The Boss is a Fleetway comic, published in TMHT Adventures #29 in February–March 1991.
Appearing in The Boss[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
Species[]
Objects and vehicles[]
- Bō
- Gun
- Katana
- Sai
- Turtle Van
Locations[]
- April O'Neil's apartment
- Boss's headquarters
- Jack's Amusement Arcade
- Pete's Pizza Palace
- Turtle Lair
Summary[]
In the lair, Master Splinter trains his sons in the art of meditation. When their session ends, he bids them to return to waking consciousness. Three of the Turtles do so, but Raphael seems to be so deep in meditation that he hasn’t heard Splinter. Donatello quickly discovers that Raph is actually sleeping. When Raph wakes, he tells the others he was dreaming of chasing a giant pizza that was wearing running shoes. Leonardo scolds him for sleeping and tells him he’ll have to do extra meditation tomorrow.
Splinter then tells them about how, when he was human, his honorable master dealt with clan members who dozed during meditation. He carried around a big stick and would hit them with it. Michaelangelo says he’d rather meditate than get a thump. Don says if Splinter uses that technique, then Raph’s head with be bump city because he’s always dozing off these days. Don reminds them they need to don their disguises because they have to keep their date at the pizza parlor.
The Turtles meet up with April O'Neil at the town’s newest pizza joint, Pete's Pizza Palace. They are enjoying a nice visit until they notice a pair of suspicious looking men approach the counter. A frightened Pete tells the men that he can’t afford the prices their boss is asking. One of the thugs informs Pete that they will have to smash his restaurant to pieces and then do the same to him. This angers the Turtles and Mikey slugs the man who is breaking tables. Raph then kicks the other man in the face. The first man pulls a gun on the Turtles, but Don swiftly knocks it out of his hand. After delivering another set of kicks and punches, the Turtles send the pair of thugs into unconscious land.
Don asks Pete if he knows the creeps. Pete explains that their boss is running a protection racket on a lot of businesses in the area. If they don’t pay them cash at the end of each week, the thugs smash their places up. Raph asks Pete for the names of the other places being terrorized, because this sounds like their kind of job.
The next night, a pair of thugs arrive at Jack's Amusement Arcade and threaten Jack. The Turtles are nearby, playing video games. They prepare to intervene, but Don has to wake Raph, who has dozed off on top of one of the machines. As the Turtles advance on the thugs, one of them pulls a gun. Raph immediately jams the tip of his sai into the gun barrel and the weapon explodes in the thug’s hand. The Turtles then wipe the floor with the two villains. Leo is pleased, saying they’ll soon finish off the protection racket and Jack wants to reward them, but Leo says they need no reward. He goes on to say they are ever alert, always in control… and then Raph dozes off on his shoulder. When the Turtles get back to the lair, Splinter tells them they’ve done well, but whoever runs the racket will not be pleased and to expect danger.
Meanwhile, the Boss, one of the city’s most dangerous kingpins of crime, is fuming. In his headquarters, surrounded by his men, he says something has to be done to get those interfering ‘guys’ out of the way. As he’s pacing, the Boss has an idea. Those ‘guys’ are friends with the reporter April O’Neil. They will kidnap her and use her as a bargaining tool.
At two a.m., April, in her bathrobe, is sitting at her desk enjoying a hot beverage. Her doorbell rings and wondering who it could be at that hour, opens the door. One of the thugs stands there and asks if she wants to buy encyclopedias. April says no and slams the door on him. Unfortunately, he kicks the door in and brandishes a gun, which makes April agree to buy two sets. The thug says he’s not selling encyclopedias, it was just a cover to get inside. April begins to compliment him on his acting skills and while he’s telling a story about how he wanted to go on the stage, she breaks a vase over his head. As April starts to run from the apartment, she is stopped by another gun wielding thug.
The following day, the Turtles head for April’s apartment to fill her in on what they’ve been up to for her news show. They enter the apartment, but there is no April. Leonardo finds a ransom note on the table which gives directions to an abandoned warehouse. It says they have to be there tomorrow night or they’ll never see April alive again.
Before they leave the lair on the next night, Splinter tells them to remember how he taught them to still their mind in meditation. They must go into battle this way – calm, collected and without fear. The Turtles head out in the Turtle Van and as they near the warehouse, they remind themselves to still their minds. However, Raph has fallen asleep and they have to wake him.
In the warehouse, nearly a dozen thugs wait with their boss, many with guns at the ready. The Boss tells his men to shoot at the first glimpse of the weirdos, but the Turtles come in behind them. Their surprise attack gives them time to lay into the thugs before any of them can shoot. The thugs quickly give up and drop their weapons. Raph threatens the Boss and demands to know where to find April. The frightened Boss says she’s in the next room, so Don and Leo go to check it out.
Sure enough, he was telling the truth. April is bound and gagged, seated in a chair, and begins grunting as soon as they enter. Leo realizes she’s trying to tell them something, but Don figures it out for himself as their opening the door set off a deadly gas which is filling the room. Don says they must do as Splinter instructed and keep a still mind, don’t panic and use their brains. Leo figures out to use their bandanas as gas masks and calls into the next room for another bandana.
Covering April’s face with Mikey’s bandana, Don and Leo carry April out of the gas filled room. Don suggests they grab some pizza after they’ve delivered the goons to the police. Later that night, as the Turtles are sleeping off a huge pizza supper, Leo is awakened by a light in the next room and wakes the others. He asks where the light is coming from and notices that Raph is missing. The three remaining Turtles rise to investigate and find Raph using a camp light for illumination as he reads a comic book from the huge stack next to him. Leo says now they know why he keeps falling asleep all day – it’s because he stays awake reading comics. Don adds that now they also know where he gets all his corny dialogue from too.