Publication date: July, 2006
Story and art: Jim Lawson
Lettering: Erik Swanson
“Blind Sight, Part 2”
Summary:
Down in the sewer lair, Raphael, Michelangelo and
Donatello are discussing Leonardo. Mikey
is worried about Leo, as he hasn’t spoken since he went to the roof and
discarded his swords. Raph blames Leo
for giving up, claiming that he has always been obsessed with control and now
that he’s lost it, he’s lost his will to fight.
They talk about the rogue Foot Soldier, but Raphael hasn’t been able to
find a trace of him anywhere in the city.
They briefly consider going to Karai for help, but fear that revealing Leo’s
illness will give her an opening to attack them. Don says that all he can do for now is
continue running tests to try and find an antidote.
What the other three Turtles don’t know is that without
his sight, Leo’s other senses have heightened and, despite being in the next
room, he can hear every word they say.
Splinter enters Leo’s room and tells him that Casey will be driving the
two of them to Northampton in the morning.
The next day, Leo and Splinter arrive at the
farmhouse. As Casey goes inside to
unpack, Splinter takes Leo for a walk in the woods. They hike for some miles, with Leo tripping and
shuffling unconfidently all the while.
Eventually, they reach a short cliff overlooking a stream. Splinter hands Leo his walking stick, then
punches his son off the cliff and into the water. Leo recovers, having suspected this to be “some
kind of trick”. Leo figures Splinter
wants him to find his way out of the woods on his own.
Leo begins feeling his way through the brush, but
constantly trips and falls over.
Frustrated, Leo takes a seat and considers that he won’t be able to find
his way home until he has a reason to want to go home. At the moment, he can’t think of a single one
and feels the darkness closing in on him.
Suddenly, Leo hears a figure speak to him. It is a creature who identifies itself only
as nature. Leo prepares to fight it, but
the creature tells the Turtle that he is trespassing in his domain and should
show respect. Leo drops his walking stick and
bows. The creature laughs, asking Leo if
it is not better to simply submit to the whims of nature? He points out that those that dwell in nature
do not know fear or weakness, but simply accept that they have no control over
their fate. It is only those who dwell
in Man’s world who fight nature and try to take control into their own
hands.
Leo asks what the creature wants and the creature says
that he wants to reclaim Leo for the world of nature, as the world of Man stole
him away. Leo refuses to submit and
attacks with his walking stick. The
creature breaks the stick in half and Leo uses the pieces like a pair of
tonfa. The creature mocks Leo, claiming
to have already won.
In a haze, Leo finds himself on the rooftop wielding his
swords instead of the sticks. The creature transforms into the
rogue Foot Soldier and they reenact their
battle. The Foot Soldier tells Leo that
though his toxin took away his eyesight, it was Leo who poisoned his own
mind. THAT toxin was inside Leo all
along. Leo slices the Foot Soldier in
half and everything vanishes in another haze.
Leo awakens to find himself lying on the ground
underneath a log, clutching his broken walking stick. He frees himself and feels
around. At first he suspects the entire
thing to have been a dream, but then finds a tree stump perfectly sliced, as if
by a sword. Splinter calls to him,
having been sitting on a nearby rock for some time. Splinter says he found Leo trapped underneath
the log and was unable to wake or free him, so he waited. Splinter sees signs of “a great battle” in
the area and asks what Leo would wish to do next. Leo says that he wants to go home.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight #1. The story continues in Tales of Leonardo: Blind Sight #3.
*Chronologically, the Turtles last encountered Karai in Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #43. It was a tense encounter, which may explain their reluctance to trust her despite the truce established in TMNT (Vol. 1) #61.
Review:
As unnecessary as I felt this follow-up miniseries to be,
I will say that I like how this issue’s lesson juxtaposes with last issue’s.
In the previous installment, Leo had his own vision and
tried to consider what life for his family would be like if he wasn’t there to
lead them. In his ego, he concluded that
they would all die pathetically because they could not possibly survive without
his guidance. It didn’t seem like Leo
really learned much of a lesson, did it?
Well, that’s where this installment comes in. It opens with Raph making the blunt but
honest statement that Leo is obsessed with control, and in losing that control,
he’s lost his identity and his courage.
Splinter’s approach to Leo’s bruised ego and pouting is to make him man
up and freakin’ deal with it. What the
creature of nature teaches Leo is that he’s never been as in control as he
thought he was; that there were always stronger forces at work taking choices
out of his hands. Leo can either fully
submit to fate and give up like a dumb animal or he can take back what control
he can and keep on fighting like a man.
It’s some pretty on the nose stuff, yeah, but after the
ego trip from last issue, I’m satisfied with seeing Leo receive a much belated
humbling. Likewise, the rogue Foot
Soldier in Leo’s vision spells the mini’s plot twist out a little too
obviously; I think we all probably could have pieced that revelation together
on our own if given the opportunity.
The bluntness of this chapter’s metaphor isn’t what
bothers me so much. It’s more that Leo
going into the woods of Northampton for a mystical vision quest is conquered
territory. Really, REALLY conquered
territory. Between TMNT (Vol. 1) #26,
TMNT (Vol. 1) #37 and TMNT (Vol. 1) #43, it’s like every time those guys set
foot in the woods, they’re whisked away on some bizarre, metaphysical journey
of self discovery. When you look at the
big picture, it seems evident that within the Mirage universe, the woods
surrounding the farmhouse are an “enchanted” place and so these supernatural
adventures are bound to happen with some frequency. But after about the fourth
or fifth time it all starts to seem rather convenient.
Grade: C (as in, “Coin operated spiritualism. Or close enough to it”.)
