IDW, which has been steadily releasing new TMNT comics for some time, is following its April O’Neill Micro-Series with a character sketch of Professor Honeycutt, aka, Fugitoid.
Previous IDW micros have focused on the Turtles, Splinter, Casey Jones, and April, and are thematically similar to the Eastman and Laird Mirage mini series’ from the 1980s. Thus far, these short runs have succeeded in added interesting new depth to the characters they depict: April is closer to her Mirage roots (you may recall that in the early 80s, she was Baxter Stockman’s assistant: now she’s a full-fledged researcher), while Casey has a compelling and conflicted relationship with his father.
Although only an eight-page preview is available over at Comicosity.com, we’re getting some interesting complexity that’s been missing from other versions: Professor Honeycutt is, in this version, definitely an alien (he was very human-looking in the original Mirage comics), and instead of being coerced and bullied into creating military monstrosities for the evil human empire to use against the triceratons, he’s now been drafted to create metal soldiers for Krang in his quest for world domination.
Honeycutt is a family man, with a sympathetic wife and a young son – what’s compelling is watching the scientist battle with his conscience as he tries to muster up the courage to defy Krang. As the preview notes, Honeycutt unsurprisingly throws off his shackles and deserts, but only gets away by melding his consciousness with his latest prototype: the titanium-shelled helper robot who will become Fugitoid.
Knowing that the Doctor is a family man, and actually seeing his family, gives the character a substantial richness, which hasn’t always been the case – in the 1980s comics he was a sympathetic enough figure, but also a bit of a dues ex machina, conveniently helping the turtles when they needed it, and then politely disappearing when he was done. The 2003 version is practically a word-for-word reading of the original origin story. This version will find Fugitoid on earth, and is meant to overlap with the running TMNT comic line.
In any event, it’s very likely that this new IDW Comic version will be worth checking out, and it should be on your local newsstand today.
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1 comment
why are you always taking up whatever they put out. Even your blog about the leaked script called it the Best worst Turtle movie. How many worst Turtle movies can there be? The comic is flawed. Splinter no longer has the iconic rivalry with the Shredder or his alter Ego. Hamato Yoshi was completely written out. and now Casey is a Teenager. Worse still the turtles themselves are not even teenagers they went from their normal turle form to their full fledge ninja form in (acording to Eastman’s book itself) 3 months.
Eastman is a Sellout. What the turtles really need is to get Peter Laird back.
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