Publication date: August 13, 2014
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow and Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Cory Smith
Colors: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow
"New Mutant Order, Part 1"
"New Mutant Order, Part 1"
Summary:
In Northampton, Alopex is stalking a rabbit when she’s
approached by the spectral form of Kitsune.
Kitstune reminds her of their previous chat, where she told her a time
would come when she needed to act. Alopex
thinks she already acted when she left the Foot, but Kitsune reminds her that
her “piece” is still in “play”. More
importantly, when the “game” really kicks off, Kitsune will need Alopex by her
side. Kitsune wipes Alopex’s memory of
their encounter and vanishes, her spirit returning to her body in New York.
On a boat belonging to General Krang, the Shredder
arrives, flanked by two Foot Soldiers.
Krang, meanwhile, is flanked by Tragg and Granitor.
Krang isn’t too thrilled to this meeting, as the last time he and
Shredder had an encounter, the Shredder betrayed him and stole his ooze (back
when Krang masqueraded as the Iron Demon).
Shredder suggests they put old encounters aside and proposes an
alliance. Shredder is aware of Krang’s
recent developments with the ooze and has made some developments of his own in
the form of mutagen. Krang recalls all
too well how Shredder GOT his ooze; it was when Karai invaded Burnow Island and
stole it. Krang tells Shredder that his
so-called developments mean nothing, as he currently has people working on
something very big: New Utrominon.
The Shredder warns him that humanity will never surrender
to alien rule. He proposes that the Foot
will act as a go-between for Krang’s forces and humanity, with himself ruling
over the Earthlings and protecting the revived Utroms. Krang laughs at Shredder’s gall, saying he
has no intention of sparing a single human in his conquest of Earth. He then proceeds to punch through Shredder’s
chest, killing him.
As it turns out, “Shredder” was a decoy. The real Oroku Saki is disguised as one of
the Foot Soldiers. He sets off a bomb in
the decoy’s helmet, allowing him the opportunity to slip away (while the other
Foot Soldier absorbs Tragg and Granitor’s bullets). Shredder makes it to the bow, but Krang
launches a missile from his rocket-gauntlet-thing and blasts the Foot
helicopter out of the sky. Krang is
ready to annihilate him when Shredder calls in his trump cards: Koya and the
new hammerhead shark mutant, Bludgeon.
Bludgeon and Koya take on Tragg and Granitor, freeing up
Shredder and Krang to duel. Shredder
damages Krang’s body with his sword, inciting Krang to launch a volley of
missiles all over the place. The
explosions begin to sink the ship. The
henchmen on both sides decide to take initiative: Koya swoops in and carries
Shredder away while Granitor calls Burnow Island for an immediate
teleportation. Krang is livid about losing
the chance to kill Shredder, but Shredder is more passive. He commends Bludgeon and Koya on their quick
thinking. However, he informs them that
the war has just escalated.
Turtle Tips:
*This story is continued from TMNT (IDW) #36. The story continues in TMNT (IDW) #38.
*The events of the Turtles in Time miniseries occur concurrently with this issue.
*The Shredder double-crossed the Iron Demon (Krang) in The Secret History of the Foot Clan #4.
*Alopex and Kitsune had their first chat in TMNT (IDW) #27.
*Stockgen employee Chet/Fugitoid was revealed as a double
agent working for the Foot in TMNT Micro-Series #8: Fugitoid. Karai invaded Burnow Island and stole the
ooze in TMNT (IDW) #19. The Fugitoid
agreed to work with Krang and Baxter Stockman on the Technodrome, but secretly
shared his information with the Turtles and the Foot Clan, in Utrom Empire #3.
*The Shredder saw a vision of the Foot warring with Krang
in TMNT Villains Micro-Series #8: Shredder.
*Shredder previously disguised himself as a Foot Soldier
in TMNT Microseries #4: Leonardo.
*In the letters page of TMNT (IDW) #40, editor Bobby Curnow described the origins of Bludgeon as a character: "Tom originally wrote Bludgeon as Armaggon, but besides being a shark, there's virtually nothing in common between the two characters. So instead of having an 'in name only' character, we decided just to make him his own entity."
*This issue was originally published with 3 variant
covers: Cover A by Smith, Cover B by Eastman and Pattison, and Cover RI by Mike
Henderson.
Review:
Jawsome!
God, how many reviews for TMNT this month are going to
include Street Sharks references? Waltz
brought this on himself.
Anyway, this was a great transitioning story that works
as both an epilogue to the previous arc and a prologue to the next. The brief interlude with Alopex ties into
what we learned last issue with the Rat King, his family and the “game” they’re
playing. The meat of the issue, though,
covers the Shredder and Krang, throwing down the gauntlet and setting up what I
can only assume will be a major arc. It
also functions as a more low-key one-shot, being a fairly self-contained
narrative. In all ways, it’s a
well-crafted story that functions on numerous levels (also making it an ideal
jumping-on point, even if it was never advertised as such).
If the Turtle Tips section didn’t clue you in, much of
the issue consists of two characters talking and recapping past events, tying
several key plot points from the past three years together. Waltz tries to work these references
organically into the dialogue, with only a few Stan Lee-isms to speak of (“Ha
Ha, I have every intention of killing you, but I will permit you to indulge in
your long-winded exposition only because it amuses me!”). There’s a good balance between retreading old
information and setting up new situations (and introducing new characters) so
it isn’t like this is a “recap issue” or whatever.
I’m rather glad we aren’t getting the Shredder/Krang
alliance, too. Their rift was already
presaged in the Shredder micro, but immediately turning them against one
another also deviates from what a lot of readers might have been
anticipating. Doesn’t look like there’s
gonna be any ‘80s cartoon Shredder/Krang partnership in this book. At least not anytime soon.
When you take a step back and look at the big picture,
you start to see the whole series in perspective. And in a way, I think I’m coming to better
appreciate IDW’s Shredder (who I always thought was shortsighted or just kinda dumb). Look at
everything he’s done up to this point and you can see that he’s been working
from an agenda, taking on tasks one step at a time. First, he menaced Stockgen/Burnow Island to
steal ooze. Then, he scoped out Leonardo
as a potential candidate for second in command.
Then, he found and revived Kitsune.
All of this was to give him an edge for the next step in his ascent to
greatness: Consolidating power in New York.
He did that in “City Fall” by seizing command of the Purple Dragons and
the Savate. Now that he has all of his
ducks in a row, he’s ready to take things to the next level and confront
General Krang in a battle for the Earth (“Today New York City, tomorrow the
world” I guess, though that’s kind of a leap in square acreage).
What you can see is that everything he’s been doing has
been highly methodical. As a reader, it’s
been a bit infuriating as EVERY issue has felt like build-up to something
else. But when you really get a look at
it, you can see that it’s been nothing but a checklist since Day One and Shredder
just crossed off another errand. So yes,
this issue does suffer from the “build up build up build up so much build up”
problem that’s made this book anxious reading since it started, but now that
the big picture is just a little bit clearer, I think we can appreciate the
storytelling method a little more (as infuriating as it can be).
The new character introduced in this issue is the Street
Shark I mentioned at the start of my review: Bludgeon. Doesn’t Hasbro own that trademark? Sorry Playmates, but it’s not like they were flooding the market with IDW-based TMNT toys, anyway. At any rate, he has a great design (the fishing
nets around his shorts, the shark tooth necklace), though we’ve still got a lot
to learn about his personality and origin.
He’s the first mutant henchman to spring out of the ether; even Koya got
a brief introduction as Shredder’s pet falcon.
Unless I missed a hammerhead shark somewhere in this book, and if I did
I’m going to go get my eyes checked.
Also, this Cory Smith guy is really good. Santolouco is coming back next issue, though
the closing editor’s comments promise that we’ll be seeing more of Smith
soon. I certainly hope so. His style blends well with Santolouco's, especially after Pattison has put her excellent colors on things, but there are lots of little details that push things over the edge. I love how the fake Shredder's claws scrape against the table when Krang is impaling him on that splash page.
Grade: B (as in, “Because OF COURSE I checked, look at
the fake Shredder from the start of the issue.
He doesn’t have the scar on his left eye! Now that’s good thinking on Smith’s part”.)
