Greetings Turtletarians!
On this episode of Turtle Soup Podcast we take a look at the Japanese only release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic entitled “Mutant Turtle Gaiden” published by Dengeki Comics, written by Hiroshi Kanno and translated into English by the Optical Internet Translation Gang. This release was released back in the December of 1994 and collected in one volume. We’ll be discussing issues 3 and 4 next episode. These stories are basically retellings of the Turtles first encounters with Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang as well as April O’Neil and the Channel 6 news team!
Issue 1 has very similar beats to the 1987 cartoon’s first few episodes and the 1990 live action movie. We get introduced to April O’Neil who has a run in with The Foot Clan which results in her being saved by the TMNT in one of their first ventures out of the sewer. Shredder has a Weather Control Device like most villains who plan on world domination. He also has a unique penchant for pontificating on and on about Hell.
Issue 2 continues with Shredders attempts at world domination taking a back seat to finding a way to deal with the TMNT so that they cannot stand in his way. In typical 80’s villain fashion, Shredder brings out his phony mecha turtles to frame our heroes for crimes they didn’t commit in order to have the city they’re trying to protect turn against them. This plan almost works but is just barely subverted by Bebop and Rocksteady’s mission to acquire The Jewel of the Nile, an integral piece to Shredders plan!
The art in these issues are great however some decisions were made that left us questioning a lot of things and hence the title of the episode. I’ll leave it at that for now.
We also discuss some TMNT Toy News!
Emails: 10:02
News: 15:59
Content: 40:21
Post Show: 2:29:11
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