael starting to pair off with Casey Jones a lot. There were also several references that the crossover with the 2012 show and the events of Turtles Forever would eventually happen. Also Krang gets referred to as an Utrom, which was only ever done in the 2012 series during said crossovers.

 

The series did a good job of not making almost every issue about some Shredder plot. Most of the run was pretty much two Shredder plots, namely forging the Eddiku sword, and several attempts to free him from the aftermath until he finally returned. Keeping some of these threads as subplots allowed the Turtles to face other enemies and situations, while keeping Shredder in the background. 

I'm still not sure why the series ended so soon, as many speculated it would have lasted for at least 50 issues, and issue 41 is such a weird number to end this. Personally this was my favorite Ninja Turtles comic to grab every month, but my preference doesn't mean their sales numbers were high. There were still some unresolved threads, mostly the return of the Pantheon, Rat Queen possibly escaping prison, the return of Ptah (who would be in the same prison actually) and some contrivance for Krang to somehow get his old android body back. I know his newer look couldn't have lasted forever.  

I guess the real downside to the series ending so soon was some of the characters, like Leatherhead, Baxter and Slash only got to appear once, not counting all the cameos and crowd scenes and such. 

Man, this such a bittersweet ending. The only other comic I mostly looked forward to every new issue coming out were the Udon Street Fighter comics but those are pretty sporadic. I can't say I can't wait to pick up this month's issue of Street Fighter Arcade Adventures the way I would with the Turtles. I'm gonna miss these guys and can only hope they return in minis or future crossovers.

I found out that even though the 90's Spider-Man comic ended, they do intend to release an annual that will finally show the story of how Peter found Mary Jane again in whatever dimension she was thrown into and how she came back. Maybe someday we'll get the story of Michaelangelo, Renet and Fugitoid finding the others through time and space. I know it wouldn't be the same Turtles, it would be older versions of them. Since that story would have happened after Red Sky, they could probably reference previous adventures along the way, like their final battle with Lord Dregg or the one time Shredder and Krang came after them with a Giggle Ray.