Nicktoons TMNT Episode 18- Cockroach Terminator

by Mark Rodriguez

Here we go with another new episode of TMNT featuring a new Kraang plot, Raph facing his fears and possibly a missed opportunity with a mutant roach.

The episode opens, oddly enough, with Leo cooking ramen for his bros. Not only are the Turtles NOT eating pizza, but it's the first time we see someone other than Mikey or Splinter making food. I guess hey take turns and whenever it's Mikey's turn it's always pizza related. As the Turtles enjoy their ramen, a roach crawls around the table and Raph freaks the hell out. He chases it and tries to smash it with his sai, but Don runs in and stops him. He has actually outfitted the roach with a mini-surveillance camera and plans to use it to sneak inside the Kraang's base to find out their plans.

Using the spy roach, the Turtles discover that the Kraang are ready to move onto 'phase 2' of their plan, which consists of using a device to drill into the Earth and spill lava all over the city. However, they need a lens to be able to use their drill.  Raph keeps distracting Don as he's trying to control the roach, and this causes the bug to fall into Mutagen. The Kraang find out and are taken out by this new mutant roach.

As the Turtles drive off in the Shell Raiser to stop the Kraang from stealing that lens, they accidently run into something. Don finds out that it was their spy roach, now a mutant, but also fused with the spy camera. Raph freaks out and wants to get away. The others are sure the roach is down, but it suddenly gets up and starts to attack the Turtles. It's main target seems to be Raph. Raph runs into the Shell Raiser and tries to take it down by shooting sewer lids at it. As the Turtles drive off to stop the Kraang, the roach gets back up.

The Turtles find the Kraang and try to stop them from stealing the lens. However, the roach arrives once again, armed with one of the Kraang guns. Raph manages to take the lens from the Kraang, but due to his fear of the giant roach, the aliens were able to recover the lens and get away. The roach seems to have gotten blown up with the Kraang's van, and the Turtles are upset that Raph's fears allowed the Kraang to get away with the lens. The roach emerges from the burning wreckage on all-out Terminator parody scene.

The roach manages to latch itself under the Shell Raiser and uses a buzz saw to try to cut its way in. Don watches some of the footage from the bug's spy camera and sees memories of when Raph tried to smash it with his sai earlier. They now realize it's mainly after Raph and try to use him as bait to stop it once and for all. Raph gets chased by the roach and it looks like the Turtles managed to trap him in cement. However, it was only an empty shell, since it has molted into a larger form, which is now a huge white flying bug.

No.... not that one. But seeing how disgusting the new flying roach monster thing looked, I would have preferred seeing a Cell knock-off. The Kraang have started drilling into the Earth, but it will take time to drill deep enough to start their lava fountain. Raph decides to face his fears and go after the bug in some sort of Turtle Tumbler Cycle thing. The flying bug is now able to throw exploding eggs, which makes it much more dangerous. It grabs Mikey and Raph manages to save his brother and bring the bug's focus back to him.

The Turtles drive into the Kraang base, but their Shell Raiser is caught by their gate doors, trapping them inside. With Raph outside, dealing with the roach, their fight brings them right in front of the laser device. Raph and the roach finally have a one-on-one fight and in the end, Raph uses the drill itself to blow it up. Similar to Snake Weed, we see hints that the roach survived and will be back.

Back home, the Turtles are glad to see that Raph was able to face his fears and no longer fears roaches. Mike said he slipped a roach into Raph's shell, which makes him freak out and run around.

This was an interesting episode, but a strange follow up to TCRI. What happened to the dimensional portal? The Turtles never destroyed it and the Kraang can just turn it back on again. After going through all the trouble looking for the Power Cell, why did they just forget about it and decide to focus on the drill? I guess they came from a planet full of lava and were trying to recreate it, but it seems weird for them to just abandon whatever they wanted to do with the Dimensional Portal.

One of the main focuses of this episode was Raph and his outright phobia of roaches. He wasn't just grossed out, he was scared and running around. And I have to admit, having a fear of roaches is only intensified when you have to face a giant mutant roach. With a buzz saw. Once again we see how once Mikey was in trouble, Raph was able to overcome his fears and face the roach.

The roach itself was interesting, especially with how the spy cam fused with it, making it have vision similar to the Terminator. The whole vibe of it relentlessly hunting down Raph, armed with a laser gun, and especially the part of him walking out of the burning wreckage was cool to see. Of course, having Paige lying next to me singing out the Terminator theme every time the roach did anything did help drill the point home. Unfortunately, it kinda sucked that he couldn't talk and was just another mindless monster, it's main drive being to get Raph due to its memory before it was mutated. I was kinda hoping it would talk to Raph or something, but no, it just went down to a fist fight.

 I don't know why, the roach gave me the vibe that it wasn't exactly evil, but I guess part of me was just hoping it would be a friend. I mean, it was originally helping the Turtles spy on the Kraang... and while, of course it didn't have a choice at the time as a normal bug, it could have just 'continued with the mission' and help the Turtles stop the Kraang. That scene when it showed up and started shooting at the Kraang had me thinking that was the part they would realize it wasn't a bad guy. I had the feeling the Turtles were just attacking it because 'ew giant roach' never giving it a chance to explain itself... but no... the final act just made it all go down to a fist fight with Raph making him just another mindless mutant monster. 

The Turtles always seem to freak whenever they see a new mutant and attack immediately. They would have just treated Leatherhead as another villain if it wasn't for Mikey's mercy. Considering that they themselves are treated as monsters whenever people see them, they should ease up a little and give the mutant time to respond before going all 'a mutant that isn't one of us, attack!!!'. Don should have at least been the one to try to reason with the roach, it was HIS spy roach after all.

It just seems the Turtles have so few allies. Other than Leatherhead and I guess Pigeon Pete, all the mutants have been bad guys. And I guess it's due mostly to 'status quo'. If they're bad guys they just run away swearing revenge, but what do you do with them if they're good guys? I suppose the roach could have found some place to live or whatever, but I am disappointed the Turtles have no real allies in their fight against evil.

I'm also surprised the roach has no real name. I'm surprised Mike didn't give him one. I heard his action figure will be called Chong, but as of this episode it still has no real name, until given one. I also don't get the point of it's second form. I don't think roaches turn into gross flying worm things. Plus at that point it doesn't look like the upcoming action figure any more. I guess when it blew up and started to re-spawn, that would be the excuse to have look like the roach again for whenever it returns. 

I have mixed thoughts on this episode. Not saying it was bad, but it could have been better. Especially if the roach was an ally. Possibly my favorite scenes were when Leo talked back to the Kraang using their redundant manner of speaking. Oh.. and the fact that Mikey used bug spray on the mutant roach... and that it was actually working for a while... LOL

The Superior Spider-Man # 3

by Mark Rodriguez

Since many people seem to hate this series for some reason or another (oh noes! Doc Ock tapped into Spider-Man's memories of nookie-time with MJ), I guess I'm kinda like the Nostalgia Critic of The Superior Spider-Man series. I buy and blog them so you don't have to. So in this issue we see how Doc Ock fares against one of his old partners in crime, the Vulture. Let's check it out.

Like the cover suggests, 'Everything you know is wrong' starts off with Spider-Man flying towards the brand new Spider-Signal that Jameson set up on the rooftop of a police building. Otto blows it up and says it's stupid to have a giant beacon in the sky to announce to all his enemies where to find him. Yes, I do realize this is an obvious nudge at Batman... but now that I think about it, I never seen the Arkham freaks try that out. I've seen them tamper with the Bat-Signal in the sky... but I never seen a comic where Batman swings towards the Bat-Signal and finds Joker and Two-Face ready to beat him up instead of Commissioner Gordon. Correct me if I'm wrong here guys.

Anyway, Otto tells Jameson that this must be some sort of test since he can't be stupid enough to use a Spider-Signal like that. Jameson rolls with it to safe face, and Otto provides him with a shielded phone number. Otto was called in to investigate the Vulture's latest plot, and the police wants him to work with Cooper on the case.

In the NYPD lab, Cooper questions Spidey's latest actions, still suspecting something based on the time the old dying Doc Ock told her he was really Spider-Man. Ghost Pete is still watching and wonders how Otto was able to manipulate Jameson after being in his body for just two weeks. Otto seems to have heard Peter's voice this time. He dismisses Cooper's suspicions and uses the new adjustments on his lenses to find the Vulture and 'stop him once and for all'. Cooper and Ghost Pete don't like the sound of that.

Paige wonders why Spider-Man has boobs in this panel.

Superior Spider-Man swings through the sky with some sort of plan for Toomes, and Ghost Pete is worried. Suddenly there is a shift in scenery and Ghost Pete finds himself in the memories of Doc Ock when he used to work alongside the Vulture in the Sinister Six. Amongst the other members (Mysterio, Kraven, and Electro), it seems there was some sort of mutual respect between Otto and Adrian. It seems Vulture was planning to get one big score to retire on, but Spider-Man kept getting in his way. Pete notices that the Doc and Vulture pause mid-sentence, since Superior Spider-Man had stopped reminiscing and started focusing on present matters. Pete decides to wander around in the Doc's memories to see what he can find.

ahhhh, we missed the classic Doctor Octopus 

Vulture's little Mini-Mes arrive at his hideout with their stolen loot and he rewards them with game tokens and pizza. That's a nice boss. Spider-Man busts in, having followed them. Rather than fight it out, the Doc has a proposition for him, to give him all the money he ever wanted to give up his life of crime. Vulture takes this and another one of Spider-Man's jokes and sends his freaky children after him. 

Spider-Man tries to fight off the mini-vultures as he says he has hidden bank accounts around the world and fifty million dollars could be his, if he'd give up the life of a super villain. Otto smacks one of the henchmen into a wall and realizes that they aren't midgets in little vulture outfits... they're actual children! 

Ghost Pete notices a change in scenery and sees a memory of Otto getting smacked around by his father as a child. In present time, Otto is furious that Vulture made him smack a child. Adrian sees no big deal about it and tells him that he's used youngsters the last time they fought. Otto sees into Peter's memories and says the last time was different since he was using teenagers instead of children. Otto now feels no compassion for Adrian Toomes and is determined to stop him once and for all..

The Vulture takes to the sky and Otto swings after him. Otto says he's gone easier on him before (at least Peter Parker has) but is now determined to kill him. As they fight in the air, Vulture notices the sound of Spidey's web-shooters running out of web fluid. Otto remarks he has inherited everything from Parker, including his bad luck. Vulture puts Spidey in a choke-hold and is ready to finish him off.

Notice how, despite being old since his early appearances, Vulture is about as old in present time as he was in the flashback... and yet Otto went from late thirties/forties to being mega-old when he died?

Otto calls out for plan 'Epsilon Two' which activates the little spider-bomb he tossed at the Spider- Signal earlier. It somehow sucks power from the NYPD's generators and turns the Spider-Signal back on with a violent blinding light. Superior Spider-Man then proceeds to dive-bomb the blinded Vulture right into the Spider-Signal spotlight, smashing the hell out of it. 

FATALITY!!!! Almost....

Carlie Cooper is shocked to all hell to see this and comments that the Vulture is badly burnt and cut to pieces. She says the Spider-Man she knew would never do this and demands an explanation. Otto tries to come up with some sort of Peter Parker excuse, which pulls Ghost Pete back into the scene. Ghost Pete is shocked to see what happened to the Vulture. Otto says the last time he fought the Vulture, he got away while putting Cooper's life in danger. Now he was putting children's lives in danger, and Spidey had to show him the kind of man he was. Cooper says she sees what he means, but Ghost Pete is worried she sees a lot more than Otto thinks. 

This was an interesting read. I especially like the fact that Doc Ock showed he has some morals among his villainy. I can't remember any past plot of his using children, although one has to admit had his plan to destroy most of the world would have succeeded, millions of people, including children, would have died.

 I found it interesting that he tried to see a friend in the Vulture and wanted him to reform. As Spider-Man, Otto no longer has need for evil plans and complex diabolical schemes. He has fame, respect and a decent job that showcases his talents and pays him good money. Despite the devious way he got to be where he is now, Otto appreciates living life the 'good guy' way, and wanted to extend the favor to Toomes. Has he accepted, Toomes would have had enough money to live the easy life without resorting to daring crimes. Of course we saw it all went to hell and the Doc tried to kill his former partner in crime, but it was interesting how he tried to reform him at first.

Again I start to wonder how long this will go on, as we continue to see Ghost Pete lurking around reminding us that he will find a way back someday. Now we also have Carlie Cooper getting too smart too fast, and it's only the third issue. I don't want to repeat myself every time I blog about this series but again I have to say, slow it down guys. Let the Doc be Spider-Man and let it play out for a year. Don't be in such a damn rush to reverse things the way they were before. Are the sales THAT bad? Are that many fans really dropping Spider-Man and Marvel because of this series?

Finally, I'd like to bring up a point that Paige mentioned. The plot that started with Amazing Spider-Man # 698 made it ambiguous exactly when Ock did the mind-switch with Peter. For all we know he could have been Spider-Man for a few stories after the 'Ends of the Earth' storyline and noone would have known. So why is Otto all of a sudden starting to slip up and 'break character' and start acting like a mad scientist version of Peter Parker? It's not a good thing when Wolverine is starting to get suspicious in the latest issue of Avenging Spider-Man.

Nicktoons TMNT Episode 17- TCRI

by Mark Rodriguez 

 After another Saturday with reruns, the Turtles return with a new episode that continues where ‘The Pulverizer’ left off. I was lucky enough to catch it Friday during the ‘Total Turtle Takeover’, and got to enjoy the new episode along with Paige, my meatball sub and onion rings. Here are our thoughts.

The episode starts off with the Turtles chasing The Kraang in their Patrol Buggies as they try to escape with the Power Cell. Of course the last episode ended with them pushing the Shell Raiser back home after the Kraang had already escaped with the Power Cell…. So I guess somehow they managed to grab their Patrol Buggies and chase the Kraang’s helicopter before it fully got away…. Must be one slow helicopter. Anyways, due to heavy traffic, the Turtles crash into an alley and The Kraang  get away with the Power Cell… again.

At their hideout, the Kraang now use the Power Cell to activate their dimensional portal. Without other options, the Turtles have to tell Leatherhead about this, hoping to get some idea as to where the Kraang’s main hideout is. Don is hesitant since Leatherhead has a temper and always ends up grabbing him by the face.

The Turtles find Leatherhead sleeping in his sewer home. When they try to wake him up, he goes crazy… and grabs Donnie by the face. After they manage to calm him down… the Turtles tell him that they lost the Power Cell he trusted them with to the Kraang. Don gets grabbed by the face and shaken around like a rag doll again.

After the mutant gator calms down, he tells the Turtles the only thing he remembers when he was captive by the Kraang is a symbol he draws for them. Don swears he’s seen it somewhere before and everyone goes home as he tries to figure it out. It’s the same symbol on Metalhead’s head, so Don knows it’s a Kraang symbol. Splinter helps him calm down and Don finally remembered where he saw it before.

Don takes the Turtles to the TCRI building and tells them he’s seen that symbol there (I assume from the episode where Baxter attacked the TCRI building and it was on the news). The Turtles have to find a way to sneak inside and destroy the dimensional portal.

Later on, Leo, April and Splinter study the blueprints of the TCRI building, while Don works on explosives. April determines that the bottom floors are normal and most likely has regular human employees that have no idea who they are really working for. The top floors are completely blank. Splinter determines that is where they must go, but they need some way to sneak in.

Later that night, April shows up delivering a big box to the TCRI building. Miss Campbell is there as a secretary and tell her she has to leave (hey, Elvira gets some more lines!). April is surrounded by The Kraang in their human disguises, but she manages to get away with some yo-yo tricks and sliding out of the building before they can lock her in. The Kraang prepare to destroy the box April has delivered, and Leatherhead busts out, destroying everything in sight.

As Leatherhead smashes up the alien robots, the Turtles climb up the elevator shaft, fighting lots of Kraang along the way. When they make it to the top floor, they are knocked out by poisonous gas. When they wake up they are in a glass prison without their weapons and are right in the middle of the Kraang’s main base. Mike asks why the poison gas isn’t affecting the Kraang and Don says it must be what the air is like in Dimension X. Raph asks why they want to take over a planet where they can’t breathe the air. Mike jokes that they might mutate the planet so they can live on it and everyone else can’t.  Everyone is surprised as they realized that Mike just found out the Kraang’s main plan.

Leo figures out a way to escape, but they need a distraction. The portal starts to open up and the Kraang step out of the way. Leo tosses Don a small blade to use the cut the glass walls of their prison. Mikey gets into his shell (don’t know that works for mutant turtles…. Their arms and legs are too long to fit in there, but whatever) and the others throw him through the glass, shattering it. The Turtles fight the Kraang as they hold their breath, and Don knocks one of them through a window, letting the poisonous gas escape.

The Turtles can breathe once again, but the portal is activated and something managed to come through. A huge monster made of living stone steps out and he is too powerful for the Turtles to handle. On top of that, he has deadly lava spit. Don figures the explosives he has might take it down, but then he wouldn’t have any left over to destroy the portal. Leo suggests using them to blow them both up. He manages to wrap the bag full of explosives around the rock monster’s neck, but doesn’t know how to get it near the portal.

Just then Leatherhead comes in and sees the rock monster, calling it Traag and attacks it. Leo tells him to throw him into the portal. Don activates the explosives which seemingly blow up Traag and the portal device. However, just like Dragonball Z, once the smoke clears both the portal device and Traag are still intact. To make things worse, something else is coming through the portal. Leatherhead grabs Traag and they both go through the portal, turning it off and preventing anything else from coming through. Don says they have to destroy the portal, but lots of Kraang come rushing in and the Turtles have to escape.

Back home, the Turtles are sad to tell Splinter and April that they lost Leatherhead on their mission. Mike tells the others he found something during the fight with the Kraang, which turns out to be some kind of Kraang flash drive. Don hooks it up to Metalhead and looks through the files. April wonders why the Kraang are after her father if they want to terraform the Earth. Raph reminds her they were after scientists, but April said her dad was only a psychologist. Don finds out from looking over the Kraang files that the aliens are actually after April herself.

                    

It was a pretty good episode and we finally got to the bottom of the Kraang's main objective. I have to wonder exactly how many bases the Kraang have at their disposal. So far they have the Human Genome Project, TCRI and wherever they're holding all the scientists they captured. Speaking of which, hey, we have Miss Campbell again. So I guess they use um... Campbell robots whenever they need females... cause I guess the Kraang don't like to pilot female robots...? At least Elvira gets more to do.

Another point worth mentioning is that General Traag appeared in this episode. I guess. Honestly he just seemed like random rock monster # 35 and just a random monster for the Turtles to fight. He didn't talk, he didn't salute to the Kraang or anything of the sort, nor did they command him to attack the Turtles. If Leatherhead didn't call him Traag, and if we didn't have the 80's cartoon known for Stone Warriors from Dimension X.... I would have just considered the guy just a random monster to fight, not unlike Justin from the 'Alien Agenda' episode. As for the fight itself, it was pretty cool, and the rock monster was pretty unstoppable, but the character itself needs more personality when compared to his 80's counterpart.

 It was also awesome seeing Leatherhead whip him around like a rag doll. Leatherhead is definitely the power player on the Turtles side, I hope we get to see him again soon. I also find it interesting because in the 80's cartoon Leatherhead never got to meet Traag. Again, it's too bad he was sucked into Dimension X at the end of this episode because I'm curious how it would have been if he ran into the Rat King.

Other final details I liked was seeing Metalhead throughout the episode, as well as when April said her father studies rat through mazes and Splinter said 'I like a good maze'. Also having Don yelling to Leatherhead about why he always happens to grab him by the face was a perfect way to take an old joke and extend it to making it funnier. It does seem that during fights, Don is stuck to being the unlucky turtle most things seem to happen to. And who can forget Leo impersonating the Kraang? Mike's Olympic joke, comparing the Kraang symbol to it was kinda stupid, but it was made funny when Splinter mentioned it. Yes, Splinter is so bad-ass he turns lame jokes into good ones.

Finally the only nitpick Paige and I found was the sudden rushed and ubrupt ending when Don mentioned they had to destroy the portal and then suddenly had to run out because more Kraang were on the way. Paige felt they should have made it into a 2-part episode instead of rushing to end the scene, and I felt that if it was the old cartoon there would have been some 4th-wall breaking joke of 'we gotta go because we only have 2 minutes left to wrap up the episode'. I don't know... leaving the portal device intact was kinda stupid, and I don't care how many Kraang were there, they should have still tried to destroy it or at the very least, take away the Power Cell again. What's to stop the Kraang from activating it right after they left? I guess there's no real hurry since you have to consider the Kraang activated the portal from the beginning of the episode... and it took all way until the end, which I assume is later that night or the next day, for something to finally step out of it...

I find it interesting the Kraang are after April however... and I assume it's because of the 'strange feeling' she gets sometimes. I wish it was expanded upon however, because honestly, if you haven't seen the 'Monkey Brains' episode you wouldn't know what it was all about. The Alien Agenda episode was supposed to be about Miss Campbell trying to capture April due to that special ability... but it was never mentioned or brought up anywhere in the episode, and it was basically a Karai and Leo episode to be honest. I mean seriously, just watching the episode alone without hearing any previews or online information elsewhere, you have no real idea why Miss Campbell wanted to capture April, before all focus went to Karai and the Kraang.  The ONLY ONE TIME it was ever brought up was when April somehow determined that the mutant monkey was once a human. I really hope they mention this again or they have April use her unique ability again, or else it won't make sense to have the Kraang target her for something she only did in a scene that lasted a few seconds 10 or so episodes ago.

I still enjoyed the episode and the nitpicks are minor. I just hope the following episodes continue with the threat of the Power Cell, the dimensional portal and April being the Kraang's main target. Let's not lose focus here guys. I also want to end this review with a thought Paige had when April said that there are regular people working on the bottom floors of the Kraang building, unaware that they're working for aliens. "Don't these people notice that all their bosses and supervisors look the same? Do they think they're working for octuplets or something?" Oh, and the Kraang playing with Mikey's nunchucks was funny.