Heroes in a Half-Shell!, Part 2

Heroes in a Half-Shell! Part 2
Production Details
Issue	2
Date Published	October 1988
Production Staff
Writer	Michael Dooney
Pencils	Michael Dooney
Inks	Dave Garcia
Colors	Barry Grossman
Letters	Steve Lavigne
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Previous	Heroes in a Half-Shell! Part 1
Next	Heroes in a Half-Shell!, Part 3

Heroes in a Half-Shell!, Part 2 also known as Escape From The Robots is a TMNT Adventures comic. It was published in October 1988, and retells the the 1987-1996 animated series episodes "Enter the Shredder" and "A Thing About Rats", as well as the beginning of "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X".

Characters

Major characters

• April O'Neil
• Baxter Stockman (debut)
• Bebop
• Donatello
• Foot Soldiers
• Michelangelo
• Mousers (debut)
• Raphael
• Rocksteady
• Shredder
• Splinter

Minor Characters

• Dask (debut)
• Kala (debut)
• Krang (debut)
• Roadkill Rodneys
• Traag (debut)
• Zak (debut)

Locations

• Central Park Zoo
• Dimension X
• Technodrome
• Turtle Lair

Synopsis

Chapter Two cont.

The Turtles, having infiltrated the Technodrome to rescue Master Splinter, encounter a group of industrial automatons intent on discouraging the heroes from finding their wayward master. The Turtles make quick work of the robots and return to their search, but not before Donatello spots a power pack and elects to bring it along.

In the next hallway, the doors at both ends slam shut and a rolling log with spikes flies down the corridor towards them. Donatello attaches the power pack to a door at the opposite end of the hall and has Leonardo destroy it with a throwing star, causing a small explosion. The Turtles duck through the resulting hole and escape the rolling log.

The Turtles now find themselves in a large chamber with Master Splinter hanging from the ceiling. The Shredder appears and offers the heroes a place in the Foot Clan. The Turtles decline and are attacked by Bebop and Rocksteady. The bumblers are forced to slam into one another, forcing the Shredder in turn to unloose his Foot-bots on the heroes. The Turtles make short work of them and retrieve Splinter, spiriting him to the surface.

Bebop and Rocksteady pursue the Turtles into the Central Park Zoo and are quickly trapped in an empty cage. April arrives in time to catch the mutant punks on camera and agrees to shuttle Splinter home in her Channel 6 news van. An abductor robot emerges as the van speeds away and frees the punk mutants who are not sure they wish to return to face Shredder's wrath.

Chapter Three

A short while later, April decrees that Splinter will be fine after he gets some rest. The Turtles elect to go after the Technodrome on their own.

Elsewhere, in an abandoned mansion, The Shredder observes inventor Baxter Stockman attempting to sell his rat-chasing Mousers to a pest control company owner, with little success. The Shredder decides these Mousers would be perfect for dealing with Splinter and the Turtles. The Shredder appears before a dejected Stockman and offers to produce his Mousers on a large scale. Stockman, of course, accepts.

The Turtles continue the search for the Technodrome with limited success.

At the abandoned mansion, The Shredder orders Stockman to create a master control for the Mousers and immediately begins producing more of the small robots using the facilities in the Technodrome. Krang demands to know why The Shredder hasn't completed his new body yet, but the villain shrugs his concerns off and programs a dozen Mousers to find Splinter.

April tells a reawakened Splinter that she is returning to her apartment for a few hours, and Splinter tells her that he is feeling much better. After April leaves, the dozen Mousers smash into the underground lair and attack Splinter. Splinter tries to fend them off, but there are too many. The Turtles arrive in the nick of time and rescue Splinter, destroying the Mousers in short order.

Discovering Baxter Stockman's name on the remains of a destroyed Mouser, Splinter and the Turtles go to seek April's help with this new tidbit of information. The Shredder is upset that the heroes were so easily able to destroy the little robots, but he knows that even the Turtles won't be able to stand up to a staggering twelve hundred of the little critters.

At April's apartment, the Turtles and Splinter invade her sanctum seeking her assistance. Showing her the name on the inoperative Mouser, April decides a search of the news computer may yield some results. Unfortunately, all the computer has to offer is his home address. The Turtles elect to run down this lead leaving Splinter with April.

Meanwhile, Stockman has completed his work on the Master Control and heads home for some much deserved sleep. The Shredder sends some Foot-bots after him to "put him out of the way" since he knows too much. He then uses the Master Control to program the Mousers to destroy Splinter, the Turtles, and April O'Neil.

At Stockman's house, the Turtles foil the Foot-bots assassination attempt and interrogate the inventor, quickly learning The Shredder's plan and location. The heroes requisition the inventor's green van, and, learning that Michaelangelo can drive, make haste back to April's apartment.

They find Splinter and April making a last stand against a horde of Mousers, rescuing them in the nick of time, although her apartment building is destroyed.

Later, outside the mansion, Michaelangelo volunteers to infiltrate the building to find and destroy the Master Control. He is, unfortunately, captured by The Shredder during his attempt. Shredder sends his hordes of Mousers after the heroes outside while Krang frees Michaelangelo in a bid to force the Shredder to build the warlord a body due to his inability to destroy his enemies. Michaelangelo uses his new-found freedom to force The Shredder into destroying the Master Control.

As the Mousers are disabled, The Shredder flees the abandoned mansion, causing it to collapse on Michaelangelo. The other heroes quickly search the fallen structure for some sign of their missing comrade, but soon find him unharmed. He tells the others of Shredder's escape and a new menace in the form of Krang, but the others have a hard time believing a disembodied brain can be much of a threat.

Chapter Four

The Turtles return Stockman's van to his house to find the inventor a fugitive. They decide, at Donatello's urging, to move the van into Stockman's apartment so he can modify it with tracking equipment, weapons, and anything else he can fit in there to help them in their search for the Technodrome.

Krang once again berates The Shredder for his inability to defeat his enemies, and demands he build the warlord a new body. He reminds The Shredder that a legion of Stone Warriors await his command in Dimension X. Shredder decides to attempt to plumb the depths of Dimension X for a weapon instead. Krang warns Saki that anything could exit the portal from the alien dimension, but his warnings fall on deaf ears.

At Stockman's, Donatello unveils the Turtle Van, armed with every gadget he could think of to help them find the Shredder. They quickly take the Van on its Maiden voyage.

Meanwhile, Shredder opens the gateway between Earth and Dimension X, gleeful that he will soon have the tools he needs to destroy the Turtles and their master. The first thing to fly through the portal is not quite what he's seeking, though. A pair of flying Hot Rods carrying the fun-loving Neutrinos blasts through first the portal, and then the Technodrome altogether. Hot in pursuit of the troublesome youths is General Traag, and who knows what dangers he may cause the Turtles and their friends...

To be continued...

Differences between episodes and comic

Enter the Shredder

• Leonardo's instructions to the Turtles on how to defeat the robots are simplified.
• Raphael's quip about the Turtles being trained to fight people instead of can openers is moved to during the fight with the robots instead of before the fight.
• The Roadkill Rodney robots are nowhere to be seen during the fight with the robots.
• Bebop is the one who says "With pleasure, Master Shredder", when it was Rocksteady's line in the episode.
• Rocksteady calls April a creep instead of a bimbo.
• Bebop does not ask the Roadkill Rodney robot sent to retrieve him and Rocksteady what took it so long.
• Rocksteady's request to the Roadkill Rodney robot to leave him and Bebop in the cage is slightly worded differently, as the robot hasn't let them out yet.

A Thing About Rats

• The Shredder appears before Baxter Stockman disguised in a shroud, when in the episode he hid in the shadows.
• Bebop and Rocksteady have no involvement in supplying Baxter with the technology needed to mass-produce his Mousers.
• When April asks the Turtles questions at her apartment, she does not ask them how they got in and the Turtles do not answer her questions.
• The Turtles do not wreck April's apartment (Michelangelo doesn't try heating up frozen pizza, Raphael does not flood the room with bubble bath, and neither Leonardo nor Raphael fool around with the toaster painting).
• When interrogating Baxter Stockman, Raphael's threatening to "get sarcastic" is shortened to simply saying "Oh, yeah?" while holding up his sai.
• Michelangelo's description of Krang differs from the description he gave in the episode.

Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X

• Shredder does not show Krang the mutant punks, nor does he mention creating any mutants other than Bebop and Rocksteady.
• The turtles are never seen trying to fire the starmobile laser cannons at Krang's weather maker. Instead, Leonardo just jumps out of the starmobile and cuts the weather maker with his swords. Also, in the comic Leonardo sits and lands in the starmobile backseat instead of its front seat.

Notes

• The story is continued from "Heroes in a Half-Shell, Part 1" and will be continued in "Heroes in a Half-Shell, Part 3".
• A read-along adaptation of the entire mini-series was released as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Adventure!
• The read-along adaption of this issue was released in Canada with the title cover of "Escape From The Robots".
• Oddly enough, Baxter Stockman is colored with white hair, a red lab coat, and a blue bow tie, when in the cartoon he had blond hair, a white coat, and a yellow bow tie. In later appearances, Baxter has blond hair and a white coat as he did in the cartoon, but has a red bow tie.

External links

• TMNT Adventures Miniseries #2 at the Mirage Group Web Site