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.

Update on Lootcrate Thanos Oven Mitt

By Mark Rodriguez

Just a quick update because I was really curious on what was going to happen regarding the Thanos Oven Mitt that came in the May Lootcrate. It was a cool design, an oven mitt that looked like the Infinity Gauntlet, except that it doesn't work as an actual oven mitt. LootCrate says they received reports of 241 reports of injuries including burns and the glove melting on the user's skin. Ouch.

It seems the replacement items will be a t-shirt and a Simpsons keychain. I'm very curious what the t-shirt will be and I kinda hope it's something related to Thanos. I mean, hey, you get 2 items in exchange for one, but imagine being a fan of Marvel and getting a t-shirt of some random show or series you don't care about instead. The Simpsons keychain seems totally random though, but hey, at least they're doing something to make up for a previous defective item. I'll be watching Youtube videos later to see.

If you have one of these mitts, stop using them immediately and go to Lootcrate.com for more information on how to get your replacement items.

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?

Street Fighter X G.I Joe # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

IDW sure loves their crossovers. They own so many different comic properties now that they just love to have them mix and mingle. They make TMNT and Ghostbusters comics... so let's have them crossover. What surprises me is how they get the rights to other properties now. They somehow had the TMNT crossover with Batman, of course from DC comics. Now they have G.I Joe somehow crossover with Street Fighter from Capcom.

Since Udon is currently doing all the Street Fighter stuff we really haven't seen another comic take on the series. Other than..... Malibu comics, that as far as I know is nowhere around anymore... Let's take a look at how IDW handles everyone's favorite World Warriors.

Bison announces that the World Warrior Tournament is about to begin, with Destro by his side. The qualifying rounds are done so now only the best remain and the winner will become the World Warrior. Crimson Viper and The Baroness get ready, as Viper is about to face off against Snake Eyes. Baroness warns to expect betrayal either from Bison or Destro.

The first match starts and Snake Eyes is so quick that Crimson Viper can't lay a hand on him. She gets tired of him dodging all her moves and starts using her super moves on him (the Thunder Knuckle and the Burning Kick). Just as Viper is about to hit him with her Emergency Combo, but Snake Eyes flips out of the way. he draws two kunai and hacks at her gloves. He then finishes the match by kicking her on the back of the head, knocking her out.

Baroness calls out Bison for allowing knives to be used in the tournament, an he remarks that they also turned a blind eye towards Viper's S.I.N Battlesuit. Viper apologizes for her loss, and Baroness says she's used to being disappointed and having to handle things herself.

The next match is between the Baroness and Rufus. Rufus says his girlfriend Candy is pretty open-minded and suggests a threesome. Baroness socks him in the face. She knees him in the face and lays him out. Baroness complains to Destro about her opponent and wonder how he even made it to the 8th finals. Rufus gets back up, to her surprise, and continues the fight, hitting her with his special moves. He finishes her off with the Big Bang Typhoon and ends the match.

estro charms Baroness into working with them. They have a special weapon that can only be powered by contained one on one combat and they need Bison's organization to help out with that.

The next match is Roadblock VS Hakan, who boasts about the fine oils his company makes. Roadblock socks him out, making him land on his own barrel of oil. Hakan is now oiled up and ready to continue, but Roadblock pulls out a Gatling gun and opens fire. Hakan slides under the gunfire and sends Roadblock flying. He then catches him and use his Ultra Combo, the Oil Combination Hold that sends him shooting out into a brick wall. Hakan tells him not to feel bad since his oil grants him a big advantage. Roadblock taste the oil and is impressed, saying he'd love to cook using it.

The next match is Ryu VS Jinx, and apparently they've been training together. As they fight, Jinx manages to use Ryu's own Sho Ryu Ken against him. This would flare up his Dark Hado, but he would quickly try to calm back down. Ryu fires off a Metsu HadoKen, which Jinx manages to dodge. She says he went wide on purpose and she doesn't want him to hold back. Ryu asks if that's what she wants, Jinx says it's exactly what she wants as they both fly into each other with kicks. Jinx overcomes Ryu and wins the match. Jinx thanks her master but Ryu tells her to keep an eye out for danger in the tournament.

Destro asks if their machine is working and Bison says it's working perfectly. He says he will be ready by the time he steps into the ring. The next issue promises fight between Guile and Gung Ho, Chun Li and Dan, Storm Shadow and Croc Master and Bison VS Cammy!

The comic also explains the following matches between the 16 Street Fighters and the 16 Joes and Cobras and how we ended up with the final 8.

Snake Eyes defeated Ken to advance
Crimson Viper defeated Munitia to advance

The Baroness defeated Elena to advance
Rufus defeated Cover Girl to advance
(the summary explains she forfeit the fight on purpose just to get away from Rufus' gropey holds

Roadblock defeated Zangief to advance
Hakan defeated Shipwreck to advance

Jinx defeated Blanka to advance
Ryu defeated Overkill to advance

Guile defeated Crusher to advance
Gung Ho defeated Dhalsim to advance

Chun Li defeated Quick Kick to advance
Dan defeated Sakura to advance 
(I'm honestly not sure how. Sakura can beat Dan on her worst day. Karin must have thrown a banana peel in there somewhere)

Storm Shadow defeated Fei Long to advance
Croc Master defeated Alex to advance

Cammy defeated Firefly to advance
Bison defeated Rock N' Roll to advance

My opinions- 

I certainly wasn't expecting this. For a game popular for being about an international martial arts tournament.... most forms of media seem to show everything except the actual tournament. Yeah, over the years Capcom has added a lot of backstory to all of the characters so most of the movies, anime, comics and what-have-you dealt with that. In fact I don't think there even was a tournament during the Alpha series. It was all about everything that happened between Street Fighter 1 and 2. Wether it's the made-up foolishness like Raul Julia movie and Malibu comics to the more faithful Udon comics, once in a while you just wanna see these guys go at it in a tournament, you know, just like the games. And this comic skips all of the story and goes right to it. They even kept the Street Fighters' battle stances in and used the same font for FIGHT as seen in the games.

The plot seems to be some sort of super weapon that is somehow powered by martial arts combat, and Destro and Bison are using each other to fuel it. With stuff like Ryu training with Jinx for who knows how long before this story started this crossover seems to be another case of 'they always existed in the same universe, they just never crossed paths before now' kind of thing, like the Street Fighter X Tekken game.

The fights are short and sweet and they do a great job of drawing all the special moves. In fact, the Joes and Cobras are kind of outgunned here. They are, at the end of the day, just heavily trained people. Sure the same applies to the Street Fighter crew but they're able to throw huge fireballs and other weird stuff. To keep the Street Fighters from mopping the floor with the Joes and Cobras, Snake Eyes managed to defeat Viper on sheer ninja skill. I do kinda buy it since Viper seems to rely on her supersuit and although she's a superspy, it's hard to know just how well she actually can fight without it. I can see Vega and Ibuki giving her similar trouble.

I kinda think Ryu let Jinx win, though who knows, maybe when it comes to flying kicks, she did out-kick him. But he would have finished the fight quickly if his fireball hit, which kinda isn't fair since she doesn't have a fireball of her own to counter with. Also, Ryu seemed rather grumpy when he lost to her. I don't know. I always figured Ryu as an overall nice and humble guy, and he'd humbly face defeat as long as the fight was won cleanly.

The comic also offers short bios on all the characters and mentions the fights we didn't see which would lead to these 8 finalists. I don't know how strong Roadblock is supposed to be but Zangief is like... freakishly strong, possibly the only one stronger than him being Hugo... so I don't know how Roadblock got past him... and then somehow lost to Hakan. And maybe Sakura had the flu or something but I don't really see how on Earth she lost to Dan unless she just threw the fight. Maybe she couldn't concentrate when she found out Ryu was training Jinx instead of her. I think they just wanted to see Dan's shenanigans in the actual comic so they made him win against a young schoolgirl, even though that young schoolgirl has shown she has way greater skill than him. Oh well.

Well, we'll see what awaits us next issue and how long the comic will continue in this format before we find out what the super weapon is.

Finally let me end this by saying this isn't exactly the first time Street Fighter has crossed paths with G.I Joe. Back in the 90's when Street Fighter was battling it out on both the SNES and Genesis, the G.I Joe toyline decided to bring in the characters as part of their toyline. Yes, at least according to the toys, they considered the main 8 to be part of the Joes, and the 4 bosses to be part of Cobra.

The ironic thing is.... the guys in the commercial looked more like the actual game characters than the toys did!!!

Now some of the characters that were already military related like Guile and Bison fit in.... but everyone else.... most of the characters were slightly re-designed to now be a soldier of some kind. Oh man, poor Chun Li! What have they done with you???

It's at thins point that even Chun Li wishes she was being played by Kristin Kreuk right about now...

I think I ran across some of these at one of the Steelcity cons.... anyways I'm glad that partnership ended quickly, this new crossover notwithstanding. Let's see what happens in issue 2!

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?

Lootcrate Thanos Infinity Gauntlet Oven Mitt Recalled

By Mark Rodriguez

Thanos is one of the most powerful mortals in the Marvel Universe. Even without his Infinity Gauntlet he can whup all of the Avengers without even trying, even the Hulk. But it seems his Infinity Gauntlet can't withstand standard oven cooking temperatures.

THANOS REIGNS!!! Just not when it comes to baking.

This past Lootcrate's theme (and I'm referring to the classic Lootcrate, not LootAnime or LootGaming) was Power. Personally, we skipped this one for LootAnime as our past article showed. It came with things related to Marvel and DBZ, but one thing in particular was this really cool oven mitt that looks like Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet. Pretty awesome!

Well, while it looks cool it seems that it's not actually good as an actual oven mitt. It seems several people have reported actually getting badly burned when using this glove for its intended purpose. Lootcrate has told everyone to stop using the mitt and to put it someplace safe. They're going to either refund people or replace it with something of equal value. They're not exactly sure what they're going to do since they've never encountered something like this before.

This is a rather surprising turn of events, but good for Lootcrate for stepping up to the plate and trying to resolve this as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe the material the glove was made of wasn't thick enough to withstand standard oven temperatures. Honestly, this is something I'd keep on display somewhere and not use as an actual oven mitt to prevent any burn or grease stains getting on it... but that's just me.

I'm curious as to what exactly will happen and what exactly people will get in return, if it's going to be a refund, a new and improved oven mitt or something new altogether. If I find out, I'll let you guys know.

"Fine... I'll do it myself!"Not with that faulty oven mitt you're not.