Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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 relocate since their hideout has been compromised. The Turtles retreat to the surface 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]

Summary

Months after the events of the first crossover, a battle for new leadership of the Foot Clan ensues between the Elite Guard and Shredder's descendant Karai, since the Turtles threw Shredder in prison after returning home.^[11] The Turtles confront Karai and the Elite Guard in a New York subway, where Karai escapes and Donatello is rescued by his brothers after failing to defeat the Elite Guardsmen. Back at the lair, Casey and April mend Donatello's wounds and warn the Turtles not to leave the sewers, as Bebop and Rocksteady have formed a third faction of the Foot that wants the Turtles dead. Donatello tells Splinter of his shame of not being as good of a fighter as his brothers, and wonders how someone like Batman can balance being a technological genius and master combatant. Hitting upon this idea, he sneaks out of the sewers to Harold Lillja's laboratory, where he activates an experimental multiversal teleportation system to send a message to the Dark Knight, hoping to learn some wisdom from him. The Elite Guardsmen attack Donatello in the lab and wreck some of the fragile technology during the fight.

Meanwhile in Gotham, Batman and Robin likewise deal with a shift in power within the League of Assassins, since a faction no longer trusts Ra's as their leader following his defeat by the Ninja Turtles.^[11] They learn of another Lazarus Pit beneath the city and find the faction's new leader, Bane, emerging from it. Before the Dynamic Duo can engage the now stronger villain, the Foot's attack on Donatello causes the teleportation system to malfunction, and Donatello and Bane to switch places.^[13]

A week later, the three heroes manage to find all the parts necessary to build the multiversal portal back to Donatello's home dimension. Batman obtains one part from Ra's (who gives it willingly, if only for the slim chance of being able to rid himself of Batman and Bane in one go) while Robin and Donatello get the last part from Mr. Freeze. Batgirl and Lucius Fox finish constructing the portal and tell the trio that they'll turn it on once for a minute every 24 hours to avoid any other intruders. Batman leaves Batgirl in charge of protecting Gotham as the three enter the portal.

Once they enter the Turtles' dimension, they discover that Bane has nearly conquered the city and taken over a large majority of the Foot Clan, including Bebop and Rocksteady. They reunite with the Turtles, Splinter, April, and Casey in the sewer. Raphael expresses outrage at Donatello's mistake that resulted in the city's chaos, but Splinter calms him down and welcomes Batman into their home. April shows the group footage she got of Bane on her phone to determine his movement patterns. Batman observes that Bane's Venom tank on his back is nearly empty and proposes they attack in the next 24 hours, where Bane will be at his most vulnerable. Back at the Foot lair, however, Bane has Bebop and Rocksteady bring him the disgraced scientist Baxter Stockman to create more Venom.^[14]

Damian remains in the Turtles' lair and plunges Donatello back into depression through merciless criticism, which sparks a duel between him and Raphael. Batman, Leonardo and Splinter reconnoiter Stockman's laboratory, where they find Bane in the midst of withdrawal from his lack of Venom. However, Bane is not that incapacitated as to miss their arrival and leaving to get the others; and as soon as the heroes are gone, he and Stockman initiate the next phase of their plan to inject the whole Foot Clan with a newly synthesized Venom-mutagen compound. Thus, when the Turtles, Batman, Splinter and Robin return to the laboratory, they walk right into an ambush; when Bebop and Rocksteady trigger the trap, they accidentally expose Stockman to a mixture of mutagen and fly DNA, turning him into a human fly. Quickly the heroes find themselves surrounded not only by Bane, Bebop and Rocksteady, but also the rest of the Foot Clan, all of them vastly enhanced with both Venom and Mutagen.^[15]

Facing these insurmountable odds, Batman attempts to execute an escape tactic, but Robin dashes that prospect with a reckless attack on Bebop, thus triggering a mass brawl. During the fighting, Bane singles out Raphael, beats him down and prepares to break him over his knee, as he has done with Batman once before.^[16] Splinter intervenes, saving his son, but his concern for Raphael diverts his attention for a critical moment, enabling Bane to bring the lab's ceiling crashing down on him. Bane and his cohorts retreat to preserve their limited Venom supply, enabling the Turtles to recover their seriously injured father.

Back in the lair, a despairing Donatello begins to believe that brains and skill alone will not defeat Bane. He presents a sample of Venom-mutagen he was able to swipe from the lab, along with the intention to synthesize it for their own use; but Batman and most of his friends express their misgivings, forcing him to abandon that plan. As the two teams begin to work on an attack strategy late into the night, however, Donatello secretly sneaks out of the lair with the compound and injects himself with it. In the meantime, Karai and her remaining Foot loyalists begin to stage their own assault on Bane's new headquarters, the Statue of Liberty.^[17]

As a group of Bane's Foot ninja begin to assemble in order to finalize their master's hold on the city, they are attacked at their meeting place by Donatello, turned into a savage rage monster by the Venom. However, Batman and Leonardo have noticed his absence and followed his trail, and now desperately try to talk him down. They succeed after much effort by appealing to his scientific side, when they reveal that they have found a flaw in Stockman's Venom formula; Donatello, now restored to sanity, notices that Stockman's concoction is imperfect, thus using itself up more rapidly than the standard Venom version.

In the meantime, April, Casey and Michelangelo complete the construction of an interdimensional portal and activate it, allowing Raphael, Robin and Splinter to pass into the DC reality, where Batgirl and Nightwing are waiting for them. They descend to the Lazarus Pit beneath Gotham and expose Splinter to its essence to heal his life-threatening injuries. With Splinter and Donatello fully recovered, the two away teams regroup in the Turtles' hideout, just as Bane starts a city-wide broadcast in which he announces that he has taken control of all of New York and demands that its citizens either join his army or subjugate themselves as his slaves. Donatello develops an anti-Venom, which he uses to purge himself of the drug and which he then intends to release from a gas bomb amidst Bane's army on Liberty Island, thus stripping them of their advantage in one stroke. Still, knowing the Foot Clan will remain loyal to Bane unless he is beaten, Batman proceeds to Rikers Island and frees the Shredder from his cell.^[18]

Donatello enacts his plan by flying the Turtle Blimp towards the Statue of Liberty and releasing the Anti-Venom gas from its balloon to depower the Foot Clan. While the rest of the group emerges to free the captive citizens and take on the rest of the turned Foot, assisted by Donatello's electroshock guns and Karai's loyalist faction, Batman, Splinter, and Shredder battle Bane at the Statue of Liberty. Shredder regains control over the Foot, and the heroes defeat Bane, Bebop, and Rocksteady using teamwork and a massive dosage of elephant tranquilizer. Much to the Turtles' surprise, Shredder willingly goes back to prison after the fight, with Batman revealing that he helped on the condition that he'd have a beforehand rematch with the Dark Knight.^[11] When saying their goodbyes, Batman reassures Donatello that his mistakes and his efforts to rectify them have only served to show him where his true strengths lie, and the Bat-Family and Bane return to their home world. Soon afterwards, Donatello finds in his dormitory a note from Batman containing a workout routine for the Robins, which Donatello enthusiastically starts to implement.^[19]

Batman/TMNT Adventures

The success of the original miniseries inspired the concept for a similar crossover story, titled Batman/TMNT Adventures,^[20] 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.^[20] The concept was first introduced at the San Diego Comic Con in late July 2016,^[21] and was published as a six-issue miniseries starting November 9, 2016.^[22] In this crossover interdimensional portals open at Arkham Asylum and most of Batman's Rogues Gallery reach New York City and unleash their own brand of mayhem upon the Turtles.

Injustice 2

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were made playable DLC characters in the DC crossover fighting game, Injustice 2.

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.^[23]