This is the latest in a series of comparison pieces 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 Secret History of the Foot Clan was released in June 2013 and collects the 4 issue mini-series. IDW also released TMNT Classics Vol 5 in June 2013 which contains issues 34, 38, 39, 40 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.
This four part mini-series was written and drawn by the amazing Mateus Santolouco. It was an extremely great idea on TMNT editor Bobby Curnow’s part to run Secret History of the Foot Clan simultaneously with Krang War. IDW was able to provide a little something for everyone while hopefully growing their readership base in the process. For the science fiction fan and Fred Wolf cartoon fan, picking up the Krang War would be a treat. For the feudal Japan, ninja, and Shredder fan, Secret History of the Foot Clan would be the way to go.
One of the great things about Santolouco’s Secret History of the Foot Clan is that it pulls together all the ideas that Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman, and Bobby Curnow have introduced throughout the first year and a half of this new TMNT comic book run, and explained how they all tie into one another and wrapped it up nicely with a cute little bow. Plus, 29 years of Turtles history allows you to look back and connect the dots and fill in the blanks to tell a really tight, cohesive story that should appeal to most fans. Santolouco worked with Erik Burnham on this book to flesh out most of the dialogue. Burnham does an excellent job of putting Santolouco’s ideas to paper. Burnham, who has written a few IDW Turtles issues and has started working on the Nickelodeon Animated Adventures book, has a really great grasp of each character’s dialogue, something that not every guest writer had back in the Mirage days.
When we were first introduced to the idea of reincarnation, many fans were skeptical. But if you look back through the Turtles lore, reincarnation fits right in. We were originally introduced to a Foot Mystic in the Mirage books as an explanation as to how the Shredder was revived. This Foot Mystic used special worms to clone and piece the Shredder “back together”. We would first see these clones in the Return to New York story arc and it would be re-explored later on in the Worms of Madness issues from the Tales of the TMNT (that will be reprinted in September 2013). IDW’s Kitsune fills in the Foot Mystic’s spot quite nicely, and the ooze used to revive the Shredder is more logical an explanation and reuses already established lore and repurposes it instead of continually creating characters and things that muddy the continuity.
Some aspects that really stood out in terms of creativity and research on Santolouco’s part were how Tatsuo Takeshi’s name was inspired by Tatsu from the first live-action film, the bloody footprint being the inspiration for the original Foot Clan logo, the ooze having regenerative qualities tying the Utrom and the Foot together, as well as all the Japanese history that was added to this incarnation of the Turtles. Although Kevin Eastman was heavily influence by samurai warriors while writing the Mirage books, that history was never really explored with as much depth as it was in this book. The Shredder is also very well established in this book, something that was never quite done in the Mirage days, simply because Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird had promised to themselves that if they killed off a villain in their little self-published book, that he would stay dead; none of this fake comic book death that was very prevalent at the time.
Fresh off the heels of Secret History of the Foot Clan, IDW was lucky enough to have Mateus Santolouco stay on art duties for the current City Fall story arc. His talents are incredible and he has such a great style. I love Kevin Eastman’s Turtles and though Santolouco’s art is a lot cleaner and is a lot more detailed, it suits the Turtles just the same. Contrasting this book with the Krang War that was being released at the same time, each book had it’s own style and that suited the stories trying to be told perfectly. Ben Bates drawing a Fred Wolf style story fit so well just like Mateus Santolouco drawing a feudal Japan story just made for such an immersive book. One of the problems I had with the original Mirage run was the revolving door of artists, both in Volume 1 and in Tales of the TMNT Volume 2. What makes IDW’s Turtles stand out is that we have been treated to relative stability in terms of artists, at least when it comes to story arcs.
I’m not the first and I’m sure I will not be the last to compare this book to a movie treatment. Just like Daredevil: The Man Without Fear felt like a movie, Secret History of the Foot Clan flows so smoothly and would require little effort to translate it to the silver screen. If Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is due out in 2014, is a success, I hope they follow that up with an adaptation of Secret History of the Foot Clan.
All in all, this is a really perfect book. Not only does it give a lot of payoff to fans that have been reading this book since day one, but it is a great story that pretty much any TMNT fan can get into. The story is different enough from past incarnations to grab your attention, but similar enough that most fans will not feel lost if they have not been reading IDW’s Turtles.
Stay tuned for my next review, IDW’s TPB collecting the first 4 Villains Micro-Series issues, Krang, Baxter Stockman, Old Hob, and Alopex. The TPB will be released in October 2013.