TMNT III manga Chapter 1: Translated and ready to read!

Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Chapter 1: "Time Warp!?" is translated and ready to download over at the Optical Internet Translation Gang's homepage!

This is the first of 6 chapters from the Comic Bom Bom adaptation of the third live-action TMNT film.  The original story and art was by Haato Mikaeru, the translation was by myself, the image-editing was by Cryomancer of the Optical Internet Translation Gang and the scans were provided by Adam Winters.

You'll notice right off the bat that this adaptation deviates considerably from the actual TMNT III, with a cameo appearance from a certain serrated villain in the opening pages.  I did my best to preserve the puns (or localize them wherever possible) and speech patterns of certain characters (Kenshin in particular).  Hopefully you get a kick out of all this weirdness.

Now that Chapter 1 is done, I'm going to get started on Chapter 2.  That means reviews might be a little scarce for the next week or two while I devote my daily allotment of Turtle Time to translating.  I'll try to throw up some Awesome Turtle Pictures to maintain an update status, though.

And if you haven't explored it yet, there's quite a backlog of translated TMNT manga archived on this site you may wish to check out!

TMNT (IDW) #22

Publication date: May 29, 2013

Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow and Tom Waltz

Script: Tom Waltz

Art: Mateus Santolouco

Colors: Ronda Pattison

Letters: Shawn Lee

Editor: Bobby Curnow

“City Fall, Part One”

Summary:

At Foot HQ, Shredder confers with Kitsune.  He tells her that ever since Victor took command of the Savate (a rival ninja crime syndicate operating in New York), he has proven to be a brazen and coordinated foe to the Foot Clan.  Shredder feels now is the time to strike.

Outside the Skara Brae, Casey is keeping tabs on his father (who is getting loaded), much to Raph’s impatience.  As they walk away, they’re ambushed by several Foot Soldiers.  The Foot Soldiers take them down, tie them up and throw them into separate vans.  As Karai discusses her plans to take their captives to the docks, Raph breaks his bonds and escapes from the van.  Karai remarks to herself that all is going according to plan.

Down in the church lair, Splinter gives Leo a tutorial in the katsugi men technique while Don shows off his new security system to April.  He felt encouraged to up their security ever since Slash attacked (with Mikey reminding him of Hob and the Mousers’ attack on the old lair).  Raph suddenly arrives in absolute distress, telling them about the ambush and Casey being taken to the docks.  Leo recognizes it as a trap and recommends they form a strategy.  Raph wants to go immediately, but before the pair can fight, Splinter breaks it up and tells them that they will form their strategy on the way to the harbor.

At the docks, Karai and Alopex are guarding the bound and gagged Casey.  Karai has the entire area surrounded by Foot Soldiers and expects the trap to be sprung without incident.

April pulls up in her van and the Turtles and Splinter deploy (with April staying behind to man the getaway vehicle).  As they exit the van, Angel (finishing her shift at the Skara Brae) catches a glimpse of them.  Splinter, Raph and Leo take a vantage point on the rooftops while Mike and Don swim around and prepare to make a surprise attack via the water.  Surprises are indeed in store, though, as the Shredder enters the scene and approaches Casey.

Back at the van, Angel asks April what’s going on.  Angel gets the story and rushes to the docks to help save Casey.

Shredder calls out Splinter, warning him what will happen if he remains hidden.  Not in the mood to waste time, Shredder stabs Casey in the stomach with his gauntlet.  Raph explodes in a rage and attacks (Splinter and Leo following behind).  All the Foot Soldiers leap from their positions and a massive brawl ensues.  Mike and Don climb from the water and try to get to Casey, but they’re blocked by the Shredder.  As Raph and Splinter deal with the Foot Soldiers, Leo is tackled by Alopex.  Angel manages to sneak in and drag Casey away from the action.  Seeing this, Splinter calls for his sons to retreat.  Shredder allows Don and Mikey to escape, but as Leo makes a break for it, Karai tags him in the back of the neck with a poison dart.  The Foot then grab Leo and disappear with him.

As Angel loads Casey into the van and Splinter insists they get him to a hospital immediately, Don notices that Leo is missing.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #21.  The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #23.

*Victor took command of the Savate in TMNT Annual 2012.

*Casey left his father in TMNT (IDW) #14.

*The Turtles fought Slash in the church lair in TMNT (IDW) #16 and they fought Hob and the Mousers in their old lair back in TMNT (IDW) #7 and TMNT (IDW) #8.

*April stole the ooze sample from Stockgen in TMNT Microseries #7: April.

*On page 8, Mike can be seen reading a copy of After the Fire, a comic by Tom Waltz and Guiu Vilanova.

*The TMNT: Deviations #1 one-shot tells an alternate universe story spinning out of this issue's events.

*This issue was originally published with 5 variant covers: Cover A by Santolouco, Cover B by Eastman and Pattison, Cover RIA by Declan Shalvey and Nolan Wooward, Cover RIB by Eastman, and Cover RE Phantom Exclusive by Rich Woodall.

Review:

Editor Bobby Curnow needs to nail Santolouco’s feet to the floor so he can’t run away.  That guy must stay on this book for a good long while.  To put it mildly: He’s incredible.

But before I embarrass myself by gushing over Santolouco’s art for the bazillionth time, let me address the story.

After the prologue last issue, “City Fall” gets its proper start here (and I think it’s the first issue of the ongoing to actually be titled within the pages).  If “Krang War” was the payoff for all the outer space stuff that has been going on in this book since it began, then “City Fall” by all indicators looks to be the payoff for everything else.  Just look at those Turtle Tips up there.  Waltz is pulling in plot points from basically every arc and major micro/mini series since he started this book.  I admit, the onslaught of story points coming to fruition might be a little rough on newcomers, but those of us who have been reading (and paying attention) since the beginning are getting our much anticipated reward.

But that’s not to dismiss “City Fall” as impenetrable to the uninitiated, either.  In fact, it strikes me as a pretty good jumping-on point in its own way.  There’s enough exposition (some graceful, some not so much) in here to keep first timers from being too confused and even if they don’t follow all at once, hey, the art and action is incredible!  So there’s that to keep you entertained, whether you get all the references or not. 

Heck, when I was a kid, there was no such thing as a “jumping on point”; that seems to be a more modern invention.  If you woke up one Wednesday and decided you wanted to read X-Men, you grabbed the first issue you could find off the rack at 7-11 and figured it out from there (and we didn’t even have the internet to help us out, dagnabbit!).  I started reading Spider-Man during the Clone Saga.  The Clone Saga.  If I can make it through that, I figure most folks can deal with the multitude of colliding story arcs in “City Fall”.

If you look back at my earlier reviews from around the first year of the series, a lingering criticism I had was that important enemies, when first encountering the Turtles, tended to go down rather easy.  Leo fought off an army of Foot Soldiers singlehandedly in their first encounter.  When the Turtles and the Shredder first threw down, they used the magic of teamwork to beat him in two pages.  When the Savate ninja gang finally got a major spotlight, they were played more for comedy than as a threat.  I think “Blood Brothers” marked the real beginning of threats that truly challenged the Turtles and tested their mettle, with “Krang War” and “Secret History of the Foot Clan” only increasing the difficulty from there.

“City Fall”, going just by this first issue, may redeem some of those enemies who might have fallen short of expectations on their first go-around with the TMNT.  The Foot Soldiers, previously introduced as cannon fodder, take out Casey and Raph with a rather small unit.  The Savate, who were sort of the butt of jokes when we last saw them, are now a thorn in the Foot Clan’s side.  Then there’s the Shredder, using the loved ones of Yoshi’s children just to draw his enemy out.  What I appreciate most about that scene isn’t the violence but how it ties into Shredder’s words at the start of the issue.  He is through with patience and biding.  He called to Yoshi once.  Yoshi didn’t respond.  So Shredder straight up stabbed Casey.  He’s not screwing around or playing games (like at the start of the series when he masqueraded as a Foot Soldier to test Leo).  He’s ready to put it all on the table.

And speaking of Casey’s stabbing, it was a moment that made me grateful for the “PG-13” nature of this book.  The focus isn’t on the gore or what have you, but on the action-itself and what it represents.  Not just the suspense regarding Casey’s survival, but everything I mentioned above about Shredder having zero patience for playing games.  If Santolouco had drawn Shredder pulling out Casey’s organs and a massive pool of blood and gore, it would have distracted from the other purpose of that scene, putting too much emphasis on the injury.  It was done “tastefully” and was more than just violence for violence’s sake, at least from my perspective (it wasn’t meaningless and gratuitous, is what I’m saying).

There’s a great sense of suspense, confusion and tension building up over the course of this issue.  It begins with the conflict of wanting to rescue Casey, but needing time to think things through.  When Shredder calls Yoshi out, they try to take time to weigh their options and that backfires horribly.  By the end, Casey is dying, Leo is missing and our heroes are left with a very limited window of opportunity to figure out what to do next.  There's essentially a singular dilemma in this issue, only gradually dialed up one notch at a time until the cliffhanger.

I said at the start of the review that I would gush about Santolouco’s art, but I think I did enough of that during my review for “Secret History of the Foot Clan”.  I’ll just settle on saying that this work is as excellent as “Secret History” and I really hope IDW keeps him on past “City Fall”.

We’re getting off to a great start, here.

Grade: A (as in, “Angel looks, like, 7 years older than when we last saw her, though”.)

TMNT (1987) Season 3, Part 7 Review

Hoo boy.  A lot of shit in this batch of six episodes from season 3.  An Irma spotlight, two Zach the Fifth Turtle episodes in a row, a confused plot about Michelangelo turning human just so April can join a gang, a reminder that the Neutrino's still exist, and god damned Mister Ogg.

TMNT (1987) Season 3 Part 7 Review at Adventures in Poor Taste.

On the bright side, I'm almost done with season 3.  Just one more of these to go (and thankfully, the upcoming final batch of 5 episodes are almost all pretty good).

TMNT Villains Micro-Series #2: Baxter

Publication date: May 22, 2013

Script: Erik Burnham

Art: Andy Kuhn

Colors: John Rauch

Letters: Tom B. Long

Editor: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

The present.  Burnow Island.  Baxter Stockman is working tirelessly in a lab.  He considers to himself how General Krang’s plan to terraform the Earth with the Technodrome and essentially eliminate human civilization is rather bad business.  As Mousers aid him on his latest side project, he thinks about how he can overcome this problem.

The past.  Baxter is a small boy playing chess with his father in the park.  Baxter thinks the game is dumb, but Mr. Stockman insists that chess enhances one’s ability to think and problem-solve.  Baxter suggests luck has more to do with it, enraging his father, who insists that outcomes are the result of a person’s mind and nothing else.

The present.  Baxter gets a message from Krang, who demands a status report.  Baxter tells him that the Technodrome is proceeding on schedule.  Krang is disappointed, as he wants the Technodrome completed AHEAD of schedule.  Furthermore, he’s annoyed that Baxter is wasting time on a side project.  Baxter claims that his “side project” is actually intended to speed up the construction of the Technodrome.  He introduces Krang to the Flyborg, a combination of mutant fly and cybernetics.  When built into drone units, it will be markedly more efficient than the current laborers.  Krang offers Baxter a backhanded compliment and signs out.  Baxter starts to lose his temper, but recalls what happens when one loses their cool.

The past.  Baxter, a teenager, is playing chess in the park with his father.  Mr. Stockman chides his son on his slow move-making.  Frustrated, Baxter makes a thoughtless move, setting himself up for defeat.  Mr. Stockman warns him that getting angry causes an individual to make poor, self-destructive decisions.  Baxter asks for a do-over, but Mr. Stockman reminds him that there are no do-overs in the real world.

The present.  As Baxter takes the Flyborg for a test run, he considers his many options; most of which end in his loss of “the game”.  A unit of Rock Soldiers stop him and demand to know what his creature is.  The Flyborg suddenly shows a burst of sentience and free will.  Speaking, it says that it does not want to be an expendable slave and rebels.  Baxter’s override systems fail and the Flyborg takes down all the Rock Soldiers.  Baxter flees for his life, contacting Krang and asking him to send more guards and to guide him to a saferoom.  Krang laughs at Baxter’s misfortune and offers his help, but only after Baxter debases himself for the General’s amusement.

Baxter takes shelter in the heavily fortified control room, but the Flyborg enters through a ventilation shaft.  Upon entrance, it destroys all monitoring equipment.  Seeing his carefully laid plan a success, Baxter initiates his true override protocols, incapacitating the Flyborg.  As it happens, the entire Flyborg project and rampage was Baxter’s design.  Now with complete access to the control room and no one looking over his shoulder, he downloads all information regarding the Technodrome and Krang’s many nefarious schemes.  Once he gathers all he requires, Stockman feigns helplessness and draws the guards to the control room.  The Flyborg begs to be spared, but the Rock Soldiers kill it.

Later, Baxter goes over the files he downloaded and is disturbed by Krang’s plans.  The files contain enough data that he can use to seize control of the Technodrome, but he can’t do it alone.  Looking over a profile of the Fugitoid, Baxter thinks he can manipulate the robot into helping him.  Smiling, Baxter believes he has Krang in check.

The past.  Baxter, an adult, meets his father for a game of chess in the park.  Before even playing, Baxter tells his father he has him in check.  He then presents Mr. Stockman with documentation of a hostile takeover that gives him complete control of Stockgen, ousting Mr. Stockman.  Mr. Stockman can’t believe his own son would do this, but Baxter simply knocks over his father’s king, saying that he taught him everything he knows.

Turtle Tips:

*As the events of TMNT (IDW) #20 are referenced and Krang has fully healed, I would place this issue after TMNT Villains Micro-Series #1: Krang.

*This issue was originally published with 2 covers: Regular Cover by Tyler Walpole, and Cover RI by Kuhn and Daniel “PeZ” Lopez.

Review:

The origin of Baxter Stockman; that’s a tough one to retell.  You see, “Insane in the Membrane”, the notorious “banned episode” of the 4Kids TMNT series, was pretty much the essential Baxter Stockman origin.  It was also one of the best Ninja Turtle stories ever told.  So the idea of an author going back and doing a new origin for Baxter left me a tiny bit incredulous.  How do you top “Insane in the Membrane”?

Well, I wouldn’t say that Burnham tries to "top" that story, but he does offer a very fitting glimpse at the origin for this universe’s Baxter Stockman.   Burnham opts to focus on Baxter’s relationship with his father (whereas the 4Kids episode focused on his relationship with his mother) and the lessons he learned which shaped him into the super villain he is today.  The flashbacks are rife with subtleties in Baxter’s upbringing that I felt offered quite a bit of depth for 3 whole pages.  Baxter’s dad is caring (taking the time to teach his son valuable life lessons and improve upon his natural intellectual gifts), but unforgiving (he vocally attacks Baxter for every poor decision and denies excuses or second chances).  He’s profound (likening the numerous nuances of chess to practical values), but contradictory (losing his temper when Baxter mentions luck, then telling him never to lose his temper because that breeds mistakes).

There’s a surprising richness and sincerity to their relationship that, again, packs a lot into just 3 pages.  The broader details of Baxter’s relationship with his father are unknown to us, but we can see in that last page that he resents him to some degree (enough to steal his company).  Whether this was supposed to imply that Baxter was naturally a corrupt individual or if he despised his father’s unflinching parenting and that’s what corrupted him (he uses what he’s taught against his father), there isn’t enough material to really say, but I think we all get the gist of it.

And it doesn’t necessarily contradict any of the origin material from “Insane in the Membrane”, either.  There’s no telling what Baxter’s relationship with his mother was like in IDW or if she died when he was young as in the 4Kids cartoon (and perhaps being raised exclusively by his demanding father without the softer guidance of his mother is what “turned” him).  I don’t mean to sound like a stickler for older material, and I know I shouldn’t be actively comparing these new stories to what’s come before, so please forgive me for that.  I just feel that you can effectively combine both origins together and come away with an even fuller picture of Baxter’s personal history than before.

As for the present-set stuff, we get a blunt reference to Baxter’s fly mutation from the Fred Wolf cartoon in the form of the Flyborg, but it’s not particularly bothersome.  Baxter commanding an army of Mousers and Flyborgs, combining his two most notable character traits from earlier incarnations, is a fun prospect and I look forward to seeing his machinations develop.  While Baxter comparing all his actions to a game of chess is a bit of a cliché, it works alongside the flashbacks and I enjoyed the opportunity to see how his thought process worked (going over his various options and their various outcomes several moves in advance, so to speak).  In a way, it kind of reminded me of April’s microseries issue, where we got a peek into her noggin and witnessed how she weighed and considered actions preemptively.  Considering the close ties between April and Baxter, the similarities paint a rather interesting picture as to how they mirror one another.

Andy Kuhn is back on art duties.  Not to beat a dead Mouser, but I feel compelled to reiterate that the primary grievance with Kuhn’s work on IDW’s TMNT books (from myself and, as I’ve witnessed, many fans online) has been the way he chooses to render the faces of the Turtles.  Now, give us an issue with no Turtles in it (save a one-panel flashback) and what do you end up with?  A clear look at Kuhn’s art without that one negative element distracting you from processing his work.  And he’s really very good.  The characters are expressive, the action flows nicely and he uses space exceedingly well.  His panels never feel cluttered, but nor do they feel empty.  He only employs as much background detail as is needed to tell the story so your focus is never lost.  The guy has grown considerably since his debut on the Michelangelo micro-series.

I’d also like to point out that the cover by Tyler Walpole is quite possibly the most perfect image of Baxter Stockman I’ve ever seen.  It says so much about the character.  His look is intense and reflective (ha ha) as he ponders the Mouser in his hand, denoting his intelligence and focus.  Yet he’s also menacing, frightening, not only because of his intensity, but because of the eerie creations that swarm at his back.  Walpole’s cover is just a superb piece of art that really defines the character in one singular shot; very impressive.

While this issue may not be notable for its action, as the “threat” of the Flyborg’s rampage is dampened by the advanced knowledge that Baxter is plotting the moves of a “game”, it’s a wonderful insight into the scientist’s brain.  Even if you feel compelled to compare this origin with his 4Kids origin, you’ll find it acts more as a compliment than a contradiction and shows us a different side of the bad guy’s upbringing.  There’s great subtlety in the relationships between the characters, even when their interaction is limited to just a few pages, and the art ain’t bad, either.  A nice, if belated, second epilogue to the Krang War arc.

Grade: B+ (as in, “Baxter’s Flyborg being a cheeky combination of the two things he’s known for being turned into gives me hope that Baxter might stay completely human for the duration of IDW’s TMNT comic”.)

 

TMNT (Vol. 2) #10

Publication date: August, 1995

Story and pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks: Eric Talbot

Letters: Mary Kelleher

Colors: Eric Vincent and Altered Earth Arts

Cover: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman

“Descending into D.A.R.P.A.”

Summary:

At the apartment, Casey gets off the phone with his mother, telling her about the break-in he, April and Shadow came home to the previous day.  There’s a knock on the door and it’s Lou Braunze.  He asks to see Casey in private, as he has some news. 

They go for a walk and Braunze tells Casey that he’s the one who scared off the burglars yesterday, except they weren’t burglars but government agents.  Braunze tells Casey about DARPA (Defense and Research Projects Administration), a covert branch of the CIA that works outside of government approval and oversight.  He goes on to say that DARPA has Raphael and that they’re keeping him in their Nevada research facility.  He tells Casey to gather all his friends who can help so that they can free Raph.

At the DARPA lab, Raph wakes up strapped to a table.  He breaks the straps and stumbles off.  Injured, he hobbles into a room where several aliens are being held in stasis tubes.  One of the aliens, a Triceraton, awakens and seems to recognize Raph.  Suddenly, Raph is attacked by a toothy, tentacled alien.  He’s in no condition to fight back, but the noise attracts several guards who proceed to tranq him and the alien.

Down in the sewers, Braunze tells his story to Leo, Don, Mike and Nobody.  Don doesn’t trust him and wants to know what his connection to DARPA is.  Braunze concedes, explaining that back in the ‘50s, he was one of 18 people that volunteered to undergo mental enhancements at DARPA.  Many of the participants died, but he was one of the few who successfully gained mental powers.  In his case, he can read minds and shape the thoughts of others so that they believe whatever he tells them.  He used the latter power to escape DARPA by making everyone think he was dead.  With no other choice, the Turtles, Nobody and Casey agree to follow Braunze to Nevada.

Three days later, they arrive in Lincoln County, Nevada by van.  Hiding their getaway vehicle, they proceed on foot.  A helicopter flies overhead, but it hasn’t seen them.  The DARPA guards are shooing away a pair of observers trying to catch a glimpse of something unusual at the nearby DARPA facility.  Laying low, Leo thinks the observers may just get their chance.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 2) #9.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 2) #11.

*This issue was 8 months late, apparently.

*This issue also contained a back-up story, “Bog, part 2 of 5” by Ryan Brown, Chris Allan, Matt Roach, Dave Vance and Altered Earth Colors.  Yes, part 2.  The editors got the order of the back-up strips wrong and published part 3 first by mistake.

Review:

So, the DARPA arc begins.  I have mixed feelings about this one, most of which I’ll get to when it’s relevant (their treatment of Casey and Nobody, for instance).  While it ties into everything that’s been going on since Volume 2 began (the dreams, Baxter’s whereabouts, etc.), the setup in this issue felt very rushed and convenient.

So the guy living in April’s apartment building just happened to have once worked for a covert branch of the CIA which happened to be the same covert branch of the CIA that kidnapped Raph?  And when he goes and tells all this to Casey, the Turtles and Nobody, they just believe him immediately (except Don)?  I guess arguments could be made that Braunze used his mental powers to calm the others and keep them from disbelieving or getting volatile (though Don seemed immune, maybe because he’s smarter), but jeez, doesn’t it all just seem rather lucky?

Braunze, as a character, has no personality or charisma.  He’s used as a tool in this volume to facilitate the conclusion and get the Turtles where they need to be.  He isn’t interesting and I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about him other than the fact that he’s bald and can read minds (but isn’t stuck in a wheelchair like that other guy).  Braunze is sort of the start of a trend you’ll notice in Vol. 4: Bland characterization.  In Mirage’s (Laird’s) never ending quest to make characters feel more “real”, what we wind up with is a whole bunch of really, really boring guys that all talk with the same verbal tics (“Ummmm”, “Hmmmm,” “Mmmm,”) and mumble about dull bullshit all the time.  Having a unique power (telepathy) isn’t the same thing as having a unique personality.  Making a character bland doesn’t make them more “real”, it just makes them boring.

Granted, I’m getting ahead of myself here, as that’s more an epidemic that’ll plague Volume 4, but Braunze really is the beginning of it.  You can also see it creep into pre-established characters, too.  Whatever happened to Nobody being the Batman-esque vigilante loon?  All he does now is stand around and go “Hmmmm,” or “Ummm,” or “Mmmm”.  April?  She sits around reading magazines, now.  And all her dialogue starts with “Hmmmm” or “Ummm” because if you can’t tell that shtick REALLY annoys the hell out of me.

I guess that’s one of the other reasons why I dislike this arc.  The “new trend” of Mirage’s TMNT writing starts to stick out around here.  I’m sure it was there back when the volume began, but 10 issues in, you really start to notice it.  It’s not to say that there aren’t elements of the DARPA arc that I like (great throwbacks to the outer space adventure arc of Volume 1), but it’s full of problems and the volume starts to fall apart during it.

Grade: C- (as in, “Could the book suddenly starting to suck have anything to do with the 8 month delay between issues?  Because they sure weren’t using the extra time to polish the artwork; this is some rough stuff by Lawson”.)

TMNT (Vol. 2) #9

Publication date: December, 1994

Story and pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks: Eric Talbot

Letters: Mary Kelleher

Colors: Eric Vincent and Altered Earth Arts

Cover: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman

“Victory?”

Summary:

Down in the sewers, Baxter wakes up.  His repair systems had overridden all his other functions and forcibly powered him down.  Much to Baxter’s surprise, he’s found that his right arm has begun to “grow” back.  He wonders if perhaps he made his regeneration systems ‘too’ intelligent and now they’ve gained a sort of survival instinct capable of overpowering his own commands.

In the apartment, Casey gets off the phone with Nobody.  According to Nobody, there are no reports about Raphael in any of the police databases; in fact, there are no reports about ANY of them despite all the eye witnesses to the fight scene.  Donatello suspects a cover-up and suggests they find Baxter’s robot, as its origin may be the key to finding who took Raph and where they took him to.

After they leave, the Feds staking out their apartment run a thermo scan, finding only a cat still inside.  They’re ordered to ransack the apartment and take the cat (Kluuuunk!), as it may be extraterrestrial.  The Feds begin tearing the place apart, but their noise alerts Mr. Braunze down in the basement.  He runs up to the apartment and tells them to drop Casey’s things and beat it.  The Feds pull out their guns, but Mr. Braunze exhibits amazing physical prowess and takes them all down.  He then grabs the Fed named William and orders him to talk.  William refuses, but Braunze says he has no choice as strange hypnotic rays come out of his eyes.

Back in the sewers, the Turtles and Casey follow the trail left behind by Baxter.  They hear a tapping on a sewer pipe up ahead and follow the noise.  They walk right into Baxter’s trap, as he was making the noise and leaving the trail to lure them.  From a vantage point, he opens fire with his machinegun, forcing the Turtles and Casey to take cover, then runs down another tunnel.

They follow him into a section of the sewer covered in ankle-deep water.  They realize it’s a trap too late as Baxter appears on a ledge above them, holding a live power cable.  Baxter drops the sparking cable, but Leonardo reacts instantly by throwing his katana at it.  His sword pins the cable to the wall and the electricity arcs up to the ledge, striking Baxter.  The power is too much and Baxter explodes into a million pieces.

Once the smoke clears, the Turtles and Casey inspect the remains of the robot.  They find Baxter’s old glasses and wonder what they were doing inside the robot.  Donatello discovers no central memory bank and comes to the conclusion that Baxter WAS the robot.  However, with his brain missing or possibly destroyed, they’ve no one to question and are back to square one regarding Raph’s whereabouts.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 2) #8.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 2) #10.

*The events of the miniseries Donatello: The Brain Thief take place between this and next issue, explaining what happened to Baxter’s brain and what the deal with his regeneration systems is.

*Although the cover and indicia date this issue as August, 1995, the official Mirage TMNT website gives the proper date as December, 1994.

*Due to a printing error, the “Bog” back-up was once again delayed and does not appear in this issue.

Review:

The Baxter Stockman arc concludes, ending on a pretty exciting note, too.  While the “rematch” doesn’t amount to much of a fight, I think we got the big action sequences out of our systems in the last issue.  This showdown illustrates a bit more cunning on Baxter’s part, as he lures the Turtles into a trap he took time to set-up beforehand.  It’s a crude one, sure, but it shows his resourcefulness.  His first encounter with the Turtles was very brazen; drawing them out into the open with a show of force and trying to crush them all with nothing more than brute strength and weaponry.  I rather liked seeing Stockman take a different approach for this issue’s big finish rather than just giving us another drag-out brawl.

And man, the page where Leo throws his katana at the live wire and pins it in midair was just a great bit of work from Lawson.  I went on about his layout prowess in my last review, so I won’t repeat myself, but when that guy is firing on all cylinders, his stuff is incredible.  (For an example of him *not* firing on all cylinders, well, proceed into my reviews for “The Brain Thief”.)

Speaking of “The Brain Thief”, well, it DOES follow-up on the big plot point that Baxter brings up at the start of this issue: his regeneration systems attaining low level sentience.  Like a lot of plot threads introduced in this volume, the early cancellation left it unfulfilled.  Much of the Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) era and its character-themed miniseries were spent tying up the myriad loose ends leftover from Volume 2’s unceremonious death, so whether you like “The Brain Thief” or not, it at least provides closure for something this issue spends 5 pages waxing on but never addresses again.

Mr. Braunze, in case you don’t recall, was briefly introduced a couple issues ago in a bit of foreshadowing.  He’s a big part of the DARPA arc that will finish off Volume 2, but since we haven’t quite gotten there yet, I’ll save my thoughts for now.  All I’ll say is that he’s one earring away from winning the Mr. Clean lookalike contest.

What else is there to say about this one other than KLUNK!  They finally remembered Klunk!  Sure, we don’t SEE him, but he’s mentioned.  I was starting to worry about that little kitty.

Grade: B- (as in, “But seriously, The Brain Thief is like 1 issue of content, 3 issues of Donatello running down sewer tunnels.  Lawson’s great at cinematic decompression with his layouts, but sometimes he goes a little too far”.)

TMNT (Vol. 2) #8

Publication date: November, 1994

Story and pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks: Eric Talbot

Letters: Mary Kelleher

Colors: Eric Vincent

Cover: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman

“Face Off”

Summary:

On the rooftop, Don and Nobody confront Baxter Stockman.  Stockman responds by plucking up a chunk of brick wall and hurling it at Nobody, striking him.  Stockman then hears a police chopper approaching and bids a hasty farewell to the Turtles.  To cover his escape, he attempts to fire a missile, but the damage he took during his fight with Raph causes his missile launching systems to malfunction.  The missile explodes inside him, obliterating his right arm and much of his upper torso. 

Enraged, Stockman grabs Raph’s unconscious body and dangles it over the side of the building, threatening to drop him if Don or Nobody try to stop his escape.  With the police closing in, Nobody tells Don to retreat with Leo, Mike and Casey while he rescues Raph.  As Don picks Leo up, his brother asks him what he’s doing in New York.  Don explains that April called him and told him everything.

With the roof cleared and the cops closing in, Nobody pulls a bazooka out of his duffle bag and points it at Stockman.  Stockman tells him to drop his weapon or he’ll drop Raph.  Nobody discards his bazooka, but Stockman hurls Raph over the side of the building, anyway.  He then opens fire on Nobody, who dodges the attack and clears out just as the police chopper arrives.  Police officers open fire on Stockman, who leaps in the air and grabs the legs of the helicopter.  His weight pulls the chopper down to the street onto a crowd of cops where it promptly explodes.  Stockman emerges from the flames even more damaged and limps off.

Don gets Leo, Mike and Casey to the safety of an abandoned basement and goes to see what the explosion he heard was all about.  He finds the streets swarming with cops and meets up with Nobody in an abandoned building.  Nobody delivers the bad news that Raph is missing.  Don is furious, but Nobody says there was nothing he could do.  And there may be a chance Raph survived the fall, as his body hasn’t turned up anywhere despite all the police surveillance in the streets where he should have landed.  Don and Nobody split up; Don going to look for Raph while Nobody uses his police identity to search official records for any reports on their friend.

Down in the sewers, the badly damaged Baxter Stockman lumbers through a tunnel.  His internal systems have restored as much as they can, but he begins to feel feint and collapses.

In a lab somewhere, Raphael awakens, strapped to table with strange machines surrounding him.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 2) #7.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 2) #9.

*Leo had a premonition of Raph being taken to a lab and strapped to a table in TMNT (Vol. 2) #1.

*This issue contained a back-up story, “Bog, part 3 of 5” by Ryan Brown, Chris Allan, Matt Roach, Dave Vance and Altered Earth Colors. Yes, part 3. The editors screwed up the order of the back-up installments.

Review:

Say what you want about Jim Lawson (and I know I’ve said my share of critical things), but that guy can lay out a fight scene like nobody’s business (or Nobody’s business, in the case of this issue).  Even if you don’t care for his finished pencils, he decompresses and sets up a battle with some excellent precision, creating a great sense of motion, weight and a smooth, flowing transition from panel to panel.  That helicopter crash was amazing; very cinematic stuff.  While I wouldn’t say this is quite up to the level of his work on “City at War”, it still looks very good (well, I probably could have done without Robot Baxter’s Buns of Steel, but that’s a nitpick).

I made a big hullabaloo last issue about all four Turtles finally reuniting for the first time this volume, and I’m sure everybody else reading the comic was excited for that, too.  Lawson pulls a fast one with this issue, though, as Raph is immediately separated from his brothers and the team is incomplete once again.  It was a nice bit of misdirection on Lawson’s part, dangling some expectations in front of you and then jerking them back at the last second.  The penultimate showdown with Baxter isn’t even a fair fight.  With all four Turtles “reuniting” in this issue, you probably expected to see them stand together for the first time in Volume 2 and show some classic teamwork.  Instead, they’re all bruised and beaten and Don’s part in the showdown consists of helping the wounded to safety.  Nobody gets more action in this issue and even he takes it on the chin for the most part.

Baxter’s been built up all volume and I think he lives up to his hype.  He terrorizes April and absolutely wrecks the Turtles in their first encounter.  A lucky shot from Raph is all that kept him from winning (and the interference from the cops).  And for a “lost” fight, he still manages to come out on top, causing Raph to disappear (to say nothing of the time-delayed doom he infected April with just prior).  Even after Baxter is defeated in the final confrontation, his actions in this arc will have lasting effects on the rest of Volume 2 and into Volume 4.

And to go off on a tangent, that’s one of the best qualities of the Mirage TMNT comic; that their major battles all had lasting ramifications that would continue to plague the Turtles even after the fight had finished.  We all know what happened when they killed the Shredder (twice) and how that came back to bite them.  And the same is true for their rematch with Baxter Stockman; the villain may be physically out of the picture but his presence lingers for years and years.  Barring the episodic fair from Tales of the TMNT and the “guest” issues of Volume 1, when it comes to arc-driven storytelling, there is no simple “bad guy dies/goes to jail and we call it a day” conclusion.  Everything the TMNT does has consequences often far worse than the initial ordeal.  In fact, “consequences”, I would dare say is the primary overarching theme of Mirage’s TMNT series.  Sooner or later, EVERYTHING comes back to bite them in the ass.

The Baxter Stockman arc of Volume 2 is almost over and the seeds have been planted for the next and final arc of Volume 2, but that’s a topic for another review.  I will say that the four primary arcs of Volume 2 each offer a lot of variety in tone and topic, so I’d like to think the entire volume is worth reading if you’re new to it.  Even if you don’t like it at the start or in the middle, you’re bound to find something enjoyable in at least 1 of the 4 major arcs.

Grade: B+ (as in, “By the way, Eric Vincent's colors look especially good in this issue.”)

TMNT (Vol. 2) #7

Publication date: October 1994

Story and pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks: Eric Talbot

Letters: Mary Kelleher

Colors: Eric Vincent

Cover: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman

“Confrontations”

Summary:

At the apartment, Casey changes April’s bandage and goes into the kitchen to make her some tea.  There, he conferences with Leo about the situation, telling him that the Feds are involved for some reason.  Casey asks if this may be the work of the Foot, but Leo says it just isn’t their style.  Casey becomes nervous, realizing the robot could have killed April.  Just then, Mike and Raph come home and say that the robot’s trail in the sewer went cold after it caved a tunnel in behind it.  Casey decides he’s going to find out who is behind the robot attack.

That night, Casey (disguised in a hoody and a bandana) attacks Agents Friskas and Lowell in their car (as they’re staking out April).  He knocks them out and steals their briefcase full of top secret documents.  Inside, he finds papers identifying the creator of the robot as Baxter Stockman.

The next day, Casey sends April and Shadow away with his aunt until the whole mess blows over.  Once they’re gone, Casey goes back inside and talks to the Turtles about a battle plan.  Leo suggests they wait, as Baxter’s attack on April was nothing more than a challenge, ensuring he’ll be back.

Mike tells everyone to come to the living room and watch the news.  The report shows a skyscraper being shot at by an unknown assailant.  His shots are being made with pinpoint, mechanical accuracy, spelling out the sentence “April, I’m coming for you tonight” in bullet holes.

The SWAT units eventually find the source of the gunfire on a nearby rooftop, but the machinegun is being remote-controlled, with the operator nowhere in sight.  Not far away, the Turtles and Casey assume the police have encountered the robot and decide to search the rooftops for Stockman.  They split up to cover more ground.

Leo and Mike eventually find the robot, who shoots at them, nearly killing them.  The robot introduces himself as the work of Baxter Stockman.  He gloats about his genius and explains that he’s studied his previous defeat countless times over the years and is confident he will have his revenge.  Leo and Mike attack, but Stockman’s onboard computer calculates responses faster than the Turtles can think and he effortlessly swats them aside.  Raph and Casey show up just in time and Raph hurls a sai at Stockman.  It bounces off Stockman’s armor.  He then picks it up, breaks it in two and throws the handle at Casey’s head hard enough to knock him out.  Raph runs over to an old chimney and shoves it over onto Stockman, but the robot shrugs off the attack.

Stockman trounces Raph and is about to gut him with his gauntlet blades when Donatello and Nobody show up.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 2) #6.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 2) #8.

*The “Bog” back-up story which began last issue was skipped for this month.

Review:

All four Turtles, together at last.  It only took 7 issues.

This installment in the big Baxter Stockman rematch can get a little tedious and I think I know why.  What Lawson seems to be going for here is that the Turtles have no idea what’s going on.  They don’t know who sent the robot, why it attacked April, why the Feds are involved and so on.  They’re completely in the dark on the matter and they’re a little scared (or Casey is shown to be, anyway).  It’s not a bad approach.

The problem is that everything the Turtles are in the dark about?  We, as the audience, already know the answers to.  In fact, we’ve known the answers since the second or third issue of this series.  This issue takes its sweet time getting the Turtles up to speed and finding answers, but again, they’re answers we already know!  It doesn’t feel suspenseful because there’s no suspense for the audience.  Plenty of suspense for the characters, sure, but we already know all the major revelations the characters are going to have before they have them.  While it is important that the Turtles and Casey find out what’s going on, I don’t really think it needed to be so decompressed, at least for our benefit.  As a result, the first half of this issue is just a total bore.

And I hope you like 5-page sequences where the characters make tea and prattle on inanely, punctuating every other sentence with a variation of “Hmmm” or “Mmm” or “Mm Hmm”.  Because that’s 90% of the “dialogue” and “action” in TMNT Volume 4.  If anything, Volume 2 feels like it’s just getting the audience prepared for the doddering pace and dull, inconsequential conversations of Volume 4, “easing us in” so to speak.

But when the characters finally catch up with the audience and the action gets started, the issue really turns around.  While I still can’t say Baxter’s a particularly “deep” villain (his motivation has evolved from “I want money” to “I want revenge"), he’s at least more interesting in a fight and he puts the Turtles through their paces.  While I felt a bit cheated that Casey got taken out like a punk, he got a good scene earlier in the issue when he takes down the Feds and steals their briefcase.  And seeing how the TMNT fared against Stockman, he’d have just been wasting his time, anyway.

I liked the ever-present voice of Stockman’s onboard computer calculating appropriate reactions in battle faster than the Turtles can think.  It does make him feel rather invincible, as he’s got an answer for absolutely everything.  Not even the mighty brick wall can stop him!  And it worked so well against a bunch of Foot Soldier robots in the first episode of the Fred Wolf cartoon, too.

Oh yeah, and Don’s back (with Nobody, who has a new costume).  Good to see all four Turtles finally back together, though it’s just a last page cliffhanger.  Not much to comment on in that regard until next issue.

Grade: C+ (as in, “Can’t say I’ve seen this much standing around and chatting about bullshit since… the last Brian Michael Bendis comic”.)

TMNT (Vol. 2) #6

Publication date: August, 1994

Story and pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks: Eric Talbot

Letters: Mary Kelleher

Colors: Eric Vincent

Cover: Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman

“Killer on the Loose”

Summary:

Baxter Stockman (in his robot body) arrives in New York City.  He guns down a man in a phone booth and grabs the telephone directory from him.  Looking it over, he finds what he’s looking for and thinks to himself that he’ll finally have his revenge.

At the apartment, Leo, Mike and Raph are playing video games.  April bids Casey and Shadow goodbye as she heads down to the grocery store.  She gets in the Chevy and pulls out onto the street.  Baxter immediately bursts out of the sewers, tosses the Chevy onto one side and pulls April through the door.  He then extends a needle from his index finger and stabs her in the chest with it.  He drops her and crawls back into the sewers, telling April that her suffering has only just begun.

Casey sees the commotion from the apartment window and runs out to help April.  Leo stays behind with Shadow as Mike and Raph use the basement sewer entrance to keep tabs on the situation from below the streets.

Up above, April tells her story to a police officer who has no choice to believe her once eye witnesses start saying they also saw a giant robot.  Suddenly, two feds (Agent Friskas and Agent Lowell) appear and tell the officer that they’re seizing command of the investigation.  They start grilling April for details, but Casey tells them to get lost and helps April back to the apartment.  Friskas tells Lowell that he wants April staked out 24/7 as well as given a full background check, as he wants to know why Baxter went straight for her.

Down in the sewer, Raph and Mikey follow a trail of hydraulic fluid.  They think the robot might be one of the Foot’s, but that would be in breach of their truce with Karai.  The trail ends at a cave-in, completely blocking the tunnel.  Raph mutters to himself that he wants to know exactly what they’re up against.  On the other side of the cave-in, Baxter stomps away with one of his laser barrels smoking, overhearing Raph’s muttering.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT (Vol. 2) #5.  The story continues in TMNT (Vol. 2) #7.

*April had a premonition about her encounter with Baxter Stockman in TMNT (Vol. 2) #1.  What exactly he did when he stabbed April will not be revealed until TMNT (Vol. 4) #6.

*Raph and Mikey mention battling the Foot robots, which happened in TMNT (Vol. 1) #52.  They also mention their truce with Karai, which happened in TMNT (Vol. 1) #61.

*This issue also came with a bonus story, “Bog, part 1 of 4” by Ryan Brown, Matt Roach, Dave Vance, Gen Purdum and Altered Earth Arts.

Review:

Alright, now we’re getting somewhere!

I like to break Volume 2 up into four story arcs: the Turtles adjusting to their lives after “City at War”, the battle with the fish-woman and the giant turtle, the showdown with Baxter Stockman and the invasion of the DARPA facility.  Of course, these arcs don’t all occur independently from each other.  Baxter’s big comeback was foreshadowed back in the first issue and he’s been making his way toward New York in every issue since.  Still, the focus of each issue can be broken up into four arcs and we are now on the third.

The return of Baxter Stockman  was a surprise when I first read through the Mirage series, as I honestly thought he was just a one-off villain in this universe (if the Shredder only appears in four issues, what chance does Stockman have?).  I wonder if the choice to revive him had anything to do with his popularity in the children’s TMNT media, like the Fred Wolf cartoon, the Playmates toyline or the Konami video games?  During the years he was long forgotten within the Mirage books, his Caucasian counterpart was making frequent appearances as a recurring foe in all the other media.

Well, whatever facilitated the decision to bring him back in Mirage, I’m rather glad it happened.  If you go back and read my review for TMNT (Vol. 1) #2, I come down really, really hard on Baxter.  Fact of the matter is, in that one issue, he is NOT a good villain.  His motivations are shallow, his scheme is generic, his dialogue is straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon… he’s just lame.  But every character deserves a second chance and Lawson has turned a boring and forgettable foe into an ominous, lingering threat.  After five issues of build-up, Baxter finally connects with the main characters and he doesn’t waste any time getting down to business.

My favorite Stockman-related moment in this issue isn’t even when he stabs April with the needle (which will prove to be a loooooong simmering plot thread not to be addressed for almost ten years).  It’s the scene at the beginning, when he brutally guns down the guy in the phone booth.  It’s gratuitous gore and violence, completely senseless, but what makes it work is that Baxter comments on his behavior afterward.  He realizes that his action was stupid and excessive, but comes to the realization that he just doesn’t care.  Baxter then concludes that his new robot body has reduced his humanity and his conscience and rather than feel a sense of loss, he regards it as an unexpected bonus of his “upgrade”.

A lesser writer would have just had Baxter gun down the bystander and leave it at that, trying to use the violence and the brutality as shorthand for “Baxter’s a REAL threat now!”  But Lawson takes time to let the character reflect on his actions and contemplate what they mean and why he did them.  While the end result is more or less the same (“Holy shit, Baxter’s killing people and he just don’t care!”), we’re given an introspective reasoning behind it so that it doesn’t come across as using violence as shorthand for “seriousness”.

Anyway, if Volume 2 has been too slow for your tastes thus far, it picks up its pace with this issue and doesn’t slow down until the very end.  In fact, I’d say it doesn’t slow down PERIOD; it hits “The End” at 100 miles per hour (but we’ll talk about that when we get there).

Grade: B (as in, “But jeez, do April’s lips look stupid on that cover or what?”)

Group interview over at TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.com!

TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.com recently did a group interview with several adminstrators of prominent TMNT websites.  I'm honored to say that I was included among them!

You can read the interview with TMNT: A Collection, Go Green Machine, Dawn of the Ninja and myself, right here.

The TMNT fan community's a great bunch of people and I'm always happy to participate where I can.  Though man, I really need a new banner.  That old thing is sort of embarassing...

TMNT (1987) season 3 part 6 Review

Only two more of these to go and I'll be done with season 3!  Which means I won't even be halfway through the entire series!  Huh.  Well, that sucked the wind right outta me.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) season 3 part 6 at Adventures in Poor Taste.

This was a great batch of episodes for recurring characters and toy promos.  Rat King and Leatherhead throw down, Metalhead makes his debut, Don Turtelli returns, Agatha Marbles has her first appearance (lame) and, of course, both Usagi Yojimbo guest appearances!

All that and the Flush-o-Matic torture toilet playset.  Probably the most amusing bunch of season 3 episodes I've gotten to look at, yet.

The Cure

Originally published in: Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #20

Publication date: February, 2006

Story: Steve Murphy

Pencils: Jim Lawson

Inks and letters: Eric Talbot

“The Cure”

Summary:

In a cavern deep beneath New York’s sewers, a fish-woman passes a cave painting depicting an evil-looking Ninja Turtle killing a giant turtle.  Accompanying the fish-woman is another giant turtle, though much smaller than the one depicted in the cave painting.  Strapped to the fish-woman’s back is a papoose.  From within comes the sound of coughing.  The fish-woman inspects several barnacles lining the side of the cave near a subterranean lake.  They are all empty.  More coughing comes from her papoose, so she looks at the lake and accepts what she must do.

Together, she and the giant turtle dive into the lake and traverse the dark underwater tunnels.  Suddenly, they’re attacked by a pair of ichthyosaurs.  The giant turtle fights one off, but the other manages to separate the fish-woman from her papoose.  She kills the ichthyosaur with her spear and retrieves her papoose before it sinks into the inky blackness.

The fish-woman and the giant turtle surface at another subterranean lake and rest on the shore.  The fish-woman sees that the barnacles lining the cavern walls are “blooming”.  She opens her papoose and lifts out her coughing infant.  She gives the infant one of the barnacle flowers to chew on and the child instantly begins to feel better.  The fish-woman smiles and ventures back into the caves with the giant turtle.

Turtle Tips:

*This story takes place after TMNT (Vol. 2) #5, where Leo killed the giant turtle and fought the fish-woman.

*According to the opening editorial by Murphy, this story came to him in a dream, complete (save for the cave drawings).  In his eyes, he feels it is about his wife and daughter.

*According to Steve Murphy's opening editorial of Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #17, the fish-woman who appeared in this story is named "Rhianna".  She is never actually identified by that name in any of the comics.

Review:

Hooray!  A happy ending!

The fish-woman and giant turtle arc from TMNT Vol. 2 always left me sort of cold, as there was no build-up to it and no follow-up, either.  It’s just this totally random chunk of weirdness that’s never addressed again.  Well, not until this short comic, anyway.

Murphy provides a pleasant epilogue to that storyline from the point of view of the fish-woman.  The child who Leo nearly killed in a blind rage is shown to have survived.  Not only that, but the race of giant turtles seem to have endured, with this smaller one looking to be the offspring of the bigger one Leo killed (he was having a bad day).  It’s a sweet tale of a mother going through Hell to help her child and the devotion of a true friend to see her along the way.

That being said, it still undermines “Sons of the Silent Age”, one of Murphy’s best stories, by showing that the fish-people survived extinction.  Now, I’m not a cruel guy; it’s not like I WANT the fish-people to all die off.  I’m just saying that when the entire thematic point of “Sons of the Silent Age” is the tragedy of extinction, showing that the creatures didn’t actually go extinct kinda pulls the rug out from under it, right?  Really, they should have just left well enough alone and not revisited “Sons of the Silent Age”.  To be fair, it was Lawson who chose to revive the fish-people back in TMNT Vol. 2, so I don’t blame Murphy for exploring that continuation some more. 

And while it seems contradictory, I AM happy that this epilogue gives the fish-people something bordering on a happy (or hopeful) ending.  If the fish-people HAD to be brought back from oblivion, you might as well do something different with them rather than try to recapture the drama of “Sons of the Silent Age” by dooming their race a second time.

“The Cure” is a long overdue follow-up to a Volume 2 storyline.  In terms of the Volume 2 narrative, I’m glad we got it.

Grade: C (as in, “Can’t say I know for sure what those prehistoric fish were, really.  Ichthyosaur was sort of a guess”.)