SuperCasey is the third Saturday Morning Adventures comic. It was first published on December 21, 2022.
Solicit[]
Casey Jones may not be souped up with mutagen ooze, but even without ninja skills and a half shell, he holds his own as a hero. So imagine everyone's surprise when stopping a burglary at a top-secret R&D lab leaves Casey imbued with superpowers! Emboldened by his new gift, Casey takes on NYC's criminal element to great effect. The problem is his new powers are wreaking havoc on the city's power grid! Can the TMNT talk Casey into giving up his powers, or will they have to take them by force?
Appearing in SuperCasey[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
Species[]
Locations[]
- New York City
- City streets
- TCRI
- Turtle Lair
Objects, vehicles, and weapons[]
Synopsis[]
A trio of gang members blow up a restaurant for not paying for protection, though one of them thinks they did it because the establishment had started selling kimchi empanadas. As they are fleeing the scene of the crime, someone blocks their path to tell them they made a big mistake because he loves those empanadas. The pink haired thug says if the guy doesn’t get out of the way, he’s in for a beating. The man blocking their path is Casey Jones, and he begs to differ about that beating. Pink hair, who is much larger than Casey, strikes the vigilante in the chest with his fist. The punch has zero effect on Casey, but pink hair shouts in pain because it felt like hitting a brick wall. Casey pulls a hockey stick from his bag and proceeds to teach them a lesson.
Later, a city electrician alerts the police to the trio of thugs, who are all tied together. He says he found them while trying to get the power back on, as the whole block is out. Sergeant Malloy is just asking if he’s seen anything else when his name is called by April O'Neil. Malloy is not happy to see her. She asks him about the blackouts and says that she heard there has been evidence of vigilante activity found after each one. April asks him to comment, and he blows her off by saying the power cut out on him while he was watching a game, so he’ll be complaining to the electric company.
Soon after that, April visits the Turtles in the lair and rants about the condescending tone Malloy took with her. Leonardo asks how they can help. April says she can smell a story and then asks Donatello if he’s invented any blackout-causing crime-fighting equipment. He answers that they are using nothing other than ninja skills and weapons to fight crime. Don thinks he can help her though, and asks her to follow him to the lab. There he uses his Turtle computer to predict when and where the next blackout will most likely occur. The machine spits out a prediction and Don hands it over, receiving a thank you hug from April. After she leaves, Raphael accuses Don of sending April on a wild goose chase. However, Don says the computer really did find a pattern. Raph can’t believe Don just let her have the information, considering the kind of weirdness that happens in the city. Leo tells Raph not to worry because April will be perfectly safe. Michelangelo agrees, adding that they’ll be there to make sure of it.
That night, April arrives at the location indicated on Don’s printout. At first nothing happens, but then the power goes out. She hears a man call out to some criminals and ducks behind a phone booth, certain she’s recognized the voice. Sure enough, it’s Casey, but April is astonished to see that he is flying. Meanwhile, the Turtles are tracking April and following in their Turtle Van. When the power goes out around them, they know they’re in the right place. Don’s computer instruments tell him the power isn’t out just this area, but that the outage covers most of the lower east side and as far west as Tribeca. He can’t tell what’s causing the outage.
Leo suddenly slams on the brakes, barely avoiding hitting a man who has stepped out in front of them. When Leo asks if he’s okay, the man begs them to take him with them to their costume party in order to escape the madman. When Leo asks who that is, the man points at Casey. The man hides behind Leo, who has gotten out of the van, and Casey asks if the Ninja Turtles are there to assist him in taking in this lawbreaking jaywalker. Leo wants to know how Casey is flying.
Casey proceeds to tell his story, which started a couple of weeks earlier. He was chasing some criminals and took a shortcut to get ahead of them. Unfortunately, he entered a restricted area at the TCRI complex and into an experiment. Before he could back out, he was hit by some strange energy and it changed him, gave him superpowers. He says that with these new mighty abilities, no lawbreaker can escape justice. Casey suddenly notices that the jaywalker has escaped. Believing that the Turtles purposely distracted him so the man could get away, Casey zaps them with energy bolts from his hands. Leo leaps and tries to him in the chest, but only succeeds in hurting himself.
Then Casey notices the Turtle Van and wonders if it’s licensed and insured. Certain that they are breaking the law, he tries zapping the van. He causes no damage at all and decides that if he sucks a little more juice from the city, he can turn it into scrap. Just then, April begins calling out for help and Casey rushes to her. April tells him that there is a riot in Hoboken and they’re heading this way. Casey immediately flies to New Jersey to deal with the problem. Raph compliments April on her quick thinking and Don checks the computer in the van. He says that according to his readings, things are going to get worse. Soon, Casey will draw more power than the city generates. April says that they have to find a way to cure Casey and Mikey reminds them that it all started at TCRI.
The next day, the Turtles and April meet with Professor Albert McGuffin in a lab at the TCRI complex. After they explain Casey’s predicament, April asks if there is a way to help him. McGuffin says that the goods news is because they’ve had unintended genetic restructures at TCRI in the past, they’ve developed an antidote. Unfortunately, there is also a limit to how long it’s useful, meaning that Casey has to ingest it by midnight. Otherwise, his change is permanent. April is fearful they won’t have enough time to find him, but Mikey suggests making him come to them.
That night, April and the Turtles, atop a tall building, use a searchlight with the emblem of a hockey mask affixed to it to signal to Casey. This does the trick, as Casey appears. He thanks them for the Hoboken tip because he stopped a lot of crime. Leo tells him that he’s hurting people with his powers and that he’s using electricity that goes to air traffic control and hospitals and other important operations. He tells Casey that he has to give up his powers and that they have a cure.
Casey refuses, saying the city can make more electricity and that he’s keeping his powers until there is no more crime. He then proceeds to attack the Turtles, which angers Raph. The pair clash, with Raph trapping Casey’s hockey stick and bat with his sai. He then asks if Casey knows what sai were invented to do and shows him by yanking the man’s weapons out of his hands. Though surprised by the move, Casey says he’s got more and uses another hockey stick to hit Raph. Mikey notices that Casey isn’t using his powers. Don guesses he’s either running dry or falling back into old habits. Leo says they still need to get him to take the antidote. He uses his katana to slice the head off of Casey hockey stick and then punches him. Leo tries to get him to listen about the cure, but Casey tells him not to use that after-school tone with him. Casey thinks they don’t want him to do what he was meant to do. He says he can clean up New York and all he needs to do is suck up more juice. He begins pulling electricity from the buildings around him.
This was exactly what the Turtles did not want him to do. Casey says he’s going to put them down and then move on to cleaning up Staten Island. April jumps in front of the Turtles and shouts for Casey to stop. Casey tells her to get out of the way because she’s not a lawbreaker, but she says that he is. She asks if he’s paid for all the electricity he’s been using and if he’s even metered. Casey stammers that it’s for the common good, but she says it doesn’t matter, he’s still a lawbreaker. Dismayed at realizing she’s right, Casey releases all of the stored electricity in his body. He then asks if it’s too late to take the cure.
The next day, in the Turtle lair, Splinter asks if Casey has been safely restored. Don says that Professor McGuffin confirmed that Casey’s back to normal and that the power company has repaired all the damage. Splinter is pleased to hear that and then tells April that his sons told him of her role in the matter. He has a reward for her that he purchased along with tonight’s pizza. Given the nature of her most recent adventure, he felt she would appreciate… a Hero sandwich.
Notes and trivia[]
- On page 5, a sign on a building behind April reads 2nd Time Around, a nod to the business April owns in several continuities.
- On page 6, there are references to Bill & Ted film series (phone booth time machine, Wild Stallions/Stallyns, San Dimas "X" Rules").
- The giant dandelions surrounding the TCRI building are a reference to TGRI in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
- The Turtles use of a searchlight with a hockey mask outline to signal Casey is a reference to the Bat-Signal used to summon Batman.