TMNT – “The Outlaw Armaggon” Review

“Is that a … space shark?!” – Raphael

Lord Dregg is still looking for the turtles, and has called upon a bounty hunter named Armaggon to track them down and kill every single one. Meanwhile, on Professor Honeycutt’s ship, the Fugitoid is helping April develop her psychic abilities, and even shares the story that cost him his body with his new friends. However, it doesn’t take long for Armaggon to find them and attack. Leonardo heads out to fight the assassin, but the shark has the upper hand in space and forces the team to take refuge on an abandoned space station.

Reactivating the space station, the A.I. informs the team that sentient robots disintegrated the crew, and then a shock to the system destabilizes the Fugitoid, turning him into a giant bomb and allowing Overmind to overthrow his free will. If things weren’t bad enough, Armaggon makes his way into the station and activates the war bots with only one purpose – destroy the turtles. The turtles are no match for the robots, and Overmind initiates the process of turning them into machines.

As the A.I.’s victory is all but certain, Armaggon returns to save the turtles (now being required to turn them over to Dregg alive, if he wants to collect his bounty). The turtles and their temporary ally try to fight off the robots, but to no avail. Finally, April manages to reach Honeycutt psychically, breaking him from Overmind’s control and allowing him to use his fusion core to overload the station and explode it from the inside out. As the station falls into ruin, Leo battles Armaggon while the others escape to the ship. With the explosions nearing and time running out, Leonardo is pulled to safety just in time, leaving the heroes free and clear of the debris. With Armaggon defeated (for now), the computer picks up the Triceraton fleet, and the team is ready to get back to their mission.

The introduction of Armaggon was an excellent addition to the season, if he’s used effectively. Not yet in this incarnation of the turtles has there been a villain who walks a sort of moral tightrope (which is pretty common for the standard bounty hunter character). Looking out for himself only means that the space shark could be a friend or a foe at any given moment, as was seen in this particular episode. There may even come a time when he is actually an ally to the turtles, fighting right alongside them to stop a common foe (and not just to protect his bounty). Of course, that does depend on properly utilizing him this season. There was a lot of talk before the season began about Lord Dregg being a main villain for the season, and his looming threat has been less than impressive thus far. If this season is shorter than the others, and Armaggon is going to be missing for four or five episodes at a time, then whatever critical role he could play in this season’s development will have a lot less weight behind it than it otherwise might.

It also seems like the focus will be shifting now back to the Triceratons and the actual quest for the season. In hindsight, this pacing could work well – three pieces of the black hole generator means every five episodes sees another one found, with the final few being the race to Earth. Hopefully it continues, and hopefully it means landing on more populated worlds. While it’s certainly cheaper to animate, the turtles are suppose to be on this grand galactic quest, and so far they’ve only been on one inhabitable world.

Overall, the episodes this season are steadily climbing in quality. While certainly there is still a long way to go before a stellar episode blows fans’ collective minds like the season three finale did, the progress is being made toward a solid space adventure that leaves the turtles and their friends stronger than when they saw their home swallowed by a singularity. Hopefully, that trend continues.

Rating: 7/10