Publication date: July, 1993
Story: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
Script: Jim Lawson and Peter Laird
Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Jason Temujin Minor
Letters: Mary Kelleher
Tones: Eric Talbot
Cover: A.C. Farley
“City at War, Part 12 of 13”
Summary:
In the ruins of the Second Time Around shop, the Elite
Guard is about to slit the helpless Karai’s throat. Don realizes he can’t make it to her in time
and, seeing a discarded machinegun by a dead Foot Soldier, understands that he
has no choice. Don shoots the Elite
Guard and saves Karai, then throws the gun away in disgust. Karai tries to help him up, but Don’s leg is
broken.
Elsewhere in New York, April enters the apartment
building she was looking at buying with her inherited fortune. The owner, Mrs. Jones, greets April and gives
her a tour. She says she’d been looking
to sell the place since her husband, Herb, died five years ago. Mrs. Jones takes April down to the basement
to introduce her to the handyman; her son, Arnold. “Arnold”, of course, turns out to be Casey
Jones. Reunited at last, April and Casey
embrace. Mrs. Jones decides to get the
paperwork ready.
Back in the Second Time Around shop, Leo and the final
Elite Guard are having a one-on-one duel on an upper floor. Leo slashes the Guard across his gut and the
Guard, in return, disarms Leo and kicks him in the face. Leo tackles the Guard through a hole in the
floor and they both tumble down a story.
They fight hand-to-hand for a while until Leo finally takes the Guard
from behind and slowly breaks his neck.
Having watched the battle from the floor above, Raph and Mike comment
that it’s all over.
In the hospital, a nurse tells Mr. Buscheyev that the
doctor will be discharging him soon. Mr.
Buscheyev packs his things and sits sullenly on his bed.
At the antique shop, Leo forms a splint for Don’s leg
while Mike makes a travois to carry him out of the building. Karai promises to fulfill her end of the
bargain now that the Foot civil war is over; the Turtles will never be bothered
by the Foot Clan again. Mikey asks what
Karai plans to do next. She says that
she’ll return to Japan to spread her daughter’s ashes in Asana Bay then she’ll
get back to managing the Japanese branch of the Foot and restoring proper order
to the organization. Karai says that
although she grieves for her daughter, her loyalty to the Foot doesn’t allot
her much freedom. She tells the Turtles
that now that they are free from the shadow of the Shredder, they should use
the opportunity well. Leo assures her
that they will.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 1) #60. The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 1) #62.
*How Casey’s dad died will be revealed in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #56. In that story, his
father’s death will be retconned to have happened more than 5 years ago.
*Though Karai holds to her truce, the Turtles will continue
to encounter rogue factions of the Foot from time to time. They’ll meet a faction commanded by the Shark
Shredder in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #33, Foot separatists will continue to make
trouble in the “Gang Wars” arc beginning in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #36, a rogue Foot Soldier will seek revenge in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #5, the
Oroku Family will seek to circumvent the truce in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2)#65 and, in the Image series, turmoil amongst dissenting members of the Foot
hierarchy will momentarily break the truce in TMNT (Vol. 3) #22.
*Chronologically, Karai will appear next in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #43.
*In the branching Image continuity, surviving members of the Foot Elite Guard will return in TMNT (Vol. 3) #16.
*In the distant future, Karai-herself will finally break
the truce in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #40.
Review:
“City at War” set the bar pretty high. It took all the characters to their lowest
point, explored them inside and out, then set them free to rise above their
shortcomings and grow before our eyes. Where
the heck do you go from here? That’s a
problem the Mirage series never really succeeded in getting over (and a fact
Karai and the Turtles discuss in the last pages of this issue).
But I’m getting ahead of myself. That discussion is best saved for the next
and last issue. Here, we finally
conclude the action and, even though it’s only 20 pages, the fight is pretty
great. I mentioned last review that
these Foot Elite Guards seem like more of a handful than the Shredder and,
indeed, Leo seems to have more trouble taking down the last Elite Guard than he
did Oroku Saki. Chalk it up to the
nature of one-upsmanship; Lawson was obliged to draw a more epic battle than
before and, as a result, a nameless Elite Guard comes off as a fiercer opponent than
the Shredder ever was.
The brutality of the showdown is especially striking, as it
devolves from a sword duel, to hand-to-hand, to straight-up dirty fighting. While there’s grace and fluidity in Lawson’s
layouts, the same can’t be said for the battle itself. Leo loses his cool and in one panel looks
like he’s trying to gouge the Elite Guard’s eyes out. Then they tumble over a ledge, punch and kick
each other and Leo finally triumphs not with some flashy ninja move, but by
sloppily breaking the Guard’s neck from behind.
It really shows how the Turtles, even cool-as-a-cucumber Leo, have
reached the end of their rope and are just unleashing themselves like beasts.
That’s also evident in Don’s takedown of the Elite Guard
threatening Karai. He breaks out a
machinegun to save the day and feels disgust over what he’s been forced to
do. Don having an objection to firearms,
admittedly, is something that’s never come up before now, and might have done
better with some foreshadowing, but the reaction in the scene gets the idea
across just fine. Splinter didn’t raise
them to use guns and he views them as the weapon of the enemy.
In my review for “Temps” I came down a little hard on the
message of “City at War”, and I suppose I should elaborate here. The story in itself is about consequences and
how the cycle of violence inevitably leads to more violence; a never-ending circle. And that's a great message which, when the arc begins, is very well illustrated. My problem is that this penultimate issue essentially
uses violence to end all violence, contradicting that message. By slaughtering all their enemies, the
Turtles are now free from the consequences of their past actions (save for a
few isolated incidents here and there).
The moral ends up becoming, “violence only leads to more violence until
you massacre all who stand in your way, and then you’re invincible”.
From the standpoint of delivering a message to the
audience, the truce with Karai does more damage than good. But, from the standpoint of telling an
ongoing narrative about the Turtles, the truce offers a breath of fresh
air. We’ve reached an end to the Turtles
vs. Foot Clan arc, at least for now, and that lets the Turtles set their
baggage down and have all sorts of crazy new Foot-free adventures. Of course, robbing TMNT of the Foot also ends
up robbing the series of any discernible direction, but at least the potential
was there.
Grade: A (as in, “And really, Mrs. Jones? $850 a month for the cheapest rent? In 1993 dollars? That’d be $1,350 bucks a month, today! And your max rent is $1,200 a month? That’s $1,900 a month, now. Your apartment building ain’t the Ritz, lady”.)
