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Some TMNT stuff really isn't for little kids. |
Monster Hunt is the primary story of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe issue #18, published in January 2018 by IDW Publishing. It takes place during the larger Invasion of the Triceratons arc.
Plot - Issue #18
Detective Kara Lewis is overseeing the evacuation of refugees to a makeshift center during the Triceraton invasion, including a woman and her two children, Haley and Todd. The two children spot four "monsters" lurking in the roof of the building, but the figures vanish when they try to tell their mom. Their mother tells them that now is not a good time for using their imaginations, and Haley declares that they'll just find the monsters themselves.
It turns out that the Turtles actually ducked into a seemingly abandoned building to avoid the refugees. Leonardo declares that as ninjas, it should be simple enough to sneak past the crowd, but it's clear that the crowded building has no unoccupied areas for them to go through. They try to slip down the hallway but are chased back into the janitor's closet, and the kids start yelling about how they know the "monsters" are in there.
Michelangelo proposes a Plan B: dress up as monsters and "scare our way out." They decide to skip Plan B.
Instead, they try various other plans, including Plan C (thwarted by no roof access), Plan G (Michelangelo gets stuck in an air duct), Plan M (a catapult they can't actually build), and Plan Q (digging their way out). Meanwhile, Haley and Todd have gone missing, and their mother is frantic for the police to find them. When she mentions them looking for monsters, Detective Lewis suddenly becomes very alert.
The kids are in a large storage room, and are rapidly approaching the Turtles when a police officer spots them and drags them back to where they should be. Finally, the Turtles are desperate enough to consider Michelangelo's Plan B, much to his joy. Donatello and Michelangelo snatch a cop's walkie-talkie and send them on a wild goose chase to the other end of the evacuation center, and then don "Teenage Monster Monster Monsters!" costumes made out of toilet paper, cardboard and whatever else they could find. Under cover of some smoke bombs, they start leaving the place.
Unfortunately, the kids immediately come through the smoke after them, spraying Raphael with vinegar and landing a plunger on Leonardo's face. Raphael scares them off by roaring, and Michelangelo gives them a final message claiming that the kids have successfully scared them away, and vanishes into the smoke.
Out on the rooftop, the Turtles remove their costumes, and Donatello says that he's surprised Raphael went along with the silly plan. Raphael responds that after all they've been through, and the trust and respect they've built.... only for Michelangelo to start laughing hysterically at the fact that they actually dressed up as monsters and scared kids. Raphael gets mad and leaps at him.
Back at the refugee center, a sketch artist has made a sketch of the four "monsters." But he's curious who threw the smoke bombs, and stole a radio to call in a diversion. Detective Lewis mutters, "These guys, everywhere I go" and tells him to destroy the sketch.
Todd is recounting their adventure to their mother, but she still doesn't believe them. Haley says that she'll never believe them, but that it's okay because they'll protect her anyway.
Characters
- Donatello
- Evacuees
- Haley (debut)
- Todd (debut)
- Haley & Todd's mother (debut)
- Leonardo
- Michelangelo
- New York Police Department
- Raphael
Transcript
Trivia
- The extensive use of aerial maps in storytelling is uncommon in a TMNT story, but the elaborate stealth strategy involved is familiar to players of stealth video games.
- The page art by Tyler Boss depicts the four Turtles more closely resembling their counterparts from the 2012 TV series, including the relative sizes and shapes of their bodies and heads. Some conventional IDW continuity design elements remain however, including each turtle having two toes per foot instead of three, and the absence of any distinctive plastron cracks, tooth gaps or freckles.
Gallery
_Cover_A.jpg "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe issue 18 (IDW) Cover A.jpg (3.13 MB)")
