Publication date: February 26, 2014
Writer: Paul Allor
Artist: Andy Kuhn
Colors: Bill Crabtree
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Summary:
On Burnow Island, Fugitoid is struggling to undo Stockman’s
sabotage of the slumbering Utroms. Their
pods have drained of ooze and unless the power is restored and the ooze pumps
are brought back online to refill the pods, they’ll all die. Fugitoid locks Stockman in a storage room and
goes to the only one he can for help: General Krang.
As Fugitoid explains the situation to Krang, Stockman
escapes from the storage room. Fugitoid
informs Krang that the power has to be turned on from the electrical box outside the
facility, but with the hurricane blowing through it would be too dangerous for
anyone to risk it. For the good of his
people, Krang volunteers to go.
The past. Many
years ago in Dimension X. General Krang
arrives on Utrominon and is greeted by Councilor Drexl. Drexl informs him that the old Ruling Council
was “replaced” and that the Triceraton rebel leader, Zog, has been captured and
is awaiting execution. Krang forgoes the
festivities of his victory parade, and a meeting with his father (Emperor
Quanin), and heads straight to the city prison.
At the prison, in addition to Zog, he finds all the previous members of
the Ruling Council locked up as “political prisoners”. Krang has a talk with ex-Councilor Lorqa.
While the rest of the Utroms enjoy the parade, Krang
barges into the Imperial palace to see Quanin.
He tells Quanin that Lorqa informed him all about their depleted
resources, their dying homeworld and how the parades and festivities have been
nothing more than a distraction to keep the populace ignorant. Quanin tries to offer Krang a seat on the new
Ruling Council, but he refuses, saying that his place is leading the Empire’s
armies until they’ve won the war and the Utroms are at peace. Quanin explains that the Utroms can NEVER be
at peace; that they must ALWAYS be at war in order to give their race
purpose. Suddenly, Drexl bursts in with
news that Zog has escaped from prison.
Krang, Quanin and several Utrom soldiers arrive in an
airship at the prison to try and stop Zog.
Zog takes Krang hostage and puts a gun to his head, demanding safe
passage on the airship.
The present.
Outside, Krang fends off the hurricane and reaches the electrical
box. Over the radio, Fugitoid tells him
which wires to reconnect, but before he can warn him about an electrical backlash his connection gets cut off.
Inside, Stockman and his Flyborg have taken down the Rock
Soldier guards. Fugitoid begs Stockman
to work with him to stop the Technodrome and save the Earth, but without killing the Utroms. Stockman reveals that he never had any
intentions of allying himself with the Fugitoid to begin with; he intended to frame him for
the murder of the Utroms and carry on sabotaging Krang from beneath his nose
until he could steal all the alien secrets for himself. The Flyborg attacks the Fugitoid, but he
manages to get one of the guns from an unconscious Rock Soldier. Fugitoid blasts the Flyborg, wallops Stockman and
runs away on his own.
At the farm in Northampton, Donatello goes over the
Fugitoid’s notebook with Raph and Mike.
Don explains that the notebook contains full schematics of the
Technodrome, INCLUDING a self-destruct mechanism. Raph asks how they’re going to GET to Burnow
Island to sabotage the Technodrome. Don
says he hasn’t figured that out yet.
On Burnow Island, Krang connects the wires and the surge
of electricity sends him flying and crashing against some rocks.
The past. At the
prison, Krang tells the soldiers to shoot him and Zog, because if Zog escapes it
will encourage the rebellion and extend the war. Quanin tells his soldiers to stand down. Zog escapes in the airship, and once again warning Krang about the path of self-destruction Quanin is leading the Utroms down, gives him another chance to help end the
war. Krang refuses and Zog chucks him
out of the ship.
Sometime later, Krang recovers at a hospital. Quanin comes to visit him and Krang asks his
father why he didn’t order the soldiers to open fire. Quanin says that he couldn’t allow his only
heir to be executed. Krang becomes
furious, telling Quanin that one life was not worth the possible destruction of
the entire Utrom race.
The present. Krang
stumbles to his feet, but the winds of the hurricane knock him over a ledge
and he crashes down onto the beach.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT: Utrom Empire #1. The story concludes in TMNT: Utrom Empire #3.
*This issue takes place between TMNT (IDW) #30 and TMNT (IDW) #31.
*Stockman created the Flyborgs in TMNT Villain Micro-Series #2: Baxter.
*This issue was originally published with 2 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Kuhn, and Subscription Cover by Nick Pitarra, “Greg”
and “Fake Petre”.
Review:
Quanin is clearly not the character I had him pegged as
when his name and brief back story were dropped some while ago. He was built up as this ruthless,
blood-thirsty monster. Even his
appearance in the Krang Villain Micro set him up as this nasty, cold-hearted
conqueror. In this issue, though, he
seems downright… considerate.
I get the feeling that in his old age, Quanin's attitude has
changed. He doesn’t have to go out and
conquer planets himself anymore; he can delegate that sort of thing. So he’s grown soft in body and nerve. Which is funny, considering that’s exactly
what he was shown brow-beating Krang over in the Villain Micro; he loathed his
son for being soft. Heck, part of Quanin’s
whole scheme involves lulling the masses of Utrominon into complacency with
trivial distractions, making his entire race soft and weak.
Clearly, he’s changed, though Shadows of the crueler Quanin are still there, as he explains to
Krang that he can never let the war end because then the Utroms would lose all
sense of purpose. What good is an Empire
if it stops expanding, after all? So he keeps the
war going at the cost of Utrom lives and toward the inevitable destruction of
his very race.
And all of a sudden Krang gets a virtuous side, willing
to give his own life for his people (in the past and in the present). There’s this great sequence in this story
where Krang just gets through telling his father how badly he wants the war to
end and to give his people peace, but a few pages later, when Zog offers him
the chance to cooperate with the rebels and overthrow Quanin and end the war…
he refuses. You get a really good feel
for Krang in this story. He’s not a
warmonger because he sincerely wants peace, but it has to be peace through
Utrom victory, not conditional compromise with the enemy. His racial pride forever keeps his goal out
of reach, whether it be refusing to barter a treaty with the rebels or refusing
to coexist with humanity on Earth (instead going with the whole Technodrome
thing to terraform the planet and make it his own).
Paul Allor is really doing wonders with these characters,
none of whom are turning out to be anything like I was anticipating them to be.
I think my one complaint about the script was the flimsy
excuse for sending Krang out to repair the electrical box. I get that Krang needed to be the one to go
in order to establish that symmetry with the past narrative; to show how
willing he is to lay down his life for his race. But the excuse was that Krang was the only
one who could withstand the punishment of the hurricane outside. Couldn’t a Rock Soldier have endured the wind
and rain just as well? Heck, a Rock
Soldier probably would have been better suited to withstanding the electrical
surge since, you know. Made of rock.
But hey, I’m just picking nits.
Utrom Empire is turning out to be one of the most
fascinating character deconstructions IDW has published so far, really building
these established cast members into something three dimensional.
Grade: B (as in, “By the way, Kuhn’s Utroms are all so
silly-looking. I love em”.)
