IDW TMNT Issues 56-58: The Leatherhead Arc

Ninja pizza. Well, what do you know rock dudes?

Do you realize what this is? The crucial piece

of evidence we were looking for the clue which

will lead us to the heart of the evil ninja Empire

Not even better. It's a place where we can get

some pizza Okay, I'll head up there and check

it out. No, no April. It's too dangerous You

wouldn't last five minutes in a ninja pizza parlor.

I love saying lines like that We better go with

you, April. That's right. Besides, we're hungry!

Hello, folks. TF2 and Mike here. Before we get

into the Pullmag Back Issue Classics episode

55, after Joe Reed and I recorded this episode

talking about the Leatherhead arc issues 56 to

58 of the IDW TMNT ongoing, after we did this,

we got an email the day this episode... Was to

go live which was Wednesday May 18th 2016 It

is from Marcos from NJ Hi, I only recently discovered

the pullback podcast and I tuned in iTunes and

just wanted to give you a giant and resounding

Thank you for covering and showing a great amount

of enthusiasm over IEW's TMNT comics I'm a huge

fan myself, but other podcasts Never seemed to

mention this series, let alone how stellar it

is. I'm old school, so Mirage Studios is my go

-to, but love what IDW has been doing with this

series. Thanks for giving coverage to DC's Motu

series as well. It's another overlooked comic

in my opinion. So thank you so much, Marcos from

NJ. Alright folks, now you're gonna hear Joe

and I talk about the full -on debut... of Leatherhead

in the IDW TMNT comic. think about anything but

pizza not unless we have to welcome to ninja

pizza home of the nice slice hello and welcome

to the pull bag this is back issue classics episode

55 i am one of your hosts tfjohnmike Ladies and

gentlemen, we've got a lot of back issue classics

coming up. We've got Turtles, He -Man, Batman

Beyond, I Hate Fairyland, Lumberjanes, Volume.

We've got so much in the back issue classic stuff.

So this episode, episode 55, we are finally returning

to Turtles. We did not get a chance to do this

while Joe was in town for BotCon 2016 because

issue 58 wasn't out yet. But issues 56 to 58...

of the IDW TMNT main ongoing is the leather,

three -part leatherhead arc. This is the first

time we really get introduced to Leatherhead.

We've seen him before because he did pretty much

save Natel's life in issue 50, but joining me

as always for Turtles is Joe Reed. Hello, sir.

Hello. And, uh, are you ready for gator time?

I'm ready for gator time. I've never eaten alligator,

but when I was last down in Florida, I saw it

on the menu. Uh, next time, I will try some gator.

No gator, no turtle soup, no, no you soggy -a

-jimbo, no... Can't go to turtle soup. Uh, might

try rabbit someday. I hear it's oily, it's not

my thing. Ew! I had a rabbit as a pet as a kid.

I would never be able to eat Bugs Bunny. Oh,

that would make it hard. I... I will no longer

eat rabbit in honor of you and your rabbit pet.

I also had a crocodile pet. So don't eat that

either. Wow. That's... No, I... Northeastern

met, you know, Massachusetts? Nope. We don't

have to worry about alligators. So, you know.

Um, now if you want to feed a clock to a croc,

you know, you can call give Captain Hook a call.

Hey, sweet. Yeah, there weren't any Peter Pan

jokes in this that I recall. No, there, yeah,

no. Hook's afraid of an old dead croc. All right,

so the creative team, as always, story by Kevin

Eastman, Bobby Kernow, and Tom Waltz, script

written by Tom Waltz. Art by Mateus Santalucco.

Colors by Rhonda Pattison. Still trying to get

Rhonda on for an interview. Letters by Sean Lee.

Bobby's the editor. All that good stuff. The

story so far! The turtles thwarted Krang's plans

to use the technodrome to terraform the earth.

However, Burnout Island was terraformed and now

the sleeping utram race has a chance to survive.

The turtles prepare to meet their ally, the Fugitoid,

in the technodrome. So this one starts out on

Burnout Island. And we see... I don't even know.

Like, I can't even tell off of this. I assume

it's the Utroms. This opening scene of... How

are we gonna survive? Like, it doesn't... It

doesn't say. It's a mystery as to who these guys

are talking, trying to survive, trying to get

off the island, trying to do whatever they can.

We're not meant to know who they are at this

point. We find out later. Yeah, but they are

having a hard time breathing. It's like that

movie trope if you see somebody coughing in the

first act They're gonna have like I don't know

chest cancer in the third act. So this is kind

of what's going on here So I gotta bring this

up because we talked about this when we did the

non -spoiler version for issue 55 Bobby did tell

me in an email or he told me somewhere somehow

that issue 55 was meant to be a one -shot kind

of one standalone story mm -hmm and We thought

at the time when we were doing that because when

we did the last episode for turtles We did issues

53 and 54 which already been out a while and

55 had just come out at the time We recorded

that so we tried to do that one spoiler free

for the most part So at the end of that Leo,

Raph, and Donnie show up to the lair because

Mikey's fixing up the lair. Mikey went back to

the old sewer lair, the old church lair, wherever

the hell. One of the lairs. And the end of that

issue is the other brothers showing up and having

a good time with Mikey and celebrating. And now

here we are on issue 56. They're all back together

again. There we go. I just pulled 55 out of my

bin. That's what all the noise was. Okay So My

question is if 55 is meant to be a standalone

story Why the hell are they all still together

now? I think I think the end of 55 was getting

them all together so they could have this story

Because I think at the end of this arc they're

getting set to split back up Because Mikey still

doesn't want to go back to the right plan Yeah,

okay, but you know plot things happen and I'm

not complaining. I'm just questioning. That's

all I'm doing folks I'm not complaining at all

just questioning I guess what he meant what he

meant by it's a standalone thing is that it's

setting up a lot of things that are coming so

it's the toss the baseball but baseball up in

the air so that issues 56 57 through 60 can knock

it out of the park Mm -hmm. Yep All right, so

we go to the turtles. They're in Harold's lab.

And Harold says, nice of you to finally get here,

Donatello. My cable guy gives me a more accurate

arrival window. Wait, you got a cable guy? That's

a Comcast joke. That's a Comcast Time Warner

charter. Any cable company you could ever think

of. So Mikey notices that Harold is working on

a 2 .0 version of Metalhead Check it out Donnie.

It's you before you blew yourself up and became

all you again. Don't touch that So they are What

are they doing Harold is is trying he's working

on the cloaks apparently still and because the

Burnout Island is terraformed. He gives them

Oxygen made it's it's kind of like hey turtles

in space, but they're not in space Getting the

breathing apparatus and yep Forgot why they said

they needed to teleport out there. They were

gonna help if you don't do something that's right

they're gonna help you to tell you to take care

of the eutrons and one of my favorite things

here is is heraldi says but i'll leave it to

our interdimensional robot friend to fill you

in on the details let's just say but it's about

to tickle those tiny little tiny little reptilian

brains of yours what did he mean by that no idea

all i know is that's one creepy dude Speaking

of one creepy dude, Rat King. We flash to the

Rat King who's talking to his sister in the Foot

Clan headquarters while Kitsune is kind of on

house arrest there. Yep. And we see that obviously

he's uninvited and he does reference Casey and

April, the four -issue miniseries. They have

a conversation His plans are moving Yes, and

apparently their other sister the one we met

in Casey and April apparently she's neutral as

ever So Rat King and Kitsune are on the same

page and apparently their other sibling is not

And what I love But Rat King here is, yes, well,

I needed something to amuse myself in that infernal

desert. Reminds me of a really, really old bad

joke that I will not say on air. I will tell

you later. But, uh, it's all, as much as the

show is explicit, it's a little too explicit

for a joke for being on air. A little too rough.

Sorry. Wait, was that... That was the second

movie. That was the second movie, that's right!

Where they're sneaking under the foot compound

and it's a little quiet. Yeah, too quiet. It's

a little hey, it's raff. Yeah a little too raff

Because they say like three things and I can't

remember it's it's dark a little too dark a little

I don't remember I I can't I'm afraid to sit

down and watch part two because I know it's not

gonna be as good as I remember But I know that

Oliver my son will just freak out and think it's

the greatest thing ever so eventually we'll get

When did to come out was it 91 I don't remember

Okay, so what do you think of the whole Rat King

Kitsune exchange here? I just I get I get nervous

with these guys because they're so powerful It's

like you can't defeat them with ninjitsu because

they're like spirits. They're on a different

plane So I get I get worried when they're around

and that something's gonna happen major and they're

gonna wreck everything Which, you know, it's

part of the fun of it, but, you know, I'm invested

enough to be creeped out by what they have going

on. Kitsune is just gonna, she's plotting and

planning and she's gonna wreck stuff. I think,

I think based on what we've read before issue

60, I think everything's gonna go to town. Yeah.

Okay. So, was it last year? Yeah, it was last

year. We did the 25th anniversary of the original

film. Two did come out in 91. We gotta do another

commentary. Oh boy. 25 years since Secret of

the Ooze. Alright, back to the comic here. So

we've got Rat King and Kitsune making all kinds

of plans and... and all that. We go to Splinter

and Janika, the one that almost killed him earlier

that he basically disciplined. So they have a

interesting scene that references stuff that

happened in issue 52. And then... He basically

gives her probably what she feels is the highest

honor He gives her the most critical guard duty

To protect the tomb of your former master the

shredder. Okay, there's a seed planted right

here Besides just her having some important thing

When we get to it, I'll ask if you caught the

reference and And we'll figure out what seed

may have just been planted. Okay. So we get to

the turtles and the fugitoid and the utroms who

are in stasis. And they want to slowly bring

them out of stasis. This is not a good idea,

people. Well, generally the utroms are not bad

critters. They just have some maniacal warlords

and, you know, you kind of got to be choosy about

who you're going to revive. You know, don't revive

anybody with the name Cherrell or any of Krang's

relatives. Oh, did you have you seen the the

2012 series, season four crossover? Yes, the

giant crossover issue where they bring Crang

from the old animated series into continuity

with the current Crang and they bring in the

old Turtles as well and The fact that the Crang

from the 87 series is a cousin to Gilbert Gottfried's

Oh God solar is So we get the Turtles We get

Honeycutt here I know you would agree this is

the right thing to do. I've been preparing the

stasis tubes for the revival process and everything

is ready to go except, except for the other reason

I asked you to the island today. Hello. And they

all have a shocked look on their face. My name

is Leatherhead. Eight foot tall, nine, ten foot

tall crocodile. Alligator? He's a gator. Yep.

He's a gator. Look at his snout. He's a gator.

Not pointy. Steve Irwin taught me that. Yeah.

We're in trouble. And now it's these, we're back

to the cave with those coughing folks. Kill or

be killed they say as they put their fire out.

Is it Bebop and Rocksteady? Nope. Did they tell

you or do you have to be surprised? Oh no, I

know who it is now. I know who it is now. Good.

I remember. I remember now. Don't look at me!

when they first find him in the old cartoon series.

Ah, my lord, what has happened to your body?

I don't remember that. You will. Okay. I'll show

it to you later. You'll remember when I say who

I think this is because I'm pretty sure this

is who I think it is. Okay, so we get more of

Leatherhead and we get Donnie thanking him for

saving his life and... What I love about these

two panels here after Leatherhead says, you make

it all sound so dramatic, Professor. I just found

myself in the right place at the right time.

It could have happened to anyone. Then you get

the next two panels of the four turtles. One

where Donnie says thank you, and then you got

him in the foreground, Leo in the background,

and then you got Mikey in the foreground, Raph

in the background. Dude, I am so lost. At least

now we know what Harold's reptile crack was all

about. So Leatherhead gives his backstory which

takes us all the way back to Turtles in Time

with the crocodile alligator swimming around

and swimming around in the cove and the pirate

ship that the turtles were on they dumped the

mutagen overboard the pirates got rid of it and

the crocodiles swung through it. Alligator! Good

gosh, man. Dude, it's a gator. I know it's totally

a gator and it's always been a gator all the

way back to the strange Louisiana accent Leatherhead

from the animated series but yes gator and and

so yes, he gets mutated and Spends I gotta say

I not only the colors but When they get to a

point where he's telling the story is I'm sure

you've already Surmised the mutagen transformed

me into the creature. I am now a Self -aware

reptilian humanoid with newfound knowledge the

colors on these few panels in the art Mateus

and Rhonda are killing it. If you look at the

design of Leatherhead as he's naked coming up

out of the thing, out of the swan, that's just

amazing on the art. I love that. And it's, it

does the cool thing that the Turtles comics have

always done. Well, the IDW Turtles comics, whenever

it's a flashback, the line work gets Different

it changes I don't know how to describe it. It

looks softer to me hazier and the coloring I

mean the colors bring it down to the colors are

more muted and Subdued they don't pop as much

which is it's it's a beautiful way to handle

it. I Would say that like if you look at if you

go back and you look at the panel where leatherhead

says it's not Surprising that you are all confused

by my presence you look at him here and you look

at the colors in the I don't want to say it's

sepia tone or it's, it's some sort of weird,

not off color, but it's just like browns and

just different colors. And then when you go to

the flashback, they changed the skyline, they

changed the water, they, they show that the mutaget,

like the panel where it says that would forever

change my life, where he's, he's, it shows him

just coming up out of the thing. You see the

different greens and the colors like the water

has turned green, but you also see the brighter

Uzi or green of the mutagen. So yeah, I just

absolutely love the color change in the in the

art change in that it's a it's a The present

-day stuff on Brno Island is all very warm Even

even the headbands on the turtles and their flesh

tones are tinted a little warmer than they usually

are But that flashback is definitely tinted blue

green Yeah Yeah, absolutely Rhonda be on our

show We want to talk to you At this point I have

more to ask her than I have to ask Kevin Eastman

that's because I've asked But still Her work

has been phenomenal. Yes. Yes, it has. I mean

she's she's done such a great job with this series

So we get to Leonardo asking professor for a

word in private and they're discussing Basically

discussing Leatherhead because they're kind of

apprehensive about this guy and I don't know

what Has given them the indication that they

should be apprehensive about it I don't I'm maybe

missed something is it just because he has big

scary teeth that they're all getting nervous

Because at this point we there's nothing in his

story that says we should worry about him He

helped bring Donatello back to life I think they're

just Strangely paranoid That is kind of weird.

Well, I mean They've been burned so many times

And they might just be further Concerned because

they're reviving the ootroms who have all been

kind of yeah, that's that's pretty much the one

ootrom They knew was a dirt bag, so they've racially

profiled all the rest of them species speciesist

Yeah, how did you say that the only thing I can

think of is when we get to the panel where they're

looking at the At the computer console of all

the ones ready ready ready ready whole alls I

can think of is the scene in Turtles 2 When Donnie's

going through the computer Dispose dispose dispose

this one says So they're in the room with the

ootrums, they're all hooked up to the machines

kind of hanging in green mutagen containers from

the ceiling. Yeah, Donnie's going through the

screen and they've got the names that say ready

to be revived, ready, ready, ready. Donatello's

pointing at one, says why is this one on hold?

Fugitoid says his reawakening will have to wait

until I'm able to first discuss it with some

of his fellow utroms The name is Cherelle. Do

you know who Cherelle is? Isn't that shredder?

That's utrom shredder from the the four kids

TV series. Yeah, and There's somebody guarding

shredders body back at the foot clan headquarters

So I think I think that's the seed they've planted

there I think that I think shredders coming back

at some point and it's not going to be the shredder.

It's not going to be the shredder that we know

from this continuity. It's going to be an homage.

Yeah, that would be pretty cool. I just and this

is the beautiful thing about IDW is that they've

knitted every continuity together and it's like

this concert playing and they're dancing. All

of these things together. It's an incredible

editing job on Bobby and definitely the writing

of it all as well. Trying to get it all without

stepping on the toes of anything. They've just

done such a wonderful job bringing all that together.

And that little seed there, Cherelle, on hold,

is a gift to us nerds that tuned in for that

old series. The oft -overlooked 4Kids TV series.

Yeah, it's actually a pretty good series. And

I think the reason why, and you may be right,

as far as the homage and as far as bringing Shredder

back eventually as Cherelle, because I think,

no, I know, I think the reason why that's there

is because Tom loves the four kids series, the

2003 series. So, yeah, we might be seeing Utram

Shredder in the future at some point. Yeah. And

Cherelle was, no, that was, Not the most recent

crossover event, but the one that the 4KidsTV

did, Cherelle, came back in that one and was

the one that wanted to wreck the world. The revitalization

is kind of ugly. The R is nice, but look at the

paddle. Yes, revitalization and infusion is progressing

nicely. You look at this poor ootrob and it looks

like a version of Slimer or something because

of all the ooze and the electrics and all that.

so we've got the revival of the utroms and this

is something that could or could not be a good

thing because they just don't know how that's

gonna go we've got leatherhead saying basically

we'll help you ensure our new friends are as

comfortable as possible when they awaken and

We go to three hours later the fugitoid goes

to check on them It goes to check on Maral and

and Lee Sean And there's a shadow behind him.

That's not good folks as he enters the the chambers

to two of the Utroms in their little sleeping

pods he sees that they've been smashed and smeared

and are dead completely decimated and as Honeycutt

turns around you splank and his head is gone

And then the shadow walks off and at this point

we are led to believe That it was those two shadow

people from the tunnel earlier. Oh Yeah, maybe

but I kind of I can kind of figure it out by

the shadow where the to be continued in the the

the The decapitated Professor is Well, the the

the shadows wearing pants. There's that pants

wrinkle behind the knee. Yep. Oh, well everybody

No, everybody we know so far has been wearing

pants except for the turtles Yeah So the cool

thing about this is we get the we get images

in the back of the book of Santa Luco's design

for Leatherhead Various versions of it. Oh my

gosh. There's a picture of him wearing the crocodile

dundee hat Yep, lovely and beautifully drawn.

Yes That's not a knife. This is a knife. I love

that movie. Alright, so Leatherhead's introduction,

first issue, part one of Leatherhead. What did

you think? Exciting, building up, growing, tensor.

Beautifully illustrated, beautifully colored.

Yep, absolutely. With issue 57... We get another

great cover done by Mateus Santalucco of Leatherhead

and two of the Turtles, I believe? That's Leo

and Raph. Leo and Raph, okay, yeah. Walking through

the sewers. And we get the story so far... We

should clarify and say that it's the sewers of

Bernow Island. Bernow Island, yeah. They're futuristic

looking sewers. Yep, I missed the art appreciation

month cover on this Did you go track that down?

You still got to track down that Nirvana I do

but I'm not paying 50 bucks for it You know what

I will spend half that much and buy a print from

the directly from the artist I didn't I didn't

message the the guys deviant art page yet Alright,

so issue 57 the ootrom race has been revived

in the confines of the recently terraformed Burnout

island a mutant from the island leatherhead seeks

asylum Complicating matters someone has mysteriously

killed several ootroms and destroyed the turtles

ally fugitoid Same creative team we get an opening

shot of the This is almost like a combination

of the original opening title of the 87 cartoon

plus the Techno - Oh nice, yeah, the clouds over

the moon. The moon, yep. The other thing is I've

been slowly, very slowly, I'm like four or five

episodes into season two of the 87 series again,

and I forgot how red Dimension X is in there.

It's all red, so it's like, hey, this is a giant

homage to Dimension X. It's absolutely awesome.

So we've got dead utroms, we've got a decapitated

fugitoid, and we've got the utroms basically

saying, this is unacceptable. And Mikey apparently

just woke up. Oh, poor Mikey. Here's another

emotional scar what something oh And he's about

to barf in his helmet barfing don't bark dude

steady steady breaths a Grip Mikey Mikey unless

you want to barf into your breathing gizmo. Oh

man So we see leatherhead here we see the the

utraums as well And the utroms say there's a

way to reassemble your fragmented machine or

fallen comrade, however, or whatever the utroms

name is. When you put Q's without U's, that gets

me confused. Counselor Lorca, okay, I know I

thought it was, I didn't realize it was a title

at the time. All right. Donnie goes off on them.

He's not a machine. He's the one that brought

you out of stasis and and Somebody one of you

Tom's asks and where's general crank? Oh boy

Well, he's a war criminal Yeah, that's that's

interesting I just they Did not bring them out

of stasis I think in the order that they should

have or as upfront as they should have like look

guys we all do you a favor you can live here

on this island and Do sciencey stuff, but no

you're ah Poor guys Yeah, so Leo introduces his

brothers and leatherhead And the Utrams, what

do we think of them now? So we got a chief science

advisor and technical specialists and lieutenant

as well. So we got science, technology, and military.

Yeah, yeah, the military guys are the ones who

are kind of a little angry. and a little more

upset. They're not willing to listen to evidence.

They both have tentacles crossed. It's kind of

funny. Oh my gosh, they remind me of Boglins.

Do you remember the Boglins? The toys? The rubber

puppets? Yep. Oh boy, yeah. And poor future toy.

He was ahead of his time. All right, so let's

see. What do we got here? The utroms basically

say, you have a gratitude, but before you go,

what of our comrade who remained confined? It

is wrong for us to keep them oblivious to what

has happened, don't you think? Well, even though

it's probably best for your people to stay hunkered

down in their rooms, this isn't a prison. And

there's something to be said about safety and

numbers, your call. So we get Leo and Raph walking

with Leatherhead. This is kind of where the cover

for the issue comes from, which is interesting.

And we then see a red laser. Oh no. What's Cobra

doing here? Oh, it's one of those giant mousers.

Yeah, it's a giant mouser. I was not expecting

a giant mouser. Leatherhead basically takes care

of the thing. Single -handedly. Single -handedly

and pretty much destroys it. Yes, well, shall

we continue? Remind me to never challenge that

guy to a wrestling match. Mario is helping Donatello

get Professor Honeycup back online. Yep. And

it's a shocking, shocking conclusion. It works!

There's that scene from Empire Strikes Back where

Chewie turns on 3PO. Oh, no, no, no, no, no,

no, shoot! What? Stormtroopers here? Yeah, exactly.

Oh no, please don't get up! And then... Yes,

yes. Anyway, sorry, flashback. So he's not quite

operational yet. They got power to him and he's

not talking. But he is present Mariel says at

least for the time being according to these life

force readings. He's there Yep, he's there. He's

not all there, but he's there So, let's see We

go to them asking, let's see We have the robot

situation taken care of, it's time to turn our

attention to our releasing the utrom still locked

up. And why hasn't exactly Colonel Cherrell been

awakened? Wow, yeah, that's Shredder. You look

at that, yeah that's gonna be Shredder. He is

evil, isn't he? Now what I'm wondering is if

shredder does if they use the churrel and they

make a shredder Because we were all wondering

With the whole reincarnated shredder thing before

he died Way back when in issue 37 when he first

met Krang whether they were gonna get along uh

-huh I'm wondering if they turn churrel into

shredder again Are we going to have a different,

if Krang ever gets out of exile or Dimension

X or wherever the hell he is, are we going to

have a different relationship between Shredder

and Krang if they make Churel Shredder? So that's

going to be interesting to see how that happens.

That's a good point that maybe we will have a

team up. So leatherhead let's see what's leatherhead

doing leatherhead is going to we are nearing

and my friends not much further now Are you sure

we've come pretty far already and this water

is only getting deeper? And this is where I knew

leatherhead was up to no good Leo asks him harm

what kind of harm? The kind that leads to death

or worse. What's worse than death? I don't think

there's anything worse than death. So we come

to see that we have, let's see here. We got Leatherhead.

Instinctually I did all in my power to survive.

First, Veronica, it seemed logically I comprehended

my pursuer's desire to see me contained. Mother

Nature has her laws, after all, and monstrosity

should never be allowed to exist within her perfect

plan. Uh, I think it's time to go in a different

direction now, Mother Ed. Further, and we'll

be in over our heads. It's, uh, too late for

that. Well, just perfect. Uh -huh. And we find

out it's Trag and Granator. The two guys that

couldn't breathe because it's been terraformed

and they're not used to it. Yup. I love how they

introduced these guys. This is great. I just,

I love it. I love seeing, you know, seeing the

rock soldiers and generally... from what I've

known and maybe it's the colors of the underground

situation and I don't know if we're gonna see

these guys in regular like a laboratory or something

like that um because generally from what I've

known Trag to be he's brown rock or yeah beige

rock or whatever and graniter is the one that's

sluice gray yeah gray rock so I'm wondering if

we get these guys out of their underground thing

here, if they're gonna show those colors or they're

gonna do something different. I'd like them both

to be a little more iconic, unique to the old

series, but I don't care. I mean, you know, if

you look at the panel where they say Uhtroms

and Fugitoid, what? Who cares? Like, I like their

designs. I mean, I don't want the art to be solely

homaging the old series. I just want the colors

to homage the old series. Yeah, there's definitely

a difference in the way that they're colored.

One's lighter and browner. The other is grayer

and, well, I don't want to say bluer, but grayer

definitely. And it's because of the tinted...

air there on the island the way everything's

warmer. But as soon as these stone soldiers show

up, Leatherhead freaks out monsters and dives

into the water and does that scary crocodile

thing that they do where they just kind of disappear

in a foot and a half of water and the rock soldiers

attack because the turtles are the only folks

that are left now that they see and they're wearing

the breathers. And they want the breathers. They

want the breathers. Yeah And one of them says

you seriously think you can stop us with these

stone soldiers remember As he grabs Leonardo's

katana with no problem. Yeah, and the other one

head, but basically reverse head butts raff a

crack Stand clear granite or okay. So yeah, the

the are the orange ish One is trag and the other

one is granite or okay? Very cool Yeah, the only

one whose name I remember from the old series

was trag granite or I don't remember The name

granite or was the one that came out as an action

figure, but he was only called stone soldier

Yeah he's the one if if you remember uh... uh...

teenagers from the mention of it was one of the

one of the four one of it was one of the five

part of the sounds where where trade found general

trade ended up in the technical honor found general

crank as the nutrients escaped from the mention

acts And it was him and granite or granite or

was the silverish gray guy that this said he

said The neutrinos have escaped the neutrinos

have eluded us. They use that he uses that kind

of voice I'll show you later. You'll remember

Also anything was crying neutrinos running loose

here on earth Google image search saves the day

and So we have So as the issue ends here, we

have sergeant are telling the truth We've been

down here for weeks now barely surviving when

the air got too bad We tried to get back to the

surface, but we were too weak when we saw your

air tanks. We thought maybe If you didn't kill

the Ultrons, then who did? And when you see Leatherhead,

well, it appears I have another admission to

make. Issue 57, rocks. I really wish they would

have shown, like they did an issue in 56, at

the back with Leatherhead's... I wish they would

have shown us the Mattias' designs for Trag and

Granator, because that would have been awesome

if they would have done that. Issue 57. It's

damn good. We get a twist. Yep. I gotta go digital

with this issue because I lost the copy that

I bought. No, I didn't. It's still at the comic

store. That's right. I didn't lose it. That makes

me feel better. We're gonna take a quick break

folks so Jill can get his together and then you'll

hear some Trag and granitor from hot rotting

teenagers from dimension X. We'll be back with

issue 58 after this Those kids must be around

here somewhere They couldn't have just vanished

oh, sorry Lord Lord crying My lord, what has

happened to your body? It's a long story. I lost

it when they banished me to this miserable mud

ball. Those three youths just blasted their way

right out of my technodrome. The neutrinos have

eluded us! Neutrinos? Running loose here on Earth?

Suck it, you imbecile! What did I do? Who are

these neutrinos? A gang of juvenile delinquents

from Dimension X! They're a threat to everything

we stand for! They hate war! They refuse to join

any army! And what's worse, they encourage people

to have fun! area and your PC needs help call

Morton's PC repair and service they have the

lowest prices in town payment plans available

fast reliable service with custom builds virus

removal reformats upgrades and just about anything

else your PC needs you can reach them at 502

-294 -3359 or find them on Facebook as someone

who recently partook of their services I can

safely say They are the best in the PC repair

business, so check out Morton's PC repair and

service. We brought the entire convention center

to the brink of an inter -genre geek war. Okay,

Michael, if we're going to tackle this podcast

thing, we've got to do something really special.

It has to be cool, daily, in audio form, and

undetectable by radar. Something that screams

summer. I know, let's do a Phineas and Ferb review

podcast. We'll call it the Podcast Organization

Without a Quillacronym, or Pauka for short. What

do you think? I think if we're not careful, Candice

is going to bust us. You can find Palka on the

GeekCast, Radio Network, iTunes, Blog Talk Radio,

and all of the other methods you find podcasts.

We'll give you the whole seat, but you'll only

need the head. All right, folks, we're back to

talk about issue 58. This is Leatherhead part

three. This is the conclusion to the Leatherhead

arc. The main cover is... Leatherhead in the

shadows with the utroms just ready to shit their

brains out. Another beautifully drawn cover and

beautifully colored cover. I wonder if, I don't

know for sure if Santalucco is doing the colors

on this. They look ever so slightly more painted

than the comic pages on the inside, so it leads

me to believe it's all his... thing all his work,

but for all I know it could it could definitely

be a combination of well if you look at Because

folks we're doing this off the IDW Review copy

if you look at the cover checklist regular cover

art by Mateus Santalucco. It does not say Colors

are separate. So he's not she didn't sign it.

So it's probably all him which is amazing. Yes

absolutely So we've got four covers for this

issue. Now, you might be asking us, well, Mike

and Joe, why didn't you go over the cover checklist

for the other one? Because in the digital copy,

for some odd reason, Comixology or IW does not

show me the cover checklist. My book here shows

five covers. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's five. Well,

one plus the four. I got you. Yeah. So we get

the story so far. The turtles endure the toxic

environment of the technodrome to find out who

has killed several utroms and disabled their

friend the fugitoid. Suddenly signs start pointing

to a new mutant who has been nothing but helpful

so far. Leatherhead. You know we have a store

here in town. You'll probably have to go visit

it at some point next time you guys come back.

It's actually called Leatherhead. It's a leather,

like a biker leather kind of store. I'm like,

wow, so hilarious. So the covers, we've got retail

incentive cover done by Paolo Villeney, Villanelli.

We got the subscription cover done by Kevin Eastman.

We got the Anastasia Collectibles exclusive by

Alex Cotten, colors by Willem Os. And we've got

Kevin's Eastman fan club edition as well. These

three issues, I love them. 56, 57, 58. I love

Matthias' stuff. It just paints such a great

picture. All right, so we open this one up with

the Utroms yelling at Donatello, guilty of war

crimes. says one of the U -Trums, on whose account.

And Donnie says, no, that's what Professor Honeycutt

told us before he got his head knocked off, that

he was guilty of war crimes. Yep. The military

U -Trums are irritated because he's a war hero,

we should be waking him up, but you can kind

of see it in... Mariel's eyes that she doesn't

exactly agree and yeah, she's kind of inclined

to side with the turtles on this one No waking

the shredder up knowing the shredder up So they

are gonna be listening to the turtles and They

basically make them a proposition that they can

live here on burnout island Instead, you know,

so they have a place to live and survive without

being persecuted by anybody else and I Just wouldn't

trust those military guys to not get ambitious

while they're sitting there at the scientists

I could think like yeah, they'll sit there. They'll

build a teleporter. They'll go back home And

go do sciencey stuff the military people are

gonna be like let's conquer cuz they were they

were in the military either under crank or under

his dad and so it's Seems like they're gonna

wanna Do bad things there so we get to a page

where you get two drums two new drums that we're

just do that are coming in and They basically

confused Michelangelo from one of the warrior

lizards No jerk, Michelangelo is helping us.

Who's Michelangelo? Me, you slimy jerk. Missed

opportunity to say, hey, you slimed me. Or some

other direct quote from the Ghostbusters movie.

So we get, obviously, more references to Turtles

in Time. And we see Leatherhead again. This warrior

lizard is bigger. I think, yeah, they're talking

about the dinosaurs. Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

So this is where we get Leatherhead's, coming

up we get Leatherhead's true origin story. not

before we realize what he actually did to Fugitoid

and what he also did to Raph and Leo which was

not exactly a very Leatherhead kind of thing

thing to do what do we think of the characterization

the different because this is not this is unlike

any Leatherhead we've ever experienced well Crazy

thing, I mean, all of our first experience with

Leatherhead was probably the animated series

where he was the Cajun talking gator bad guy.

The original comic, Leatherhead's a good guy.

He kind of freaks out every once in a while,

but generally he's an ally. And so when we...

come to this, and he's saved Donatello, and he's

wanting to help with the ootrums, we kind of

think, okay, great, they're gonna play him as

kind of the good guy. Like they do in the Knicks

series, you know, he freaks out every once in

a while, but now that we know he's a douchebag

and capable of this misdirection, it's a new

spin. I mean, it's not, he's not... wholly a

villain, but at the same time, he's got his own

motivations, and it's F everybody else until

I get my job done. At this point, I'm kind of

wondering why he's playing it the way he did.

I mean, if he really disliked the U -Troms, then

why not, hey, there's Honeycutt, smash his head

off, and then smash them all out of the tanks,

in the tanks, before the turtles even get there.

So that's a question that I have. That I I don't

know if they've answered yet as to why he didn't

just do it earlier why he wanted to wake him

up first Yeah, cuz he doesn't like the you drop

now. We get are we to that point yet for he yeah,

we We get to a point where general crank kept

him locked up and yeah, we see an evil general

crank We see some awesome art of leatherhead

in this flashback and it says basically that

Here we are Turns out the general wanted to take

over earth with an army of smart mutants an old

Leatherhead was his first recruit Got a lot of

special attention for a long time as a result

if things were going good for crying things went

good for the mutant, too Once again, love the

flashback art The panel where he's getting cattle

prodded is Just yikes So We come back into the

present where Leatherhead says It's when that

stinking fleet. Oh So on the previous page At

the bottom of the previous page, we've got Leo

and Raph and Mikey and Tracking granted her Dragon

granitor because they're They're helping him

at the bottom of the raft says and there's one

thing I can't stand more than hob It's when that

fleabag is right They're saying he's right about

the mutants getting mistreated which I think

that Hobbs kind of a thing about And we see that

leatherhead is like I know the feeling all too

well of not belonging, of being an outsider,

an abomination. I am fully aware a thing like

me should not exist. I have no place on this

earth, not as I am now. And neither do you, though

unlike me, your kind has purposefully made yourselves

strangers in a strange land, deliberately Upsetting

a natural balance that must be reestablished.

Um, yes. Well, perhaps we can start by making

ourselves more welcome by helping you with your

wounds. Oh, this? I never said this is my blood.

And we get, uh, Donnie being a badass with his

new staff. Wow. I love this page. This page is

awesome. Donnie versus Leatherhead. That's great.

So cool. Oh gosh, that's a great illustration.

Yeah, it really, really is. So let's see. We

get to the Utrums. Quickly, U3, go. they are

trying to subdue Leatherhead and somebody who

does that I don't I can't see who does it it's

all four of them no it's probably yeah it is

all four of them they've got the cattle prods

back the cattle prods so they they shot the shit

out of Leatherhead Yeah, stop with her head.

We know what Craig did to you. This doesn't have

to get ugly ugly This is turned ugly centuries

ago, and he busts out of there dragging Donnie

I think Yeah, you know all I can think of When

they said this doesn't have to get ugly all I

can think of is Homely and ugly double dragon

I Don't get that reference. I'm sorry to say

The really, really bad Double Dragon movie from

the 90s with Alyssa Milano. Alyssa Milano was

in that? Oh my god. Yep. I maybe saw that once

as a kid. Played Miriam, the character of Miriam,

but basically Billy and Jimmy, they always call

each other homely and ugly. Anyway. So we get

is it Mikey or Raph one of them eventually pulls

off Leatherhead's mask and he can no longer breathe

I Can't wait till we get off burnout island.

I'm sorry. I'm so sick of the terraforming I

think the technodrome looks great, but I can't

wait for this to be over and then we get back

to the actual city So, let's see here we got

Donnie basically saying you saved my life and

They're basically gonna go with Leatherhead so

they can save Mikey's life and we bring Leatherhead

to New York City and I I'm still getting my wish

we don't have we don't have any more terraforming

at this point Back to regular colors Yep, back

to regular colors I just scrolled through that

whole big fight scene Beautiful fight scene everybody

you should go get that issue Yeah, no the fight

scene is great, but there's not a lot of stuff

that we can say about the fight scene So Leatherhead

is like so many colors, so many smells, so many

whatever. And he basically vows, we are not done

turtles, I swear. Welcome to the big city. So

we get the final page here where they go back

to the foot headquarters. And the door is open.

Uh oh. And we run into kitsune alopex And the

foot clan unconscious splinter Yeah Not good

at all the timing of this of them just getting

back in time to see this Splash page is just

a little too convenient for me. Like I don't

know how long they were gone there, but Things

are not going well Well, we did see in issue

57 the whole thing with her and and rat king

and we saw the whole thing with splinter and

Jenica So, I mean they were kind of setting it

up And we need something to give it because with

the leatherhead arc at this point kind of semi

Resolved since he you know swims off into the

night. We need something to tease us for the

next issue And it needed to have happened while

the turtles were gone. Right, yeah. Overall,

58, Leatherhead part 3, absolutely interesting.

I was not expecting the origin twist with him

basically being tortured by General Crang and

all. I wasn't really expecting that. I was thinking

they were going to return him to his roots and

make him an ally instead of a bad guy. Yep, it

doesn't look like he's going to be completely

unreasonable though, which you know, this could

go any way the next time maybe Depends on if

the turtle leaving the characterization somewhat

Ambiguous is nice because we don't know it just

depends. I think with with leatherhead He's somewhat

like a old hob, but not he's not as as black

and white as hob is Which is kind of nice since

he seized at the turtle. I mean he helped them

Save Donatello ain't can't be all bad. Sure.

He had a bad past but I mean He's not fully evil.

He's not irredeemable just a little misguided

as far as those crane are concerned All right,

so So we get We get the letters we get the ninja

something about we he says something what does

he say here how he says The closing for the ninja

now says a lot of other turtles goodness for

you to enjoy while you wait to see what happens

next Check out TMNT amazing adventures number

10 Featuring Napoleon Bonafrog TMNT Carmelo Anthony

special. Holy heck one of the biggest NBA all

-stars is meeting the TMNT And the conclusion

of the biggest crossover of the year in Batman

TMNT number 6. Read all that and you can come

back and check out the amazing work of our next

artist Dave Wachter in TMNT issue 59. Yes, we

are spoiling you. So that's it for issue 58,

the Leatherhead arc. Overall, I think this was

a great three issues. So, so cool. Lots of good

stuff happens. Yup. Any other thoughts on the

overall arc? I think it's three of the best covers

we've ever had. The only cover that I think I

like more than this is the Alopex and Nobody

cover while they're running down the street.

That's honestly the highlight for this whole

run for me. All right, folks, we're going to

take a quick break. We're going to come back

with TMNT solicitations after this. But that's

impossible! We lost their face when we was itty

bitty tadpoles! It's just a figure of speech,

gangus! Why are you stopping the podium? There

comes a time when you gotta - Alright folks we

are back and we're going to talk to you about

next month's solicitations, June solicitations

and July's for TMNT. In June we've got five Wednesdays

which means we get five issues of the miniseries

Bebop and Rocksteady destroy everything. Now

I did say, we did do this last episode, we did

talk about this but I just want to refresh everyone's

memory. Ben Bates, Dustin Weaver are on writing,

Ben Bates is on art, Nick Pitara on colors or

covers. After their defeat in TMNT 50, the dull

-witted bebop and rocksteady, everyone's favorite

warthog and rhino mutants are feeling dejected

and without purpose. However, when they stumble

across a time travel scepter, they realize the

craziest, most destructive adventure awaits.

Will the universe survive? Oh, I do see Renette

in the background of that first cover. Yep. So

bullet points for issue one. We've got everyone's

favorite numbskull mutants of Mayhem get their

first miniseries, the most ambitious TMNT event

yet. Every week in June sees a new issue crazier

than the last written by Dustin Weaver of Infinity

Gauntlet and Ben Bates TMNT with rotating roster

of amazing artists including Sophie Campbell,

Giannis... I can't even pronounce that. Nick

Patara and Ryan Brown. Seabob, Bebop, and Rocksteady

in the upcoming movie Out of the Shadows. A limited

variant cover by Kevin Eastman for issue number

one. Yeah, the cover with Renette is really,

really cool. I think out of all the Destroy Everything

covers out of the four that we have seen, I think

the coolest one is issue number two. Cause we

got Raph and the return of Pepperoni! I absolutely

love that. So issue number two for Bebop and

Rocksteady, destroy everything in case you guys

don't remember. Bebop and Rocksteady traveled

to the past and meet their former selves. What

could go wrong? Plus dinosaurs! Issue number

three, chaos spreads and the next stop on Bebop

and Rocksteady's itinerary is Stock Gen, when

teenage turtles were just regular baby turtles.

So they're really going back to the beginning

of the ongoing here. Issue number four, let's

see, after a fight Bebop and Rocksteady split

up and travel separately to different time periods,

the Dark Ages, World War I, and the future. No

time period is safe. Number five, time has been

irreparably damaged and the fabric of reality

is torn apart. Only a trip to visit the Time

Lords in the 79th dimension holds any hope. But

is Time Traveler Renette still alive? Are the

turtles? Is anyone? Also coming in June is issue

59 of the ongoing The Turtles Return to New York

City. Thinking that the worst is finally behind

them little do they know that the ultimate danger

lurks within their very headquarters Obviously

Tom Kevin and Bobby on writing and this is the

premiere of Dave Walker as the artist on the

title bullet points for this one a long simmering

plot kicks into high gear and there's a variant

cover by artist Michael Walsh as well Trying

to see if there's anything else interesting villains

collection Shadows of the past games. Oh the

shadows of the past game spotlight, okay Miniatures

combat scenario driven campaign game that features

story content from the IDW TMNT comic Taking

the role of their favorite turtle or the ultimate

villain shredder and players battle their way

through a series of 60 -90 minute missions in

which they develop their characters' strengths,

fighting styles, and equipment along the way

to create a lasting story arc. Fan favorite characters

like Casey Jones and Alopex appear throughout

the missions as the Turtles call on their closest

allies for help in battling the deadliest foes

designed by premier game designer Kevin Wilson.

and featuring more than 40 scripted miniatures,

12 unique maps, and over 100 cards featuring

all new original artwork. TMNT Shadows of the

Past is a definitive gaming experience. I kick

-started that and will be very excited to run

that game for my local comic shop a couple times

and I'll report back with stuff. With stuff?

Yes! Stuff. Alright, so in July in July He's

grew there. Yes PSP's grow there That's an obscure

reference man That's in there. Well, it is an

obscure Orson Welles reference, but it also was

done by the brain in Animaniacs So did he do

that in the show? Yeah. Oh Man, I thought that

was a Maurice LaMarche thing i know it's what

he's it's it's a he's he's all margin orson welles

the uh... where i saw that was on the bonus features

to comic book the movie where marie slow at day

and it's kind of said there and that at that

point that it's something that he did to warm

up and usually did it into the microphone and

he goes off and start using profanity cousin

Orson Welles the impression that he's doing continues

to go more and more. Yeah south I'll have to

find I'll have to find the episode And I'll point

it out to you. All right, so the July July 2016

solicitations we have something new actually

TMNT the Kevin Eastman notebook series Raphael

Oh TMNT co -creator Kevin Eastman has been making

comics for 30 years and across three decades

he's amassed mountains of developmental character

sketches, script notes, page roughs, and even

alternate pages. Along the way he's created a

one -of -a -kind notebooks filled with the...

Detris of his process. Entirely unique collections,

exploring the inner workings of his creative

methods, but now these unattainable treasures

are ready for fans far and wide. Tirelessly reproduced

from the original notebooks and curated by the

foremost TMNT authority in the world. Hardcover,

full color, 40 bucks, 48 pages. And we'll be

out. Bullet points, one of the more unique TMNT

books ever published. Alright, issue number 60

in July. Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman, Bobby Kernow,

Dave Lockter on art. The Foot Clan headquarters

is under attack and no one is safe. Brother turns

against brother. Bullet points for issue 60,

The Foot Under Siege, variant cover by Damian

Cacero. So that's what's coming up in July and

June as well. Yeah, it's a great time to be a

TMNT fan, folks. It really, really is. It's a

horrible time to be broke. Maybe you should teach

at summer school? I'm not entirely broke. I just

don't like spending money. Time to go back to

bio life and save a life with my plasma Wow,

I think we just learned a little bit too much

about Joe folks what I like to like my nerd money

comes from my plasma I Bought my ps4 with plasma

Okay All right, so yeah, we got TMNT, Bebop,

and Rocksteady. We also have coming up, I believe

it's in August, you're gonna get a chance, folks,

probably to have us doing more TMNT stuff than

normal, because I believe it's in August they're

launching a second ongoing TMNT universe, which

is basically allowing them to throw in all the

other characters that we don't get enough of,

so... If if Waltz is writing that as well my

gosh that man must not sleep I'll have to Yeah,

I don't well Bobby's the one that normally doesn't

sleep I mean Yeah, I don't know how anybody sleeps

run the colors every book at IDW under the Sun

and and Walt's edits Ghostbusters and rights

turtles. I don't Bobby does two or three everything

on the editing aspect. Yeah, I mean I'm trying

to find the press release for the the universe

stuff I have always liked Kawabunga I made a

money Alright folks, as I said, IDW to publish.

Second TMNT ongoing. The press release came out

earlier last month. Let's see. The creative team

for the first article include writer Paul Allor,

Ted G .I. Joe, joined by artist Damian Cusero.

Sons of Anarchy and the story centered around

the dangerous new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

foe, the U .S. government. A backup story will

run alongside it from TMNT co -creator Kevin

Eastman and comics legend Bill Senkowitz. Freddie

Williams II, fresh off the best -selling Batman

TMNT crossover miniseries with DC Comics will

supply regular cover art with guest artists providing

sought after variants. So we pretty much get

a lot more Paul Allure. Paul Allure wrote TMNT

Turtles in Time. A new spin -off sets itself

apart from the ongoing TMNT series by spotlighting

characters and storylines that are pivotal to

the vast IDW TMNT universe, while also showcasing

fan -favorite creators alongside emerging talent.

Story of IDW's TMNT Turtles is now too large

to contain just one ongoing series, says TMNT

editor Bobby Kernow. With TMNT Universe, we'll

be able to fully explore all of the exciting

characters and plots that the World of the Turtles

has to offer. This series will also be the perfect

venue for some of the best creators in the industry

to tell TMNT stories in their own unique voice.

TMNT Universe will explore tales along the entire

continuity of the current ongoing TMNT series,

which recently hit 56 issues and counting, this

will mark the first time two ongoing Turtles

comics will run in tandem since IDW got involved

with the property. Look out for TMNT Universe

this August at your local comic shops. So yeah,

in August we're gonna be doing double duty on

TMNT. But yeah, no, it's gonna be interesting

seeing what I'm gonna be interested to see on

that is on TMT universe is is Paul Ellor gonna

be the only writer because it does say that the

talent will change and the but I wonder how long

Like the story arcs will be as far as all that

goes Imagine it'll kind of jump around as they

mess with different characters and then cool

that I don't mind Not all of the original Micro

series had the same writers. It was all different

writers micro series. So I figure hey If it's

TMNT Universe, anybody can come play, whether

it's writers or artists. Were you seen? Of course

not, Master Splinter. We practiced ninja. The

art of invisibility. Practice harder. Ten flips

now. And remember, go ninja, go ninja, go! I

made another funny! What are you going on you

got any garage sales going on lately? Yes, we

have a geek stuff garage sale happening Gosh

third week of June third weekend of June first

Saturday Third Saturday, I can't talk but either

way look us up on the Facebook page geek stuff

garage sale And there will be up to the minute

Information they're loaded frequently if you're

in the West Michigan area It'd be worth the drive

and when you do come into town for the geek sale

I will also have a flyer that'll get you to every

nerd store in Grand Rapids in the greater Grand

Rapids area And that's quite a bit. I mean, it'll

take you more than a day to get through all of

them. So We're blessed here with all the nerd

stores That's right. I'll say anything when I

asked you about garage something and think it

was that a maniac I'll give you $0 .26 for that

garage. My garage is not for sale. It costs $20

,000. All right, folks. Join us next time here

inside the pull bag. I mentioned at the beginning

of the show that it's probably going to be Batman

Beyond or Lumberjanes or something. So who knows?

But we got a bunch of stuff coming up. And make

your greatest game in the comics. We will catch

you next time. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pullback, the GCRN's comic review and

discussion podcast. There are several ways to

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