Publication date: April 27, 2016
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Edits: Bobby Curnow
Publisher: Ted Adams
"Leatherhead, Part 2"
"Leatherhead, Part 2"
Summary:
The Turtles, Leatherhead and a quartet of Utroms find the
bodies of the Utroms who were slaughtered (the headless Fugitoid). Among the corpses is Councilor Lorqa. With Lorqa dead and Colonel Ch’rell still in
stasis, Chief Science Adviser Ma’riell takes command of the Utroms. Technical Specialist Leeshawn, Lieutenant
Kleve and Corporal Montuoro are distrustful of the Turtles, but Ma’riell is
willing to give them a chance to explain themselves.
Leatherhead tells of how he found the bodies and called
for help, while Leonardo gives the lowdown of who the Fugitoid is and how they
revived the Utroms from stasis. The
Utroms ask where General Krang is and Leo makes up a hasty story about him
being off on a mission in space. Leo then orders Donatello to work on repairing
the Fugitoid with Michelangelo as back-up while he, Raphael and Leatherhead
hunt down the killers.
Leatherhead leads Leo and Raph down into the tunnels
beneath the Technodrome where he claims he smelled a faint fire coming from a
cave system. They’re attacked by a giant
Mouser leftover from when Baxter Stockman was in Krang’s employ, but
Leatherhead tears it apart.
Up in the lab, Don and Ma’riell succeed in getting the
Fugitoid in stable condition, though his consciousness remains comatose. Don figures that he can get Harold to help
him fully revive the Fugitoid once they go home. With that settled, the other Utroms demand to
know why Ma’riell’s brother, Ch’rell, has not yet been revived.
In the tunnels, Leatherhead begins to make an awkward
confession that he wasn’t exactly living in peace on the island. After he was mutated, he found himself hunted
by an enemy. Suddenly, Lieutenant Tragg
and Sergeant Granitor pop up with laser guns and demand that the Turtles fork
over their breathing devices.
The
Turtles take the two Rock Soldiers down, assuming them to be the
murderers. Tragg claims that he and Granitor
hadn’t even made it back to the Technodrome; that they’d been hiding in the
caves since the end of the battle and have no clue what the Turtles are talking
about.
Leatherhead then smashes Tragg with his tail and informs
the Turtles that he has another confession to make.
Turtle Tips:
*Councilor Lorqa last appeared in TMNT: Utrom Empire #3.
*Raph mentions the time he and Casey took down a giant
Mouser together, which happened back in TMNT (IDW) #9.
*This issue was originally published with 5 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Santolouco, Retailer Incentive Cover by Eastman and
Pattison, Art Appreciation Month Cover by Cory Smith after Leonardo Da Vinci,
Ottawa Comicon Exclusive by Eastman, and Eastman Fan Club Edition by Eastman.
Review:
Alright, evil Leatherhead! It’s no Cajun swamp trapper, but I’m willing
to compromise.
I’ve always liked Leatherhead best as a villain. It may be because that’s how I was initially
introduced to the character, but I think he has more potential for interesting
stories as an antagonist than as a hanger-on for the heroes.
It looks like they’re running with a version of
Leatherhead’s back story from the Mirage comics; how he was an ally of the
Utroms who lived with them until they left Earth. Here, Waltz and Associates have adapted it to fit
their less positive image of the Utroms, with him now having been hunted
(possibly imprisoned and experimented on) by them. It gives him a justification to hate the
Utroms, albeit a misguided one, so perhaps calling him “evil” is a little too
quick on the draw. As it is, Leatherhead still
slaughtered a bunch of innocent aliens, so it’ll be tough trying to redeem him
at this point if IDW ever tries to go that route in the future.
The atmosphere of this issue felt like one of those Old
Dark House murder mystery flicks; a dead body, multiple suspects, red herrings, paranoid accusations, dimly
lit secret passages, etc.
It’s very much not the direction I was expecting this arc to go; I was
thinking it would be a sci-fi sort of tale given the setting and guest
characters. I’m pleasantly surprised.
I dig the variety of unique Utrom characters we’ve been
given, too. Waltz and Benefactors carve into
some of the comic’s history to mine a few names, such as Lorqa (who appeared
in the Utrom Empire miniseries) and Ma’riell (who appeared in a flashback to
Krang’s time as the Iron Demon in Feudal Japan). The newer faces are all fairly diverse, with
the distrustful Kleve, obedient Montuoro and skittish Leeshawn. Santolouco gives them all distinctive
ornamentation so you can distinguish them (bone mohawks or fins), but their
expressions help display their personalities even better.
Utroms are usually depicted as being identical to each other, so it’s
nice to see them given unique features in both obvious and subtle ways.
Of course, there’s still Ch’rell. Not sure how long we’ll be waiting for him to
get out of his tube, but I hope he fills the void Krang left behind. Though I’m curious what Waltz and his Amazing
Friends will come up with to make Ch’rell’s campaign of conquest different from
Krang’s. IDW’s Krang was already a
ruthless overlord, so what will Ch’rell be?
As for the action, Tragg and Granitor get in a good fight. I liked the bit where Tragg (or was it
Granitor?) grabs Leo’s sword by the blade and swings him around. He’s a Rock Soldier; what does he care about
sharp objects? It’s a short fight,
though, with this issue being mostly atmosphere. Pattison’s colors are their usual greatness,
particularly in the tunnel sequences as everything is lit by Leo’s puny
flashlight.
While I wouldn’t say there are too many twists and turns
(Leatherhead explaining in detail how he “found” the bodies pretty much
telegraphed him as the killer), I’m digging what we’ve got so far. It’s already shaping up to be one of the
better Leatherhead introductory stories.
