TMNT: Mutanimals #3

Publication date: May 6, 2015

Story: Paul Allor

Art: Andy Kuhn

Colors: Nick Filardi

Letters: Shawn Lee

Edits: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

At the train yard, Slash tells his (non-lethal) strategy to Mondo, who hotwires an old truck.

Inside the train, Hob and the other Mutanimals are introduced to Ray and Sally Pride, other experiments of Null’s.  Sally insists that she could drive the train to freedom if she could just get out of her cell (having been reflex-tested on driving sims at the lab), but Hob has a better idea: Wait for Slash and Mondo.

Slash and Mondo jump from the truck to the train and get inside the car, only for the car to fill with guards.  They overwhelm Mondo instantly and force him into a cell.  They try the same thing on Slash, but seeing the cages makes Slash lose his mind.  He rampages, hurling guards out of the train and ripping the bars off the cell doors.  His violence derails the train and it crashes.  Everyone is okay, but even after Slash calms down, his friends still fear him.

Lady Null arrives via chopper to the roof of her building.  A pair of guards inform her of their failure to keep the mutants locked up and she isn’t happy.  Jillian and Lindsey then arrive and Null tells them she plans to start over and have a new batch of mutants ready by the next fiscal year.  Lindsey tells her that after seeing her organization, she has to make a moral objection and quit.  Null informs her that mutant technology now exists and it WILL be used by someone, somewhere, and so she would be better off benefitting from it.  And anyway, if she tries to quit, she’ll get tossed off the roof of the skyscraper.  Lindsey tries to call Null’s bluff, but Null proceeds to grab one of the guards who failed her and drain him of his life, turning him into a withered corpse.

In the elevator going down, Lindsey and Jillian get into a fight.  They exit into a stairwell so the cameras can’t see them and Lindsey accuses Jillian of lying to her about Null’s intentions.  Jillian says that she had no choice; she was in too deep and needed someone to help her get out.  Just then, guards show up to escort them back to the lab.

At Mutanimals HQ, Slash is bummed about how he lost control and how everyone was afraid of him.  Hob tries to cheer him up just as Pete walks in, finishing the tour for Ray and Sally.  Sally wants to destroy the lab, suggesting that one of Null’s familiar experiments return and setup an ambush (hearing this, Mutagen Man sneaks away).  Ray suggests that the lab isn’t the root of the problem; they need to get to Null-herself.  She’s vain and cruel, wanting to crush her opponents personally, and Hob figures they can use that to draw her out.

Later, Pete is installing nightlights in the HQ when he finds Mutagen Man in the bathroom, messing with his suit’s wiring.  Mutagen Man asks what kind of nightmares Pete has and Pete talks about what scared him when he was just a normal pigeon.  Mutagen Man confesses that his nightmares are much different.  He then flees the HQ, running past Mondo and Herman, who try to stop him.

Mutagen Man arrives at the lab claiming that his suit is malfunctioning and the guards bring him to Lindsey and Jillian.  Lindsey is horrified at the sight of Mutagen Man, but Jillian brushes her off and promises to help the mutant.  Mutagen Man shows them the broken part of his suit, but reveals that he rewired it himself.  He’s overheating and in a few minutes he’ll explode, taking them all with him.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT: Mutanimals #2.  The story continues in TMNT: Mutanimals #4.

*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers: Cover A by Kuhn and Filardi, and Subscription Cover by Ben Bates.

Review:

While this issue didn’t feel so much like it moved the story along (aside from the daring rescue and Mutagen Man going suicide-bomber), it was rife with little character moments.

We get a little glimpse at Mondo’s rebellious, punkish side as he hotwires that truck.  Kinda calls back to the Archie series, where he knew how to pick locks (or the Fred Wolf cartoon, where he was an out-and-out crook).  It’s a small thing, but it illustrates that he’s not just the vacuous skater dude and there’s a more devilish streak to him.

I liked Pigeon Pete’s little talk with Mutagen Man about nightmares.  Pete was never experimented on in a lab or horribly tortured, no, but his fears stem more from the life-or-death, eat-or-be-eaten existence he endured before he was transformed.  So even the comedy relief character gets a moment of heart.

As for Slash “hulking out”, well, I’m not so sure if that’s the direction they should have gone with the character.  So basically, Slash is a highly intelligent, gentle and thoughtful individual until something makes him angry, then he loses control and turns into a berserk cyclone of indiscriminate destruction.  Does that sound like anybody else to you?

Yeah, so what the fuck is IDW going to do when they get around to introducing Leatherhead?  The Jekyll/Hyde or Banner/Hulk thing is essentially Leatherhead’s entire stock and trade.  But Slash has just called dibs on that archetype.  So is Leatherhead’s whole shtick going to wind up feeling redundant alongside Slash?

Or maybe IDW will surprise us and we’ll get Cajun swamp trapper Leatherhead!  Hey, I can dream.

This issue was mostly “little talks” between the characters, which did a good job getting into their heads or defining their relationships, but doesn’t leave me with too much more to discuss.  The characters sort of exposit or explain their feelings during these talks, so there isn’t a whole lot for the audience to think about.

Regarding the action, well, after the recent Amtrak derailment that happened right after this issue was published, I think we all know you don’t just walk away from a train derailment without a scratch on you.  Even without the tragedy in the news, that moment was still pretty goofy.  Kuhn draws the derailment as this big disaster full of twisted metal and fire, yet everyone just brushes themselves off with a “meh”.

As for the new characters, Sally and Ray, we still don’t have the best feel for them outside of broad strokes.  Sally is wild and hotheaded while Ray is more pragmatic and patient; but then, we figured that much out from their brief dialogue last issue.  I’m sure they’ll get more to do as things progress, we just don't have a lot to go on, yet.

Oh, and Null sucked a guy dry (his lifeforce, I mean).  Makes me wonder what her deal in the scope of the IDW universe is, now.  Is she a literal demon from Hell like Archie’s Null?  Or is she maybe connected to the Pantheon alongside Kitsune, Rat King and Chi-You?  All of them are based on regional folk lore and mythology, so with Null taking on a very cartoonish appearance of a devil, she would fit right in.

Anyway, this issue was a lot of talking, but at times it was like it was talking to the reader, not the characters.  “This is how I feel”, “this is my story”, “this is my personality”, “this is my evil plan”.  I get that exposition and awkward phrasing is a necessary evil for reader benefit, but it was just a lot crammed into a single issue, that’s all.

Grade: C+ (as in, “C’mon, Mutagen Man.  We JUST had a conversation last issue about how the Mutanimals don’t want to act like terrorists and now you’re going to turn into a suicide-bomber?  In one ear and out the other with that guy”.)

TMNT: Mutanimals #2

Publication date: March 25, 2015

Story: Paul Allor

Art: Andy Kuhn

Colors: Nick Filardi

Letters: Shawn Lee and Tom Long

Edits: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

At Mutanimals HQ, Herman the Hermit Crab and Mondo Gecko talk about their polarizing dispositions (Herman’s a career soldier, Mondo’s a slacker) and also Mutagen Man.  Mondo doesn’t like him, but Herman thinks he’s just a former POW that needs to acclimate to society.

At Null Group HQ, the devilish-looking CEO of the company, Madame Null, interviews Lindsey for a scientific position in her company.  With Jillian’s reference, Null agrees to hire her and puts her on the mutant project.

Outside the Null Group lab, Old Hob and Slash are dismayed to find that they’ve beefed up security, making it impossible for them to rescue the other mutants trapped inside.  Hob decides that they need to kidnap a scientist and interrogate them.  Luckily, one just so happens to be leaving…

Back at Mutanimals HQ, Mondo decides to give Mutagen Man a chance and they play video games together.  Mondo says that Mutagen Man deserves a better name than the one Null gave him and starts calling him “Seymour Guts”.  Mutagen Man laughs at the pun and it’s the first time he’s ever laughed in his life.

In their interrogation room, Hob and Slash have the scientist tied up and they’re grilling him for info.  The scientist explains that Madame Null wants to create an army of mutant hybrids, each genetically tailored to any conceivable occupation (combining the traits of different animals to be the most effective).  Madame Null has designs on conquering the world’s economy with her mutant workforce.  Hob asks where the other mutant experiments are and the scientist says that all were executed except Mutagen Man and two others.  The other two are about to be shipped off at the train yard.  Hob pulls out a gun to kill the scientist, but Slash stops him, insisting that they’d be just as bad as Null’s scientist if they did so.

Hob rallies the Mutanimals for an immediate attack on the train yard, but Slash once again undermines his authority and questions the plan, thinking they shouldn’t charge right into danger.  Hob insists that the mutants about to be shipped off don’t have the luxury of waiting and orders the Mutanimals into the van.  Mutagen Man hesitantly joins them, wanting to save the other experiments like himself.

They charge into the train yard in their van, but are immediately surrounded by Null soldiers.  Madame Null greets them, saying that the scientist they captured freed himself and gave them warning of the attack.  Hob shoots her, but the bullets do no damage.  The soldiers descend upon the Mutanimals and begin taking them captive.  Hob orders Slash and Mondo to retreat and they slip away in the chaos.  The Mutanimals are then loaded onto the train where the two other mutant prisoners, a cat-woman named Sally and a man-ray named Ray, are already imprisoned.

Elsewhere, Slash and Mondo reconvene.  Mondo doesn’t know what to do, but Slash tells him that they’re going to do what they must because they’re… The Mighty Mutanimals!

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT: Mutanimals #1.  The story continues in TMNT: Mutanimals #3.

*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers: Cover A by Kuhn and Filardi, and Subscription Cover by Ben Bates.

Review:

Man, we’re in the midst of the most unexpected revival I could have ever hoped for (besides Pizzaface, I mean).  The Mutanimals have been slowly building in the pages of the IDW comic for a while, but now they’ve broken into the Nickelodeon cartoon, too!  Everywhere I look, it’s the Mutanimals!  And I love it.

I bring up their recent debut in the Nick TMNT cartoon because there seems to be some (possibly coincidental) synergy between IDW and Nick.  The Nick Mutanimals are led by Slash and now, with Hob in the lock-up, so are the IDW Mutanimals.  I dunno if that was arranged beforehand or just a happy accident, but it’s neat to see the two incarnations aligning like this all of a sudden.

It also makes it easier to read IDW Slash’s dialogue with Corey Feldman’s voice in my head.

Anyhow, to speak to the specifics of this issue, Allor does a fine job of balancing the grimness with the humor.  The comic isn’t bipolar; like the first 11 page are dark and brooding while the last 11 pages are fun and goofy.  The lighthearted antics are woven in and around the darker narrative and there’s no tonal whiplash to speak of.  At times, Allor even seems to be reminding the characters to lighten up when things get too intense (Pete interrupting Hob’s and Slash’s Serious Business with a parade of bubbles).  I mean, this book is called “Mutanimals”, how serious can you honestly make it?

While Hob and Slash do take center stage, arguing over the finer points of leadership, we do get time to learn about the other members of the team.  Herman’s still a little thin on characterization, but I enjoyed seeing him show the most concern for Mutagen Man right at the getgo.  Mondo being portrayed as a slacker was a good lead-in to his predicament at the end of the issue, having to accept the responsibility of rescuing his comrades.  Pete remains Pete and god bless him for that.

As for Mutagen Man, he’s rather sad and pathetic so far, but I have a feeling he’s going to show some dangerous potential before the mini’s over.  I wonder exactly how they’re going to render his powers or just WHAT powers they’re going to give him.  His original Playmates action figure never described any specific ability, but gave him a machine gun.  The old Fred Wolf cartoon interpreted his bio’s description of “ever changing” to mean that he could duplicate the appearance of anyone he laid eyes on.  The Nickelodeon cartoon just gave him extending liquid arms.

So who knows what he’ll be able to do in this incarnation.

As for Madame Null, that was an interesting change.  I don’t think it really has an impact on Null’s character, whatever sex he/she is.  Admittedly, one of Null’s recurring shticks in the Archie comic was that he liked to hit and demean women (because he was the devil), so seeing him turned into a woman has a lick of irony to it.  So far, Madame Null is a rather typical villain, but let’s be honest; so was the original Null.

And hey, two new faces.  Ray is obviously Man-Ray/Ray Fillet, but Sally looks to be an original character.  Unless she has spots under that coat and turns out to be Jagwar.  Anything’s possible, I suppose.

Grade: B+ (as in, “But Allor missed a golden opportunity to use that bow-tied scientist to introduce Professor Jordan Perry into the IDW series!  Bah”.)

TMNT: Mutanimals #1

Publication date: February 25, 2015

Story: Paul Allor

Art: Andy Kuhn

Colors: Nick Filardi

Letters: Shawn Lee

Edits: Bobby Curnow

Summary:

Lindsey is out for a walk with Pigeon Pete as her chaperon when they’re attacked by a group of strange men (the leader wearing an eye patch).  Lindsey tries to call Old Hob and leaves a partial message before she and Pete are thrown into the back of a van.

At Mutanimal HQ, the mutants are just returning from their raid on the Foot Clan.  Hob gets Lindsey’s message and rallies the troops to go rescue her and Pete.  They use a tracking device Hob implanted in Pete after the Bebop and Rocksteady incident to track him down.

Lindsey and Pete are unloaded at a Null Group facility where Lindsey is greeted by her ex-girlfriend and ex-research partner Jillian.  Jillian wants to offer Lindsey a job with the Null Group and promises that Pete will be returned to the streets safely (secretly, she tells the eye-patch man to take him to the rail yard). 

Jillian gives Lindsey a tour of their lab and tells her that she’d be better off working for the Null Group than running around with a psychotic gang.  She says that the Null Group worked for the Foot Clan, helping them create the mutants they have in their forces.  With the resources provided by the Null Group, they can make far more progress in mutagenic research than ever before.  Lindsey considers the offer.

On the highway, the Mutanimals attack the Null Group van with their own van.  Herman the Hermit Crab shoots off the lock on the enemy van’s rear door and Pete attempts to fly to freedom (he crashes, but Hob says to leave him since now he’s safe).  They chase down the Null van and crash it against lamppost.  Mondo Gecko chases down the eye-patch man and Hob checks out his wallet, learning his name (Mr. Meiring), address and how many kids he has.  Hob threatens Meiring’s family and the man reveals where they took Lindsey.  Slash doesn’t seem to like this side of Hob.

The Mutanimals crash the Null facility and as soon as Hob sees the lab, he has flashbacks of the time he was experimented on by Baxter Stockman.  He orders the Mutanimals to trash the lab and kill everyone in it.  Lindsey helps Jillian escape through the back door while Jillian calls her boss to tell him about the attack.  In an office somewhere, a shadowy figure with what appear to be horns on his head gets the message.

Hob and the Mutanimals continue their raid on the lab, eventually coming to a locked room.  Inside, they find a creature that’s nothing but organs held together in a make-shift “jar”-like torso with mangled limbs attached to the trunk.  Slash reads the chart and discovers that he’s codenamed “Mutagen Man” and he was an attempt to combine numerous different mutant types.  Mutagen Man begs to be killed, but Hob won’t do it and instead they escape with him in the van.

Driving away, Hob says that they’ve officially declared war.

Turtle Tips:

*This story takes place after TMNT (IDW) #43.  The story continues in TMNT: Mutanimals #2.

*The Mutanimals got into a fight with Bebop and Rocksteady in TMNT (IDW) #39.

*This issue was originally published with 2 variant covers: Cover A by Kuhn and Filardi, and Subscription Cover by Ben Bates.

Review:

Alright, the Mutanimals are finally up and running in their own storyline!  Color me psyched.  TMNT (IDW) #16 was when it all started, Hob recruiting Slash as the foundation of his “mutant army”, and that was just over two years ago.  It’s been great watching Hob build the Mutanimals a little at a time over these two years; gathering resources, making connections, figuring out how to work the ooze/mutagen/psychotropic serum, swelling his ranks and so on.  It’s been a slow development, but we’re here.

Since Hob began referencing his desire to have a mutant army (somewhere during the “City Fall” arc), that’s sort of led us readers to assume that there’d be some kind of mutant war in the title’s future.  I mean, what’s the purpose of having an army if there’s no war to fight in, right?  With Hob’s last words in this issue, that war is officially on.

Against some guys called the Null Group.  Who didn’t exist until just now.  Hm.

That’s the one thing I suppose I take issue with.  I mean, I think it’s fucking awesome that Allor dug up Null and his sinister corporation from the Archie Comics Mighty Mutanimal book, don’t get me wrong.  But within the vacuum of the IDW series, this is the first time they have ever been mentioned.  It’s clear to the reader that they were a more recent development; so recent, in fact, that their mere existence couldn’t have been referenced in any previous issues of the ongoing series.

So there’s sort of some retconning and exposition going on and not all of it is graceful.  Right from the first page, Pigeon Pete is referencing Null products and later, when Jillian gives Lindsey a tour of the lab, she clumsily tells her about the Null Group and what a huge corporation it is.  It’d be like if you were in Atlanta and a friend said, “Hey, want to take a tour of the Coca-Cola bottling plant?  You know, Coca-Cola?  The giant soda manufacturer and one of the largest corporations in the world?  You’ve heard of them, right?”

All that is done to explain what the Null Group is to the readers because, prior to this issue, they did not exist within the universe of the IDW comic.  It would have been a little more organic if the Null Group had been seeded, even subtly as background Easter eggs, in previous issues if only to save us from so much awkward exposition.

That said, Allor works them into the mythos of IDW’s TMNT series to make it seem like they were there all along and aren’t just a sudden invention.  Apparently, they helped the Foot Clan make their mutants, which helpfully ties up at least one dangling bit of logic (how did a group of assassins know how to perform complex genetic mutations?).

The big character reveal in this issue is Mutagen Man, of course.  In the various cartoons he’s appeared in, he’s been portrayed as a huge dork who gets accidentally turned into a hideous pile of disembodied organs suspended in a tank of ooze.  This origin deviates from the idea of Mutagen Man having a previous identity and actually takes cues from Peter Laird’s original pitch, when the character was called “The Unknown” (still love that name):

 As you can read for yourself, Laird originally intended him to be a failed attempt to combine several types of mutant animals.  Allor dips into that bit of obscurity and we have a darker and more tragic sort of Mutagen Man (as horrific as his origin in the cartoons was, it tended to be played for laughs regardless).

Collectively, IDW’s Mutanimals are sort of a celebration of the Ninja Turtles brand across all its many incarnations.  You have Fred Wolf and Archie characters, Movie characters (IDW’s Slash has always been a fusion with Tokka), Nickelodeon characters and original IDW characters.  There’s a little bit of everything in this roster, except the Mirage and 4Kids series, but they deliberately avoided mutants so there isn’t much to work with from them.  Though hey, maybe if Hob becomes less of a bigot later on, Angel/Nobody can join up and then we’ll have both the 4Kids and Mirage series covered.

All in all, aside from the spontaneous existence of the Null Group and some clumsy exposition trying to convince us that they’ve been there all along, this was a pretty perfect issue.  Lots of humor mixed with action and drama.  Surprises, too.  I’m gonna hate it when the miniseries ends and the Mutanimals have to go back to being supporting characters in the ongoing series.

Grade: B+ (as in, “Being Pigeon Pete is suffering”.)

TMNT Adventures #57

Publication date: June, 1994

Story/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)

Pencils: Chris Allan

Inks: Jon D’Agostino

Letters: Gary Fields

Colors: Barry Grossman

Craters: V. Gorelick

Cover: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot

“Terracide, Part Three of Three”

Summary:

Chapter One: The Dark Side of the Moon

As the Strato-Ray pulls into the dark side of the Moon, the Turtles encounter their true enemy: Queen Maligna and her Hive World. They’re spotted by Malignoid fighter craft and, despite future-Don’s fancy flying, are shot down and the Strato-Ray explodes.

Inside, Queen Maligna titters over her victory and vengeance. Null had gained revenge of his own, introducing Maligna to his new scantily clad pet: the mind-controlled Candy. As Null makes Candy debase herself for his amusement, Maligna drools over the imminent conquest of Earth.

Chapter Two: In the Belly of the Beast

Elsewhere on the Hive World, a time slip opens up. Turns out, future-Don wanted the Malignoids to think they were all dead so that they could sneak aboard the Hive World in secret. Being the only one of the group to have been inside the Hive World before, future-Raph offers to take point. Jealous of his older self, Raph forces his way to the lead on the grounds that he’d been there more recently. As they explore the cavernous ship, Slash relates the story of Palmadise, his homeworld that was annihilated when aliens cut down all the trees, while Ninjara and Splinter tell Raph to stop acting like such a jealous jerk and calm down.

Eventually, they find a pair of Malignoids guarding a weird gyroscope-shaped organ. Slash erupts and kills the Malignoids, but also hacks open the organ. One with her ship, Queen Maligna feels the pain of the organ and now knows the Turtles are onboard. As the Hive World destabilizes, hundreds of Malignoids converge on the Turtles.

Chapter Three: Into the Sun…

Without a stabilized orbit, the Turtles bounce every which way as they battle the Malignoids. The fight continues for some time, and in the chaos, future-Don’s time slip remote is destroyed. After a while, the orbit re-stabilizes and the Turtles slaughter the last of the Malignoids. As temperatures rise, they find Queen Maligna, Scul and Bean repairing the gyroscope. Maligna warns them not to interfere, for if they don’t repair the organ, the Hive World will plummet into the Sun.

Future-Don notices Null making a break for the hangar with Candy in tow. Future-Don gives chase and frees Candy from the demon. Null brushes off his attacks, laughing that future-Don still doesn’t know who he truly is dealing with. Null flies away into space and his hold on Candy’s mind ceases.

Future-Don calls everyone to board a Malignoid space craft and escape. Slash, not wanting to see another planet destroyed like Palmadise, refuses to follow. Hacking the gyroscope some more, he vows to stay behind and see to it that Queen Maligna and all her evil forces meet their deaths. Shedding a tear, Slash tells his friends to make their escape before it’s too late. As he says this, the Hive World begins to burn up in the heat of the Sun.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #56. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #58.

*According to the beginning of this issue, despite being published over a year later, the story still takes place in March of 1993.

*Queen Maligna and her Hive World last appeared in Mighty Mutanimals (miniseries) #3.


Review:

And that’s the end of “Terracide”.

Between this and “Megadeath”, of all the characters to bite the dust, I was most bummed out by the termination of Slash. As evil and psychotic as he was (he’d killed his share of innocents, if you recall the space police officers he gutted in his first appearance), his life story was a truly tragic one and he’d only so briefly gotten to know peace before having it taken away from him. The guy had it pretty rough. He lost his race, his homeworld, all his new friends and the surrogate home he’d finally found. In the end, the best he could do was murder an intergalactic scourge and ensure that no one else would ever lose as much as he had. Redemption!

For a guy who really only featured in 7 issues (not counting his brief cameos in “Megadeath”), he got a lot of characterization. Of course, I’d loved to have seen more of him, but I’m happy with what I got. And while “Megadeath” was all about killing characters unceremoniously and without a shred of dignity, Slash got to go out with a solid chunk of emotional impact. He was definitely underutilized in this book, but every appearance was a gem.

If there’s one thing in this conclusion that really deserves props, it’s the lettering by Gary Fields. I failed to bring it up in my reviews for the Mighty Mutanimals miniseries, but I’ve got to say, I really dig Fields’ unique lettering for Queen Maligna’s dialogue. Also, I love how he rotates the speech bubbles once the Hive World loses stability, so you have to rotate the comic in order to read them. I believe Dave Sim actually pioneered that trick in his book, “Cerebus” (to simulate a drunken stupor), but it remains an effective and engaging technique that actively disorients the reader.

Despite the heartbreaking death of Slash, I actually felt that this last installment of “Terracide” was comparatively the weakest. It has mostly to do with Queen Maligna’s grand comeback, that only persists for half an issue then she dies. While it certainly facilitated an epic set piece, I felt her inclusion was a bit tacked on and she didn’t offer anything else to the story other than said set piece.

Null’s escape at the end also felt too abrupt, considering he was the mastermind villain of the story arc. He implies in his parting dialogue to future-Don that his nature is something truly immortal and unfathomable; more-so than just demonic but perhaps even the personification of evil or greed-itself. As a villain, he runs a great gamut of large scale evil (trying to destroy the Earth) and more personal wickedness (forcing a grieving girl to humiliate herself for his own amusement), which is very befitting of a devil, or perhaps THE Devil. But we may never know. There have been musings about the real world individual Murphy (Clarrain) may have based Null on, and if such suggestions are the truth, then it puts the idea that Null is immortal and inescapable into a new light.

Still, in every arc he appears in, he ends up hiding behind other villains (Maligna, the Four Horseman, Maligna again), and though that is clearly his modus operandi, it somewhat diminishes him as we never get to see what he can REALLY do.

“Terracide” is one of the strongest arcs in all of TMNT Adventures and, pound for pound, I prefer it to the much more revered “Future Shark Trilogy”. Though it sprang from a rather loathsome storyline, it is much less convoluted and contains less moments of hasty exposition. The amount of violence and innuendo may seem completely over the top (the Turtles stand triumphantly atop a pile of Malignoid corpses, covered in blue blood... then there’s the matter of Null and Candy), but it actually serves a purpose. It isn’t there to shock but rather to appropriately illustrate the scale of the forces the protagonists are up against.


Grade: B+ (as in, “Believe it or not, but I have always instinctively read Queen Maligna’s voice as being Andrea Martin doing her Queen Slug-for-a-Butt voice”.)

TMNT Adventures #56

Publication date: May, 1994

Story/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)

Pencils: Chris Allan

Inks: Brian Thomas

Inks (pages 16-17): Eric Talbot

Letters: Gary Fields

Colors: Barry Grossman

Managing edits: V. Gorelick

Cover: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot

“Terracide, Part Two of Three”

Summary:

Chapter One: Rage

On the sandbar, Null tells his enemies that he intends to destroy both the Earth of the present and the Earth of the future. Not one to listen to trash talk, Slash leaps into action ahead of the gang and the all-out brawl begins. Going head to head with Waster, Slash rips out the robot’s tongue and slices off its arm.

As Leo and Don deal with Fist, future-Don finds a ditch for Candy and himself to take cover in. Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, future-Don considers how the time stream has changed and the events that led to this battle. He takes a moment too long, however, and Fist nails him with a punch. Fist prepares to kill Candy, when Leo and Don intervene. Candy makes a break for it, only to run into… Mondo? Brought to tears at the sight of him, Candy runs to her boyfriend’s arms. Mondo reveals that he’s not the genuine article, though, and makes Candy look deep into his eyes.

What Candy sees are the Mutanimals, burning in excruciating torment in the fiery pits of Hell.

Candy summarily faints and “Mondo” reveals himself to be Null. Mocking how women can’t handle the ole “souls of loved ones in Hell” routine, he lifts Candy up and tells Scul and Bean to call in their escape ship. As the ship lands, Bean attempts to make cover with one of his bombs, but Leo knocks it away with a shuriken. Null and the Malignoids still manage to make it to the ship with Candy and they fly off into space.

In the fury of battle, Slash takes on all four Gang members by himself, trouncing Fist and shredding Waster into pieces. Fist and Lynch reveal that they’re Thanosoids, cybernetic organisms made with state of the art polyzerkonium circuitry. Realizing that they’re just “fancy robots”, the Turtles cut loose. Leo and Raph decapitate and kill Fist while Ninjara crushes Dead-Eye’s head with a rock.

Lynch is the only one left standing, at least until future-Raph cuts off all his limbs. Future-Raph tells him to spill Null’s location in exchange for his life. Lynch reveals that Null has retreated to the dark side of the Moon. Future-Raph then kills Lynch without remorse.

As everyone boards the Strato-Ray to rescue Candy and stop Null, Leo and Don ask to be dropped off in the water outside the USCGS Dator so that they can rescue Mikey from the Coast Guard.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #55. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #57.

*A pin-up page by Mike Kazaleh published in TMNT Adventures #61 illustrates (humorously) that the Mutanimals did not, in fact, go to Hell after they died.


Review:

Despite having “chapter” marks, this entire issue is just one long fight scene (and only one chapter). And while that sounds shallow, like nothing but action-oriented filler to keep the plot from progressing, the issue-long brawl is one of absolutely brutal intensity.

The Gang of Four just being “fancy robots” allows for a certain level of violence the book wouldn’t have been allowed to get away with; sort of like how all the bad guys on “Samurai Jack” turned out to be robots when cut open despite all appearances to the contrary. So far as I’m concerned, I actually prefer that kid-oriented Turtle cartoons and comics use robots over human enemies, at least when it comes to cannon fodder, as it allows the TMNT to actually use their weapons. I loved the 4Kids cartoon, don’t get me wrong, but I can only suffer through Leo never ever using his swords to cut anybody for so long.

There are a pair of two-page spreads in this issue, but they’re strategically executed and, again, don’t rub off like they’re “killing time” to make the issue go by faster. The first is the set-up for the brawl; the ole “both sides charge toward each other” shtick. It’s well-drawn and built up to and I love the exchange between Ninjara and Dead-Eye (“To the Death!” “No prob.”). The other spread is, well, wow. The pin-up style spread of the Mutanimals burning in Hell, done with heavy inks and a single shade of blood red. It is incredibly effective and, if you were attached to the Mutanimals, an absolutely brutal dose of salt to the wound. I complained about Talbot’s inking from the flashback in last issue, but his inking was perfect for this spread; dark, nasty and positively horrific. Murphy (Clarrain) has mentioned that he was let go by Archie’s editor Victor Gorelick because he was taking the book “too far”. Not that I agree with Gorelick’s decision (cuz I don’t), but I can totally see how the publishers at a children’s comic company could find this sort of thing very disturbing.

I think my only complaint is that pages 9 through 11 are a recap of the previous few issues and I really don’t think we needed it. Last issue contained a recap of the previous batch of issues and, outside of explaining the obvious fact that future-Leo leant future-Raph his swords, it doesn’t tell us anything new about the situation. I can understand wanting to get everybody up to speed, but we just sat through the exact same info dump an issue ago.

Also, Leatherhead is conspicuously absent from that “in Hell” two-page spread. Not a big deal, but I guess Allan couldn’t fit him in.

All in all, this middle section of “Terracide” was all action, but it was some very intense and startling action. The Gang of Four weren’t particularly good villains and I’m glad to see them dead. At the very least, they gave Slash ample opportunity to be awesome.

Grade: A- (as in, “And don’t worry about the 'Hell' thing. There’ll be an editorial cartoon in a few issues to set your minds at ease”.)

TMNT Adventures #55

Publication date: April, 1994

Story/edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)

Pencils: Chris Allan

Inks: Jon D’Agostino

Inks (pages 12-14): Eric Talbot

Letters: Gary Fields

Colors: Barry Grossman

Weather: V. Gorelick

Cover: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot

“Terracide, Part One of Three”

Summary:

Chapter One: Fire in the Sky

Over the ocean, Dead-Eye flies his hovercraft, shrieking about history belonging to those who create it. Inside a nearby cargo plane, the Turtles, Ninjara and Splinter rest up on their return from Israel. Ninjara tries to assure Mikey that his blindness will clear up in a few days, but he’s still in the dumps. Suddenly, an energy bolt strikes the plane and it goes down into the water. Dead-Eye laughs, victoriously.

Chapter Two: The Mutanimals are Dead!

Having just returned from the future to check up on the Mutanimals, future-Raph and future-Don find their friends slaughtered. They’re shocked, as the Mutanimals weren’t supposed to die until much later, meaning that someone is changing history. Suddenly, Slash emerges from the waves, remembering the Turtles (rather, their younger selves) from his previous battle with them and mistakes them for the killers of his friends. Slash pounces and ruthlessly defeats both future-Turtles. He is about to deliver the killing blow when Candy Fine, Mondo Gecko’s girlfriend, intervenes. She explains how the Gang of Four killed the Mutanimals after an attack from Scul and Bean. Slash relents and helps the grieving Candy bury her friends.

Chapter Three: Ashes to Ashes…

As Candy and Slash grieve, future-Raph asks future-Don if their coming back in time might have affected history and led to the deaths of their friends. Future-Don is certain that they’d done nothing wrong, as he remembered from his youth that future-Don helped the Mutanimals build their base and nothing bad came of it. He’s positive that someone is screwing with the time stream.

Leaving behind Mondo’s grave, Candy and Slash take a ride on Man Ray’s jet, the Strato-Ray, intent on returning home to New York. As future-Don pilots the jet, he realizes that Man Ray never even got a chance to test it out. Remembering that today was the day they took a cargo plane back from their first battle with Animus, future-Raph suggests they buzz the plane and startle their younger selves. Listening to air traffic control, however, they learn that their plane went down and the pilot and Michelangelo were picked up by the Coast Guard (something else that wasn’t supposed to happen).

Beating the Coast Guard to the rest of the wreckage, they find their younger selves, Ninjara and Splinter clinging to the debris. Candy and Slash help them inside the Strato-Ray and they take off before the Coast Guard arrives. The Turtles are excited to see their future selves, but their reunion comes with grim news: the Mutanimals are dead. The Turtles are shocked to hear this, and future-Don lands the Strato-Ray on a nearby sandbar so they can formulate a plan to rescue Mikey.

As soon as they disembark, however, the winged, cigar-chomping figure of Null rises from the ocean (in a speedo, unfortunately). Null vows to end the world, starting with them. Revealing that he orchestrated the deaths of the Mutanimals, he orders the Gang of Four to kill the Turtles and their friends in the same fashion.

Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #54. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #56.

*Slash references his battle with the (younger) Turtles from TMNT Adventures #25.

*Man Ray’s jet, the Strato-Ray, was another discarded vehicle design from the aborted Mighty Mutanimals animated series (although there, it was called the "Sea Ray" and may have been a sub).

*Null last appeared in TMNT Adventures #39.


Review:

“Megadeath” was the nauseating manure that nourished the stunning blossom that is “Terracide” (laid that on pretty thick, yeesh).

For as mean-spirited the conception and badly executed the final product “Megadeath” was, there’s no denying that “Terracide” did everything it could to make lemonade out of the lemons it wound up with. This was an ambitious and shockingly dark tale, built from several older plot threads and accelerating TMNT Adventures from a kid’s book that dabbled in grown up subjects to… well…

This is heavy, Doc.

Null is THE villain of TMNT Adventures. Forget Krang, forget the Shredder, forget Armaggon; forget them all. All the greatest and most daring storylines of the series were centered around this guy and he never disappointed. It often surprises me how fans tend to forget him entirely. In all the conversations I see online regarding what villains fans want to see transitioned into other universes or continuity mediums, you’ll get the usual suspects like Krang and Agent Bishop and even Hun, but Null tends to wade around the bottom of the barrel alongside, I dunno, the Dragon Lord from “Next Mutation”. And when fans think of the “best of TMNT Adventures”, they invariably resort to “The Future Shark Trilogy”. But what about the Mighty Mutanimals miniseries? “Divided we Fall”? Or, on topic, “Terracide”? All superb stories, each better than the last. All starring Null as the feature villain.

People ask me what TMNT villain I would like to see transitioned into a new comic or cartoon and I say “Null”. Of course, they respond with “Who?” and then I sigh.

In a way, I can understand the necessity for “Megadeath”. Murphy (Clarrain) needed a means to show that “the stakes have been raised” and now even characters established as early as the fifth issue of the series were suddenly mortal and could have their ticket punched at any moment. I felt it was done for shock value of the lowest common denominator, but it was shock value that served an important narrative function which paid off for the readers invested in the material. As I said in an earlier review, “the ends justified the means”

Now that long-standing characters were getting bumped off by a villain competent and cruel enough to successfully kill his enemies, you’re suddenly left wondering just how far this book was willing to go. Contrary to being the “arch nemesis” of the Turtles, Shredder never killed a damn one of his foes and most of his defeats were purely comical, even in this book (when last seen, he was vanquished by a random flood). Null was beaten twice by the joint efforts of the Turtles and the Mutanimals. So what does he do? He starts killing them. He doesn’t try to kill them. He kills them.

Right then and there, you know that Null isn’t like the other villains to appear in this book. He doesn’t shake his fist in defeat, swearing to “get them next time”. When he comes back, he takes his enemies out in strategic, efficient fashion. No elaborate, time-delay death traps. No long monologues before the fatal blow. Just ambush and slaughter.

While this sort of thing has been driven into the ground in Marvel/DC comics (killing a character is shorthand for “shit just got real”), this was new territory for TMNT Adventures and not something expected of a children’s book. And I think that’s why it has more genuine weight to it than “Jean Grey is dead. Again. Big deal.”

What’s even better about this issue alone is the build-up of tension. The Turtles’ plane has been shot down, someone’s mucking with history, the Mutanimals are dead, Slash is crazy, Mikey’s been abducted by the Coast Guard and Null’s back with a vengeance. That is a LOT of conflict to take-in in 28 pages, but Murphy paces it out well and the trouble begins at a low simmer and builds to a frothing boil by the end.

Allan’s art is grand and it’s great to see him take another swing at Slash. If you go back to the original “Slash trilogy”, that was when Allan first started on the book and hadn’t refined his style, especially for the Turtles, and everyone looks kinda fugly. By this point, though, he’d gotten his look down to a science and Slash is awesome as all Hell, thanks to it. Talbot’s inking doesn’t complement Allan’s style very well, and at a glance I almost mistook the flashback pages he inked for Jim Lawson art. I get the reason for it, so that the flashback would share the same texture as “Megadeath”, but I’d much rather see Allan’s take on the events unmolested than altered to look like Lawson’s.

Page 6 is incredibly grim; the corpses of the Mutanimals littering the beach, with their eyes open in blank stares, smoke rising from their wounds as they soak in puddles of their own blood. Yikes, dude. Apparently, Archie’s editorial refused to let the blood be red and Grossman was forced to make it black. While the logistics of black blood is stupid, I can understand the reasoning behind it; huge puddles of red gore would have just put things over the top for this children’s comic.

Anyway, “Terracide” is a great storyline spawned from a terrible one. Regardless, I felt the tradeoff was worth it. This first chapter alone was a great piece of storytelling with a lot of heart, action and memorable characters, both good and evil.

Grade: A- (as in, “And because you all got so upset with my Furrlough reviews, this one’s for you, furries…”)

TMNT Adventures #54

Publication date: March, 1994

Story/Edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Lavigne)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Jon D’Agostino
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Airfare: V. Gorelick
Cover: Chris Allan and Ryan Brown

“The Animus War, Part 2 of 2”

Summary:

MAIN STORY:

Chapter One: The Dark Crusade

Above the mob in Jerusalem, the Animus appears as a massive, lumbering figure. Holding the Dead Sea Scroll he stole, the Animus informs the people that for centuries he has watched humanity wage religious wars with one another and that their beliefs have caused nothing but death and suffering to humanity. Having interpreted the scroll his own way, he’s come to the conclusion that the only way to help humanity is to wipe it out. Golani, the spiritual guardian of Jerusalem, disagrees and blasts the creature of darkness with concentrated light. Animus sicks Katmandu and Al-Falqa on her and they drag her to the ground.



April and Oyuki finally arrive on the scene, hoping to get some footage of the Animus. April shines a spotlight on him, which causes the monster great pain. Golani uses the distraction to break free and blast the villain with more concentrated light. Animus vanishes, vowing to return after dark when he’s more powerful. The mob, now free of the Animus’s control, regain their senses. As the Turtles regroup, Splinter has terrible news: the Molotov cocktail explosion has left Michaelangelo blind.

Chapter Two: Darkness Weaves

Back in the hotel room, Golani returns to her human form as Ariella and tells her comrades about the Animus. He is a creature of darkness who is worshipped by a cult known as the Hashasheem. They’re situated in a place called Nimrod’s Fortress, so she suggests they start looking for answers there.



Sadly, Michaelangelo has to stay behind due to his condition. Splinter orders Oyuki to remain with him and keep him safe.

Chapter Three: Into the Night…

At Nimrod’s Fortress, the Turtles meet up with Katmandu and Al-Falqa, who are looking to get even for being hypnotized by Animus. Together, they all sneak underneath the fortress, through the catacombs. They are quickly found out by the Hashasheem and a brawl ensues. Golani subdues the last of the cultists with a blast of light.

The humans defeated, the gang journeys into the ceremonial chamber where they find a giant statue of the Animus, and beneath it, the Dead Sea Scrolls. The statue turns out to be the real thing, but Golani is not concerned. Without his cultists to give him power through their belief, the Animus is too weak to harm anybody. The Animus then proceeds to shrink down to the size of an action figure. Not wanting to just let him run free, Ninjara comes up with a solution.



Back at the hotel, they place the (furious) Animus inside Oyuki’s snow globe souvenir that she bought at the airport.

BACK-UP STORY:

Story: Dean Clarrain and Ryan Brown
Art: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman

“Megadeath, Part 7 of 7”

The Mutanimals step out to the beach to investigate the strange meteorite. Considering it didn’t destroy all of Mutani-Isle when it struck, Jagwar deduces that it isn’t a real meteorite. He is correct, as it is actually a spaceship containing Scul and Bean!

Mondo Gecko tells Candy to take cover while he and the Mutanimals deal with Queen Maligna’s old goons. The fight goes well, as Wingnut eventually wins by using his shrunken wings to fly, lifting Bean up and dropping him on top of Scul. Thinking the battle over, the Mutanimals let their guard down, leaving them wide open to a surprise attack from the Gang of Four. Dead-Eye, Executor and Lynch mow the Mutanimals down with a stream of machinegun fire while Fist finishes the job with a blast from his rocket launcher. Their job complete, the Gang of Four tells Scul and Bean to quit playing possum so they can go. As they take off in the meteor-ship, Scul and Bean titter over what is to come.



Appearing through a time-slip, future-Don and future-Raph discover they’ve arrived too late (funny, I thought they had a time machine…?). Future-Raph mumbles that things weren’t supposed to turn out this way as Don scans the bodies of the Mutanimals. They’re all dead. Suddenly, Slash emerges from the waves, enraged. Blaming the future-Turtles for the deaths of his friends, he swears to kill them.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #53. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #55.

*Scul and Bean last appeared in Mighty Mutanimals (miniseries) #3.

*Golani was originally planned to return in TMNT Adventures #72 and both Katmandu and Al'Falqa were to return in TMNT Adventures #73. However, "The Forever War" storyline was abruptly cancelled and thus they never appeared in the book again.


Review:

A pretty sloppy conclusion to the story, if I must say. The way they beat Animus is so slapdash and rushed; they enter his chamber for the final battle but find that he’s already done for because they handily squashed his goon squad. The End.

What’s more shocking about “The Animus War” story arc is just how scathing it is toward religion as a whole. Using one of the most religiously war-torn places on Earth as a backdrop, Murphy (Clarrain) pretty much proceeds to lay down how faith in deities brings nothing but conflict and death:

“Long have I waited for this moment. Long have I watched from the dark, watched as man has killed man in the name of religion, in the name of love and light, for the sake of gods and prophets long since vanished from this realm… For two thousand years this madness has continued, spreading forth like the shadows that join together to form the night…”

Of course, that quote comes from the villain, Animus. But even Animus is used as an example of how sacred texts can be interpreted to mean anything someone wants them to. He comes up with the whole “destroy humanity so religion can do no more harm” solution by “interpreting” the Dead Sea Scrolls to his liking. And there isn’t really a counterpoint to the anti-religious themes in the issue, either. At no point does a character stop to argue that religion has brought comfort and art to the world or whatever. Golani only triumphs through violence and show of force; that HER religion is stronger than HIS religion and she’ll pound anyone into the ground that says otherwise. In that last regard, it’s a pretty good simile of the never-ending conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Personally, I’m of an Agnostic attitude; I’ll find out what happens when I die. I don’t much care for those who oppress others with their religious beliefs, but I know that those sorts of assholes aren’t the norm, either (they’re just every single politician in the United States). “The Animus War” is a strange story in that it isn’t a particularly well-crafted action narrative (Golani has no back story, Katmandu and Al-Falqa have no call to be there, the conflict is resolved as anticlimactically as possible), but it has a remarkably daring “moral” underlining it. I think the only kid’s property I’ve ever seen promote Atheism to this degree was “Dexter’s Laboratory”, where a thinly-veiled Stephen Hawking parody does a song and dance number about the superiority of science to spirituality (“Mother Nature and Father Time both ruled the world together; But if you take just a little time you can prove them wrong and do them better!”).

Whether you agree with the sentiment or not, it was definitely a ballsy thing for a children’s comic to do.

And speaking of ballsy maneuvers, that brings us into the Mighty Mutanimals back-up, which has finally concluded. So yeah. They’re all dead.

Steve Murphy’s and Ryan Brown’s reasons for slaughtering the Mutanimals have always seemed rather petty to me. Their ongoing series got cancelled unceremoniously, and despite a lot of pitching and back and forth with the various corporate entities involved, they were unable to launch their Mutanimals cartoon series and toyline. So in the wake of that frustration, Murphy and Brown just decided to kill them all off. If they can’t have their own comic, cartoon and toyline then they’re better off dead, right?

“Megadeath”, as a whole, was not a well-executed story. I get what they were trying to do, building up the Mutanimals’ secret headquarters and rogues gallery and trying to set them up as their own unique group, only to shock the audience by slaughtering them all without any warning. It definitely makes their deaths a real surprise, but at the expense of wasting all the potential they’d been crafting for so many years and so many issues. All because Murphy and Brown couldn’t get that stupid cartoon they wanted.

On the bright side, “Megadeath” spins off into “Terracide”, a very heavy arc dealing with the aftermath of this stupid storyline. “Terracide” is quite good and we couldn’t have it without “Megadeath”. So I suppose it’s a case of “the ends justifying the means”. Still, “Megadeath” was just an awful mess (how can you be LATE Donatello!? YOU HAVE A TIME MACHINE!!!).

Grade: C- (as in, “Can’t say I imagined Jerusalem’s guardian as a naked fish-woman. Fish are kosher, right?”)

TMNT Adventures #53

Publication date: February, 1994

Story/Edits: Dean Clarrain (Steve Murphy)
Pencils: Chris Allan
Inks: Jon D’Agostino
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman
Papyrus: V. Gorelick
Cover: Chris Allan and Ryan Brown

“The Animus War, Part 1 of 2”

Summary:

MAIN STORY:

Chapter One: The Awakening



Somewhere in the Middle East, an evil cult summons a demonic creature named Animus from places beyond. Now free to travel the world of Man once more, Animus sends his spirit south to Jerusalem, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are kept. Breaking into their shrine, he steals the “scroll of the war of the children of light and the children of darkness”, alternatively known as “the end of days”. With it, Animus shall know everlasting victory.

Chapter Two: The Quickening

At an airport in Jerusalem, April and Oyuki finally make it through customs and hail a cab. Apparently, the footage they shot of Wyrm, Scumbug and Toxzeem earned them a gig covering an interfaith convention centered on religious tolerance. After having the bellhops lug their multiple (humongous) trunks up to their room, they unpack… the Turtles, Splinter and Ninjara!



Finally able to breathe again, the mutants immediately have to hide as the room is visited by a member of Jerusalem’s military, Private Ariella Yahuda. She has been assigned to act as April’s guide/babysitter while she covers the conference. April isn’t thrilled about it, but has no choice. Once Ariella leaves, the Turtles and Ninjara engage in a rousing pillow fight while Splinter turns on CNN. They’re met with a horrible sight: everyone in the streets of Jerusalem has gone berserk, breaking out into mob violence over matters of faith. Making things worse, two monsters have joined the brawl: Katmandu and Al-Falqa. April and Oyuki attempt to check the situation out, but Ariella refuses to let them leave their room. The Turtles, however, sneak out the window.

Chapter Three: The Advent

Down in the streets, the Turtles, Spliner and Ninjara are besieged by a mob of mindless, possessed people. They try to quell the zombies without hurting them, but the presence of skilled bruisers like Katmandu and Al-Falqa (also possessed) only makes things worse. Suddenly, one of the rabble throws a Molotov Cocktail into a nearby car and Michelangelo gets caught in the explosion. As he lays unconscious, the spirit of Animus hovers above him, laughing.



Elsewhere, Private Ariella decides that the situation has left her no choice. Transforming into a scaly, blue-skinned creature, she declares that she must call forth the powers of Golani.


BACK-UP:

Story: Dean Clarrain and Ryan Brown
Art: Jim Lawson and Eric Talbot
Letters: Gary Fields
Colors: Barry Grossman

“Megadeath, Part 6 of 7”

On his new island home in the Caribbean, Slash reflects on his lost homeworld, Palmadise, and how his new homeworld is so similar. Not far away, on Mutani-Isle, Mondo Gecko and Candy watch a passing meteor shower, getting all romantic.

Inside the volcano HQ, the other Mutanimals use their state of the art computers to try and dig up information on the foursome that recently attacked them. Man Ray suggests they use their satellite monitoring system to try and track them down.



Suddenly, an emergency alarm goes off in the base. One of the meteors from the shower overhead has made it through Earth’s atmosphere unscathed and crashes on the beach of Mutani-Isle. Seeing the explosion from a distance, Slash thinks that his new homeworld is under attack. Enraged, he leaps into the ocean, swimming straight for Mutani-Isle.


Turtle Tips:

*This story is continued from TMNT Adventures #52. The story continues in TMNT Adventures #54.

*Katmandu last appeared in TMNT Adventures #34 while Al-Falqa last appeared in TMNT Adventures #36.

*Slash last appeared in Mighty Mutanimals #9.

*Mondo Gecko and Candy were reunited in Merdude and Mondo Gecko #2.


Review:

It’s funny what Murphy (Clarrain) has been doing with these last bunch of issues. Basically, he’s been bringing back all the mutants and plot-points that appeared in earlier storylines pretty much in the order they were originally introduced. First he brought back the Eyes of Sarnath, then Stump and Sling, then Codename: Chameleon, then Wyrm and Scumbug, now Katmandu and Al-Falqa. It’s sort of a nostalgia rush for the book, even if characters like Katmandu and Al-Falqa have only been out of the picture for two years or so.

What’s funny about this first installment in “The Animus War” is that I don’t really care about the prologue with the Hellish deity or the cliffhanger with the unruly mob that bookend the issue. I just really, really enjoy all the stuff in-between; April and Oyuki sneaking the Turtles into their hotel room, then everybody goofing off and having a good time. It’s fun and leisurely and cute.

I’m also grateful to see April and Oyuki back in the picture for an extended period of time. Allan puts so much style and energy into April’s appearance and expressions, too. A lesser/lazier artist would simply draw April in the same outfit and hairstyle in every issue, but Allan realistically changes up her wardrobe between appearances as well as her look (she has a ponytail and a Yankees cap in this issue). Oyuki is still wearing her usual leather jacket and t-shirt ensemble, but I think that works for the tomboyish character.



Though it’s only been touched upon so far, “The Animus War” is setting foot in some territory that would be considered pretty dangerous in today’s international climate; namely, the hostilities between Palestine and Jerusalem. Not that it wasn’t a hot button issue in 1994, but considering just how bad things have gotten in the past 18 years, no children’s comic would ever “go there” now ‘n days. In a way, it’s both impressive and depressing; that a kid’s comic from ’94 would dive into such volatile political waters, but that the situation in reality has gotten so sensitive that it’s become genuinely dangerous to even discuss it publically in some circles.

Then again, TMNT Adventures once published a drawing of Muhammad and it didn’t end with the Archie and Mirage offices getting carbombed into the ground, so I think we’ve already established how far Western and Middle Eastern societies have deteriorated in regards to religious tolerance.

Back to the subject of “The Animus War”, this is all just a lot of set-up but I found the middle section very light and amusing. Allan rocks some great pencils and D’Agostino’s inks look really sharp.

Grade: B (as in, “But wait, I forgot to mention the Mutanimals strip! ‘Mutani-Isle’? Stupid. Slash? Awesome! Okay, I’m done”.)