Publication date: October 30, 2013
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
“City Fall, Part Six”
Summary:
Outside a seedy joint, Woody and Mike put the finishing
touches on their cunning plan. Woody
gives Mike (who is dressed as an Italian chef) a fresh pizza and then skeedaddles to safety. Apparently, they’ve been at
this all night, but Mike has a good feeling about this round.
Mike knocks on the door and a couple of thugs answer. They didn’t order any pizza, but figure they
ought to eat before they get going to “the big meeting”. Hearing all he needed, Mikey ditches the
disguise (that wasn’t really working) and starts beating some answers out of
the thugs regarding this underworld meeting.
At an abandoned warehouse, Angel finally challenges Hun
for leadership of the Purple Dragons.
She hits him with her escrima, but he feels nothing. Before the fight can escalate, a Foot
messenger appears from the shadows with orders to Hun to bring the Dragons to a
meeting of gangs where they will all swear allegiance to the Foot Clan. Hun asks the Dragons if they’d rather be a
glorified neighborhood watch under Angel’s leadership or filthy rich under his
and the Shredder’s leadership. The
Dragons side with Hun and Angel leaves, defeated.
Down in the church lair, Don shows of the anti-gravity
gauntlets to April and Raph. Suddenly,
Mike bursts in with news about the underworld meeting; he has a time and a
location. Splinter tells his sons and
April that they must prepare to reclaim Leonardo from the Shredder.
Speaking of Leo, at Foot HQ he is lost in a dream. He sees himself and his brothers about to be
executed by the Shredder in Feudal Japan.
He is confused and thinks everything is all wrong. The spirit of his mother, Tang Shen appears
to him and tells him that he does not belong here. The Shredder swings his sword and Leo
awakens. Karai has been watching him
with a cruel look in her eyes. Dark Leo
asks if everything is ready for the meeting.
Karai sneers and tells him that all the "preparations" have been made.
In a parking garage, the Turtles stock up on provisions
with Old Hob and Slash. Raph doesn’t like
the amount of munitions Hob is bringing along, but Splinter tells him to
appreciate any aid they can get in their mission. April agrees to operate as getaway driver and
sends Casey a text, telling him she’s going to help the Turtles find Leo.
At Foot HQ, Alopex meets with Kitsune. Speaking in Japanese (as Kitsune does not
speaking English), Alopex tells her that when she first heard the stories of a
fox-woman from Feudal Japan, it helped her feel at peace, as though she wasn’t
the only humanoid fox in the world.
Kitsune replies in English (much to Alopex’s surprise) and tells her
that foxes must be cunning and know when to watch and when to act. Alopex looks surprised, as though Kitsune knows something.
At the hospital, Angel brings Casey his hockey
mask which she found outside the Skara Brae.
Casey tells her that his dad came by the other day, looking healthier
and happier, and gave him a hockey mask as a peace offering. Angel spills the beans about his father, “Hun”,
and how he has taken over the Purple Dragons and wants to ally himself with the
Foot. Casey grows furious and hobbles
out of his hospital bed and gets dressed.
He’s had enough sitting on the sidelines and wants to go to the big meeting
to help save Leo and face down his father.
At an old abandoned theater, the Shredder takes the stage
as all the gangs in New York watch. He
tells them that he has taken command of every gang in New York, one at a time,
with only a single hold out: The Savate.
The beaten Victor is brought onto the stage and Dark Leo hands Shredder
a sword. As Shredder makes an example of
Victor by decapitating him, the spirit of Tang Shen appears to Dark Leo and
repeats what she said in his dream. Leo
begins to have second thoughts about his allegiance.
Outside the theater, Splinter gives the sign to begin
their assault. Old Hob fires a rocket at
the parking lot, exploding several cars as Slash charges the sentries. The Shredder orders the gangs to leave the
theater and deal with the attackers. Meanwhile,
Don uses his anti-gravity gauntlets to levitate a sedan and sends it smashing
through the side of the theater. The
Turtles and Splinter invade the theater and tear their way through the Foot
Soldiers guarding the Shredder.
In the parking lot, Hun grabs a machinegun and leads the
fight against Hob and Slash. He nails
Hob in the leg and is about to gun down Slash when the weapon is knocked from his
hand. Hun turns around to find Angel and
Casey (wearing his hockey mask).
Inside, Don uses his gauntlet to send Shredder careening
against Alopex. Dark Leo attacks Raph
but can’t bring himself to deliver a killing blow. Eventually, he succumbs to the confusion and
falls to his knees. Shredder orders
Karai to prevent the Turtles from escaping.
She disables Don’s gauntlet with an arrow then calls in her personal
reinforcements: Bebop and Rocksteady.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #26. The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #28.
*Hun took control of the Purple Dragons in TMNT Villains Microseries #6: Hun. He also tried to
recruit Casey into the gang in that story.
*The execution of Leonardo and his brothers in Feudal
Japan was seen in TMNT (IDW) #5.
*Alopex swore revenge against the Shredder in TMNT Villains Microseries #4: Alopex.
*The underworld meeting was mentioned in TMNT Villains Microseries #7: Bebop and Rocksteady.
*This issue was originally published with 5 variant
covers: Cover A by Santolouco, Cover B by Eastman and Pattison, Cover RI by
Kenneth Loh and Ian Herring, Cover RE Jetpack Exclusive by Eastman, and Cover
RE Jetpack Exclusive Foot Clan symbol.
Review:
“City Fall” has almost reached its climax with this
penultimate chapter playing out pretty much as expected. Mike and Woody’s plan to find the underworld
meeting worked as expected. Hun ousted Angel as expected. Hob fulfilled his
bargain and assisted Splinter as expected.
Dark Leo had a crisis of conscience as expected. Karai brought Bebop and Rocksteady into battle
as expected. It’s pretty much by the
numbers, yeah.
But saying this chapter of the arc was “predictable” isn’t
entirely honest. All these big moments
were set up and staged very matter-of-factly in previous chapters and they
played out precisely as the those previous chapters said they would. Can you really say something was “predictable”
when the story tells you up front “this is what’s going to happen”? If anything, the past few chapters were the
characters all formulating a plan and this is where it all comes together, as
Hannibal might say.
Be all that as it may, the unfolding story in this
installment is still very exciting, thanks in large part to Santolouco’s
artwork. Hob’s assault on the, um, empty
parking lot was some great action movie stuff and I’ll never cease to enjoy
watching Slash go on a rampage.
If anything in this chapter confused me, I suppose it
might be Angel returning Casey’s hockey mask to him at the hospital. You see, in the Hun micro, he gives Casey a
mask as a gift and it’s the mask he wore at the start of the series (angular
shape, no perforations). The mask Angel
gives him is the one he’s been wearing since Santolouco started drawing (round
shape with perforations). I had always
figured Casey just had one mask and Santolouco’s design differences were an artist's interpretation, but okay, I guess he had two masks all along. So Hun gives him his first mask and Angel
gives him his second mask and I guess it’s… symbolic? Like, choosing which side he wants to be on
is determined by which mask he prefers?
But there’s no dilemma for Casey and hell, we don’t even see the two
masks together. He actually only
mentions the mask Hun gave him offhandedly.
So what we end up with is two dramatic moments in two
different issues where someone offers Casey a hockey mask, like it’s setting up
some big choice he’s going to have to make.
But there’s no choice at all, not even for a second.
I dunno, it was just really half-baked, is all I’m
saying. In fact, a part of me almost
wants to think it was a hastily covered up instance of discontinuity. Like Hun returned Casey’s lost mask in the
micro, but Waltz threw in a scene where Angel returns the same mask in this issue, so some
slapdash dialogue had to be added to explain all the fucking masks people keep
giving Casey, goddamn.
What the hell?
Three paragraphs? About
THIS? Jeez, I’m reaching, here.
Honestly, it’s just that when reviewing any penultimate
chapter, I kind of want to hold my tongue a bit. I don’t want to jump the gun and speak as if
I know how the story is going to end (though solicits from IDW kind of blew that
months ago) and I don’t want to summarize all my thoughts about the arc until
it’s properly finished.
So in exchange, I spend three paragraphs bitching about a
fucking hockey mask. Man…
Grade: C (as in, “Casey just needs his star-spangled
hockey mask from the Image series and he’ll be all set”.)
