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Preface
With everything going on right now, it’s never been a better time right now to get excited about something super cool like TURTLE RANGERS! WHOO!
The Cover
Great cover showing all of our heroes in their new outfits facing Shredder Ranger. It displays them all in a great group shot since we actually don’t get something like this in the comic itself.
The Story
Continuing right from the last issue, the Turtles (and April) teleport to Times Square and morph into action. Meanwhile, the Angel Grove teens teleport to the Turtles’ hideout and grab whatever gear they can to sneak into Shredder’s base with Casey to rescue Tommy.
You really think I wasn’t going to show both of these at once? The designs are so good!
Both teams handle their missions well, with Tommy even managing to save whats-his-face from the facility. Shredder and Rita are both reflecting on the others’ shortcomings on defeating their enemies and decide to take a full-on approach, taking the Technodrome to Central Park and growing Bebop and Rocksteady giant-size. This only leaves the Turtle Rangers to save the day!
Ending Thoughts
Like I said before, the designs for the Turtle Rangers and the Ninja Rangers are amazing.
I appreciate how the Turtle Rangers have the base design of the MMPR Rangers, but still manage to have their own elements to them. The helmets are my favorite aspect of the designs. I’m glad they aren’t an exact match, that the visor designs and the mouthpieces are more bestial. Plus, with the TV show, we have gotten aliens that morphed into Rangers, but it’s always the same humanoid shape (for obvious reasons). Having these big bulky mutants be Power Rangers is memorable to me.
However, it’s not just enough for them to switch costumes. This issue, they both get to be in missions different than they are used to, use different transport methods like the Turtles with teleportation and the Rangers with the Turtle Van and call back to the first issue’s opening moments. The Turtles, usually in the shadows, have to fight in public and act like superheroes protecting the innocent rather than ninjas. The Rangers, usually blasters out with explosions not far behind them, have to sneak in and use only their stealth to defeat an entire army.
Not to mention, the ending of the Turtles piloting the Megazord. With the Justice League team-up, the Zords were right in the first issue to balance the amount of power of the Rangers compared to the League. However, this meant that when they formed the Megazord, there wasn’t any build-up to that big moment. Here, this is the first appearance of the Zords and the Turtles are driving them. It makes it fun to have these heroes gushing over the others’ equipment and it works as escalation for the final fight.
MMPR / TMNT #4 gives us a team of Turtle Rangers, a gang of Ninja Rangers, and an entire issue of fun, leading up to the finale.
Random Thoughts from the Morphin’ Grid
- Splinter’s speech to the Rangers on them being unmorphed is some great dialogue.
- Where the heck did that coat with the fur collar come from? If it’s really from the Turtles’ hideout (along with some other clothes like Billy’s shades and Jason’s logo shirt), I’m wondering why they would have so many clothes down here, especially when I only remember them owning a big, dumb trenchcoat.
- I don’t know why I never mentioned the Putty Soldier Elite, but I would like to know more about them. Is it the actual soldiers coated in Putty or are the soldiers turned into a Putty substance? They essentially act like zombies, attacking whatever’s nearby. (Although, their actions could be interpreted as they were told to attack the colorful teenagers with hoods on and they got super confused on what that meant.)
- Also, Tyler keeps calling his tiny squad of ninjas the Elite, which is confusing given how the Putties are also supposed to be the Elite as well.
- We have one more issue to go, but let’s remember the most important part going into this: This is all Tommy’s fault.