The Turtle King, Part One is the first issue of volume 2 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures.
Solicit[]
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Saturday Morning Adventures continue in our first multipart adventure! After an accidental encounter with an unknown element in the sewers of the city, the Rat King finds his ability to control the hearts and minds of rodents is waning. But in its place, he finds the ability to control reptile life, which will totally make things harder for the heroes in a half shell! Grab a bowl of cereal and be there for part one of "The Turtle King!"
Appearing in Part One[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Deliverymen
- Homeless man
Species[]
- Human
- Mutant rat
- Mutant rhinoceros
- Mutant turtle
- Rat
- Mutant warthog
Locations[]
Objects, vehicles, and weapons[]
Synopsis[]
Two deliverymen who are hauling canisters of a blue gas barely miss hitting a homeless man crossing the street, causing one of the canisters to fall off the back of the truck and into the sewer. Two rats take the canister as an offering to their king. When he picks it up, the blue gas leaks from a crack and sprays him in the face. He commands his subjects to get him a towel... only to find that they aren't obeying him anymore.
Elsewhere in the sewer, the Turtles are returning home from a pizza run, eager to make it back to the lair in time to catch April's broadcast. Raphael points out to Leonardo that they wouldn't have had to hustle had he not insisted on stopping to chase off the kids tagging "Chet was here" on a bridge, but Leo is convinced that vandalism is a "gateway crime" and had they not done anything, they could end up with another Shredder - which Raph finds utterly preposterous.
Suddenly, the Turtles hear Rat King calling out in an effort to get his subjects to listen to him, and obey his command to go to him. Rat King is frustrated that his subjects aren't listening, and even more disturbed when the Turtles suddenly show up. He starts to defend himself, but the Turtles say that they arrived because he told them to. After commanding them to stand on their heads (although they perform handstands instead), he begins to reason that even though he mourns the loss of his command over "regal rodents", he can use these "wretched reptiles" to his advantage, and hopefully regain connection to the rats. Raph suggests that he let Donatello help him figure it out, since he's a scientist. Don interjects that he can "do machines", not biochemistry, but Raph assures him that he always has whatever expertise the plot needs him to have.
Rat King sends Don to his lab so figure out how he can regain his connection to rodents, then has the other Turtles accompany him to T.C.R.I. to steal weapons. Meanwhile, back at the Lair, Splinter and April wait for the Turtles to return, so the latter can tell them about her tip about Rocksteady breaking into a shipping container. Don suddenly shows up and blows off Splinter, and he learns that his student is under the thrall of the Rat King. When Splinter tries to get him to talk to him, Don snaps and attacks him.
Back at T.C.R.I., the Turtles and Rat King come across Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady, who are also trying to steal something from the lab. Shredder is weirded out by the Turtles being under Rat King's command, and after they thrash his mutants a bit, he commands they retreat - but not before knocking Rat King out of a window, forcing the Turtles to turn their attention to saving him. Shredder and the mutants flee, and Rat King complains on how long the Turtles take to save him from the windowsill in comparison to how quickly he thinks his rats would have reacted. When the Turtles want to go after Shredder, Rat King tells them to forget Shredder and commands them to help him get the weapons so that he can utilize their skills to take over the city.
The Turtles find some rodent-like metallic suits in T.C.R.I.'s psychological warfare lab and Rat King has them dress up in them, and the Rat King has plans to have them attack power plants. Back at the lair, Splinter attempts to fend off Don's attacks and using percussive maintenance to get him to snap to his senses. April comes up behind Don and hits him with a stun gun, which actually does the trick. Don then realizes that he needs to use electricity to return his brothers back to normal, as Rat King and the other Turtles prepare to take the city.
Trivia[]
- Some characters break the fourth wall with their lines:
- Michelangelo when he goes back for pizza, looks directly at the reader and says "Whoops, waste not, want not, dudes and dudettes."
- When Donatello says that he "does machines," not biochemistry, he was referencing the part of the classic theme song's lyrics that described himself.
- Raphael then declares that Donatello always has the expertise the plot needs.
- During his brief confrontation with Donatello, Splinter mentions his own experience of being mind-controlled by the Rat King, an event that occurred way back in "Enter the Rat King".