Publication date: April 24, 2013
Story: Kevin Eastman
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Kevin Eastman
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
"City Fall - Prologue"
"City Fall - Prologue"
Summary:
On the rooftops of New York City, the Turtles are
finishing up their training and preparing to go home. Overlooking the city, they discuss the sudden
upsurge in violent activity beyond what the Big Apple’s used to. A foreboding feeling washes over them. Suddenly, a mysterious, masked stranger leaps
down between them and begins laying into them all. The masked stranger won’t identify himself,
but easily counters all of the TMNT’s moves, shattering Don’s bo staff in the
skirmish. He tells them that the old rat
in the church has taught them poorly and vanishes with a smoke bomb. The Turtles, fearing he knows too much, give
chase.
They find the masked stranger a short distance away,
sitting peacefully on a rooftop. Leo
warns them that it’s a trap, but Raph rushes in, anyway. Using savate and parkour styles, he trounces
the Turtles yet again and escapes into the sewers.
Presuming home turf advantage, the Turtles expect to make
short work of the masked stranger in the sewers. They’re wrong, though, as the enemy sneaks up
on them and, using the wing chun style, catches them all off guard and deftly
counters their moves. Raph accuses him
of being in league with the Foot Clan, but the masked stranger denies
affiliation with either the Foot or the Savate.
He then says that by besting the students, he’s earned the right to face
their master in his dojo and races off to the church lair.
The Turtles find the masked stranger awaiting them in the
graveyard by the church. The stranger
throws them each a bo staff and promises to fight them with nothing but his own
staff. Leo attempts to use his swords in
the battle, but the stranger breaks them.
He then proceeds to disarm and take down each Turtle. The stranger breaks into the church, but the Turtles
won’t stay down and follow him. They try
cornering him, but the stranger just smacks them aside AGAIN.
Don, having had enough of being humiliated, faces the
masked stranger one-on-one in a bo staff duel.
Don explains that the staff the stranger broke was a gift from his father
and master. He then disarms the
stranger. The other Turtles rally and
the stranger calls it quits. He then
takes off his mask, revealing… Master Splinter.
Splinter congratulates his sons on their performance and apologizes
for the deception. He explains that
there is something happening in the city and it is leading to big trouble on
the horizon. Splinter tells them that
they must all be ready for the unexpected if they are to survive what is to
come.
In Japan, Dr. Miller leads the Shredder, Karai and a unit
of Foot Soldiers to an old, secluded mansion.
He promises Shredder that his research has proven conclusively that “it”
is in this location. The Foot Soldiers
dig beneath the house and eventually find a casket. They open it to find the body of Kitsune,
perfectly preserved in ooze.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #20. The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #22.
*The Turtles last met the Savate Ninja in TMNT Annual 2012.
*Dr. Miller joined the Foot Clan and was tasked with
locating Kitsune’s resting place in TMNT: The Secret History of the Foot Clan#4.
*This issue was originally published with 6 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Eastman and Pattison, Rover RI by Dean Haspiel and
Allen Passalaqua, Subscription Variant by Eastman and Pattison, Cover RE
Jetpack Exclusive by Eastman, Cover RE Dynamic Forces Exclusive by Eastman and
Pattison, Cover RE Ottawa ComiCon Exclusive by Andy Kuhn and Daniel “PeZ”
Lopez.
Review:
With the “Krang War” behind us, we move into IDW’s next
big arc: “City Fall”. The name itself
summons memories and feelings attached to the celebrated Mirage “City at War”
arc, which might set it up for undo comparison.
“City at War” was, after all, one of the crowning achievements of the
original Mirage run.
But let’s try to be fair and not succumb to our baser
instincts that demand we compare the two arcs.
It won’t be easy, but we can do it if we try.
This arc seems to have been foreshadowed as far back as
TMNT (IDW) #6, when the dying Savate ninja warned of a war looming on the
horizon that will engulf the whole city.
We’ve had ample time for the aggressions needed to incite that war to
percolate and I look forward to learning just which spark sets off the “City Fall”
powder keg. Was it the hierarchy shakeup
within the Savate organization that occurred in TMNT Annual 2012? Was it the brazen operations conducted by the
Foot in Secret History of the Foot Clan?
Was it the Purple Dragons stepping away from crime and toward community
watch in TMNT (IDW) #11? Was it all
these things combined? We’ll have to wait
and see.
But the point is that the escalating crime and violence
in New York City isn’t some sudden plot point fabricated at the beginning of
this issue to facilitate the “City Fall” arc.
As you can see, all these aspects of the New York City underworld
present in the IDW comic from the start have been leading somewhere (presumably
here). The Turtles are only just now
starting to notice that things are really beginning to take a turn for the
worse. The way the Turtles stare out
over the city and comment on the intangible sensation of dread was just a
little too trite, but to Waltz’s credit he fought off any urges to include cliché
lines like, “There’s a war down there”.
So hey, good on him.
I suppose my problem with the issue is that it’s rather repetitive. The masked stranger
beats the Turtles up, mocks them, runs away and then we wash and repeat three more times. The suspense comes from the “mystery” behind
the masked stranger, but one glance at his familiar mutant posture should spell out his
identity right from the start. Waltz and
Eastman attempt to maintain the secret by having the stranger speak in a way
incongruent with how Splinter talks (making lots of puns, dropping oneliners and
pulling pranks), but rather than make the reveal seem less obvious, it instead feels really awkward. Does this mean that Splinter
can talk like a cackling, pun-spewing douche whenever he feels like it, but
only puts on the guise of a mild, reserved sensei for appearances? Or is “theater acting” a ninja skill that
Splinter also mastered back in the day?
Also, with this issue coming directly after Secret History of the Foot Clan,
it really didn’t take Dr. Miller long to find Kitsune’s body, did it? “Hey, you’re hired. Find her body.” “Okay!
Here it is!” “That’s some good
work.”
This is the first full issue of Kevin Eastman’s IDW work
to be colored and Pattison proves to be a great complement. Eastman’s pencils and inks are “classic” and
having a modern colorist attached runs the risk of completely altering the
atmosphere of his work (the modern colorizations of “Fun with Guns” and Raphael (microseries) #1 seen in TMNT 25th are especially guilty of this). Pattison, though, provides colors that are
perfectly fitting and don’t try to overshadow Eastman’s lines. For another example of the opposite, look at
Cam Kennedy’s older Star Wars work, such as “Dark Empire” or “Boba Fett: Death,
Lies and Treachery”. Then look at his modern work in “Boba Fett: Sacrifice” and “Boba Fett: Agent of Doom”. So much of the look and feel we associate
with Cam Kennedy’s Star Wars comics is inextricably tied to that older style of
coloring. Modern coloring techniques with
all their heavy photoshop filters and effects just completely change that
atmosphere and quality to the point where you might not even recognize the
latter works as Kennedy’s.
So once again, I can’t say enough good things about Pattison’s
more laid back approach to coloring seen in IDW’s TMNT book. It complements the pencils rather than try to
drown them in a sea of lens flares and smear techniques.
Overall, I found this one to be a bit of a dull
read. It hinges on a major reveal that’s
plainly telegraphed from the start. What’s
left is an issue-long fight sequence that quite frankly grows tiresome as it
cycles through the same shtick four or five times. Kevin Eastman’s art is always a pleasure,
Pattison makes it look great in color and there’s certainly a sense of build-up
for the big “City Fall” arc, but the storytelling execution in this one just
left me a bit underwhelmed.
Grade: C (as in, “Can’t say I was very surprised that the
issue was one long, running battle. Long,
running battles are basically Kevin Eastman’s thing,”)
