Wow, this will surely be one for the history books. Today, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 released, an oversized, stiff-covered issue, that fully encapsulates everything great about being a TMNT fan. Keep reading for a full summary and review:
The long-awaited Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 is releasing on October 7th. Within these 50 issues, there has been a variety of talented artists showcasing a range of artistic styles and techniques. I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize some of the top covers that have helped make the IDW run so exciting:
Today marks the fourth and final issue of the most recent IDW miniseries, Casey & April. This miniseries was a wonderful journey of character development for the two iconic Turtles characters, which is something we have not been able to truly focus on. Keep reading for a full summary and review of the miniseries:
“Greetings sub-lifeforms of Earth. I am Captain Mozar of the Triceraton Empire.” – Captian Mozar
After their encounter with the Triceraton, the turtles and their friends are out on patrol, discussing the adventure. However, they’re not alone – a Kraang seems to be following them, and leads them to a cryptic message about a late-night meeting. Arriving at the rendezvous spot, the heroes are confronted by the Kraang that followed them, and learn some startling news. This one alien, named Bishop, is part of the Utrom, a group of Kraang defectors. Bishop relays plenty of bad news about the coming invasions from two fronts, and then explains why the Triceratons and Kraang are at war.
The turtles take their new comrade to the lair and gather Leatherhead for support. Splitting into two teams, the heroes mount their assault on the Technodrome sitting at the bottom of the Hudson. Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leatherhead infiltrate the Technodrome, but are quickly captured. Meanwhile, Leonardo’s team uses the Turtle Blimp as a bomb, hoping to blow a hole in the machine and get in.
Both teams arrive in Kraang Prime’s chamber, but before anything can be done, the Triceratons arrive and declare Earth a dead world. With the Kraang stunned by the appearance of their enemies, both turtle teams strike and escape from the Technodrome. While the turtles manage to keep the Triceraton ships from attacking the city, the aliens unleash an even larger weapon that blows the Technodrome out of the sky. Meanwhile a small fleet of ships heads to the heart of the city with another weapon.
As the Triceratons try to activate their black hole generator, the turtles, Splinter, April, Casey, the Mighty Mutanimals, Muck-Man, and Mondo Gecko all try to stop the aliens from destroying everything. However, Earth’s defenders prove no match for the Triceratons, with half the team being captured and Michelangelo being taken aboard the aliens’ mother ship.
With the city in peril, Splinter sends the boys to save their brother, while he and April enlist the help of Shredder to stop the Triceratons. After some fancy flying and a close call with total annihilation, Donnie teleports the three remaining turtles onto the Triceraton ship and right into the aliens’ hands. With their destruction imminent, Leonardo puts his leadership skills to the test and the turtles manage to escape back to Earth.
Arriving home, the boys find Splinter, April, and Shredder’s goons engaged with the Triceraton forces, and the black hole generator’s counter creeping ever closer to zero. As Splinter and Shredder race to stop the countdown, Shredder betrays their temporary alliance, and runs Splinter through with his claws. The boys rush to their father’s side, while the black hole begins sucking up everything. Bebop, Rocksteady, and Fishface all disappear into its depths, and Splinter’s body and the Mighty Mutanimals are close behind.
As the Earth is swallowed by a black hole, a ship arrives and the turtles, April, and Casey climb on board. The heroes watch helplessly as the entire planet disappears into nothingness, and as the gravity of the situation sets in, their savior, Professor Honeycutt, informs them that a new adventure is just beginning.
For perhaps the first time in three seasons, this finale had some genuine “Holy $%!@” moments. It was filled with action from the get-go, it had plenty of familiar faces returning for this epic battle, and it even showed (however briefly) a redeeming moment for a villain. Tiger Claw seemed like he was genuinely on board with helping Splinter, April, and the others fight, and if these characters are ever seen again, then hopefully that wasn’t a misstep, but the start to a redemption story for the tiger mutant.
More importantly, though, seeing Splinter killed was shocking, but not perhaps the most shocking part of this episode. Considering the network and the overall tone of the show, there was not a single moment where it would have seemed likely that the Triceratons’ plan succeeded. If anything, it seemed that it would fail, and then season four would kick off with the turtles trying to find the Triceraton warship and stop them from coming back to Earth. So to see the entire world swallowed in a black hole was beyond amazing. It was just the kind of epic event that could completely change the tone of the show moving forward, and give the turtles, April, and Casey a new outlook on life and battles.
Of course, everything that wasn’t dealt with and the repercussions of this event have to be discussed. It was a little disappointing (though not altogether surprising) that once again Karai’s story was left unfinished. It would have been nice to finally get some payoff for all the episodes that now seemingly made this season go nowhere, because they had nothing to do with how it wrapped. More than likely, this will be where season five starts – assuming of course that the turtles ever come back to Earth.
Earth is the other big question mark right now. Careful attention to the language of the episode suggests that there’s wiggle room with whether or not the planet was actually destroyed. A more likely plot line would probably be the turtles believing for a while that the planet was destroyed, only to discover that the quantum physics theory of black holes being more akin to wormholes is correct, and Earth was just transported to a different part of space. So then there can be a big to-do about finding the planet and putting it back where it belongs. However, it would be just as cool – if not even cooler – if the Earth really were gone forever. That would be a unique way to reinvigorate the series.
Overall, this was an amazing finale. It had surprises, a great set-up for the future, and plenty of nostalgia for the season itself. While it wasn’t quite the payoff that fans should have gotten from the previous 24 episodes, it was the kind of story that needed to be told in order to put a little bit of life back into the show. Hopefully the adventures to come will be unique and engaging so that if/when the turtles and their friends make it back to Earth things will be even more exciting there.
Rating: 9/10
“Greetings turtles. It’s time for us to play a game.” – Karai
Raphael wakes up to find himself in a mysterious room with no way in or out. Suddenly, heaters activate, causing him to pass out yet again. Meanwhile, six hours earlier Donatello finds his brain worm experiments hitting yet another dead-end. Frustrated and out of ideas, the boys start to argue, only to have Donnie storm off after April calls him out to talk. Arriving at the rendezvous spot, April alerts Donnie to the Kraang’s return and leads him into a warehouse, where something captures him.
Back at the lair, Michelangelo is playing with Ice Cream Kitty, when Donnie calls him out. When he gets to Murakami’s shop, Mikey scarfs down some gyoza, only to find they’ve been drugged. When the real April shows up at the lair without Donnie, things don’t start to add up. Receiving a text from Mikey, the remaining three head out to find out just what is going on, and end up at a warehouse where Karai – flanked by Shredder’s entire mutant warrior team – is lying in wait. Raph, Leo, and April are easily overwhelmed and taken prisoner.
Each turtle finds himself in a trap designed to destroy, and Karai wants Splinter to watch as his family falls. Splinter tries to save his sons, but must fight his daughter in order to reach them. Fortunately, the boys start to use the traps against themselves, and quickly break through all four, with everyone coming out safe and sound. As Splinter’s battle escalates, he is forced to use the healing hands technique as a last-ditch effort to save his daughter. Connecting, the brain worm hesitates, and Karai falls through a sewer drain into the depths below. While Splinter mourns yet another loss of his daughter, Karai crawls into a tunnel and spits the brain worm out of her body.
Things are finally proceeding at a more industrious pace, and certainly a lot will be happening with the remaining three episodes. However, this whole adventure seemed like much more of a letdown than it should have been. The trap idea would have been great, but would have worked better as a season finale thing. If the turtles had to overcome their traps individually, using skills they developed after their vision quest, then the whole season would have had a much better payoff. Of course, that would have taken more than 10 minutes, so save it for the finale. Also, the fact that Splinter’s healing hands seem to have done the trick was great for making that technique relevant again, but then what was the point of all these episodes trying to save Karai and find a cure and everything else that has ultimately led nowhere?
Given those two big problems, the episode was a letdown. It was such a cool concept, and would have been a great final battle for the season. Instead, it’s starting to feel (as it has to some viewers for a while now) like the writers are just so out of ideas that they can’t even decide how best to put it all together. If the Kraang return yet again to invade at the end of season three, then they really will be fresh out. Of course, that would explain even more why space is next on the show’s list of locations, since Earth seems to be tapped out for right now. Say what you will about the 2003 animated series and how gimmicky some of those seasons were, but they never failed to try something new and reinvigorate the series. Some more of that would be fantastic in the coming years of Nickelodeon’s current incarnation.
The end will soon be upon us, and with it the culmination of the hunt for Karai. Will she finally join her father and fight against Shredder? Or will she be forever lost, making the turtles’ first mission when the new season starts a continuation of everything for the last three years? Unfortunately, fans will have to wait a few more weeks for that, but soon enough all of those questions and more will be answered.