Monday, June 3, 2013
TMNT #22: City Fall Part 1
Shredder sets his plan into motion! SPOILERS AHEAD!
Hey
guys and gals, Dwight here. Welcome to my first official review here
on NR! I'm super excited to be getting the ball rolling on my comic
segments so I hope you all enjoy it!
Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, & Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco
And
so it starts. This week sees the kickoff issue of “City Fall,” the
next major event in IDW’s ongoing TMNT book. After the dimension
hopping “Krang War” arc, the turtles return home to New York for a more
gritty and personal encounter with the Foot Clan. Can they survive the
ninja gang wars that have started to erupt over the city?
This
issue hits the ground running with a newly resolved Shredder setting
off a plot to lure the Turtles into a confrontation. While they are out
on patrol, Raphael and Casey Jones are ambushed by Karai and a large
group of Foot Soldiers. Things take an unexpected turn when the two are
brutally overpowered. Thrown into a van, Casey is rendered unconscious
and Raph barely escapes after a short scuffle. Meanwhile the other
Turtles, Splinter, and April are at the Turtles new abandoned church
lair. They are training, relaxing, and setting up defenses for their
new home. Raphael then bursts in and tells them what has happened.
Karai had said that Casey would be brought to some docks and Leonardo
sees through this as a trap immediately. Together with Angel from the
Purple Dragon Gang they mount a rescue effort that is complicated by
Raphael’s traditional hot-headedness.
The
stakes are high in this issue with Shredder critically wounding Casey
and kidnapping Leonardo. While violence and death have been addressed
in previous issues, they have never threatened a main character like
this. It’s a very dark move and even if Casey lives through this, it
will deeply affect him. Leonardo being captured will prove to be just
the first step in Shredder’s plan to train him to be the Foot’s
second-in-command. This is something that has been foreshadowed since
the Leonardo Micro-Series.
As
has been the case recently, Raphael is the turtle that receives the
most amount of focus in this issue. It’s his relationships with Casey
and Leonardo that make up the emotional core currently. The headbutting
between the two brothers is building towards an the inevitable showdown
that happens in nearly every Turtles incarnation now. It still seems
that Raph is more at home on the streets with Casey then he is with his
brothers. Seeing as how he is really only a recent addition to the
turtle family, it will be interesting to see how this moves forward with
Casey’s injury and Leo’s disappearance. Which will he choose? Don and
Mike receive much less time in this issue. Hopefully they have some
moments to shine in this arc.
This
is the first issue of the ongoing series to see Mateus Santolouco take
over on art duties. He recently drew the “Secret History of the Foot
Clan” mini-series and I absolutely love the way that he draws the
turtles. Each one has a very distinctive mask, body language, and
general look about them. It is clear that he is drawing an inspiration
from the current animated series with the wrappings on their bodies and
the general aesthetic about them. For example, Donatello has the same
gap in his front teeth that the animated Donnie has as well.
Santolouco’s other characters are expressive and well rendered as well.
This is a very action heavy issue and and the sequences are clear and
exciting.
This
is a great start to the next chapter in the turtles saga and I can’t
wait to see what happens next. I’m looking forward to seeing more plot
points come up that have been seeded in the last 21 issues. Fingers
crossed that Shredder uses the samples that Karai has recently stolen to
mutate Rocksteady and Bebop from Raphael’s Micro-Series.So there you have it! One in the can, many to go. Next time I’m going to try a little different approach and see how well that goes over. Also, expect to see these comic reviews have a snappy name at some point! Thanks for reading!
