IDW Publishing – TMNT: The Armageddon Game Opening Moves!

hello ladies and gentlemen this is the pull bag

and you're hearing the sound of my voice before

this episode of the pull bag because in episode

579 i tfg and mike forgot to say or maybe i did

say but didn't really acknowledge it but we recorded

this one day before mine and joe's 12th anniversary

of when we started doing turtles coverage January

22nd, 2014 is when we released our first IDW

Publishing TMNT comic book episode here inside

the pull bag. So literally it's been 12 years

ago today as you're listening to this, January

22nd, 2026, because I'm going to edit this and

publish it as soon as I possibly can. Hopefully

it will air on January 22nd, 2026. But it was

recorded January 21st, 2026. If that makes any

sense. And yes, I know I'm talking super, super

fast because it is early in the morning and I'm

trying to get it all out. I'm getting all of

this out all at once and I'm in the middle of

eating my own breakfast and everything else and

all that. And hope everyone has an excellent

day, an excellent week, and hope everyone has

a happy new year here in 2026. Right now, The

Pull Bag, episode 579. The Armageddon Game from

the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is Opening

Moves. Up next here, Inside the Pull Bag, only

on the Geekcast Radio Network. Tonight I dine

on turtle soup. Hi, this is Bobby Kernow, and

you are going to have a shell of a good time

inside the pull bag. Hey, this is Tom Waltz,

IEW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle writer, and

you have jumped inside the pool bag. Well, ladies

and gentlemen, it's 2026. Holy crap. And we only

released nine episodes last year for multiple

reasons. Number one, I had surgery in August.

For those of you who don't know, I believe I

released the last episode. Episode 578 was an

interview with my buddy Tom Zoller. Comic writer

and artist is illustrator Tom Zahler. That was

the last episode that we did. That was August

of something last year. I forget the actual date.

But that was the last episode that I was able

to do before I went in for On Our Nerve and Crippled

Tunnel. surgery on my left arm. For those that

don't know, I'm TFG1 Mike, and I have cerebral

palsy on my right arm. So, yay, I was Mr. No

-Arm for about three or four months. I'm still

kind of Mr. No -Arm now. Now, as you can hear,

the return, finally! After whatever the... How

do you lose your freaking comics, dude? I put

them in, like, three different places in the

house when I get them home, and then... Look

at the big pile of things I haven't read and

go. But no, I had we had friends over for New

Year's and then again a couple of nights ago

and art art dinner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I came

over and said, so what about these comics? Like,

oh, dude, I forgot. Sweet. And all of my Ninja

Turtle comics are in order now. What kind of

order? Who knows? But I was able to... We're

going to find out, because we've got to get to

the end of this run. Yes, I have to. And then

we've got to start the new run. I'm told that

I haven't finished this, and hopefully this will

get me going again. Well, that's the point. And

originally, folks, I was going to do something

so huge and so stupendously stupid, I was going

to put all of Armageddon Game into one podcast.

We're not doing that. I was going to edit it

into one long, awe -inspiring episode, and I

ain't doing that. This is episode 579. This is

part one of Armageddon Game. This is opening

moves. Episode 580 will be part two, which will

be the overall story for Armageddon Game. And

then episode 581 will be part three, which will

be the alliance or aftermath or whatever it is.

I think it's Armageddon Alliance. So three episodes

for Armageddon Game. And then we will be getting

back to TMNT Reborn with Volume 8, Damage Done,

or Do Damage, Damage Done, Go Red Sox, all that

good stuff. And then Volume 9, First, Last, and

Always, or First, Last, Always, whatever it is

on the trade there. But yeah, Armageddon Game,

this is the... Going into this, even before we

had all the delays last year, this was the story

I was least looking... This is a... You know

how sometimes... I forget which movie it was,

but there was a movie where somebody was tired

of somebody speeding in their neighborhood, and

they just kept making the speed bump bigger and

bigger and bigger? I forget if it was a movie

or a TV show. Somebody out there is going to

know. I don't remember off the top of my head

what it was. And, oh, I forgot to say, folks,

Mr. Joe Reed is back. Hello, sir. How are you?

I'm good. I forgot you didn't say that. Yeah,

I didn't say that. This is so far out of practice.

This is what happens when you only release nine

episodes in a 52 -week year. That's a lot of

comics you got to go back and read. Well, that's

what we're doing now. So. So, yeah. Yeah, I was

like, oh, OK, we're doing reborn volume one,

two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oh, wait.

Armageddon game. We should do that. Right. What

is Armageddon? Oh, for flubbers sake. It's the

thing is an insane crossover. And yeah, I feel

like we're going to discover things when we get

into the main. like the books want to be in the

middle of it. I have no idea, but I mean, I think

this is probably why I stopped reading it or

started to hesitate reading it because the reading

order was just kind of crazy. Yeah. So this is

why, this is why I always have them in trade

now and I don't do single issue. Like I understood,

and we've known this for the last 2014 to 2026.

10, 12 years that you and I have been doing these

comics since we started January of 2014 that

we did this. We've known this about you since

day one. You have to read the single issue as

soon as it comes out. And I understand that and

I respect it. But for me, it's like for organizational

purposes, IDW has always done the greatest thing

with their trades. They put them in. the story

order the way they want you to follow the story.

Yeah, for sure. That's why I've always championed

the IDW TMNT trade paperbacks. And that's why

I always will. But I, unlike you, as far as like

the story order of it all for me, I'm not a fan

of the Pantheon stuff because not anything against

Kitsune or. toad boy toad baron i almost said

toad boy toad baron or any of the other pantheon

family members i'm not a fan of rat king i don't

care i even in this even when we're gonna get

to this but even in this i yeah the chaos for

the sake of chaos is uh not very fun for me i

think and he's a very chaotic villain and yeah

i just gross yeah plus you know i go back to

what indy said about his dad he never made it

past the rats like that's that's me i never made

it i never made it past the snakes i never made

it past the rats so Armageddon game. The trade

paperback collects Kingdom of Rats Prelude. The

story was done by Bobby Kernow. Yay, Bobby! Art

done by Pablo Tunica. Letters done by Sean Lee.

TMNT number 84. Is that our book? That is our

book. That's right. Look, folks. We're a little

rusty here. They're pulling a little short story

out of 84. Yeah, 84. Story by Eastman, Kernow,

and Waltz. Strip done by Waltz. Art done by Dave

Wachter. With colors by Rhonda Pattison. Yay,

Rhonda! Letters by Sean Lee. Annual 2020. Story

by Tom Waltz. Art by Adam Gorham. I hope I pronounced

that correctly, Adam. Colors by John Rausch and

Michael Garland. Letters done by Sean Lee. Sean

Lee's on all the letters, folks. Sean does all

the letters. Annual 2021. Story by Tom. Pencils

by Casey Maloney. Inks by... Maria Keene. Colors

by Luis Antonio Delgado. Another IDW staple for

the colors. Yay. And then opening moves. One

and two. Tom Waltz on the story. Pharaoh Pei

on the art. Colors by Rhonda. Yay. And letters

by Sean. So that's what's here. And that's what

we are here to discuss this evening. Oh, boy.

Kingdom of Rats Prelude. I listened to our first

5, 10, 15 minutes of episode, whatever episode

it was. I forget the number. But when we did

episode 81 to 85, issues 81 to 85 in the old

episode, and I'll link that old episode, but

even listening back to that after reading this

one part of the story, I'm like, I still don't

remember this shit. The reason I didn't remember

this Kingdom of Rats Prelude is because it showed

up at the end of Ninja Turtles Universe number

19, which had a completely different story in

the beginning where Raphael and Alopex are raiding

Null's land. But there's these couple of pages

here, beautifully drawn, creepily drawn. Creepily

drawn, yes. Yeah, so this is basically Rat King

just setting everything up for himself for that

story, the Kingdom of Rats story, 81 to 85 of

TMNT. And it's been years, folks, and we will.

Since the run is concluded for the main story,

we will be going back and doing other TMNT books

that IDW has done, including Universe. We never

have covered Universe. That was by design because

we were so engrossed in the main story. I didn't

want us to get distracted on anything else. We've

done some crossovers here and there when it seemed

fit and it wasn't too distracting away from the

main story. Yeah, universe is kind of like, what

were those two characters doing when they went

this way and you went that way? Yeah, exactly.

But that was a good issue. I read that part anyway,

just in case. Rat King is establishing his new

base, talking to his rats in creepy ways. At

least he didn't eat any of them this time. But

I think he will later. The last page of that.

He is seeing New York City in ruins like as a

premonition. This? Or something. Yeah. Yeah.

This is where he decides to start making things

happen toward that premonition. And this is way

back in 2018. Yeah. When that particular book

was published. Yeah. So long ago. So long ago.

Yeah, because we published that episode in 2019.

So the next part of the story opens up with the

turtles and Rat King on some sort of scaffolding

and the Rat King is holding up some child. Oh

boy. Yeah, it begins this way. We're kind of

in the middle of a story when they're hitting

this kind of flashback. to Armageddon games starting,

and I think these were Splinter's kids. Yes.

The Foot Clan kids that he had lured out of the

place, and he's threatening to kill them, and

the turtles are trying to stop him. Yeah, is

it Splinter's kids, or are these the kids that...

No, these are Rat King's kids that he manipulates.

The turtles save them, I think. The turtles save...

They get brought back to splinter. Yes. Cause

I nearly gorged my eyes out with tears when they

came back. I think if I have this right, fast

forwarding a little bit here, folks. Yes. Yeah.

Because at the end here, I think at the end,

yes, yes. Cause he bring, yeah, they, yeah, that's

what it is. So. Yeah, in the beginning here,

these are the children they are trying to save

from the Rat King because he is trying to bring

them over to his side. He is messing with their

minds and whatever else. Piper trying to walk

them off the cliff. Yeah. And then he sicks them

on the turtles. With mind control and the rats.

And so the turtles don't want to fight these

kids. No, they don't want to fight these kids.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mouser, because we can't call

him Mr. Mayor yet because that hasn't happened

yet. As of this, he's still Professor Inventor

Creepy Moron Baxter Stockman. Oh, whatever. Dexter

Boinkman. Yeah, there you go. That's an inside

joke in our family, too, whenever that character

is mentioned. Yep, yep. You mean Bat and Stockboy?

Bat and Stockboy? That's right, that's right.

Flyborg, Flyborg. Yeah, this was 2018 as well.

Wow, yeah, man. Rat King's been at this for a

while. Yes, he has. So what is, yeah, I... What

is Baxter up to? So Baxter is manufacturing the

mousers. Oh yeah. Baxter's plan is to eradicate

the city's rat problem. So that way he can get

more power because he wants to eventually the,

from what I remember going and we'll go through

it obviously. But what I remember from just having

read this again today is that this leads him

to declare his intentions to become. mayor but

that's what gets him there to do it is that he

invents the mousers to get rid of all the rats

and they get rid of all the rats very violently

which I'm not saying that because I have a problem

with the violence I'm just stating a fact that

the mousers they kind of violent so I hate to

clean those things out after a hunt yep I love

the exchange here between Raph and Mikey. You

got him secure, Mikey? Yeah, he's safe now. Good.

Can't say the same thing for Rat Boy, though.

No. And then we have this whole thing and man,

I, as much as I'm not a fan of the rat King,

just because I do love all of the interactions

between the turtles and, and him. And I love

that Leo is trying to outsmart him because he's

like, why are you going all the way up there?

What are you doing? Trying to get the high ground

for whatever else. Oh, man. Look at this. This

reminds you of anything? Oh, yeah. Even though

the fact that it's creepy as hell? Hmm. Target

Mouser. Kill number one. Literally, I'm like,

ooh, that reminds me of an old cover. Target.

I love those red covers. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.

Wow, that was fast and extremely disgusting.

Don't get squeamish on me now, Miss O 'Neill.

This was your plan. And he explains to her how

his Flyborgs... Does he call them Flyborgs? He

does. Oh, wow. He does. Damn. The only other

place that I've heard of the term Flyborg is

in Phineas and Ferb. Uh -huh. In Phineas and

Ferb, across the second dimension. Because the

evil Doofenshmirtz in the second dimension has

Flyborgs that he uses. But yeah, so that's what's

going on here. My machines are functioning as

designed. No surprise there. Which just means

it's a matter of time. Dun, dun, dun. Leo up

here gets his high ground so that he can attack

Rat King psychically. He goes meditating. Yeah,

it goes into the astral plane. I was wondering

why it went from outside the docks looking thing

to a really bad... Well, I was going to say a

really bad nightclub that looks like it would

be in a John Wick movie. But he and Leo and Rat

King have a battle of wits in the astral plane.

The other turtles think that they can attack

Rat King in the real world. That's not so easy

to do since the Rat King is the master of the

real world and the astral plane. He's in there

multitasking. Yes, he is. My god, the colors.

The colors. And just the visualizations of this

page, the page where, does not happen by accident.

You wish to stop me to save those pathetic urchins?

Dave Wachter has grown on me for a long time.

Oh, yeah, but yeah. I do enjoy this. Like, look

at his design on Leo. Like, man, just. This image

alone, I know it wasn't knocked out or whatever,

but just the way he's designed him. Yeah, drawn

real small. Well, yeah, but I'm saying... It's

hard to get the pen to do what you want to do

with that tiny, tiny scale. That's very true.

But it's so good, and it's done so well. And

the writing's just there, and you get the scenes

mixing with each other. You get Leo and the Rat

King, and Leo's coming back, and they're fighting

each other, and you got the turtles fighting

the Rat King's body. Yeah, I like how the Rat

King is fighting them in the real world with

absolutely no expression, because he's not there.

He's not there, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.

And then just... Wow. And then you get Flyborg,

and Flyborg comes in, and oh boy, you get astral

plane projection, and this is creepy as hell.

He looks like a vampire here. How's this? It's

just all so good. But the mousers invade. Baxter,

the mousers distract. The mice, or the rats,

rather, taking care of them. In the astral plane,

Leo scores a big hit. The Rat King, which wakes

both of them up right before Rat King gets socked

in the mouth. Yep. You got punched right in the

mouth. How's that? What? What? Huh? Who? Where?

Why? And the flyborgs and the mousers determine

little monstrosities, aren't you? And he just

jumps right off the edge of the building. Oh,

boy. Smell you later. Smell you later. Hey, you.

But all's well that ends well. The turtles save

the day. The children are saved. I love this,

though. Because this is like one of those running

TV gags to me. So you go down to the very bottom.

So you get. Is something I picked up like mentally

snared mammoth, yada, yada, yada. Final page.

I think, dudes, I think I know. So you see Mikey

looking at the kids like, what are we going to

do with them? Well, dudes, I think I know. And

then all of a sudden, mouse are chasing rat.

One last rat to go. And I'm like, that's a TV

run through right there. That's like Urkel running

through the camera to chasing something or whatever,

whatever. I'm like, oh my god, I laughed so hard

at that when I read this. And this is where we

get the emotion down of Mike, because damn, I

was not expecting this. Not expecting this at

all. This is an epilogue that I was not expecting.

We need your help. And then obviously Baxter

makes his thing known that he wants to run for

mayor so far like the opening moves opening whatever

armageddon game so far it's okay yeah even with

the rat king like going back and getting the

context of what i know is happening now compared

to these books that we read back in 2019 uh it's

interesting to see that yeah the this is where

it started this is where they were kind of starting

to put the seeds for an event maybe they didn't

know what it was going to be but they knew that

the rat king was maneuvering and like i said

even though i don't care for the character overall

even later he gets we're gonna get there but

when he talks to all his siblings like the turn

like When I hear, oh, it's a Rat King story,

I'm like, oh, great. It's going to be the same

thing every time. Let's get the family back together.

Let's get the game going again. I want to play

the game. I want to have, like we've already

said already, I want to have the chaos. I want

to have the this. I want to have the that. This

threw me for a loop because of what happens and

how. But unfortunately, because of what happens,

he has to pivot. Pivot! Oh, God. Don't get me

started. And yeah, so we... This is something

I was not expecting. I was not... I did not remember

this. I did not remember... I remember Frank

discovering the body of Leatherhead and inhabiting

him. But I don't remember where that happened.

Yeah, I... Folks... Like I said, we are very

rusty, and we have not gone back to do super

deep dive research. You're getting our real raw

reading reactions. Research? You mean we read

everything from issue 80 on? Yeah, I know, right?

No. Even if we were to go back and listen to

all the podcasts from 80 to now, that's still

thousands of hours of audio. Yeah, it'd take

me less time to reread it. I know. I already

did that when I edited the podcast. Yeah, exactly.

I already did it when I edited the podcast. So

we start this one where Shredder's still in hell,

I'm assuming. Or he's somewhere. Because that's

the devil, clearly. Yep. Okay. So this is coming

out of the annual 2020. Yeah, this is annual

2020. Okay, cool, cool, cool. And the coolest

thing for me out of this, look what they have

him in. Yeah, the animated colors. Not just the

animated colors. Them's toy colors, man. Oh,

no shirt? Yep. That's the toy. That's the freaking

toy. I was like, oh, okay. That's that for okay.

Yep, yep, yep. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Because every child wanted a shirtless

shredder in the 80s. 1988, folks, you could have

gone to whatever store and gotten a shirtless

purple shredder for $5. You got to ask the...

If you get to a con, you got to ask... Kevin

East saw how they arrived at that action figure

because that was a whole bunch of people at the

toy company not understanding the drawings. Yeah.

Oh, that's the other... Is it... Who is it? Yeah.

Playmates no longer has it? Oh, yeah. I just

heard that news recently. Yeah, yeah. I don't

know. I mean, what? McFarlane Toys has a license

now, but they're making the high -end figures

or the medium -end figures. I don't know who's

going to be doing the Mutant Mayhem toys. That's

crazy. Crazy, crazy. Hasbro? I hope not. Oh,

God. If Hasbro had... That would be everything

is a super monopoly now. Like everybody has everything

or one company has everything for everything

these days kind of things. But Hasbro already

has Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Polly

Pocket, Polly this, Polly that, whatever, whatever,

whatever. They have so many things. I couldn't

even imagine if Hasbro got Turtles. Oh, God.

If they do, if they get Turtles, that's going

to soften up. And we're going to get a whole

bunch of Transformers crossovers and G .I. Joe

crossovers. Too many crossovers. No more Turtles.

Yeah, no more Turtles. No more crossovers. No

more. And we see that... I almost said Yoshi.

Wow. For two seconds, I thought that was not

who it is. But we get Saki and Kitsune. And then...

And then Rat King shows up and he's there to

see his sister because he's there to recruit

her. And he and Saki have a conversation, which

I love this. I loved all of this. I thought this

was, this is, this is cool. This is great. And

this is what's so great about this story because

Rat King is looking for players for his game.

He wants Kitsune, even though Kitsune failed

him last time. He wants to see if... That's the

whole point of this. That's the whole point of

opening moves. That's the whole point of the

annuals and whatever. He wants to see who's going

to play the Pantheon game. The Armageddon game,

whatever you want to call it now. Spoilers, folks.

Nobody wants to play. Oh gosh, what's the line?

The only way not to lose is not to play the game?

The only way to win is not to play. Yeah, the

only way to win is not to play. Yep. Yep, yep,

yep. But you know what? They address that in

this book later. Yep. They do. But I just...

Ah, what the... Wait a minute. Oh. Uh... Yes,

by this point... Oh, God, yeah! And Shredder's

moving toward the good side here. Right. Yeah.

No, no, no. Uh, cause this is a, this is after,

uh, he leaves and she says, beloved, what are

you contemplating? And he goes, and you see splinter

and he goes, old friends, kitsune. And the next

will be yours. Just. And new possibilities. Just,

oh god. Just, oh god. Again, these books just

always find ways to just crush your heart. And

then we get to Oroku Karai. And all her stuff.

Stuff. So it looks like she's this is an issue

I somehow missed, never read, don't have. So

I'm seeing this for the first time. But she's

harvesting parts of the dragon that was partly

formed in issue 100. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. So she

says to all her minions It's been nearly a month

since Kitsune's attack, so why am I still staring

at all this destruction? I want answers now.

And then he says, What do we have here, my children?

I'm losing my voice. I understand your frustration,

Karai, but we're fortunate to have anything left

after the dragon debacle. If Stockman wasn't

mayor, it's almost guaranteed we'd have government

inspectors snooping all over this facility, which

would fully expose our operation. So they have

all this discussion about all that, and we eventually

have the Rat King break into this whole thing,

and we have him basically put them to sleep kind

of thing, where he does his... Does his whole

thing with Karai and he says to her, Not a mere

knight, no, but a veritable queen in the making.

And what's more dangerous, my children, than

having a deadly and determined queen at your

behest? You may continue. Get moving. And all

her minions kept moving because he stopped them.

He stopped the thing right before she could say

that. And now we get to Alopex and Angel, and

oh boy. He's going to try to recruit them? You

know, he's Chaos. Yeah, he's Chaos, all right.

No, he's following them to see where... No, he's

following them to get to this. He's following

them to get to Leatherhead and Krang. That's

what he's doing. I do think that that is the

coolest thing to have done to Krang. Oh, no.

I'd like to see more of that because it's horrifying

and nasty and it makes Leatherhead even more

scary. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah, it's very, very scary.

And nobody's like, oh, shit. Or something to

that effect. It's actually bleeped out. What's

this? A monster within a monster? Two for one

sale, pal. Tell me you're not playing with a

Jose Canseco tale. And war with each other, no

less. How splendid. Again, Dave Walker's art,

the colors, and just, oh, man, it's so good.

So, so good. Like, just the change. Like, just

the change. In this entire page, you start with

the dark, like, inner panel here with the what's

this. You have the green and pink, green overall

of Leatherhead with the little leg thing he's

got, little bandages he's got. And you get the

background there, and then pink of Krang, and

then you get Alopex within the white, and nobody

with the purple. And then down at the left -hand

side of the page, he picks up a Mouser, which

is a yellow background, and basically he just

chucks it. Let's liven things up a little bit,

shall we? Hey, he'll throw that at me. Oh, no.

Yeah. Uh -huh. Intruders. Uh -oh. We're in trouble.

Uh -oh. But Angel got a little electrocution

stuff on her side, though. She electrocutes the

shit. It had a crying Leatherhead. Just find

a way to total the damn thing while I keep the

psycho twins busy. So Alopex tries to get to

the van. Leatherhead's tail stops her. More fighting

ensues. Krang says, I've never experienced such

infuriatingly resistant host. But thanks to you,

I am now in full control of the local idiot.

Oh no, the elect... Oh, it knocked him out, but

not Crank. Yeah, it knocked Leatherhead out,

but not Crank. Oh, God, yeah. Well, now he can

do whatever he wants to do, and what he wants

to do is make contact with the other U -Troms,

because that's all he has ever wanted to do.

Jamming remains active. You weren't able to disrupt

that. It ain't reptile, which means I'm still

invisible to my prying enemy eyes. And then they

threw a... She shot... One of them threw something

at the thing. And we get more electrocution soon

here. And then Alopex does her thing with the

computer. Man, so much electrocution. I love

this. Where, where, where? There. You're a regular

riot, Libby. Break glass. Push button. Run. Bye

-bye. Man. And then, yeah, they do all that and

get down. How absolutely beautiful. Rat King

just stands there. And Leatherhead's like, er,

Krang's like, uh, no, I need to get back in there.

Stop, you fool, you'll burn us both. And then,

uh, Rat King puts an all -stop to it. I won't

have all the delicious mayhem this motley group

provides snuffed out so soon. Like these two,

Biological Warrior and her furry mutant sidekick.

How absolutely thrilling. Truly, ladies, it's

been a joy to watch you both in action. Simply

leave here with the pride of a mission successfully

accomplished. Really, really sore for some reason.

Yeah, that was crazy. That was crazy. Yeah. Crazy

mind control. I hate that shit. Absolutely hate

that shit. But here's where it gets even stranger.

Speaking of weird, you are bizarre, and most

tumultuous sense of the word, my friends, two

oddities for the price of one. So many chaotic

possibilities. So no, there will be no murder

-suicide today, no martyrs. I will put those

thoughts out of one's obstinate mind, and memories

of today's battle will be lost to you both. Come

with me, my pets, until we again enjoy the amusement

of these two offers. But for now, we must bid

them adieu. Wow. Oh boy, this comic. So Leatherhead

and Krang wake up. Who, where, what, what the

hell have you done? You idiot! You brought us

here through this... But you soared just to steal

this opportunity to reunite with my people away

from me. He thinks Leatherhead is the problem.

Oh, boy. The end. Gotta love Leatherhead. I love

that because of the alternate cover by Kevin

Eastman, though. That's a good Leatherhead cover

with the city as a backdrop. That's a good one.

Oh, boy. This is Casey Maloney and Maria Keene,

Louis Antonio Delgado for the cover here. You

got the turtles all in the front. You got Leatherhead

Rat King and all the Pantheon people in the background

on the chessboard. And I'm assuming this is opening

moves? This is the annual 2021. Oh, this is annual

2021. Okay. Wow. Annual 2021 has... Wow. Okay.

So this is where we really kind of get going

with the setup. I love this page here where he's

kind of recapping. And this is the cool thing

about the annuals, folks. If you haven't kept

up with some of the stuff, the annuals are a

good way to get a refresher course. But you still

should read this series from issue 1 to issue

150. Yeah, the annuals and the free comic book

days are great places to jump on and start reading.

If you don't feel like going back in time and

reading everything, good place to start. Yeah,

absolutely. And we have this big giant recap

page of all of the siblings for the Pantheon

and where everyone's been. And this is where

he starts going to all of his siblings and the

various ways and things. And this is my favorite

page of this entire trade right here. This is

so frigging cool. This is awesome. We're making

a, a poster out of that. Uh, they should make

a, I don't know why they didn't make a poster

out of this. This is so cool. So this page here,

folks, so the previous page to this is. As I

said, it's Rat King says, my sister Kitsune particularly

has been a rather aggressive run -up until recently.

He talks about the dragon. He talks about all

this and everything else. And then this giant

poster at the top of it, it says, do I really

have to spell it out for you? Oh, because at

the bottom of the previous page here, he says,

You see, the source of my sister's failure, nay,

the source of all of my siblings' recent failures,

as well as many of your own, is annoying as a

assembly of antagonists shared by us all. And

then that's where he says, do I really have to

spell it out for you? So in this annual, he is

actually talking to an audience that we can't

see. So he is sitting somewhere talking to somebody

somewhere that we don't know who he's talking

to. And we get this poster. So starting at the

top left there, you get Casey's dad, Alopex,

Casey himself, Angel as nobody. You get Splinter,

Shredder, April, Kitsune Karai, Jenica, all the

turtles. Mondo Gecko. Mondo Gecko. Can't believe

I forgot Mondo. All the humans. Wait, who the

hell are these guys? Woody. Okay, that's Woody.

Who's this? I don't recognize who those two are.

Yeah, that's Harold. Those are April's parents.

Okay. And then there's Pete. Good old Pete. Herman.

There's Fugitoid and Hob and Man Ray and there's

Harold. There's Libby. There's Mr. Alien Dude,

whatever his name is. Donnie and Leo. Bebop and

Rocksteady. Wait, where's Rocksteady? Slash.

Slash Dude. Raph and Pepperoni and Koya. I saw

my first Pepperoni toy today. And you didn't

buy it? Well, it's a pre -order, but the McFarlane

Raphael, I think, comes with pepperoni. Oh, nice.

That's so cool. Yeah, so that's a nice little

big ol' splash page poster -like thing. So, yeah.

So he's going to Splinter. He's going to Shredder

and Kitsune. he's going to everybody he can think

of to go to. And then he starts going to his

siblings. And this is where I do what I don't

feel bad for him. All of his siblings tell him

no. I don't have time for your games. I don't

have time for this anymore. Like, I'm doing my

own thing. Like, the whole cat lady thing here.

I'm like, yeah, okay, you got your own war. And

then we get to this. Oh, my God. Not this. Not

this. Not this page. We get to this. And I was

like, oh, what the? Oh, right. It's going to

be kickball. Because I knew as soon as he held

the head in his hand, I'm like, you know, I always

preferred a good. I knew he was going to say

kick. And then I knew it was going to be like

an Alice in Wonderland -like thing. And then

I'm like, oh, right, the Toad Baron. Because

the Toad Baron kind of reminds me of the Queen

of Hearts. Like some Miyazaki fever dream. Yeah,

a little bit. Time out, time out. And I do love

how fun this is. I wanted any of the Pantheon

characters to be... not super regular, but a

more regular thing, the Toad Baron place would

probably be the funnest place to be. I mean,

it's still creepy as all hell, but it's probably

the most fun. Players to the pitch and all that.

And yeah, they basically tell him, no, we don't

want to do it either. And then we get to the

mammoth and the mammoth. I didn't... Okay, maybe

you can explain this to me. Like, I know they're

just kind of, like, sparring each other, but,

like, his moves here, like, how... Huh? He didn't

really move. Like, they are going at each other,

but, like, there's, like, again, they're not...

Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought he...

Yeah. The knife sent the swords in him. But...

Yeah, I think he's killing the wolves for furs

and food. Yeah, but... That kind of thing. Maybe.

Yeah, he's not so much of a protector as much

as he's a survivor. Okay, maybe I read it wrong.

I guess I did. I don't know. Again... But yeah,

basically everybody's telling him no. No, they

don't want to go back to the game. And this is

like the easiest one of all. He just goes there.

There's nobody else around this sibling. The

Pacific Northwest. No. I don't remember who that

is. Oh, it's just the black inky thing. Yeah,

that's... Tentacle squid. Jaguar to Toad Baron

to Mammoth, it was all beginning to come together

for me in a most unexpected fashion. I was ready

to return home with my newfound knowledge and

one determined, but I first had one last step

in order. I, yeah, I don't remember the character.

I thought they said it already. I thought they

were going to say it. And so there you have it.

Oh, Gothano. The dragon is dead. And Garfano

is like, no. Oh, honestly, no surprises there.

So that was a quick, easy exchange. And then

this is where we get the nice little nine panel

thing of him explaining everything. And we get

the reveal of who he's talking to. Well, yeah.

Everybody that we've. Yeah. Met so far. Yep.

Pretty much. Laying out his pitch. This is his

elevator pitch to Leather Crang, Baxter, and

Madame Null. Yep. This was crazy. And it's the

first time that we hear the Armageddon game.

The Armageddon game. Yep. I have to go back and

look at what year. So this is 2021. Holy cow!

Five years that's been sitting around. Oh my

gosh. Yep. And that was Opening Moves 1 and 2.

Wow. Yeah. That's, yep. Crazy. So Opening Moves,

what'd you think overall? It's a long draw. I

don't know what you'd call it. It's taken a long

time to get to where it wants to go. Which, again,

I feel like I've read Armageddon Game three times.

But I don't know that I ever got anywhere in

any of these. I know I've read all the annuals.

But I don't remember this stuff coming up. And

so I'm very excited that this will finally get

me over the Armageddon game speed bump. And then

by March, I'll have caught up with the new series.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, there you go, folks.

Armageddon game opening moves. Zero to five with

half points. What would you give this overall

story? Three out of five, only because it is

set up. It's not a complete story yet. For the

setup, I absolutely love it, but I do agree with

you. It is basically three out of five. There

are a couple of good... really good moments.

Yeah, lots of character moments. Yeah, and those

character moments for me are the Turtles, Splinter,

Kitsune, and Shredder. The whole Kitsune and

Shredder thing where they're basically you know,

Ghost of Christmas gone by, past, future, present,

whatever. When they're doing that stuff, oh man,

I love that. And when the turtles show back up

to the thing, oh, that was so cool with the kids

and everything. That was awesome. Like I said,

because all of his siblings did say no to him,

I kind of felt a little bit mad for the Rat King.

Still doesn't mean I still don't dislike the

character overall. But I'm interested to see

where the Armageddon game goes with this new

quote -unquote family that he has now with Leathercrang

and Stockman and Null. Yes, I don't have any

idea where this goes. I don't either. I've never

read it until now. I know from the covers of

some of the books closer to 150 what shows up.

how it related to some of the Archie books and

things that sound like the word Armageddon. Uh,

but, but I don't know. It'll be interesting.

I'm excited to get there. Yeah. Look, man, the

only thing I know of what are we getting is that

it's a Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck joint from 1998

directed by Michael Bay with Aerosmith. Oh my

gosh. I remember that song. Live Tyler. Yep.

Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right,

folks, that's going to do it for this episode

of the pull bag. We are back in the swing of

things and we are going to get things going.

Coming up. We've got the Armageddon game part

two. Let the game play out. That's just my own

little subtitle for the episode number, but that's

episode 580. After that, we will finish with

the Alliance, which is the Armageddon game Alliance,

which is the finale for that. Only because this

was recorded months and months and months and

years and years and years ago, my buddy Beachhead

Mike is going to join me, and we're going to

do G .I. Joe Silent Missions from Skybound Entertainment

in the episode after Armageddon Game, but then

after that, Joe and I are going to do Damage

Done Vol. 8 from Reborn, and then first, Last

Always, which is the final... trade paperback

for the original IDW Publishing TMNT run. We

will be doing that in February of 2026, and then

we will start the new Jason Aaron run, which

his run only lasted 12 issues, which, you know,

it's a good run. 12 issues is not bad. I think

there might be some behind -the -scenes drama

going on with that. I don't know, and I don't

care. I don't want to get into any of that. I'm

just saying he had a 12 -issue run. He kicked

off the new run. Yeah, I've heard it's very good,

too. So, yep, yep, yep. And it's IDW. It's still

Turtles. We're still going to cover it because

we still love it. So, you know, we're still here

for it. So that's what's coming up here inside

the pull bag. Thank you for joining us. Thank

you for watching us here at the show. If you'd

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Join us next time. As I mentioned, Armageddon

game will begin. So Joe and I will be back for

that. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with... Joe

Reed, currently at the shop at geekcastradio

.com store looking for this shirt because I think

I need to wear that sucker. I think they're there.

I think there's pool bag shirts. I'm not sure.

I haven't looked. Okay, okay, okay, good. As

always, make your greatest game of the comics,

and we will catch you next time here inside the

pull bag. Oh, man. I could really go for a little

deep dish action right about now. I had some

pizza down here the other day. There might be

some left over. Well? Question. Yeah? Do you

like penicillin on your pizza? You've just heard

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