|
Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Doomsday Hassle in Banshee Castle is a story in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Special issue 6, published in the fall of 1993 by Archie Comics.
Appearing in Doomsday Hassle in Banshee Castle[]
Major characters[]
- April O'Neil
- Donatello
- Elan (debut) (dies in flashback)
- Elan's sisters (debut) (dies in flashback)
- Krang
- Leonardo
- Michelangelo
- Raphael
- Shredder
- Splinter
- Tam MacNeil (debut)
Minor characters[]
- Foot Soldiers
- Future Donatello
- Future Raphael
- Pig-Foot (flashback only)
- Sandy MacNeil (debut) (flashback only)
- Sea-Dog (flashback only)
Species[]
- Banshees/ghosts
- Disembodied alien brain
- Humans
- Mutant dog
- Mutant pig
- Mutant rat
- Mutant turtles
- Robots
Locations[]
Objects and weapons[]
- Dirk
- Haggis pizza
- Kilts
- Krang's Android Body
- Lochaber axe
- Sword of Destiny/Psychlotron
Synopsis[]
In the year 2093, Donatello and Raphael sit on the roof of Turtleco and reminisce about how much easier their lives were when instead of Armaggon, their biggest challenges were the likes of Sea-Dog and haggis pizza....
1993. April, Splinter, and the Turtles are taking a well-deserved vacation, paying a visit to April's uncle, Tam MacNeil in Scotland. Unfortunately, she hasn't any way to get in touch with him or locate where he lives after they've arrived in the country. As she makes efforts to track him down, Splinter educates his pupils on the way of the Scottish highlanders as well as what kilts are. Raphael spots a caber toss in progress and wants to give it a try. April finds a phone booth and goes to call directory assistance to find her uncle, when suddenly she is besieged by a dizzy spell, accompanied by visions of a sword and castle. Seeing that she's out-of-sorts Michaelangelo goes to tend to April and accidentally reveals his appearance to the crowd after pulling down his hood, scaring the caber toss players and audience.
April bemoans the dispersed crowd, hoping one of them could help her locate her uncle, as before her spell, the operator had told her there were over 100 residents named Tam MacNeil. Suddenly, a floating, transparent woman approaches April and tells her that her uncle lives on the shores of Loch Ness, near Castle MacNeil.
After being able to get her uncle on the phone, the party takes a bus to MacNeil's. Unfortunately for them, Shredder and Krang have been spying on them during their trip. April tells the Turtles and Splinter that she told Tam about them and he seemed pretty at-ease with meeting mutants since he has to contend with banshees on a regular basis. Raph asks what a banshee is, and she tells him they are a shrieking ghost of legend.
when the group arrives, Uncle MacNeil greets them warmly and hosts them at his home. April and the Turtles enquire him further about the banshees and why they haunt the Castle MacNeil. Tam tells them the story of Elan, a young "wise-woman" who came across a sword that fell through her roof one day. Elan was in love with the chief of the MacNeil clan, Sandy, and gave him the sword as a gift. However, the sword had a strong psychological effect on him, drawing out the darkness in his heart and using the blasts it emitted to kill his enemies by the thousands. The MacNeil clan feared for their chieftain's stability and worried that he would turn on them at the slightest provocation. Realizing it was her fault, Elan and her four sisters conspired to steal the sword back from Sandy. They got him and his soldiers drunk and Elan began to take the sword from Sandy, but he woke up and stabbed her with a dirk. She fled with the sword, but was never found again. Elan's sisters were captured and left in the Castle MacNeil dungeons to die, and it is said when they did, they became the screaming banshee-skulls that haunt the castle to this day. Leonardo asks Tam what happened to the sword, and he says it probably fell into the depths of Loch Ness. April says she knows the sword is still in the castle based on the vision she had.
The snooping Krang realizes that this "Sword of Destiny" must actually be a psychlotron, a weapon held by a Plutonian warlord foe of Krang's who he vaporized above the Earth 300 years earlier. The psyclotron channels its users psychic aggression into a nuclear particle beam. Krang searched for the psychlotron but never was able to recover it. Krang tells Shredder to gather some Foot Soldiers so they can go to Scotland and take the sword.
Tam, April, Splinter, and the Turtles head to Castle MacNeil, with Tam allowing them to scale the castle with his lochaber axe on a rope. The Turtles start admiring the weaponry in the armory where they've landed. Suddenly, the banshees arrive, shrieking and vexing the group, although April cannot hear them at all. Tam grabs the bagpipes he tripped over when entering and plays them, causing the banshees to vanish.
Don finds a drawing of the Sword of Destiny in a book, and Splinter says it looks out-of-place for the era (and planet), thinking it looks more like alien tech. Shredder pops in through the window and grabs Tam, saying that it's a Plutonian psychlotron. He absconds with Tam and the Turtles and Splinter follow them. Leo tells April to stay in the armory, as it's too dangerous out there, but as soon as she's gone, she finds it's just as dangerous in there, as Krang suddenly walks in the door.
On the ground outside, the Turtles and Splinter are ambushed by Foot Soldiers in the Scottish mists. Meanwhile back in the castle, Krang taunts April, and suddenly a banshee runs through his metal detector and destroys it. The banshees then fly around Krang and through his body, overloading the circuits as well as causing him to get dizzy and fall over. The transparent woman who April had encountered earlier appears and calls off her sisters, saying the warriors need their help. The woman, Elan's ghost, tells April that she needs to head to the castle tower's top to reclaim the sword.
Down below, the Turtles are assisted by the banshees, who short-circuit the Foot Soldiers as they did Krang's body. They transform into more humanoid ghosts like Elan, explaining that April is headed for the sword, but Krang could still be in pursuit. The Turtles head back to the castle, and Shredder overhears this, deciding to beat them to it by taking the shuttle he and Krang took to get there. Just before he closes the door, Splinter jumps aboard.
April climbs to the top of the stairs, and Elan points her to the veranda outside the window. There, April finds Elan's skeletal remains with the sword. The shuttle approaches, and April slashes it open with the sword. She didn't realize Splinter was inside and she goes to help him up as he clings to the balcony, but Shredder has recovered faster, and pounces. April hits him with the sword, knocking him through the window and into Krang, who has finally regained control of his body. Shredder recovers again and grabs the still-dangling Splinter from the window, bartering his life for the sword. April goes with a third option, throwing the sword out the window and into Loch Ness. Splinter uses this as a distraction and throws Shredder off of him and into Krang once more, but this time they both stumble out of the window, knocking them also into the loch.
The Turtles finally arrive at the top of the castle and realize they're too late. Splinter tells April that she did the right thing, but April is a bit despondent as Elan believed she was strong enough to wield the sword without succumbing to its darkness. Splinter says that it took even more strength to throw the power away.
With the hauntings subsided, Tam reopens the castle for the first time in three hundred years as a tourist attraction. However, before they do anything further, he offers to treat them all to haggis pizza. The Turtles scarf it down, but are sickened when he reveals what haggis is.
Notes and Trivia[]
- Banshee is an English corruption of bean sídh, an Irish spirit whose name means "fairy woman" or "woman of peace". The Scottish equivalent of this spirit is actually ban-sìth.
- Despite the Turtles being disgusted of haggis at the end of the previous Special issue, they have no idea what haggis is and even enjoy it until Tam tells them what it is at the end of this story.