Publication date: October 31, 2012
Story: Kevin Eastman
Script: Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz
Art: Kevin Eastman
Letters: Robbie Robbins with Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Dedicated to: Peter Laird
"Big Trouble in Little Italy" (title taken from color edition)
Summary:
On the rooftops, Leo, Don and Mike finish up their
workout and head home. Raph, however, is
on his own workout with Casey Jones (though it’s more goofing off than working out). Horsing around, Raph tackles Casey and knocks
his bat into the street. Going down into
the street to retrieve it, they witness a car hit a telephone pole. The crash sends a briefcase flying out the
window and into the shopping cart of an old bum. Fearing the car might explode, they pull the
two passengers out of the wreckage right as cops and a news crew pull up. Two hoods that were standing in the middle of
the street and thus caused the crash, Timmy Two-Shoes and Kanada, recognize the
limo as belonging to the Savate Ninja gang and decide to sneak off before they
get in trouble.
Five minutes earlier.
The limo is filled with hoods working for the Savate Ninja, namely Louis
Royo and Max Frezatto. They’re on their
way to deliver tribute to the Foot Clan and broker peace. Suddenly, the driver sees two hoods in the
middle of the street staring at a baseball bat and swerves into a telephone
pole. The briefcase containing their
tribute flies into the cart of a bum named Kid Kennedy, who used to be a boxer
in the good ole days. He decides to take
it to his friend, Fergie, as a gift.
Back to the present, Casey reclaims his bat and slinks
away with Raph. Detectives Frank Corbin
and Richard Miller arrive on the scene and both are pissed. As it happens, both are in cahoots with
different members of the Savate Ninja and had planned to ambush the car, though
neither detective knows that the other is on the take.
Elsewhere, Two-Shoes and Kanada bump into Kid and,
realizing that a briefcase belonging to the Savate Ninja must have good stuff
inside, try to take it from him. Kid
starts beating them down and is joined by his friend, Fergie, another former
boxer. Finally, Brooklyn S. Bridge,
owner of the nearby Skara Brae pub, comes out and scares them off. Raph and Casey happen upon the scuffle just
as the two thugs run off, leaving the case behind. The case pops open, revealing a payload of
diamonds.
Five minutes earlier.
Angel and the Purple Dragons decide to head over to the Skara Brae and
see if they can do some odd jobs to get some cash off of her dad,
Brooklyn. At the Skara Brae, Brooklyn is
telling Fergie all about his plans to one day leave the squalor of New York
behind. They hear a noise outside and go
to break up the fight. Of course, they
find the diamonds, which brings us back to…
The present. Brooklyn
tells Casey, Raph, Fergie and Kid to grab the diamonds and get inside. Closing the pub, he asks Casey (who is
friends with his daughter, Angel) what he knows about the briefcase. Casey retells the story of the crash and
Brooklyn decides that they should keep the diamonds, as there’s no sense in
giving them back to the Savate gang. The
others aren’t so sure about keeping stolen goods for themselves. Suddenly, someone starts banging on the door.
Five minutes earlier.
Detective Corbin talks to his Savate insider, Max, about the screwed up
ambush. Max tells Corbin to keep
Detective Miller busy while he and Louis look for the diamonds Once they find them, he’ll take Louis out of
the picture. Miller, meanwhile, is
talking to HIS Savate insider, Louis, and they pretty much make the same
deal. As Miller and Corbin keep each
other busy, Max and Louis go to find a phone and call in the bad news to
Fabrice, the leader of the Savate Ninja.
Now. Max and Louis
demand that Brooklyn open up and let them use the phone. Brooklyn has Casey hide the diamonds and lets
the two thugs inside the pub. Max calls
Fabrice, who is furious about the crash.
He suspects a doublecross from the Foot Clan and orders his second in
command, Victor, to get to the scene and find the diamonds. Victor calls his NYPD insider, Miller, and
wants to know what’s going on.
Apparently, Victor has designs on taking control of the Savate Ninja and
had worked with Miller to orchestrate an ambush that never happened.
Five freakin’ minutes earlier. At the Second Time Around shop, the Turtles
catch a news report about a pair of masked Halloween revelers that valiantly
pulled two injured men from a car crash.
Splinter, angrily, recognizes the two teens caught on tape as Raph and
Casey. The Turtles head out to find
Raph and get him home when they spot Victor and the Savate Ninja jumping across
the roofs. They decide to follow them to
where the action is at.
Now. At the pub,
Max calls Corbin, who tells him that something funny’s going on and he needs to
get back to the crash scene fast. Max
and Louis leave and Brooklyn continues his debate with Fergie, Kid, Raph and
Casey. The others vote him down and Fergie and
Kid leave to return the briefcase of stolen diamonds to the scene of the crime.
At Foot HQ, a Foot Soldier returns with news of the crash
and missing tribute. Karai suspects that
it was orchestrated by the Savate Ninja, so Shredder sends her and a unit of
Foot Soldiers to see what’s going on.
In an alley, Max is about to shoot Louis in the back of
the head when he hears Two-Shoes and Kanada talking about the briefcase full of
diamonds. They beat the info out of the
thugs that Brooklyn has the diamonds at the Skara Brae. Max and Louis each make private phone calls
and report back to Corbin and Miller about the diamonds. Another Savate thug, overhearing, calls
Fabrice with the same news. Fabrice
decides to head to the pub himself and get to the bottom of things.
At the pub, Casey and Raph decide to follow Fergie and
Kid, as they notice they aren’t heading back to the crash scene. It turns out Kid has a brain disorder and
needs an operation to fix it. Fergie
wants to fence the diamonds to pay for his friend's operation. Near the docks, though, they’re confronted by
Victor and the Savate Ninja. Casey and
Raph jump out of the shadows to help the old timers and they’re joined by the
other three Turtles. Then Karai and the
Foot Soldiers show up and an all-out brawl ensues, with each side desperate to
get the briefcase.
At the pub, Corbin, Miller, Max and Louis burst in and
try to shake down Brooklyn for the diamonds.
Fabrice and his guards then arrive and accuse Max and Louis of betraying
him. Then Angel and the Purple Dragons
stumble in, looking to borrow $20 bucks from Angel’s dad. An all-out brawl ensues.
At the docks, the briefcase is being passed around like a
football between factions. Eventually,
Casey gets a hold of it. Sick of the
whole thing, Casey opens the case up and dumps all the diamonds into the
river. The SWAT team arrives to break up
the fight, but as soon as they shine their lights, all three ninja factions
vanish, leaving behind only an old baseball bat that Casey dropped.
The next day.
Fabrice, Max and Louis share a jail cell, having been busted by the SWAT
team at the pub. Corbin and Miller both agree to
never deal with Ninja factions again and decide to work together on something
else. At Foot HQ, Karai tells Shredder
that the Savate Ninja have refused the tribute.
Shredder declares war on them. At
Savate HQ, Victor takes command now that Fabrice is in jail. At the Skara Brae pub, Angel helps Brooklyn
clean up as Fergie and Kid tell the same old jokes to each other. In an alley, Two-Shoes and Kanada wake up and
decide they’ve had enough of briefcases.
At the Second Time Around shop, Splinter has punished
Casey and Raph for being seen on TV with an epic day’s worth of dishes to
clean. When the job is finished, they
decide to blow off some steam with a rooftop workout. Horsing around, Raph tackles Casey and sends
his bat flying into the street…
Turtle Tips:
*This story takes place between TMNT (IDW) #14 and TMNT Micro-Series #7: April. (As confirmed by IDW's trade paperback reading order.)
*The TMNT: IDW Collection Vol. 3 hardcover places the Annual between TMNT (IDW) #20 and TMNT (IDW) #21. This was done as a matter of space, as the Annual could not fit in Vol. 2. Thematically, the Annual acts as a prelude to the "City Fall" arc and is entirely self-contained, so it reads just fine in either established placement.
*The TMNT: IDW Collection Vol. 3 hardcover places the Annual between TMNT (IDW) #20 and TMNT (IDW) #21. This was done as a matter of space, as the Annual could not fit in Vol. 2. Thematically, the Annual acts as a prelude to the "City Fall" arc and is entirely self-contained, so it reads just fine in either established placement.
*The Savate Ninja last appeared in TMNT (IDW) #6.
*Detectives Richard Miller and Frank Corbin are,
obviously, named in honor of Richard Corben and Frank Miller, two of Eastman’s
biggest influences as an artist.
*This issue was originally published with 6 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Eastman, Retailer Incentive Cover by Eastman, RE Cover
(blue) by Eastman for Jetpack Comics, RE Cover (black and white) by Eastman for
Jetpack Comics, RE Cover (blank) for Jetpack Comics, and RE Cover (blank with
bandanas) for Jetpack Comics.
*On January 21, 2014, the Annual was rereleased in a Deluxe Edition which featured all new colors from Ronda Pattison.
*On January 21, 2014, the Annual was rereleased in a Deluxe Edition which featured all new colors from Ronda Pattison.
Review:
Believe it or not, but the last time Kevin Eastman wrote
and drew an issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in August of 1992… A little over 20 years ago.
There’s an epic-length interview with Eastman that was
conducted by the Comics Journal back in the 90s, and in that interview he
discusses how running the growing TMNT business devoured all of his time and
kept him from doing what he got into comics to do in the first place: write and
draw. It’s a shame that it took two
decades for things to finally work out so he could take up pen and pencil
again, but I’m glad he was finally able to strut his stuff after all this time.
If “Ready, Set, Go” was a 4-page taste of Eastman's return, TMNT Annual 2012
is the sumptuous banquet. Despite taking
place in a different universe than the one he crafted in the 80s, this book is
packed not only with classic Mirage-isms, but unmistakable Eastman-isms that'll take you back in time.
When it comes to storytelling, Eastman has long been a proponent
of “flying by the seat of your pants” momentum.
In tales such as “The Unmentionables”, “Fun With Guns” and “Bodycount”,
you’ll notice similar situations: The main characters find themselves inadvertently
caught in the middle of some convoluted crime and are forced along for the ride
at a breakneck pace, improvising along the way. Sometimes this works out to hilarious effect
(“The Unmentionables”) and sometimes the joke wears really thin, really fast (“Bodycount”),
but it’s nevertheless a trademark of Eastman’s writing and one of his most
charming traits.
The untitled story in this Annual, in my opinion, is one
of the best examples of Eastman’s style and, in a way, almost a self-parody of
his own clichés. The doublecrossing
detectives that are unknowingly doublecrossing each other and thus nullifying
their own schemes was one of my favorite touches, as the idea just frolics in its own absurdity. The convergence
of the multiple warring factions, with Casey and the Turtles caught in the middle,
is another fingerprint of “A Kevin Eastman Joint”, but he cranks the trope up
to an eleven with the climax of this Annual.
Fergie and Kid are dramatically accosted by Victor and the Savate
Ninja. Then they’re dramatically
accosted by Casey and Raph. Then they’re
dramatically accosted by Leo and the Turtles.
Then THEY’RE dramatically accosted by Karai and the Foot Clan. And by the time it’s all over, EVERYONE is
dramatically accosted by the SWAT team.
And that’s not all.
While all THAT is going on, Brooklyn is dramatically accosted by Miller,
Corbin, Max and Louis (who unintentionally bump into each other at the scene). Then they’re all dramatically accosted by
Fabrice and his goons. Then Angel and
the Purple Dragons show up and it’s all just pandemonium.
To be less sugar-coated, I’ve always found Eastman’s almost stream of
consciousness “running battle” style of writing to be a bit unfocused and
sloppy (I could barely make it through his “Melting Pot” graphic novel
published in Heavy Metal a few years back).
I think that’s where Tom Waltz comes in with this script, helping keep
the best parts of Eastman’s approach to storytelling in check and not letting
the madness spiral too far out of control.
The constant flashbacks to “five minutes ago” became a hilarious gag
toward the end and helped to add some extra oomph to what would otherwise be a
pretty straightly delivered story.
As part of the ongoing IDW TMNT saga, it picks up on a
plot thread left dangling for nearly a year.
We finally learn the Savate Ninja’s deal, though revealing them in such
an almost comical manner might have been more of a disservice to their threat
than a favor. I’m not sure how big a
part they’re going to play in the grand scheme of Eastman and Waltz’s TMNT
universe, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
As for the art, well, it’s classic Eastman and it’s a joy
to see him doing more than just layouts or short back-ups. He hasn’t lost his knack for action staging and the duo-tone shading gave the book such a wonderfully nostalgic feel. While so many people recognize the old Mirage
TMNT comics for their gore and violence, I never felt this tale lost a beat by
omitting the blood and guts. It doesn’t
feel like “neutered Mirage” in the slightest.
This Annual was a wonderful early Christmas gift from
Eastman and everybody at IDW. I
certainly hope they make a tradition of it.
Eastman’s dedication to Laird on the credit's page was nice and also leaves me hopeful that
we might get a truly classic Eastman/Laird team-up some day (which, again, we
haven’t seen since TMNT (Vol. 1) #50).
Having this annual released the same day as TMNT #15, well, I think I
may have just overdosed on Turtles.
Grade: B- (as in, “But, man, when was the last time
Eastman drew Splinter? I’m genuinely
curious”.)
