This is the latest Return to the Sewers comparison piece following IDW’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles timeline and how it differs from the original Mirage timeline. These reviews will reference IDW’s TPBs as well as original issues that are being re-released by IDW in TPB format. IDW’s Micro-Series Vol 2 was released in November 2012 and collects the next 4 micro-series issues of this new series, Splinter, Casey Jones, April O’Neil, and Fugitoid. IDW will release Tales of the TMNT Vol 1 in December 2012 which contains Tales of the TMNT issues 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the original series. These reviews will also contain spoilers to the plot lines so ***SPOILER ALERT*** to everyone who wanted to read these issues first.
We start off this round of Micro-Series issues with Splinter’s story. It was a nice surprise when this round was announced since in the original run, we only had the four Turtles and the Fugitoid one-shots. The closest thing we got to a Splinter tale was his chapter in Michael Dooney’s Challenges which has yet to be re-released by IDW (and probably won’t). This story was guest written by Erik Burnham, who I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with a few month ago. Splinter’s Micro-Series issue takes place within issue 11 of the ongoing series and is somewhat of a flashback to issue 5. We are shown how Tang Shen and Hamato Yoshi fell in love, then marry. It is a tale of anger management and similarly to Raphael, Yoshi goes on his own not listening to Saki. It is a nice parallel of how Raphael has traditionally disobeyed Leo’s orders; Yoshi leaps recklessly, as Raph often does, and pays for it. The difference between Mirage and IDW is that in the Mirage #1 Tang Shen and Hamato Yoshi are not married and have no children. I was not sure at first, but now I really like the fact that the Turtles are presented as Splinter’s actual children; it adds to the family dynamics which before was only implied. This leads nicely to Casey Jones, who in the ongoing story is now also semi-adopted by the Turtles and Splinter.
Casey Jones has always been like a brother to the Turtles, Raphael specifically. In the IDWverse, Raphael’s loner attitude is driven home by the fact that he was actually raised separately from his brothers after the mutation. This makes Casey and Raphael’s bond more meaningful as they both feel less attached to their fathers then the rest. In this issue we learn that Casey has lost his mother and his father is in debt with the wrong people. Casey, with Raph’s “assistance”, clear his father’s debt. The story leads right into issue 13 of the ongoing series. Casey Jones’ Mirage origin story is touched upon in Tales of the TMNT Vol 2 #37 “Casey in Point” (not re-released yet). Casey has always been one to tell tall tales and was focused on in a few Mirage issues, usually with Raphael. The closest thing to a Mirage Casey Jones origin would be Tales of the TMNT Vol 2 #56 written by Tristan Jones, which we briefly reviewed in Infestation / Gang Wars. Tristan does a great job of introducing Hun into the Mirageverse while writing a great crime story; it remind me of the IDW TMNT Annual 2012 which was just released. Casey Jones has always been a hockey player and originally got into a lot of trouble. Making his character younger and now the “victim” with an abusive father who has his own issues gives his vigilantism a different twist.
April O’Neil is also younger which makes for new and interesting interactions with both the Turtles and the circumstances they all face. This issue was really well done and had a nice clue at the beginning with the palm tree that would lead to the Slash reveal at the end. It is nice to have an issue focused on April and what she is experiencing. If you think about it, the events of the past few months can be quite difficult to process if you were in her shoes. I compare this issue to Mirage issue 11 which is told from her perspective and was immortalized in the first Ninja Turtles live action film. It is funny how both issues start out in a dream, but then again, not surprising if you consider that she has just met FOUR WALKING TALKING TURTLES! I think I would be having weird dreams as well. In both issues about the same amount of time has passed since April met the Turtles and it beginning to take it’s toll on her. Things just keep getting weirder and weirder for April O'Neil.
This leads us to the last Micro-Series issue collected in this volume and possibly one of the weirder ones; the Fugitoid! It was a real surprise to see how they incorporated him into the IDWverse seeing as the majority of this new iteration has taken place on Earth. It was a really nice tie-in to the Fred Wolf series to have Professor Honeycutt be a Neutrino. I also liked that we gave Chet some more of an identity and the fact that the Fugitoid was under our noses the entire time was a big surprise. We also got a reveal in this issue that a lot of people were waiting for; the Technodrome! I do not mind all the Fred Wolf-isms, as long as they continue to tie them in meaningfully and not just for the sake of getting attention. I did not have any feelings, good or bad, towards the original Neutrinos, but seeing them portrayed with a little more seriousness really made me happy. It will be interesting to see in the next story arc, The Krang War issues 17-20, how the Technodrome is used. The main difference in this story is that in the original, Dr Honeycut was trapped in his robot body by accident and in this updated version, he made the choice, although it was under duress, to become trapped in his robot body. The Mirage Fugitoid introduced us to the Triceraton and the IDW Fugitoid is rooted in Dimension X. I hope we do eventually see the Triceraton in IDW, but I would like it to be in a long time. There is so much that has been introduced, especially in these four issues, that I would like them to take their time in exploring it all.
Mirage used the two volumes of the Tales of the TMNT to fill in storylines and give some back story to secondary characters. It is fitting that the first volume is released at the same time as these micro-series issues. As much as I liked the original Tales of the TMNT, I think that this format is much better suited for long term storytelling and will ultimately benefit the IDWverse and it’s readers. Instead of giving us 4 micro-series issues focused on villains, we will be getting a four-part mini-series entitled Secret History of the Foot Clan. I am really excited to see IDW explore this story from the Foot’s point-of-view and maybe finally get an explanation of how the Shredder has made it to present day in his human form.
Stay tuned for my next review, IDW’s Sins of the Fathers. The TPB will be released in February 2013 collecting issues 13 to 16.