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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles volume 1 issue #4, later retroactively titled Rescuing Master Splinter, was published on June 1985 by Mirage Studios.
Characters[]
- Donatello
- Hamato Splinter
- Leonardo
- Michelangelo
- April O'Neil
- Raphael
- Utroms (unnamed)
- Xeinos (unnamed) (debut)
Synopsis[]
Issue four opens with the turtles out exercising on the rooftops of New York City. Not too surprisingly, members of the Foot Clan show up and attack the mutant terrapins. Also not too surprisingly, the turtles whip the New York ninjas thoroughly, although Mikey receives a serious cut on his arm. The fight ends and Raphael notices that the building directly beneath them has the TCRI logo. The turtles, a bit freaked by finding the place that created the ooze that created them, decide to investigate... but not until they go to April's place to patch up Michelangelo.
Unhappy Utroms.
Once everyone is rested and rarin' to go, they head back to the TCRI headquarters. Donatello uses a clever ploy to defeat their security cameras (a puppet of a pigeon), and the lads make it into the building. The Turtles sneak around for a bit and then stumble into a bizarre techno lab. The guys find Master Splinter housed in a stasis tank, where he is being held in suspended animation. As Raph prepares to shatter the cylinder, the Utroms arrive in their robotic bodies armed with laser stun-guns. A fight breaks out, and ends when the TMNT poise themselves in the middle of a strange device that the Utroms won't fire upon. Michelangelo attempts to vault over the Utroms' heads to find an escape route, but his injury causes him to fall out of control. He crushes the control panel for the machine that the other three mutant turtles are standing upon, causing it to activate. Mikey is grabbed by an android as the device energizes. Leo, Raph and Don are enveloped in cosmic rays as Michelangelo frees himself and dives onto the machine to be with his brothers... wherever they may be going.
Transcript[]
Gallery[]
Reprinted in[]
- 2nd printing, with added back-up story The Survival Game (May 1987)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Book II, in color.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Collected Book 1
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection Volume 1
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Works Volume 1
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Color Classics, Volume 1 (April 2018)
Trivia[]
- This issue was adapted into the 2003 TV series The Search for Splinter episodes.
- The 2nd printing cover for this issue by Michael Dooney was used for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game for the NES and DOS.
- The second printing of TMNT #4 and the first issue of "Tales of the TMNT" volume one went to the printer at the same time, and unfortunately the image for the "Tales" cover was used on the first run of #4. These books did make it into the distribution chain before the error was discovered. The misprinted cover version was recalled and 59,000 of the 60,000 misprinted copies were destroyed (thanks to Dylan Arsenault for supplying this info).
- Donatello using a pigeon to fool the security camera is reused in Showdown, Part 1. However, it's Raph who does it in the 2012 series.