TMNT “Random” Reviews: “Insane in the Membrane”

Written by Matthew Drdeck, Michael Ryan (story editor)

Supervising Director Roy Burdine

--Once upon a time, I was working through some Baxter Stockman episodes to review for my blog. To try to jumpstart that same blog, it’s time to review the most infamous one: the “banned” 2003 series episode that was completed but never shown in U.S. TV. But it made it to other regions and to DVD, so that hopefully no one will have to miss it.

--I’m not being sarcastic here. While the episode isn’t important to the serial parts of the TV series’ story, “Insane in the Membrane” is great for what it allowed to be shown on kid’s TV, and what it did for Stockman’s character. The episode helps to enrich him and proves why he is the best version of Baxter Stockman, easily surpassing the Mirage version.

--Unlike many characters in the TMNT franchise (and in multimedia franchises in general), Baxter Stockman isn’t tied to one single character archetype. He’s been a different race, been an independent or attached to the Shredder. He’s been transformed voluntarily and involuntarily, into a fly and into...this.

--But the cartoons keep establishing a characterization for Baxter with surprising consistency: a character who is prideful and self-destructive, in a way that’s different from your usual supervillain, and also a put-upon henchman who is abused and transformed, but is also not innocent. It’s my favourite image for him, and what drew me to the character.

--There is a subtext of failure in this portrayal, one that’s usually not brought to the surface. But “Insane in the Membrane”, though only for a brief moment, actually makes this subtext overt as Stockman breaks down and admits his life has been wrecked. While the privilege of a viewer is to put emotions in a character that the writers did not intend, it’s still gratifying when your emotions align with the writers’. 4Kids Stockman is from a story where the writers can look at villains sympathetically, and that makes a story better.

--But we start with Stockman’s opening monologue, recapping the destruction of his physical form, until he became a brain/spine/eyeball in a tube. But no matter what else he is, 4Kids Stockman maintains his carefully-manicured pride. He refers to The Shredder and Hun as “cruel-minded brutes”, implicitly placing himself as their intellectual superior; Stockman also seems to skip over his own moments of fear in their presence. In part it’s a display of strength, but Stockman also does little to back up that pride, making the same mistakes over and over again.

--Yet Stockman also used to be on top of the science community. By giving him some period of success (detailed in the same monologue) before his fall, it makes things all the more painful and easier for the audience to empathize with him.

--There’s not much to say about the opening segments with the Turtles chasing down monsters in the sewers, except that they serve as a reminder that Stockman is far from perfect because these monsters are all a result of his mistakes. There’s also nothing to say about the discover of a new van, but good on the Turtles.

--Stockman’s spider-centaur robot body looks cool, but also really awkward, taking up a lot space and sporting many limbs. It seems to have been changed for no reason, when there were no problems with his simpler, humanoid robot form. Perhaps they were intending to get a toy out of it? Or they felt the design would become stale? Or somebody figured Stockman’s body designs just had to keep changing.

--Nerds traditionally take glee in creepy shit appearing in children’s cartoons, and that’s another part of the appeal of “Insane in the Membrane”. However, by thinning the boundaries of “child-friendly” entertainment, “Insane in the Membrane”, also makes Stockman’s pain more intense and improves the story. Children’s entertainment shouldn't shy away from that kind of visceral intensity.

--While I consider 4Kids Stockman the best version of Baxter, that doesn't mean he's a strong person in comparison to other characters. He's a weak man and an ultimately ineffective villain, sometimes even comic relief. But as long as he’s an interesting character, that’s what counts.

--As proof of this, the horrible events of "Insane in the Membrane" are partially Stockman's fault. He wanted a human body so badly that he was willing to go through a process that has been proven unstable. It's credible that he'd be this impatient, and it's good for stories to allow characters to make huge mistakes.

--So this doesn't make that a bad episode, but his impatience is both a new, fitting weakness, and shows Stockman's chief weakness: his pride. Stockman thinks he would be immune to whatever complications befell a clone body. Because he's better than everybody.

--But he wasn’t always that way. L’il Stockman is adorable, and it’s heavily implied that his mother was a stabilizing influence on him. In the first flashback, Stockman was ready to use his homemade corrosive on a bug he’d captured. After his mother comes home, Stockman lets the bug go outside instead.

--That’s a bit of a worrying cliche, that a woman was needed to give positive influence, and he might have crumbled without his mother, but it also shows how far down Stockman has gone from the child that he used to be.

--I didn’t notice this until the second viewing, even though it was obvious: Stockman notes that his clone body has been enhanced, and we can also see that he doesn’t wear glasses and is notably more muscular. Which is noticeable when he’s walking around with nothing but his modesty metal briefs from the cloning tank. But you can’t blame him for not covering up.

--It doesn't go without notice that there's a scary subtext in those certain versions of Baxter Stockman: that he's also got no allies, no ties to anyone, and is completely alone. Up until "Head of State" (which will be my next episode review) that is true of 4Kids Stockman. He works with Bishop, and Bishop isn't as grotesquely abusive as the Shredder, but he’s not Stockman’s friend.

--Here, Bishop's warnings are perfunctory, and he leaves Stockman alone through most of his degeneration, except the very start and finish. It is only what you can expect from a business relationship, but it's disturbing all the same. Nobody gives a damn about this guy.

--As the degeneration starts, Stockman puts his glasses back on, as well as his signature lab coat, representing that his body is more vulnerable than he thought. The crude way that he tries to hold his body together (nails! industrial staples!) is a more dramatic show of that loss of control and strength.

--“Why am I a failure? My whole life! Oh, Mama, I started with such promise. Where did it all go wrong?” There we are--there’s the payoff. Stockman’s failure is acknowledged and the character is at the most open and self-aware that we’ve seen him. It’s a punch in the gut every time.

--It’s difficult to put myself in the shoes of the many people who have said they never liked Stockman until this episode. I already thought he was likeable, but if someone finds his failures and arrogance tedious, then I suppose this episode would help make him sympathetic.

--But his ultimate conclusion is to shift the blame to April. Eroding sanity plays a part in this, but it seems in-character for Stockman to never blame himself for anything, because of his pride.

--His mother dying is a little cliche, too, but oh goddamn it tugs at the heartstrings.

--I don’t expect the Turtles to show any concern for Stockman when they see his state, but their total lack of reaction to the sight is a bit surprising.

--I’m not sure what’s the most shocking thing: Stockman’s finger falling off, Stockman nailing himself together, or his damn jaw falling off on strings. Either way, I’m surprised at the moxie that the 4Kids crew had  in producing scenes like that.

--Once again, Stockman is not an innocent victim. Though insane, though pained, he seems to be enjoying his attack on April a little too much.

--“Can’t you remember when your work helped people? When it was about the science?” Now, April’s quote is interesting. We never really saw this benevolent side to Stockman in the series. It would have been interesting for him to have started out good, to further show that fall.

--There were limits on the time frame, of course, but if there was never any time to show what April meant--I know it’s to set up April and Baxter’s mother both saying, “The sky’s the limit”, and to show that not all might be lost for Stockman, but...it rings a little hollow if we never saw the adult Stockman being a stand-up guy.

--It is unfortunate that the things revealed in this episode don’t actually change much about Stockman. When he’s brought back after this, Stockman is far more melancholy than before, but it gradually fades into his usual arrogance, and he never seems to change otherwise.

--To be fair, Stockman doesn’t have much of a role in the 4Kids series after “Insane in the Membrane”, but if we’re going to judge him based on what we’re given, then the repercussions of this episode are lacking.

--That doesn’t mean those flashbacks and realizations are worthless. Stories aren’t simply about The Plot; you need to take time to explore the characters and show us more about them. Simply providing this knowledge is reason enough for such scenes to exist.

--For a while, TMNT co-creator Peter Laird has been posting transcripts of the e-mails he had with the 4Kids production staff, suggesting changes to their scrips. It’s a fascinating look into the production of the 2003 series, and into how much Peter Laird was responsible for whipping it into shape.

Here are the links to his notes on “Insane in the Membrane” (some of which are appropriately dated for October)

http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot.ca/2011/12/blast-from-past-342-october-27-2004.html

http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot.ca/2011/12/blast-from-past-340-october-16-2004.html

“Insane in the Membrane” was also going to be a Justice Force episode, with nothing to do with Baxter.

http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot.ca/2011/11/blast-from-past-329-september-16-2004.html

http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot.ca/2011/11/blast-from-past-328-september-12-2004.html

One interesting note is that Baxter was originally going to have an abusive father, which Peter Laird pointed out had Unfortunate Implications and this is apparently the reason it was nixed. It didn’t add anything to the story anyway.

There were also cut scenes showing Bishop and other members of his agency talking about where Stockman is going, which might have been cut for time. These scenes would have shown that the agency was watching Stockman, but offered no clue as to why they did not intervene. It doesn’t alleviate the bleakness of Stockman’s lack of allies, though.

--This episode is overall excellent. It redeemed the character for a lot of people, but if you’re already on board with Baxter Stockman, “Insane in the Membrane” tells you a lot of new things about him while enforcing what you already know. The infamous goriness is also key to emphasizing Stockman’s hardship, so it’s not there without reason. The episode deserves to be remembered for all of these things.

Some Stuff

 Some thoughts on a minor TMNT Nicktoons spoiler, about the character I've been talking about for a while:

http://pterobat.tumblr.com/post/58036776807/in-which-i-talk-way-too-much-about-a-minor-spoiler

TMNT "Random" Reviews: "Son of Return of the Fly II"

Fred Wolf Episode #79

Written by David Wise

Directed by Bill Wolf

Original Air Date: September 8th, 1990

--According to Wikipedia, this is the first of the episodes that aired after the series moved to CBS, but not the first episode of season four. I've got no idea either way, since I never kept track of the series’ change from syndication to network when I was young. I also can't say I notice any radical changes in tone or presentation from the earlier episodes, but I tend to be slow on the uptake when it comes to things like this. Only the very radical changes to a TV series’ tone and format do I notice.

--But this is officially my favourite Baxterfly episode, surpassing "Enter: The Fly" if we're talking about qualities besides "what came first" (with “Landlord of the Flies” being the worst). "Son of Return of the Fly II" is just so goddamn hilarious, one of those episodes of the original cartoon that hits the mark of being so ridiculous it's great, episodes that are too few in number. It’s also fairly well-plotted with some expressive animation.

--I can't look at the title "Son of Return of the Fly II" without thinking of the joke that "The Venture Brothers" made with "Return to the House of Mummies: Part 2", in which there deliberately never was a part one, just to make it more surreal and confusing. This episode’s title, however, is simply mashing up common B-movie titles like always. I enjoy that about most Baxterfly episodes: it’s cute.

--However, the early parts with Mr. Mellish and the Solid Energy Generator are dull, and there’s not much to say about them. A little payoff comes at the end, but otherwise, we’ll skip it.

--And does Baxter quote the Wicked Witch of the West when he says, "What a world!"?

--Crying Baxterfly might make you soft towards him, but you also realize that the reason he's crying is that he can't go back to Earth and get his all-important revenge. Still, it's an unusual thing for this series to show a villain doing, and I’m a little bit sorry for Baxter, of course.

--The crying also demonstrates how much more childlike Baxter’s new characterization is, though Baxter doesn’t act as infantile in his later episodes. And he’s hardly ever a bastion of maturity anyway, but in this episode his immaturity really sticks out.

--Of course, it's never explained how the ship's computer transformed into a desktop PC, or how Baxter got out of the inter-dimensional spider's web, which was the peril they were in at the end of the previous Baxterfly episode. But it doesn't matter that much, really, except to make me wonder if the ending of "Bye Bye Fly" was originally intended to serve as Baxter's gruesome offscreen fate. Whew.

--To add to the disconnect between this episode and the previous one, the computer's mannerisms seem different. He seems more mature, with a deeper voice and a leadership role, as well as now constantly calling Baxter “pal” and “buddy”.

--I enjoyed the previous episodes where Baxter acts largely on his own, him not being quite so reliant on the computer in "Bye, Bye Fly", but the whole thing with the computer is just wonderfully strange: Seth Brundle and HAL 9000 in a weird co-dependent relationship. The more I rewatch these episodes, the funnier that gets.

--Part of the humour comes from the possibility that the computer would betray Baxter if the need arose, meaning that Baxter's life would get even more hilariously terrible when his only ally betrays him.

----The relationship also sort of adorable, in a twisted way.

--Because it’s so much fun, I really wish the computer had a damn name. The fan name "Zee" or "Z" is used often, but nobody knows where it came from, and I'm reluctant to use it because it's fanon.

--(Also, when the computer gets that energy body, it looks like he's naked. There; now you can’t unsee that)

--Baxter going after the sugar makes me giggle. It also reminds me of the scene in Cronenberg's "The Fly" when one of the first clues that Seth is changing is how much sugar and cream he puts in his coffee. This connection is probably unintentional, given that there's a lot of evidence that the writers only drew on the original "The Fly".

--The computer's constant complement-feeding comes off as incredibly smarmy, especially since he can obviously can see how dumb Baxter is. But the fact that this is kept up without Baxter being sold out is interesting, since one character secretly manipulating another long-term is subtle by FW standards. And by those same low standards, the relationship is refreshingly ambiguous.  

--Baxter's side of it seems to be genuine, though, as he seems to chase the main villains back to Channel 6 because he knows they're going after the computer, and joins in the tug-of-war over the computer man. He calls the computer "My friend" and says, "Thank you," to him.

--Which is always funny to me because I remember the human Baxter hating artificial intelligence for some inexplicable reason in "The Mean Machines", and being unusually pissy about it. The writers probably don't remember the difference, but I like it.

--The funniest parts are by far how incredibly addled Baxter is. He's asked to kidnap April, and instead kidnaps Vernon, *twice* (“That’s not even a woman”), can't remember her name for more than a second, and keeps walking through walls. I know it's not the good way to write a villain, but I laugh so hard.

--At the same time, it's a tiny bit sad that a former scientist, even one as nebbish and evil as Baxter was, keeps losing his faculties, is unable to perform the simplest tasks, and doing things like thinking a portal or a plot device are food.

--The fuss made over Baxter's footprint has always struck me as weird, if for no reason other than Baxter's feet look almost the same as the Turtles' and nobody seems to notice. But naturally, Splinter is the first one to figure stuff out.

--As I said above, I think Baxter's computer is a parody of Hal 9000, and his taking over the station could be another homage to the film. Especially since "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" already had a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

--"Because I'm a big fly!" Impeccable logic, there, Baxter.

--I love the clock tower trap: very Adam West Batman. Though I also can't help but think of the Edgar Allan Poe story, "A Predicament", when a woman gets her head cut off by the hand of a clock.

--Raphael seems to be quoting Joan Rivers when he asks, "Baxter, can we talk?"

--Another indication of Baxter’s childishness is when he yells to the absent Shredder: "You come here now! Or else you'll never have revenge against Turtles! Never, ever, ever!"

--"By Ninja Law…." I can believe the Shredder made that up.

--I love Baxter smacking Shredder and Rocksteady's heads together using both sets of arms.

--"Only the most highly-skilled ninja master could get out of these ropes." [Leo cuts Donnie free] "Hi, Leonardo." Love that exchange.

--Veteran fans of the Fred Wolf cartoon like to point out that certain episodes had a more fluid, cartoony art style, and I’m pretty sure “Son of Return of the Fly II” fits into the slot. It suits the comedy in the episode, and is actually all-around nice and expressive, including rare background movement.

--I love the computer's facial expressions, too. He looks very smug and evil.

--Oh, hey, you can see Bebop's eyes near the end for a few seconds.

--The "Destruction of other people's property...." running joke is great here. Raphael being annoyed with Donatello over it also cracks me up every time.

--The twist that Mr. Mellish is a mercenary, money-hungry bastard and could have blown up that chip at any time but didn't because of the potential profit is also great. It's a little sharper than the show's normal humour, but that's also the style of cartoon humour that I prefer, and one I wish the old show dipped into more often.

--And there goes Baxter, stuck between dimensions. This is why I can't get so broken up over "Revenge of the Fly", when several Baxter episodes had already ended like that. It's just that his episodes stopped, not that there was real finality. And this encourages emotional attachments to have only the lightest touch, which also means it’s hard to get upset.

--Why the heck is Vernon shaving in the office, and just after a major incident? It's a really bad set-up for that final joke this show often makes, when it looks like the enemy of the episode might be back, but it turns out to be something harmless.

--But overall, this was the kind of hilarious, insane episode that makes the OT memorable. It's also well-plotted and executed enough to stand out on a different level. And again, my favourite Baxterfly episode.

TMNT "Random" Reviews: "Enter: the Fly"

Fred Wolf Episode #12

Written by Michael Reaves and Brynn Stephens

Directed by Bill Wolf

Original Air Date: November 12, 1988.

--So, I picked out a couple Baxterfly episodes for myself to review, to round out a small and incomplete batch of FW Baxter Stockman episodes. I might pick out a few Splinter-centric episodes to do, since both are my favourite characters in the show, but Splinter is much harder to write about, since his episodes often involve things happening with him, and not to him, and Splinter is almost never not on top of things. That makes him an easy character for a child to admire, a hard character for an adult to write about

--And at the moment any review of my other favourite episodes of the old cartoon would involve a series of “wasn’t it funny when...” posts which just aren't that interesting. It’s sometimes hard for me to write about the old cartoon, which is in a weird zone between childhood and now.

--Anyway, turning into a fly seems to be considered the most interesting and memorable thing Baxter Stockman has ever done. Everybody keeps speculating on when new versions of the character are going to go Gregor Samsa (only to be disappointed), and fanart of the character largely consists of Baxterfly and nothing else.

--But to me, turning into a fly doesn't define Baxter Stockman. The character has been portrayed in different ways in different media, with only his profession and the Mousers being totally consistent. This particular transformation is confined to a single era of TMNT, and so is hardly defining when it’s a number’s game.

--Of course, I know Baxterfly became paramount because of how nostalgia-driven the TMNT fandom can be. Anything from the era of the initial media blitz is defined by childhood, where the old cartoon and original toyline were the only things one knew, and when mutants were always more interesting than human characters. Naturally, everyone is going to remember him as a fly first.

--Baxter's new personality also probably makes him a more appealing character, which I'll discuss below.

--Even so, I don’t think of ol' Cracker Stockman as a fly. The first reason is because, while I do like Baxterfly, he's the nadir, the absolute endpoint of the character's failure, with so much built up before that. He started out as a human character, and had an equal amount of screen time in both forms.

--Furthermore, I love broken, fucked-up characters, and it’s easier to get that vibe off human Baxter, that sense of failure beyond just being the "bad guy" and therefore doomed to lose. Baxterfly can also be seen this way, but is more your comical B-Movie villain swearing “Rrrevenge!” on those that wronged him, than that type of nebbish little wreck that I often enjoy in fiction.

--Okay, on with the real episode:

--I always liked that despite his goofiness, Baxter's inventions usually worked, because it's an engaging contrast. That the ray thingy doesn't work is for plot convenience, to directly motivate the Shredder throwing out Baxter. But it fits him, because Baxter is a failure.

--"[...] reverse the polarity"--David Wise didn't write this episode, but there's his standard Dr. Who reference. I wish I'd gotten into that franchise....

--Why does Splinter have a microwave in his meditation room, with a convenient pizza right next to his tatami mat? Not to mention that he is meditating in a different room than his usual one, but that is a standard cartoon inconsistency.

--Splinter looks perpetually sad for a good part of this episode, even before April’s collapse, which is interesting. I'm supposing it's to show that he's worried about the Shredder's scheme, even if said scheme is now relegated to the status of "decoy" plot. If that's true, points for consistency.

--I love Shredder's line while on the garbage barge, explaining why there are there: "Becasue this is the site [Krang] chose for the trans-dimensional convergence. I think he did it just to annoy me!" The writers really struck comedy gold with the Krang / Shredder dynamic.

--I know a lot of other viewers believe Baxter's fate was written by his actions in "Curse of the Evil Eye", but if it were, the Shredder would have had no reason to wait to act, especially not with "The Case of the Killer Pizzas" happening between these two episodes. The writers just didn’t care about following up on Baxter’s punishment.

--I'm not too agitated though: I’m very aware of the principle that even goofy cartoon villains should be held to standards, but I can make an exception just this once. I'd rather have Baxter around for a bit more rather than have FW Shredder actually do something proactive.

--Given the crazy science in this series, I also don't really care how little sense the convenient "fragile" inter-dimensional energy balance makes. Sure, whatever. It’s all SCIENCE!

--Shredder is very good at the henchman shot put.

--I understand why Baxter was mutated, I understand why Bebop and Rocksteady were kept around longer, and why the latter were brought back into the spotlight and might always have intended to be: mutant characters, and "manly" (speaking relatively) mutants, especially, would be more interesting to the target audience.

--The way the Shredder refers to April as the Turtles' "weakest point" means the writers aren't even trying to hide the fact that April is put down because of her gender.

--But the plan is sort of clever. It's like the Shredder knows the stupidity of everyone in this universe, so that April would not be at all suspicious of a mysterious package even though she's been a target of supervillains before.

--Not that fans ever need the fuel, but I wonder if the flower trap didn't endear at least some to the idea of Shredder x April.

--Splinter still looks sad when April opens the door. Then he has something else to be sad about.

--I actually like that April establishes herself as uninterested in a potential love affair with any of the Turtles, which is what she thinks the flowers represent. You so rarely see fantasy fiction consider the idea that hey, maybe a human woman wouldn't' be interested in the affections of a being that wasn't human. Which ties into lots of issues about double standards that I won't get into here.

--And hey, while I don't take back anything I've ever said against FW April, at least she is not relegated to the role of "love interest" because of this, which is also sadly rare.

--Also, "doku" is Japanese for "poison". How literal-minded.

--I don't take FW Baxter's life and fate 100% earnestly as something sad and terrible, but in this happy little cartoon universe, Krang was going to kill him in cold blood. That’s pretty fucked up.

--(And then part of me finds that incongruity hilarious)

---I always think it a little ridiculous when Shredder and Krang refer to themselves as "scientists" at various points. They never show much evidence of these skills, and it's overkill to think they would have these specializations on top of being supervillain leaders.

--While I love David Cronenberg's "The Fly" preceding and independent of any interest in Baxter Stockman, I’m certain Baxterfly draws more on the original 1958 "The Fly". It’s the TMNT cartoon's parodies of older monster movies, the running gag of Baxter squealing "Help me!", the classic Fly having human clothing, and that the teleportation device in the original film was called the "disintegrator-integrator" which is probably reflected in the name of the Technodrome's disintegrator unit. All of it adds up, but I can’t help associating him with Cronenberg’s version anyway. “Baxterfly” is a play on “Brundlefly”, after all.

--I also like Baxterfly's cartoon design, because it's accidentally adorable/goofy-looking, and bright and colourful. I prefer it over the visual experiments to create a "darker" Baxterfly, or even the look of the toy.

--In the scene where the Turtles enter and first see April in the sickbed, Splinter is drawn with very strange, deer-like ears.

--"And you let [Baxter] escape through the portal? Brilliant!" / "I didn't have to warn you, you know." More great stuff from Shredder and Krang.

--Now, as to why viewers might prefer Baxtefly beyond "mutants are cool", well, the contrast between the weak and passive Baxter and the angry and active Baxterfly is amusing, and could also get viewers' attention. He blows away two Rock Soldiers, and zips right towards his former employers, ready to attack. Even later, when the computer is the one leading him, Baxter still finds time to be an active threat. That probably makes him a more "worthwhile" villain to viewers.

--However, we can already see the other ways Baxter's personality will alter, as he's easily duped by the Shredder, and points out, "You always liked these mutants better!". He gets even dumber, acts more like a child, etc. But other viewers might actually like it more when Baxter becomes even sillier, but without being as whiny as before. Together, this makes the character more interesting.

--But I always go back to the 4Kids Stockman, who is the best version of Baxter Stockman and who has a lot of traits in common with FW Baxter. Stockman’s personality was kept consistent with his transformation, and that's the personal ideal for me, because it builds a stronger character arc.

--However, it’s still good to pre-establish a human character before he mutates so that his transformation can have some impact on the character if not the plot. I understand why that's usually not feasible for a TMNT show--gotta get those toys on the shelves!--but I'm glad it happened here.

--Insect eyes don't see in individual facets.

--Lest we forget, "the bughouse" is also slang for an insane asylum.

--"Enter the Fly" is one of the old cartoon's better attempts to pull off having an A and B plot, but despite that, and despite the need to be strapped for time, the fact that the plant is right where they thought it would be is a little annoying.

--The Knucklehead's controls look like an adding machine, which is pretty funny, though maybe whoever desiged the props was just lazy. Because Shredder also has a laser-shooting device that looks like a camera.

--There are some nice fight sequences scattered through this episode, though it starts to get less interesting near the end, when it’s just a bunch of fight scenes.

--Shredder makes a slight "^_^" face when he realizes he still has the gazai plant. Actually, he makes that face several times in this episode.

--Splinter establishes a message of perseverance, and the Turtles vow to leave no stone unturned in their search, but Shredder conveniently shows up to give them a way to go. Uhmm...the principle is still valuable?

--I love what a cynical bastard Fred Wolf Raphael is. If Raphael’s sarcasm and sassiness wasn't just a Fred Wolf invention, he might have had a chance at becoming my favourite Turtle. As it is, I still don't have one, and it's not for lack of trying.

--Yes, I suppose Shredder doesn't have to sacrifice all his strategic thinking in the name of goofiness, but I'm not all that invested in seeing this balance kept. Lord knows I didn't come here

--Splinter showing up in the Turtle Van is great. Like I said, I love it when the secondary characters and "sidekicks" show up to help the main heroes instead of passively sitting around. Also, my inner child loves seeing Splinter get into the fray.

--And Splinter blushing is super-adorable. I can guess that Mirage purists probably at one point screamed at seeing Splinter described as "someone who doesn't believe in violence". Cry more!

--Ah jeez, another episode that ends with the apparent return of a threat, only for it to be something completely harmless. Somebody, somewhere, must have a tally of how many times the Fred Wolf show did this.

--I know some would have preferred Baxter remain one of the Shredder's minions, but I disagree for a bunch of reasons.

--First, it’s pointless to change a character’s form and personality but not his role. I know it was all predestined for marketing purposes, but even so....

--Second, some fun stories are told with Baxter as a wild card, working against both the heroes and the villains. I especially love his relationship with the alien computer, because of how bizarre and ambiguous (by this series' standards) it is. That’s better than his just being a henchman.

--It might also have been awkward for Baxter to keep hanging around the people who kicked his ass on a daily basis and then tried to kill him, but it’s easy to imagine Baxter being permanently lured into service with the promise of becoming human again, episode after episode, since he constantly gets fooled already.

--Not that a few more episodes with Baxter Stockman wouldn’t have been welcome, but he’s better as a recurring character than a regular.

--(And I never expected true closure for him, by the way. Or a return to human form.)

--So, while I like White Baxter a little more as a human, Baxterfly is still fun, and this is a good episode. It uses an A and B plot to mostly good effect, has some nice pacing and action sequences, and yeah, it’s pretty fun.

Quick Thoughts on IDW’s Baxter Stockman Micro-Series (One-Shot)

I am so, so lazy. I told myself I’d get caught up on the IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series before this thing came out, but I never got around to that. I still know some plot details of the IDW comic, and will, *will* get around to reading the whole thing eventually, but I went in anyway. Not completely cold, but I won’t pretend I’ve actually read the preceding comics.

It’s a good little story, telling a complete tale and setting up a future. It’s a  present-day tale of IDW Stockman being deceptive with his mad science run amok, interspersed with flashbacks of Stockman playing chess with his father at different times in his life. In the end Stockman seems to outwit Krang and gather important data in preparation for usurping his master, because Stockman wants control of the impending Technodrome. Not to rule the world, but to control and distribute the technology for his own purposes.

Well-played, Stockman.

There’s always a “but” and my problem is that, though the storytelling is competent and it whets the appetite for more, there’s something about the comic that feels cold and detached. I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t make me want to run out and buy all the IDW comics yet. Something’s missing, and I don’t know what.

I used to think that Baxter Stockman was one of the recurring TMNT characters that wasn’t bound into a strict archetype--he started out as a simple (but likely tongue-in-cheek) portrayal of a mad scientist, but his animated versions pretty consistently embody failure beyond just “curses foiled again”, and an arrogance beyond typical villainy.

But IDW Baxter seems to embody that particular arrogance mentioned above, and he could be headed for failure, so perhaps Stockman’s other media portrayals have simply become the archetype, leaving the original Mirage incarnation to be more the exception than the rule..

Yet IDW Stockman is also distinct because his moments of fear and henchmanly submission are an apparent ruse, AND he has larger villainous ambitions that seem to have survived for a long time, instead of degenerating into simply surviving and getting revenge on things. I support this only as a means of making different versions of the character distinct; I don’t think Baxter Stockman “needs” to have more villainous oomph, because I don’t mind if he fails at supervillainy as long as he’s an entertaining character. But Stockman shouldn’t be the same every time, and for this I praise IDW.

I liked that his father isn’t simply the harsh dad cliche: he seemed strict and sometimes contradictory, but believed he was doing good. Though Baxter, being the lovable asshole that he is, repays in kind by booting Mr. Stockman out of his own company in the final flashback.

And yes, we get the “flyborg”, the experiment that Baxter uses to stage a rampage / diversion as part of his plan, with a potential army waiting in green tanks. I’m not saying I’m “too cool” for Easter Eggs, but something about this one made me cringe. I’m in favour of using transformation to represent Baxter Stockman’s failure, but I don’t think it *needs* to happen to him all the time. I didn’t even need a homage.

It’s also so obviously an Easter Egg it hurts. If you want to fuse an insect with a robot for offensive purposes, why choose a common housefly? Why not something stronger, more armoured?

Also, while I wouldn’t bet the whole farm on it, I assume this means that Baxter Stockman will remain human in the IDW-verse, which I’d prefer. I love Baxterfly and Baxterborg, but there’s a world of possibilities out there for the character, even if you want to keep him embodying failure and self-destruction. Baxter Stockman still isn’t as set in stone as some other TMNT characters, and writers should take advantage of that.

Besides not clamouring for Stockman to be transformed, I find it a little...silly to see the IDW comic continuously bringing elements exclusive to the old cartoon into a more serious universe. I giggle every time I see a picture of the gritty gun-toting Neutrinos, or that steampunk-ish homage to Krang’s android body. Believe me, I know concepts can be remade into anything, but I can’t help it. It’s a side effect of being tired of the TMNT fandom’s urge to deny or bypass the original cartoon’s wonderful / painful silliness. It just makes me think of dopey fanboys who are secretly insecure about the things they like, and want to prove these things are “gritty and adult”.

Mea culpa.

Also, I still love the main cover for this issue. The variant cover, with Baxter playing “chess” with figures of the characters, is pretty trite compared to the excellent play on M.C. Escher’s “Hand with Reflecting Sphere.”