Bodycount issue 1

Summary
At a bar in New York City, a massive brawl has broken out amongst all the patrons. Casey Jones is in the thick of it, pitted against a rather large and imposing fellow. Outside, a distraught woman is on the run when she passes the bar and is smacked by the flying carcass of Casey, whom the big gentleman has sent hurtling through the window. After taking a few licks from the irritated female, Casey gets back up and runs back into the bar for Round Two.

The woman, named Midnight, is cornered in an alley by her pursuer: cyborg hitman Johnny Woo Woo and his gang. Apparently, Midnight and Johnny were an item back in Hong Kong, but during a botched hit on a gangster named Shakkur, Midnight was forced to ditch the getaway car when the police arrived. Made the scapegoat for the hit’s failure, Midnight has become Johnny’s next assassination target.

Johnny prepares to execute them when a fire escape ladder falls off its hinges and flattens his goons. Raphael then leaps down from above and disarms Johnny. The two tussle for a bit until Midnight lays Johnny out with a block of wood. Midnight then encourages Casey and Raph to make a getaway with her before the cops show up. As they flee, Johnny digs his metal fingers into the concrete, furious.

Trivia

 * Due to Casey’s “swinging bachelor” status, this story must take place sometime before he met April in TMNT (Vol1) #10.


 * ”Bodycount” was initially released as “Casey Jones & Raphael” by Mirage. After the publication of the first issue, however, plans began for all TMNT comics to be published by Image. As a result, the completed miniseries was shelved for a year and then released under Image as “Bodycount”.