Publication date: October, 1992
Story: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Script: Jim Lawson and Peter Laird
Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Keith Aiken
Letters: Mary Kelleher
Cover: A.C. Farley
“City at War, Part 3 of 13”
Summary:
At a bus stop in New York, a businessman waits with a
briefcase.
In Colorado, Casey wakes up in Gabrielle’s trailer. She offers him breakfast, but his busted jaw
isn’t feeling up to it. She says she has
to head to work, but Casey’s welcomed to hang around until he gets his stolen
car squared with the police. As
Gabrielle leaves, Casey calls the police to report his missing vehicle, but
quickly hangs up. Grabbing a beer, he
takes a look at the scenery around the lonesome trailer and goes for a walk.
In LA, April reads an edition of the New York Times
covering the recent slaughter of a cult gang called “the Feet” resulting in a
massive underworld turf war. April
suddenly flashes back to the time when the Foot burned down the Second Time
Around shop and she and the Turtles barely survived. Robyn snaps her out of it and suggests they
go shopping and get their hair done.
In the woods of Northampton, Splinter sits and prepares a
cup of tea. He loses focus and spills
the ladle. Enraged, he slaps the pot
aside and curses to himself.
Meanwhile, Casey and Gabrielle have finished their
lunch. Gabrielle invites Casey to stay
as long as he wants and the two kiss.
On a bus in New York, the businessman opens his briefcase
which contains a portable computer with satellite internet link-up. He hacks into the Con Ed system and changes
the billing history of a nearby building to seven months past due. At the Con Ed facility, they notice the flag
on their system and cut the building’s power.
Inside the building, several Foot Soldiers are busy preparing some high
tech equipment.
In Tokyo, Japan, the Japanese branch of the Foot have
gathered in a conference room to discuss reports from the New York branch. Apparently the New York Foot have broken
apart into factions and are currently waging a war that is compromising the
organization’s secrecy. One of the
higher-ups believes it to be folly to delay acting any longer, but a mysterious
woman tells the group that in chaos there is weakness and it may be to their
advantage to wait.
Back in New York, the Turtles take down some
muggers. Raph whines that they aren’t
making any progress on their search for the Foot and that cleaning up hoods isn’t
their job (meanwhile, the old man in the hospital is helped out of his bed by a
nurse). Leo reminds him that they need
to be patient and wait for an opportunity to present itself.
Suddenly, a van filled with Foot Soldiers drives by and
drops off a huge bipedal robot with claws.
The robot attacks the bus carrying the businessman that shut off the
Foot’s power. Several other Foot
Soldiers spill into the streets to attack the robot and all Hell breaks
loose. The Turtles join the fray and
Raph eventually brings the robot down.
Just then, not only do the cops and more Foot Soldiers arrive, but so do
two more robots. Mike ponders if things
could get any worse.
From a rooftop, a Foot Elite Guard watches the chaos.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 1) #51. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 1) #53.
*April flashes back to the destruction of the Second Time
Around shop seen in TMNT (Vol. 1) #10.
*Back story on the mysterious woman from the Japanese branch of the Foot (Karai) can be seen in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #44.
*A poster on Page 20 advertises Plastron Café.
*CHET ALERT: Robyn suggests she and April go to a sale at
“Mr. Chet’s”. When the Turtles confront
the robot, a store named “Chet’s” can be seen in the background. The name “Chet” was an Easter Egg snuck into
several TMNT stories by the Mirage crew because… they just liked the name!
*According to the letters page, the Turtles are 16 years
old at this point in the storyline.
That… doesn’t really gel with the timeline so far, though. But really, whose keeping track?
Review:
That Gabe chick sure is easy, isn’t she? Not that I dislike her or anything, but she’s
almost dangerously quick to let a complete stranger move in with her. Regardless, it’s actually an important moment for
Casey, as this is when he chooses to let go of his Chevy, the material
possession he’s been shown to prize over just about everything else in the world. He says good bye to a childish infatuation
and starts thinking about finding something of real value.
Sadly, most of the issues of TMNT Vol. 1 that illustrate
Casey’s obsession with his Chevy were guest issues and are thus “non canon”, so
the symbolism might be lost on readers who haven’t seen those less-reprinted
and harder to find stories.
Anyway, one of the things you’ll notice about “City at
War” is that it feels very “cinematic”.
There are establishing shots, long sequences without dialogue that set a
tone or tell a story entirely through visuals and lots of rapid cuts back and
forth between the characters and their arcs.
It’s one of the stronger aspects of “City at War”, as the decompressed pacing and the
visual storytelling structure really lay on the atmosphere and heighten the tension
of the sequences.
Lawson would try this approach in other stories of his,
most notably “The Brain Thief”, and it wouldn’t quite work out as well. I think the reason he can get away with it in
“City at War” is because this arc is a whopping 13 issues long, with each
installment running between 25 and 30 pages (sometimes more than that). He has a LOT of room to work with and sparse
out the drama and the action. The approach
doesn’t work quite as well in a 4-issue miniseries.
Splinter’s arc is finally worth talking about, as we can
at last see that the breaking up of the family is beginning to get to him. Looking strictly at the Volume 1 series (and not in issues of Tales that slot in-between them),
Splinter’s been sort of an enigma. He
was an ever present source of wisdom and guidance during the early issues set
in New York, but once the action moved to Northampton, he pretty much drifted
off into the background (Guest Era issues aside). We don’t see how being exiled from New York
affected him in TMNT (Vol. 1) #11 and the Turtles return to New York to defeat
the Shredder without consulting him at all in TMNT (Vol. 1) #19. In a way, it’s as though he’s become obsolete
in the lives of his children/pupils, who are now making major life decisions
without running them past his scrutiny. Splinter being rendered superfluous to the
plot is slowly being addressed, as he’s now the one left directionless and has
to cope with uncertainty.
As for the Turtles, I was amused by Raph’s statement that
fighting street crime isn’t their responsibility; that the only thing that
matters to the Turtles is taking down the Foot.
It’s a great spotlight on what differentiates the Mirage TMNT from their
cartoon and more mainstream counterparts.
The original Mirage TMNT weren’t created to be superheroes. They don’t go on patrol like Batman and fight
crime. Sure, they’ll get involved if
they’re in close proximity to danger because they have functioning moral
compasses, but they aren’t “guardians” of truth and justice. They’re ninja. They’re assassins. And they’re at war with a rival ninja
clan. Any other adventures they partake
in are either out of accident or boredom.
Obviously, that doesn’t paint them in a very marketable light
and, yeah, I don’t think we’ve ever seen the Mirage Turtles walk away from
helping someone in mortal danger. But
Raph’s dialogue still underscores one of the fundamental differences between
the Mirage TMNT and the, well, more marketable cartoon and kid-comic
incarnations. They’re a warring ninja
clan first and “superheroes” second. If
at all.
Grade: B+ (as in, “But messing with each other’s electric
bills? Now the Foot Clan factions are
just getting petty”.)
