575 – IDW Publishing – TMNT Reborn Volume 5! – 12 Years Of TPB!

Hi, this is Bobby Curnow, Chief Turtle Editor

at IDW Publishing, and you are listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Hey, this is Tom Waltz,

IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle writer, and

you have jumped inside the pull bag. You've just

jumped inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and

the rest of the comic crew here at the GCRN as

they make their great escape into comics. From

DC, Marvel, and Image to IDW, Boom Studios, and

Xenoscope, we have everything right here. We

cover things like Transformers, He -Man, Super

Heroes, TMNT, and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have

all that and so much more. It's all inside the

pull bag here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

So, without further ado, it's time to talk about

the comics we're reading right now. Here inside

the pull bag. How you doing? Hi. Nice night.

Mm -hmm. Pizza dude's got 30 seconds. Mm -hmm.

Hi, folks. My name is Michael Alan Blanchard.

I've been a podcaster for nearly 17 years. As

of December 8th or 12th, we can't decide which

date it actually was back in 2008. So December

2025 will be 17 years for me. I go by TFG1Mike

on all of my podcast endeavors and everywhere

online. In 2012, Steve Megatron showed me a picture

of the new 52DC Comics Batman number 13 cover.

This is the cover with the Joker with his face

kind of coming off or going on or we can't really

tell, but it's this really gruesome face. of

the New 52 Joker. This was starting the Death

of the Family story arc by Scott Snyder, Greg

Capolo, and others, and it got me into comics

full -time. From October 2012 to March of 2013,

Steve Megatron and I covered the Death of the

Family run in the Batman New 52. As I just mentioned,

after finishing the recording for Batman number

17 on Geekcast Radio, our flagship podcast, Steve

basically told me, in bold, all caps, underlined,

told me that we needed a specific place for comics

if we were going to continue comics. The first

thing we needed was a title. Thankfully, after

many, many failed attempts at thinking on my

own, because back in 2012 and 2013, we still

thought on our own. I prefer actual intelligence

to artificial intelligence. Thank you very much.

Thankfully, a good friend of Steve's and a good

friend of mine and a good friend of my co -host,

who I will introduce at the end of all of this,

because he will come in much, much later at this

point. But thankfully. Michael Powers, that good

old Booth Ninja 81, came up with The Pull Bag.

And so on March 5th or 6th, we can't decide because

I don't remember which actual date it actually

published on in 2013, The Pull Bag was unleashed

into the podcasting world. Twelve years ago today,

The Pull Bag went online. Twelve years and 575

episodes. What a journey. Thank you to everyone.

Steve Megatron for all of the stuff he has done

with the editing in the beginning, and then I

took it over with all of the arts he has ever

done for this podcast, for coming on and doing

all of the co -hosting that he's done with me

for this. Michael Powers for doing some of the

podcasts that he's done on here, as well as obviously

coming up with the title. Ryan, The Uneven Flow,

JT from Saskatoon. the person I will introduce

later, but I'm going to mention him now, Mr.

Joe Reed, and so many more, plus all of you lovely

listeners. Thank you for everything. As far as

the TPB TMNT coverage, it was January 22, 2014.

We released TPB Back Issue Classics, IDW, TMNT

Volume 1. I remember when Joe first told me about

this, I had a very visceral reaction. You see,

dear listener, I was a cartoon TMNT kid, not

a comics TMNT kid. I hated that they all wore

red bandanas in the books because I was so used

to the multicolored cartoon awesomeness. Clang?

Did you say Clang? Obviously, 11 years later,

since we started the TPB TMNT coverage and released

45 podcasts covering everything in the main IDW

series, I've obviously changed my mind and think

that the IDW continuity is the end -all, be -all

of emotional TMNT storytelling. We are continuing

that inside 2025's Mutant March as we finish

off the original run from Reborn Volume 5, Mystic

Sister, to Reborn Volume 9, Once and Always.

And after that, later on in this year, we're

going to bring it back to Sewer Surf in September.

when we will start reviewing the Volume 2 IDW

TMNT coverage when Jason Aaron takes over the

writing. And, man, we can't wait for that. So

I'm pretty much almost out of breath here. Joe,

any thoughts on this history of all of this before

we get into the Mystic Sister story arc? The

years you're throwing out there, it's like my

oldest child was not born when this was happening.

How old am I now that we've been doing this for

this long? Well, if I'm 45, you're close to it,

or maybe a little older. Yep. What? Yeah, so

I have to do a little bit of math. Let's see.

45. Yeah, I'll be 45 in a month. Happy early

birthday. Yeah. Gosh, yeah, and 14 years ago,

I didn't know what a podcast was. Absolutely.

Yeah, so, folks, it's been a long journey, and

we have been trying to get back to it. 2024 was

a rough year. I didn't do hardly anything with

this podcast last year. But Volume 5, Reborn

Volume 5, I should say, collects issues 124 to

130. The story was done by Sophie Campbell. The

art was done by Ken Garing for Part 1. Parts

two to five and seven was Pablo Tunica. Part

five, Sophie did some stuff. Tony Gregory did

some stuff in part six. Additional inks was Patrico

Del Peche, and the colors obviously were done

by Rhonda Pattison. Rhonda, I owe you a big apology.

I am so sorry. For 11 years, I have been saying

Rhonda Pattinson. I have been getting your last

name wrong for 11 friggin' years, Rhonda. I am

so sorry. It is Rhonda Pattison. I'm sure she

gets that all the time. And well, you can you

can rest assured and comforted that I'd never

heard you say I never heard it like, you know,

it always just rolls out of our mouth. So but

I just make sure that I said it right. I'm sure

I typed it wrong a couple of times, too. Are

you related to that vampire guy? Some nut who

thinks he's Batman. letters done by sean lee

story consultant kevin eastman and tom waltz

on this arc and boy what a story oh my god yeah

oh boy this book i think when the press releases

came out for this arc like you know it caught

the internet nerd rooms on fire for a couple

of days yeah issue 124 specifically Hey folks,

Editor TFG and Mike here, and I need to put a

correction here, and this correction will serve

as a correction for myself anytime I say 124

for the issue number for the rest of this episode

of The Pull Bag. Venus did not technically debut

in 124. Her return was issue 127 of IDW Publishing's

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That's what the

press release was for. Issue 127. So this right

here, is where I initially had stated it in the

first eight and a half minutes of the podcast.

So that's where I first noticed it in the editing.

So, correction made. It was issue 127 when Venus

returned to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

IDW Publishing comic run. Now, back to the show.

Because they announced it as Venus is back, baby.

They threw Venus. Out of all the characters that

they could have ever brought into IDW, I was

never expecting Venus. I didn't expect Venus

either. And I think it comes from just the decency

to know that there are some characters that don't

hold up well or didn't get a... Good shake. The

audience responded badly. And it felt for years

like one of those rules that you're just not

going to break. Like you you can't bring Uncle

Ben back. You can't kill off Alfred. Like there

are just some rules that you can't break. And

bringing Venus into the comics felt like one

of those rules. Peter Laird notoriously hated

the character in that live action show. I think

he was sole owner by that point. I think Kevin

has been kind of indifferent. They both did want

a fifth turtle at a point, and it was going to

be Kirby based off Jack Kirby. But gosh, and

I think about a fifth turtle, too. The first

time I remember ever seeing that was when in

one of the Archie turtles, April got mutated.

It was it was like a summer special. It wasn't

part of the main continuity. But yeah, they've

always been trying to do that. And then. They

did it in the live action series. Next mutation.

Yep. I still haven't watched all of that. I don't

even know how many. I don't know. I don't know

how I need to look into that. I'm not going to

probably watch it, but I just know that it was

so polarizing with the fans and with everyone

else that it's just the interesting takes at

the time for that were that. with the turtle

the main turtles they were ninjas from japan

she was mutated in chinatown and had the kung

fu chinese background and gotcha was more tied

to mysticism and magic which was okay interesting

um but yeah i think there was that well when

you create a character like that at that time

in the world and i'm not talking about now with

right The Mary Sue with the weird accusations

that people throw out there. But at the time

they threw that character out there because,

you know, we need a girl turtle because girls

don't watch our show. And surely if we put a

girl in there, the girls will watch our show

and our toy sales will double. I mean, that was

obviously why she was put in there. Yeah. And

what IDW has always done with everything they've

ever touched is that they've taken characters

and situations. that are either cheesy or not

good or uh from a a funny book and they've translated

them they've updated them and they've put them

back in the book in a way that makes them cool

relatable fit naturally and you know it's like

so these people that are complaining i doubt

they had ever read any of the idw turtles to

know with how much love they put these characters

back into the comic yep Pigeon Pete is a great

example. Absolutely. Pigeon Pete rocks. And I

have to apologize to everybody at IGW as well,

because when I saw the title of the trade, I

saw the title, and I was like, no. My first thought

was kitsune. I thought it was going to be a kitsune

story again. I didn't even look at the cover

of the trade. I just looked at the title. And

the cover is basically Venus basically robot

party. She's basically Pinocchio'd. She's basically

trussed up. She's basically strung up. But just

when I hear Mystic Sister, when I hear Mystic

Anything, the first thing I think of is Pantheon,

Rat King, Kitsune, all that. But yeah, no. No,

and IDW always has and always will, with the

Turtles, do their best to give us unexpected

awesomeness. It just will. All of the comics

and movies and books, media of any kind that

I enjoy most is done by the creators that love

what they're doing or that love the characters.

They love the story. There's something about

it that they love. And with Sophie writing this

book, Sophie liked Venus. Yeah. And felt maybe.

Like at the time in the old show, maybe that

she got done dirty and this was her time to redeem

the character. And I think she did. And I, I

don't, you know, Oh, I'm so far behind reading.

That's a whole other story. I don't know if she

comes back. I hope she comes back. I hope she

gets like a complete arc. I'm not that this isn't

a complete arc, but I hope she gets more arcs.

Yeah. Cause I'd like to see where that character

goes. So, folks, what I can tell you right now,

what's going to happen. Here in Mutant March,

we are going to finish off the main run, the

original run. So, Volume 6 is Game Changers,

Volume 7 is Isolation, Volume 8 is Damage Done,

and Volume 9 is First, Last, and Always. That

takes us through Issue 150. And after that, when

we go to Sewer Surf in September, is when we

will start the jason aaron run i have read the

first two issues of that i did too i don't oh

well i mean you know what it is what it is it's

i don't know it's fine but it's far enough away

that yeah no yeah absolutely no no it's fine

but the thing and and you know us you you know

this better than anybody else we've been doing

this for 11 freaking years dude we don't worry

about spoilers here because we cover it enough

After the fact that people should, if you haven't

read it by now, stop listening to this podcast

at this very moment, not for this episode, but

like when we get to that specific thing, if you

haven't read those, stop, go read the issue,

come back and listen to it. That's the greatest

thing about podcasts. If you're listening to

a podcast and we sit here and tell you there

are going to be spoilers. The first thing you

should do is, okay, they've told me they're going

to be spoilers. I shouldn't be upset at that

podcast because they specifically said there's

going to be spoilers. What I should do as a responsible

podcast listener is stop the podcast, go read

the comic for myself and come back and listen

to their opinion later. Yeah, we'll still be

here. Yeah, we'll still be here. We ain't going

anywhere. Not yet anyway. But the thing of it

is, is my point is that I read those when they

first came out and I enjoyed them because. It's

sort of a 151, 152 thing, but they're kind of

not. They're still continuing with our characters,

but it's also still a reset. I think 1, 2, 3,

and 4, I don't know about 5, but 1, 2, 3, and

4 feel like a reintroduction of kind of like

how we had the Micro series. Micro Leo, Micro

Raph, Micro Mikey, and Micro Donnie originally.

Like, it's character. It's like a character one

-shot for those first four issues, I think. I

think. I could be wrong. I don't remember, folks.

But I liked what I read. And I don't dislike

Jason Aaron. I haven't read enough of his stuff.

But what I read in those first two issues, I

really dug. So we're going to still have fun

with Turtles, folks. Mystic Sister, where should

we begin with this? Because everybody's out in

Mutant Town. Yeah, this was a hard... As I flipped

this open to read it, I thought, this is going

to be a hard one to talk about because there

aren't any words in it. Yeah. It kind of read

to me like the Christmas episodes or Christmas

issues where we just kind of check in on all

the characters. Yeah, it's a check -in issue.

But yeah, I forgot when Mystic Shredder, Orokosaki...

astral planing around keeping everybody safe

showed up, but we've talked about it. So I needed

to be reminded that he's there. I like that he's

there. Without Stranger, I like that he's there.

When the story goes on for so long, you have

to be okay to change the status quo of the characters.

These realistic depictions, these emotional depictions

of these characters, they've got to grow. It's

neat to see Orokosaki grow into a different individual.

Yep, absolutely. I think the only words in this

entire issue are the words on the missing poster

for the three little rascals there. Well, Alopex

goes out looking for them. It's Christmas. They

know the weasels are missing. Shredder follows

her. They eventually find Old Hob and... uh the

the weasels and they're romping around they're

playing it's christmas there's a christmas tree

and and shredder's seeing them on the astral

plane and realizes i don't think alopex finds

them but uh shredder writes the note and puts

it on the door of the dojo that the weasels are

with hob but they are safe and happy signed a

friend yep yeah i like this and again they're

they're doing something here that not a lot of

comics would do. They're telling you a story.

They're telling you a visual story. You don't,

like I said, you don't need, like I knew every

bit of this story. I mean, like I said, you,

you, you have the, the, the missing poster that

like you, you don't even have. Mutant Town, 3am,

and then The Missing Poster. You don't even have

any of the... What's the word? Exposition. No,

you don't have the placeholders, the... Oh God,

my brain is failing me. The location type stuff.

Yeah. The captions, the K, the caption type stuff.

You don't even have that. You just had. But you

can like when we get to the panel where it's

I think it's Leo. Maybe it's Leo. He's got blue

slippers where the kid is is giving him the cup

of coffee or hot chocolate or whatever. You know,

OK, the kid's giving him a cup of thing and whatever.

And it's like, here, come, you know. share and

and do this and do that and it's it's christmas

and we should all be together and then you got

you know ghost shredder going around and checking

in on everybody which is great because he's kind

of keeping everybody together keeping an eye

on everybody and it's cool and this issue actually

reads really fast if you really think about it

because there are no words whatsoever other than

it's an advanced technique to read the pictures

like you can't just look at the pictures and

not have the story completed for you i think

it takes a lot of skill yeah to do the pacing

and to you know make sure that it makes sense

from panel to panel but i do know people that

will look at an abstract piece of art not a non

-objective piece but something that actually

has things in it that looks weird and they they

don't read the art piece they they see it as

just the shapes on the canvas but no if you look

at that and if you see how the shapes relate

and how the characters are relating and this

and how the actions are relating and where they're

going you can make sense of it without the need

of words i think that's that's really kind of

cool yeah you can't you couldn't really do that

with any of the other talents that it takes to

do a comic like you can't You can't take away

the pictures and just have the words because

then it'd be a novel. And you can't do just the

colors but not the inking and the words because

then it'd just be painting. Yep. Sorry, no turtle

waxing today. Yeah, this 124 is awesome for the

visual story that it gave us. So we get into

120. Is that correct? Yeah, 125. We started out

at Burnout Island months ago. Oh, boy. Which

I didn't see coming. Yeah, we're going back to

the past, everybody. How long have you been feeling

unwell, Commander Zom? Oh, boy. Commander Zom

is at the baby doctor. Yeah, we didn't... As

soon as I read that, I'm like, uh -oh, she's

pregnant. One of the... Krang's later, not Krang,

let me, Utram. Utram, yep. One of the Utrams

later, sorry, I was living in 2012 land. One

of the Utrams later says that the Triceratons

do not produce sexually or they don't have babies,

they're clones. They don't have the equipment.

And so it's kind of a miracle when we find out

later this issue that she's pregnant. And. Oh,

I forgot the evil cranky one's name. Uh, Shirell.

Sure. Yeah. Shirell. He's the shredder in the,

uh, 2003 series. Uh, later he's saying that these

dead husks of Triceraton soldiers would be perfect

to incubate new crank. And so just seeing that

there's a reproduction issue with both of these,

uh, species, uh, that are living here on earth,

they've, they've got, issues with that and uh

no it's barbaric to use our dead bodies they're

soldiers we need to burn their bodies but we

need more baby utroms how else are we going to

do this so there's a debate there's unrest yes

there's unrest please forgive the interruption

sorry doctor what is it the final tests are complete

and yep you're pregnant you're preggers you're

preggers We go back to the present day and we're

in the sewer. We're in somebody's apartment with

April. And who is that? Oh, God. What's it? Mona.

I think it's Mona. Yep. And hey, look, it's pepperoni.

Mayor Stockman. Oh, God. Mayor Stockman. That

guy. Would have been better if he just flew off,

buzzed off like the fly he used to be. Yeah,

I wonder if we're ever going to get him as a

fly. I don't think we are. I could be wrong,

but I don't think so. Yeah, we almost got it,

and I thought it was coming, but it looks like

the turtles are getting ready to train. They

must be at the Splinter Dojo. Yep. Training Carmen,

their first human trainee. Yep. So they're training

Carmen, and whoa. jennica and what's the alopex

no not alopex the um sheena sheena sheena sheena

is off by herself and she goes to frankenstein

yeah yeah she goes to dr frankenstein so we have

a new character here dr barlow yeah later admits

that he is A human turned mouse who has been

performing surgery on himself to remove his mouse

like features. And he's been helping other mutants

of mutant town, both experimenting and working

to turn them back into humans again. But just

the way that he's drawn and the way that his

repairs appear to be done all over the page right

here from the go. Like he's just a little he's

out there. He's got different strategies. So

this book basically turns into, even though his

name is Dr. Barlow, and even though this book

is titled Mystic Sister because of things that

happen later with Venus and certain powers that

she has, it basically turns into Dr. Frankenstein

because he is Dr. Like, look at his design. Like,

seriously? Like, he's... I would rather have

a mouser operate. The mousers are scary. They're

scary robot mice. But this guy, like, I'm like,

oh, boy. I hope the next trade is not this. This

was like a horror movie the whole time. There

are some parts that were, like, just a little

over the edge for me later. Yeah. Every time

he is on panel, it's like, we are going to horrify

you no matter what. Casey gets caught by the

frogs. Oh yeah, he got put out during training.

He's kind of fallen apart a little bit in this

arc. He's drinking and a little too violent.

Yeah, Casey's turned into a little bit of a lost

soul. Casey is... I hope he gets redeemed. I

hope there is a saving grace for Casey because

we do not want to see Casey go the way that his

old man went. And I even say that... I think

it's in this trade that they say. He's already

leading the Purple Dragons. How much more like

his father does he need to be? All the way. So

we got Casey versus the Frogs. Which we're not

mentioning. They're the punk frogs, which this

particular issue of the singles got rebranded

Teenage Mutant Ninja Punk Frogs. Did it really?

Yep. It's Genghis, Attila. And I'm like, wait

a minute. I had action figures and they were

in the cartoon. So these are the punk frogs that

Shredder mutated in the old cartoon. Yep. In

a manner of speaking, it's their evolution. Yeah.

Mutant Town gave them not permission, but it

gave them. space to do a lot of those characters

that we haven't seen yet absolutely i love that

it's them um so yeah it's them uh jenny basically

tells them dojo's closed guys and uh what's his

name clyde it was that one the one with the weird

shell he's the one who i saw took bonnie and

he's talking about donatello i just got it bonnie

and clyde So there's more than four of the frogs,

and the frogs that Shredder named were Genghis,

Attila, you know, the really dirtbag people from

history, Napoleon. Yep. But now, since there's

more than four of them, yeah, Bonnie and Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde, yep. Yep. Yeah. I didn't even,

until you said it, I didn't even put it together,

because Clyde was annoying as hell to me throughout

this whole trade. He's like, go home, Clyde.

Yep. Clyde's the one that, well, so the frogs

bust into the dojo and say, dude, our friend

Bonnie is missing. And Clyde's, I saw him with

a turtle. I saw him with a turtle with a metal

shell. And they think it's Don with his synthetic

shell. So they show up at the dojo and basically

just start a fight. Yeah, the fight breaks out.

Fight breaks out. Fire breaks out. The dojo goes

up in flames, essentially. uh the whole yeah

the whole building burns yep oh man and there's

some there's some neat homages so they've got

the the fight going on uh the flames are all

around them yeah and rafael at that point had

gone out i think to look for casey or to look

for somebody sheena out there because he's the

constable that's kind of his job yeah but jennica

says the line oh we could really use ref right

about now and like yeah hey but then and then

the door gets kicked open and in that kind of

Tatsu arriving with more. Oh, no, it does. It

is Casey. Casey does show up. Yeah, Casey shows

up. Yeah. You want to tell me what you're doing

with my little green pal over there? Oh, hey,

who's the babe? Wayne Gretzky? On steroids? God,

that movie lives in my head. I tried to watch

that with my kid and I'm saying every line like,

Dad, you got to stop. So sorry. I'll have to

say this. Are you on Instagram? I don't know

how much Instagramming you do. Mr. Reed's Hawaiian

shirt. You and your Hawaiian shirts, Mr. Reed

Magnum P .I. There's an account on Instagram.

It's a music account. I forget what the guy's

name is. I'll have to I'll have to send it to

you. He's basically this guy who does the dad

rock thing. And he'll do these videos where it's

like dad shows up to pick up his kid from a party.

But the party is playing 90s hits and the dad

starts jamming out. And he puts little captions

about the kids saying, oh, dad, please go home.

Like he's just dropping his kid off at the party.

But the dad wants to stay. Oh, it's hilarious.

It's so good. It's hilarious. No, dude, 11 frigging

years. Look, folks, we've been covering this

series for 11 frigging years of this podcast.

And any time they reference it, I swear to God,

if they pull. Anything from the first or second

movie. Even the. I swear. If they pull out a

Burt pizza. Frisbee. Also good. I swear to God.

We're going to quote it. Because we know it.

I can't remember what I read last week. Let alone

what I had for breakfast yesterday. You sit here.

And you give me. You know. These lines to say.

especially like as soon as i saw that as soon

as i like i didn't even zoom i didn't even do

guided view as soon as i saw the burning page

i'm like it's it it's second time around yeah

it's not it's the building is not second time

around it's their other fort it's their other

headquarters it's the splinter clan it's what

it's not the set but it's basically Them homaging

the second time around. And like you said, Jennica

says, ah, we could really use Raph right about

now. Literally, she's line for line. And this

is why right now, folks, this is why we love

and have loved and will always love everybody

at IDW. Because they know what to do, when to

do it, and when to pull the punches that they're

pulling. They know when to throw the lines that

we love. And it's in a moment. Like, normally

in certain battles or certain fights, it's like,

okay, punch, punch, kick, kick, whatever. Do

a quip, do a this, do a that. Oh, he said this,

or oh, he said that. But, you know, in the middle

of this battle. If Mikey goes to a phone booth

and says, yeah, I'd like a large blah, blah,

blah. Oh, by the way, no anchovies. You put anchovies

on this thing and you're in big trouble. It's

going to get us because it's going to pull us

right back to 1990 and that movie because that

movie, number one, we grew up on it. Number two,

it's the best Turtles movie. Uh -huh. Still,

I wonder what the reader base was for this. Like,

it has to be men our age. Like, that's got to

be my primary population of readers. But I do

wonder how many people are reading that and not

getting the reference. I mean, some people might

just miss it because they don't have the movie

memorized like you or I. But, like, who wasn't

there in 1990 to read that to get the reference?

That's still reading this book. Yeah, Oliver

has read the first trade paperback, but he hasn't

gone further. Like, dude, you got to keep going.

I got them all. They're right here. Oliver, your

father has an entire library of Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles comics in his basement. You can

read them for free. You don't need to bring them

back within seven days. They're there all the

time. Multiple printings of all of them. That's

right. That's right. But, yeah, he'll read it

someday, I'm sure. Someday. Let's see, what was

that old man talking about? What was he? Oh,

this is good. What do we do? Nothing we can do.

Can you see? I can't believe Raph wasn't here.

I can't believe it. And, yeah, we go to a giant

egg. Commander, it's beginning to, oh, it's the,

yeah, it's the Triceratops. Speaking of another

movie from the 90s that I can quote. Line for

line. Oh, push, push. That's right. I've been

present for the birth of every living creature

on this island. I like to be there when they're

born. Helps them recognize me. That's a good

gold bloom. No, no, that was that was Attenborough.

Richard, was that his name? Oh, yeah. It's still

Jurassic Park. Yeah, it's still Jurassic Park.

Oh, boy. My Jeff Goldblum has gotten crappy over

the years. Yeah, as Richard Attenborough. I had

to type that in to check. Yeah. Yeah, so the

Triceraton baby is born. But, Colonel, this is

only one child. Yes, Cleve, but it's nonetheless

alarming. Oh, yeah, that story they're talking

about when the slaves outnumber the masters.

And it is most likely a sign of more to come.

Her name will be Ciri. Aw, it's a baby Triceratops.

That's right. Just don't say that too loud, folks.

Hey, Ciri. I know, right? Wait, if I... And that's

how we end this issue with them kind of conspiring.

Cover artist is on 126, because that cover on

my issue is really nice. Who did that? Which

one from 126? Pablo Tunica. Yep. I should recognize

that. Oh, man, the alternate cover on, I don't

know if you've seen this, but the alternate cover

by, oh, wow, that's what? That's Eastman? Really?

It's so crazy to look at anything he illustrates

that's not Turtles. He's done some Wolverine

covers, some Daredevil covers. Oh, Kevin? Yeah.

No, no, no, no. It's always so weird to see him

drawing anything but the Turtles. You know how

the trades work. The trades have the alternates

at the back of the end of the issue. Just send

it to you on Facebook. But it's the black and

white, like, I've never seen an Eastman cover

like that. That's cool as hell. Yeah, that must

not be. I'm going to have to check that out.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was like, who did that? And

I looked up at the right -hand corner. I'm like,

ooh, Kevin did that. Very cool. But yeah, Pablo

Tunica did the one for 126 for the frogs. And

we start this issue at Burnell Island. It was

so weird for me to be jumping back and forth

between this and the turtles story. Like I'm

waiting for them to tie in and I can't see how

it's going to tie in. And I think ultimately

they're setting up the next arc. Should I call

it jarring? Was this the place for it? I don't

know, but at least it's interesting. I thought

because of the way they're setting it up, I thought

that things were going to go faster. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. I thought we were going to encounter them

before the end of the arc or something. Yeah,

I thought that we were going to... Honestly,

I thought that we were going to encounter Venus

in 124. We don't. We only see the beginning of

Dr. Barlow's stuff. We don't really see Venus

in 124. We only meet Dr. Barlow in 124. We kind

of get the mystery of something shady is going

on with Dr. Barlow because he's a Frankenstein

doctor. And then we get this Triceraton baby

stuff with this thing and with the U -troms.

And everything else. And that's fine. I like

it. I think it's character building. I think

it's them juggling the various factions, which

is fine. I don't find it jarring. Because for

me, jarring is like if they were jumping back

and forth in time. Like if this was six months

ago, six months later, three days ago, four days

ahead. If they were doing something like that,

I would really have a problem. But they're not.

Yeah, it all hasn't come together yet, but they're

giving us enough of, like, where we kind of end

this U -Tron thing here where I think it's Shirell.

First, we must take care of the meddling regenta.

And you see the doctor have the shock face. And

then we cut to... Mona? I always forget her name.

Yes, it's right there. Mona. Well, thanks for

letting us sleep at your place, Mona. Sure thing.

What a mess, you guys. So the transition between

the end of the Uhtram part here going into where

Mona's place is, I find that easy. I find it

interesting. And then we get into Dark Casey.

Yeah, well, so what are we going to do about

these frogs that came in and burnt the place

down? Casey goes, revenge. Yeah. And then the

next panel, Leo goes, yeah, revenge. Which Jenica

says, dang, Leo, I didn't expect it like that.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you come into my house and

burn it down. I think I understand why. Absolutely.

So, okay. I know. We all know. Okay. We get it,

that they're at home, they're not going to have

their bandanas on, and as long as you see a bandana

around their neck, I guess, no, technically,

Alopex doesn't have hers on either. But, like,

I see Donnie's around his neck. Okay, Donnie

wears purple. Alopex and Raph are together. Raph

has his on because he's the constable, and Raph

has gone from red to black. I don't really like

that. Yeah, I kept thinking he was Leo sometimes.

Like Dark Leo from back in the day. Yeah. I kept

thinking he was frigging Ronan. Oh, yeah. Like,

it's just overall, it's a small complaint. And

at the end of the day, it's not going to really

jar me because of how the conversation goes between

Leo and Raph, because we know how Leo and Raph

talk to each other. The only time it got me was

that the silent issue. Because we didn't have

the verbal cues, and if you're not... I mean,

I've gotten to the point where because of Rhonda's

coloring them so consistently, I can tell which

character's which just by the green. But nope.

In that issue, I didn't have enough context.

Yeah. In this issue, I don't mind... I love the

coloring. I will always love Rhonda's coloring.

However, I do have a problem with how Casey is

drawn. I don't like the way he looks. He just...

I don't know. He just doesn't look like Casey

to me. I'm not saying he has to be super slick

human looking. I know he can look disheveled,

but it's just the way... I don't know, it just...

It just doesn't like in the panel where Raph

said where he and Raph are going at it. Sorry,

man, but you ain't stealthy at all. You're a

beat up and you're loose. You're a loose kid.

And look who's talking. Like, I understand that.

I forget who's the artist on this, but Pablo

Tunica. Is it Pablo? OK. It's not that I don't

like Pablo's art because I love how Pablo draws

Raph here. I think that's cool. I just don't

like the way he draws Casey because I understand

what he's doing. He's trying to show that Casey

is, like Raph says, beat up and drunk and all

of that. Casey and Dr. Barlow could almost be

doppelgangers in this to me. I don't know. It's

I guess they wanted this part. And even even

the way the couple panels later here where Alopex

is kind of yelling where she says, Raph, can

you not be the constable for like five minutes,

please? Like, I don't know. It just. I don't

know. I'm here. Also, I got the sense that this

arc was rushed or that it was. Again, I think

we're almost still dealing with pandemic delays

at this point in the series, or at least recovering

from them, trying to get the story and artists

back, kind of working together at the same time.

And parts of this arc felt rushed, and I wonder

if anything like that is a result of that rushing.

And so I can't, I don't think I want to judge

it. as harshly as, as I would, but you know,

Hey, I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not trying

to judge it harshly. I'm just saying that it

just doesn't, I don't know. It just doesn't,

it doesn't look like the character. Yeah. And

I'm trying to see here. They all draw better

than I do. Okay. Yeah. But like, I'm trying to

see if I can see the copyright. I can't see the

copyright. I will. I got that right here. Let's

see here. Sorry, folks. 2022. No, they were way

out of the pandemic. It just feels like it because

Sophie's Ark started during the pandemic. Yeah.

We had the issues. Mutant Town was... Yeah. I

don't know, man. It just doesn't... At the end

of the day, art is art. And this is the choice

they made. And that's fine. I just don't like

the choice. I don't like the design and that's

okay. I still love the story. I still love the

story that they're telling. I mean, you know,

it's like how we've always talked about the art,

how the arts change. Like we love certain artists.

We were not so big in other artists and that's

okay. Like I'm not sitting here. Say I'm not

one of those idiots on the internet. This is

the worst art ever. I'm going and I'm being facetious

here, folks. I'm sarcastic. I want to make sure

people understand I'm being sarcastic. This is

the worst art ever. I'm going to hunt this artist

down because they suck and I don't want them

to ever do art again. No, I'm not saying that

at all. I'm just saying to me, it's a little

more horrifying looking like. I miss the way

that Raph and Alopex, like, I like the romantic

way that, so stupid, but I like the way, the

romantic way that Raph and Alopex looked like

back in Northampton. If that makes any sense.

Like, I don't know. It is what it is. Like, okay,

so again, on the same page, it's page 57 of the

trade, but it's that same page where she says,

Raph, can you not, uh be the constable for like

five seconds it's that like second panel to the

right where she says where he says where she

says there's a time and a place for everything

just give it a rest right now it looks like to

me she's going to bite his head off and i don't

mean it looks like to me she's going to basically

rip his eyes out with her teeth like it just

Yeah, there's some facial proportions that don't

quite get it. Yeah, it just doesn't, I don't

know. I think that's where I feel like it's rushed,

because the cover is beautiful, and there are

interior panels that are beautiful. There's just

a page here and there where it looks like it

just needed to get done. Yep. So we go back to

the punk frogs and Mikey and Alopex. I don't

remember where they say it, but Mikey being more

emotionally aware and sensitive and more of the

listener than everybody else. He's gotten the

idea that they need to talk to these frogs. He

senses something is not right. He doesn't want

to go in there swinging. He doesn't want to go

in there with revenge. And somebody in the background

says, man, I like leader Michelangelo. Yeah,

there's my growth. yeah but mikey has always

had that growth yep yep i mean well but i don't

usually you don't get to hear him be referred

to or thought of as any kind of leader and so

that was i'm hoping that we get to see that more

someday i mean like he him acting as leader yeah

like he did with the kids saving them yep absolutely

so we get the We get the frogs versus the turtles.

We get all that. I like how this looks. I think

that's cool. Yeah, these are some good pages.

Yeah, these are very good pages. Very, very,

very, very cool. We get back to the sewer here.

We see a Triceraton in the sewer? Because it's

Dawn and Alopex, and they're looking in on...

Oh, yeah, they go... They're finding... They

fell in somewhere. Hard to tell. how they got

moved around and separated there, but they are

in Dr. Barlow's area. Yep. Oh, two of Dr. Barlow's

assistants. It's Dirtbag and Groundshuck. Yep.

The two action figures that I don't remember

if they were in a cartoon. Yep. Bingo. We're

dealing with a real mind here. Yeah, because

who says it? Raph and Leo. Raph says, we need

to find Donnie and Alopex. Yeah, then let's get

the hell out of here. Come back with reinforcements.

And then we see Alopex. You okay? And then they

go hunting and they find Dr. Barlow. And, yeah.

Donnie. I can't say that I have, but we... Are

you here for a consultation? Oh, my God, no.

And we go back to the U -Trubs and the Triceratons.

Maybe if you cleaned your doctor vest shirt.

Yeah, really. Absolutely. Clean your doctor vest.

Scrubs. Yeah. Scrubs. There you go. Superman.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head

from Scrubs. Da -da, Superman, the theme song.

I need to watch that show again. That was a good

show. So, the Triceraton, we basically end with

the U -Troms and the Triceraton fighting over

the baby. Jor -El says, what did he say here?

You aren't going anywhere, Commander. I've had

it with this. so -called truce that favors your

people and dooms mine. That's not true, Jor -El.

Please stand down, Jor -El. And he says, I don't

believe I take orders from you. And he goes to

fire. He kills the Triceraton. The baby goes

up and up and up. As the Triceraton, as Zom,

goes down and dies. And that's how the issue

ends. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I'm glad I wasn't reading

this monthly, because waiting 30 days for that

would have been a killer. I'm hoping I get back

to the point where I can read these in the car

again. Oh, God. You and your car. No. Wait for

the trade, folks. Wait for the trade. Read the

whole story all at once. So we begin the next

one. Morel, go! And keep Ciri safe. And Morel

goes. And the Triceratons attack for the herd.

And we have an all -out battle. And Morel takes

Ciri under the thing here and takes her away.

puts her in a Superman -like spaceship. It's

not a Superman -like spaceship, folks. Actually,

it's a age -uppinator. Yeah. There's a Superman

thing in the movies where they have all the biopods

in there and they do things like that. But yeah,

it's an age -uppinator. I can't believe I get

a Doofenshmirtz reference in a Turtles podcast.

Oh, boy. But basically, yes, it's an age progression

machine. Growth rate, two years, three years,

five years. We go back to Dr. Barlow's. Meanwhile,

in Mutant Town, we got Donnie, Dr. Barlow, and

Alopex. all of the other turtles and Casey. Dr.

Barlow wants to tend to Leo's injuries. It's

for Casey, though. He's human. We don't serve

your kind here. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding, ding,

ding. An hour in, folks. We get a Star Wars reference.

That's right. It's for your kind. That panel

where he introduces himself. Oh, God. Horror

movie character? Yeah. He's just... so off -putting.

I think we're glancing over the fact that Donatello,

with the synthetic shell and hearing about this

guy who's performing plastic surgery on mutants,

is interested in what he's got to say. He doesn't

seem to be as horrified by the filth everywhere

and the mutilations that this guy has done to

himself. Like, oh man, Donnie, are you seriously

considering this? And how sorry, sore off must

you be to want that? Yeah, Donnie must really

be in a lot of pain because, yikes. Yeah, I think

you're right. It's not that it's bothering him

from a spiritual point. No, he's experiencing

pain. He's got this hunk of metal hanging from

his back. Did not grow there. Yeah, it's not

natural. Yep. We get a Dr. Barlow says to Donnie,

I'll be happy to schedule a consultation for

you to discuss further. I'll be honest, doctor.

I find this all very grisly, but I am interested

to hear more. Like you said. Oh, boy. And we

get an argument between Donnie and who's in the

red in the red. Is that Leo? yeah okay because

way to go you know that's like hey come on i

can't tell it's look for the scarred eye the

scar that's yeah that's true that confirms it

i wasn't sure but Yeah, I wasn't sure either

because I couldn't see the scar over his eye

because I was looking at where Raph was yelling

at him, where Raph says, we can't just go into

sneaking into people's houses without harder

evidence. I was trying to figure out what the

argument was because it started with Donnie,

but I was trying to figure out who was, yeah.

So they all get into an argument. And then Alopex

yells at Raph. She says, I don't know about laws

or regulations or anything about how much more

do you need. Raph, you and me were both experimenting

on. You should be breaking down the guy's door.

LFX, quiet. Don't ever talk about that. Yeah,

but it's such a sore spot for him. Very sore

spot. Hey, instead of crashing with Mona again,

what if we stayed at the old church bunker? Mikey's

trying to keep it light. I love how they all

grin after his suggestion. Yeah, I totally forgot

how much potential this old church had. We could

even have the new dojo here, make it a community

center. Like, yeah, that would have been a great

lair for a TV series. Yes, it would have been.

Wait, who the hell is he talking to? Who's this?

Barlow. Who's he talking to on the phone? Oh,

I think I know. And I don't think they tell you

yet. But I think it's Null. So my audience, dear

audience, I've had this weird flashback experience

reading this. There are pages where I know I

have never seen before as I reread it for this

podcast. And then there are pages that I know

what's happening and I know what's going to happen.

And I don't know how. But like, I don't know

how I know that that's null. bad team of ninja

turtles yeah um and that's why bartle's mentioning

that he was commissioned to make these turtles

and he's letting this person know over the phone

that he's got donatello hooked and that that

might lead to something and i think alopex saw

uh failed experiments on turtles earlier that's

right that's right okay gotcha gotcha uh -huh

And as this issue progresses, he shows Donnie

his horrific experiments. Oh, boy. Yeah, so Don

and Alopex go back, and Alopex is sneaking around

while Donnie has Dr. Barlow distracted. But Barlow

shows him red dragon scales from issue 100. The

whole thing that I... forgot happened. It was,

oh yeah, there's a giant dragon in New York City.

So the EPF had cleaned that up, but Barlow says,

these are a few pieces that I've gotten and they're

radiating this weird energy that we can't tell

while that's magic. And meanwhile, the panel

that did it for me was at the same time Alopex

is down in the basement finding body parts and

corpses and dissections. And I was like, oh,

okay. If that were drawn with any more detail,

This would have to be a mature section. Yep.

Yeah, she's running through the basement and

catching all this stuff and seeing all this stuff.

And she opens the door. Oh, God. Here she is.

I call her Venus. What? An interesting take on

this character now that we've actually seen her.

Yeah. Like the full panel of her. Oh, my God.

Yeah, she's for readers that have not looked

or are relying on us. She's been Frankensteined

together out of frog parts, it seems. But she's

got a fake metallic plaster on the belly shell.

part of the turtle. Her arms and legs are missing,

her head's been stitched together, and she's

glowing mystically, so there's more than just

surgery happening here. Yeah, there's definitely

more than just surgery happening here. Oh boy,

so we get to the next issue. Which has a beautiful

cover. Yep, this is the main cover of the trade.

Done by Pablo. Suspended. Hanging. Oh, kind of

like in one of the Infinity War movies. Oh gosh,

Blue Robot. Played by Karen Gillian. When he's

got her hanging and dismantled. Nebula. It was

on the tip of my tongue. So very up that alley.

Yep, yep. With the dragon scale being lowered

into her shell. Yep. We begin this one on Burnout

Island. Siri has been aged to 18 years. Yep.

And... She's all grown up and you need to command

one of your people's scout ships and escape.

I understand. Siri, take this. She hands her

the thing. She goes to escape. She drops the

thing. And then they're found by Shirell in his

murder mech. Yeah. Definitely a murder mech.

Flashback to Mutant Town, and Alopex is in a

battle for her life with... Gosh, I always got

their names mixed up. Groundchuck? Dirtbag. Dirtbag

the mole. Yep. And Groundchuck the woodchuck.

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck

could chuck wood? Oh, boy. I can't believe I

did a woodchuck joke in February, folks. Even

though you'll hear this in Mutant March. Oh,

boy. So, yeah. So we get Venus and Dr. Barlow

and Donatello. And we see her frog limb. And

we see Donnie kind of attack Dr. Barlow a little

bit here. Donnie realizes the extent of his horrific

experiments on dead things. Yes. And this Venus.

new turtle actually was bonnie the punk frog

well she was dead when i started operating her

we just brought her back to life with the dragon

scale so we definitely are frankensteining this

together yes very much so that is not cool dr

barlow that's not cool at all i think i used

to be bonnie but my memory is fuzzy there's a

fight that breaks out she has some sort of memory

and then we get to alopex It's not Jenica, is

it? No. Sheena. I know it's Sheena. Who's the

green one? Oh, that's Donnie. He's waking up.

Oh, it's Donnie. Yeah, okay. Donnie, Alopex,

and Sheena. Okay. And so Venus is now connecting

with him telepathically. They now have a telepathic

connection. and they are going to help each other

escape. And that's essentially what the next

few panels are, is Dr. Barlow trying to stop

that from happening. He's trying to experiment

on Donnie. She's telling him how to get through

the experiment and don't let it overpower you.

Basically, flow within it. Be within it like

a river. And Donnie goes to the astral plane.

And Donnie runs into Venus in the astral plane.

Runs into his dad, Hamato Yoshi. Uh -huh. Yep.

He's watching all of this happen, but the person

he's conversing with is still Jennica. She's

guiding him around. Or Venus, not Jacka. Thank

you. Oh, my gosh. She's the lady turtle. Oops.

Yeah, well, now we have two of them. Now there

are two of them. Oh, and Sophie did these pages.

Yes, she did. And we get back to the Triceraton

-Utron fight. See, even I do it. You know, folks,

when something in 2003 names something and it

becomes a part of the culture, sometimes you

just can't forget that. It's hard. And change

may be constant, but it's difficult sometimes.

So we get Ciri. She's going to take off in the

ship, and she eventually does take off in the

ship. And that's how this one ends. And I'll

avenge you. Shirelle will pay, I promise. And

so she's been aged up, but she also can speak

and has ideas of concepts. So one, I think they

mentioned earlier that. She was picking up things

as an infant earlier than they expected her to.

She was understanding people's people speaking

even as an infant. And so between the technology

of that pod and and mystical Triceraton hand

wavy, she's quite coherent and aware of what's

going on. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, yeah,

so we get her taking off, you know, blasting

off again. At the speed of light. That's right.

And we get an alternate cover of, it's done by

Kevin, I think, of Hamato Yoshi and one of his

sons. So there's that. And then the main cover

for the next one is the Triceratons and the U

-Troms done by Pablo. And we start in the day

of the mutagen bomb. Flashback. Yep, flashback.

Nuts, what are we going to do until nine? I don't

know. I don't know. Come on. Oh, this is the

origin of the frogs. Yep. This is when they were

human. Okay, okay. They're waiting for a punk

concert. Yep. And then they became frogs. So

that's how they became frogs. Raph goes to Casey

in the present. They have another little debate,

which this is going to continue on for a few

panels or it's going to happen in the background

as we flash forward. But my favorite thing to

come out of that debate or out of that fight

is, yes, they're beating the tar out of each

other and saying really cruel things to each

other. Like you mentioned earlier, you're ending

up like your father and that just sends them

off. But at the end of it. They're friends again.

Yeah. And Casey's redeemed. Like, that's so very

Raph and Casey that all it takes is for them

to beat the snot out of each other. And then

they're good. Then they're good with each other

again. They understand. Absolutely. It's kind

of like that old movie from 1990 with, you know,

sitting in a truck. You know. What letter are

we on? Dome head, elf lips, gack face. All right,

hose brain. What letter are we on? No. Absolutely.

100%. So, yeah. So we get them fighting. The

fight is going on. And then we cut back to Dr.

Barlow's lab. Yep. With him working on Venus

and her tricerat... Why did I almost say triceraton?

Her dragon scale infused shell. Oh, boy. Interesting

connection here, too. He flashes back for a moment

to some black market stuff, and he finds these

shell fragments from a mutant that he takes and

studies and uses the dragon scale to bring back

to life. And we have a sneaking suspicion that

might be the fragments from Donatello's shell

when that was broken in issue 44. 99 .99999999

% sure that that's what those are. Yep. Yeah,

there's a chance that it could be another dead

turtle mutant that we never met, but no. No.

Until Bobby or... Oh, wait. 575th episode. This

is the first episode we've been back. Have we

said... I don't think we've said this. No, I

don't. It's been an hour and 20 minutes or almost

an hour and 20 minutes. But congratulations,

Bobby Kernow, editor in chief, IDW Publishing.

I wrote him a message on one of the social media

things saying, all right, you're back, man. That's

right. That's right. Bobby's back, baby. And

I said, yeah, you know, he's not going to. I

made a thing saying like it's it'll be good to

have you kind of. keeping your eye on the book

again he's like all right yo i've got a lot of

um books a lot of different books to watch i

can't do that but you know i'm sure he's got

a he's got a soft spot for the turtles and so

that that's good yeah yeah and honestly the turtles

are in good hands oh yes they i don't yeah i

mean i it's only about getting the gang back

together that i that i say like oh yeah Yeah,

absolutely. Yeah, 100%. But like the fact that

he's editor in chief at IDW, that's amazing.

Yeah, I have over the past year, I've been very

worried about what IDW has been going through.

And I have messaged a couple of the artists and

writers. trying to like piece together what's

going on and nobody knows which is not good and

people are leaving and getting moved and getting

taken off of books and uh it's it's some it's

some crazy stuff but i'm hoping that with him

coming back as editor -in -chief that that's

a step in the right direction yes um because

that idw has lost a lot of good properties it's

lost a lot of good books and it's it's still

the fact uh that that ninja turtles is what's

keeping the lights on Yep, absolutely. So we

see more of Dr. Barlow working on the show. We

get over to the turtles and Carmen and the hippo.

Who's that? What's the hippos? Oh, you just said

what their names were. Ratchet and Clank. No,

that's not right. Dirtbag and Groundchuck. Yeah,

there you go. Dirtbag and Groundchuck. So we

got that. We got Raph and Casey finishing up

their fight. So there's that. So that's done.

They're friends again. And then enter Grandfather

Oroku. Oh, yep. So back at the... Donatello is

trying to astral plane project himself on purpose

to go get Leo to tell them where he's at. They

stumble on Orokosaki because I'm sure his life

force is just shining like a beacon on the astral

plane right now. Well, OK, so you got to think

that the turtles, at least Donnie, isn't like

they're not. They're just learning the astral

planning stuff still. And Shredder, Orokosaki,

whatever. He's known this stuff for thousands

of years. So, I mean, the fact that Donnie ran

into him first instead of Leo, you know. I think

they make a, what's it say, you know, my astral

presence is so strong you were drawn to me. Yep.

So that was how that happened. They're like,

hey, Donnie, you're doing the astral projection

thing. He says he used to have trouble with that

being the technology mind. But Venus says it's

all kind of the same thing, just working on a

different level. Yep. And we get back to Leo

and he calls the constable Raph. We found them.

On our way. Raph and Casey and everybody gear

up. And it's turtles versus frogs. Where are

Alopex and Donnie? You got them somewhere. no

you've got it wrong and i think i don't even

have to remind myself mikey is probably somewhere

saying no no dudes this is totally not right

we're you know misunderstanding absolutely that's

definitely what mikey would be saying and uh

yeah we um we get that fight we get uh um Sheena,

Donnie, and Alopex trying to escape. And then

we get the spaceship crash landing because it

is Siri. Yeah. And she crash lands to end this

issue. It crashes right on top of Dr. Barlow's

surgery. Doctor, what do you call it? Hospital.

Sure. Because that's where the turtles are, and

she was homing in on their signatures. Yep. Man,

this arc has got so much in it, and it is so

good. The writing is solid as always. Yeah, we've

already said about certain art choices aren't

at least my favorite, but overall, it's still

the turtles we love. It's still the characters

we really, really enjoy. It's introducing new

characters for us to enjoy. And making them not

suck. Yep. Absolutely, absolutely. So we get

Mikey going after Genghis. Because this is where

Mikey's like, wait, let's be friends. Why would

you want to be friends with someone who burned

down your house? You know who Michelangelo would

really get along with? Who's that? If we cross

alternate universes, I think him and Squirrel

Girl would get along. Yeah, that'd possibly be.

Because she's all about talking her way out of

fights and turning villains into friends. In

that way. I think they'd get along. Totally out

of left field there. Absolutely. As we get deeper

into this issue here, we get back to... We get

Clyde back to the frogs and we see Venus and

Clyde's like, Bonnie? Leave Bonnie alone, you

dumb cow. This giant cow thing. mutant thing

fighting and uh it's sheena leave us alone never

again leave us oh yeah that was sheena stop yeah

that was um very very angry sheena this page

was a bit much for me and i'm i was surprised

that uh reading this i was surprised that nickelodeon

didn't stop them from doing this just you know

between sheena going too far and the frog in

the next panel yeah i don't know how they got

this by nickelodeon but they did um but again

like sheena here leave us alone leave us alone

like her being this violent is this the most

violent we've ever seen this book Not really.

Look what they did to Donnie in issue 44. I mean,

come on, man. This isn't the worst thing that

this book has ever done. And I'm not saying this

book has to be violent or doesn't have to be

violent. It's definitely more than I expected

from that character. Oh, yeah. I think they're

pretty adamant that the turtles are not going

to be able to kill anybody. like from a mix modian

standpoint oh absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah

they didn't say anything about anybody else let

them have it sure so Clyde's kind of confused

with this whole Venus thing and Venus is not

Bonnie and Bonnie is gone and all that and Clyde's

kind of sad and he takes her arm away and all

that And we see a group shot of everybody. We

see Raph and Casey. And Casey's got his golf

bag with his instruments. And Jennica's like,

are you okay? The doctor's house blew up. And

Sheena says, no, not really. So we have all the,

again, nice, nice moments between everybody.

And we have, who is that? Please help, please

help. Which one? Who is that? Doctor's house

blew up? Yeah. Mikey's hugging. Mm -hmm, but

who's that? That's Donnie. That's all bandaged

up? Yep. Okay, so Donnie is the one that saves,

okay, so Donnie's the one that saves Siri. So

thank you. Who are you? Yep, that's us. I'm Michelangelo.

One thing after another, huh, babe? Yep. Oh,

boy. So we get that introduction, we get Donnie

and Raph. Hey, man, you okay? I know you were

kind of hoping to be friends with that Barlow

guy. You don't even seem interested in what this

Triceraton chick's all about. Yeah, he's totally...

I'm fine. Rips off his bandages. A little heartbroken

that he couldn't get his shell fixed. I think

that's actually secondary to the fact that he

offered Venus a place, a home to stay, and she

chose to be alone. Yep. Because he was really

feeling the connection with her that I think

comes from both going to the astral plane, but

also the fact that that was... That was probably

his shell that she was partially grown from.

So there's more of that to that. And as everybody

walks away and into the sunset, so to speak,

Venus comes back and picks up Donnie's bandages

and then braids them into her iconic braided

bandana tail that she hangs from her neck. Oh,

that's cool. Okay. And that's also kind of the

fun thing about how Little things like that get

brought out that characters take with them and

it becomes important, like Slash's black bandana

being Leo's from Dark Leo arc. And then these

bandages, which become the symbol tying Donatello

to Venus, becomes her symbol. Those little things

have been really cool. Yeah, it has. And it's

part of what makes these formerly... garbage

characters into awesome characters for us now

yep absolutely and then bludgeon comes along

i didn't see him coming me either clyde returns

to the frogs bonnie's dead shows the arm poor

bonnie ew that's her arm show some respect bloody

mary so she's really gone Yeah, Zayden, she's

really gone for real. The turtles didn't do it.

I messed up. It was all a big stupid mistake,

and I'm sorry, guys. Clyde, you butthead, pull

yourself together and let's go. That turtle cop

will be gunning for us. We gotta find a new hideout,

Attila. Bye, Venus. Yeah, then we're gonna find

a way out of Mutant Town. And into another story

arc someday, I hope. Hopefully. I never should

have let the students come along, April. But

Sensei... Wanda, not now. That's a very motherly

way to say that, April. I'm sorry, Father. I

thought I was ready. I thought we all were. Oh,

no. Shredder! Not anymore. Guess all that hardware

is for making coleslaw. It is now. I mean, you

can retire it. Oh man, they could go into business

and he could shred all the cheese? Uh -huh. And

I am just Orokosaki. Fine, what do you want,

Orokosaki? There is something important we must

discuss, all of us. I'll tell the others. And

then we get the EPF. I was not expecting them

to show up. And Dr. Barlow, my patients, I'm

so sorry to all of you. Dr. Barlow here, my companions,

my family home, my research, it's all gone. That's

a shame. Did you manage to... Talking on the

radio, I had to read this a couple times, seeing

the speech balloons not coming from his mouth.

Yeah. Like, wait, what am I looking? Oh, so yeah,

Dr. Barlow here, my companions, my family home,

it's all gone. That's a shame. Did you manage

to save anything? And he did manage to save a

blood bag of Donatello's blood. To which this

person says, bring it to my office immediately

and we'll discuss it. And the red outline is

what made me think. oh, wait, it's Null. It's

that weird skull. Devilhorn lady from the RGX.

Yep. And I don't know what possessed me to read

it like this in my head. So it says Don, D -O

-N, so Don as in Donatello, Donnie, whatever.

It says Don -1. In my head, I read it like Don

Juan, like as in Don Juan DeMarco. I'm like,

oh, God, no. And then I will be there shortly

to be continued. And then we get the cover gallery.

Oh, man, this is this trade. It's a little bit

too much horror for me in it. Yeah. But overall,

I still really enjoyed it. I'm very interested

to see where the story goes from here. I like

the story goes. Okay, well, that wasn't enough.

Yeah, I think I'll save it for the next one.

Yeah. I'm looking at a really interesting next

month page here with the Shredder. Yeah, I see

on mine they give you the cover of the next issue.

Oh, yeah. And it's Shredder training with the

Ninja Turtles. out in the woods which whenever

i see out in the woods ninjas training i think

they're up in northampton again and so where

are we going we're not a mutant town anymore

i brought marshmallows put those away yes they're

toasting marshmallows on their their astrobly

projected flame father there michelangelo put

those away i am not for toasting That's right,

that's right. Volume 5, Mystic Sister. Outside

of my just not really that into the horror part

of it, I enjoyed it because I love the character

stuff. I love that they took a character in Bonnie

and made a story with her and essentially turned

her into a classic character. That got a redemption

arc. That got an actual story arc. That wasn't

just. Oh my god. I hate it when he ruins my dramatic

moments folks. I really hate it. Sorry. I stepped

on it. But no. This was a good book. 124 to 130.

Good story arc. Really really awesome and fun.

Folks. Volume 6, Game Changers, I... Yeah, we're

facing an interesting challenge with Volume 6.

Yes. All right. So I'm looking at the thing here.

Okay. I think what we're going to do is what

we always do. Like we did with Casey and April.

Like we did with Mutanimals. Like we did with

other miniseries. Like we did with Ghostbusters.

We are going to cover them, but we're going to

do their own episode for them. So Armageddon

Game, which is... Okay, you know more about this

than I do. Give me the briefest of brief synopsis

of what Armageddon Game is. Armageddon Game is

an arc that finally deals with everything the

Pantheon has been working on since we met them.

Oh, fuck. Yep. and it involves yeah then it's

going to be its own issue it's going to be its

own separate episode by itself here's here's

the thing and i i need to dig back into it again

but i almost suspect that they have to be read

in the order that they were shipped to stores

that it they they tie together chronologically

between the series you read you read volume six

and only volume six I'm going to try to read

them an issue or two, mixing it in, issue three

or four, mixing it in, and see if they do need

to be read chronologically. And if they do, I'll

say, hey, no, no, dude, we gotta, it's weird.

But if they can be read independently, I think

you're right. We should just do them independently,

like the trade, by trade. There will just be

weird jumps because, you know, if a big battle

goes on in Armageddon game three, When we go

back to read the sequential issue, it's probably

going to be after that battle. And honestly,

this is the thing, audience. I struggled reading

these books as they were coming out because school

and life and mental health and all of that. But

when I started to get back into it, I got up

into Armageddon Game and... My store had a hard

time pulling some of those other issues because

while the series was going on, they also then

drop opening moves, the pre thing. And then there

was a free comic book day catch up that also

weaves in there. And I couldn't I couldn't figure

out what the order was that they hadn't updated

the continuity list because the series was still

coming out. So between all of that, it just like

fouled my taste for the book. Oh, OK. Not that

it's bad. Right, right, right. It was not a good

time for me to mentally wrap myself around it.

Okay, so let me see here. Okay. Question. Yep.

Yeah? Do you like penicillin on your pizza? Is

there a way to... Does Armageddon Game have any

consequence to... Issues 131 to 140. I need to

reread that. What does the... My thinking is

we can do an episode for Armageddon Games specifically

between Volume 8 and Volume 9. So Volume 9 is,

if I remember correctly, let me look in our messages

because I don't remember. I'm too old for this

shit. Yeah, I have the reading list. We should

put a link to that in show notes or something.

Oh, I will. Uh, it is the, the, the, yeah, it's

always in there. You know what you're doing.

You've done this. Okay. So episode five 78 of

the pull bag is reborn volume eight damage done,

which includes annual 2023, 140 to 144. 579 is

Reborn Volume 9, First, Last, and Always, which

is 145 to 150. That's the finale. So between

144 and 145, can we put an episode there in between

578 and 579? Can I put something there that can

just be all of Armageddon game? I think that

might work. okay good that's what i'm doing because

that's gonna be the easiest friggin thing and

that way we don't have to worry about weaving

it into whatever because it's just oh yeah that

would suck for you for doing if if it's required

and i can't believe that they would put the trades

together in a way that would make it required

where you'd read 20 pages of the trade and then

have to put it down and pick up another trade

like no way maybe maybe when it comes out in

omnibus they would do that but no well yeah when

they do the omnibus with story order hopefully

they'll they'll throw it all in together once

they do the the full big hardcover thing yeah

anyway folks this has been behind the scenes

at the pull bag we're gonna enjoy yeah exactly

this is that's where i would be riveted Podcasting

at its best here at the Geekcast Radio Network.

Only inside the Bullbag. We're going to go to

a quick ad break. Here's some podcast ads, some

other stuff. We're going to come back to close

the show right after this. You can edit all of

that out if you want. I will understand. But

yeah, that was fascinating. This is what we have

to deal with, people. Hello, geeks and geekettes!

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Stand by for soundtrack transfer. I am Maggie.

And I am John. And we are trapped, hurtling through

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ship, for reasons we haven't been able to determine,

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till all are one. Till all are one. On the Simplistic

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I'm sure your insurance company will cover that.

No, they won't. No, they probably won't. All

right, folks, we are back here in the 575th episode

of The Pull Bag. 12 years, holy crap, 575 episodes.

Once again, thank you to everyone, anyone who

has helped us along the way with this podcasting

journey. Like I said at the top, Steve Megatron,

Michael Powers, lovely turtle brother, Mr. Joe

Reed here, all the listeners. You want to say

that again? Woo -hoo! Everybody, I appreciate...

Everything anyone has ever done for us here at

the Geekcast Radio Network and as well as here

inside the pull bag. Anything you want to say,

sir, before I close out the first episode of

Mutant March 2025 with the outro? Yeah, this

month, a couple of days ago, IDW released Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles The Mirage Years 1993 through

1995, a collective trade paperback of Mirage

Volume 2. And over my many years being a Ninja

Turtle fan, I have been in contact with Jim Lawson,

one of the original Mirage artists, back and

forth. I've gotten commissions from him and met

him at a convention once, met his fantastic wife,

who has now befriended my wife, and they like

private message each other back and forth. And

I talked to Jim about my motorcycle sometime.

He's just this awesome dude. And volume two.

the Mirage issues that came out from 93 to 95

were basically all him. It was when Peter and

Kevin, the licensing was getting big and they

were off doing their own thing and the book was

handed off to Jim. And these are his issues.

He wrote an extraordinary introduction to the

book. I think that's kind of how IDW pays these

guys for basically using their content that they

own. IDW owns it. But, you know, realistically,

from a creative standpoint, the original creators

deserve something. And so they pull them back

in to write the intro and they get a little bit

of money for that. But at the time that Jim was

writing that intro, I was posting something in

a Facebook comment and I started to wax all sentimental

about the turtles and what they mean and what

they meant to me. And Jim's wife commented on

it. Because it was in some Ninja Turtle group

that they're all a part of. And then I get a

private message from Jim on Facebook saying,

dude, I just read that. Can I use this in my

intro? And me as like the little fanboy is like,

whatever you want, sir. Yes, please take it.

And so like, oh, my gosh, it's in the book. And

so he said it, sent it up, typed it up, wrote

it up. And then we share Google docked it back

and forth. And like I. tweaked my words because

he just copy and pasted it. And, uh, we had a

little Google editing back and forth and I helped

him his part and he helped me with mine. And,

and that's what got sent to the publisher. And

so like, my name is now a part of Ninja Turtles

history in the introduction of this, that Jim

immortalized in that thing. And, uh, I would,

you know, ordinarily this would be all over.

I don't know. Realistically, what's the word?

If I weren't somebody to keep myself contained

in public, I would have just blasted all of this

all over my social media saying, I'm in this

book. I'm history. Instead, I've been containing

it and just letting it out here in this podcast

at this moment. That I'm a part of a turtle's

history now. My name is immortalized. And please

go buy this book, listeners. Please go out and

buy this book. Mirage Volume 2. There was really

weird time for the turtles. But Jim's awesome.

His art was what the turtles were from 93 to

the end of the Mirage run. It was all his art.

He came back to write it eventually. It's interesting.

It's neat. It was color. It was in color back

in the day, but definitely please support it

and read that intro. It's awesome. Yeah, you'll

have to send me a link to that so I can put it

in the show notes. Okay. And yes. Shout it out

across the internet, dude. You deserve to shout

that out because that's amazing. You know how

many times I've shouted out issue 55 of IDW?

We're on the cover, dude. That's my podcast.

Fucking hell. I've gone up to strangers who have

no idea who I am. That's my podcast. Can I sign

your book? Yeah, exactly. Like nine years ago,

how the hell was it nine years ago that happened?

If you've ever been any kind of TMNT fan, you

need to be reading this book. Dash Geekcast Radio

is on issue 55 of IDW TMNT. Which was Ben Bishop's

first cover on one of the variants. I brought

that to him to sign. Did he want me to sign your

copy? Because that's my podcast. No, he didn't

want me to sign it. Ben, come on, man. I know,

right? Come on, Ben. I love you. Come on, Ben.

Damn, man. I got to figure out how to get Ben

on the show. We got to get him. We got to have

him go through the pullback origin questions.

That would be fun. To have him go through those,

that would be very, very cool. All right, folks,

575th episode. We are 25 away from 600. We are

on the road to 600 and 700. I don't know if we're

going to get to 700 this year, but I know we

will definitely be getting to 600 episodes this

year. We only got 25 to go. I don't know how

it's going to go. After Mutant March, I know

we've got Mutant March going on. Dynamite Comics

has the Silverhawks license. They started a Silverhawks

book, so my buddy Optimus Solo and I might be

covering the Silverhawks and Thundercats comics

that they're doing. So that's maybe what's going

on. Obviously, Joe and I will be covering Turtles,

as always. Joe and I will also be getting back

to Radiant Black at some point. We've got to

do that, too. That's still going on. They're

in their rebuild era now. So that's going on,

but we've got to catch up with that as well.

So thank you for joining us inside the pull bag.

If you'd like to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show, there are several ways

to do so. Visit the website, geekcastradio .com,

where you can listen to and comment on all of

our content. You can also check out shop .geekcastradio

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We have all kinds of stuff. Shop .geekcastradio

.com. You can check us out in any of the podcatching

clients you choose to use. You can follow us

on X at Geekcast Radio, at The Pull Bag. I am

at TFG1 Mike. I think you X'd out of X, didn't

you? I was never big into it, but I am on blue

sky. I don't remember what my username is, but

you can find me on Facebook, um, through the

geek stuff garage sale. Uh, so facebook .com

slash geek stuff garage sale. And you could find

me on Instagram. Uh, I am at Mr. Reed's Hawaiian

shirt. I think there's some underscores between

those letters, uh, between the words, but, uh,

that'll find me. Very cool. Very cool. I will,

uh, have Joe's links in the show notes folks.

I'll try to have them in there. Become a fan

on Facebook. Go to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.

You can also check out the pull bag over there

as well. Join us next time here in Mutant March

when we will be discussing TMNT Reborn Volume

6 Game Changers. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with...

Joe Reed. As always, make your greatest game

into comics and we will catch you next time.

What the hell was that? I don't know. Well, that

was a crime, you cursed scrubbing pukes. And

this is the penalty. Two minutes for slashing,

two minutes for hooking, and lest I forget my

personal favorite, two minutes for a high stick.

How about a five -minute game misconduct for

roughing, pal? Hey, bogey, now who died and made

you a referee? You did your job, now get out

of here and let me do mine. These JV lowlifes

need to be taught a lesson. Not like that, they

don't. Not from you. Well, it looks like you're

the one who needs to be taught a lesson, pal.

Class is paying 101. Your instructor's Casey

Jones. You've just heard the latest episode of

The Pullback. the GCRN's first comic review and

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until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you. Look, I don't

want to fight you. Well, tough rocks, pal. A

Jose Canseco bat? Tell me you didn't pay money

for this. That's it. Just a one sale, pal.