“Yesterday’s” Comic> Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2

“Wait, do I have a zit?”

Yes, I did review this story when IDW released the “color classic” colorized reprints. I did a few of those, actually, until for some reason IDW stopped making them early on. That I was looking at from a historic perspective. This is just following the story itself as if for the first time. You can compare reviews if you want.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2

Mirage Publishing (October, 1984)

“Turtles Vs. The Mousers”

WRITERS/ARTISTS: Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird

LETTERER: Steve Lavigne

The titles come from the Mirage Publishing site by the way.

Scientist Baxter Stockman has created a group of robots called “mousers” that is supposed to help purge the city of its rodent problem. However, his assistant April O’Neil discovers they’re actually behind a series of robberies so Baxter can create enough mousers to hold the city for ransom by threatening to crumble New York from below. Since she doesn’t want to be part of it, the sadistic Baxter sends his robots to chase ther through the sewers, but April is rescued by Leo, Don, and Raph. Once she wakes up they tell her their backstory from the first issue and she asks what they’ll do now that their mission is over. They aren’t sure but when a disguised Baxter makes his demands the Turtles decide to help April take the robots down. The city is saved, but what’s next for our quartet?

What they got right: It may have been a while but just point to the first issue rather than rehash their origin so soon. Baxter gives a good reason for not simply making money from the anti-rodent robots…he’s kind of nuts. That’s for all of you who always wonder why mad scientists don’t simply sell their gadgets and live off of the patents. That’s kind of why they’re called MAD scientists. This story also shows that you can tell more stories with the Turtles despite them actually succeeding at what they were trained to do, using their training to help secretly protect the city.

What they got wrong: Unless you see their signature weapons or names are said, you can’t really tell them apart. While we get some hints of their personalities there isn’t much to go on. I know looking alike is a benefit used by actual ninja in the old days but it does make it a bit confusing to tell who is speaking.

What I think overall: The series shows more life beyond the first story and we’ll see where things go beyond that. Though intended as a one-shot there are reasons this became a huge franchise and we do see elements of it here.