Miss Turtle 1991 is a Fleetway comic, published in TMHT Adventures #32 in April, 1991.
Appearing in Miss Turtle 1991[]
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Minor Characters[]
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Summary[]
Splinter is seated in the lair, deep in a meditation that has taken him hours to achieve. His students, the Turtles, arrive with their takeout pizza and loudly announce their return. This startles Splinter out of his meditation and he scolds the Turtles, telling them they have much to learn of ninja ways. Three of the Turtles bow, but Michaelangelo has spotted something in a newspaper that interests him. As he goes to pick up the newspaper from the floor, his foot lands on a pile of pizza boxes, sending him flying. When he lands, the newspaper floats down to cover his face.
Leonardo calls out for the others to look at the headline. It reads “Great 1991 Miss Turtle Contest”. Grabbing hold of the newspaper while it still covers Mikey’s face, Leo goes on to read that the contest is that evening and it will be held very close to their location. As the others exclaim over learning of female turtles, Mikey rips the newspaper with his head and exclaims that they should book him a seat pronto. They decide to eat their pizza and then get going, but Splinter cautions that attending the contest is not wise. Though his sons argue that they could do with a break from training and fighting, Splinter counters by asking if Shredder or Krang ever take a break. Splinter watches as his sons crawl into their beds, and then he also retires for the night.
After their father is asleep, the Turtles sneak out of the lair, since as Leo points out, Splinter didn’t actually forbid them from going. They do take their weapons with them as a precaution. Little do they know that Splinter has heard everything, but feigned sleep. Though he is saddened by their actions, he’s not surprised, remembering that he too was young once.
The Turtles arrive in an alley across the street from the National Theater, a very dilapidated building. They head around back and dodge a group of alley cats in order to reach the stage door. With a bit of effort, Mikey manages to get the door open and the Turtles make their way to a location just off the contest stage. They peak around the curtains and see an auditorium full of people as well as several TV crews filming the contest. A sharply dressed man on the stage introduces himself as the host, Lancelot Goodknight. Leo finds the name odd and says that the contest can’t be real. He is about the leave, when Mikey stops him.
Turning back, the awestruck Turtles spot a chorus line of four female Turtles. The wide-eyed Turtle lads are soon less than enthusiastic when the ‘girls’ begin singing, because they are very out of tune. Leo also points out that there is something funny about the females and tells his brothers to look at the one nearest them. There is a wide rip beneath one arm and the Turtles realize that the female turtles are actually Footbots in disguise.
Leo is enraged at the insult to Turtles and tells Mikey to hit the lights because it’s time to kick some shell. Mikey throws the switch for the house lights and plunges the theater into darkness. There is the sound of fighting and when Mikey turns the lights back on, all four fake female turtles have been smashed. Leo then says he has a feeling the TV people are actually working for Shredder. One of the men behind a camera acknowledges the truth of that and also states that the cameras are actually machine guns.
The phony cameramen open fire on the Turtles, who dive down to flatten themselves on the stage. As bullets pass overhead, Donatello says they need help and maybe they can get it from the audience. Unfortunately, Raphael points out that the ‘audience’ is composed of wooden fakes. Leo leaps up and says they can handle the gunmen themselves. The Turtles go on the offensive and as his brothers begin pounding the cameramen, Mikey dodges Goodknight’s gunfire before punching him in the throat.
With all the cameramen down for the count, the Turtles turn to see a man wearing a jacket and hat identifying him as the director. The man is wielding a huge bazooka and claims they ruined his show. Before he can fire, Raphael throws his sai at the barrel of the bazooka. The weapon explodes, sending the director flying.
Suddenly, there is a large puff of smoke onstage, and Shredder appears. He informs the Turtles that they are hopelessly trapped and calls for Bebop, Rocksteady and his Footbots to attack. Leo tells Mikey to get the lights. Darting around the corner, Mikey switches off the lights again, sending the theater into darkness. There is the sound of a battle raging and when the lights come on, the four unconscious Turtles are piled together on the floor. Shredder gloats over them, but Bebop thinks it was too easy.
Following Shredder’s orders, the Turtles are carried out of the theater and back to the Technodrome so that Krang can see them. Krang congratulates Shredder and then rolls over to poke at the Turtles, gloating that they are losers. Unfortunately, his poking knocks the head off of ‘Mikey’, revealing that it isn’t the Turtles who have been captured but four Footbots in Turtle disguises. Shredder realizes that they are the fake female turtles and that the real Turtles altered their appearance when the lights went out. An angry Krang vows to come up with a nasty for Shredder’s failure.
Back in the sewers, the Turtles celebrate their victory with pizza. Then Mikey tells Splinter that they should have taken his advice and asks him to forgive them. Splinter quotes an old proverb that says “He who admits a mistake is wise…Although he who forgives a mistake is wiser still.”