IDW TMNT Utrom Empire Issues #1-3

Hi, this is Bobby Curnow, Chief Turtle Editor

at IDW Publishing, and you are going to have

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the pool bag Hello and welcome to the pull bag,

this is the first episode of September it is

The another back issue classics. I'm your host

TFG1 Mike and joining me is Joe Reed. Hello Hello,

and hello yours. I am well That's good So Two

of the GCRN podcasts recently went video. The

pull bag will not be going video. I would end

up breaking the camera. I think that's going

to be interesting to give you guys a whole new

avenue of interaction with people, putting off

the cuff and altered Geek Unlimited on video.

but this time around September I had to kind

of move some stuff around and kind of redo some

stuff and Move something back because the guy

I wanted on that episode wasn't gonna be able

to be on that episode So September has kind of

turned into TMNT month. Hey, I'm cool with that

a Little late for the May anniversary, but that's

okay It's still the 30th year. Yeah, we can do

it. It's not like this is January 1st 2015, but

then it would be the 31st year. So, had to move

some stuff around, had to juggle some stuff,

and I figure what better way, you know, Joe and

I have been really, really enjoying the TMNT

stuff, and we just finished August out with...

two Transformers episodes and before that we

did our review of the Volume 8 Northampton issues

29 to 32. So I figured, why not go ahead and

continue the Turtles talk. No one's complained

yet, thank God. No one has also praised us either.

Come on, people, leave us more iTunes reviews.

It's free. It's not like it's gonna cost you

anything. Yeah, that would be funny. If we could

charge iTunes listeners a dollar per review that

they leave, that would be awesome. No, no. I

would like to monetize, but not that way. No.

uh... so next in line before we get to issue

number thirty three thirty four proper is the

utah empire uh... many series uh... i guess it

would be in the series one through three uh...

this pretty much as the title uh... denotes it

is basically the utah story it's more of crank

story more quain and story uh... with a few other

things mixed in, like Baxter, like the Fugitoid,

and I gotta say, even though at least on kids,

well not on the other issues, at least on the

first issue, Donnie's on the first issue with

his bow staff. But like, when they came out with

this, when I saw the solicitations for this mini

-series, I was like, oh, okay, cool. So they're

gonna delve more into Krang's story and more

backstory on Ultramanon. I still hate the name

of that plant. It just sounds too weird to me.

But I was kind of surprised that because... Where

this takes place in the story is they're still

in Northampton. Yeah, I think this came out when

it was singles. You'd get your Northampton issue

one week and then the next week you'd go back

and it'd be the Utrecht Empire. Right, right.

And I, this is the first time in our coverage

that I don't have a trade. I have the three singles.

And this is another three singles thing that

really irritated me because I have one, number

one is a sub cover. Number two is the sub cover

number three is the regular cover and I like

those regular covers the ones that look like

Recruiting posters. Mm -hmm. I Mean if you want

I can send you the three that I have because

I have all three of the regular Yeah, shoot me

a quote it can't hurt Excuse me. I'm sorry. You

know a little tangent here before we started

recording I was eating a leftover McChicken sandwich

for McDonald's and it's surprisingly to me How

spicy those damn things get and it's not even

a spicy chicken sandwich after it's cold and

dead. It's the pepper. Oh Well, they use too

much of them So You know when I first got these

I this was back when I was doing single issues

and I just kind of got him and put him on the

shelf I mean because I oh that's what it was

because at that time I didn't have to speed read

to get caught up to when we did the interview

with Bobby you know not that I'm complaining

because you know we I've loved it ever since

but at the time this was before I sped read through

the series up to Northampton and I just had them

sitting on the shelf and there was one point

I think about a month and a half ago I picked

them back up and I you know figured okay well

I'm gonna get to these eventually I might as

well try to read them now and you know see what

they're all about I sat down and I read through

them and on first read through I don't know what

it was but I just didn't care for I didn't care

for the UTROM story. This is like an extended

Krang single issue. Honestly, when we talked

about that Krang single issue, I don't think

I really cared for that either. Honestly, it's

great that Krang and the UTROMs are in the IDW

universe for Turtles because they've been in

the universe for a long time overall in the Turtles

history. I honestly don't give a crap about you.

I don't know why. I'm not saying it's bad. I

love the writing in the story. I just don't care

about... I wanna know what the hell's gonna happen

with Baxter and what the hell's gonna happen

with Honeycutt and what the hell's gonna happen

with Shredder more than I care about what Krang

is doing. I think we're all gonna care a lot

more about Krang as soon as we finally eventually

see the Technodrome. Mm -hmm. And I don't know

what that's gonna... How that's gonna well we

get a hint with this book, you know, I read this

I don't know what when did this come out probably

almost a year ago And when I read it I missed

I again I missed so much and they're they're

telling us in this book What's gonna happen in

the next year and or two with turtles? Yeah So

getting right into it Ucham Empire, number one.

The regular cover is Baxter, Krang, Fugitoid,

and Donatello. I don't know why Donnie's on the

cover. Out of the four turtles, why is Donnie

the one that's... I'm not complaining, I love

Donatello. Because Donnie's the one who finds

Honeycutt's journal. Okay, that's true. In the

single issue, we get the cover checklist, which

is the one I just mentioned, the regular cover,

which is done by Andy Kuhn. The retail incentive

was done by Eastman, colors by Rhonda Pattinson.

And the subscription cover is done by Nick Petara,

and the colors are done by Greg and fake Petree.

Or, yeah. Yeah, Petree. And on this one it says

the story so far on Bernal Island Crang struggles

to build a home for the residents For the remnants

of his once powerful people the utroms He is

joined by the human sciences scientist Baxter

Stockman who seeks to use Crang's technology

for his own purposes Crang successes lie Success

lies in the brilliant mind of the robot Fugitoid

who has been captured and is in the process of

having his knowledge downloaded did fugitoid

ever exist in the cartoon show than a 90s 80s

cartoon No, he was an action figure, but that

was it Right, but he did make his debut in the

2003 universe. Yeah Which is actually pretty

cool All right, so We have the writing, the art.

OK, so the writer on this one is Paul Allor.

The artist is Andy Kuhn. Colorist by Bill Crabtree.

The letter is Sean Lee. And obviously Bobby is

the editor. It always confuses me. It always

makes me wonder on some of these miniseries.

And I've said this about even the the turtles

miniseries and the villains miniseries when they

get the different writers back in like there

are some that I know like like Eric Burnham or

Yeah, I think that's his name There's some that

I know that I've read before that I'm like, okay

that that's gonna be fine but it always kind

of worries me a little bit as far as How is this

gonna like? Like like you've said in a couple

episodes. It's No matter who the writer is it

if it's not waltz and Eastman at least they're

pulling from a pool of writers where they have

Damn where did I cut out? Just on the beginning

of this particular paragraph. Oh What was the

last thing you heard? I you cut that you were

coming back in and saying about all the different

writers pulling from Bobby kernel. Oh so where

I kind of get worried when I look at these series

is when I see a different writer and it's not

Walter Eastman because I'm wondering what is

going to go on with those writers and how you

know are they are they going to be able to keep

the same feel that we've read to this point And

I think Paul Allure has done some other stuff

with TMNT, like the IDW TMNT, but I'm not sure

which ones. Yeah, the name doesn't sound at all

familiar to me, even though I probably should

know all these guys from all the times we've

done this podcast. But, you know, going back

and rereading it right before the recording,

I think it works. I think the writing is very

well done in this. We start off with Honeycutt,

and he's about to take a nosedive off a cliff.

Yeah, that's a heavy beginning of this. Honeycutt

saying, you know, I've got all this information

that Crang wants in this computer brain of mine,

and then he tries to kill himself to take himself

away and remove himself from the picture. That's

a harsh ending, and he talks about it several

times in the book, too. Like, crazy. But he takes

the header off this cliff breaks himself into

pieces as he hits the rocks down in the water

below But they find him they put him back together

And then he's just jacked into a computer and

they're sucking all the information out of it

And I think as he's sitting here tied to the

table He says again, I must destroy myself eliminate

this brain and everything inside it, but as he's

strapped to the table saying this I wonder if

he's Conscious, but can't move can't do anything

about what he's doing so possible dark dark stuff

Very dark stuff and honestly. I don't mind it

No because because in the later issues in the

other two issues as we go along through this

It's gonna get a hell of a lot brighter. Well

as far as the art. It's gonna get a hell of a

lot brighter The story content does stay dark

So we get that scene and then we go to where

We go to prehistoric earth Where apparently the

utrums were on prehistoric earth? It wasn't a

meteor the utrums destroyed the dinosaurs What

what's what gets me here so we're seeing a herd

of triceratops and You know when they're calming

him down one sucks blood out of it and So they're

gonna use this information, but then he says

ah you worry too much Prime Minister quain knows

what he's doing. He mentions Krang's dad's name.

I'm going so 65 70 80 90 million years ago the

utrums were the same utrums that are around now

and I'm just kind of wondering if there's like

a time dilation thing that That's happened in

on dimension X where time is flowing differently

here. I like I don't know how that's possible

Hey, it'll be a question for a body Yeah, yeah,

it will be yeah, I think how the time is because

Yeah, that's 65 million years. Yeah. Yeah, that's

I mean even the even if that's crank in 16th

century Japan Messing with shredder Then now

present day. It's still crank. Yeah, that's like

two three hundred years four hundred years Yeah,

right there. So that's kind of Funky to me too.

Like I really think there's some time stuff going

on. Yeah Well, well, I mean we'll get to it at

some point when we look at the for issue miniseries

time but Yeah, I mean so they oh but you see

what's going on here right in what way they are

on prehistoric earth before the meteor hits or

before you know the whatever the hell killed

the dinosaurs they're they're not injecting him

no no they're they're drawing blood to clone

their they're pulling dna out of him because

the next scene is on utra manan Which is many

years later, and we have triceratons now yay

So they went to earth okay now I get it see earlier

when I was reading these and Craig had he mentions

later in either issue two or three when he went

to earth the first time this is the this scene

here where he's taking the DNA from the triceratops.

This is that first time. Okay. That's crying

on the left. Yeah. Yeah. I got it now. Yep. And

they're crude robot suits. Yeah. They kind of

look like Wall -E. A little bit. The robot suits.

No. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. So we go back to Ultramanon

and we have the Triceratons and the Ultrams partying.

The fighting lizards! And you see Krang and his

father discussing stuff. Don't think I mentioned

this before I meant to mention it when we were

doing the Baxter review for the single issue

for Baxter I might have mentioned it there. I

love how I Assume it would be Bobby that does

this but how these pages layout and how the colors

like the background colors of the pay like Some

most comics you just see them, you know black

and white and whatever else on the edges of the

pages But here they change color as the scenes

change I love that. I think that's great. So

after this party scene, we then go to the Molta

V asteroid field. And I assume they're mining

for ooze? Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Ooze

keeping the the the ootroms alive, or nourishing

them. I'm wondering if it's the ooze that kept

them alive for millions of years, if that's the

route they're taking. with that, but I don't

see Krang as being 65 million years old. I think

by that point, you'd have figured things out

and wouldn't be a violent dirt bag anymore, or

you'd have gotten that out of your system after

a million or two years. And another, I had a

question still with, again, the timeline. Krang

is on this planet gathering samples and he's

already kind of rough and tough. Is this... after,

I mean, is harvesting dinosaur blood 65 million

years ago after Krang's one -shot story where

he kind of is a lazy, sloppish teenager but then

he comes into his own and kills the other warlord

and takes his body to make his suit. That seems

like that must have already happened because

Krang's a general saying, Dad, we need to stop

spreading ourselves so thin and warring like

this is crazy. We need to stop and focus on home

and so it seems yeah I would assume that it is

after because because they throughout the whole

story here they keep calling him general so he

must be it must be after his his little jaunt

and and again that just that 65 million year

jump they're expecting us to make makes me it

makes that hard for me to swallow Um, yeah, it

is a little crazy, but do we ever find out Like

how long ago it was that the that the original

the Krang origin happened Did we find out in

that like was there a definitive time? No, I

mean there might be Conclusions we could draw

but I didn't see them. I didn't wasn't watching

to notice right So we get the scene with the

the utram council and They're arguing over The

rebellion and the war and fighting and everything

else and You know, they're saying that you know,

hey the people are safe. They're far from battle.

We don't need to concern the people with You

know wartime, it's like seriously really you're

gonna try that We then go back to burnout island

in the present and Baxter is Reactivating the

future toyed I assume Starting to help him. Yeah

Well, he well he's yeah, he's Reading a book

the power goes out and then he realizes hey,

that's my cue and so he's starting to break in

to fugitoids Room and where he's jacked into

the computer and disconnect him Mm -hmm. I Love

fugitoids. I Love his internal monologue. I think

I said that last time when we learned about his

origin, but I still love it It's still awesome.

And I guess it's important to say to our listeners,

his name is not Fugitoid. We probably do that

because we all had his action figure growing

up and said, oh, it's a Fugitoid. But he's either

Professor Honeycutt, Chet. But generally, I mean,

in the old comics, he was Honeycutt. They call

him Fugitoid because he's a fugitive android.

And so it's contracted. And that's the same story

that it used to be. The Uhtroms are hunting him

because he's up to no good or was up to no good

from their perspective. And here we go. Anyway,

we're going to continue to call him fugitoid,

even though that's not his name. I mean, he even

says he's the fugitoid. Yep. Mean it it's just

to pay homage to the old kit to the to the to

the old toy and to the character of 2003 cartoon

Well, and it's really all the original comic

the the giant format one -shot that he was in

which is still available for sale on the mirage

Licensing comm website you can still buy the

for the first printing of the first issue of

fugitoid Sweet All right, so we go back to new

Queen City I love the difference in art here

between the Baxter and the next day, like the

current time scenes versus what's going on on

Ootoo Traminan. They're really, as much as I

hate to say it, they're really rocking out the

pink with the gem colors. So we get this huge...

battle scene where it's uncovered that the Triceratons

decided to rebel against their brainy masters

and so they're attacking the homeworld the Triceraton

who was originally talking to Krang just starts

up throw down, knock down, fight between the

two of them. And as tough as Krang is, we get

to see how tough the Triceratons are, because

that's a pretty even fight for one, two, three,

four pages. And the Triceraton ends up winning.

Krang's on the ground, his glass over his little

brainy body is broken and says, I'm going to

leave you alive because I want you to watch your

world crumble around you. And then he leaves.

Now, I don't know if it's... I know the movies

and the comics and everything else, everything's

kind of separate, but... And I know Northampton

was in the old Mirage stuff, because you've told

me it was. I assume that in the original movie,

the 1990 movie, it's basically Upstate New York

instead of Northampton, because Northampton is

like... Inland in my I looked it up on a map

at one point It is not anywhere near Boston or

it's like total It's basically what we see in

this series in the movies. It's all farmland

You know April says in the movie the nearest

neighbor is four and a half miles, you know So

it is very inland in Massachusetts. So I find

it hard to believe that They go from New York

City to Northampton, Massachusetts. Well, let's

find out. Hold on. We can go to Google Maps here

and type in 11th and Bleecker because that's

where the corner... Wanted to visit that when

I was in New York, and I think I don't know maybe

I was typing it in wrong I couldn't find the

intersection of 11th and bleaker like they ran

parallel or something so it wasn't a real address

But 11th and bleaker nope this is only 9th Street

New York joke that I didn't get yeah there it

is okay, so let's just assume 11th and bleaker

maps Northampton, Massachusetts is actually a

nice little town and I think that's where Jetpack

Comics is a ridiculously awesome comic store

that Eastman and Laird frequent and that's where

they're Yeah, 11th and Bleecker is a real intersection.

I'm actually looking at it. I totally should

have gone there. That's depressing You can always

go back. I'm sure you'll get another vacation

Alright, Northampton, Massachusetts. How many

it's only it's a less than three hours to get

there. Oh From New York City, it's less than

three hours Whenever the turtles went back and

forth because eventually splinter lives up there

pretty exclusively He never comes back to to

New York The turtles go back and forth riding

on the top of trains You know that's one thing

we that's one thing I we haven't I don't think

we've seen them do that in this series I haven't

had to yet really I think if it ends up becoming

the home away from home they might It's still

be nice to see them instead of running across

rooftops like you know riding us I think they

do. It's not beneath them. No. So we go to Northampton,

Massachusetts and Donnie is frantically looking

for this this journal of honey cuts. He says,

after he was kidnapped by Krang, April broke

into his locker in Starkton, she found it there.

I've been meaning to look through it for a while,

but you know, Shredder, Karai, Leo, we've been

busy. Now this is a completely different artist

than any of the other turtle stuff we've covered

to this point. I'm not sure. how i feel about

it and i'm sure it's just them wanting to stretch

their legs or to give artists room to breathe

but i i don't know if i don't know if i like

all the artists switching it doesn't bother me

only because i know that if they want to keep

the release schedule where they're at that they've

got to you know have these different artists

working at the same time This this art looks

familiar to me though. I mean we haven't seen

this guy before with the turtles in particular

I'd have to look it up and find out I mean, I

like the art. I like how the turtles look in

this. I just wish and I'm not like And like you

said, they basically use an artist for a particular

story like this. This is all Andy Kuhn on the

drawing throughout all three issues. Like they

did with Ben Bates on, you know, when he was

on or when Dan Duncan was on, he had a whole

run. So, I mean, I'm fine with that. I just wish

overall there was a little bit more consistency

with the design of the turtles. And what's the

only part that it starts to bother me is that

it as different as they've looked There are some

turtle designs that fit better with how the turtles

are portrayed and I think also Changing the way

that they look is having an effect on how they

behave And I think my favorite turtles are still

the first 12 issues That Dan Duncan I'm having

a brain fart. Yeah, Dan Duncan's. I think they're

still my favorites. But these are a close second.

They're a little less cute, which I'm cool with,

and they can go either way with that. We've seen

him a lot, actually. Yeah, he was 12 through

something, or 13 through something, I think.

He was 13 through... 13 through 17, and then

21 and 22. No, 21 and 23. So, we've seen his

art before on Turtles, and I like it. I really

do. I think right now, because I just, as of

this recording, Turtles in Time issue 3 just

came out, I'm in love with the way Ben Bates

does the Turtles. Like, how he's done them in

Turtles in Time is amazing. Didn't that just

change artists on the third issue? Oh Crap if

you're right, I'm gonna be in cuz the first issue

was the guy who draws their calves all giant

and they look like happy cute things So Donnie

finds this journal and then we jump back to Baxter.

You want to talk about what Baxter is up to while

I look for this? Yeah, Baxter is kind of being

underhanded trying to get, well, we don't know

he's being underhanded yet. He's looking for

Fugitoid's help to destroy the Technodrome and

mess up Krang's plans. That's what he's telling

him. And the first thing he does, he walks into,

not toward the Technodrome, but goes to the room

where all of the other ootrums are hanging from

the ceiling in tubes of ooze in stasis and Baxter

says you know let's I really want to hurt Krang

I want to hurt him so bad that he loses focus

and messes up I'm gonna kill all of his people

and so he starts draining the ooze which which

sets off the alarms it also sets off Honey cuts

alarm as he says, you know genocide not really

my thing and so BAM knocks Baxter out and tries

to fix it and says he's not only gonna fix this

He's gonna fix everything Yeah, and that's the

end of the issue. That's the how the first issue

ends I I dug it. I thought it was a really cool

issue. I thought you know going back to it, you

know, I mean my opinions of the U -Trums overall.

I care about Krang's actions, but right now I

don't care. We already got his origin. I don't

need to see more of the falling out of, I mean,

all you really gotta do, I mean, Siegel and Schuster

did it. Just have the planet explode and say

they went somewhere else. I mean that BAM. There's

your origin Well this this book kind of changes

or rather gives us Krang's motivation in his

one -shot we saw how he went from being the the

little punk Spoiled brat into the powerful general

and what it took him to make that transition

in this book We see him at his full strength

and he's looking at his father saying Dad, you're

just spinning your tires and expending your energy

in ways that you shouldn't do it. We need to

save our own planet. And as it's all falling

apart around him, Clang's like, we need to save

our planet, Dad, and I don't know. Well, there's

a resolution to that, but we get to see Crang

go on a different journey where he's justifying

the evil stuff that he's doing in the regular

book. Why is he being mean? Because he wants

to save his people. And he wants to give them

back a home, and so... And even though he's the

bad guy and he's the super bad guy in charge

of everything even higher than shredder He's

still doing it out of what he thinks is the better

good the greater good See this is the this is

the problem folks is I've going back sometimes

and rereading this stuff I don't remember things

and Paul Allor is currently well he was at the

time he wrote the first two issues of Turtles

in Time huh so We have seen him before. So I've

got Turtles in Time pulled up here on Comixology.

Number one was done by Ross Campbell and David

Peterson. Number two was Peterson and Charles

Paul Wilson. The second number three is Ben Bates.

And damn, I can't wait till we get to that. god

it's like reliving the video game in comic form

i need to go get the video game you know what

after this i'm gonna go hook that up it's right

over there i have it hooked up oh lord that's

so funny all right so issue number two we have

all of the same staff i believe um yeah all the

same staff uh the there were two covers this

time there was the triceratons he -man pose the

regular cover and there was a subscription cover

with is that mikey? i see orange and no that's

fugitoid i think no that's the flybot oh that's

the flybot that's right my lights are very very

low at this point So, we start out with more

Fugitoid and it basically picks up right where

the last issue left off after he's knocked out

Baxter. You know what I noticed right here on

this panel? What's that? Last issue, Honeycutt

had two fingers and a thumb and now he has three

fingers and a thumb. Let's not tell anybody.

Yeah, no, let's not. Even though we so totally

did. So he drags Baxter off to a storage closet.

He says that he needs help and says it's from

the last person he should be asking for help.

So he tells the stone soldiers see Honeycutt

as he enters the room, slams them against the

wall, but before any threats of violence can

occur, Honeycutt managed to squeeze out, the

Ootrams are in danger, the ones in stasis, you've

got to come help, and Krang's on board with that,

and they go. I love Honeycutt here at that top

left panel, because it looks like something Mikey

would do. Hi, guys! It really looks like something

Mikey would do. This is so awesome. So the next

page here we we go back to Baxter in the closet

and Baxter comes out of the closet fairly easily

he basically kicks Baxter Stockman in this series

guys and gals does not look like he is strong

enough to kick a door off its hinges yet he does

I don't quite get it but guess it's showing his

inner perseverance maybe or just how weak that

door was no no I guess I don't know so we travel

back in time to dimension X many many many years

ago where Krang is coming home It looks like

a Star Wars landing party. It does. Craig is

coming home. Apparently there's gonna be this

huge celebration and everything else, and he

wants nothing to do with it. Is it just me or

is it weird that his father has a statue of him?

Like, I see statues like this all the time in

comics and movies and TV and stuff like that,

but it's weird that it's a giant brain. as the

stats uh... so he wants nothing to do with the

celebration he wants to you know be able to save

the save the people we uh... uh... you know he's

he's he's going to the the prison they think

he wants to see the the rebel leaders right there

on who's now in prison yet as they watch the

rebellion he wants to see the ruling council

because apparently quainan through the ruling

council in jail that's that's a little crazy

then again he is a crazy ruler uh... so he goes

to his father and asks him about this and he

says uh... uh... let's see here uh... for some

where to go I'm trying to find it. Oh, you locked

the ruling council away and surround yourself

with sycophants and No, no, you're just here

To watch the execution and I don't think they

planned on executing him at all, which is the

problem they just wanted to keep his dad's making

all sorts of horrible decisions and crank calls

him out on it and just as he loses it they say

Zog the Triceraton has escaped and That's where

we flash to the prison where he's out of his

jail cell. Yeah, um that little utrum that comes

in Might be the ugliest utrum. I love that little

guy. He's got glasses Coming out of this weird

metal headpiece. It's It looks like um, oh god,

what the hell's his name is a character Nielsen

played Crap have you ever seen surf ninjas a

long time ago? I was probably 11 years old Seriously,

yeah Leslie Nielsen plays the bad guy in that

and he has something that looks like this across

the left side of his face so So it reminds me

of so we get to the jailbreak and we see that

uh... uh... you know zog calls out says crying

thanks for bringing me a ride and and uh... we

that's where that one ends and we pick back up

in the current day because apparently the only

way to get the generators working again to save

the Utrums on Brunei Island is recurring to go

outside when a hurricane is coming And apparently

because of the storm the signal cuts out and

he doesn't know what to do because honey cut

couldn't tell him So we then go to Baxter and

honey cut Bug Bot just kind of tears him apart.

Honeycutt decides to go against his old nature,

finds the stone soldier's gun, picks it up, decides

to fight back, annihilating the fly bot, elbowing

Baxter, and he warns him, don't follow me and

don't underestimate me again. Mm -hmm. Dun -dun

-dun. That's probably the only time we'll ever

see him fight. He's just not a fighter. No, he's

not The funniest thing about honey cut and the

gun is it reminds me of I don't know if you ever

saw this but Batman Beyond there was an episode

called Zeta where they introduced Zeta which

would eventually be the robot say honey cut is

essentially The iron midget of the Turtles universe

here No guns me and Superman Oh God Vin Diesel

now needs to be the voice of honey cut if there's

a roommate of this That would be crazy So we

go back to Northampton and I get the art. Oh

the turtles look so good. You got Raph and Mikey

fighting Which is so strange to me because it's

usually Donnie and Mikey sparring and it's Raph

and Leo because Raph and Leo always have issues

with each other But oh well, that would make

sense because it would make sense that it would

be Raph and Mikey here because of the fact that

Leo technically hasn't been himself. Yeah, he's

off hiding. Yeah, he's moping. He's out in the

woods. Yeah. And Donnie's going on and on and

on and on about the journal and they just don't

care. They're like, get to the point already.

um and again it it i like seeing the turtles

here but i wasn't expecting like when you think

of idw doing a miniseries called the utram empire

i thought it was going to mainly just focus everything

in dimension honor in dimension x i didn't you

got to remind the listeners i mean sorry remind

the viewers the readers that's the adjective

i was going for the noun. You gotta remind the

readers that the turtles exist and they gotta

show up. Yeah, it does say Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles on the cover, I guess. So that's, I think,

the only reason that they kind of shoehorned

them in there. But he has the journal in the

series, so maybe this gives us a little bit more

about what's inside of it. So, Krang crosses

the streams and fires up the generator. We then

go back to Ultraman on and Cray basically zor

zor zog has his crane and gun gunpoint and Quain

in is just not he's like You know no crying you

can't shoot me now I I almost wonder if crying

let him out of prison to escalate this situation.

Or maybe Zog didn't know that that's what happened,

but I almost wonder if that's kind of what he

was hoping would happen. Yeah. The U -Troms aren't...

Seeing many U -Troms in one place isn't as creepy

as I thought it was gonna be. Like... When you

think about it these things are just brains.

I mean, that's really all they are And they have

these like giant spider Not posts They're like

AT -ATs many AT -ATs that they write on top of

Yes Which is interesting So Zog basically ejects

his pilot and Almost lets Krang die. They get

Krang back and we get a quote -unquote touching

moment with his father. He basically says, the

Utram race is more important than that, the future

of our people. Krang, he had a gun to your head.

What was I supposed to do? What were you supposed

to do? He was supposed to let me die. And I really

think that's what he was hoping would happen,

to shake his dad into it. Yep, pretty much. Flashback

to the present, Krangs managed to turn the power

on at the expense of frying himself, and he has

passed out, fallen quite a distance, and that's

where the issue ends. I am really digging this

story. I'm digging how that they've taken all

these threads and put them together like normally

I will complain about how fast the scene changes

like there were a couple of times in this where

we went from the past to the present and it was

like one page was the past one page was the present

knows normally I do complain about that but it's

being done so well here I love that. And the

art in this one was great. Yeah, I'm a fan of

this guy. Yep. Andy Kuhn. Very, very awesome.

So we get to the final issue of the mini -series

here. Usham Empire number three. This is the

one that has the propaganda poster cover. Yep.

Join the resistance today. Oh wow, there's a

Triceraton, there's a Neutrino, there's a Zora

from Legend of Zelda, there's Groot, and then

there's a gray alien on the cover. I never noticed

the gray on the end, that's kind of cool. I kind

of forgot to do this for a second. issue, but

on Burnout Island, Baxter Stockman has sabotaged

the life support system of the alien race, the

Utroms, that Krang has in stasis. Fugitoid attempts

to save the Utroms by instructing Krang how to

restart the Hurricane Ravaged Island's generators.

And Bobby had to throw a little note in here.

Editor's note, Daniel Pez Lopez was not credited

as colorist for the Andy Coons covers for issues

one and two. Apologies. So Daniel Pez Lopez was

the colorist on the covers that Andy did for

the first two issues. And of all the cover variants,

the one that I kind of actually do want is the

one I didn't get. The subscription cover for

this is a picture of Krang holding bottles of

dead utrums and his little brain from his own

robot chest is... Screaming in horror of all

of his dead buddies and I kind of that's the

cover. I want that's the one I didn't get the

victim of at the mercy of what my Comic store

gets. Oh Yeah, I know I have the regular I have

the propaganda. Yeah, that's the one that I got

but it's okay So we start with years ago on your

trauma on where uh... lorca uh... you know head

getting a message from general crane uh... and

he basically you know delivers this super villain

monologue we're going to have a look at you from

race i really want to say jay Leno monologue

but it wouldn't And we get a beautiful battle

scene on the net. I mean, it's a two -page spread

battle scene where he's, you know, Krang's about

to escape and he has to stop and do something

first. And of course, guess what he has to stop

and do? Go back and, you know, basically poke

his father in the eye. You know, so there's that.

And apparently they're being bombed all around.

And the way that this is being told is that the

way I envision it is like the World War II bombers,

you know, just drop the bomb and fly off. And

that's the way it kind of looks, because, you

know, in this page it says... He says earth ha

I remember how it well last time you visited

that wretched planet Last time I made the mistake

of trying to form alliances this time I'll be

there to conquer and create a new home for our

people and then right next to his face is the

Little insert page with the bomb dropping off

He's um he's referring to trying to work with

the shredder but then get stiffed and now he's

back just to destroy everything. I see what he's

talking about there. Makes sense now. And I do

like when they say many years ago or the first

time that you went there and stuff like that

where they don't actually give it a name and

number but technically I mean Krang has been

to earth three times before the dinosaurs once

after the dinosaurs in 16th century Japan and

where he is now today. Mm -hmm So that's that's

interesting a Turtlesome time tells us he's been

on burnout island for a very long time, too.

Yeah We get to We get the final moments between

Krang and his father Won't survive. Of course

we'll survive. We'll be the victors. Conquest

is our purpose. It is our destiny. So stay here

and fight with me. Make me proud. I've seen the

cost of your pride, and I have no use for it.

Not anymore. I could have told you. I could have

had... I could have you forcibly removed. But

you're not worth saving. And you're not worth

killing either. Yikes. That's cold. And he leaves

just as... the ships arrived to destroy the building.

Yep, pretty much. So we go back to Burnout Island,

um, where something is on fire. Uh, is that supposed

to be the... That's the flybot. Oh, that's the

flybot. Okay, for a second there, I thought that

was future. I'm like, hey, wait a second. Um,

you know, they keep teasing us with the fly thing.

And I'm kind of getting tired of it. Make him

a fly already. He's going to end up, you know,

I wonder if Honeycutt is going to have a part

in transforming or transferring Baxter into fly.

That would be interesting. So we get to Honeycutt

and we see scenes between Honeycutt and Baxter

mixed in. Where Honeycutt's monologue is talking

about Krang and Baxter And he's not sure which

one, you know, he says the other a pure evil

motivated entirely by his own self -interest

Part of me just wants to end it all just let

it be done But I also fear the worst if I leave

these two on their own. Oh God, yeah, that would

be So the rock soldier and some other Blue -haired

dude. That's a neutrino scientist that Crane

has captured. Oh, that's right. That's right

Are basically saying hey, you're a prisoner.

You got to be locked up Meanwhile a fugitoid

sending an email Which that's something I will

That's something we'll talk about here in a little

while So we then go back outside trying has gotten

up, and he's heading back inside He says everybody

get out and we get oh So we wait why do we see

that then what are you talking about? Why don't

we go from? Why don't we go from the scene where

he says everybody get out and the next page the

top of the page is is What I assume is the old,

yeah, it's Uttramanon. Hmm, that's... What page

are you on? Oh, there he is. Okay, so Crane comes

back in, and the power's back on, they're refilling

the Ooze. Right. But why is it at the top of

the page? Is that Uttramanon, or is that New

York? That's Uttramanon, yeah. Yeah, why is that

there? That's my question. That's a little strange.

So everybody gets back in the ooze. We go to...

Crang. He's plum tuckered out. He's not looking

too good. Is it just me or does his body look

strange in these panels? I'm trying to make sure

I'm making sure yeah, I guess that is crying

because my father serves its time Yeah, huh?

Yeah, oh no no no we are still on new trauma

none because these are the survivors of the war

and they're gonna put them into this is where

they're first going into stasis and Crank says

it's only temporary my friends I swear they'll

dedicate my life to protecting yours and then

they're sending him through a portal to earth

and then bottom right panel he's arrived at burnout

island and they're all hanging in their little

canisters and then we're flashing forward again

to crank coming back in looking at his buddies

saying you'll be revived soon yeah on the you

know you're on the soon page his body looks weird

to me it i don't know Just doesn't look like

it has earlier in the story. I'm not sure why

So we go back to the turtles where Donnie is

looking through the journal again, and he says

So this huge threat this planetary threat that

just looming out there Meanwhile, we're just

four ninjas and a couple of our friends. How

are we supposed to handle it? We handle it the

same way we handle everything else Donnie we

make a plan and then we fight I like acknowledging

them acknowledging how powerless they actually

are and and you know this I guess it's it's a

difference between These turtles are in the middle

in in the Mirage comics. They're they they're

constantly portrayed as victims like dudes just

leave us alone but the foot clan keep messing

with them we don't want to help anybody we don't

want to hurt anybody we just want to hide in

the sewer and then we get the cartoon where they're

galaxy hopping superheroes fighting bank robbers

and shredder and other mutants in this one they're

powerless ninjas but they also need to do all

of this grand stuff like eventually save the

whole world from the technodrome so they're in

a unique position You know where they're not

supernaturally powerful like they might have

been in some of the cartoons, but they're Just

regular guys with some skills having to do all

these things We have back to Baxter who I guess

is rebuilding his fly board And this I don't

know what this Vulcan scientist comes in. It's

another neutrino Okay, well he's got pointy ears

and the first thing I thought And he asks him

about the fugitoid project and Baxter is kind

of taken aback by this future. He gets back in

his lab. I thought he would have Tried to hide

or leave the island door. Yes, we should be resuming

soon. I'll let you know He says to the the broken

-up fly Borg I guess we don't need your search

and destroy mission just instead. It's just destroy

And I can do that myself So he's going to destroy

Fugitoid because you know he assumes that fugitoid

has ratted him out to Krang And Fugitoid basically,

you know, gives Baxter a lifeline. Which is interesting.

You know, in one of my other shows, a show that

I'm painfully getting through because of the

content that I'm reviewing, a couple of buddies

of mine are reviewing the entire series of the

80s cartoon Mask. And it just... Yes, there's

a robot in there called T Bob. Oh, yeah constantly

constantly constantly throughout the entire series.

We're like 40 or 50 years almost, you know, we're

like 50 or 60 episodes in they constantly constantly

try to make T Bob like human like characteristics

and It's like really seriously stop Just stop.

Oh, the theme song's stuck in my head now. The

theme song was awesome, but the show itself...

Oh god, that was great. Man, I wanna watch an

episode of that. I have no idea where to find

that. No, you don't wanna watch an episode of

that. I do want that red car, though. I always

wanted that toy. I was at a I was at a toy show

in town and that just generally has tractors

and model trains for old men and I saw this car

sitting on the table with the pilot in it with

the and the guy with and the mask and the guy

standing to my right picks it up and says how

much is this and the guy goes meh five bucks

and and I looked at but my jaws on the ground

and I'm watching this guy and he's like I'd have

paid like 30 for that right now. It was a beautiful

condition and lucky punk. Anyway, sorry for the

change. My point in bringing T -Bob up and what

they constantly try to do in the mass cartoon

series is they constantly try to give him human

traits and human emotions, and he's not a human.

Scott... Matt Tracker's son and Matt Tracker

built him. He is a built robot, just like the

Fly Borg is a built robot. Fly Borg's a little

different because Fly Borg has some sort of extra

sensory power or whatever else, but he is a robot.

He's not a human trapped in a robot's body. My

whole point in bringing this up is because while

I hate them putting human emotions into the robot

in mask, I really like them coming out. honey,

honey cuts turning how he basically saves Baxter's

ass, you know, to, you know, whatever end it's

going to be. Um, we then get back to, um, we

see the turtle van driving away and we see splinter

and the turtles and Okay, this must be at the

end of issue 32 because Leo's got the blue mask

on again, and April's got that funky short haircut,

and Donnie gets the message from Honeycutt. Apparently

he sent it to a whole bunch of his allies, and

the final page we get, the Foot Clan. It says

here, he says he's reaching out to several partners

that many groups who will have to work together

to make taking down the Technogrom happen. Good

to know, to take down Crane, it'll need a lot

more than us. It'll take an army, in which we

flash to... foot clan training with shredder

overhead and karai says i just received the most

interesting message which oh my god how i mean

the stuff we're reading now pays off right here

this is how they got back into in in touch and

that's how everybody's gonna reunite here and

and why this is why in in the current issue shredder

doesn't trust krang because he's gotten this

message and he knows what's going down So we

get to know how or why all that happened and

So it's kind of neat where I guess this foreshadows

the foot and the turtles getting together for

Something and this also basically I mean this

essentially tells us that craying and shredder.

We're never gonna get together I mean, I know

the message is coming from from honey cut But

he's telling that the krangs up to no good gonna

destroy the earth. I need your help to stop him

I mean, so treader knows which way the wind's

blowing when he steps onto that boat with Krang

and we'll talk more about that when we get to

that issue. Oh, yeah Because that issue was a

blast. Yep. I had no idea where it was going.

Oh, I didn't know Overall on a second read through

of utra vampire. I really do like the story.

I think it's really well done. I think it's all

of the intertwining stories that make it what

it is works very well. I'm still like I hope

we're past the whole giving credit like I know

I shouldn't be complaining about giving a character

development, but I thought he got enough development

in His origins. This is this is where we I was

half going there until I wanted to give us the

the plot twist at the end I think that first

the first origin was crank becoming tough So

at that point to us he was just a villain because

he was cranky this story gives him his motivations

And it says why he's the way he is like I guess

I can see why they felt they needed to do this

Utram Empire storyline to make Krang the sympathetic

character. I think the most interesting villains

are the ones who don't think they're evil, and

this puts Krang in that position. No, and I,

yeah, I agree with you. I just, I don't know.

It's kind of like... But I also agree with you

and say that I hope we don't have to have any

more of this. I mean, Utram is essentially...

Ooh ooh ooh trauma non whatever the planet is

essentially dead So I don't think they're gonna

go back there and tell any more stories They

might go back and tell another side of the neutrino

the neutrino war or something like that But I

gotta say I out of the entire series to this

point Those are the two stories that really kind

of took me out of everything then that okay sure

the neutrino The whole neutrino arc was good.

It was nice that we saw the neutrinos. It was

nice that, you know, they actually did something

with them as far as fighting the cray. To make

them cool. Yeah. You know, and the turtles were

there, but at the same time, I want the turtles

in New York. I don't necessarily want the turtles

always fighting Shredder. I want them coming

up against stuff that, you know, we're not sure

what's going to happen. Uh, overall, out of all

the stories that they've told to this point,

I like everything except, you know, like now

I like the Utram story, but if it was something

that I could do without, I could probably do

without it. Um, I don't know. I'm by no means

saying the story is bad. It is once you read.

the entire series to this point and read this

story you're gonna get it and as you said it

ties into so many things are coming up uh...

you know so there's that uh... i think we are

going to get quick break we're gonna come back

with final thoughts and ratings after this It's

Decian, the superhero webcomic. Decian's got

superhero antics and sexy girls. Read it now

at Decian .com. D -A -S -I -E -N dot com. So

let's say you're looking for a podcast of your

favorite 80s comic books. G .I. Joe, Transformers,

Ninja Turtles, He -Man, etc. Where are you going

to go to find this? Welcome to Star Joe's podcast.

I'm your host Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right

everybody, we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast

called Star Joe's podcast where we talk about

your favorite comic books, your favorite toys

of all the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe,

Transformers, Mask, Thundercats, Voltron, you

name it, we cover it. If it's in the 80s, we

will cover it at some point. Yeah, so what you

want to do to find us, you can go to iTunes,

you can go to www .starjoes .com, and remember,

the force will be with you, because knowing us

is half the battle. Alright, we are back. Um,

Ultram Empire, it... I'm glad I wasn't reading

this week or month to month when it came out.

Even though I read it back to back to back in

the single issue form here for this review I'm

just gonna rate it on overall There are little

things with the art that I didn't really care

for There is a little bit of the time displacement

kind of thing that I didn't really I mean I get

it now I understand the timeline now but when

I was first reading it it was kind of like all

jumpy I'm gonna give it a four out of five stars

what about you I think that's right where I'm

going to four out of five just because it's not

the interesting part of the Ninja Turtles storyline

I but but it's still important and very well

done absolutely Alright, well that's gonna do

it for this back issue classics episode I always

I think I need to write out an intro for this

show when we do these because I always forget

to do the The social media crap at the beginning

of the episode, but where can people interact

with you online? Um, the best place to get a

hold of me would be through the geek stuff garage

sale website thing attached to Facebook. If you

go to Facebook, search for Geek Stuff Garage

Sale without any spaces, that's the best way

they get a hold of me. I don't know how to work

Twitter. One of these days, I'm going to teach

you. I don't have a smartphone, so it's obnoxious.

Okay, so you can also find me on Twitter at TFUandMike,

you can follow me at GeekCastRadio, you can catch

Joe live in person on video Wednesdays on Off

the Cuff. Playing with my toys on a webcam. Yes.

You can also, like he said about Geek Stuff Garage

Sale, the link to that, actually the actual page

link will be in the post for this episode. Coming

up next we are going to be reviewing issues 33

and 34 is the beginning of their return to New

York for the Turtles. So that's going to be awesome

and interesting and we will catch you then. Make

your greatest game of the comics. Mikey, take

us out! You believe this guy? Come on! Don't

just ninja kick the damn rabbit! Do something!

Hey! April! Hey, you're great! Thanks, man. She

called me Mikey. You've just heard the latest

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