Publication date: July 31, 2013
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco, Mike Henderson (page 3)
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
“City Fall, Part Three”
Summary:
At Foot HQ, Karai’s geommu practice is interrupted by the
Shredder, who tells her that it’s time to get to work. Karai asks how the mutants will know where to
find them and Shredder simply smiles.
At the hospital, Casey is dreaming of his deceased
mother. He apologizes to her for not
being able to save his dad, but she tells him it’s alright and time to wake
up. Casey comes to and is greeted by the
elated April and Angel. Casey is weak,
but wants to be caught up to speed on everything he’s missed.
Old Hob and Slash lead Splinter, Raph, Don and Mike to
the waterfront, where Hob says the Foot are hiding out with Leo. The Turtles aren’t so trusting, but follow
him to a warehouse because they’ve no choice.
Before they leave, however, Mike gives Slash a candy bar in an effort to
befriend him. Slash enjoys the treat.
Hob picks the lock on the warehouse and ushers the
Turtles and Splinter inside. He
immediately closes and locks the door behind them, not wanting to be inside for
what’s about to go down. No sooner do
the Turtles realize they’ve been hoodwinked, the lights turn on and they’re
addressed by Shredder, Karai and Alopex.
Splinter tells Shredder that no blood needs to be shed this night, but
Shredder scoffs at the remark, telling Splinter that as they speak, his Foot
Soldiers are consolidating power across the city by taking down street gangs and the
Savate. Splinter demands Leonardo back,
but Shredder tells him Leo is “no more”.
Enraged, Splinter lunges at Shredder, but is knocked to the ground by Leonardo,
now garbed in Foot regalia. Leo tosses
his blue bandana at Splinter, telling the rat that he is no longer his son.
The Turtles confront Leo, but he’s unmoved by their words
and attacks each of them. With little
effort, he defeats them all in one-on-one combat. He then moves to execute Splinter, but
Shredder orders him to stand down, claiming the rat for himself. The Turtles collect Splinter and try to make
a retreat, but the door is locked and dozens of Foot Soldiers drop down from
the rafters. Suddenly, Slash comes barging
through the wall, making an exit (and asking Mike for more candy). The Turtles and Splinter escape, reluctantly
leaving Leo with the Foot.
They reconvene on a rooftop with Old Hob, ready to wring
his neck. Hob says that the Foot
employed him to lure the Turtles into the trap.
However, he says that sending Slash in to break them out was his own
idea, squaring things with both sides.
The Turtles are in no mood to argue with Hob and let it go (while Mike
gives Slash another candy bar).
Meanwhile, Splinter clutches Leo’s old bandana and looks out upon the
city.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #23. The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #25.
*The events of TMNT Villains Microseries #4: Alopex and TMNT Villains Microseries #5: Karai take place between this and next issue.
*The events of TMNT Villains Microseries #4: Alopex and TMNT Villains Microseries #5: Karai take place between this and next issue.
*This issue was originally published with 5 variant
covers: Cover A by Santolouco, Cover B by Eastman and Pattison, Cover RI by
Freddie Williams II, Cover RE Jetpack exclusive by Eastman, and Cover RE
Jetpack exclusive (Leo mask).
Review:
While the previous installment in “City Fall” had perhaps
an excess of story, “Part Three” is lighter in that regard, being more
concerned with the action. “Dark Leo”
(as the editor’s notes in the letters column calls him) makes his dramatic
entrance and, for what’s already a plot point that’s hanging by a thread of
credulity, the creative team has to make it look as convincing as possible.
And they do a pretty good job, all things
considered! Santolouco’s design for Dark
Leo is perhaps a little busy, but if ANY comic book characters have an excuse
to wear tons of pouches, it would have to be the Turtles (they need to store their smoke bombs and
shuriken SOMEWHERE, after all). I just
wrote a sentence about Leo’s goofy-looking scarf and then immediately deleted
it, because I just realized he’s simply adhering to the Foot’s fashion trend
(both Shredder and Karai have the same red scarves, while Alopex’s is
grey). So good on Santolouco for that neat little detail.
I dig Leo's new forearm guards as they seem pretty damn practical for a guy who gets in sword fights everyday and
are a lot more useful than the standard knee and elbow pads the Turtles usually
wear. These guys are running into
life-or-death battles, not going rollerblading on the boardwalk; they should probably take
greater safety precautions. Also, Leo
now only has a single katana and two tanto (short swords) as his main weapons,
which is a neat change-up. Leo’s katana
actually looks to be drawn as a proper katana for a change and not a ninjato (I
know I always call them “katana” in my reviews, but that’s because they’re
always identified as such in the comics, whether they’re consistently drawn to
be ninjato or not).
It’s a pretty good design, I think, and Pattison balances
the colors really well (mostly reds, blacks and greys).
Now, getting back to the subject of the story, there’s a
bit less to talk about. Dark Leo’s
unveiling was cool and all, but I can’t help but feel the sequence was just a tad cliché. Complete with a contrived
excuse for Leo not to kill Splinter at the last second thanks exclusively to
the villain’s hubris. “Don’t kill
him! I want to do it myself!” is about
as bullshit an excuse as “No! I have an
ingeniously over-complicated and ironic time-delay death trap I want to kill him
with because it will be more amusing!”
If we’re ever going to take this Shredder seriously, he needs to be less
like Cobra Commander.
To be honest, I was more interested in what Hob’s got
going on than Leo’s turn to the darkside.
He doublecrossed the Turtles, but then he also sort of didn’t. THAT was the one moment in the comic that
stepped away from the string of clichés (don’t get me started on Casey meeting
the ghost of his mom while in his coma) and took me by surprise. Hob’s definitely growing as a character, as
he’s actually demonstrating a glimmer of intelligence; playing both sides and
living up to both ends of his bargains without fully doublecrossing
anybody. But there’s another reason why
I’m more interested in Hob’s story than Leo’s and it’s nothing to do with the
writing of this comic, but the current way publisher’s solicit and tease their
upcoming books.
We already know what the next storyline after “City Fall”
is going to be thanks to IDW soliciting its books months in advance. We’ve already seen the covers. They gave everything away during their panel
at San Diego Comic Con. I try my best to
avoid spoilers by not going into upcoming issue threads on message boards and
skipping multi-page previews that all the comic news sites post a week before
the fucking issue hits the stand... But the viral marketing machines are
MERCILESS and no matter how hard I try, something ALWAYS gets spoiled because
IDW lets SO MUCH info about their future storylines leak online HALF A FREAKIN
YEAR before the issues are even out.
This sort of shit is KILLING the storytelling in comics
(not just TMNT, but any book that has the next 7 issues solicited a half-year
in advance, fuckin spoiler-riddled covers and all). Thanks to all the covers and issue summaries
and various leaks and teases, I already know how Dark Leo’s story is gonna turn
out and I’ve been actively trying NOT to spoil anything for myself. I imagine the people who go out of their way
to gather spoilers and leaks practically have the next 5 issues of TMNT sitting
on their harddrives in some cobbled-together fashion.
But Hob’s storyline, at least as far as I can tell, hasn’t
been completely blown by IDW’s hype division.
So there’s an actual sensation of mystery and suspense about it, which
has me intrigued. Hopefully I can read
that story in the actual pages of IDW’s TMNT comic and not as an update on
Comics Alliance or Comic Book Resources two months before the issue is
published. One can dream.
Holy shit, that was an annoying tangent. Sorry, everyone; I didn’t mean to let the
hate flow through me like that. Please
understand that my frustration is so fierce because I LIKE this comic quite a
bit, so having vital story details spoiled for me really gets my goat.
Grade: C+ (as in, “Could be the first time I’m noticing
this, but has Santolouco always drawn Mikey with little pouches on his belt to
holster his nunchakus instead of the standard loops most artists draw? I actually kinda like the little sacks, now
that I’m noticing them”.)
7 comments:
TOTALLY agree about the whole "I want to kill him myself" trope being contrived and lazy. I had fun with the issue, though.
Yep, Mikey always had those pouches. :)
http://santolouco.deviantart.com/art/TMNT-height-and-physical-structures-model-sheet-321121895
What I realized in this issue was that Slash being a snappy turtle was not the only change from his first appearance in the April micro. He also gained extra fingers (and possibly toes) after Andy Kuhn layed his hands on him. No complaints, just an observation.
Oh yes, and by the end of the issue Leo has two katanas - after snatching the other from Splinter.
Reading your tangent kinda makes me glad I really haven't kept up with too many Comic Con and solicit spoilers other than the covers to the Villain Micro-series #6 & #7 !
You can't seriously be surprised that Leo returns to form and reunites the fab foursome... C'mon. And the solicitations are just the way the industry works now. It will not change any time soon. Tho I did pause a bit when they hesitated to go h.a.m. on splity and the toitles. The escapes from these battles are a little too easy. Like no one ever really chases anyone. That said, not giving any issue in this run an A rating seems preposterous to me. This is shaping up to be the GOAT storyline/run in TMNT comics. And I've read just about everything...
@Tony
Oh, I had no delusions that Leo would eventually return to normal. It was more that the solicits effectively took the punch out of the plot by telling me exactly *when* he'd be restored. It kind of undercuts the suspense of a story when you know precisely how long a major plot point is going to last.
But you're right in that it's just the way the industry is run, now. You can't put the genie back in the bottle and all that.
The cliches (all of which you've adeptly pinpointed) are actually putting me very close to dropping the book. (It's on a definite watch; the micros already went; I'll follow up in trade if inclined.)
It's a shame, because when the IDW series started it was anything BUT cliched. The writing wasn't the strongest, but the plots were new to Turtles, the characters drover the story and, despite working around certain foreseeable callbacks to old continuity (see the "shocking" Mousers reveal you identified in the corresponding review), I was having fun and was eager to see where things would go.
Fast-forward to mid-"City Fall," and I'm just not getting the same vibe. We are riddled with storytelling cliches that ask us to take them with the utmost, steadfast seriousness. Shredder is a cartoon supervillain; people get brainwashed; they meet their dead parents as ghosts. All that potential for interesting development the first dozen issues promised has been wasted on tired, cliched tropes. I absolutely agree that Hob remains the most interesting part of the book, but for reasons other than the ones you cited -- among all the characters, he's the only one still leading his own plot, the only one who hasn't fallen prey to horrible cliches. His development has only gone up, when everyone else's has gone down.
I'm sure it suffers somewhat in my eyes for being the first "adult" Turtles series since Mirage, too, which was certainly on the other end of the spectrum when it came to things like this. Still, though ...
I think I'm going to see how it handles its Northampton arc; maybe the quieter storytelling will be what this book needs to get back on track and be, you know, interesting again. But it's definitely shape up or ship out.
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