#Antrax

[coffeestripes]

Icon for my OC Antrax

Forgot to post this here oof

Master of acids and venoms. Got something in mind? He can make it

[cerebrodigital]

En la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el ántrax fue considerado el arma biológica definitiva. Antes de usarlo, probarlo era esencial. Así nació la "Isla Envenenada" de Gruinard.

Para "desintoxicarla", expertos mataron a todos los animales, excavaron y quemaron el suelo contaminado, y lavaron todas las edificaciones. Aún inhabitada, las visitas son altamente controladas.

[megahorous]

Our TMNT tonight was "Night of the Rogues" wherein Shredder recruits the Sinister Six against the Turts

--Always thought that was an interesting one; it probably could've been an arc if this show had arcs

-- Actually, it kind if reminds me of the games, in that they encounter more enemy mutants/characters than Shredder's usual crew

-- Raph's attitude reminded me of The Next Mutation "this is a human problem!" but of course he's right--why DO the Turtles have to do everything around here. This episode would suggest that they need more Turtles, or something

--I like how the Turtles are tied up with their weapons right next to them

--People always used to say "The Turtles act like they've met Scumbug before" but no, he introduces himself, so I don't know what those people were smoking

-- Might've been interesting, of course, if Scumbug and Antrax did get episodes of their own. I think 2012 sort of did the same thing with them [not really giving either of them their own episode]

[toxicmetalzine]

Blood of Angels

US melodic death metal band Blood of Angels release new album cover artwork and issue studio update! Get the info right here: https://www.toxicmetalzine.com/.../us-melodic-death-metal...

[turtlethon]

“Night of the Rogues” (part 1)

Season 7, Episode 19 First US Airdate: November 20, 1993

The Turtles are forced to take on a group of their most notorious foes that have been assembled by Shredder.

We continue our journey through the seventh season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with “Night of the Rogues”. David Wise is the credited writer for this story, which crams in so many notable TMNT characters that one Turtlethon entry isn’t big enough to cover everything! This one will be split into two parts, the second appearing on Saturday.

We kick off today with the Turtles watching April report from outside of a courtroom, where she interviews the city’s crime commissioner. The un-named official takes credit for the recent reduction in crime, a claim that rubs the Turtles the wrong way. Raphael is particularly resentful, feeling that the work the team has been doing in battling evil goes entirely unappreciated. Splinter steps in to suggest that Raph shouldn’t bear any ill feelings towards humans, and that the the team may need their help soon enough.

Following her report April alerts the Turtles to a break in at the city’s Hall of Records. The team arrive to find Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop and Krang (in his bubble walker) rooting through files. A battle follows that quickly spills out into the street, at which point Shredder grumbles some standard guff about the Turtles pushing him too far, and one of the glaring issues with we’ll have to deal with moving forward becomes apparent: as James Avery has now departed from the series, Townsend Coleman will be our substitute Shreds for today and the remainder of the season.

As Shredder comes out on the losing end of a fight against the Turtles, getting covered in tar in the process, Krang manages to get the documents they came for. He has the villains regroup, leading to their escape via transport module. With the police approaching, the Turtles also retreat. Raphael continues to be bitter, noting that the cops will no doubt take credit for the work carried out by our heroes.

Shredder is seen wiping off the tar in the Technodrome and declares his intention to defeat the Turtles once and for all. Krang tries to have him maintain focus, pointing out that the Scheme of the Day is already in motion and will be a better use of his time, but Shreds won’t listen. Bebop and Rocksteady are keen to help their boss out, but for the second episode in a row find themselves surplus to requirements: this time they’re sidelined in a far harsher fashion than before, both being dropped through a trap door. Shreds declares that Bebop and Rocksteady have failed him for the last time, abandoning his henchmen to begin plotting his revenge against the Turtles.

As the Turtles try to piece together what the Technodrome crew were doing in the Hall of Records, Shredder is seen performing repairs on his old robot Chrome Dome before passing through a portal to Dimension X on a recruitment mission. Later, he returns to meet up with Krang, who again scolds him for not concentrating on their mission, a journey to the sewers to begin an excavation project imminent. Shredder is thrilled at the news as this road trip will grant him an opportunity to invite other villains to join his new anti-Turtle faction.

We briefly check in with The Boys, who remain trapped in the shaft beneath the trap door. Rocksteady worries that they may spend the rest of their lives in this confined area, but Bebop quips it may only be for the rest of the episode. Meanwhile April checks through computer data for the Turtles and finds that the records stolen by Shredder and Krang relate to the layout of the sewers in 1895. Unbeknownst to our heroes, their old foes are already at work underground. Krang informs Shredder that the stolen notes point out an area where the workers were unable to drill down and place a pillar, a sign that whatever lies beneath is impossibly tough. Disinterested, Shredder wanders off to work on building his new gang.

The Turtles use the details provided by April to approach the area where Krang has set up his excavation project, but encounter Shredder along the way. The masked villain announces that he’s fighting his hated foes for the last time, leading Raph to counter by asking if this means he’s leaving the show (a joke that’s a little on the nose given that Shredder’s voice actor just did). Shreds reveals to the Turtles his new all-star villain team, five of whom are established characters who have appeared in previous episodes alongside two who are new to the show. Let’s look at each of them in the order they’re revealed:

THE RAT KING (Townsend Coleman): One of the most prominent recurring bad guys outside of the Technodrome crew, the Rat King is a burly fellow who resides in the sewers and commands an army of rodents. Carried over from the Mirage TMNT comics, he first appeared in the ‘87 cartoon in “Enter the Rat King”, which established his desire to capture Splinter and have the ninja master do his bidding. Rat King’s prominence and status declined following the destruction of his hypnotic flute by Splinter in “Were-Rats from Channel 6”, only making two additional appearances in the years that followed.

SLASH (Pat Fraley): Introduced in season four’s “Slash - The Evil Turtle from Dimension X” (which is also how Shredder introduces him here), Slash is a super mutant turtle who began life as Bebop’s secret pet before becoming a deranged villain hell-bent on finding the palm tree from his old pet bowl, which he refers to as his “binky”. His debut episode ended with him being sent into Dimension X in a rocket designed to transport garbage. He would return in season six’s “Donatello Trashes Slash”, having had super intelligence bestowed upon him following an encounter with a group of aliens. After a fall that restored him to his usual dopey self, Slash was sent back into space by the Turtles.

LEATHERHEAD: A Cajun alligator transformed following the contamination of a Florida swamp, Leatherhead debuted in the season three adventure “Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp”, an adventure in which the Turtles would travel to the Everglades to aid their old friends the Punk Frogs. After his defeat, he would resurface in New York a few episodes later that year in “Leatherhead Meets the Rat King”, which set up a rivalry between the two villains. Season four saw the two bad guys patch things up to take on the Turtles together in “Splinter Vanishes”. Normally voiced by Jim Cummings, today the role is handled by Townsend Coleman.

TEMPESTRA (Gaille Heideman): A video game boss brought to life, Tempestra was defeated at the conclusion of the only episode she appeared in – season four’s “Leonardo Versus Tempestra” - having been sucked back into the circuit board of the arcade machine she originally emerged from. Now she’s back... somehow?!

SCUMBUG (Barry Gordon): A mutant cockroach appearing here for the first time, possibly at the request of Playmates although given that his toy was released in 1990 the retail window for this figure had likely passed by this point. His file card bio explains that he was an exterminator hired to deal with a roach problem in the Technodrome that wound up being mutated. Whether this origin applies to the TV incarnation of the character is anyone’s guess. It’s implied that the Turtles have had prior interactions with Scumbug off-screen that we as viewers never witnessed.

ANTRAX (Pat Fraley): The other new character introduced here, Antrax is an axe-wielding alien ant who is said to be Krang’s executioner from Dimension X. This is consistent with the file card bio for his toy, which like Scumbug’s was a few years old by the time this episode made it to broadcast.

CHROME DOME (Peter Reneday): A giant robot warrior who was introduced at the conclusion of the prime-time special “Planet of the Turtleoids”. Chrome Dome was swiftly defeated by the Turtles, and hasn’t been seen again in the series until now; while still towering over the other villains, he’s considerably smaller here than he was in his first go-around.

Shredder’s new strategy involves paying the assembled group of villains to finish off the Turtles for him, presumably with the thinking that if each of them was able to get somewhat close to defeating our heroes individually, then together they can pull it off. He leaves the team to do their thing, and initially this strategy seems effective as the Turtles are forced to fall back. The Rogues – I suppose we can use that as their collective name – pursue the green team, each of them using their own unique skills and powers to put their enemies on the defensive.

Regrouping, the Turtles are forced to accept Raphael’s original suggestion of retreating, but find themselves backed into a tunnel where the only means of escape is via a steep drop into the sewer’s streams. The group take the plunge, with the villains keen to follow them until Rat King points out there are countless directions that the sewer system could have flushed them down.

At this point, we get the worst “ah gah-rawn-tee" in the history of the series. I wonder if Townsend Coleman was asked to dutifully fill in for James Avery and Jim Cummings at the last second, because none of the usual energy he brings to the role of Michaelangelo is present in his performances here as Leatherhead or Shredder. Anyway, Tempestra seems to be emerging as the effective leader of The Rogues, and suggests they draw the Turtles out of the sewers by creating chaos above ground.

The Rogues split into duos, with Chrome Dome and Antrax destroying civil war statues while the Rat King and Slash target a pizzeria. A ceremony is taking place outside “Ye Olde Pizza”, where a man explains to a crowd that the business was the first restaurant built in the city, “over 400 years ago”. Did Walter Raleigh found this fucking enterprise?! Rat King and Slash watch as the building is officially recognised as a historic site – I mean yeah, I guess it really would be – and therefore it’s precious enough to be worth destroying to attract the attention of the Turtles. Rat King apparently has a new flute, either that or David Wise has forgotten that he had the flute destroyed in season four. Waves of rats emerge from the sewers and begin chewing on the building’s foundations.

Tempestra causes chaos at Channel 6, creating an indoor storm that allows Burne to get a great one-liner in about having “to cancel the news on account of the weather”. Vernon tries to escape but is captured by Leatherhead.

April uses her Turtlecom to inform the Turtles of the various upheavals being caused by The Rogues. The Turtles pick up on the real intentions of the villains, figuring that if they show their faces, they’ll be doing exactly what they’re expected to. Raphael suggests that this is an indicator they should allow the humans to deal with things on their own, but is outvoted by the others who remind him that they’re “supposed to be heroes”, and reluctantly ends up tagging along.

Shredder meets up with Krang, whose excavation project is about to hit paydirt. The masked villain suggests that the reason everything seems to be going so well is that Bebop and Rocksteady aren’t around to mess up. Back in the Technodrome, The Boys have been stuck in the trap door shaft for so long that they start wondering if Shredder is okay, and begin looking for a means of escaping in order to help him.

Leonardo confronts both Chrome Dome and Antrax as they destroy the city’s stock exchange building. Initially Leo puts up a good fight, but it doesn’t take long before he’s captured. Elsewhere, Michaelangelo fittingly steps in to save Ye Old Pizza from Rat King and Leatherhead, but has the entire building dropped on him before being restrained too.

Scumbug seems to have been tagging along with Tempestra and Leatherhead this entire time, getting no screen time during the whole villainous city rampage bit until now. He winds up cornering the remaining Channel 6 crew of Burne, Irma and April on his own, until Donatello and Raphael step in. The Turtles find themselves defeated as the roach mutant uses his toxic gun to create a hole in the floor; Tempestra then emerges and uses her weather ability to knock her enemies through it. Leatherhead is close by, and together the three villains manage to restrain Donnie and Raph with an energy net.

Having captured all four of the Turtles between them, the reunited Rogues shove the green teens into a room within the roof-mounted mascot statue of a pest control company. Chrome Dome produces a time-controlled disintegrator that will vaporise anyone and anything in the vicinity when it goes off, and the group leave the Turtles to die as the second act ends.

...Continued in the next Turtlethon entry - see you on Saturday!

[tokka]

#inkTOBER #QUARTERS "#ANTRAX" ..#TMNT #TokkaArt #terrible2z https://www.instagram.com/p/CkA4hOpufwG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[litcityblues]

'Antrax' --A Review

It's been over a year since I read the first book in this trilogy, but now I'm back to continue it (and finish it out, since I've got the third volume, Morgawr on deck as well) with the second volume in The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Trilogy, Antrax.

Middle volumes have to be the hardest things to write. Going into them, you probably have a good idea of where you'd like the story to end up, but you also need to have enough action to get you from Point A (the first volume) to Point C (the third volume) without having it become too much of a long, time-wasting placeholder of a book. You want a Point B that pays off some of what you've set up in Point A and lays the groundwork for the big finish in Point C.

I say this because, for a long stretch of this book, I was beginning to wonder if Brooks was going to pull this off. It felt... placeholder-y to me. But Terry Brooks, author of like a kajillion books at this point, doesn't get to be Terry Brooks without knowing what he's doing and I should have known better, because by the end of Antrax, not only has he done exactly what he needed to do with the 2nd volume of this trilogy, but he's also added a soupcon of zombie horror and science fiction to the proceedings without compromising his fantasy setting at all and that might be the neatest trick I've read in a while.

When we last left off: Bek had confronted the Ilse Witch at last and told her that he was her brother and she was, in fact, Grianne Ohmsford, his sister. The crew of the Jerle Shannara had been overrun by Mwellrets and taken captive. Walker Boh was trapped in the ruins of Castledown and the rest of the company either scattered or dead. Things, in short, are not going great.

The Ilse Witch/Grianne doesn't believe Bek. She thinks he is a trick sent to deceive her by Walker. The two have a confrontation and Bek eventually flees with the help of Truls Rok, the shapeshifter, but the Ilse Witch pursues him, intending to find out the truth of Bek's deception and end it once and for all.

Rue Meridian has survived the takeover of the Jerle Shannara and is grievously wounded, hanging from the end of a mooring line, but manages to summon the strength to crawl back aboard and free her brother and the crew-- they take the badly damaged ship over again but are forced to retreat to find a safe harbor clear of the Ilse Witch and her minions so they can make repairs and decide what to do next.

Quinten Leah, Tamis, and Panax are fleeing from the crawlers and creepers of Castledown as fast as they can. They make contact with the natives of the land, known as the Rindge, and find out that there's a more sinister weapon that Antrax uses against the populace: he reanimates the dead and merges them with machinery to use against the populace. Tamis and Company find that out firsthand when Ard Panitrell is discovered to be one of the 'wronks' serving Antrax. Even more horrifying, they discover that there appears to be something of the person still conscious inside of the wronk. They eventually trap and destroy Ard Panitrell, but Tamis gives her life in the process.

Ahren Ellessdil fled the chaos of the battle and has to live with the shame of his cowardice, but when he finds The Seer, Ryer Ord Star he reluctantly teams up with her to enter Castledown to find Walker- in an attempt to redeem himself for his actions at the battle. Eventually, the two of them do find Walker, but he is a prisoner of Antrax that they must free.

Walker has discovered that the knowledge of the Old World which he sought to be a foundation for a new Druid Council is, in fact, contained within Antrax itself. He cannot have one without the other and given that Antrax is kidnapping beings- especially magic ones to harvest their energy to power itself and turning some of them into undead cyborg-like 'wronks', Walker realizes he must destroy Antrax and with the help Ryer Ord Star he sets out to do so. He is further helped by the fact that Ahren recovers the Elfstones and starts using them on anything and everything. Eventually, he orders Ahren and Ryer away, as he is mortally wounded, saving his strength for a final confrontation with the Ilse Witch. She arrives and is eventually persuaded that they should both grasp the Sword of Shannara to see what and more importantly, whose truth it will reveal to them.

Meanwhile, the Jerle Shannara is back in one piece and flying again, only to notice a fleet of airships bearing down on them for purposes unknown.

Overall: I would say this one got off to a slow start, but man oh man did it finish strong. I have not read any of Brooks' Knights of the Word novels or anything like that, but I love the collision between magic and technology. I love that the actions of Antrax, while horrific and awful are just part of its programming from its creators. The fact that it has no emotions- it's not setting out to be evil or good, it just is doing what it needs to do, actually takes it to another level of sinister, in my opinion. The wronks are a particularly brilliant addition here because they bring a touch of zombie cyborg horror to the proceedings which is something we have yet to see in the world of Shannara before this. Despite the slow start, by the end, I was read to get volume three and see how this trilogy concluded and honestly, you can't ask for more than that. My Grade: *** out of ****

[gerryland]

R. U. Inspired By Freaks?

[notiexpress]

La OMS advierte posible brote de ántrax que se expandiría rápidamente

[pisabookintown]

Milan Library Example of a large minimalist open concept living room library with white walls and a tv stand and medium tone wood flooring.

[coffeestripes]

Special commission for a friend

Forgot to post this here. Comm featuring my demon centaur OCs Antrax, Ascaroth and Abducius. They have matching bracelets and earrings to symbolize how they're under the command of the hierarch Kurei (also because they're married). Alt version will eventually be posted in my Deviantart and Furaffinity

Close-Ups

[shutupanddiehl]

Milan Library Example of a large minimalist open concept living room library with white walls and a tv stand and medium tone wood flooring.

[darkangelofmists]

“Life was a myriad of twists and turns that no one could unravel, a path that must be traveled to be understood.”

― Terry Brooks, Antrax

[matthewsgreybubbles]

Everybody moved on

Help I'm still at the restaurant

[turtlethon]

“Night of the Rogues” (part 2)

PREVIOUSLY: In an attempt to defeat the Turtles once and for all, Shredder assembled a group of some of the team’s deadliest enemies: Rat King, Tempestra, Leatherhead, Scumbug, Antrax, Chrome Dome and Slash. This new villainous supergroup caused chaos throughout the city to lure the Turtles out of the sewers, and after capturing our heroes placed them inside the mascot statue of a pest control company, with a time bomb about to eliminate the green teens.

The Rogues seem to have made a significant mistake in not taking April and the rest of the Channel 6 bunch hostage too. April and Irma find themselves unable to reach any of the team via Turtlecom, but meet up with Splinter, whose “sixth sense” has informed him that his students are in danger. He suggests that April contact Casey Jones by phone, while he will use the her Turtlecom to reach... Zach.

No! Flat no!

Really, Splinter? Insufferable child Zach is the second person you reach out to when you need help after Casey? Not REX-1, the super robot cop? Not Bugman, a legit superhero and friend of the Turtles? Not Usagi Yojimbo, a samurai warrior who as far as we know never did get back to his own dimension? Not Mondo Gecko, who was set up to effectively be a neighbour living near the Turtles in the sewers? Not Aunt Aggie, who may be an older lady but is nevertheless one of the most all-round capable heroes in the series? Hell, you could even dig Metalhead out of storage. I guess somehow all of these options escaped Splinter, the guy the Turtles turn to for wisdom, and so for one final time in Turtlethon we’ve gotta accept that this is now a Zach episode.

To her credit, April does get in a shot by saying that she doesn’t think either Zach or Casey will be much help. Splinter, apparently unable to think for more than half a second, insists they’re “the only hope [they] have”, adding that he believes the Turtles “are in the greatest danger of their entire lives”. As much as I enjoy an adventure with high stakes, time bombs are standard fare for the Turtles to deal with, in broadcast time we just watched Donatello disarm one last week.

Did you think that the friends of the Turtles could just use a homing signal to determine where the Turtlecoms are? The next scene seems to exist entirely to shoot down that idea, as Donatello explains to the other Turtles that the metal frame of the pest control statue they’re trapped inside will make it impossible to reach them. Meanwhile, Krang’s excavation project is complete, and has revealed the starship of a legendary space pirate named Captain Logos, which crash-landed a thousand years prior to the city being built. Inside, Shredder and Krang find the Captain’s treasures. Shredder suggests having the Foot Soldiers begin dis-assembling the starship so that it can be rebuilt on the surface, but Krang has another idea, ordering the setup of a teleportation ray instead.

Zach and Casey meet up with April, Irma and Splinter outside the Channel 6 building. Splinter now has some undefined handheld tracking device that doesn’t work in determining the location of the Turtles, and so Zach guides the group in searching for them by foot. (I don’t know why Zach gets to lead, I’d argue that he’s the least capable person here, even Irma has greater credibility.)

The one member of the Channel 6 crew that The Rogues considered worth capturing was Vernon, who is dragged along by Leatherhead as he marches through town with the rest of the group. Cracks start to appear in the Rogues’ united front as Antrax makes an off-hand comment about how the world will soon be ruled by insects, agitating Rat King who dreams of a world conquered by rodents. Tempestra does her best to hold the operation together as Chrome Dome breaks off from the team to recharge, noting that he “has no use for money anyway”. Okay, but... neither do you, Tempestra, you’re basically an overgrown video game sprite.

Splinter and the other allies of the Turtles watch Chrome Dome break into a nearby building and follow him. Inside, Casey attempts to take on the robot but is hopelessly outmatched, getting tossed through the air without ever seen landing, presumably due to Saturday morning rules about how normal humans can be treated. Splinter and Zach attempt to double team the enormous warrior but are easily brushed aside. Eventually the group outwit Chrome Dome by luring him into a hydraulic press, rendering him non-functional.

Zach hooks a standard PC up to Chrome Dome’s head and types “Where are the Turtles”. Somehow not only is the offline robot able to offer up this information but also a real-time countdown for the disintegrator device. With only a little over six minutes remaining, the group rush to the aid of our heroes.

I’m sure everyone is itching to see how our favourite characters are going to get out of their current predicament. I refer, of course, to Bebop and Rocksteady, who have built a tower of wooden crates to reach the trap door. Punching their way through it, The Boys rush off to rescue their boss.

Shredder and Krang are setting up to teleport the starship when Tempestra arrives, requesting the money agreed upon as the Turtles have been defeated. The video game villain is assured by Shreds that her payment will be materialising shortly.

Inside the pest control statue Raphael retains his bad attitude, convinced that no human would ever do anything to help them in their time of need. Zach uses his small stature to slip through an air grate – I'm not sure why a roof-mounted statue of a pest control mascot would have all these facilities, but it does – and he soon frees the team, though a minute of time remains until the disintegrator is due to go off.

The Rogues are thrilled to see the starship materialise, Shredder agreeing to share its riches with them. Moments later the Turtles arrive, using the device to blow up the ship and its contents. None of this is enough to placate Tempestra, who still demands what she’s owed on behalf of her team. Shreds counters that if the Turtles had been finished off as agreed, then none of this would have happened, but is outnumbered and forced to flee alongside Krang, the Rogues hot on their tails. With impeccable timing, Bebop and Rocksteady emerge in a transport module, pulling their bosses inside before tunnelling back underground.

Now down to six members, the group of villains find themselves face to face again with the Turtles, with Donnie declaring that they “can’t beat all of us”. (Considering the only capable fighters the Turtles have added to their side since the last time are Casey and Splinter, I’m not convinced this is a monumental shift in the balance of power.) Realising that they won’t get paid for fighting now anyway, the Rogues break up, scattering into the night. In a rather defeatist moment, Michaelangelo remarks that there’s no point in pursuing them as “you know the villains always get away in the end”.

Splinter points out to Raphael that the events of the evening show how wrong he was about all humans being ungrateful and disdainful towards the Turtles. Raph agrees, but his new, kinder stance is immediately put to the test when Vernon emerges to yell at the team for allowing him to be dragged around town by Leatherhead. Michaelangelo gets the last word, pointing out that Vernon barely qualifies as a regular human being anyway. (Ouch!)

Throughout much of the time I’ve been writing Turtlethon “Night of the Rogues” has loomed large on the horizon, a marker that represents the point where the classic era of the series approaches its end. Here we have, at least on paper, one big blow-out that serves as a celebration not only of the many supporting villains the Turtles have encountered over the course of the show, but also the friends they’ve made along the way. There is a sense throughout that this is indeed a big event episode, but I can’t shake the feeling that the finished product pales in comparison to what it could have been. Shredder finally getting fed up and building a supergroup made up of the coolest villains we’ve seen in the show is the kind of fanservice I can get behind, but the line-up we get here could use some tweaking. So let’s do it.

Rat King, Slash and Leatherhead have all earned their place in this group, though how Shreds found Slash following the events of “Donatello Trashes Slash” remains unanswered. Similarly, while I’m a big Tempestra fan, her inclusion here makes absolutely zero sense, both in terms of her prior defeat at the hands of the Turtles and why a video game character is so keen to get paid. Ideally, then, the show would be allowed more time to show Shredder going around and recruiting each of the bad guys: this feels like a significant enough storyline that it deserves to be a two-part episode.

I hate that I have to say this because I do enjoy cool robots, but for all the hype leading up to his creation Chrome Dome was defeated so quickly that it invalidates his inclusion here. The one thing he had going for him was that he was staggeringly huge, and now he doesn’t even have that to the same extent. Scumbug and Antrax don’t fit either, this should be a group entirely consisting of established villains and each would be better served appearing in their own spotlight episodes.

That leaves us with three spots to fill, though admittedly it’s tough to select villains who are a good fit for this group. I would like to humbly suggest Alpha-1, the super-intelligent Foot Soldier: though Shredder didn’t get along with him, it’s not hard to envision a scenario where Shreds pulls the robot out of whatever dimension he wound up in and is somehow able to regain control over him, forcing him to work as part of the group. Rudolph Cobrato was a one-and-done villain who was defeated at the end of “Snakes Alive!”, but would work great within this group were he to somehow revert to his mutant form; finally Wingnut and Screwloose would provide two villains for the price of one: they were woefully underused in their one and only appearance, and if Zach must appear they have a prior history with him that could be worked into the proceedings too.

As alluded to earlier, Splinter only being able to come up with two allies to call for help and one of them being Zach, of all people, is some weak sauce. My ideal line up, I think, would retain Casey alongside Usagi, Mona Lisa, REX-1 and Aunt Aggie, with April, Irma and Splinter on the sidelines offering support in their own way. Again, we’d need at least two episodes to convincingly round up all these past characters and integrate them into the story, though with only fourteen episodes produced for broadcast in 1993 that’s a bigger ask than it was in years prior.

Armchair booking notwithstanding, the finished product is hampered by the diminished cast of voice actors. James Avery is gone, but I wish this could have been his last appearance instead of “White Belt, Black Heart”, as Shredder’s frustrations boiling over and leading to the creation of his villain supergroup feels like a big enough and fitting way to bow out. The absence of Jim Cummings as Leatherhead doesn’t help either.

And now the goodbyes. Zach (YES!), Tempestra, Leatherhead, Chrome Dome and Slash all appear for the last time here. Antrax and Scumbug won’t be back either, though given that we’d never seen them in the show prior to this, admittedly that doesn’t count for much. Departures will continue through much of the rest of the season, as David Wise begins the process of restructuring the show ahead of the radical departure to come in season eight: of the next five episodes, four will mark the last appearance of established supporting heroes or villains. The first of these will feature the hip-talking friends of the Turtles from Dimension X in “Attack of the Neutrinos”.

[social-vampire]

If I had a nickel for every fanventure with an NPD jadeblood, I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.