Batman and the Signal # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

For a while, Batman has had a new sidekick dressed in a yellow armored bat-theme outfit. The interesting thing was this new hero wasn't a given a name. When Duke, the guy inside the suit, asked Bruce if was going to be the next Robin, the millionaire responded that he wanted to do something different. And so we've seen this kid in several issues here and there, in which some fans have nicknamed him 'BumbleBat' but we never knew the actual name of his heroic persona. Now we finally know, as this mini series calls him... The Signal. While the name might have made more sense if his super power was to help direct traffic...let's check out the adventures of Batman and the Signal.

The issue opens with Duke not being exactly welcome at the Bat Family dinner table, if you see they now have Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, Orphan, Nightwing, Batwoman and Batwing there. Duke says Tim is right, there are probably too many members already and they could probably stand to lose some than gain more, to which Jason objects.  Duke says they don't trust him because he was powers they can't understand, and he feels him being the Signal will most likely go crashing down in a week.

This was kinda funny since Jason was the first Robin to ever go down. I like how he's being invited to dinner nowadays. 

Later on we see The Signal fighting a super villain that throws him into a bus. Duke tries to activate his powers, but they're not working now. The villain is named Null and he thinks Duke is one of 'The Dial'. Duke explains his powers are to see light differently than anyone else which lets him see traces of where it is and where it's going to be, that helps him in fights. Null uses negative energy, which he uses to send Duke flying back. Null realizes that Duke isn't able to use his powers when he wants to so he can't be one of 'The Dial'.

Null starts choking Duke, and the heroic youth manages to focus on the lights points and where Null gathers his energy from and finally attacks him. Duke kicks him across the face to lay him out. People from the neighborhood show up angry about him fighting bad guys in the daytime, which is supposed to be safe.  Duke says he just goes where there's bad guys and the people blame everything on him and all the other Bat-Heroes as of late and tells him to go back to his cave. Duke tunes them out and goes home.

Commissioner Gordon shows up to visit a female detective with a metal arm named Aisi and gives her a case regarding two kids that went out to party and decided to show off their new powers on the roof. Unfortunately the powers were too much for their bodies and they died violently. They discuss how there's been a recent increase of metahumans in Gotham lately, and they've never had that before.

Duke is at his place with Iz (his girlfriend) and Riko, studying the blood sample taken from Null. Even though the powers are biological, it always takes some sort of trigger to activate them. If he can find the trigger, he can find out more about himself and his own powers. Riko says he already is where he wants to be since they all used to be Robins, but Duke was the only one to actually join the Bat-Family officially.

Duke's older cousin, who is his legal guardian while his parents recover, doesn't like him having the door to his room closed. After Duke gets rid of him, Riko notices that Null's powers somehow got more powerful the closer he got to Duke. Duke says then this whole mess might have started with him.

Duke tells the girls how Batman introduced him to a new secret base called The Hatch. There Batman tells him he respects how Duke wants to be a hero in his own way and he needs someone like that. He needs someone that can protect the city during the day and knows the city like he does to help with the course of these kids developing super powers. Bruce introduces him to the new costume and he needs a name. Duke says his mother a social worker and she considers herself the 'First Knight' on the battlefield when helping new people, and another word for First Knight is The Signal.

Iz noticed that a place called The Solarium has become some sort of Arkham for teens, where all the meta teens have been locked up. She thinks Duke's powers might affect theirs too and he might find out more about what's causing them.

Detective Aisi shows up at her station and checks the tox report for some of the captured teens and notices a possible catalyst is a chemical called Boxitan which might be in found in water. She heads over to the Solarium for a water sample. She is refused due to new rules and Aisi says she will be back with a warrant.

As she leaves, Duke sneaks in and reads the guard's lips saying that he won't let Aisi in to someone. Duke wonders who's in charge and uses his powers to get past the security keypad. As he explores the underground facility he notices that all of the cells are empty and realizes it's a trap. Just then someone socks Duke on the back of the head.

My Opinions

The story seems interesting, I honestly did not know Duke even had powers. I was kind of hoping for some classic adventures of Batman and the Signal going out and kicking ass, or at least seeing how he interacts with the other Bat-characters, but this is an interesting way to learn more about him and his supporting cast. He's basically trying to find his place in the world, and even though Batman welcomed him into the fold, he still doesn't quite fit in.

The rise of metahumans and some secret facility trying to keep them there, or possibly have a hand in creating them there is interesting enough. I wonder who's in charge of all this.

I'm not sure if Gotham, or certain parts of Gotham have some sort of law or whatever where the bad guys only agree to come out at night? I know I saw that concept in a movie somewhere, I want to say the cheesy Double Dragon movie but I'm not sure. It kinda confused me because I'm pretty sure the Joker has committed his crimes or murder sprees in broad daylight in the past, and there always seem to be some thugs out there up to no good at all hours of the day in Gotham City. So I'm not sure what the crowd was talking about.

Duke's powers are unique and not too flashy or outlandish. Helping him see light fixtures that no one else can helps him predict and avoid moves, so the average man, he just looks like a highly skilled fighter. He isn't tossing huge energy blasts or anything. Kinda like the Spider-Sense, to the average eye it just looks like Spidey has some real good instincts.

The comic did a good job of setting up his supporting cast, namely Iz, Riko and his older cousin Jay. I'm also curious as to what Detective Aisi will bring to the table. Will she become Duke's Commissioner Gordon?

Since this is a 3-issue mini series, I do intend to get all 3 issues and cover them all here. I do hope Duke finds out more about himself but I also like how he's not exactly another Bat-Person or another Robin. Similar to Orphan and Spoiler, it's a new persona. That looks like a BumbleBat. I get the meaning behind his name, but it'll take a while for The Signal to grow on me. I guess even the editors had little faith in the name which might be why they kept it hidden for so long. I still like Duke as a character and hope this story doesn't end in him 'getting cured of his powers' so he can stick around the Bat-Family for a good long time.

I guess now they can finally stop dancing around his codename and openly call him The Signal in future issues.

Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything # 3

By Mark Rodriguez

Bebop and Rocksteady stole a time scepter from Savanti Romero and after running into the Turtles and Renet, went back to the year 2000, running into their past pre-mutated human selves. Both the human and mutant Bebop and Rocksteadys go through time in their Foot Cruiser, running into another pair of them in another car. They both appear in front of the Turtles and Renet and crash into each other. One pair of human Bebop and Rocksteadys didn't survive the crash, so the surviving mutants ran into the car of the other 4 and they all escaped through time, all in front of the very shocked and confused Turtles and Renet.

Mikey freaks out and asks Renet if they were sent to the crazverse, which she says she wouldn't take them there. Leo is worried that Renet just confirmed that there is a crazyverse, while Renet and Don explain time travel theories as to what happened. Savanti Romero arrived where they are now and had the scepter stolen from him by Bebop and Rocksteady. Savanti is currently there now but they can't see each other since they are both in different dimensions and alternate timelines. She can't take them to before Bebop and Rocksteady got the scepter but she does know where they went. Back to 2012 at Stockgen. The Turtles panic because this was when they were still ordinary turtles in Stockgen before they were mutated.

All the Bebops and Rocksteadys attack Stockgen and demand to know where the Mutagen is, though the people working there wouldn't know something so confidential. Bebop tells Rocksteady to stop messing around and help break a door down. This sparks an arguement between the two, which also sets off the human Bebop and Rocksteady to fight among themselves.

During the destruction, April and Lindsay are hiding with the normal Turtles, but don't know where Splinter ran off to. Lindsay is shocked by how the mutants killed Baxter Stockman. Before they can leave, a portal opens with the Turtles and Renet. Mikey explains that they're the turtles she's holding, but mutated. Chet comes along to catch April before she faints.

Chet gets hurt during the fight, which reveals that he was the Fugitoid all along. The Turtles start fighting and soon realize that the human duo with them are the pre-mutated Bebop and Rocksteady. Leo tells them to take down the mutant pair first since they'll be easier, but the regular Bebop and Rocksteady prove to be a challenge. Meanwhile the mutant duo smashes through the door. Leo says to forget taking down anybody and just try to get the scepter back.

The Turtles bust in and Bebop socks Mikey into one of the several containment units in the lab. This releases Slash who is more feral at this point, and he starts attacking Bebop. Human Bebop thinks one of the normal Turtles turned into Slash and asks mutant Rocksteady if he should help mutant Bebop against the Super Saiyan Turtle (lol, he actually said that).

The Turtles use this as a chance to get the scepter while Bebop and Rocksteady want to mutate their human selves. The Turtles overhear this and want to stop them before it happens. Just then ANOTHER set of Bebop and Rocksteadys, both human and mutants, come through another time portal using a car from Rio de Janeiro.

Just then through all the commotion, mutant monsters are being released, some of them look like Wingunt, Screwloose and a mutant roach. Just then a bunch of stone warriors bust in to save the Krang's ooze befoee it's stolen. The military also busts in to arrest everybody.

Everybody is basically fighting everybody while Renet and April lost sight of the Turtles. Bebop tries to cut Raphael up with his chainsaw until Pepperoni flies in through a time portal and smashes Bebop down.With all the chaos, Bebop and Rocksteady decide to just throw all the extra mutants into random time portals. A scientist that kinda looks like 80's Baxter is worried about his sea life mutants and Bebop shoves him into a portal too. During the fight between the soldiers and Stone Warriors, they also get exposed to Mutagen and start mutating.

April gets exposed as well and Bebop makes her fall into another portal before Fugitoid can grab her. As Bebop and Rocksteady decide to escape with their human selves, Bebop accidentally squishes normal rat Splinter that was running around. With all the random mutants and soldiers and whatnot thrown into all kinds of different time periods, Renet says they have to go outside of time to fix all of this. She takes the Turtles with her back to the 79th dimension.

My opinions

My goodness, this is totally insane and well... this is what comics are all about. An all-out brawl between random mutants, multiple Bebops and Rocksteadys, both human and mutant, the Turtles, the military and stone warriors. It's just madness! I can only assume through all this madness that the Bebop and Rocksteady pair we saw get away are the main ones that we've been following.

There are so many other things in this issue I can talk about that it would make it's own Top 10. A reference to 80's Baxter. A DBZ reference. Donatello talking to reader as he's explaining the time travel theory. All the extra mutants and cameos. The Turtles trying to name their new dino-pal as Anchovy or Bell Pepper. It's just insane all around.

But man, what a mess they made in this timeline. They killed Baxter. They mutated April. They shoved random mutants into who-knows-where of multiple timelines. They even squished normal rat Splinter. I don't even know where the 4 regular Turtles are at this point since April was guarding them.

This all falls under the timeline theory as seen in DBZ with Trunks. When you travel through time you make a brand new timeline and can't really change the one you're from. That's why Trunks saved Goku and everyone but dying and they defeated the Androids and Cell.... but when Trunks went back to his timeline, everyone was still dead and he had to destroy the Androids and Cell himself. So I assume with all of this craziness our regular non-mutant April and mutant Splinter still exist. But man, what a nightmare all of this was. Like the title suggests, Bebop and Rocksteady really are destroying everything!

The last thing I want to bring up are all the little plot threads here and there that were around since the beginning. Back when April was working with Lindsay at Stockgen, Chet was Fugitoid all this time but that wouldn't be revealed til way later, and Slash has been held captive there but that also wouldn't have been revealed til way later. In fact, I don't even think the Turtles knew Slash came from Stockgen til now. It was interesting to see Wingnut and Screwloose as cameos, but it looks like cameos are all they're gonna be unless they somehow survive whatever Renet is going to do to fix all of this.

And just what is Renet going to do to fix all this? I guess we'll find out next time.

Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything # 2

By Mark Rodriguez

The Turtles find fossils of Bebop and Rocksteady in a museum and Renet shows up. They go after the mutant duo in Rio de Janeiro who use the time scepter they apparently took from Savanti Romero to escape. They then end up in New York City but back in the year 2000 and run into their younger pre-mutated selves. Let's see what happens.

Renet and the Turtles are wondering what to do now and Leo asks why Renet thought it was weird to see Bebop and Rocksteady's bones in their timeline. Renet explains when you time travel, you change the universe you visit, so you can no longer return to the exact time you came from. The fossils must belong to another Bebop and Rocksteady from some other timeline. Don asks is they took the scepter from Savanti Romero, then where is he now? Renet and the gang decide to go back to the Cretaceous Period and find him.

Meanwhile back in the year 2000, Bebop and Rocksteady rock out with their younger selves. They hang out and talk for a bit which brought up an argument they had that caused them to split for a year. At the time Bebop was kicked from a gang but Rocksteady wouldn't quit since they liked him for his military experience. Mutant Bebop and Rocksteady decide to let them join the Foot early to hopefully become mutated sooner.

In prehistoric times, Savanti Romero now has Bebop and Rocksteady working with him. They plan to attack a nearby Utrom base and steal their teleporting technology so Savanti can return to the 79th Dimension, where the Time Masters reside.

Not too far away the Turtles and Renet arrive just in time to see Bebop, Rocksteady and Savanti start their attack. Raphael runs into a little dinosaur he met that he named Pepperoni the last time they went to this time period. Before they can do anything they notice that another time portal has opened up.

An older Renet, now a Time Mistress has come to stop Savanti but she is attacked by Bebop and Rocksteady. The Turtles want to jump in but the younger Renet holds them back. Savanti takes the scepter and lays out Renet, Bebop and Rocksteady as he escaped through time with the scepter. Renet encounters her dying older self who is glad her beacon worked. She tells them to follow Savanti through the portal before it closes and that they must 'remove the gem'. There is no time to explain as the heroes hurry through the portal, though Raph manages to bring Pepperoni and another little dino-buddy as well.

As the Turtles and Savanti fight it out in the um... timeline pipe thing.... Savanti manages to get away and knock the Turtles into an alternate timeline. Raph also loses sight of Pepperoni.

Back in 2000, Bebop and Rocksteady take their younger selves in their old car to where the Foot Clan would eventually be. The only thing is, in 2000 it seems the Foot wasn't around in New York yet and the building they went to was a Foot Clan Holding and Investment Corp. After questioning a guy there they decide to leave. The younger Bebop and Rocksteady say they'll just have to wait for the Foot Clan to come around. Mutant Bebop says they used the 'magic wand' to get from 2016 to 2000, so maybe they can use it to go back to 2016 again.

As the Bebops and Rocksteadys drive through time, they run across another set of the them doing the same thing. The two Bebops playfully clash time scepters as if they were toy swords. They notice that the second pair of themselves went through a different time tunnel.

The Turtles and Renet appear back in Rio de Janeiro, exactly where they left, but a week earlier. Renet says they can't follow Savanti since he went to another dimension that hasn't been altered yet. This timeline is about to be altered. Just then two time portals appear and 2 sets of Bebop and Rocksteadys drive into each other causing a big crash. It seems in the crash one pair of the mutant thugs survived the crash while their human Bebop died and human Rocksteady is left trapped under the crashed car. The mutants run out of the crashed car and join the surviving mutant and human Bebops and Rocksteadys and drive off into another time tunnel as the car that's left behind explodes killing the human Rocksteady. The Turtles and Renet are shocked.

My opinions-

Geez.... Dat Ending... I had to look at the page a few times to process that. So two different sets of Bebops and Rocksteadys crash into each other..... and one set of mutants just hops into the other car to join the survivors leaving their human selves behind to die? I mean seeing human Rocksteady realize he's going to be left behind and yell for help moments before the car blows up. Dude... just what the hell. This kind of reminds me of Rick and Morty with all the different timelines and alternate realities where Rick sees alternate versions of himself die and he doesn't even bat an eye.

Not much else to say. It's a wild ride. Savanti thinks the IDW Turtles are the Mirage Turtles he faced before. We learn a bit about Bebop and Rocksteady's past, especially Rocksteady's army days which explains the usual military motif he always has. I mean, yeah, we can assume he had some sort of military training, but it's nice for them to actually point it out. We also see that the Bebop and Rocksteady fossils were due to Savanti double-crossing them and leaving them behind in the past.

Also their cool car reminded me of the Foot Cruiser figure from back in the day. The fact that their younger selves wanted to someday add weapons on it is also reference to the toy.

It was nice to see Pepperoni again, but it's sad that now the little guy will be stuck in some random timeline. Other than that, not much to say except the story has me very interested into seeing just how exactly Bebop and Rocksteady end up in the dinosaur era like they eventually do.

The only thing I have to say is that in the preview cover for the next issue, I do see Wingnut and Screwloose and the Cockroach Terminator thrown into the mix, so I wonder how that's going to work. Especially since the Cockroach Terminator is so far, only in the Nicktoon series. Oh and Slash also is on the cover. Just what more craziness will happen in the third issue?

Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Bebop and Rocksteady have always been everyone's favorite henchmen when it came to the TMNT. Even though other series gave Shredder assistants like Tatsu, Tokka, Rahzar, Hun, Karai, Fishface and Dogpound, this mutant duo will always be the favorite. IDW did a great job of making them nearly unstoppable threats, while still keeping their trademark stupidity and incompetence. I mean a few years back would you have believed that there was a comic where Rocksteady beat Donnie to death with a sledgehammer??? Well, their first IDW one-shot dealt with their mutation and their first missions for the Foot. Now let's see what other trouble these mutant morons can get themselves into.

I notice this covers runs into the following one. I guess they'll all come around full circle once you have all the covers put together.

The story begins with Savanti Romero being defeated by the Turtles and Renet and being banished, losing his wife, his body and everything. He is then visited by two very unlikely time travelers, Bebop and Rocksteady.

redrawn from the Mirage comics!

Elsewhere, Don takes the Turtles to visit the history museum to see a mummified woman he heard about. However what he really wanted to show them was what appeared to be the skeletal remains of Bebop and Rocksteady. The Turtles are worried that those two have gone back in time.

Bebop and Rocksteady are in Rio de Janeiro working for another gang, the Lamina Negra Commandos, but they are pretty sick of their incompetence, having sunk their ships and destroyed their robots. Their boss is also sick of being called Reggaeton by them and sends his robots out to kill them. This only pisses off the mutant duo.

Later on, Bebop is pissed that they're back to square one, kicked out of a gang. Rocksteady tries to cheer him up and says they can rob a few stores and fly back to New York. Bebop yells that they can't do that looking like mutants, and that there's nothing to go back to in New York since the Foot Clan is now gone. Bebop says it's the end of 'Bebop and Rocksteady' and walks off.

At the museum, Mikey notices that the amulet the mummified woman was wearing had swirling energy in it, almost as if it was asking him to touch it. As he touches it, energy shoots out and Renet appears before them.

Renet explains that the amulet was a beacon from a time master set to automatically teleport her there if it was touches by someone she knew. She reasons it has to be someone the time master knew since many people must have touched the amulet but it only activated when Mikey touched it. Renet then realizes that the mummified woman is her. Mikey explains that future Renet must have gone back in time in some point, died and become mummified but left the beacon behind so they could summon a younger version of herself if they touch it.

Renet says if she went back to the Cretaceous era, then it must mean that Savanti survived. She says Savanti had a plan to set off all the volcanoes that would upset the Earth's revolution around the sun which would make the meteor never hit it and thus never kill the dinosaurs so humanity would never evolve. The Turtles don't remember any of that and said they ran into some Utroms when they went into the Cretaceous Period but never ran into anyone named Savanti. Renet says that means the Utrom stuff hasn't happened to her yet.

The Turtles ask about when they met during the Battle Nexus Tournament and Renet seems confused that they were in it. Renet explains she's met the Turtles lots of time, but they must have been alternate versions of themselves. Raph gets back on point and asks what Bebop and Rocksteady are doing here.

Renet says is Savanti stole her scepter, a future version, then it's linked to the one she's holding now. She says it's on Earth and she gets ready to go to that location with the Turtles. Raph asks if it's in New York and Renet says the Scepter is on Earth, but not New York.

Back in Rio de Janeiro, Rocksteady remembers a devil-looking guy that wanted them to join him a few back. Bebop remembered they turned him down because they were loyal to the Commandos at the time. Bebop remembers that they stole a wand off of him and Rocksteady says maybe they can give it back to him and he can let them join his gang.

Just then the Turtles and Renet appear, surprised to see Bebop and Rocksteady instead of Savanti. The Turtles fight with them, trying to get the scepter away from Rocksteady. Renet asks if the bones she saw belonged to those guys and she's surprised that this is all taking place in this timeline.

I really love the cartoony energy here,especially Mikey and Raph's reactions

Bebop wraps his chain around Donatello's bo, and as Rocksteady charges with the scepter, everyone pulls Bebop into him. As the mutants collide, the scepter activates and they're gone.

Bebop and Rocksteady find themselves back in New York and figure the scepter is some kind of 'magic travel thingie'. They decided to head back to their old hideout and lay low for a while. As they arrive they heard people arguing and decide to scare them off. As Bebop and Rocksteady scare the two guys, they notice that they're the pre-mutated versions of themselves. All four of them scream at each other. Bebop and Rocksteady have gone back to the year 2000, before they were ever mutated.

My opinions-

This was a lot more interesting than I thought. The IDW TMNT have run into Renet before, but not Savanti Romero. When the first page was black and white with Leo's bandana being red, I thought it was a stylistic choice, but no, that actually was the Mirage Leo facing the Mirage Savanti.

And the adventure Renet told the Turtles the about, with Savanti wanting to prevent the dinosaurs from being extinct? That happened in the Mirage comics (which was by the way also adapted into a 2-parter in the 2K3 series).

The fact that Renet (the same Renet mind you) has met up with the Mirage TMNT, the 2K3 TMNT, the Nick TMNT and now the IDW TMNT is very clever, and a perfect way to throw in subtle references to other versions of the TMNT without being too jarring. Remember the episode in 2K3 when Renet met April and said 'remember when I showed you...' but stopped herself from saying it? Many thought it was a possible reference to Volume 4 in the Mirage comics when Renet helped April discover her origin as drawing. Well... now that we know that Renet has met both the 2K3 TMNT and Mirage TMNT, that's all entirely possible. It just reminds me how ironically, she's never appeared in the classic 80's cartoon, in which she would have fit in just fine with all the aliens and mutants and space things that happened every other week.

As for Bebop and Rocksteady, I like seeing the interaction between the two. It seems Bebop is the one most likely to freak out and complain about life while Rocksteady seems to be more chill in most situations. Bebop was right, going by their first one-shot, they were kicked out from gang after gang until they met the Foot and got mutated. But with Shredder dead and Splinter leading the Foot, they're back to being kicked out from gangs despite being mutants. That has to be frustrating.

We see the clear differences between the comics and the classic cartoon here. When in the 80's cartoon the Turtles see Bebop and Rocksteady as minor annoyances and waste no time in defeating them, here, they're downright terrified of them. I do think the proportions were a bit off though. I know Bebop and Rocksteady are pretty huge, but here they seem to be picking the Turtles as if they were little toys. They're not that huge, I don't think.

Anyways I can't wait to see the next issue. This one had a hell of a cliffhanger. I kinda wish I got the issue with the Back to the Future homage though. The main question... how did Mirage Savanti end up in Rio de Janeiro to run into Bebop and Rocksteady?

Batman # 433 The Many Deaths of Batman Part 1

By Mark Rodriguez

Here is another series that I picked up at the Sci Fi Valley Con. I believe this story took place sometime before I started collecting the series (my first few issues were about the Crimesmith and the NKV Demon). I have to say, i've run across part 2 or 3 of this story, but never the whole thing, and I never wanted to just buy it incomplete. Thanks to the con, I found all the parts, so let's start with part 1.

Wow.... back when they used to cost 75 cents... Now we're up to 3 dollars a book...

The issue opens on a stormy night as police cars rush down the dark alleys. A local bum points towards something and they see Batman, hanging from a wall of wooden planks, seemingly dead. He's rushed to the hospital where they try to do what they can (a doctor even stops a nurse from trying to unmask him) but the Caped Crusader flatlines and is taken to the morgue.

The doctors are all saddened and one of them in particular goes to a bar to drink away the pain. A guy in a tacky green suit, (looks like a reporter to me) enters the bar and talks to the doctor. He then arrives at the morgue and bribes the guard there to let him take a look at Batman. He is shocked to see the fallen Dark Knight and starts taking pictures. The reporter sells the pictures and the story and the death of Batman is soon printed.

Meanwhile in prison, the Penguin reads the news and is furious, stomping all over the newspaper. Two-Face also sees this and flips a coin. It lands on the scarred side and he gets enraged. Dick Grayson sees the news and Starfire soon arrives to comfort him.

Alfred prepares the daily paper as well as master Bruce's breakfast, but when he catches a glimpse of the headline, he drops the food and runs off. He checks both Bruce Wayne's regular bedroom and the Batcave, not finding his master anywhere. At a police commissioner convention, Gordon is informed of the news. He soon drives down to the hospital and tells the others in the car to 'Get out'. So far this is the only line of dialogue in the whole story.

Gordon checked out Batman's corpse and works up the nerve to unmask him. We see that the man under the mask.... is blonde. Elsewhere, Batman is standing on the top of a building, looking unconscious and propped up against a wooden board. The building blows and the witnesses are confused as they see pieces of Batman's costume falling everywhere, alongside all the debris What is going on?

My Opinions

This was an interesting read.... sorta, since there was no dialogue throughout 99% of the story. Yes, the only line of dialogue through the whole thing was Gordon saying 'Get out'. I wasn't expecting that, but it was done so very well. Right off the bat the first few panels establish the rainy night and the police cars rushing to get to the scene.

The artists did a really good job conveying emotion without a single word from neither the characters or the narrator. You get the panic of the emergency room as they try desperately to revive the Dark Knight, and the look of grief on one of the doctors as he tries to drink his sorrows away. The reporter guy buying his way to get the scoop. This comic did a very good job explaining everything that was going on.

I liked this issue and I'm curious to see where this goes. Why the fake Batman? Why this other fake Batman? And where is the REAL Batman during all this?

Two-Face demands the second issue now!!! It's part TWO after all....

TMNT Colored Classics Volume 3 Issue 1 (Mirage TMNT Issue 48)

By Mark Rodriguez

When most people hear discussion about how the Mirage TMNT is a more adult series than any of the cartoons, the first thing that comes to mind is blood and gore. Now while the original Mirage TMNT aren't exactly afraid of killing (they kill Shredder in the very first issue), the series isn't mature solely due to its violence (because honestly, Leo hacking someone with his sword is no less extreme than Wolverine slicing people up or Batman beating people bloody), but because it digs deep into character themes that most cartoons avoid because they're either more light-hearted, or because it's supposed to be 'action, Action, ACTION!'. Venka and I often discuss things on the new Nickshow, and while sometimes she does ponder deeply on the emotional aftermath of the Turtles and their situation on the show, I do remind her that even though her points are valid, it's still a kids show on Nick and it won't waste more than half the show dealing with depression and a whole lot of talking. While the Mirage series does have its fair share of silly moments and sometimes there are all-action issues, but it does deal with a lot of serious and sometimes dark themes which some might either bore kids or just go over their heads. That's where the mature themes come into play.

It's about time I start getting into the original Mirage series, and I just picked up issues 1 and 2 of Volume 3 of IDW's colored classics (the originals were in black and white donchaknow). The main focus here is Casey Jones, and yes, the original Mirage Casey is still the crazy vigilantee with sports equipment and a hockey mask, but rather than just being crazy for the sake of being crazy, the comic does go into him being a depressed drunk at times fighting his inner demons. Let's check it out.

Shades of Grey starts with Casey running across the rooftops of Springfield and Leo, Raph and Mike getting ready to chase as part of some game. Don opts out since he wants to debug some systems he's working on and Raph considers it a weak excuse. Splinter allows Don to stay and the Turtles head off. Splinter explains that April will drive the Turtles to the Memorial Bridge where Casey already has a three hour head start. If they haven't found him by 1AM, he will head back home and the Turtles will have a 20 mile walk home. April gets ready to head off after circling something that caught her attention in the newspaper.

April drops the Turtles off and Raph says if they can find Casey's Chevy, they can just grab him when he returns to pick it up. Leo and Mike agree. As the Turtles head off and April starts to head home, her truck broke down. A motorcyclist shows up and offers to help.

The Turtles are on a rooftop, searching for Casey, as our masked man is hiding by a gargoyle. He soon flips back to the ground and walks across a park when he hears something. It's a couple of thugs that call him Freddy (though with the hockey mask I figured they'd call him Jason instead??) and they demand he pay their toll for walking across their turf. Casey takes out his hockey stick and they fight it out.

One of the kids come at him with a knife, and Casey knees him in the chest and smashes him on the head with his hockey stick. The kid lays there while his buddies run away. Casey tells the other kid that he should go home too. The kid doesn't seem to be moving, and when Casey goes to check on him, he sees that he's dead.

Just then another vigilantee attacks him, Nobody, calling Casey a murderer. Casey tries to explain but Nobody won't hear it. Casey gets him in a leglock and punches him down. As he runs away, Nobody chases after him and jumps over a swing set. His cape gets caught on the swing chain and Casey is able to get away. Geez Nobody,.... that was just stupid....

Casey rests in a cemetery lamenting what he's just done. He punches a gravestone and bloodies up his hand. After sulking some more, he grabs his mask and is ready to leave. Nobody just found him.

The Turtles see the two punks from earlier running like crazy. They figured maybe they ran into Casey and head towards the direction they're running from. They soon find the dead kid. The Turtles determine a fight took place and see footprints leading away from the park. They find a piece of Casey's hockey stick and have a bad feeling. As they head off, Mike also notices the piece of Nobody's cape stuck on the swing chains.

Nobody and Casey continue to fight it out, with the vigilantee in black taking off his cape and using it to cover the hockey player's face. Casey puts up a good fight, but eventually Nobody comes out as the winner and he starts to cuff him. The Turtles show up and tell him to stop and Nobody says this guy is a killer. Leo says Casey isn't a murderer and Nobody tells them about the kid at the park.

The Turtles ask what happened and Casey says it was accident. Raph says Casey is going home with them. Nobody is confused, having fought alongside the turtles before, that they're condoning Casey's actions. Mikey asks him if he's ever killed before and Nobody says he's a cop and it's been done in self defense. Raph brings up the people he's killed when the last time they met and also states that as long as he's running around in the Nobody costume his badge as a police officer doesn't mean a thing.

Nobody says this makes them accomplices to murder. The Turtles say that Casey will answer for what he's done. Nobody says that he will see to that.


My Opinions- 



It feels good to dig into the one and only original version of the Turtles. This is the main series where it all began after all. Originally TMNT # 48 I assume they didn't reffer to it do the 'wacky era' of the comics. The original Mirage run started off like any other comic series with the Turtles and their adventures following a general course, but somewhere in between there was a time where every issue was drawn by every random artist out there, usually in totally insane cartoony ways and most of them had nothing to do with anything except that the Turtles happen to be there. I do believe this was when Eastman and Laird were busy dealing with the fame and business deals regarding the 80's cartoon and Playmates toyline. Eventually they returned to the series and started some plotlines which led to City at War.

As for the story itself, it's a pretty simple idea. The Turtles go out looking for Casey as part of a game or training exercise of some sort. He runs into some trouble, accidentally hits one of them a little too hard and he's dead. Now another masked vigilantee is after him and the Turtles get involved.

The issue lies that accident or not, Casey killed someone and Nobody, as a police officer wants to take him in, no ifs, ands or buts. Shades of Grey is the perfect title for this as while Casey did kill someone, there was no evil intent. He was basically defending himself and teaching the low lives a lesson. And yeah, in the real world people do sometimes make stupid mistakes or bizzare cases happen which end up in someone being killed, and wether or not that was ever their intention, they still have to pay for it. We clearly see Casey's sense of shock and remorse over what he's done, but Nobody didn't see that and moved in to strike.

The Turtles of course have Casey's back. While they have met Nobody before, to them he's just a random nutjob in black tights. Casey, while also being a nutjob with sports gear, is their friend and they know he's not a cold blooded killer. I like how Raph points out that Nobody's 'by-the-book' police ethics don't apply when he's running around as a masked man that's technically above the law. The Turtles will deal with Casey but what will Nobody do now?

The comic was cool and the fights between Casey and Nobody were pretty sweet. Nice to see two street fighters go at it, though Casey's jumpkick showed he learned a thing or two from the the turtles. The only move that was very weird and wonky looking was the leglock... and then somehow Casey bending forward far enough to punch him in the face... I guess he was doing like a jack-knife punch or whatever? I kinda wish I was drawn at an easier to see angle or whatever. Still sounds like a move that the myth busters should see if its possible.

most awkwardly drawn Casey panel ever.....

As for Nobody, not much I can say about except he's a cop by day, masked crimefighter by night. This is the first Mirage comic I've read with him in it, but I have seen his episodes when he was also featured in the 2K3 series. He's basically the Batman of the TMNT in the sense of being the dark vigilantee without any super powers.

Although he's meant to be taken seriously the scene with him jumping over the swing and getting his cape stuck on the chain was just stupid and embarrassing. Casey didn't even jump over the swing to trick him into doing doing so. I know it was so that Casey could escape somehow for the time being, but there had to be a better way. Losing some valuable cool points there bud.

I can't really comment much on the colored VS original black and white, except for the most part it looks ok to me, except sometimes the Turtles masks look more orange than red. Other than that the comic was a good read. We'll see what happens next issue, since unlike a cartoon show, something like accidentally killing someone isn't something you can just shrug off and forget for 10 episodes until it's addressed again.

On a final note, there's a Youtube show that pits heroes from different series against each other with live actors actually playing out the right. There was a Casey Jones VS Kick-Ass one and while I won't spoil the outcome some posters commented that they were sure Casey would win since already killed a kid before, referring to this issue. Dude. He didn't do it on purpose or for fun. Geez.

Mark's Book Report- The Sea of Monsters (Percy and the Olympians Book Two)

By Mark Rodriguez

I gave myself a little break from Percy to let the story sink in. I also found the movie and checked it out... bottom line... I liked the book a lot better. But yeah, I wanted everything from the first book out of my system before going into the second one. Here's my Out on DVD review episode about the first movie....

And now that I have that out of the way, I returned to the book store to continue on with the second book. Sadly the same girl wasn't there from the first time, cause she really seemed to love the series and was curious about what I would think. I actually met someone where Paige works that absolutely LOVES the series and is eager for the next book of the spin-off series later this year. So now that I got 'The Sea of Monsters'.... here is my review.

The Story

After the first book, Percy, Annabeth and Grover went their ways. Percy went to live with his mom and went back to normal school where there hasn't been an incident for almost a year. Grover went off to search for Pan. Annabeth also returned to her family. All seems well.... until the final days of the school year.

Percy is attacked by giant cannibals in a deadly game of dodgeball. Luckily Annabeth has arrived to seek him out and helps out. Also his new friend Tyson turns out to be a cyclops and is a great help in the fight. After defeating the giants, Annabeth insists that Percy return to Camp Half-Blood since it's really gone to hell since he left.

When they return they find it under attack by giant metal bulls. The main problem is, the camp is supposed to have a forcefield that protects it from outsiders and monsters, but now the bulls are running causing damage like it was nothing. They find out that Thalia, the tree named after the daughter of Zeus is dying from a deadly poison, and when it goes, the camp will be vulnerable to monster attacks forever. Chiron was blamed for this and got expelled from the camp grounds. The only thing that can cure the tree is the legendary golden fleece. The only problem is that instead of Percy going on this quest... the duty of obtaining the golden fleece was given to Clarrisse, the camp bully, and also daughter of Ares that already hated Percy since day one.

Besides that, Percy finds out in dreams, that Grover never made it in finding Pan. Instead he was tricked by a giant cyclops that happens to have the fleece and uses it to lure Satyrs to their deaths. Grover is buying time, taking advantage of the fact that the cyclops is almost blind, but how long can he hold out? Percy, Annabeth and Tyson sneak off to take this quest, even if they risk clashing against Clarrisse. The fleece is located beyond the Sea of Monsters. Will they be able to find it in time, rescue Grover and Camp Half-Blood before the tree dies out? And what will they do when they run into Luke?

My Opinions

Wow, this series only gets better and better. Now that Percy knows that he's the god of Poseidon and all that, this book jumps right into the Greek Mythology. Lots of details and things introduced in the first book return here, like the story of Thalia the tree and Clarrisse having a bigger role. There's so many things to talk about, it's hard to know where to begin.

Grover is missing from most of the book, being held captive by the giant cyclops Polyphemus that loves to eat satyrs. It's kinda funny thinking of Grover in a wedding dress, pretending to be his bride so he can stay alive. I am glad that when he eventually does get rescued, there is still enough page-time left for him to hang with Percy and Annabeth like old times.

Tyson is basically Percy's new best friend in the story. He talks like he's not all that bright, but he has a heart of gold, and as a castaway son of  Poseidon, he's basically Percy's brother. Also as a cyclops he's super strong, fire doesn't hurt him and he's very good at building and fixing things. Everyone is against cyclopes in general since they can't be trusted, so Percy has to assure everyone that Tyson is cool. Percy though feels embarrassed to be associated with him at times, but he eventually does win his favor. I liked seeing both of them interact throughout the book as Percy is constantly trying to keep Tyson out of causing trouble... and Tyson is usually saving Percy's life. Tyson was unwanted and abandoned before he met Percy so he cares a lot for his brother now that he has one.

Clarrisse got a bigger role for this story and she's her usual bully self. Despite everything, she still fights for the sake of defending the camp, so it's good to see she's not all that bad. Though I'm sure she likes fighting the bad guys for the sake of fighting. She gets her own pirate ship complete with skeleton pirates and actually helps Percy on getting past the Sea of Monsters.  Even I feel sorry for her when Ares was chewing her out since he wanted her to succeed on this quest and get some fame away from Percy. She really is trying hard to please her father and wants him to be proud of her, so there is some goodness in there...somewhere.

Annabeth is pretty much the same. One of the most interesting chapters was when they were sailing close to the sirens and she wanted to hear their songs while Percy tied her up. The book did an amazing job describing how desperately she wanted to break free once she fell under the song's spell. When Percy touched her, he saw what she saw, which was the perfect image of the perfect family she wished she had, with Luke still as a good guy since she had a crush on him before he turned evil.

And yes, spoiler from the last book, Luke was the Lightning Thief and he did it to help revive the god Kronos that wants to destroy everything to get revenge on Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. He returns in this story a few times... and it always seems like it's gonna hit the fan when he does... I mean, damn, this book does a great job of keeping me in suspense! We also see his father Hermes, who gives Percy some items to help in his quest, and he hopes to one day regain Luke as a good guy again.

As for Percy himself, he's still the brave and heroic character from the first book. This time he's really going out there to save the camp and stop Luke's plans without any ulterior motives like in the first book. He's more of a nice guy and especially shows it near the end with Clarrisse. He has trouble dealing with Tyson, being embarrassed of him at first, and also not liking the fact that Poseidon just dumped a brother on him without warning. And he still feels some of the resentment of being abandoned by his father. He does eventually value Tyson's friendship and sees that Poseidon is watching over them, in his own way.

One theme this book kept from the first one, is the gods or goddesses disguising themselves as normal humans in some kind of store or shop to lure them into the trap. The first book had several, including the Las Vegas Casino trap where time literally stood still for everyone inside it. This book had Circe running some kind of spa and offers to give Percy and Annabeth make overs. While she made Annabeth look stunning, her idea of a make-over for Percy, or any men in general, was to turn him into a guinea pig. Another theme this book follows is all the snazzy titles for each chapter with crazy things like 'We meet the sheep of Doom' or 'Clarrisse blows up everything'. And we still get the 'Percy is the narrator' sense of humor.

The book is also full of action and they face all sorts of monster and creatures from sirens to giant metal bulls, to pirahna-ish sheep. And yes, Polyphemus the giant cyclops is probably the main monster they face in this story. I'm glad I got to see how Tyson and Polyphemus got to interact and actually fight it out. The characters are lovable and you care about what happens to them. Like I said, even the jerk characters like Clarrisse have things make you feel sorry for them so you can't hate them outright.

It's a good book, again I enjoyed it cover to cover. I'm really enjoying this series and I know there's a movie out about this one too. I'll be renting and reviewing it soon. But man... THAT ENDING. It made me super eager to pick up book three and find out what happens next! It's a hell of a plot twist and it's based on something that was mentioned in the first book! I'm really anxious to see how Percy and company will deal with this!