Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics IDW Publishing
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	December 2015 - May 2016
Number of issues	6
Main character(s)	Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Splinter The Shredder
Creative team
Writer(s)	James Tynion IV
Artist(s)	Freddie Williams II

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a six-issue intercompany crossover comic book miniseries featuring fictional heroes Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.^[1][2]

Publication history

The collaboration between DC Comics and IDW Publishing was announced during IDW's panel at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. Six-part monthly miniseries will be written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Freddie Williams II.^[3][4][5] In addition, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' co-creator Kevin Eastman provided some of the variant covers.^[3][4][5]

Plot

Overview

The Turtles and their arch-enemy, the Shredder have been transported to an alternate universe by Krang. Here, in Gotham City, they meet Batman and clash with a series of his famous "rogues gallery" while attempting to find their way home.^[3][4][5]

Summary

During a battle with the alien conqueror Krang, the Turtles, their master Splinter, and their archenemy Shredder with a good number of Foot Ninjas have been transported to an alternate universe. While the Foot attempt to steal various components from labs all around Gotham to work out a means of returning home, as well as abducting a scientist doing research into cross-dimensional travel, the Turtles intercept the various thefts, although the Foot still depart with their gathered equipment. Batman is puzzled by the inhuman descriptions of some of the participants, and at the fact that the crimes were committed by ninjas. Predicting a break-in at one of his own facilities, he takes out the raiding Foot ninjas and has a brief encounter with the Shredder, before the latter retreats.

The Turtles have in the meantime set up a new base in the Gotham sewers, but Killer Croc stumbles upon their lair while tracking Batman. After defeating Croc and his men, the Turtles are forced to flee due to Croc knowing the location of their lair. The Turtles retreat to the surface in time to discover the Batmobile parking nearby. When Batman returns to his car from his confrontation with the Shredder, he finds the Turtles milling about^[6] and fights them until Splinter distracts Batman with a smoke bomb. The Turtles begin to research Batman, and most of them come to admire him, while Raphael just believes him to be a distraction. Having recovered Raphael's sai during the fight, Batman takes it to Lucius Fox as Bruce Wayne. Fox's analysis confirms that the dagger is from another universe, but it is reverting to this reality's 'local' version of steel. He also notes that a strange mutagen in a blood sample that Bruce provided him with is incompatible with their laws of physics and anything mutated by it will thus revert to its non-mutated state.

Learning about a stolen power generator that could allow them to power the equipment they need to return home, Shredder and the Foot make a 'deal' with the Penguin to acquire it, only for the Foot to kill all of Penguin's men. However, the Penguin convinces Shredder to spare him by arguing that he can provide useful local knowledge.

Unbeknownst to Batman, Splinter followed him into the Batcave and learned of their situation and Batman's identity. Reuniting with the Turtles, Splinter leads his sons to the Batcave to ask for help.^[7] Although Batman is initially hostile, Splinter catches Batman off guard by calling him by his real name, which helps them form an uneasy peace. Splinter and the Turtles subsequently lead an assault on the Iceberg Lounge, where Shredder intends to activate a portal that will return him to his world, also planning to create a permanent link between their worlds so that he can conquer New York and Gotham. However, when the Turtles and Batman attack, Shredder destroys the portal and kills the scientist who helped him build it, revealing that he also knows of the mutants' impending reversion. Raphael engages Shredder in battle, but Shredder injures Raphael and escapes, only to be met by the League of Assassins and Ra's al Ghul, who offers him an alliance.^[8]

With Shredder unaccounted for, the Turtles remain in the Batcave and Wayne Manor. In his growing impatience, Raphael snaps at the lack of progress made in finding a cure, accusing Batman of being simply "a rich boy playing at being a hero" with no idea about true loss and sacrifice, and storms off in a huff. While Raphael is walking through Gotham in disguise, Batman pulls up beside him in the Batmobile and takes him to Crime Alley, where he tells Raphael about the death of his parents and how that loss drove him to become Batman. As Raphael considers this and finally starts to accept Batman, the other Turtles alert him to an energy surge in Gotham that they identified as another portal, constructed and activated by Ra's and the Shredder. At the portal they meet Casey Jones, who has attempted to bring his friends some fresh mutagen to stabilize their condition but was stopped by the villains, who stole the substance and took it with them to a place called "Arkham".^[9]

Batman, Leonardo and Raphael meet with Commissioner Gordon at the roof of the GCPD and learn that the Penguin has turned informer, revealing that the Shredder and Ra's are intending to attack Arkham. As Leonardo collapses due to the decaying mutagen in his system, Damian returns to the Batcave to find Donatello, Michaelangelo and Casey inside, resulting in a brief fight between them until Batman returns to confirm that the Turtles are his allies. As Damian reports that the League of Assassins are coming to Gotham en masse, Casey reveals that he was provided with equipment that would allow the Turtles to return to their dimension, and Batman tells the Turtles to get home before Leonardo's condition gets irreversible. Despite Splinter warning Batman, Batman and Damian head to Arkham, confident that they can beat Shredder, only to be confronted by a mass of mutagen-contaminated Arkham inmates (Mr. Freeze as a polar bear, Bane as an elephant, Two-Face as a baboon, etc.), who move in for the attack.^[10]

During the resulting fight, Batman is trapped by the mutated Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. Confronted by al Ghul and the Shredder, he learns that the two arch-villains intend to use the mutagen in every major city of the world, throwing human civilization in chaos and thus paving their ascent to total world domination. Witnessing all of this in the Batcave, the Turtles decide to stay and risk their lives to save Batman, despite being given the chance to escape back to their own dimension with Casey. The Turtles arrive just as Joker is about to kill Batman, and while Splinter fights off the remaining inmates, the Dark Knight battles the Shredder inside his latest Intimidator combat armor and the Turtles engage Ra's al Ghul. Although Shredder severely injures Batman and damages the Intimidator suit, Batman manages to knock his opponent to the ground, and Splinter finishes him off. With the Turtles beating him down, and the League of Assassins disarmed and captured by Damian and the GCPD, al Ghul escapes.

Just as the Turtles wonder how they will get back home, a dimensional portal opens and disgorges Casey and April O'Neil. The Turtles round up the Foot ninja and Shredder and send them back to their original dimension. Before they leave, Raphael gives Batman his mask and tells him that he can now count on the Turtles' aid if he ever shows up in their dimension. Batman and Robin return to the Batcave where they learn from Commissioner Gordon that the situation at Arkham is being stabilized until the mutagen has decayed naturally, turning the inmates back to normal within a week. Damian remembers that it's the anniversary of the death of Bruce's parents and volunteers to leave, but Bruce insists that he stay and they work on the Intimidator Suit together. The final panel shows Raphael's mask lying on the chair of the Batcomputer.^[11]

Spin-Offs

Batman/TMNT Adventures

The success of this miniseries inspired the concept for a similar crossover story, titled Batman/TMNT Adventures,^[12] with Batman's DC Animated Universe incarnation encountering the Amazing Adventures comic version of the 2012 CGI series' Turtles. Author Matthew K. Manning ("Beware the Batman") and artist Jon Sommariva (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Amazing Adventures) were named as participants in the project.^[12] The concept was first introduced at the San Diego Comic Con in late July 2016,^[13] and is scheduled for a six-issue release starting November 9, 2016.^[14]

Rumored animated film

On October 13, 2016, We Got This Covered reported that Warner Bros. Animation is considering an adaptation of Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Wonder Woman as possible direct-to-video films.^[15][16]

References