Jon Reads Comics

17 Turtle Power Hour — The End and the Return of Shredder

·1 hr·5 clips
John and his co-hosts dive into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #13, 'The Final Conflict,' and reveal Shredder's unexpected comeback in the Mirage series.
The cameras are off. That tiny note sets the mood, because Clinton's quick excuse somehow turns into fig leaf nonsense and art history speculation before the comic even settles down. Then the issue gets stranger. The crew follows the stretch where a character clears away the cameras, stops the intergalactic wrestling bout, and spoils the home audience's fun. Ratings suffer. She sends Rocksteady, Bebop, Shredder, and Krang off through Turnstone punishment, while the panel staging has everyone staring up like they are waiting for the ceiling to explain itself. Leatherhead is the one left hanging. He asked for help, called out her flimsy answer, and still gave her what she needed. The toy logic slips in right after that. If Leatherhead stops being an alligator, the hosts point out, he cannot really keep wrestling on Stump Asteroid, and the toy situation gets messy. Rocksteady and Bebop make it worse in the best way. A page turn brings the naked rhino and warthog gag, plus Bebop's sunglasses surviving the transformation because of course they do. Lane and John also track Rocksteady's bird friend back to the previous issue and the dream imagery, treating a background bit like legitimate continuity evidence. That is the pleasure of the episode: panel recap, then a hard swerve into Krang's weird scale or one tiny callback that might matter. Mirage is close too. Near the end, John notes that their bi-weekly schedule makes time outrun the coverage as they move past New York. The regular Mirage series and Tales material will sit beside scattered short story episodes, so the Turtle count rises slowly, not neatly. The wrap stays loose: Rocksteady and Bebop in fig leaves, with Bebop still keeping the sunglasses.

As heard by us

A strange Turtle page gets a patient, joke-aware reading.

Turtle Power Hour spends the hour on a page where fig leaves, a cloud of comic art, and Shredder all share the frame, and John, Lane, and Clinton treat it as a comic problem rather than just a gag.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get fig leaves, Turtle chaos, and a red bird that refuses to stay just a dream.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on