TMNT (Vol. 1) #19

Publication date: March, 1989

Story: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Layouts: Kevin Eastman
Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Peter Laird
Letters: Steve Lavigne
Cover: Eastman, Laird, Lavigne

“Return to New York, Book One”

Summary:

December 23rd, 1988.

Raph is asleep in a damp pile of trash in a sewer tunnel, dreaming of the events which occurred four days ago…



At the farm in Northampton, Raph finally decides he’s had enough of hiding. It’s been too long since the Shredder defeated them and he wants redemption. Don and Mike try not to get in his way, but Leo isn’t so intimidated, refusing to let Raph go. Raph tells Leo he’s lost his spine and the two throw down. After a lengthy brawl, Raph beats Leo and proceeds on his way to New York City alone.

Back to the present, Raph is woken by the sound of several Foot Soldiers prowling the sewers. Raph follows, only to be led into an ambush. Raph slays the Foot Soldiers, but more are heading his way. After a second battle, Raph hears a strange noise coming from one of the tunnels. Thinking it to be more Foot ninja, he follows the sound.



Raph comes across a bubbling pool which quickly expels its horrifying contents…

December 25th.

Leo, Don and Mike have arrived in New York, sneaking into the sewers in the dead of night. They make their way to their old lair and find a surprise waiting for them inside: Raphael.



Raph greets his brothers, knowing that they’d show up sooner or later. He has one last surprise in store for them: a Triceraton Commando.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 1) #17. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 1) #20.

*The Shredder exiled the Turtles to Northampton in TMNT (Vol. 1) #10.

*Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #70 takes place between pages 31 and 32 of this issue.

*Zog the Triceraton was left stranded on Earth in TMNT (Vol. 1) #7.

*The Turtles originally left their sewer lair to live with April in TMNT (Vol. 1) #3.

*This issue does not have front or back inside cover material, but two pages of frontispiece art. Backmatter included two pages of credits and a message from Eastman and Laird, an ad for Gizmo and the Fugitoid #1, an ad for TMNT #22, an ad for TMNT #23, and ad for The Puma Blues #21, an ad for Melting Pot, and an ad for TMNT #20.


Review:

I’m just going to go ahead and suck any suspense out of my reviews right now and let you know that “Return to New York” is a straight-A storyline. Every issue is practically perfect and I never, ever tire of reading them. This was a hugely important story in the narrative of the TMNT series, being the culmination of everything the Mirage guys had been building toward for nearly two years. It is epic, it is awesome and it must be read.

That being said, this first installment is probably my “least” favorite of the three issues, but that’s not really an admonishment since I still think it is superb. TMNT #19 is built off the entire “Exile to Northampton” arc that had been running for about two years and makes you appreciate that narrative break even more. The Northampton era was nothing but a series of meaningless one-off adventures that, while perfectly interesting stories in their own right, amounted to nothing more than the Turtles spinning their wheels and accomplishing nothing. So when Raph finally cracks at the beginning of this issue and lambastes Leo and his brothers for taking it easy for so long, doing positively nothing, you connect with him instantaneously because you feel just the way he does.

I suppose if there’s any problem with that sequence, it could be that Raph was never shown being anxious to go home at any point in the Northampton stories; he's shown engaging in all the wacky adventures with same enthusiasm as his brothers. So while the story pacing worked out perfectly, one could say that the character pacing could have used a better build-up.

Be that as it may, holy shit, Raph vs. Leo.

Kevin Eastman’s layouts and Jim Lawson’s pencils are like peanut butter and chocolate; they were made for each other. The entire flashback sequence is just amazing. There’s so much tension as Raph spills his guts to Don and Mike, finally letting out what he’s come to think of Leo, followed by a loud slamming sound and then that splash page of Leo, entering the barn, half-cloaked in shadow, saying “What?!!” Some incredible dramatic staging right there.

The fight is eight solid pages and though it reads quickly as its mostly just trading blows, it’s a fight that needed to be decompressed for its sheer narrative value. Like Wolverine fighting Cyclops, it’s a showdown the writers had been building toward and you do not shortchange the audience on something like that. The fact that Raph wins has a deeper point to it, too. It isn’t because he’s the badass fan-favorite Turtle and Leo is the milquetoast dullard; it’s because Raph is absolutely right and he just wants it more. They have been cooling their heels too long, Leo has lost his edge and they do need to go home and settle the score.

The only thing missing, in my opinion, was any sort of consultation with Splinter. Not only is he their father and sensei, but it was his blood feud with the Shredder that started the whole story in the first place. Splinter was featured in very few issues from the Northampton era and we didn’t get to see enough of his reaction to his mortal enemy coming back from the grave.

Raph’s fight against the Foot Soldiers in the sewer takes up the remainder of the issue and, yes, it is very much just a decompressed action sequence that goes on and on until the book is finished. But again, it’s important to the story. It shows that even after all this time, the Shredder hasn’t forgotten about the Turtles and still deploys his Foot Soldiers to patrol the sewers for them, just to make sure they don’t show their faces again. It also illustrates the odds Raph is up against now that he’s elected to return to New York solo, and that while the Foot Soldiers are cannon fodder, there’s more than enough of them to overwhelm a single Turtle.

As for Zog, well, didn’t see that one coming.

Mirage’s first volume of TMNT is a very oddly paced book, yet brilliant for being so. If you remove all the non-canon “guest” stories and pare it down to what counts, you do get a solid ongoing storyline that tells a very focused and fascinating adventure. But how it tends to go is that there’ll be a major event, then several good one-off stories, then a major event, and so on until everything comes to an epic head in “City at War”. There’s a great bit of variety, as the series offers both an overarching story with massive payoff as well as a selection of satisfying oneshot situations in-between. Most of the big “events”, though, center around the Turtles’ major altercations with the Foot Clan (TMNT #1, “What Goes around Comes Around”/"Silent Partner", “Return to New York” and “City at War”), so when the Turtles throw down with the Foot, you KNOW it’s something epic.

In my opinion, “Return to New York” is the best of their major Volume 1 Foot-centered storylines, narrowly edging out the previous two-parter that saw them exiled. It may not be as cerebral and socially aware as “City at War”, but it’s packaged in a far more palatable length and it’s just too damn cool.

TMNT Micro-Series #2: Michelangelo

Publication date: December 28, 2011

Written by: Brian Lynch
Art by: Andy Kuhn
Colors by: Bill Crabtree
Letters by: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

It’s New Years Eve and Michelangelo is spending it watching a New Years movie marathon, learning what people do to celebrate the holiday. Mike considers going home, but knows that if he did, it would be just like any other night: Donatello would make him help fix some contraption, Leonardo would make him do training routines until he collapses and Raphael would teach him how to be more aggressive in both fighting and trash-talking. Instead, Mike decides to go searching for a party to crash.



He eventually finds one going on at the Natural History Museum and low and behold, a guy named Carl in a Godzilla suit is tossing his wristband entrance pass to the ground (citing over a cell phone call that he “can’t go through with it”). Mike scoops up the pass and waltzes into the costume party. He is immediately picked up by a shapely dame in a cat-suit, who recognizes him as “Carl” and tells him to follow her to meet with the others. Thinking he’s on his way to a VIP lounge, Mike tags along.

They meet up with a gaucho, a mime and a princess and Mike learns the truth: he borrowed the electronic pass from a thief! The thieves knock-out the security guards with gas and then proceed to a laser-secured hallway where the priceless green Dresden Diamond is being held. “Carl” is told to hack the computer and turn off the lasers. Mike (still playing along), tries to talk them out of it by badly mangling some of Donatello’s techno-jargon, explaining that the system is impenetrable. The gaucho, not wanting to disappoint the terrifying man who hired them, opts to torture a guard for the access codes. Not liking that option, Mike takes some of Leo’s training to heart and flips his way through the lasers.



Safely on the other side, Mike smashes the glass case and takes the Dresden, setting off all the alarms and (hopefully) alerting the authorities. Mike attempts to sneak away with the diamond so the villains can’t get it, but the gaucho tells him that if he scampers off, he will start shooting party guests. Mike then uses some of Raph’s trash-talk to goad the gaucho into hitting him. Mike fakes being knocked back and falls through a window. Noticing the cat-lady has vanished, too, the gaucho tells the mime and the princess to wait for him in the alley while he deals with their traitors.

On a nearby rooftop, Mike is held at gunpoint by the cat-lady, who happens to be an undercover cop. She tells “Carl” that he doesn’t truly know who he has been hired by: this new villain is sending the old crime lords of New York scurrying in fear. Mike takes her gun and reveals that he wasn’t actually planning on stealing it. He asks what made the diamond so special and the cat-lady tells him that an exposure to radiation turned it green, making it one of a kind. Suddenly, the gaucho arrives with his personal gang of thugs. Mike takes them all out with little effort and decks the gaucho with the diamond right as the clock strikes midnight.



The cat-lady introduces herself as Kara and shakes Mike’s hand. Mike reveals he’s not really “Carl” and gives her the Dresden Diamond. Mike then ninja-vanishes, considering to himself that he had a pretty good New Years Eve (though he’s going to keep his handshake with Kara a secret so as not to make his brothers jealous). In an alley, the mime and the princess are freezing their butts off, wondering where the gaucho went.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Micro-Series #1: Raphael. The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #6.

*Detective Kara Lewis won't be seen again until TMNT (IDW) #47.

*This issue was originally published with 4 variant covers: Cover A by David Peterson, Cover B by Andy Kuhn and Bill Crabtree, Cover RI-A sketch variant by David Peterson and Cover RI-B by Kevin Eastman.


Review:

I’ve got to say, I really appreciate these microseries from IDW. Not only do they help speed the storyline of the ongoing series along at a more palatable pace, but they’re infusing the Turtles with more personality and traits than they’ve been getting in the main series. The first arc of TMNT was all about trying to bring them together whilst covering the fragmented origin. Save for perhaps Raphael, none of the Turtles in the ongoing have yet to really get any personality (I think THIS is the first issue to make mention of Don’s intelligence); they’re all still blank slates five issues in. These character-themed microseries give us the focus on the individuals the series desperately needs, so now the Turtles are actually interesting!

What had me curious within the first couple of pages is the reveal that the Turtles are unfamiliar with human life and rituals; that all of it seems alien to them. Mike is out learning the meaning of New Years Eve and what exactly people do for entertainment on that supposedly special night. Considering the revelation from TMNT #5, that the Turtles are reincarnated children from Feudal Japan, this total lack of understanding of modern human culture makes a certain amount of sense. They’re being played as “amnesiacs” at the moment and having to learn everything from the ground up. It’s certainly nice to see the characters grow, though I can foresee this angle getting tiresome if done in excess.

As a spotlight on Michelangelo, Lynch naturally chose to focus on his humorous “party dude” characteristics. I’ve gone over this time and again, but I’m of the opinion that Mike being the fun-loving class clown is perfectly fine, so long as it isn’t his sole defining trait; giving him no aspirations or dimensions beyond party-this, party-that can make him utterly obnoxious. Since we’re still pretty early into the game, I can understand not offering more to Mike than his goofiness in this issue. IDW’s TMNT series has been all about spoon-feeding characterization and plot to the audience one itty-bitty nibble at a time, so though Mike may be strictly a “party dude” right now, I’m hopeful that he’ll grow to have more elements to his character over time.

Be that as it may, Lynch writes a pretty fun and occasionally funny script in this issue. Mike’s inner monologue, particularly the exaggerated way he imagines his brothers, reminded me quite a bit of Tristan Jones’s Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #64. What keeps Mike’s fun-loving nature in check with this story is an underlying intelligence to the Turtle, as he rolls with the scheme of the thieves as he’s thrust into it, improvising (albeit poorly) along the way. Most of the humor in the issue comes from Mike’s sloppy attempts to “act natural”, and while the joke begins to wear thin near the end, it can be pretty funny.

Lynch also continues the narrative foreshadowing of some ominous mastermind hiding behind the curtains. Presumably it’s Shredder, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Art-wise, I can’t say Andy Kuhn did a whole lot for me. His style is rather flat and he has this habit of giving Mike this dopey grin and squinty-eyed face that makes him look, like, well… Really, really dumb.  He also has a hard time deciding how "wide" he wants Mike to be; he can look ridiculously waffle-shaped in some panels.  Likewise, he never settles on a height; the scale of the character is constantly in flux.

I think the real spotlight belongs to Bill Crabtree’s coloring, particularly in the way he bathes pages in a certain color for effect (the museum party is purple, the heist is red, the outdoors are a grey-blue, etc.). It breathes a lot of life and energy into Kuhn’s competent but occasionally crude pencils.

Michelangelo #1 is a decent story. Not great, not bad, but with very little overtly wrong with it. It introduces new readers to Mike’s personality for this series, which is important since before now he had no personality. He’s still fairly one-note but with room to grow. It’s enjoyable, just not something I think I’ll be remembering a few more months down the line.

Grade: C+ (as in, “Could have gone without the ‘I love being a Turtle’ gag, but it’s no big deal”.)

TMNT (IDW) #5

Publication date: December 21, 2011

Story: Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Dan Duncan (New York City), Mateus Santolouco (Feudal Japan)
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow

"Enemies Old, Enemies New - Prologue"

Summary:

Crawling through the cold alleys of New York with a backpack full of supplies, Splinter finds Old Hob’s goons lurking around every corner. As he takes the thugs out, he is reminded of a similar story from Feudal Japan, where a man bringing a satchel of supplies to his own children also fought hunters on the prowl for him.



Down in the lair, the Turtles are busy sparring. A month has passed since they were reunited with their brother, Raphael, and he has taken to martial arts like a duck to water; almost already at the same level as his bros. The other Turtles all know the feeling, as the fifteen months they spent “learning” ninjutsu from Master Splinter actually felt more like they were “remembering” it. Raph wonders, though, when Splinter will deem him ready to carry weapons like his siblings.

Back in the alleys, Splinter takes down more goons and recalls the tale of Hamato Yoshi…

In Feudal Japan, Hamato Yoshi was a member of the Foot Clan, a league of ninja assassins. His clan brother was the scar-faced Oroku Saki, who sought to lead the clan down the dishonorable path of conquest and genocide. During a clan meeting, Saki ordered the Foot to lay waste to an entire village of innocents as part of their mission to assassinate a castle lord, just to send a message to all who would oppose them. Yoshi spoke up during this meeting, calling out Saki on his ruthlessness. Yoshi walked out of the meeting in disgust. Vengefully, Saki declared Yoshi a traitor and called for the assassination of him and his whole family.

Later, a pair of Foot Soldiers invaded Yoshi’s home while he was away, killing his wife, Tang Shen. Before they could kill his four young sons, Yoshi came home and slew his enemies. As Shen lay dying, she made Yoshi promise not to seek vengeance on Saki, but to flee with their children and keep them safe. Yoshi vowed to honor her dying wish for now, but that one day, he and his sons would have vengeance.



Back in the present, at the New York Tech hockey arena, Casey has a sit down with Coach Bowman. Bowman is sympathetic toward Casey’s academic probation, but tells him that he can’t continue to play for their school if he doesn’t bring his grades up. Casey understands and leaves, hoping to find a tutor to help him out. At a lobby on campus, April O’Neil puts an ad up on the corkboard, offering tutoring on any subject in exchange for self defense lessons. As April leaves with her friend Trish for Christmas vacation, Casey walks past her, into the lobby.

In the alleys, Splinter subdues the last of Hob’s minions and proceeds into the sewers, remembering the end of the story…

For eleven seasons, Yoshi and his sons had kept ahead of the Foot Clan, until one day, after returning to his sons with a rare gift of sweets, Saki and his forces finally found them. Binding their hands and lining them up, Saki forced Yoshi to watch as the Foot Soldiers executed each of his sons. As they died, Yoshi prayed to Buddha that he would be reunited with his children some day and that they would get their revenge on Saki. As Saki raised his own sword, Yoshi vowed that they would meet again and he would kill him. Saki then killed Yoshi, but the story doesn't end there…



Down in the sewer lair, Splinter returns home with a backpack of gifts for his sons. He tells them that in their search for Raphael, they all wore red bandanas, Raphael’s favorite color, as a reminder of their mission. But now that they have been reunited, he felt that though they are a clan, they are also individuals, and should each wear their favorite colors. He then gives Michelangelo an orange bandana, Donatello a purple bandana and Leonardo a blue bandana. As for Raph, he has a different gift: a pair of sais which he feels his son has earned the right to wield.

The Turtles feel guilty, having no gift to give their father and Sensei, though Splinter assures them that being together again is a gift in itself. Donatello asks Splinter how he knew what their favorite colors were and Splinter asks them all to sit down next the Christmas tree while he tells them a story.

Elsewhere, Casey places a rose on his mother’s grave while April, arriving home, gives her mom a big hug.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #4. The story continues in TMNT Microseries #1: Raphael.

*Though it was published after TMNT Microseries #1: Raphael, this issue takes place before it.

*Splinter's life as Hamato Yoshi will be further explored in TMNT Microseries #5: Splinter.

*This issue was originally published with three covers: Cover A by Mateus Santolouco, Cover B by Dan Duncan and Ronda Pattison and Cover RI by Kevin Eastman.


Review:

This is an issue that is going to create a lot of divide amongst fans. We have a major departure from the classic origin of the TMNT as well as the switch from their classic red Mirage bandanas to their animated multi-colored masks. If you thought fans were going at each other’s throats because of the introduction of Bebop and Rocksteady in the Raphael microseries, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Regarding the origin, it took me some time to ruminate on that. Because, wow, this was a pretty big change from the norm. Altering a classic origin is an easy way to upset readers. Just look at J. Michael Straczynski’s run on Amazing Spider-Man. Instead of being a teenager in the right place at the right time to get bitten by a radioactive arachnid, now it turns out that Spider-Man was a predestined mystical animal totem and all his powers are actually magical.

Fuck that.

But it also comes down to the execution, which can make or break any idea. And to Tom Waltz’s credit, he takes what may sound bizarre and unappealing in summary form and really makes it work on the page. Love or hate this new origin as you will, but TMNT #5 did a superb job of telling it to the audience by nicely paralleling it with a similar sequence of events occurring to Splinter in the present day and packaging it as a story within a story. Everything about the execution was good, so it’s more a discussion of the fundamentals of this new origin and whether such a radical departure from the 27 year-old story was warranted or not.

The fifteen month span of time between mutation and “ninjas with lots of personality who love each other as a family” has been a source of criticism from a lot of fans since the book started. Waltz finally reveals how such a short span of time could yield such unrealistic results by pressing the “reincarnation” button. In doing so, it’s a bit of give and take. We now have this rich back story rooted in Feudal era Japan that gives Splinter a genetic bond to his sons rather than an adoptive one. On the other side of the coin, now the Turtles never grew up as “outsiders” and so that entire concept at the core of their characters (being freaks who have had to hide themselves from humanity all their lives) is absent. In a way, they’re now “wolfmen”; by that I mean they were human all their lives and are only *now* monsters that have to hide from a world that fears them.

It’s a case of changing something that has been long established, but giving fans something completely new to digest at the same time.

Making the Turtles Splinter’s biological children is a case where I can weigh both the merits and the detractions. In the Mirage comics, the Turtles were turtles and Splinter was a rat but there was never, EVER any question between them that they were his sons and he loved them with all his heart. They never questioned whether he loved them less because they weren’t rats or whether he loved them less because they were adopted. At no point was it ever an issue in any story. There was an unspoken beauty to it, that such a thing never NEED be addressed because a father loves his sons whether they’re biological or not (and whether they’re mammalian or not, in this case). Making the Turtles his (reincarnated) biological offspring robs the dynamic of that unstated lesson, and while it doesn’t destroy anything on a foundational level, it does take that little bit away from it.

Going back to the idea that it’s all in the execution, though, the tragedy of Splinter losing his children is tremendous; their death scenes were very tastefully done and not “shock value”. There’s a great sadness in him because he’s a man who lost everything and, yeah, even if the answer as we have it now is “Buddhist magic”, there’s enough power in that sequence to make the whole thing work.

So like I said, “give and take”. We’re getting something new while losing something old. As for Splinter being Hamato Yoshi instead of his pet rat? I grew up with the Fred Wolf cartoon. I got over that shit a long time ago. Doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

In regards to the colored bandanas, I’m almost afraid to bring them up, as this discussion has resulted in untold eons of war and suffering. I’ll just say that I really don’t care either way; red or rainbow, it’s all the same to me. This story, though, wants to have it both ways and I think in acknowledging the two takes on the colors and trying to create an in-story explanation for the switch, they only invited more criticism than they needed. I get what they were going for, but it seemed kind of silly to even bother with it.

Art-wise, well, this was not Dan Duncan’s best work. His pencils look rushed and unfinished, particularly in regards to Hob’s goons, who at times sport an almost Picasso anatomy (look at that thug on page 5; it’s like he has a single humongous nostril in the center of his trunk-like nose). There’s also some problems with perspective, like when Splinter is going into the sewer, the manhole doesn’t look to be at the same angle that he’s entering it. He’s supposed to be gripping the edge, but it looks like he’s lifting the hole up; like there are two manhole covers or something. And Splinter’s tearful message on the second-to-last page suffers greatly because Duncan just drew one headshot and then flipped it in photoshop to cover two different panels. It’s very obvious and very lazy, considering it wasn’t even an elaborate panel, just a headshot and a completely blank background.

Santolouco’s pages, however, are fantastic and he really captures the period. There’s some silliness in design (the classic “footprint” Foot Clan logo is emblazoned on huge medallions worn by the characters and looks very incongruous with the “historic” garb of everyone else), but he really does a great job on everything, especially in giving Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi very unique appearances. Even in the Mirage series, I always felt they had kind of dull, bland designs. And I liked his designs for the Turtles as human kids, translating so much of their personalities into the human features; Leonardo is clearly the eldest sibling while infant Raph sports a traditional haircut making him look just like Daigorō from “Lone Wolf and Cub”, for example.

Anyhow, I’m willing to roll with this new direction even if I’m a bit apprehensive about some of it. I’ve complained in past reviews about the decompressed pacing of the series, but this was an excellent “done in one” story, proving Waltz has it in him when he feels like it. I hope to see some more stories in a similar vein, or at least as breaks between the longer arcs. Again, in summary form, it might sound very off-putting, but Waltz makes it work. Well, for now, at least. I can’t say I’m not intrigued to see where all this is going and things certainly do feel fresh and exciting. There’s really no predicting where this book is going to go and I find that thrilling.

Grade: B (as in, “But let’s just ignore the fact that Tang Shen was Chinese and in Feudal era Japan the Chinese were not… um… popular”.)

TMNT Adventures #52

Publication date: January, 1994

MAIN STORY:

Story/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Jon D’Agostino
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Jeweler: V. Gorelick
Cover: Chris Allan and Ryan Brown

“Shattered”

BACK-UP STORY:

Script: Dean Clarrain and Ryan Brown
Art: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman

“Megadeath, Five of Seven”

Summary:

MAIN STORY:

At the Internal Affairs office, cameraman Squint is showing his boss, journalist MacIntyre, the footage he secretly took of April and Oyuki sneaking into the sewers. MacIntyre knows April is in league with the mutated turtles and is certain that if he follows her, he’ll get his story.

Down in the sewers, April and Oyuki are telling Don and Raph about their latest story regarding a series of bank and jewelry store robberies. They figured the thieves might have been using the sewer tunnels for escape and decided to snoop around. Subsequently, they stumbled upon a giant pulsating glob of green tissue that looks like an Organ. Don and Raph check the weird thing out, finding crystallized rats scattered all over the place.



Elsewhere, McIntyre and Squint are lost in the sewers. Happening upon the remains of a partially exploded tunnel, they find Scumbug, covered in tiny Wyrms and barely clinging to life. Wyrm had spent the last few years slowly sucking Scumbug dry to keep himself alive. But now that fresh meat has presented itself, Wyrm reforms to his full size and urges the equally hungry Scumbug to join him in the feast. MacIntyre and Squint make a break for it.

Back at the pile of goo, Don discovers that it’s filled with gold bars and jewels from the recent robberies. Oyuki, meanwhile, discovers the resident of the slimeball; an alien thief/ugly spider-guy named Toxzeem. Toxzeem had planned on looting the Earth before its inevitable destruction and threatens “crystal death” to anyone who would get in his way. The Turtles take on Toxzeem and the fight leads them to a side tunnel, where they bump into the fleeing MacIntyre and Squint.



Scumbug and Wyrm, meanwhile, bump into Toxzeem and decide to eat him, instead. Toxzeem isn’t intimidated and blasts them with his crystal death gun, turning the monsters into inanimate crystal statues. Raph destroys the gun with his sai, forcing Toxzeem to beat a hasty retreat back to his ship (that pile of goo). As the ship takes off, Don and Raph survive the blast of rocket heat by retracting into their shells and submerging in the sewer water.

Alive but irritated, Raph grabs Squint’s camera and smashes it over his head. Don is just as angry with MacIntyre (if less violent about it), telling the douchebag that he’s in over his head and should forget he ever saw the Turtles. Don, Raph, April and Oyuki then storm off. Macintyre figures he might be able to salvage something from the story with the crystal monster statues, only to have them shatter the moment he touches them.


BACK-UP STORY:

Inside the volcano base, the Mutanimals have gotten their second wind and are wiping the floor with the villains. Heroic victory seems assured, but Dead-Eye disagrees. He proclaims that the Mutanimals’ defeat is preordained and the victory of the Gang is historically assured.

Using his vertigo ray, Dead-Eye incapacitates the Mutanimals. Then, claiming that they have done what they set out to do, Dead-Eye transforms his motorcycle into a hovercraft and the other three members of the Gang pile on.



As the badguys escape, Future-Don tells Future-Raph that things are seriously messed up. The Gang wasn’t supposed to attack the Mutanimals for another two months. Someone is messing with the timeline.

And elsewhere, someone is watching them through a monitor, laughing to themselves…


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #51. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #53.

*Scumbug and Wyrm last appeared in TMNT Adventures #10.

*McIntyre and Squint will return in TMNT Adventures #59.

*Scumbug and Wyrm were originally planned to return in the third part of “The Forever War” (originally intended to be TMNT Adventures #73) but editorial and creative conflicts led to the cancellation of that storyline and the cancellation of TMNT Adventures altogether.

*Toxzeem was a character originally created for the unproduced Mighty Mutanimals cartoon.

*The Merdude miniseries takes place between this chapter of "Megadeath" and the next, acting as an interlude.

*This story bore the dedication, “To Ryan Brown and the shattered days of old”.


Review:

I mentioned before that TMNT Adventures #10 was the first issue of the series I ever bought, so I happen to disproportionately love that issue and the two monstrous villains it introduced. As you can guess, this sequel hit a nostalgic cord with me despite being pretty damn shallow and rushed.

As you may or may not be noticing by now, Murphy (Clarrain) is killing time in-between the “Black Hole Trilogy” and the “Terracide” arc so as to let the “Megadeath” back-up finish. To fill the four issue gap, he’s basically taking us all on a nostalgic tour of the earlier issues in the series, reviving characters we all thought we’d never see again. Last issue gave us the Chameleon, the upcoming “Animus War” two-parter will bring back Katmandu and Al-Falqua, but this issue is my favorite in what you could call the “nostalgia arc” because… well… Scumbug and Wyrm.

“Shattered” continues the MacIntyre subplot begun before the “Black Hole Trilogy” and offers some cryptic foreshadowing of a grim event that may destroy the Earth, but mostly it’s just a mad rush to bring Scumbug and Wyrm back from the dead so they can fight a boring alien thief that looks like a spider.

And I love it. Chris Allan just rocks this issue and the sideways splash on page 17 is beautiful. Barry Grossman turns in some of his best coloring, too.

On another note, TMNT Adventures’ design for Scumbug is awesome and it’s always such a disappointment to see how he turned out looking in the Playmates toyline and Fred Wolf cartoon. Likewise with Wyrm, who has a much goofier (and bluer) appearance in the Playmates line than he does in this comic (well, the mini-Wyrms are actually kinda funny-looking). Toxzeem, meanwhile, has a sweet character design while otherwise lacking anything approaching actual “character”. He’s a thief from space who uses a crystal ray gun and… yeah, that’s about it.

The dedication at the end of the issue is rather sweet, reinforcing that this and the previous issue were meant as throwbacks to the days when Ryan Brown’s hand was more strongly felt in the book. I’ve said before that I really like the initial (original) arc of TMNT Adventures, where it was just one Playmates action figure introduction after another, and forty issues later I am starting to miss those days a bit. So it was definitely some good timing on Murphy’s part to bring elements from those early adventures back when he did.

As for “Megadeath”… there’s really so little to say about it at this point. Once it gets to the end, then I’ll have a mouthful to spew out. As of right now, it’s just plodding along.

Grade: C+ (as in, “Can’t imagine how Wyrm knew Scumbug’s officially licensed action figure name, but that’s not important”.)

TMNT Adventures #51

Publication date: December, 1993

MAIN STORY:

Plot: Steve Lavigne, Chris Allan, Dean Clarrain
Script/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Jon D’Agostino
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Stretchmarks: V. Gorelick
Cover: Chris Allan, Ryan Brown, Steve Lavigne

“Chameleons are Forever”

BACK-UP STORY:

Script: Dean Clarrain and Ryan Brown
Art: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman

“Megadeath, Four of Seven”

Summary:

MAIN STORY:

Tel Aviv, Israel. A quartet of thieves are hiding out in a hotel room, discussing their next heist, when one of them hears a noise behind the door. He swings it open to find a cleaning lady listening in on their conversation. Before they can do her in, the cleaning lady’s cart transforms into the Chameleon! Chameleon grabs the cleaning lady (actually his partner, Val) and they escape through the window. Later, at their hotel room, Chameleon tries to profess his love to Val, but she’s not interested. Besides, they’re being paid to thwart the thieves and they need to get to New York to do it. Now moping, Chameleon considers quitting the job altogether, until he sees McIntyre’s report on the mysterious mutant turtles on Inside Affair. Knowing that the Turtles are in cahoots with the Shredder (the one who turned him into a mutant), Chameleon resolves to go to New York and get some answers.



At the Internal Affairs studio, McIntyre is bickering with his laidback cameraman, Squint. McIntyre is upset that the biggest story of the year, the Turtles, have apparently vanished off the face of the Earth. He knows April is somehow connected with them and demands she be followed. After everyone leaves the studio, one of the cameras transforms into the Chameleon. Chameleon calls Val, telling her to bug April’s phone. Val is reluctant, as they have a job to do, but Chameleon persuades her to do him a solid.

At April’s apartment, Oyuki is sneaking a smoke when Michaelangelo calls. The Turtles have just returned from Dimension X and they want to hang. Sadly, April and Oyuki are covering a story and can’t get together. Meanwhile, Splinter thinks something may be wrong with Donatello, who seems melancholy after his latest adventure.

As Chameleon spies on the thieves in their New York digs (learning they plan to loot a museum), he gets the news from Val, tracing the call to the sewers. Down in the lair, an evening of Rock em Sock em Robots is interrupted by April running by the entrance, cryptically beckoning the Turtles to follow. Hesitant at the weirdness of her behavior, the Turtles shadow her through the sewers, to the roof of a nearby museum and then down through the skylight, into an exhibition hall.



An Egyptian statue proceeds to transform into the Chameleon, who captures Mike in his stomach. Mike frees himself with a blow to the gut and Don ties the Chameleon to a pillar. The Chameleon says he knows the Turtles are agents of the Shredder and demands they tell him if the mutagen that turned them all from humans to freaks is permanent. Leo responds in the following order: No, they do not work for the Shredder. No, they were not humans that turned into turtles, but turtles that became anthropomorphic. And yes, the mutagen is permanent.

Chameleon is disappointed at the answer (and his poor intel), so he stops playing possum and sends four large pile-drivers out of his shoulders, knocking the Turtles unconscious. Remembering his job, he leaves to deal with the thieves. Raph eventually wakes up and finds his brothers standing before a smashed display case, where they presume the Chameleon stole a statue. As sirens begin to blare, the Turtles opt to flee before they get blamed for the heist.

Outside, the thieves abscond with the artifact, not noticing the googly-eyes embedded in the “crate” they’re carrying it in. Thinking, the Chameleon resigns himself to his mutant fate.


BACK-UP STORY:

As the Mutanimals and Future-Raph and Future-Don lay stunned in the pool of water, Dead-Eye urges Lynch to hurry up and electrocute them with the live wire he’s clutching. Lynch is about to do the deed when the tiniest Mutanimal, Screwloose, pops out of his hiding place (having avoided the tidal wave). Screwloose stabs Lynch in the neck with his proboscis, then grabs the live wire and shocks him.



Man Ray comes to next and uppercuts Fist. The rest of the Mutanimals and the Future Turtles get their bearings and continue the brawl. Future-Raph begins grappling with Waster, who extends his robotic tongue toward the Turtle’s eye-patch, intent on eating his brain. Raph isn’t about to let that happen and snatches the tongue, giving it a good yank.

Meanwhile, Leatherhead and Fist test their muscle, ramming headfirst into each other.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #50. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #52.

*Codename: Chameleon previously appeared in TMNT Adventures #9.

*McIntyre and Squint last appeared, and caught the Turtles on camera, in TMNT Adventures #47.

*This issue was published in the UK by Fleetway as TMHT Adventures (#84).  It was the final issue of the series.


Review:

Hey! It’s that guy from forty-two issues ago! They remembered he existed! Woo!

Codename: Chameleon wasn’t exactly one of my favorite characters from the initial arc of TMNT Adventures and I don’t think he really struck a chord with the readers or the creative team, either, considering his extended absence from the book. Regardless of that, he fills out a nice breather issue between grand arcs in TMNT Adventures and the story’s decent for what it is.

Chameleon has been “upgraded”, I suppose you could call it. Instead of just “blending in” by turning invisible, he can now shapeshift like Clayface from Batman. I didn’t mind this alteration so much, as when we last saw him he was just getting used to his new powers, now a few years have passed and he seems to have found the greater extent of his abilities. It makes just enough sense not to really matter, anyway.

What I didn’t care for was Chris Allan’s redesign. He’s now a hulking muscle-bound brute as opposed to the lithe and slippery character from his initial appearance. He’s even lost his tail. And without any clothes, he just looks too generic, now. I rather liked the trenchcoat and fedora ensemble that he wore on the cover of TMNT Adventures #9 and wish that had been retained for his overall design. Now, instead of looking like a sneaky spy, he looks like a refugee from Eternia.

But there are still lots of fun nuances that Murphy (Clarrain) and Allan throw in, which make their issues so much fun. The scene where Chameleon is pouting in front of the TV and ignoring Val’s chatter by making hand-puppets is really amusing, and of course the overall energy in Allan’s pencils go without saying. Gotta give colorist Barry Grossman some credit, too. Though it’s easy to miss, he did a great job making the sewers look all slimy and gross on page 15 by splattering all the white blotches everywhere. A time-consuming bit of coloration for something so small, but it makes a difference in the details.

“Chameleons are Forever” isn’t really a memorable story, but it’s a very fun and light way of giving the cast a breather between major arcs while still moving subplots along (namely, McIntyre).

As for the Mutanimals back-up, the story is still as dull as a sack of hammers, but the art has taken a major upswing now that Eric Talbot has come to lend Jim Lawson a hand. The backgrounds are still a mass of empty white space, but the action is definitely more intense. Not enough of a change to make this back-up, well… good, but it helps a little.

Grade: C (as in, “Chameleons are made of pudding? I never knew this”.)

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TMNT (Vol. 1) #14

Publication date: February 1988 (cover), May 1988 (indicia)

Story and pencils: Kevin Eastman
Inks: Eric Talbot
Letters: Steve Lavigne

“The Unmentionables”

Summary:

On the snowy streets of Northampton, Casey has taken to playing “old fashioned gumshoe” and is prowling the empty streets looking for a “case”. While reminiscing about playing in the streets with his cousin Sid during his youth, Casey makes a shocking discovery: the giant brass cow decorating the top of Louie’s Variety has been stolen! Casey spends all of the next day and night searching for clues and returns to the farm the following morning, nearly frozen to death. April leaves Casey in the care of the Turtles, as she needs to get to her job at the diner before she’s fired.



While at the diner, April hears two shady-looking patrons discussing a “cow” in a hushed tone, followed by mentions of a “boss” and room 213 at the Hotel Northampton. April calls Casey up to give him the scoop (unaware that her suspects overhear her phone call). Casey rushes to the hotel and is summarily thrown out. April meets up with Casey there and decides to do some snooping of her own for the sheer fun of it. In the lobby, she spots one of the suspects (a man named Howard) taking orders from a Texan named Cudworth. There’s to be a party at the hotel that night celebrating Cudworth’s daughter’s graduation; just the in April and Casey needed.

That night, April and Casey arrive at the hotel in their finest outfits, with the reluctant Turtles in tow. While they mingle in the party, the Turtles are to break into room 213 and search for clues. The Turtles break in and find a box full of photos, all of Cudworth, Howard, the cow and the store. The weird thing is, they’re actually in room 215! Down at the part, April gets separated from Casey and finds herself being pursued into an empty hallway by Howard (recognizing her from the diner). She bumps into the three Smengie Bros (Mikal, Luka and… Luka), who are acting as goons for Cudworth and Howard. Cudworth pays the Smengies the $10 million in exchange for the stolen cow, while Howard tells them to keep April detained but not to harm her under any circumstance. The Turtles spot the Smengies making off in their van with April and give chase in Casey’s old pickup truck.

In the men’s room, Casey is hiding out in a stall, waiting to overhear a lead. Two locals come walking in, discussing a hot tip about the local fair, namely the sure winner of the best cow competition. Misinterpreting the discussion, Casey hails a cab to take him to the farm on Route 116.

At the Smengie Bros auto garage, the goons have April tied up alongside the purloined brass bovine (draped in a tarp). The Turtles break in and subdue the Smengies. They quickly elicit a confession: the brass cow is actually made from gold. When escaping the war-torn nation of Slavakia, their brother Louie stole the golden cow and disguised it as a fixture on the roof of his shop. Cudworth hired them to steal the cow, though they had planned to double-cross him and take it back to Slavakia with their $10 million payday. Knowing they need more evidence to pin the theft on Cudworth, Leo concocts a plan. Calling Cudworth at the hotel, Leo (pretending to be a Smengie) demands an additional $5 million for the cow, knowing it will lure Cudworth to the garage where they can tape record some incriminating dialogue.

Meanwhile, at the farm on Route 116, Casey realizes he’s on the trail of an actual cow and orders the (irritated) cabby to take him back to the hotel.



Back at the garage, the Turtles are disguised as the Smengies, holding unloaded guns and awaiting Cudworth. Cudworth, Howard and some additional goons show up, none too pleased. Cudworth demands a look at the golden cow, but when the Turtles remove the tarp, they find it to be a cow-shaped decoy made of rocks. The Smengies, having freed themselves, then burst through the garage door with the real cow loaded into the back of their truck. Cudworth and the Turtles each give chase in their vehicles.

As it so happens, the Smengies pass Casey’s cab. Ordering the cabby to drive up close to the truck, Casey leaps onto the roof and scares the Smengies into crashing. Cudworth arrives at the crash-site, ready to claim his golden prize, when Howard reveals himself to be an FBI agent. He’d been undercover, following Cudworth for some time. Howard calls in his reinforcements and Cudworth surrenders. Seeing the hullabaloo, April ditches the Turtles on the side of the road, then proceeds into the chaos to collect Casey. Howard demands an explanation from both her and Casey.



After a loooooong story, Howard decides to let them off the hook for nearly ruining a two year-long FBI investigation and agrees to file the case under “unmentionables”… provided they never, EVER play detective again. Overhearing the discussion, the Turtles laugh at their status as “unmentionables”.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 1) #13.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 1) #15.

*The "Exile to Northampton" era spans a full 2 years in story-time (Christmas '86 to Christmas '88).  With this issue having a Winter setting and taking place smackdab in the middle of the era, it likely takes place around Christmas '87.

*Casey was shown fantasizing about being an old school detective in the story, “Casey Jones, Private Eye”.

*Casey mentions playing with Cousin Sid on Centre St. as a kid. Cousin Sid appeared (as an adult) in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #1.

*The Turtles will reuse their gangster disguises in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Attack!!! Part 1.

*CHET ALERT: Casey tells the clerk at Hotel Northampton he works for “Chet’s Note Delivery Service”. The name Chet was an Easter egg slipped into several issues by the Mirage staff because… they just liked that name!

*This issue was (very) loosely adapted by the 4Kids animated series into the episode “The Golden Puck”.

*This issue is the first issue to not have front or back inside cover content. Backmatter included an ad for TMNT Limited Edition Hardcover collection, a 3-page preview/ad for “Melting Pot” by Eastman and Talbot, an ad for TMNT #15, an ad for The Puma Blues, a 1-page comic, “Buy TMNT 16 or we Die” by Mark Martin, an ad for Commandosaurs by Laird and Bissette, and a triple ad for Dark Horse miniatures, Mirage back issues and the First Comics TMNT color reprint trade paperbacks.

*Regarding publication date, Dan Berger had this to say on the Mirage Licensing website: "Unfortunately, we don't have any paperwork to clarify which date is correct. I decided to list May as the release date because #13 came out in February of '88, and I'm assuming that Mirage didn't publish two books in one month."

Review:

You see, now stories like this are what make Casey so endearing.

Casey isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer and he screws up a lot, but he always makes good in the end and when push comes to shove, he’s competent-enough, skilled-enough and gutsy-enough to save the day. Much of the 4Kids series, when it came to Casey, seemed like it was using “The Unmentionables” as a blueprint for how to treat him, but focusing on his dimwitted blundering to the point of missing all those stronger points I just listed. “The Unmentionables” is not only an awesome Casey-centric story, but also one of the extremely rare times in the Mirage comics where April proves to be a really fun, enjoyable character.

So far as Casey’s portrayal goes, by this point in the series we hadn’t gotten to see much of him beyond his anger management issues; just the violent jock that loves pounding heads. “The Unmentionables” rounds him out with a much more humorous angle, which some might interpret as “watering down”, but I found it succeeded in making him more multi-dimensional and likable. We get a peek at some of Casey’s history (referencing Cousin Sid from Tales of the TMNT) as well as a glimpse at his own personal fantasies and how, in his goofiness, he literally tries to act out on them (regardless of his qualifications). I think the short story “Casey Jones, Private Eye” should be taken as a mandatory prologue to this issue, as it helps establish the seemingly random “cheesy gumshoe” persona Casey takes on in the opening pages and the two stories flow into one another really well.

As for April, I dig how she was portrayed in this story. Too often, she has to be the dull “den mother” character in the Mirage comics and can never do or say anything interesting. Eastman turns that idea on its head with this issue. She starts out that way, flipping out because she’s going to be late for work and that she has to put food on the table for everyone because all the men in the house are jobless bums, etc. But as the story moves along, she really starts to get caught up in Casey’s whole detective fantasy and begins actively helping him search for clues and chase after the badguys, sincerely loving it every step of the way. This is a great issue for developing April and Casey’s romance and illustrates that she has an attraction to him beyond just the boring old “he’s a bad boy *swoon*” shtick. Casey may be an unpredictable screw-up with weird delusions about himself and his limitations… but damn if he isn’t a whole lot of fun to be around.

The Turtles pretty much take a backseat to the entire story, and I’m perfectly okay with that. Casey and April are as much a primary part of the cast as the TMNT are and they deserve their fair share of leading roles. Be that as it may, the Turtles play some amusing parts in this issue. Whereas April begins to get caught up in Casey’s adventure, the Turtles play the voice of reason throughout the tale; first brushing off Casey’s suspicions, then being reluctant to break into a hotel room, then wondering how they got caught up in the whole drama when things start to go south. In a bizarre turn of events, it’s the plain ole humans who turn out to be the craziest characters in the story, while the karate-chopping anthropomorphic reptiles take on the boring roles.

Above all else, “The Unmentionables” is just really, really fun. It’s definitely meant to be a comedy and a lot of the jokes are genuinely funny. I love Casey’s opening monologue, as he tries to wax on in a film noir-style of outdated detective lingo but can’t quite get it right. Eastman is firing on all cylinders with the art and man does he nail the expressions. The look on frozen Casey’s face (pictured above) is pure gold. And I absolutely love this:



If there’s anything that detracts from “The Unmentionables” I guess it would have to be all the spelling and grammatical errors. Holy cow, there are a LOT of them.

Be that as it may, “The Unmentionables” is my favorite issue in the “Exile to Northampton” era of the series (well, not counting the Tales issues that retroactively fit in there). It’s fast, furious and a whole lot of fun.

TMNT Micro-Series #1: Raphael

Publication date: December 7, 2011

Written by: Brian Lynch
Art by: Franco Urru
Colors by: Fabio Mantovani
Letters by: Chris Mowry
Editor: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

Another night in New York City and Raph has passed up an opportunity to go on patrol with his (recently reunited) brothers to spend the evening busting heads with Casey. Casey wants to know what it’s like to finally have the family he never knew he had, but Raph is reluctant to talk about it. Suddenly, the pair spot a figure being chased by two punks (one with a purple Mohawk, the other in army camos). They take down the punks and rescue their prey: a female mutant arctic fox named Alopex.



Alopex doesn’t remember much; just that she was taken from the wild and to a lab by several humans, who experimented on her. She escaped, but the lab dispatched several groups to reclaim her; the punks only being the latest batch. Raph isn’t interested in swapping origin stories, but is willing to take her back to the lair to meet his brothers and Splinter, who might be able to help her cope with her predicament… just so long as she goes blindfolded. Leaving Casey behind to call the police and pick up the punks, Raph takes off with Alopex.

Racing across the rooftops, Raph considers Alopex’s story and how it doesn’t quite hang together; namely, the moves she was displaying while fighting off the punks were too professional-looking for a recently mutated and “innocent” fox-girl. Raph summarily hurls her off a rooftop.



Alopex extends her claws and digs into the side of the building, breaking her fall, as Raph leaps down after her. The jig being up, Alopex reveals her “true” personality as a much colder, more calculating mercenary. She had planned on tricking Raph into revealing the location of the Turtles’ lair, but with that not panning out, she exits the fight with a smoke bomb.

After a while, Raph makes sure he’s no longer being followed and reconvenes with his brothers. Don checks his wounds while Mike lightens the mood with some jokes. Leo, however, immediately calculates a strategy; they will go on patrol in pairs from now on and randomize their rounds so as to make predicting their movements impossible. Raph later disobeys Leo’s orders and meets up with Casey. Apparently, even though he called the cops, the punks were hauled away by phony police officers to parts unknown. Raph tells Casey the new strategy and Casey, understanding, is ready to bid Raph farewell forever. Raph tells him to lighten up, as he’s part of their family now and he’s as deep in the drama as they are.



Elsewhere, Alopex is blowing off steam against a punching bag while being berated by her two partners in crime: the punks. Not thrilled with playing the parts of dumb goons, they both feel they’d be able to take the Turtles down on their own if only they had enhanced mutant abilities like her. A commanding ninja enters the room and orders them all to be silent. He tells them that they will be changed when the master orders it. Brandishing his sword, he casts a familiar, spiky shadow across the wall…


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #5. The story continues in TMNT Micro-Series: Michelangelo #1.

*Though it takes place after TMNT #5, it was published a month before that issue. A note from editor Bobby Curnow on the inside cover assures readers that it can be enjoyed independently of the ongoing narrative of the main series.

*Raph was reunited with his brothers in TMNT (IDW) #4.

*According to editor Bobby Curnow, the Foot Soldier seen at the end of the issue was not intended to be the Shredder, though his identity can be interpretted differently by readers without affecting the storyline.

*The two thugs working for the Foot will appear again briefly in TMNT Villains Micro-Series #4: Alopex.

*Following the release of the TMNT: Villains Micro-Series, later trade paperback collections rebranded this series as "TMNT: Heroes Micro-Series" for better synergy, I guess.

*This issue was originally published with five variant covers: Cover A by David Peterson, Cover B by Franco Urru and Fabio Mantovani, Cover RI-A David Peterson sketch version, Cover RI-B classic Kevin Eastman Raphael (microseries) #1 version, and Jetpack Comics exclusive by Peter Laird.


Review:

I’ve got a lot of words to eat, so I’d better go get some ketchup.

While the pacing of the ongoing TMNT series isn’t exactly to my taste, I have been rather hard on Tom Waltz and the title for dragging its feet. However, I can see now that IDW has had this approach calculated in advance, with these narrative Microseries one-shots (and the upcoming two-part Infestation miniseries) intended to offer brisker, faster paced stories to break-up the slow burn of the ongoing. With the Microseries supplementing it, I think it’s easier to appreciate the ongoing series as it is no longer the sole source of TMNT fiction from IDW and these additional monthly titles will help move aspects of the plot forward at a swifter pace.

Brian Lynch pens a thoroughly satisfying tale reminiscent in ways of the original Raphael (microseries) #1; at least in so far as the spotlight follows Casey and Raph as they patrol the streets of New York and engage in running battles (I found the unaltered recycling of the classic cover as a variant to be pretty hilarious). What impressed me most about the story was that it played with my own expectations and naïveté; I just presumed that this female fox-mutant was going to immediately hook up with Raph because of my experiences reading TMNT Adventures. I scoffed at a lot of Alopex’s dialogue for sounding like clunky fangirl fanfiction; “You’re not here… to hurt me?” and “You’re the first living thing I’ve met that wasn’t trying to eat or hurt me.” Yuck.

Of course, the dialogue was insipid and gag-inducing for a reason; as it was intentionally insincere. I probably should have seen Alopex’s betrayal coming, but again, I let my comfort with previous TMNT stories get the better of me; so what I thought was starting out to be a really dumb, wretched story turned out to be something very exciting.

In regards to Bebop and Rocksteady: I say unto thee, “Fuck YEAH.”

When they first appeared in the issue, I took them to be just “Easter Egg” cameos; Franco Urru using their human forms for a throwaway joke and nothing else. By the end of the story, we find out that they're genuine characters with a big future in store and duuuuude I am PSYCHED. I’ve stated before that I believe there are no bad characters, only bad writers. Bebop and Rocksteady may have had the misfortune of being annoying comedy relief villains from a children’s cartoon show, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the potential to be re-imagined as genuine threats while still retaining their humorous and dim-witted qualities (so they still FEEL like Bebop and Rocksteady). Lynch seems to have that down in this issue, as the characters display very violent attitudes whilst otherwise being called idiots and cretins by their cohorts, illustrating they aren’t considered the smartest guys on the planet.

Then, of course, you’ve got the scar-faced ninja from TMNT #2 making his comeback. It had been presumed for a while that he would turn out to be the Shredder, as the scene where rat-Splinter scars his face was reminiscent of a similar scene from “TMNT: The Movie”, but it seems he isn’t quite there yet (he refers to a “master”, so he may be reporting to a higher authority for now). I’m looking forward to seeing how he’s built up, and also looking forward to seeing how a competent and non-comedic Shredder/Oroku Saki deals with the likes of Bebop and Rocksteady.

(EDIT FROM THE FUTURE: The scar-faced Foot Soldier from TMNT #2 and the Foot Soldier at the end of this issue were confirmed by editor Bobby Curnow as NOT being the Shredder.  HA!  Point at me and laugh!)

As for the idea of Alopex and there being lots of other mutants running around; I’ve never had any issues with it. Again, I’ve enjoyed Archie’s TMNT Adventures series and there were always plenty of mutant animals in that book. I didn’t feel they made the Turtles seem any less “special”. I mean, Superman doesn’t feel less “special” just because there are a bunch of other superheroes populating the DC universe, now does he? He’s still Superman. And the Turtles are still the Turtles no matter what other mutant critters show up. If anything, it makes a logical sort of sense that some villain with access to mutagen would actively create scores of powerful anthropomorphic underlings rather than stopping at one or two. And since some of my favorite characters are mutant animals, I say bring em on.

Franco Urru’s art and Fabio Mantovani’s colors are gorgeous and I really, really love the visual style of this issue. Raph isn’t as expressive as Dan Duncan’s take on the designs, but there’s a superb sense of action and staging going on here. Mantovani’s colors really make the whole package, though; his is a New York City that actually glows at night and he does such an awesome job rendering the effect of bluish street lights reflecting off Raph’s skin and shell.

To repeat myself, I think the pace of the ongoing is easier to take now that there’s another series to help move things along. The idea that we’ll be getting supplementing “in-between” chapters to help tide us over suits me and the hint at all the classic characters that are lined up for comebacks has me giddy. This was some good stuff.

Grade: A (as in, “And Bebop’s human design has gone entirely unchanged in 25 years, save that now he’s wearing Kanye glasses”.)

Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 1) #4

Publication date: January, 1988

Story, pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Ryan Brown
Letters: Steve Lavigne

“I, Monster”

Summary:

Frontispiece: A Turtle (presumably Donatello) stands in a laboratory, operating on the monster of Frankenstein. The Turtle ponders whether monsters are merely figments of overactive imaginations or tangible creatures. With that in mind, he has a story to tell you…

A deformed man wrapped in bandages and rags rises from a swamp, pontificating on his own monstrous appearance. He decides that it is getting too cold to stay in the bog, so he heads toward a neighboring abandoned, ruined factory to prowl the corridors. As a monster, he knows that everything fears him. Everything except the thousands of rats that infest the ruins, that is.



Outside the perimeter of the factory, the Turtles and Casey have decided to investigate the place for kicks, hearing stories that it may be haunted. Their noisy arrival awakens the monster, who sees the Turtles as other monsters competing for his property. In his lunacy, he decides to make sure they fail.

As Mike wanders off alone, the monster whacks him over the back of the head with a pipe, then drags the unconscious Turtle to a secluded room and straps him to a table. After screaming and ranting at Mike like a madman, the monster decides to leave him to the mercies of the rats. As he leaves, the monster considers that he’d never killed anyone before and that he is finally transcending from a man playing a monster to the real thing. Meanwhile, Mike sees hundreds of rats pouring through the wall toward him. Using all his strength, Mike breaks the straps on the table and frees himself, though the rats overwhelm him by sheer numbers.



Luckily, his brothers and Casey arrive in time to ward the rodents off and they all go chasing after the monster. The monster leads them into a roofless, circular old brick building and, from the safety of the top ledge of the wall, slams and locks the doors shut behind them. The monster announces that he’d been leaving dead and dying animals in this room to feed the rats in a fruitless effort to befriend them. The Turtles and Casey are their next meal. Thousands of rats begin pouring in, but no matter how many they kill, the vermin just keep coming. Mikey finally has enough and smashes through the old brick wall Kool-Aid Man-style, allowing the others to follow him to safety.

Leo immediately hurls a shuriken at the monster, planting the throwing star directly in his chest. The monster falls from the considerable height of the ledge and into the circular building, where the rats below can be heard swarming him. Mike considers going in after him, but Don assures him that there’s nothing more that they can do. As the sun finally sets, the Turtles and Casey leave.



Inside the building, the monster sits sullenly, surrounded by several friendly rats. He repeats to himself that he is the Rat King and that everything fears him. Everything except the rats, that is.


Turtle Tips:

*This story takes place during the time the Turtles spent exiled to Northampton, before TMNT (Vol. 1) #19.

*The Rat King’s Origin will be explored in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #35.

*Casey’s love of spray paint art was previously established in “Fun With Guns”.

*The Rat King will return in TMNT (Vol. 1) #55.

*For the Tales of the TMNT Original Vol. 1 Series Treasury Edition trade paperback collection (whew!), the original frontispiece was swapped out with a new one by Jim Lawson, tying into a larger story arc going through all the new frontispieces created for that collection.

*This issue was adapted for the 4Kids animated series into the episode, “I, Monster”.

*This issue also contained a pin-up page by Butch Adams.


Review:

This is by far one of my favorite Turtle comics and comes so close to taking the cake as my all-time pick, too. It’s just such an incredibly well-crafted, well-paced and well-written horror story, with a mysterious villain, an eerie setting and lots of gruesome imagery. This is Jim Lawson and Ryan Brown at their absolute best.

The story is told almost completely from the point of view of the Rat King and you get lost in his mania as the story progresses. For a guy with no origin, you’d think he’d be a rather shallow enemy, but the inner monologue that he provides actually fleshes him out to a fascinating extent. The dude’s just plain crazy and thinks that he’s a monster. Well, for the moment, anyway. Previously, he thought he was a ghost, but decided that was old hat and changed his persona. He isn’t an “actual” monster, but a guy dressed up in bandages and rags who thinks he is, and in a way, that makes him a “real” monster. He even considers this when he’s about to kill Mike; that murder is what is necessary for him to make that leap. And yet, despite following him and getting into his head as the main character of the story, the Rat King doesn’t cease to be frightening, thanks in large part to Lawson’s really freaky design for the character and Brown’s ferocious inking.

The ending of this issue is wonderfully complimented by the Rat King’s next appearance during “City at War”, where we find out that he didn’t survive the fall. It gives that final splash page this spectral quality, as it may very well be the Rat King’s ghost sitting on the floor of the room, surrounded by Rats. In life, he could never befriend them no matter how hard he tried, but in death he succeeded. The Rat King’s subsequent appearances, as a mysterious spirit guide to Splinter would make him one of the most fascinating and eerie returning characters in the Mirage comic, enhanced by the fact that he was utilized very sparingly.

Of course, an ill-conceived origin was created for him in the second volume of Tales of the TMNT which I absolutely do not care for. I’ll save my thoughts for that review, but the fact of the matter is, the mysterious and unknown quality of the Rat King is what makes him so disturbing and attractive at the same time. You can come up with a million different origins for this guy in your head and any one of them will do; a concrete back story robs him of his mystique. Personally, I choose to ignore that issue of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2).

I’ve said before that the first volume of Tales of the TMNT is my absolute favorite era of Jim Lawson’s work. His style is more rounded-off and detailed and the inks and tones from Ryan Brown really give it an edge. This issue, especially, showcases how good Lawson is at drawing gritty, dilapidated architecture. The entire maze-like factory is just this wonderfully horrible setting; like the labyrinth of the Minotaur. I absolutely love it. Ryan Brown’s editorial intro to the issue features a rather descriptive anecdote about his time in Cleveland and what inspired the factory setting of this story, and the guy paints a rather spooky picture.

The only real problem with this story is the lettering by Steve Lavigne. The dude messes up a LOT of speech bubbles. On page 6, Don’s lines are attributed to Raph (and they sound really out of character coming from him), Mike responds to his own observation on page 9, and I’d like to think that Raph’s line on page 23, “This smells of a trap”, was meant for Leo, because that just doesn’t sound like something Raph would say. The lettering errors are unfortunate, as they bring what would otherwise be a totally flawless issue down a hair of a peg.

But even considering those errors, this is still my favorite issue of Tales of the TMNT and one of my favorite Turtle comics period. The 4Kids cartoon’s adaptation was really damn good, too, and I would recommend it to anyone. It changed a lot of things, chief among them the nature of the Rat King. And yet, despite my earlier criticisms, I thought the origin they gave him in the cartoon actually fit well with their adaptation of this story and the show's ongoing narrative, so it didn’t bug me so much. Whatever version you go with, this is one of the best TMNT stories ever told.

Grade: A+ (as in, “All except for Don shouting ‘yabba dabba doo’, anyway”.)