Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: “The Outlaw Armaggon” Review

The space shark enemy of my warbot enemy is my friend.

“The Outlaw Armaggon” was similar to last week’s episode in that the Turtles explored another ruined ship out in the middle of space, but the circumstances and outcome were completely different — and for the better, with not one but two alien threats.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the legendary Ron Perlman lent his voice to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they sure gave him an awesome character to play — the robo-shark bounty hunter, Armaggon, who, yes, was just as badass as he sounds. (Sharp-minded fans might also remember Armaggon from the Archie comics, although this was the character’s TV-animated debut.) In addition to boasting a rad-as-hell design, Armaggon’s first attack on Fugitoid’s ship was suitably Jaws-inspired, with Raph even saying the very line I was thinking: “We’re gonna need a bigger ship.”

Of course, the bigger bad this week was Overmind (voiced by Jim Piddock, who also does Lord Simultaneous), whose Borg-like tendency to assimilate organics offered a fun side-adventure for the Turtles. But I think the strongest part about this storyline was how it tied into Fugitoid’s fear of losing his humanity. So far, the writers have done a really good job of integrating Fugitoid into the group and giving him his own subplots. At this point he really feels like a part of the team.

One of us! One of us! One of us!

Overman’s plot also helped accentuate Fugitoid and April’s common interest in psychic powers, which played a huge role in the final moments of the episode. Definitely a standout moment paired with Fugitoid’s declaration, “You want leave of this station? You’ve got it, good sir!” I also like how Fugitoid has stepped into this sort of mentor role for April, but instead of training her in combat the way Splinter used to, he’s helping her hone her psychic abilities.

As always, the skirmishes here were on-point, particularly the final battle with Overmind’s warbot army. I would have liked to see a bit more of the uneasy Turtle/Armaggon alliance, as I thought that was a cool dynamic, but there were still plenty of good moments in the warbot fights. I especially loved how Raphael stayed behind to save Leo from the exploding space station, just in the nick of time.

And, hey, the Turtles are now back on track to finding the Triceraton fleet. Perhaps this means we’ll see the Turtles facing their new main foe sooner than we thought? That is if Lord Dregg doesn’t get to them first.