BRIEF STORYLINE: The turtles leave the sewer to look in the shops for Michaelangelo's favourive comic "The Adventures of Bugman". However, he is devastated to find out the comic-line has been cancelled.
At the lair, the turtles and Splinter are concerned why they haven't heard of, or seen the real Bugman (aka Brick Bradley) since the last issue came out.
What the turtles don't realise at the moment, is they are being followed by a young male who jots down using pen and paper, every move they make. The turtles "intruder alert" alarm is sounded, and they discover a youth developing a map. The turtles reprimand the youth for coming down into the sewers and ignoring the dangers that lurk here. Shockingly, the ledge beneath the turtles collapses, and the turtles fall down a shaft, while the young man escapes unharmed and flees.
The turtles continue their search of the real Bugman, Brick Bradley. The youth is back on the scene again, following Michaelangelo. However the feeble young man is captured by 2 bank robbers. Michaelangelo saves the youth, but he runs away again, but he does gain some new information. He finds out the youth's name is Jerry Spiegel.
Meanwhile, at Channel Six News, Irma does a little research on the computer about this Jerry Spiegel. She discovers he is the writer and artist of "The Adventures of Bugman" comics. Michaelangelo also has a bright idea to phonecall Spiegel's editor, Julie Schmooze, to find out more about this guy.
Michaelangelo finds out the Bugman comic was cancelled because it was an idea copied from real life, as there was a real Bugman, and he sued Jerry. Michealangelo now fears Jerry Spiegel is going to create a Ninja Turtles comic, which could reveal their true location in the sewers! Krang and Shredder will be delighted! To make matters worse, Jerry Spiegel has disguised himself as "The Swatter" and plans to unleash termites all over the city. The turtles need help, and need Brick Bradley to become Bugman yet again. Can they stop the power of copyright infringement, or lose their privacy thanks to a selfish, budding comic artist, out for his own gains?
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: A messy, silly episode. There are twists which are some of the most confusing of the whole cartoon. We meet Jerry Spiegel for the first time, who is the nerdy appearance-type, which is a carbon copy of certain individuals we see in a good few episodes in this 1990 season.
I think the beginning of the storyline, where Jerry becomes the Swatter, a rip-off of Shredder, is a tad confusing, as there is no tell-tale signs before that he wants to dress up like that, and annoy the turtles with termites. Thats a major fault with this episode.
One of the few good action spots is near the start, when the turtles find Jerry Spiegel snooping about in the sewers, and they fall downwards after a water pipe collapses. The only other action scene worthy of praise is where April is in danger from the ferocious termites during her live TV report, and the turtles save her in the nick of time.
Humour does fare better in this episode than the action. When April is interviewing Professor Higgenbottoms at the Designer Genes Research Laboratory, it is quite funny because April eventually changes the professor's opinion on that the termites ARE dangerous to the public. The introduction of the Swatter is an odd turn of events, but it's a split-decision on whether you find this weedy guy trying to act like the Shredder as amusing or annoying. Calling his name in the 3rd person viewpoint is amusing to me though. Also, instead of punishing the turtles when they are vulnerable, he asks questions to get more ideas for his TMNT comic.
However, that doesn't get around the fact that there is alot of bad editing in the episode. The final battle on the roof is abysmally edited, and we don't have the real Shredder to jump into the picture, which would've been interesting with this copycat around.
Bugman doesn't feature until halfway through the episode, when Michaelangelo finds him at the Happyville Meditation Center. Bugman is acting rather much like a Bhuddist, and is a reformed person, which i think is a decent idea for the episode. It's amusing too, with Bugman seemingly making up his meditation chanting words that rhyme too. It's also funny when Michaelangelo is trying desperately to anger Bradley to become Bugman, but it isn't working, until April comes along.
The ending is funny, but it turns into cheap promotion of the the real actual TMNT comic at the time. Although not exactly portraying the Archie comic series, which was much similar to the cartoon.
"MICHAELANGELO MEETS BUGMAN AGAIN" GETS A: 2/5 RATING.
