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Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 43
Words: 3K

Synopsis:

After the Turtles turn off the mousers, they head back to their lair. Splinter is missing and they can't find him anywhere. Cops and City Workers are crawling all over the sewers in the aftermath of the mousers, so the boys can't stay. They call April and ask to crash at her place. On the way to her apartment her van is mistaken for one that was used by bank robbers and the cops give chase. Since the Turtles can't afford to be apprehended, April drives like a fiend, through a park and evades the police. In an AMAZING coincidence they come across the real bank robbers and the cops catch them and ignore April and Gang.

The epilogue shows what happened to Splinter. After fighting off some mousers, he makes a run for it, only to be cornered. He escapes because the mousers all go after the Turtles. He is rescued by some sewer workers who find out he can talk. They take him to a TERI Lab. Splinter discovers that little blobby aliens are using meat suits as cover.

My Thoughts:

Well, THAT escalated quickly! From ninja master to aliens in only 2 issues. It does give me pause as to what else Eastman & Laird will throw our way in later issues. While I was not a follower of the Turtles, I do seem to remember aliens playing a big part or something, so I'm guessing these little blobby things are here to stay.

The “main” story with the Turtles and April running from the cops was just plain silly. They are using a volkswagon van and they are outrunning and outperforming the cops? The Turtles even mention a Nascar driver, so Eastman & Laird were very self-aware of what they were doing. When the cops eventually catch the correct van and the bank robbers, there is a page of about 10 cops surrounding the overturned van and all 10 say a variation on the old standby of “freeze!”. I think my favorite was “Do not ambulate!”

The artwork is “sketchy” as in the previous issues. The odd thing is, there was an advertisement in this for metal miniatures of the Turtles, so Eastman & Laird had the resources to do more refined work but have chosen not to. I do hope things get a little less “Number 2 Pencil” in future issues because right now it really looks like something a teenager would have scribble out in the back of their notebook.

★★★✬☆ ( )