Publication date: October, 2004
Writing, lettering, inking, toning: Peter Laird
Layouts, penciling: Jim Lawson
Inking: Eric Talbot
Cover painting: Michael Dooney
Production assistance: Dan Berger
Summary:
On the Moon-Island, Glurin repairs the Fugitoid and gets
him up to date on everything that happened since Raphael mutated and
escaped. He informs the Fugitoid that
Raptarr is being treated for his injuries and will recover, but Raphael has
gone missing; possibly returning to the Turtles’ hidden lair. Being the only one who knows the secret
location, the Fugitoid must go there alone to check. Poor Professor Honeycutt wishes he could track
down Leonardo to join him.
At a Foot warehouse, Leonardo tells the two Foot
Soldiers on guard duty that they’re relieved under Karai’s orders. They’re hesitant to believe him, but would
rather not disturb Karai in the middle of the night to find out (they're also pretty fed up with the Foot, considering how many of them have been killed lately). Once they’ve left, Leo checks on the book
they’ve been publishing that Three Moon Jaguar was so desperate to stop. It appears to be an arcane spell book with a
big “N” on the cover.
Down in the sewer lair, the mutated Raphael has torn his
way in and feels drawn to Splinter’s old room. There, he sees a vision or a memory of his
master, giving him a lecture about controlling his anger. Raph begins to mellow out when suddenly he’s
startled by the sound of the answering machine.
It’s Casey, saying that April has been missing for four days and he’s
worried sick. As the message ends, Raph
growls Casey’s name.
Off the coast of Maine, Michelangelo struggles to free
Regenta from the fishing net she’s tangled in.
He climbs onboard the boat and borrows a knife from the bewildered
fishermen and cuts her loose. Carrying
her unconscious body back to shore, he gives her mouth to mouth and she
revives. Mikey tells her what happened,
but Regenta is more concerned with the fact that they “shared breath”, which
among the Styraccodons is considered part of a courtship ritual. She then invites Mikey back into the water
for another swim… and something else.
Inside the habitat at the tepui, the shrunken
wood-creature slaps Donatello away and begins accosting one of the Utroms,
yelling in an alien language. Don tries
to fight back, but keeps getting battered around like he’s nothing more than a
nuisance. The Utrom then tells Don to
relax, that he understands the wood-creature’s language and that they’ve come
to an understanding. The wood-creature’s
chest then opens up and out crawls an Utrom, albeit a more feral-looking one.
Turtle Tips:
*Raph decapitated the Fugitoid and injured Raptarr in
TMNT (Vol. 4) #15.
*Leonardo references their experience with the spell book
“De Vermis Mysteriis” from Tales of the TMNT (Vol. 2) #30.
*April went to Mt. Skinner to see Renet in TMNT (Vol. 4)#14.
Review:
Hey, we’re catching up with some story elements left in
limbo for about three or four issues. So the
Fugitoid and Raptarr are okay, but April never came home after her meeting with
Renet. We still aren’t going to find out
what that was all about for four more issues, but at least we’ve got something
to tide us over for now.
I rather liked the situation Honeycutt was placed in
after the end of his segment. Being the
only one who knows the location of the TMNT’s secret lair, it's up to him to go there and check for Raph. And
Raph JUST ripped his fucking head off, so you can understand why he might not
be in such a hurry.
All the other arcs are moving very slowly, though; some
not even offering any new information.
Gameraph is getting a little calmer thanks to a vision of
Splinter (left ambiguous so that it could be a message from beyond the grave or
just a memory), regaining his faculties a little at a time. It was a nice moment.
Leo just discovered that the book the Foot Clan’s been
publishing is a grimoire with a big ole “N” on the cover. There’s only one ancient book of horrible secrets
that starts with an “N” that I can think of and it’s not “Nate the Great” (he
accepted pancakes as currency, what a fuckin’ moron).
Mikey and Regenta start to get serious. Mikey gets laid. You know, I think Don’s the only Turtle not to get any
through the course of the Mirage series.
And speaking of Don, his arc continues to canter about seven
paces behind the reading comprehension of the audience. I mean, Don’s arc really shouldn’t have been
the cliffhanger segment for this issue.
The wood-creature revealing itself to be an Utrom was just a formality
at this point and there was no shock or awe in that “reveal”. It just makes all the other characters look
dumb.
This was probably the most incremental issue of Volume 4
in a while. Nothing really awful about
it or anything, it just hasn’t got much going on.