“Yesterday’s” Comic> Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3 (Dreamwave)

I’m going to have to stop predicting “this is the end of the odd adaptations” because next issue looks like Casey Jones’ debut in the 2003 cartoon. More on this in a moment.

“See, I used a toothbrush this morning.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3

Dreamwave Productions (August, 2003)

“Attack Of The Mousers”

WRITER: Peter David

PENCILER: Lesean

INKER: Erik Sander

COLORISTS: Rob Ruffolo, Shaun Curtis, Stuart Ng, and Susan Luo

FLATS: Kenny LI

LETTERER: Matt Moylan

Adapting the third episode, the second half of the adaptation of the second issue of the original comic. Like the other two, Peter David decided to take it from a different angle, this time focusing on Baxter Stockman. We learn that he was a bullied teen who made the mistake of openly gloating over how he got payback on the stereotypical jock bully (none of my bullies were jocks–maybe it’s a city thing), got beat up by everybody, including the girl he liked who of course was dating the bully, and was first recruited by Hun into the Foot. The Turtles and April manage to destroy the Mousters, Baxter gets punished by Oroku Saki, and he sees the blurry images of the Turtles taken from the Mousers’ recorded data, and he’s not happy.

Trying to be an adaptation hurts this story. Had it been an exploration of Baxter’s origins, and how he ended up as a ego-driven science stooge for the Foot it would have been fine. Trying to shoehorn in the episode adaptation is what hurts the story, like the previous two. David doesn’t have time to do both a character study and an episode adaptation of how the Turtles met their human friends in season one, and both suffers for it.

I can’t say I’m digging the art style, either. Compare the Turtles in the comic…

…to the Turtles as drawn in the show.

The ones on the left.

The styles don’t match up and Lesean’s style is very exaggerated. It’s not bad necessarily. It’s done on purpose. I just don’t think it works for this comic or as an adaptation of the show’s art style.

As mentioned, next issue is Casey Jones’ debut story, which I don’t seem to have. Maybe I was getting tired of the adaptations, or possibly I just missed that issue because Diamond sucks. This is better than April’s story last issue, if only because it doesn’t try to add fan service for the original show, not bringing up Baxter’s race swap or fly mutation from the 1980s cartoon like he did April’s job swap to reporter. It’s still not what it could have been.