Publication date: December 21, 2016
Writer: Chris Mowry
Artist: Michael Dialynas
Colorist: Tomi Varga
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
Publisher: Ted Adams
"Urban Legends"
"Urban Legends"
Summary:
MAIN STORY:
Christmas Eve in New York City. A pair of street thugs drag a kidnapped dog
to a dogfighting ring run by Hun. From
the sewers, Leatherhead watches them, scratching notes on the walls of his
lair. Angered by the cruelty, he decides
to follow.
Elsewhere, Old Hob is on the prowl, wanting even with Hun
for breaking their gun-running arrangement.
He’s sick of humans abandoning him, remembering the time his human
family left him out in the cold when he was a normal cat, and wants some cathartic payback.
In a warehouse, Hun and his thugs enjoy the dogfights when
suddenly Leatherhead bursts through the wall and sets the dogs free. Hob drops by at the same time and, upon
seeing Leatherhead, immediately tries to recruit him to the Mutanimals. Leatherhead isn’t interested, but the two
mutants are forced to work together when Hun’s thugs open fire (well-armed by
all the guns that Hun stole from Hob when he broke ties). Hob and Leatherhead fight their way through
the thugs, killing most of them and sending the others into retreat.
Eventually, only Hun is left. Hob uses Leatherhead to intimidate him and
takes back the money Hun took from him when he ran out on their
partnership. Leatherhead then interrupts
and attacks Hob, allowing Hun to escape.
Leatherhead does not believe in Hob’s “mutant cause”, seeing mutants as
affronts to the natural world, and does not think they should have the chance
to defend themselves or prosper. Hob
disagrees, of course, and seeing that Leatherhead won’t join his cause, decides
to ignite a case of grenades and set the warehouse on fire.
Hob escapes as the warehouse explodes, but so does
Leatherhead. Leatherhead returns to his
lair in the sewers and continues scratching notes on the walls. This time, he carves in notes about Hob next
to data on the Turtles and the Utroms.
Hob, meanwhile, returns to his family at Mutanimal HQ, only to find the
place empty on Christmas Eve.
BACK-UP:
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Layouts: Kevin Eastman
Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
Colorist: Tomi Varga
“Inside Out, Part 5”
Leonardo suddenly finds himself in New York City, where
he’s attacked by Casey Jones. Casey
tells Leo that while he wears a mask to gain an identity, Leo wears a mask to
conceal his identity. Leo then comes
face to face with Dark Leo, who claims to be his “true” identity. Dark Leo pummels Leo and he surrenders,
accepting that maybe Splinter was right and all he’ll ever be is a Foot
Soldier. Suddenly, Leo sees a vision of
his mother, Tang Shen, telling him that he must believe in himself just as his
father does. Leo banishes Dark Leo from
his thoughts.
Leo awakens from his meditation as April watches over
him. April asks him if he learned
anything about the mental techniques of Kitsune and the Rat King. Leo says that they use your worst fears and
insecurities against you in order to warp you into something you aren’t. However, if you believe in yourself, you can
overcome their mind-control.
Turtle Tips:
*This story takes place concurrently with TMNT (IDW) #65.
*Leatherhead escaped to New York City in TMNT (IDW) #58.
*Old Hob mentions how his family abandoned him to the
streets when he was a normal cat, as seen in TMNT Villains Micro-Series #3.
*Hun broke ties with the Mutanimals in TMNT (IDW) #54.
*The Shredder and Kitsune turned Leo into Dark Leo in
TMNT (IDW) #23. Tang Shen helped Leo
purge the Dark Leo persona from his system in TMNT (IDW) #30.
*Splinter ordered Leo and April to devise strategies to
protect themselves from the mental attacks of the Pantheon in TMNT (IDW) #61.
*The Turtles left Splinter and the Foot Clan in TMNT (IDW) #64.
*The title for this issue comes from the trade paperback collection; the individual issue was untitled.
*The title for this issue comes from the trade paperback collection; the individual issue was untitled.
*This issue was originally published with 3 variant
covers: Regular Cover by Freddie E. Williams, Subscription Cover A by Dialynas,
and Incentive Cover by Ben Bishop.
Review:
This one-shot issue acts as a nice companion piece with
the other Christmas issue released this month, TMNT #65. In that way, the two issues form their own
little two-parter, albeit without actually crossing over. It’s a nice bit of thematic synergy between
the two titles; a subtle two-parter that can nevertheless be read independently
of one another if you feel like skipping one or the other book. You might be left wondering “Why isn’t Hob
with the Mutanimals in the TMNT ongoing?” or “Why aren’t the Mutanimals at
their HQ in Universe?” but that’s a hell of a lot better than “To Be Continued in
TMNT Universe #5!” or whatever.
It also complements TMNT #65 in another way. That Christmas issue was all saccharine good
times with no conflict or action to speak of.
THIS story is full of cynicism and explosions. So if that other half of the Yuletide
storyline didn’t do it for you, you’ll find your excitement on this end.
Characterization seems a little strange on Hun in this
story. He gives up without a direct
fight and cowers at the sight of Leatherhead.
Strange, considering he went toe-to-toe with Slash on a couple of
occasions; can’t see why Leatherhead would suddenly have him prostrating
himself for mercy. While I appreciate
the angle Mowry was going for, revisiting the idea that Hun wants out of big picture crime and would prefer to make money in smalltime rackets, he comes
off as uncharacteristically cowardly in his dialogue and Dialynas’
pencils.
Hun also looks a little scrawnier, but I can’t tell if
that was deliberate or just the way Dialynas chose to draw him (it’s also hard
to get a bead on scale since Leatherhead is so humongous). To follow that line of thinking, though,
maybe the ooze the Foot Clan gave Hun to beef him back up is wearing off? It might explain his shrinking size and
shrinking courage. Or I could be reading
into it too much.
Leatherhead rejecting Hob’s offer was a surprise; he’s
been a keystone member in all other incarnations of the Mutanimals, so I was
expecting him to join in this universe without much hassle. His reasons for rejecting Hob, though spelled out in some overdone dialogue exchanges, still don’t quite sit with
me. I guess Leatherhead wishes he were
still an animal and views all mutants as abominations to nature? A sort of self-loathing scenario? He silently looks at his reflection in a
mirror and crushes it in disgust in the first few pages, so I guess that’s the
deal.
The attitude doesn’t really carry over that well from his
introductory arc in the ongoing; seems rather spur of the moment. But I think I like the idea of Leatherhead
being his own independent faction out to menace EVERYBODY and that certainly
has more story potential than him just being a big bruiser for the Mutanimals. It works for me, since as I mentioned in the
past, I like Leatherhead as a villain more than an ally. So if they’re going to hang onto that thread
a little longer then more power to em.
This is Tomi Varga’s first full issue on colors, I
think. I like the style, as it has this
very smudgy sort of look and there is no flat coloring. The ambient lighting, especially in the
warehouse, looks dusty and cold and there’s a nice bit of nuance to
everything. We’d been seeing Varga’s
colors before in the back-up (and on many variant covers), but it was different
seeing them attached to Sienkiewicz and Eastman pencils as opposed to Dialynas’
stuff. Sienkiewicz and Eastman have an
almost abstract style (subtract the “almost” in Sienkiewicz’s case), but
Dialynas is a bit more straight forward.
So we get to see Varga’s take on how “reality” should be colored and I liked
it.
And the back-up concludes. We’d known for a while that it was going to
be “all a dream”, so the ending was a foregone conclusion months ago. I did like how they tied it into Splinter’s
assignment for Leo and April in TMNT #61.
I had to go back and check the issue just to make sure, but he does
indeed order Leo and April to work together to find a way to counteract the
mind-control spells of Kitsune and Rat King.
So this back-up ultimately does serve a purpose to the ongoing narrative
of the series, if that’s something that matters to you. Personally, while I enjoyed the Sienkiewicz
art, the gimmick of a confused Leo running into all his villains in succession
got old quickly. Hopefully the next
back-up has a more structured narrative.
Ultimately, this issue was just sort of okay. I liked the other Christmas one-shot better,
but some folks may not be into the relaxed, slice-of-life take it went
with. So if you wanted an action-heavy
issue for Christmas, here’s your alternative.
