IDW TMNT Volume 6: City Fall Part 1 and Villains Micro Series Volume 1

Hey guys, Raphael here at the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles. Did you say podcast? Dudes, do

this! You're listening to a podcast on the Gatecast

Radio Network. Welcome to The Polebags Back Issue

Classics. Join us as we talk about comics from

yesteryear. From DC, Marvel, and more. So open

your ears to hear our discussion. the older continuity

as the back -issue classics are also what's in

the pull bag Hello and welcome to the pull bag,

this is yet again another back -issue classics

and we are Two weeks into the month of July 2014.

I'm your host TF Joe and Mike joining me is mr.

Joe Reid. Hello, sir. Hello How are you? I am

well excited I'm just glad to be spending time

with this series both the first time through

and then this again the second time through recording

them with you. When you mentioned that we were

going to be recording tonight I was like yeah

man I'm so excited because this is such a good

series and I'm really glad to kind of have a

reason to go through it a second time. And the

series that he is referring to, ladies and gentlemen,

is IDW Publishing's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Main Ongoing by Eastman and Waltz. With many,

many, many artists. Santa Luca was still currently

on as main as far as I know. Because tonight

we are gonna witness City Fall. As well as, this

is volume 6 in trade. It collects issues 21 through

24 of the Ongoing. uh... this is the fall part

one and we're also later on we're also going

to be talking about the first four villains microseries

in this continuity which is crying baxter uh...

old hob and a little tax so that's what we're

doing tonight's uh... hopefully uh... by next

time as the as of this recording Joe is in the

middle of constructing some can openers. Hopefully

by the next time we have City Fall Part 2, he

will have his Secret of the Use shredder helmet

ready to go as well. A helmet would be awesome.

I don't know if I'm going to go that far. Why

don't you tell everybody what you've been doing,

villain? The geek sale was a couple of weeks

ago and... I made some money and I am an artist

by trade fine artist sculptor by trade and Needed

to get a planishing hammer. It's like a pneumatic

Hammer, and it makes these sheets of steel into

rounded domed shaped pieces of steel And I got

it so I could make my wind powered kinetic steel

sculptures but you know I get the planishing

hammer I hook it up to my air compressor what's

the first thing that I decide to make a shredder

gauntlet what am I gonna do I'm gonna put pointy

pieces of steel on the top of my fist and so

far I have one of them made I gotta get a strap

on it so it goes around the wrist but you know

you slip your hand into it there's a metal rod

to hold on to and okay just Having this one thing

on my hand and I've walked from one room to another

wearing this thing you have to be Ridiculously

careful now the shredder doesn't have to be careful

I do because I don't want to kill anybody but

I mean it's so easy to bump into that counter

to clip your leg and I'm thinking of the scene

in the movie where Tatsu walks up to the shredder

and takes his cape off his shoulders. That's

bloody dangerous. The shredder just has to flinch

and you're gouged on his knee thing or his arm

thing. So I kinda regret starting to make these

because it is very, very dangerous and... uh...

you know i i'm responsible enough with things

like this to hide it to lock it up and to not

wear it around like a dummy on halloween but

holy crap these things are deadly i haven't even

put the final edge on them and and it's it's

crazy so we'll try to get some pictures of those

up uh... on the website when they're done yeah

no when you first told me about this i was like

that is interesting and then i made the joke

of uh... Even though yours are the risk outlets

I made the joke of, the shredder gives a whole

new meaning to the term shoulder blades. Yeah,

I figured out how to make the shoulder blades.

I kind of like those two, the round ones. I don't

know where I'm going to stop because at some

point I'm actually going to need to make fine

art with that planishing hammer. But this has

been fun. I don't know. You are so going to end

up with a movie one shredder costume this Halloween.

I guarantee it. 210 pound bearded lump behind

the mask. I don't think I'm gonna be convincing

in that but we'll see what happens. That mask

hides the majority of his face. I mean it would

hide pretty much all of your facial hair. I like

the designs of the shredder like Santolucco's

where he's got the samurai round bellied armor

plate with the foot logo. Kind of above the tummy,

I like that. And that I might be able to hide

my gut with if I go that direction. I don't know

what's going to happen. All right, so as I said,

we're here to talk about City Fall and the villains'

micros, the first four villain micros. The City

Fall cover on the trade, I am assuming... Don't

think this is one of the issue covers. It's basically

raff looking like he's falling. Oh Yeah, yep,

that's the that's city fall number one on my

stack singles here Okay, and it's got shredder

on the left and splinter up at the top right

there like where it says city fall Yep, it's

got city and then shredder and then splinter

and then fall for exclusively for the trade the

the image here uh... on the first page of the

trade is uh... shredder wearing his snuggie uh...

black background uh... and i gotta say when i

was first reading this uh... the first of all

uh... i hope everyone has listened to our interview

with uh... Chief Turtle Editor Bobby Kernow from

IDW Publishing, because I spent like four days

reading. I've already read this, and it's been

like, I don't know, about a month since that

happened. A month or a little bit more than a

month since that happened, and I normally don't

do that. I normally don't read stuff so far in

advance of recording it for it. And when I was

going back this time, I was reading it, because

I remember everything I read. You know, a month

and a half ago. I was more so paying attention

to the art and what is actually going on in this

story. In issue 21, which is the prologue to

City Fall... Entirely illustrated by our own

beloved Kevin Eastman. Yes, exactly. So... Excuse

me. Earlier... this month we had uh... you and

i had done secret history of the foot clan which

i had originally thought that was going to be

all uh... shredder and tekeshi and all you know

sixteen fifteen sixteenth century japan stuff

i didn't when the turtles showed up and then

i'm like what i mean i know it's a turtle's book

it says i mean i've got the trade right here

it says uh... You know, Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles at the top, Secret History of the Foot

Clan, but I honestly thought it was going to

solely be a Shredder story, as I said in that

episode that we recorded. So, I'm kind of even

looking at the reading order. I remember when

I first read issue 21, and maybe it's I'm forgetting

issue 20, which I don't think I am, but I could

be. When I first read issue 21, I'm like, wait,

what? What in the hell is going on here? I was

so confused that the first time I read this,

because of what happens in the beginning. I mean,

I like it, I think it's great, but I was just

like, what the hell? Because it opens with the

turtles talking about, you know, they're out

training and Leo says, you know, it's time for

dinner and... And they get to talking about how

violent the city is compared to what it used

to be, where it used to be mostly petty crime,

but now it's just got this whole violent air

toward now. And Mikey's like, uh, guys? And we

turn the page here and there's this... It's a

juggalo. Okay. Wait, wait, you're not from Michigan.

I was gonna say, I don't think Rob Schneider

could fill that role. Insane, Insane Clown Posse.

Their fan base, you know who they are, have you

heard of them? Yes, I know who they are. They're

the clown rappers. The fans of Insane Clown Posse

are called Juggalos, and they typically run around

every day wearing the clown makeup. And I think,

you know, with the little, it kind of looks like

that Harlequin mask, sort of. thing. So that

was where the Juggalo joke came from. Sorry,

sorry, I ate one over your head. That was not

intentional. Well, I was going to make a Rob

Schneider juice Bigalow joke when you said that.

Now, I like all the interaction here. I love

Santaluco's art on this and Aisman's. Well no,

this is Eastman's art, yeah. This is Eastman's

art. Okay, I'm sorry. I love Eastman's art here.

I love how the turtles look. Not sure if they

should have teeth, but okay. It's, you know,

it's his, you know, baby, it's his property,

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, it's not

actually his property anymore, but you know what

I mean. When I first read this, I was like, who

the hell is this thing? Or what the hell is this

thing? And why the hell is it attacking the turtles?

After a training session out in the city and

well, I love all the all of the Dialogue back

and forth between the turtles and this thing

because it never never gives his name never Really

gives them anything it just kept it just keeps,

you know, basically beating the snot out of them

But I was gonna say it never verbally tells them

anything about itself. It just keeps poking them

with a stick constantly It's kind of like, you

know, you know turtle prodding. It's basically

taking an electric cattle prod and using them

on a turtle But you know He starts off look mutant

tadpoles you fancy yourselves ninja perhaps Shall

we find out what skills you have little tadpoles?

The only thing I can think of is and I actually

heard his voice with this character Have you've

seen the very first episode of the 2012 series,

right? Yes Probably the day it debuted and that

was the last okay, so I might miss this reference,

but go ahead No, you'll get it. Lewis Black's

character. He constantly calls the guy that eventually

turns into Spider Bites. I didn't realize that

was Lewis Black. That's cool. You didn't realize

that? Whoa, man, as soon as I heard his voice,

I knew that was him. he constantly calls them

frogs in the cartoon series and when I saw the

tadpoles I'm like oh god this is so Lewis Black

from that episode but this guy this thing is

basically just beating all four of them just

heinously beating them and it's very very interesting

You know, I know in the very, very beginning,

way back when we did Volume 1, I was really hesitant

about the art. Not necessarily because of Dan

Duncan at the time, but because it... Because

where I come from, from the cartoons, the original

cartoon series and not the Mirage comics, I was

like, well, you know, I was like, oh no, red,

whatever. But now, looking at Eastman's art here,

I absolutely love it. It's this is it's interesting

his artwork It didn't used to look like this.

We've all I mean, we've seen the old mirage stuff

when I met him at Detroit fanfare he was doing

convention sketches. He was doing them for free

which was why it took six hours to get through

that line, but The way that he was doing them

was with these very bold markers He would sketch

it out with a thin line marker And then he'd

go in with I mean just like a standard wedge

tip something and it was fast and It looks like

he's doing the same process with this. I can

see you can you can look at The pages and see

the big bold swipes of the thicker marker That's

going on the areas and and and then he's got

this also that he's taking ink with a toothbrush

and filling this kind of spatter in places. It

makes it look very gritty. I almost don't like

this colored. I think this would read better

in black and white. And that's kind of where

his history is, is working out in black and white

and then the duo shade technique that Mirage

used for a while. I appreciate it because it's

Kevin Eastman. I think this is what he does because

he doesn't have a lot of time and is basically

doing convention level sketches for the book.

And I don't know if it works as well in a story

in a panel works great for having a character

study that you get to take home for forty bucks

but I don't know. I don't know I don't think

this should be I think it would not me say this

different way I think this would read better

in black and white and I think. It's difficult

to read. in a story with the big blocks and chunks

and the very apparent strokes, saying all of

those complaints. It's Kevin Eastman, and I'm

so glad to see him illustrating an entire Ninja

Turtle book. And because he's better at drawing

than me, he can do it any way he wants, as often

as he wants. So, you know, I'm willing to straddle

fences for the people I love. And there we go.

Wow, that must chafe. A little bit. So on the

page where this character says and that's all

I can call him ladies and gentlemen is this character

this this person that the turtles are fighting

because we don't know who it is under the mask

although it should be pretty self -evident except

he's missing his tail so I guess somebody cut

his tail off or maybe he taped it to his back

or something and that should kind of give you

a hint into who this is but the whole time I

was reading the words was I'm like oh my god

they're like You toads ever heard of the Filipino

art of Kali? It's an extraordinarily effective

fighting form using short sticks. Much like these,

perfect for multiple attacks. Shall I demonstrate

after all? And he took, I cannot believe he did

this. I really cannot believe he did this. He

took poor Donatello's bowstaff and broke it in

half, and that's what the sticks are that he's

talking about. But that panel that he says those

on and has the sticks on there, I'm looking at

this now. I didn't notice this when I first,

like I said before, when I first sit down to

read a trade or a comic, I pay attention to the

story first and the art later. I did not notice

the character's legs here. It's so obvious who

this is. Like I said, his tail's missing, but

it is so obvious who this is. In the back of

my issue, there is a concept sketch of him. He's

called the Assassin. Okay. And they explain where

things are and why he looks the way he does.

Oh, okay. That might be in the back of the trade,

but I don't know. There you go. I'm not sure.

So what do you think of this fight so far? The

thing that I absolutely love about this issue

is as the assassin slash... Their sensei master

splinter in disguise is beating the snot out

of them He's doing it with this martial art then

that martial art then this martial art and then

he runs away from them saying your parkour is

bad and you need to be better at it and So he's

taunting them through the city taunting them

through the sewers beating them with Here's kung

fu. He's using Chinese. He's using savant the

French martial art. He's using Where is it? I

believe there's some oh, what's the dancing one?

Oh? It's on the tip of my tongue we have some

of it. There's a there's a dojo in Grand Rapids

that does it Anyway, he's beating them handedly

with all these different martial arts taunting

them around I like that who we will later discuss

spoiler alerts too late now guys you shouldn't

be listening to this podcast you've read the

book anyway, but Splinter took the time to learn

all of these martial arts and admittedly when

you get to be that level of a ninja master learning

a second martial art doesn't take as much time

because a lot of the principles are the same.

But I like that Splinter is the master of all

of these things and that he has them to draw

upon. Yeah, and it's just it's so so awesome

and interesting. And we finally get to the point

where He he basically the assassin thinks that

he is He's pretty much done with them and he

wants to meet their master So and that's the

thing that threw me off about all this throughout

this whole thing When I was originally reading

the story he kept saying, you know, okay Well,

you're this you're that you need to learn this

you need to learn this you need to learn this

blah blah blah and oh Now that I'm done with

you, I want to go see your master. Because he

apparently really sucks if you're this bad. If

you're this bad, apparently he is the worst ninja

master ever. And so we get to the point where

Leo says that, understand this, the only way

to our master is over our dead bodies. And then

he reveals himself halfway on the middle panel.

The only response I can... And I can only respond

that I am honored, my sons. And all four of them

are just like, what? Splinter looked great halfway

revealed from under the mask here. And then the

eternal problem of Splinter looking like a dog.

This is Kevin Eastman, ladies and gentlemen.

Why? Why in the world would he make Splinter

look like the Big Bad Wolf from Hoodwinked? I

mean, he looks like... I can hear Christopher

Warburton's voice coming out of this design.

It's really hard to draw a rat. I've tried. It's

hard. Apparently so. It's really hard. Yeah,

apparently so, I guess. I don't know. Were you

shocked at the reveal, or did you...? Like, when

you first read this, were you shocked? Yeah,

I didn't call it. Oh, no. I didn't even notice

it. I was like, well, yippee, a new character

is kind of where I was going. But I was like,

oh, it's just a new character. Well, I was like,

I was like, whoa, wait, did I miss something?

That's why I was so confused at the beginning

of this issue. I was like, because I had read

20. I read, obviously, we read Secret History.

And all that and we get to this and I'm like

wait did I miss like a whole spotlight or something?

What's going on here? So the next scene We go

to Japan and it's shredder and karai and dr.

Miller Oh, yeah, I forgot about dr. Miller the

You the guy from secret history who had the book?

Yep So they're going back and forth back and

forth and I still don't I Guess we'll see it

when we come up next the next time we do one

of these when we talk about The second part of

the villain my girls, but as I'm reading these

going along I don't even know if I noticed it

when I originally first read Karai's one shot

I still don't get how Saki is her grandfather

and not her father. I'm sure I'm going to come

to it once I reread Kurai, the Kurai one -shot,

but it just, I don't know, right now it's like...

Do you want me to ruin it for you? Because it's

not a big thing. Oh, okay, go ahead. He's not

her father or her grandfather. He's just a distant

relative because she's... She's a sake as well,

but she's more distant, you know several generations

But when he wakes up he calls when he's reincarnated.

He says call me grandfather. Yeah But he's she's

just a family member who was in the foot clan

in Japan Well, no, well in the foot clan had

gone all soft and became like just a business

and she didn't like it And so she started to

do the research and found out how to resurrect

The actual foot clan and then started to bring

it back Yeah, so not a major reveal but Doing

some graveyard archaeology here at the end of

this book Yeah The dr. Miller's book leads them

to a grave They crack it open and shredder is

reunited with kitsune kitsune. Yeah Done done

done And she's going green which means she was

bathed in mutagen or the weird green uterine

ooze that keeps all of them alive So we then

go back to New York City Well now we're issue

two in mine or rather, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

we're up to issue 22. I should say Yeah, that

must have been a one hell of a thing to read

this singly Have the reveal of kids soon at the

end of the issue. Holy crap at that point. I

was still missing a whole bunch of details from

Secret history foot clamp I had missed so much

because I'm an idiot and read it like a first

grade reading level or something So I'm really

yeah again. I'm so glad to record this podcast

and reread it and actually understand what I'm

reading so it has Added to the enjoyment of this

series entirely doing this podcast So we go back

to New York City for the first part of issue

22 And this is really where city fall yeah beginning

of city fall This is city fall part 1 now ladies

and gentlemen when I say city fall part 1 at

the beginning of the podcast I mean, that's what

they call the trade because the city fall is

broken up into two trades volume 6 and volume

7 of TMNT And I thought, and I have to go back

and count them, but I thought it was about 12

issues long. It might have only been eight, but

I thought it went for a whole year. Maybe it

was a year because of the single one shots that

were coming out on off months. It might have

been counting that. 21 through 24. Six. It goes

through to 28. So 21 to 28. And then it ends

with those Shredder micro series. It's about

seven. No, yeah. Cityfall itself is seven parts,

so it's seven issues, plus all of the, if you

count the eight micros, it's 15 total. Yeah,

and I think I just want it to be 12 because of...

Remember correctly city at war the mirage big

event was I think that was a nose 13 parts that

a resolution issue at the end of that So, let's

see So we wait, oh this is okay, so we see shredder

and and Well, we see shredder and then where

do we go from here? We go to the ambulance. Oh,

this is is this showing us what happened to Casey

the after effects or who are those guys? You

might be getting a you're getting a flashback

here. This is Uh, Shredder's talking about how

the French Savate, another rival gang in the

area, has a new leader and they're doing crimes

and beating up the Foot Clan and he's not exactly

happy with it. And so he's decided that the City

Fall, what that term is, is that Shredder's gonna

bring down all the other gangs, either unite

them under his banner or destroy them. And so

he is embracing his destiny and going to take

over this city of light. Yeah, I really wish

that this was one of the covers I almost wish

that That this was the trade cover This this

full page where where he does tell kitsune embrace

our destiny and it says city fall part one on

Above it in the stars. I really love how they

did that. I even love how they how they incorporate

the title of the story. Yeah, it's We'll get

to it, but it is so friggin' cool. Yeah, this

is a beautiful panel. I'm enjoying this. Oh,

yeah. Because this actually mirrors something

that happened in Secret History. Yeah, this mirrors

what happened in the end of Secret History. When

he wakes up all ooze -covered, oh my gosh, it's

that city of light I was foretold to be able

to see. So we get to Raph and Casey. They are

outside. Bar Scarab ray which is angels father's

bar Raph says he's getting bored. I'm staring

at your old man drinking the place dry I I think

this is what I said last time when we were doing

secret history I thought we might disagree on

be a bop and rock say but I think it's where

you and I are gonna disagree on is who eventually

Hun is revealed to be. Because I thought it was

refreshing taking a character that people just

wanted to beat the crap out of him because of

what he did to his kid. And then turning him

into... Because I've only ever seen Hun in the

2003 series. Yeah, I think that's where he was

created, what he was created for. In my imagination,

he's a replacement for Tatsu who they don't have

rights to do. Yeah Maybe one of these days Yeah,

I doubt it. That's what fan art is for Well,

they're also putting out that original movie

They're redoing that movie novelization thing

IDW is He's good If they're reading it now, is

that just a copy? Yeah, it's it's okay. They

might recolor it, but I don't even think they

will Okay, so if that's just a copy of it, at

least Tatsu will be there, but it's not gonna

be in a current design he's not gonna have a

new design like most of these now now it'll it'll

it'll be the Same old. I don't even know who

illustrated that old comic. I It's in a box to

my left here, but I'm not going to go dig for

it right now. So Casey and Raph get into a fight

with the Foot Clan outside the bar. Casey gets

knocked out. Raph's like, stinking dirty foot

scum, I'm going to kick all your... Bring down

the mutant. Find his wrists and silence him and

they basically They basically gag graph Wow foot

clan actually got Raphael to shut that Well wait

no that would probably Mikey sometimes that they

would want to do that too So they basically take

Casey they leave RAF And they take Casey and

leave his hockey mask there on the ground. No,

wait, did they? No, they did take it. Where the

hell is Casey? Aye, they took him too. They're

taking him to the other van. OK. Just a second

there, I'm like, OK, I see Casey's mask, so I

know they took Casey. I thought they originally

just left Raph, but no, he's in there too. He

eventually breaks out and he jumps off the bridge

And all I can think of is those four shells bobbing

up in the end All I can think of is the four

shells bobbing up at the end, and I love being

a turtle Oh lines like that make my make the

adult self cringe makes the 12 year old self

of me like quote it for three months, but I Don't

know say what you want about the whole plot line

of secret of the use There was some really damn

good lines in that movie I've tried to watch

that again, and I got to the scene where they're

fighting over the ooze container at the lab and

like they're playing football with it and I and

I look at you know, how serious the first movie

was and then Tatsu and the Foot end up just like

being laughably nonviolent to each other. And

it's really sad to me. It's not, you know, they

got a lot of crap for the first movie being dark

and violent, so they brightened it up. You know,

Mikey uses salami as nunchucks instead of actual

nunchucks. As an adult going back and watching

that like yeah the kid me like that the adult

me can't get by that scene and someday I don't

know there will be a reason to go back and watch

when my son wants to watch it. That's when I'll

go back and do that. I Mean oh god the musical

number with with vanilla ice. I just can't do

it Hey, but you know, he's he's been a huge supporter

ever since though. Yeah him well He shelled out

a lot of money to get some of the toys on an

episode of toy hunter Like a lot he was looking

for like really rare stuff and he gave Jordan

him burrow I don't know something like Maybe

thirty five hundred dollars for a lot of different

rare stuff. I don't remember I don't remember

the whole episode so don't don't I'm gonna have

to go back and find that episode because There

are very few ninja turtle collectibles that are

3 ,500 bucks. I mean, I'm sure a Total he spent

a total of I think thirty five hundred four thousand

dollars something I forget I'm just dying to

find out if he bought anything I had sitting

on a shelf over here and like oh, oh dude vanilla

ice you you overpaid I'll charge you half of

it and then we'll go on the eBay and buy two

of them So we go back to the lair Donnie and

April are sitting at the computer Leo and master

splinter are Fighting and you know what honestly

he looks more like a rat here than he did in

the previous issue. Yeah, there's experimentation.

I think the first key to making him look like

a rat is to give him round ears. When you give

him round ears, he looks less like Splinter because

he's always, Splinter's always had pointy ears,

you know, back to the cartoon and the Mirage

run. But I've looked at pictures of rats. They

definitely have round ears. And I think that

helps, and the Blunted knows. Is I think I don't

think his face should be as long as people tend

to like to draw it I tell you yeah, I think David

Peterson's the only person who gets it right

but still just because of the way he draws everything

looks three inches tall because Of his style,

but I like his splinter But I like this splinter

too both in the last issue and this issue it

is scene here where he's training with Leonardo.

They're using Shani and he's parang and they're

talking about where the strikes are coming from

and how they're blocking them. And I like to

see a mobile splinter. I like that he's actually

an active martial artist and can do the things

that he does and doesn't need the cane that he's

so often pictured with. And I always appreciate

authentic training martial arts things in these

books and in the cartoon. So this scene made

me smile and I wish there were more of them.

So, Raph and Leo start another fight with each

other. We get to Leo saying, whoa, whoa, whoa,

hold on, if they ambushed you, then it was obviously

a trap. And if they know you escaped, then they've

got to be expecting a rescue. I've always liked

them fighting, but I just... Leo and Raph are

not. Like, I like Raph's sarcasm, and I like

his anger sometimes, but... Leo and Raph are

not my favorites. I don't dislike them, but...

Mikey and Donnie are so much more enjoyable.

At least for me they are. They're the happy -go

-lucky ones, I think. I've always been drawn

to Leo and Raph, and I think it's because of

their rivalry, and I'm drawn to Leo because...

He's kind of got a leader. Yeah, I don't know

if it's the leader thing or if it's the It's

the responsibility. I think that I I like and

the dedication I I think that's where my Leo

fascination comes from and and I Don't know I

don't relate to angry people like Raph and I

don't tolerate angry people like Raph But he's

a good dichotomy for Leo He's a good person to

bounce the ideas off of this is this is the the

series though where I've liked Mikey the most

out of Any other incarnation so I you know can't

complain about that either Yeah So Raph and Leo

fight because Raph wants to go after the foot

Because they took Casey while he escaped And

Splinter says you're both correct Casey Jones

is part of our family and we must save him But

we would be foolhardy to do so in reckless fashion

We must be quick. We must also be cautious. Rest

assured, Raphael, we will do everything in our

power to rescue your friend." And on that panel

is where we get Karai and Alopex, done by the

dock of the bay, with a knocked out Casey Jones.

And every time I see April's Man, they are making

it more and more movie aesthetic. I swear to

God. Well, the movie aesthetic, it's that throwback

to the actual Mirage Volkswagen. So I'm glad

those little nods are good. And the movie was

nodding to the comic book when they made the

yellow -bottomed, the two -tone yellow Volkswagen

deal. Gosh watch somebody's gonna write it and

say it wasn't yellow. It was light blue No, it

was yellow is yellow. Okay good. Yeah. No, I

was yellow So we get Shredder or not shredder

splinter in the turtles with April They have

reached their destination Because they've tracked

Casey to this dock Uh, and Splinter says, Miss

O 'Neal, uh, until we understand exactly what

is, what we are facing, I must ask that you stay

behind. And she says, no problem. Um, uh, she

wants, you know, Raph to stay safe and, you know,

please get Casey back. And, you know, we see

this really close up shot face, their upshot,

uh, look on Raph's face and he's like, Oh, don't

worry. I will. Um. And... Oh, that's right, because

that's where this is. It's back at the bar. So,

see, I thought the dock was... I thought they

took Casey to a separate place, but it seems

like... Because if Angel's right there... Coming

out of a... She's coming out of the bar. So it's

over by the Scrabre, or whatever his name, whatever

the bar's name is. Because she says, what the

hell? And the turtles have a plan of attack of

Donnie and, I believe that's Donnie, Donnie and

Mikey going underwater. There might be all four,

I only see Donnie and Mikey. Nope, the others

are on the roof. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Donnie and

Mikey are in the water and Raph and Leo and Splinter

are on the roof. Raph says, surprised it's just

Karai, that stupid fox, we can take them. Patience

Raphael the foot is purposely allowing us undefended

access. This is a trap, but it looks like Casey's

hurt We can't just stand here doing nothing And

I don't like Leo saying that I can Damn is Raphael's

word Well, then splinter says it This is not

funny So So shredder shows up the next page the

next panel we get Angel basically Taking what

looks like a policeman's nightstick and rapping

on April's window Those are Kali sticks the things

that you splinter broke in half. She's a Okay,

she's a Kali artist So they So April and an angel

have have a conversation And You know angel says

okay, I gotta go help in case it's the only reason

I ain't in jail or dead right now And see that's

the one thing I do like that angel is trying

to make the dragons like The Dragons just aren't

a gang under Shredder's thumb like they were

in the 2003 cartoon. I like the differences here

where she's trying to make the... and this is

a beautiful thing with Angel and her dad and

Casey and his dad. They have two very different

fathers that used to be buddies, and we'll find

this out next time, but, you know, that took

two very different paths and... and so you know

angel between angels leadership and the old leadership

of the verbal dragons it's so different and it's

so you it's it's so interesting to me to see

that so we get to shredder um uh karai tells

him that they are here uh and he says i know

you're out there in matayoshi do you Why do you

delay coming to the aid of your fallen comrade?

Why do you hide? Because I'm not stupid! He doesn't

actually say that, but that's what he's thinking.

Well, then Shredder gives him a reason to come

down there. Yeah. And this is what makes what

happens next time so much more tragic. This is

this is why I love the hun story so much because

what happens right here Makes everything after

this so much more tragic when it comes to Casey

Why can't we do I haven't reread a hun yet I

need to do that So shredder basically runs Casey

through Your comrade is now severely wounded

and raf is just like done flip the switch yeah

it's like i know i shouldn't view raf like this

but whenever you tick raf off of this it's kind

of like bane punching his um or pressing his

his venom button to bulk up that's a really every

time i see raf go from Kind of sarcastic I wouldn't

say easygoing but kind of sarcastic angry turtle

to oh my god Raphael is a raging bull angry turtle

like whenever Raph goes off like this I expect

something really bad to happen because It's not

that's not the condition you want to be fighting

in oh no You need to have that Leonardo's end

clear blinded and so as you know he just stabbed

Casey Jones with his Fist daggers. I'm waiting

for something to happen to Raph because he's

so out of control And you know they just gutted

Casey and so at this point in the book first

time I'm reading it I'm going oh my god, they

can do anything to anybody now I mean we know

they're not gonna kill off a turtle, but they

might stab a turtle in the belly You know with

some fist gauntlets here. You know it's so it's

Kind of you know gets you nervous reading through

the rest of this fight. You know Absolutely,

because so we get Raph at the bottom of the panel

here is like, that bastard stabbed him. Raphael,

calm yourself. Focus. Listen to father, Raph.

I'm going to kill him. And all hell's breaking

loose. Come on, Mikey. We got to get Casey. Donnie

and Mikey have been in the water the whole fucking

time. Wow And shredders like Amphibious assault

clever strategy. I'll be at predictable one or

reptiles you do this I Love Mikey And then Donnie

this is why I love Donnie and Mikey so much or

reptiles do this. That's not what he meant Mikey

That's a good I wish there were more banter like

that between the two of them. It'd make them

an even more lovable pair I'm waiting and I should

have asked Bobby this when we did the interview

and I know it's really a more of a question for

Tom Waltz I'm just waiting for somewhere in this

story because I'm I'm current right now. I'm

waiting for For the next issue whatever the next

issue is gonna be I'm current at this point in

the reading order, and I'm just waiting for a

scene between Don and... I know Don and Casey

aren't... They're not as close as what they were

in the original film. I just want a truck scene

with the alphabet. If they gave me a truck scene

with Donnie and Casey calling each other names

basically based off the alphabet, I would just

absolutely... die. It would be just so awesome,

an awesome comedic moment. So okay, Angel sees

Casey, Splinter tells Leo to resist his other

brothers, that Splinter will stay with Raph.

Raph's basically like, I'm gonna rip you apart,

blah blah blah, going after... Shredder going

at Shredder And cries like our target is in the

open alifax, you know what to do Yes, keep him

keep the prey separated from the herd because

here's the thing ladies and gentlemen. They're

not going after Raph The whole point of this

entire bet the whole point of kidnapping Raph

kidnapping Casey here is Even though splinter

is set already that it's one big giant, you know

trap It's not a trap for Raph or Casey. It's

a trap for Leo done done done So Come on Mikey

forget this guy. Yes. See you around pinhead

He says yes you will Again the art absolutely

amazing art really really love it and then do

you think if raf wasn't so enraged over casey's

i don't want to say death but injury you think

he wasn't so enraged you actually have his head

together to be able to see that they're going

after leo um you know i think the entire group

is is completely preoccupied You know, Splinter's

not paying attention. Mike and Don aren't paying

attention. They're all so interested in getting

their bleeding comrade out of there. It was,

I think, a perfect strategy on the Shredder's

part to divide and conquer like this. Oh, absolutely.

I mean, absolutely. And they do the exact same

thing. You know, they knock Leo out. I believe

Alopex does it. She knocks him out or hits him

with something. He drops his swords. Karai says,

it is done, Master. Yes, Karai. I see. Excellent.

And the Foot Clan basically just, you know, ninja

vanish and the only thing they leave behind is

Leo's sword. Kind of like what they did with

Casey's mask earlier. And it's not until they

get into April's van with a bleeding Casey Jones

to the wait a minute dudes Leo's not here and

wait wait what oh Man so they can't even go back

and chase them down. They got to get Casey to

the hospital and Leonardo Yeah Casey's dying

and that's how that issue ends For issue 20 good

colors run to Pattinson Casey's really pale Good

job He looks like the corpse actually He looks

like something you'd see in a law and order Morgue

slab honestly like one of those TV show cop TV

show Morgue slabs Wow Wow she turned Casey Jones

into an albino You know what I get that you don't

get in the back of my issues. I get letters columns

Yes, I need to go back and read all the letters

columns in this one when I get I got to finish

I'm reading Tales of the Turtles Volume 2 1 through

72. That's my bedtime reading when I'm done with

that I think I'll go get go back and read all

these letters columns. Maybe my letter even made

it into the book and I didn't even read it I

Wrote a new one after our interview with Bobby.

I'm hoping Whoever does that looks at it and

says, Hey, it's that dude that interviewed Bobby.

Let's put that in. Fingers crossed. I doubt it,

but it's worth hoping. Oops. I'm onto my issue

23 now. Yeah, we're up to issue 23 now. And I

dropped my ninja claw. My shredder gauntlet.

That's what that was. Sorry, listeners. I hope

to God it didn't injure anything. It missed my

foot, but it did fall into the cluster of wires

I had plugged into the laptop. I was a little

worried. That's not normal. Alright, so we're

up to issue 23, City Fall Part 2. You should

have read... Old Hob's villain microseries before

this in the reading order because Issue 23 Old

Hob leads into this. So the events of this actually

started in the Old Hob microseries single issue

or spotlight or whatever you want to call it.

And again, I love how they do the layouts for

the title. That's very Will Eisner and the spirit.

I love that. I don't know if that's an homage

or if that's just something that... You do nowadays,

but city fall is spelled out in the city lights.

We're almost there. They're going to the hospital

conversation inside the van and then part two

city fall part two is it also In the city lights

behind them in the buildings like how brilliant,

you know, like two panels later you get that

that's That's some neat design. I love that stuff

That's why I can't make a comic book. I'm not

that clever I got a whole bunch of people say

like dude. I love the way you draw turtles. You

should totally do a comic. Yeah, but Doing layouts

like this is a total different thing from doing

just a boring character sketch. This is beautiful

work So we get to the hospital and obviously

the the animals in the van can't go in Just I

wonder if there was a conversation here where

they're like dudes. He was stabbed in the chest

with ninja blades How are we gonna explain that

to the hospital? Uh, he fell on our I don't know.

He fell on our pizza cutter. He fell on car.

He fell inside the blender. I don't know. Yeah

Blended Jones. No, thank you You want crumpets

with that Understand what a crump it is before

you understand cricket So we get this this thing

here where April says coast clearance guy I'm

gonna head inside and see if I can help any way

Thank You miss O 'Neil we must go and then I'm

telling Michelangelo are searching for Leonardo

with orders to meet us at the lair in one hour

we then flip -flop to Shredder and Karai returning

to the Foot Clan hideout. What do you require

next, Grandfather? There is nothing I need from

you, Karai. You're both dismissed. We then, and

I, as much as I'm not, I love the story, but

I'm just not really, I don't know. As City Fall

progresses, I like what they did with it for,

like, an interesting dynamic kind of thing, but

at the same time, it breaks my damn heart. But

I love this juxtaposition of Casey on the table

and Leo on the table. It's like Karai went in

and stole a hospital gurney. They ordered one

from Ikea, I'm sure. Through the legitimate business

front of the Foot Clan. Sounds like a funky club

for podiatrists. Foot Clan podiatry. The juxtaposition

continues on these two pages here where the top

half is everything that's going on with Casey,

the bottom half is everything that's going on

with Kitsune and Shredder and Leo. Splinter!

I'll cut you down, Master! I must congratulate

you. It's the same guys we fought last night!

You passed your test with flying colors. Test?

What test? Your hairy little friend knows me

as Oroku Saki. But you may call me the Shredder.

A kitchen utensil? You would be wise to lose

your flippant ways if you wish to join the honorable

Foot Clan! So the juxtaposition of the two events

of this story here continue on these next two

pages. The top half is Casey, what's going on

with him. The doctor says, your friend's pretty

bad shape, miss. Mind telling me what happened?

I already told that other guy he got mugged and

stabbed. Let me guess, the mugger had a sword,

right? We've been getting a lot of these kind

of muggings lately, you know. The sword kind,

and I'm wondering why that is. No answer, huh?

Well, wait here if you want, I need to go save

your friend's life. And that's when April comes

in and they go to... to look at Casey and he

- oh my god, that wound. Yeah, dude, you don't

want to be messing with your... No, I don't.

I really don't. This is like a warning message

right here. I have the piece of equipment, and...

You know the fight actually I cut my finger on

it while I was policies But I the funny part

is I didn't cut myself on the blade I had it

on the polishing wheel and the polishing wheel

grabbed it and spun it around and the blunt end

hit me and Split my fingers like well at least

I didn't cut my finger off and I and I hadn't

put the edges on it yet I still maybe maybe they

won't get any sharper than they are now which

is to say not extraordinarily sharp at all Seriously?

I felt. I was very scared when it nailed me.

That's crazy. I know you said you're responsible,

but Jesus Christ, you need to stop making jokes

right now. I know, I know. Alright, so we get

to the bottom half of these two pages. You understand

how important the next phase is? Yes, Kitsune.

Of course, we'll deliver the faithful and adapt

you to your desire, just as conquered Death Star

Dominion to bring you this new age. Obviously,

see Secret History of the Foot Clan. Your ultimate

destiny is within reach, Saki, I promise. Now,

see, this is where... Have you seen the... dolph

lungren masters universe movie yes i think that

that's i think that's brilliant i'd maybe have

need to watch it with an adult i'd like to have

quite a bit okay well in that movie in case you

hadn't seen it uh... for listeners who haven't

seen it's in that movie evil in plays a trick

on the corny cox by turning herself into corny

cox's characters mother I know Masters of the

Universe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are

two very different things, but Jesus Christ,

if Gitsune doesn't pull that exact same trick

with Leo as we continue through Cityfall, because

it sets it up right here, where he says, you

understand how important this next phase is.

Of course, I will deliver the faithful and adept

chunin you desire just as I conquered Death's

Dark Dominion to bring you to light to a new

age. So she is going to... basically screw with

leo's head as we go along in this and this is

where when i kept saying in secret history this

is where i kept kind of getting confused about

the difference between kitsune and tang shin

because of what she does to corrupt leo the way

that i interpret what's going on is and and i

don't know It's yeah nerd argument here doesn't

matter really, but I think she's I think Leo

is constructing the dream That she's just guiding

it and I think Leo is manifesting his mom In

this that it that it's not it's not her speaking

but kind of Kitsune is controlling what's coming

out of her mouth and what splinter does to kind

of steer him toward the darkness, but Yeah, anyway

Hey, she's got her Fox mask. She hasn't put that.

Yes, she does. She does put that on Yeah, she

yeah, she she was buried with that. Mm -hmm It

was in the it was in the coffin when she when

they first resurrected her. Yeah, I'm glad she

still got that I was afraid that they were going

to desupernaturalize her in the future in the

present day, I suppose I'm glad they did not

What is that line from the original film? At

the end, the guy that says, go check out the

warehouse. What is the line? Go check out that

warehouse on Lairdman Island. Because Lairdman

Island, that was East Laird. Yeah, that's what

it was. Go check out the warehouse on East Lairdman

Island. That's what it was. I wish they would

have used this. I know Hobb is not that smart.

But I wish they would have used that here, where

he's spray -painted East River Midnight. I can

help you. Do you know who delivers that line

in the movie? Not off the top of my head. I believe,

and now I might be getting his name wrong, in

which case I'll feel awful. Sam Rockwell? The

actor? Seriously? Yeah, that's him. Okay, you

talk about old Hobb for a minute while I... I'm

gonna, yeah, well I've gotta go IMDB this too.

Make sure I got his name right. Oh, seriously,

no way. Sam? Yeah, yep. Are you fr - Wow, that's,

uh, yeah, wow. I crapped my pants when I saw

that as an adult. Wait a minute! It's that dude

from Green Mile! Yep, head thug. Yep. Wow. That's

crazy. Sam Rockwell, the only thing I had really

seen him in... Like with I wouldn't say legitimately

but like for me seeing him I think the only thing

that I really saw him in was As Justin Hammer

and Iron Man 2 and he is so different in that

then he obviously it's X number of year You know,

it's nearly you know, what is it 20 years later?

Something like that, you know, it's nearly yeah,

it's yeah From Turtles to Iron Man 2, it's exactly

20 years. Yeah, wow. Because... Damn. Merry Christmas.

There you go. Something to enjoy. But I wish

they would have used that. Yes, I agree. I kind

of wish Burnout Island was Lairdman Island. I

think that would have been... Don't we gotta

give our knob to Bobby, but you know yeah, I

mean I don't mind that I like the nod that because

I I cuz I we never did get to ask him about it,

but I Remember when I first read that I'm like,

whoa Whoa, he's got a place named after him.

That's pretty awesome. So we've got We've got

Kitsune here who is basically saying I pose no

threat to you. I am simply here to guide you

to uncover the uncover your eyes and show you

the true menace that lurks within the darkest

shadows of your life and Reveal to you where

your ultimate salvation lies I still think her

dark arts are fucking with his mind. I really

do. Yeah, absolutely and I While you say that

he it's his dream It might be his dream, but

I really do think she is in full control of what

he is seeing Think I think she's in control of

the message. He's in control of the symbolism

Okay, now we're getting weird and obscure, but

that's what I that's what I Imagine these things

to work like because then it becomes more effective.

She she would have to guess what terrifies him

He knows so she's kind of putting you're gonna

be terrified and then he completes That image,

you know that what would hurt his feelings most

is what he's creating And the beautiful thing,

she dives into his brain, we turn the page, and

it's Dan Duncan's art. I love the way when they

flash back, flash forward, do whatever they need

to do, it's, they go get the artist from that

era and then they play with it. I think that's

beautiful. And I love Dan Duncan's art. It's

probably my favorite Ninja Turtle art. Ever.

Although Santaluto's pretty awesome too, but

yes. She says and we're better to start young

Leonardo than the beginning the beginning of

the lies my son You need not fear. I will always

protect you from harm Where is your gratitude?

And it's basically this super deformed version

of splinter it looks more like a rat than any

other way we he is basically uh... you know he's

the villain here uh... shredder comes in it's

art leonardo uh... i am here now and she's basically

morphing leo's mind saying that shredder is the

hero splinter is the villain and i don't remember

have we had mousers before yeeeee Yeah, yeah,

yeah cuz they were the they were the military

bomb drones with the ridiculous acronym Yeah,

but these mousers. Oh my god These things oh

wow So crazy So in this dream shredder saves

Leonardo This is a true since I knows what is

needed when danger approaches always action never

words now run child run run We have another artist

to highlight on the next page run Oh Wow, this

is extreme. Yeah, this is Wade and this who is

the artist in this I was in this page I was hoping

you'd remember because I don't it's the artist

of the he comes back and does the the New Hampshire

run the message oh um russ russ campbell yes

it's his art okay yeah before his turtle legs

got gigantic uh but this is not where this is

this is the start of his baby head egg -shaped

turtles yes yes still the old school i can't

remember what story arc he illustrated No, no,

no, this is like the new kiddified version. This

is where it looks to me This is where it starts

or I said to you off -air when we get to Northampton

eventually That I don't like the designs on the

turtles. This is where it kind of started with

their heads because if you look at I think is

that I Think it might be because he's yeah. He's

not wearing his bandana in this I think that's

why it looks weird, but the the weird elongated

proportions that happen Mm -hmm in Northampton

aren't here in this yet. Yeah, but what story

arc did he start with? I'm forgetting. Oh Man

your 12 is Dan Duncan. What happened after that?

1 through 12 was Dan Duncan 13 was sins of the

father through 13 through 14 was sins of the

father and then 15 and 16 was blood brothers

Okay, it's right on my head, I can go look. Okay.

La la la. Don't drop your... No, that's totally

safely now. Good! I haven't cleaned up my order

yet since I've been rereading them. Burnham.

Burnham, Saint Luke. Yeah, it's... It's upstairs.

Never mind, listeners. But either way, he's flashing

back through these recent events, seeing them

through the light of Kitsune's poison. And whenever

they're addressing this particular bit in history

and rewriting it for him, they're going back

to the artists who did those runs in the books,

which is bloody genius. Oh, no, it is good. It

is nice. I mean, I didn't. Don't mind when a

book sit like the IDW transformers Ongoings will

do this they'll have One artist on the present

-day stuff and they'll have one artist on the

on the past stuff I don't mind that what I mind

is if you're currently doing all present an all

present -day story and if you have one issue

that's one artist and the next issue is not that's

that's where yeah we've we've talked about that

before yeah like yeah well i've i'm reading a

book that i just recently stopped pulling where

it would change within the issue and it was we're

not going to make the deadline go get your friend

your your cousin lenny to finish this book because

dude we got to have it done and then it looks

terrible but i i think they do that for scheduling

reasons In IDW series, but they plan ahead for

it. They make it make sense like this and I love

them I Really IDW is a special special publishing

company right now, even though they're doing

old stuff and I know that they've gotten Crap

from people in letters columns because they're

rehashing all these old properties They're doing

it with love and they're doing it with you know

style like this where they're Deliberately flashing

back to previous artists doing neat things like

that. You don't see that in a lot of slightly

more mainstream books So let me ask you how old

do you think April is here? um 20 Because next

to angel she doesn't look 20 Angel looks like

a mid 20s April's looks like she's 17 in this

high I mean I know the whole point of this art

and in this hospital scene is to show that April

is really sad about Casey But the the top panel

here where it's April and Angel sitting next

to each other Angel looks so much older than

April. I think Angel is just a beast. I think

she's gigantic You know and powerful. Oh, absolutely

Oh, yeah. You read the Metalhead issue, correct?

Yeah. Yeah, there's something that I think a

lot of people missed, and I won't spoil that

for the listeners. No, we'll get to that once

we get to it. So they have a nice touching moment

checking in on Casey, and we then go back to

Leo's brainwashing. That's the best term I can

use for this, because she is essentially brainwashing

him. We see him fighting Slash. This guy's art

reminds me of Mignola. Like Mignola, yeah. In

a good way. No, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know...

And part of this page is... Leo's saying, uh,

please help Leo, please, he's gonna kill us.

Uh, nobody. Holy, did you guys see that? Bye,

Leo. Boom. And losing his brothers basically

just tips him over the edge. And this is where

Kitsune basically, she basically makes his mind

break. And that's when he kinda... Wait, I believe

he wakes up, right? Yeah. He... No, maybe he

doesn't. No, but I think he's about to. I think

that's the fwoom on the last panel is bright

lights and awareness. So, we get to... We get

to Splinter and the other three turtles, and

they're gonna go and meet old Tom. Didn't think

you'd show. And rash like slash I knew Leo didn't

kill him and now we know how Hob found the church

So Hob is basically He wants their help. He wants

splinters help to get something. He wants splinters

help to get basically mutagen And we then go

back to Leo's dream and This is freaky how they

turn the whole scene from the beginning of this

this series or not the Issue the prologue issue

21 how they turn off it. Oh Yeah, it's freaky

it is just free Eastman's art Yeah But it is

so freaky how the the assassin is in red instead

of what he was originally in for colors and the

fact that if Splinter's nose, like if his whole

mouth was a little bit longer, I would swear

he's the friggin' aardvark from Pink Panther

and the aardvark right there. Or it says, no

Hamato Yoshi, glurk, at the top right. I swear

to God, if it was just a little bit longer it'd

be the aardvark. I don't think I've read that.

No, it's a cartoon. I'll have to I'll show you

a video later Okay, now he wakes up now he wakes

up yeah, and then yeah, this is where Kitsune

puts the black mask on him now is this Slash's

mask not Okay, not yet But I thought Slash already

had a black mask. Nope. Because Leo gives it

to him as a parting gift. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, and that's how issue 23 ends. Is him waking

up in the black mask. Issue 24, I believe...

I'm gonna have to look, but I believe this is...

Yes. You would have need to have read, um, Karai

before issue 24. Which I haven't read that yet

either. No, no, no, no, wait, no, no, no, wait.

I'm looking at the order here. No, you need to,

no, 24 then Karai. That's what it is. Sorry.

Okay, good. Then I'm doing the right order. Yeah,

you're right. But I don't know where Karai is.

I'm in trouble here. I got to track that down.

Um, so we start issue 24 with Karai. She's basically,

um, Basically training her her baguettes off

And I'm gonna use that line training her baguettes

off I'm gonna oh oh I see because it's those

It's the tatami rolls. Yeah interesting point

of fact because I'm a nerd The those roles what

they're um They're tatami mats that are rolled

up in Japan. That's what a lot of the flooring

is. It's the rice straw Wrapped and woven tightly

together the okay. Here we go. The guy who played

Tatsu the real name is Toshishiro Obata he invented

the process of cutting test cutting swords with

tatami mats when he was doing Tameshigiri, the

practical sword cutting, they used to use straw

wrapped around bamboo and I don't know if it

was expensive or if it was labor intensive but

he's walking home from the dojo one day by a

tatami mat factory and in the dumpster are all

these used tatami mats. He starts taking them,

he rolls them up, he puts them on a post and

starts cutting them and now that's... all you

use to to cut to test cut with practical swords

now so when any any of the you see those cutting

exercises on YouTube it's it's Toshishiro Obata

the guy who played Tatsu in the Ninja Turtle

movie who invented that that process that uh

and he's and since he invented it he and and

that's what his martial art is is practical swordsmanship.

He's like won the championship. He's ridiculously

precise with a three -foot piece of steel in

his hands. It's scary watching him do what he

does. There are YouTube videos if you're interested

in checking that out. Listeners, Toshishiro Obata

test cutting and or Toshishiro Obata shin kendo

and you'll see him doing his art. But that's

exactly what Karai is doing here in panel one.

She's cutting tatami mats. She says grandfather.

I did not know you were watching me your technique

Korean yes Ji Momo, I believe is what he's saying.

I don't yeah, I don't know my Korean pronunciations.

He's checking the cutting angle what he's doing

with his hand there Yes Yes, grandfather. It's

one of many forms. I use on training I see Training

has ended for today the time has come to use

your katana for something more important than

dancing about. And he asks her if she's prepared,

and she says, of course, I'm ready, Master Shredder,

if I may ask, how can you be certain that the

mutants will find us? And at the bottom... That's

a great panel, too. He just knows, like, I've

already got that worked out, Kurai. City Fall,

part three. My favorite thing about this... These

two pages here is well page I guess because that's

the first time we see him. He's outside of his

armor and he looks normal Yeah, I think that

is a brilliant way to handle shredder that he

doesn't need to be in that armor all the time

And I don't and and I don't know do you think

he becomes less vulnerable? And this is he more

he's more human in this he's not I Don't know.

It's just nice to see it like this. He's more

human but You can clearly see he's a damaged

man. I mean, yes, he is very confident in that

image. Look at that scar. That's not just, you

know, a rat jumping up and biting and gnawing

on your cheek. That's somebody slicing you from

your forehead down to almost your mouth. Look

at that scar on his left eye. Oh my god. Like,

I don't even know. I'm gonna have to look at

him again in the armor and see if that's even

visible on his eye. Because look at where the

scar is, like right under his eye. I don't even

remember if I can see, if you can see that when

he has the armor on. When he's walking around

confidently like this, he wore the armor in the

movie because he was hiding his face. And whenever

he had it off, everybody was like, oh, his face,

dude, whoa. But in this... He's wearing the armor

because it's part of the regalia. He doesn't

need that armor to be a deadly mofo. I think

that's kind of what's interesting. But that's

what I'm saying. Looking at him without the armor

on here, it's interesting to me that I have not

yet noticed with him wearing it in this book

series that I have not noticed part of that scar.

So that's what I'm wondering. Does the helmet

cover the entirety of it? That's what I'm wondering.

So we get to Casey. He's still in the hospital.

He's dreaming. He's dreaming about his mom. I

love that the theme of these books is family.

Family, yeah. I think that's a beautiful way

to take the turtles. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So, April is like, Angel, I think he's waking

up. Oh, Casey, thank God. And he hugs her, or

she hugs him, and the look on his face is like,

who are you again? An angel in the background

on that left panel, she just has this sly smile

on her face. I'm glad they didn't... I know,

go ahead. You first. I'm so glad they didn't

pull a Jerry Springer. The love triangle thing?

I'm so happy they did not do that. I'm really

surprised they didn't, but I'm glad that they

didn't. Well, with Angel... She has said that

she owes Casey her life. He saved her. Without

him, she wouldn't be. So while they may have

a romantic past at one point or another, I'm

glad that April is his here and now. And she's

over it to a point where it doesn't bother her.

That there's not going to be that drama. Yeah.

I still think April looks like a friggin' teenager

in this book. Come on, artists. Make her look

a little bit more. You know mid early to mid

20s, please I mean cuz she looks like a seven

-year -old sitting. Yeah, I feel like I feel

like crud what happened. You almost died That's

what happened. Yeah Jones next time you need

attention do us all a favor and write a poem

Don't get stabbed by that ninja dude with with

blazes and yeah, but that that middle panel where

April is leaning on his bed rest there, she looks

like a friggin' seven -year -old. I don't like

it. It's the size of her forehead. It's the size

of her entire face. Honestly, she looks like...

Oh, and the short chin. That's what does it.

Yeah, I mean... I don't know, it just bugs the

crap out of me. And what's gonna bug the crap

out of me more is what we did mention this to

Bobby in the interview later down the line. She's

gonna cut her hair. Anyway, so April and Casey

and Angel all have this discussion and Casey's

like You know Casey says oh man Raph we got jumped

by the foot and and April says he disappeared

after their big fight with Shredder and Karai.

Disappeared? What do you got? Cause he tries

to get up out of the hospital bed. The stitches

don't. Yeah. Yeah. The stitches don't. So we

go back to old hob, the turtles and et cetera.

I love that. I love this page here. These, these

four panels, um, because of how the night sky

is against the characterizations of of the turtles

in the old high it just it looks so cool it really

does and okay look at Donnie and tell me that

is not an egg shape with with his bandana on

like look at Raph look at Donnie Donnie's head

looks like a giant green egg with a purple bandana

on it. I'm telling you listeners right now in

the future recordings of this I'm going to be

complaining about the egg -shaped heads for a

long time because I don't like the design. I'm

sorry. So what is um what is Hobb having them

do? Go in and steal something? I'm trying to

figure that out. I wonder if he's does he have

him? Yeah Oh, no, he's here. He hasn't gotten

his payment yet. He's taken them to to where

They can find Leonardo. Oh, yeah And they're

like wait, where's Mikey and he's over there

trying to make friends with slash I love Mikey.

First the pizza guy and now Slash. I love Mikey.

And Mikey actually teaches him. And I really

do dig that. So we get to this warehouse. You

know. Old Hob sets them up locks them in and

he walks away saying but I sure as hell ain't

no dummy And this is where they meet Shredder,

Kurai, Alopex And this is where Shredder and

Splinter kind of face off Splendor says, we are

here for my son Orokosaki. For Leonardo, we have

been told you hold him prisoner. We demand his

immediate return. Blood need not be shed this

day, but be aware we will use all means necessary

to retrieve our loved one. You know, the turtles

have faced off with Shredder two or three times

like this now. They walk into a room and there's

Shredder kind of at a dais at the front in an

elevated platform with a chair. And you know

how much easier it would be if The turtles just

brought a pistol to that because then I, you

know, ninjas are assassins. I don't know if they

really care what tools they use, but, you know,

they're sticking to their sticks and their swords.

They got to get close to them. It'd just be so

much easier if they powed and then and then you're

all done. You don't have to worry about the shredder

screwing with your family anymore. But. That's

being, that's being adored. Yeah, well that,

that knockdown drag out fight does come. Well,

yeah, yeah, I just, I, I'm not griping at how

they're handling it because this makes for a

much more interesting story, but I think it,

I felt like, gosh, if they just brought a gun

to that, he could be tap, tap, done. And then,

and I don't know, in, in several of the different,

versions of the turtles, they've ended up killing

Shredder. They've successfully defeated him,

and I wonder if we're going to see that, and

if the story will continue, because man, does

he need to go down. He's such a dangerous guy,

especially in this incarnation. He's so dangerous

to keep around. It's not a good idea to keep

him around. Oh, absolutely not, no. So we get...

We get the foot clan and Wait, is that a flashback?

It must be a flashback because it looks like

a young sake where we know The page after no,

these are this is the the actual city at war

here. This is the Gangs yeah, the gangs. Okay

We go back to as we forget that's that's what

the city fall is. It has very little to do with

Kidnapping Leo and the turtles. It's it's shredder

taken over the city. Yeah Shredder says sadly,

however, you will not be alive to witness my

ultimate triumph Yoshi tonight I in the nuisance

you have presented to me over two lifetimes and

you know She says you are certainly mistaken

if you believe for even one second that I care

for your criminal wars or your arrogant threats

Return my son to me or okosaki Your son is no

more, Yoshi. This cannot be! Hear me now, devil!

If I cannot have my son, I will have your head!

Wait, Master! Calm down! Don't use your anger!

But I understand why he is. Well, I don't know

how much of a difference there is between Raph

going after Shredder for K .C. Yeah, I'm sure

Splinter's learned to control it. Yeah And then

the shock of everything I will not know I will

not allow you to harm my master and splinter

is just He's just dumbstruck and Leo just kicks

him right in the face I Do absolutely love the

design work on Leonardo with the the samurai

style chest plate and all of the cords tying

that to his shell and his belt and the actual

samurai swords, not the katana straight blade

but the curved and the wakazashi tucked into

the correct side. I like the design of that.

He also has the turtleneck. That Shredder has

that must be a foot clamp. Yeah, it is a foot

clamp thing. Karai is wearing Yeah, Karai has

one. Alopex has one. Alopex looks purple not

or black not not red. Oh, yeah, there it is Look

at Leo's left like on the very first where where

he says I will not allow you to harm my master

Look at his shoulder He's wearing the the foot

symbol. It's a it's a like it It's a cross between

the foot symbol and a red Decepticon symbol.

I don't think that foot logo existed until the...

And I forget what year it's from. The middle

cartoon. I think that was where the three -pointed

thing got invented. And I like that that's come

to this. So, as I said before, Leo basically

kicks the crap out of Splinter. no rodent you

are wrong I am NOT your son and damn things get

heavier and heavier from here and Raph's like

oh hell no it's still Leo guys don't hurt him

Raph what the hell Leo that's your father I already

said he is not my father what is going on Mikey

watch out oh my god like This brainwashing really

did work, apparently. Because holy crap, Leo

just takes them all out. Not that he couldn't

before, but obviously, as a good guy, Leo would

use restraint and not do... Yeah, there is no

restraint here. You've got a throat punch with

the pummel of the katana. That's a killing stroke

that he's swinging at Donatello there. Yeah.

I mean, this knockdown dragout battle is simply

amazing. Shredder eventually says, enough, lower

your sword, Leonardo. You have proven yourself

worthy, Chunin. This is the thing, you kinda

said to me I think off air that they use a message

here where Leo, there's something in the brainwashing

where he never kills. Kitsune has basically turned

Leonardo into Batman. Well, even more so I thought

he's not gonna kill but he's he's using Deadly

force deadly force. Yeah He's I don't think he

could even if they ordered him to but they know

I think what what's going on and they're gonna

mention it in a page or two here is that kitsune

knows that if they give the order for For Leonardo

to kill somebody that The spell or the brainwashing

would be broken because he won't kill but They

definitely have cut him loose enough to give

head butts and throat punches and oh my god.

Yes Just some really vile things that they're

not used to seeing him do but of course he's

trained to do them because That's what you do

Yep, and then down it, you know raps like damn

Donnie's like guys run The door we came in we'll

bust it open con So it's a mad dash for the door

On the opposite panel splinter says Leonardo

And the final page which is at the end to be

continued is Okay, we're in the clear. I'm gonna

skin you alive Easy, why are you so ticked off

at me? You're still breathing ain't ya? You took

us to a freaking meat grinder, and I got you

out of the meat grinder. Basically the reason

why Hobb has done all this is because he wants

a favor from them. No luck getting the little

greenie back, huh? Let me guess, he went and

got himself a new daddy, right? Dammit Hobb,

not all right. Not now, all right. Just not now.

And you see splinter as the to be continued at

the bottom panel you see him juxtaposed against

the city holding the blue bandana While your

issue while your issues have letter columns mine

have I could I Think this is pencil art I could

be wrong, but it says this page and opposite

page art by Kevin Eastman. It's of the assassin

uh... facing the turtles both both pages and

then we have karai uh... let's see opposite page

art by andy kuhn colors by daniel pez lopez which

is a cover of the four turtles uh... against

the purple sky uh... and then we have uh... art

by dean haspeel colors by alan i can't pronounce

his last name That I believe is another alternate

cover. Another Eastman cover as well, colors

by Ronda Pattinson. We're going to have to get

her on the show. We're going to have to get her

on the show to talk about turtle colors. That'd

be interesting. Yeah, right. As we end San Toluco,

I'd love to talk to him and I love everything

he does except those... Yeah, minor nitpick the

the different shaped headband patterns on them.

Oh, yeah But everything else is brilliant. I

love everything You get another cover which it's

Raph and Casey against the foot clan done by

Eastman and Pattinson or Pattison I should say

I know Pattinson the opposite page is by far

my favorite. It's done by Richard Woodall It

is Shredder with his wrist gauntlet and it's

Casey in the reflection of the two blades. Oh

my god, that looks amazing. Even though he's

still wearing the Snuggie, this still looks amazing.

This one has a lot of art in it. It also has

the regular covers of the City Falls single issues

of Kitsune and Splinter. done by santa luco very

very very awesome we're going to take a quick

break and then we will come back over here yes

you are we're going to take a quick break and

then we'll come back to talk about the villains

micro series volume one which is crying Baxter

old hobb and a little tax will be back after

this this is crying the one true ruler of dimension

X And you're nothing! Hey GeekCast listeners,

do you ever listen to Punisher Body Count and

think to yourself, this show would be awesome

if it had less toilet humor and was not about

the Punisher? If so, join me, Emily Williams,

as I class up the Punisher guys on Dane and Jake

at Classy. We're like the Oprah Book Club of

comics. You'll hear us discuss famous works like

The Dark Knight Returns and The Grove, along

with graphic novels no one else is talking about,

like Blue Monday and Blankets. You can find us

at daneandjakeatclassy .wordpress .com. more

on iTunes. So we are back and this time around

we already covered City Fall Part 1 and this

the rest of this episode we're going to talk

about Villain Micro Series Part 1 where we have

Krang, Baxter Stockman, Old Hobb and Alopex.

Now on the trade it's interesting because the

trade cover if you look at it like if you take

it Take it like a a hard hardcover book has has

its jacket has its dust jacket If you take the

trade and you open the two the front the front

cover and the back cover It's one whole cover.

That's a turtle shell that makes up with with

their the the images of the villains being part

of The Turtle Show, which is really, really cool.

Because I was wondering on here, why in the hell

is Crang's face on here twice? Because the actual

cover, it shows Crang on the left, Baxter, Old

Hob, and then Crang at the far right. And then

A. Lopex is in the center of the image. And I'm

like, oh, that's why. Because Crang is also on

the back of the book. So what they did was they

took one of the Crang images and made it part

of the actual bindings. So that's interesting.

Alright, so for the trade I'm just going to get

all the staff here out of the way. We have Crang,

Baxter, Old Hobbit, and Alopex. For Crang it

is written by Joshua Williamson. Artwork by Mike

Henderson. Colors by Ian Herring and lettering

is done by Sean Lee. For Baxter it is written

by Eric Burnham. Art by Andy Kuhn. I assume that's

how you say his name. Colors are done by John

Rausch. Lettering by Tom B. Long. Old Hobb is

written by Jason Siramella. I assume that's how

you say his name. That looks good to me. Artwork

is done by Dave Wachter. And lettering is done

by Sean Lee again. And Halifax is done by Brian

Lynch for writing. Artwork by Ross Campbell.

Colors by Ross Campbell and Heather Nunnally.

And lettering is done by Chris Mowry. I learned

something about Ross Campbell today. What that

he did alopex? Nope. Well that too, but when

I saw that name I had just looked at Some of

the old mirage books volume three or four because

three doesn't exist Volume four the tales of

the turtles was going at the same time as that

near the end of it. They did these Four issue

each turtle got a four issue kind of little miniseries

and Raphael's dark moon rising was The cover

illustrations are by Ross Campbell. I don't think

the interiors are but I think that's really cool

that he did some work for Mirage and now he's

back doing it for IDW. Absolutely. I don't think

he's not one of the Mirage house artists but

it was neat and it's old school work. It looks

good and it's not these large calved turtles

that we see now but... Hey, there they are. That's

right. I recognize him. All right, so getting

into this we have Krang the cover art on the

cover that I have in the trade is Krang I assume

inside his own chest and then below him is his

himself and is in his body The cover is done

by Tyler Walpole and The Crang story isn't...

it's not one of my favorites out of these four.

I think I appreciate seeing his backstory. It's

something that I don't think we've ever got from

any incarnation of Crang. I... I don't know if

we need... if you want to summarize the issue,

I might be jumping ahead, but it's... Good. It's

um... We see Krang we we know him as that helpless

guy in the giant robot body but in going to his

past to his home planet and they're at war and

he's shunned by his father and he decides You

know what? That's it. I'm totally gonna own this

and he goes and out on his own to do something

and Gets separated from his body that all of

the uterums Depend on and he chooses to survive

as the brain and does some amazing things And

I like that they are making the utrams, and particularly

Krang in this story, powerful little critters,

little creatures. And they're giving Krang a

reason for doing the things that he's doing.

He's younger in this. He hasn't come into his

own in this flashback story interactions with

his dad, but it shows why he's such a power hungry

person. I mean, I like seeing his backstory.

I just don't know if I like the old cliche of,

oh, he's a spoiled brat and then he learns a

lesson and he has to stand up and he has to,

you know, fight back and be a survivor. I swear

to God, somewhere in this episode, I'm going

to put Eye of the Tiger. I swear to God, I will.

But it's like, it just... I appreciate learning

about his backstory, but... to find out that

his backstory is just that he was a spoiled gamer

kid or something like that. There's so many old

movie cliches in this book. First of all, the

father may love his son, but he doesn't respect

him. He doesn't think he can do anything until

Krang has to actually step up and survive the

attack. by his his father's enemy and then he

does prove it it's a whole proving story and

that's i don't know it's just one of those things

that's just kinda really that's what they went

for i can see but i get it i i mean i mean i

get it it makes sense in in in you know in in

the end but i e it didn't i didn't when i read

the first time i didn't catch this part either

but the evil warlord who he was kind of I'm gonna

go kill this guy to prove myself and get separated

from his body tames the the acid spitting thing

and he goes to attack this warlord Which he manages

to handedly defeat with the help of his dragon

and his own viciousness when he says He's Take

the body with us. I've got plans for it Craying

starts to wear this dude's dead body as his robot

suit. I Missed that That's really cool. I didn't

miss it. I The first time I read through this

I'm like wait what and then I just went on When

I went back and looked at it again before we

recorded this I'm like, oh my god Crayon is so

sadistic. He took this to his dead body and made

it a part of his robot body. Oh my god But this

story basically picks up where Oh man. Where

Karai had st - because the whole point of the

beginning of the story is Karai had stolen some

female ninja according to Grenidor or whoever

the hell that is. He says, some female ninja

broke in. I'll go tell Krang and still lose.

So that was when Karai broke in and stole the

mutagen. I'm trying to remember what issue that

was though. I'm trying to remember why she stole

it. She's going to eventually make a - Warthog

and a rhino? Oh, yeah. I don't... Yeah, she does

that behind Shredder's back. That's right. Yeah,

that'll be coming up later. So excited. I'm trying

to... I'm really, really trying to see here what...

I'm trying to see if Bobby put a note in here.

No, I don't see one. But it says a female ninja

invaded and killed the guards ooze was stolen

and a new trauma is dead But I'm trying to remember

where that was like I remember reading that yeah

me too Where when did that happen? Because it

wasn't in city fall part one. It wasn't in what

we've just read Oh It was at the end of Krang

war that's right Think it was at the end of crying

war. That's like let's find out issue 20 maybe

I think All right It's nice having these behind

me, but I really need to put them back in order

When did she steal the mutagen no not in not

in crane war oh yep there it is it's in the middle

of crank war Yeah, yeah, so it's it's it's the

final chapter of crime war it's in issue 20.

Yeah, and we're up to Microsoft. Okay, so that

that works so You know the the soldier You know

tells him of this news and he's like He's the

soldiers like we were letting you recuperate

from your fight with the stand back You do not

assist me unless ordered. I don't need your help

And Krang's internal monologue is, the soldier

is upset, but I don't see terror in his eyes.

He has forgotten his place. Have I grown soft?

Have my setbacks to the hands of those blasted

neutrinos changed the way my forces look at me?

Do they see me as weak? I was not always as powerful

as I am now. And I still don't like the name

Planet Utramanon. I don't know, it just sounds

too damn weird for me. It's a throwback. Yeah.

So we begin this flashback scene, which is pretty

much the majority of Krang's story. And we learn

that, as I said earlier, Krang was a spoiled

little bitch. Ordering everybody around, being,

you know... Thinking that he has a right to lead

And his father basically shuts him down every

step of the way And during all of this Quainan's

mortal enemy Traxxas What does he have It says,

my father and the council planned an attack to

squash the Rebellion against them. That's what

it is. I thought he captured somebody. But basically

Traxxas is rebelling against the Utroms and they

have this plan of attack that is gonna supposedly

work but it doesn't work because Traxxas knows

Quainan all too well. and he put mines where

they landed. I gotta say, I'm digging the art

in this. I still think Krang is an ugly thing,

but I think all the U -Troms are ugly. I'm digging

the throwback armor that the commander of that

mission is with the fork on the top of the head

and the glasses, and even the creases in the

chest. Those are neat. Absolutely speaking of

the those creases I am proud and happy and ecstatic

to say that I finally Got a crank action figure

from the old old old toys the giant one that

had the brain in the tummy I always wanted to

get I got it at the geek sale. Whoo. Oh really?

so Awesome. Does he have wings? No wings. I should

add some but it's my geek badge of honor. I'm

happy Yeah, I put the art in this yeah stunning

From the backgrounds the character designs. They're

all very very well, and it's I'm trying to think

who is this soldier though is that's not quain

in because he comes later. I think yes He's a

commander who I think is just kind of being commissioned

or told to to take along Okay, the kid and watch

him That's kind of how I interpret it anyway

Okay, because, um... It's creepy as all hell,

that bottom panel where he says, but no mangy

bunch of prisoners can take on who Tramadon's

best. Look at that bottom panel. That's not just

a Nick Fury eyepatch, ladies and gentlemen. He

has no eye. It's gone. Bolted to his face, too.

Who just saw somebody with an eyepatch that was

bolted to their head? I can't remember where

I just saw that. That's creepy. That's just I'll

see you written. Well now now that you point

out that it's bolted Originally, I I saw those

and I'm like what is that his See, I thought

it was skin undergrowth. See I thought his eye

is always gone Like just haul a hollowed out

eye socket. That's what I thought it was at first

and now that I'm looking at a little bit more

Carefully. Yeah, you're right. That's a bolted

on eye patch. Holy crap So Traxxas had planned

for Quainon's sneak attack, blew everybody up,

and Krang is the only one that survives. And

he says, this was the finest Quainon could send

while he steps on one of the eutrons. Oh, I'm

glad they didn't show that. That's bad. What,

stepping on the eutron? Yeah, yeah, they cut

away there. Well, they don't necessarily... No,

they show his foot over his head. Well, yeah,

but they, you know, they don't actually illustrate

the D. Oh, yeah, they don't illustrate him squashing

the brain. Because it's so much closer in my

own head. Dude, I thought the brain's eye socket

was no longer there. You know, I thought the

brain's eyeball was no longer there, so... So,

whether it was luck or by fate that I made it

out of the attack alive, I didn't care. There

were more pressing issues at hand. The swamps

of Morbus were infamously dangerous. Plants,

animals, and terrain all deadly. So this is basically,

Krang has to survive on an alien planet, and

this is where he meets his version of Barney.

It's a blue Barney! And he says, I lived and

I survived. He basically realizes he cannot be

a worthless slob ordering people around. He has

to take charge of everything, quite literally.

And he does. Again, the art, absolutely amazing.

The story, like here, I like it because it's

showing you how Krang has changed from what we've

seen, what we saw earlier in the story. So I

do like that. Yeah, I don't know what kind of

animal that thing is. It's a lizard, dragon,

I don't... Iguana, yeah. Wow, that ass -spitted

effect is amazing. Yeah, I like the way that

they do that. That's usually like a whiteout

on the black marker, spattered, and then it gets

colored when they do the digital coloring. Yeah.

Hmm. So, Cran goes on to say, from now on, any

challenger would die at my hands. Retreat in

an instant or become mine to rule. And we see

him writing the thing. Yeah, and I guess they

show, the book shows with him conquering this

lizard and later killing the bad guy that even

though they're basketball sized brains wandering

around on little tentacles that they're still

dangerous, that they have the potential to be.

something yeah I'm wondering how many tentacles

he actually has because I see three while he's

riding the lizard and then maybe it's four or

five six I don't even know because it just seems

like there's there's three on one side and then

one on the other one I see six on the total Yeah,

yeah on the page that starts whether it was made

Or whether it was by luck or by fate that I made

it out of that attack alive. There's six Okay,

I don't know if that's cannon though No, it's

I'm looking here at the at the other at the next

page where he says save tracks This is body.

I have a plan for and I can see One two three

four. Yeah, I can see six. So that that that's

that's fine So, wait a second. He saved his body,

but... Did he only use his head? No, I think

he carved out his chest, because everything below

the waist matches, too. Yeah, I guess so. Wow.

That is... Oh, God. That is super creepy. And

we see, um... General Trag and then granita or

granite or however you say his name I think I

would I'm gonna I would put money on granite

or Granite or yeah, that's probably what it is

But it's interesting to see these guys not stone

soldiers right now no no the stone soldiers are

all humans He didn't make those till he met up

with Baxter right Right so these are general

miscellaneous soldiers, I guess Yeah. I don't

know. I really do like General Trag and, like,

I love them as rock soldiers from the old cartoon.

I mean, I don't dislike them here, but... They

haven't given these guys personalities yet. Not

yet, no. With all this going back to... Neutrino

and going to Ultraman on and then this planet

here with all of these alien bad guys Something

that the they haven't gone to with the IDW universes

to the Triceratons They were a significant villain

in the Mirage run. I'm sure they're going to

eventually they're probably saying they are I'm

trying to think did was there a cover recently

in Solicits that they that show that they do.

You know, Bobby made fun of us in our interview

for not looking at the solicitations. Like, I

don't have an opportunity, I don't see those,

I don't know where you go to get them. I look

at, well, I usually link them on Facebook all

the time. But it's like, you know, newsarama

.com has them, comicbookresources .com has them.

What Bobby was making fun of us for was the fact

that we hadn't looked at the recent Solicitations

because coming up an issue 37 Shredder and Crane

in the series finally meet up I'm trying to see

though because I because I I have to with with

doing the pull bag because I have Steve use use

Certain covers as art for the pull bag banner

arts that we do. So, um, I have to go through

solicits to see what, if there's any cool covers

I want him to use. Um, yeah, I'm not sure. There's

Northampton, Utrum, uh, 34 KC. I could have sworn

it was, um, uh, maybe it was, I think honestly,

you know what I think it is? I think it's. the

new uh... the new uh... series not new series

um... the new miniseries turtles in time i think

that's where i saw it let me just look here i'm

excited for that that comes out tomorrow i think

as of this recording uh... i see on the number

one cover uh... They're writing a Triceratops

in that cover, I think. Yes. I don't know if

that is Planet Triceraton or anything like that,

but like you said, I assume they're going to

be getting to it. I mean, as we've already stated

in the many, many reviews that we've done for

this series, it's a love letter to the entire

franchise of TMNT, so them not going to Triceraton,

or at least involving the Triceratons somehow,

would surprise me. So Krang's father shows up

and basically Krang says, you know, Krang says,

Greetings, Emperor Quain, and my army is at your

disposal. It is good to see you, my son. That

was the first time my father had called me his

son in ages. Finally, he looked upon me as I

deserved, with respect. Well, you didn't deserve

it before, but you deserve it now. So here's

my question with this entire story. Is Quainian

still alive? I know this is a flashback, this

last part where he says, it's good to see you,

my son. I know that's a flashback, but everyone

still calls him in the current timeline General

Crang. So... Is Quenon still alive? Is he still

around? Have you read Uthram Empire yet? I breezed

through it. I mean, I read it, but I didn't...

I think something happens in that, I think. It's

been a while. I need to reread it, of course.

I'm coming back to it since we're gonna record

it. But something happened on Uthram that Krang

needed to leave and take a bunch of Uthram with

them to save their lives. And I think that the

Emperor got wiped out in whatever happened there.

Okay, so as of right now, he is still... As of

this one shot, he is still alive. Yep. Well,

as of the flashback he is, but I don't think

Krang in the next panel is sitting in his ooze

bath with Granator saying, hey, this is what

happened, and I'm not afraid of you. Yeah, he

says, no underling will ever consider me to be

only as strong as my armor. And I will not let

my father or my people down. Nua Tramadon will

rise and rule this and every dimension. And no

one, Neutrina, Ninja, or Mutant will stand in

my way. I love that panel. I love it when they

play positive -negative games like that. Because

he... I love that image of Krang, but the soldier

is basically cast out in the bath as he knocked

him out. The the alternate cover here of Crang

in the Jungle is done by Mike Henderson the colors

number done by Ian Herring Absolutely love that

Overall I enjoyed I don't know I said before

I think it's a little bit of too cliched with

the whole father site I don't want to compare

it to this, but still hey, thank you It kind

of felt Lion King ish to me with Mufasa and Simba

Okay, sure Simba and Mufasa aren't as screwed

up as Quainan and Krang are, but just the whole

thing of even though the father loves his son,

he doesn't, he's still trying to teach his son

something and this it's like Quainan just has

no respect for him until he basically defeats

his enemy for him and takes his enemy's army

as his own. I think I've seen it a little too

many times. I don't know. Overall, good. I saw

that and I didn't think about it until you mentioned

it. You're right, it is a derivative thing. And

I think I overlooked how derivative it is because

of getting to see Krang's backstory and giving

him a reason to do the things he does and to

be the way he is. Which is something that I'm...

always thankful for that the IDW series seems

to do is it gives the characters a reason to

be the way they are. But I can see. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. So overall, the

writing for like, that's one thing I'll say,

even though it's not Eastman and Waltz, and granted,

Tom does the majority. I honestly don't know

how much writing Kevin does, even though he has

a writing credit, not trying to take away from.

his stuff but i think even bobby said tom does

most of the scripting yeah i think heaven just

gets approval and makes suggestions right right

uh... overall i gotta say with different writers

doing these characters i really you know i don't

the writing of crying even though i kind of down

on the the overall plot of the story but uh...

what you said seeing the back story seeing how

Krang became, you know, this most powerful thing

that he is. I really dug it, and the art is amazing.

I don't think... I may, every now and then, ladies

and gentlemen, complain about the turtles' art

a few times, like the turtles themselves, like

the emoticon masks and the upcoming egg -shaped

green egg heads. But other than that, the art

in these books is absolutely fantastic. And even

when I get over the gigantic calf muscles and

the length of them in that series if I still

I look at it and say Yes, these are not my favorite

turtles But they're still better than I can do

and I give them a lot of space for it And it's

still and even not even saying that but I think

they even that diminishes it It's really good

art. I mean on on the whole it's not like those

Panels you get in some mainstream books where

this is terrible he had ten minutes to draw this

and I think you feel the deadline and The rendering

takes a crap, but that doesn't happen in these

books Up next is Baxter the cover the main cover

here is the art is done by Tyler Walpole for

the cover This is a cover. I would want as a

frame poster like seriously it creeps me the

hell out, but it is so awesome. It's Baxter looking

at himself inside of what I can only assume.

I know it's some sort of digital technology thing,

but it kind of looks like a Christmas ornament.

It's the mouser head. Oh, holy crap. You're right.

Wow. OK, I didn't see the folds at first, but

yeah, he's OK. So he's looking at himself and

the mouser head and then there's mousers reflecting

back at him. Along wow that is don't feel so

bad when I when I looked at the cover of Mirage

Ninja Turtles 2 it's a mouser head and I I don't

know I've looked at that cover for 20 years and

it wasn't till fairly recently within the past

four or five that I realized that the Turtles

were reflected in the the thing and for some

reason my child brain Also, my teenage brain

and also my adult brain just saw that as chrome

reflection. I didn't see the turtles in it So

I felt horribly horribly dumb and now I'm admitting

that to all of our listeners Well, you're a kid

we've done a lot of dumb things as kids But no,

I mean it's it's probably one of the best covers

of the entire series right now So back to your

story. We start at burnout island I've been here

for too long playing lackey to an extra -dimensional

warlord He goes on to say he tasked me with overseeing

the completion of the technodrome a work of terrified

terrifying proportions and limitless possibilities

I've been doing my best to learn more than Krang

is willing to share, but I've barely scratched

the surface. He says, until I understand enough,

Krang intends to use the technodrome to terraform

the earth, remaking it to better suit his people's

needs, but such an extensive change would not

suit my own. Andy Kuhn doing the art again. He

had a short run. In the main storyline a while

back. I I think His turtles are definitely growing

on me. I do quite enjoy his work in this book

and in the old Arc which I can't remember. Oh,

that's the the slash arc the slash arc. Yeah

So Baxter keeps going on with his monologue says

he can live with a dictator But Krang's radical

transformation of the ecosystem would be irreversible

and would render the earth unfit for human habitation.

I obviously can't allow this to... can't allow

this, but can't openly defy Krang. This leaves

me with a problem. But a lot of problems have

a solution. My father taught me that. Now what

do you think of the... the... the contrast between

present -day Baxter... the lab and the flashback

with his father and him playing chess the colors

and I I like it I think it's really cool and

the the art style is different I don't know if

it's the coloring or the line work we're kind

of looking at the present -day stuff I see line

variation in the work and in the lines of the

face and in the fingernails, but over here in

the flashback, that all looks like a uniformly

thick marker. I can't even tell if it's the same,

if it's Andy Kuhn, I think it is, looking at

the shape of the eyes. It's impressive, it's

a neat way to do that. It kind of it flattens

the image they look almost like paper cutouts

with rendering Yeah, but that's a neat way to

handle it and I don't think it's I don't think

it's sepia tone, but it's It's one of those weird

alternate visual tones that you usually get in

camera phones and cameras in general Instagram

filter God sorry no, I can't see it Instagram

filter that's funny So we have Baxter and his

father and His father is making him play chess

Because he wants to teach him that life is all

that life is is about winning The you know Baxter

says, Dad, a dumb game can't teach me to think.

I can already do that. The father says, this

game forces you to anticipate obstacles and how

you'll get past them. I almost won the last one.

You just got lucky. If you already know how to

think so well, then why do I keep beating you?

And he says, luck is a bunch of superstitious

cl - This is the one thing in the writing of

this this one chat that I have I just have no

words for The father says luck is a bunch of

superstitious claptrap Like really seriously

use that word He says we only believe in the

power of our minds and what we can accomplish

with them now set the board up again So Baxter's

father is I would assume very very overbearing

at least towards his son We go back to the present

and we see that a Very weird -looking Crang is

calling back That design is what the hell is

that? I'm trying to find it It's oh, yeah, there

it is man. I expect you to answer me immediately

when I call. What is the status? I want a status

report The computer generated image of crying

that just Looks so friggin weird compared to

what we just saw in the one -shot for him It

doesn't jar me I don't know I I don't I accept

that because there are different artists that

they're gonna look different and I yeah I don't

know I tend I don't know why I don't question

it I have to I mean it's I Understand there's

different artists and every artist has has their

own take and that's you know The whole point

of being able to work on something like this

is you have somewhat of some artistic license

But I still think there should be some sort of

uniform code that says You know if you're gonna

be doing you know story was created he has to

look like this but you can put your stamp on

if you'd like uh... a little bit uh... i think

this is just way too much artists uh... creativity

here is he doesn't just have six tentacles now

he has like twenty So Baxter says at my him apologies

general I was in the middle of a rather complicated

calculation as For the technodromant remains

on schedule as it was the last time you asked

Frank says I would for ahead of schedule. I'm

tired of waiting. Do you want it done sooner?

Do you want it done, right? Porque no las dos

I say I my wife and I robbed that taco commercial.

Why can't we have it both ways? and cranks like

you're you seem to be under the impression I'm

offering a choice perhaps if you weren't focusing

so much on your little side projects this is

for the Technodrome Journal I failed to see the

connection the people I have working under me

are of limited competence some innovation was

needed to further speed things along And that

is what you came up with I know right it seems

like a a Around -the -block kind of solution

to a small problem But Baxter here has created

a fly robot hybrid which got me giddy. I thought

he was gonna end up in that thing See here's

the thing remember we talked about few a few

back issue classics episodes ago We talked about

fugitoid I swear they were pulling a fugitoid

where they were going to put Baxter's mind in

flyboard. I'm hoping he eventually does become

a fly because it's just part of the canon that

I know. But I'm kind of glad that he isn't yet.

Wonder I know I know the main series has nothing

to do with the Nick cartoon, but in the Nick

cartoon Baxter has already mutated. Oh, I haven't

seen that yet. Oh, sorry. That's okay I can't

get it in sequential order and the show drives

me crazy enough that I can't watch it But I am

interested what's going on because it is turtles

He's interesting to say the least, but um, so

we have this this flyborg and the mousers are

all around him and we have all these wires and

Baxter says I'm inspired by the notion of insect

colonies general This is a prototype flyboard

mutated insect in part machine Small enough to

fit in cramped spaces stronger than any human

worker more intuitive than a mechanical drone

and best of all completely expendable He says

over a four million dollar prototype Yeah, you

think he's I'm looking at a picture of 2012 Baxter

Stockman as the fly that's creepy It's not even

cute or pleasant Friendly it's not I that's not

the wrong. It's not child -friendly No, no, not

at all. He's more interesting in this show as

a fly though. There hasn't been, since he mutated,

there hasn't been too many episodes with him

that focus on him versus the turtles, but it's

been interesting because right now they're focusing

on... Another part of the story that deals with

splinter and shredder that I will not spoil for

you But I'm pretty sure you can already assume

that They take a completely different direction

with Korai in the animated series. Yeah, I have

heard that. That's That's way cool. They haven't

explained how they've never shown Splinter as

Hamato Yoshi. Have they yet? Not yet. They're

waiting for something. The the latest episode

The whole point of the episode that just that

had aired as of this recording Was it aired on

when the hell did it air? As of this recording

it aired this past Saturday June 14th 2014 or

June 15th on Sundays not Saturdays June 15th

2014 The entire episode was based upon bebop

before bebop becomes bebop and He's stealing

shredder's helmet So the entire episode you see

shredder without his helmet until the very end.

Oh, so you actually get to see All the scars

and his his whole head design in the in the latest

episode. Oh, actually I have a figure here where

the helmet comes off Yeah, there we go All right,

getting back to the car Sorry to the listeners

So And when I say that's he says Craig says hmm

You might have actually stumbled across something

worthwhile here keep me informed and when I say

that stock when I expect you to do so this time

and It's a good thing the letter I believe it's

Sean Lee on this one, I could be wrong. It's

a good thing he puts this speech bubble in like

little ripped up, not quotations, but it's not

a flat edged, it's like a bevel edge because

you see that it's what Baxter says here, you

arrogant little, it's something he's thinking

in his head. And he says, no, breathe, don't

get angry. and we go back to the flashback and

we get the father and the son well you've got

a mover aren't you I'm thinking you should already

have several ideas based on the available moves

your choice will your choice will give me maybe

you're not as smart as I thought you were Baxter

says there See what you did there? You moved

your knight right into my trap because you were

angry. So this whole page is basically his father

telling him you cannot get angry. That's a running

theme in this series. Splinter can't get angry.

Raph can't get angry. Baxter can't get angry.

A whole lot of people with the repressed feelings.

Yeah, you think. But I absolutely love... The

art in this It's so well done. Yeah, I like these

flashback panels. That's Yeah, such an interesting

way to do it with the I mean it that's really

just the main difference Yeah, this is the sepia

tone, but then it's it's uh I'm the present -day

stuff. That's either digital digital brush physical

brush because he's getting line variation but

in these flashbacks that's definitely like a

rapidia graph marker the line weight is consistent

and I think that's that's really a neat way to

do that to signify the difference between the

two panels between the two time periods I guess

absolutely so we have The next page is even unfinished

the technodrome is magnificent a wonder of alien

technology And we really kind of get to see we

don't get to see the full technodrome, but I

wonder if you have an eye on the top I don't

think they've decided yet I'm not sure Why don't

you talk about fly board here on these pages?

Well, I actually try to find and see if if it

does have an eye Yeah, no. No, I want to see

how you're gonna find it How did you? I'm gonna

look in my pictures here. Oh, man Well, remember

when Bobby told us that Issue 37 has the meat

has shredder and crank meeting for the first

time I grabbed that cover and I want to see if

that cover No, the cover doesn't have an eye

on it. Yeah, it looks like it's I wonder if we're

gonna get the technodrome soon. I Assume this

that the technodrome is gonna wait until nearer

to the end of the run whenever that is but We'll

see. I don't know what I want. I'm thinking of

the future of the series Are they gonna kill

shredder and then keep the story going like they've

done in several of the previous books? You know,

I just I don't know how it's gonna happen. But

either way fly borg since you asked Baxter has

an iPad, a tablet of some device with him, and

the Flyborg is robot controlled, or he's commanding

it with the thing, with the tablet, having it

do things, and as he's setting it free to do

his thing, rock soldiers come to... Interrogate

figure out what he's doing why he's here because

he's doing something that he's not supposed to

do He's gonna send the fly Borg in to do it when

the rock soldiers confront him the fly Borg starts

to talk starts to say things that Baxter didn't

exactly plan shocks him hits a button on the

iPad shocks the the the fly Borg And then it

flips out. And then it starts killing the rock

soldiers. And then it starts chasing Baxter.

At this point, we're not entirely sure why, what's

going on. Wrecking stuff. Wrecking stuff all

over the place. Baxter's running to hide. It

looks here, crank contacts and what the heck

is going on. Why are you contacting me? And he's

saying that the fly board got away from me, the

experiment got away, and something went wrong.

I never could have predicted that, Krang says.

Yeah. Wait, what? Huh? Why are the turtles there?

A flashback, or Krang's thinking. I think that's

an aside. Yeah, and I have grown quite tired

of mutants lately. General, you need to send

more guards. I need to watch your tone stop when

my patience is not infinite. I'm sorry, General.

I put a tracking chip in the flyboard prototype

to keep tabs on it. I know it's coming back this

way. Please, there must be some place I can hide,

some place secure. This isn't all too much of

a setup. uh... well you're not wrong about your

little pet he is coming general please don't

make me beg haha i enjoy seeing the side of you

stockman it amuses me follow the monitor and

i will help you scurry away to safety so i honestly

think this whole fly board thing is baxter's

big thing to get into the secure room to get

into the room with all the information is I think

that's all this thing is. Oh, yeah, absolutely

You know It's interesting we won't see a Flashback

page for a couple I think three pages no longer

We won't see a flashback page until the very

end of the book so it's like four and a half

pages away from here But what I noticed looking

at the flashbacks in Baxter now, he had jury

curls when he was a kid. And he just has like

a flat, flat top kind of hairstyle as an adult.

So he basically tries to lock himself in this

secure room and the flyboard... Breaks in and

he says yes. Yes, that's enough of that and he

presses a button and He put a bug zapper on the

fly board because the fly Borg is just all into

pieces and everything else I believe no, this

is more Baxter talking. I thought it was the

Rock Soldiers, but he says Top it off with a

little destruction from when you tore the room

apart to find me and my tracks are covered. Now

there's just one loose end, but wait, do you

hear that? The sound of rockmen tromping down

the hall. Help, it's in here, you have to help

me, help me! And there it is, end it! No, wait!

It's attacking, fire at will, but mind the civilian.

no not like this wait please wait um wasn't me

you mustn't now see this is where i kind of thought

that even though they said mind the civilian

this is where i kind of thought someone's whether

it's baxter's or somebody else's consciousness

was in the flyboard i know it's advanced artificial

intelligence um but uh oh god Robin Williams

as Andrew the Bicentennial Man, holy crap. But

that was really, really cool how it was trying

to tell them that, hey, I didn't do this, it

was him. I think with the fly board talking,

I have a feeling that's side effect or intended

effect of the mutagen that it increased its intelligence.

but the intelligence knows that it's not in control

of its actions and that's why he's pleading to

be, please don't kill me, it's not like that,

it wasn't me as he's leaping at them trying to

kill them. What I like that this moment does

for Baxter is in every incarnation he's been

a bumbling idiot genius doing these things but

then screwing up and having to survive the the

insults of Krang or Shredder, whatever, because

he bumbled. And we learn from the experiences

with his dad that he's calculating, he's got

it planned out, and in here, he totally manufactured

this situation so that he could get into that

room appearing to Krang like he was a bumbling

idiot with another failed experiment, but whenever

he does bumble, it might not be as unintentional

now, we can't... Trust Baxter when we see him

in the future and what he's doing. So I really

think that's kind of a Interesting and I honestly

I don't think that a lot of what happened in

this in this story is gonna pay off for a Very

long time and not till we're in the technodrome

again. Oh Absolutely, not which could be 20 issues

from now at the pace they're going which I'm

fine with I'm not complaining absolutely but

that you know and that's the cool thing where

Baxter well I do eventually want to see him become

fly Baxter I'm happy that he is still around

where god what are we 24 or 25 issues into the

series in the main ongoing or 24 -25 issues and

he hasn't been killed off yet, that's, you know,

that's an accomplishment because usually, like

you said, Baxter is usually bumbling, he's usually

gone in the first, you know, five or six minutes

of a cartoon episode. He's the rhino of the Turtles

universe. Oh. my god if only baxter was in uh...

uh... the michael bay movie you could have all

giamatti is baxter stockman i don't think that

would work because he is the righto uh... so

the final page here it was so so like you're

saying uh... baxter uh... he does gets all the

information uh... And he does say, you know I'd

call that check because he gets all the information

from Crang and he says that Crang's plan is is

staggering it's it's it's bewildering and it's

unbelievable and we go back to the To the flashback

is the final panel here and basically Baxter

who is now a young adult mid -20s maybe who looks

like Lando Calrissian to me Oh, jeez. No. No,

dude. Just no. Yeah, no. He basically pulls a

checkmate on his father and basically takes over

Stock Gen from his dad. That's crazy. I gotta

say, Tyler Walpole, I think it was... The beginning

of this I think it was Tyler Walpole that did

that first cover the covers for this story Absolutely.

Yeah, it was Tyler Walpole for the first cover

and for the alternate cover that I have here

in the trade. It's Andy Kuhn Oh, yeah playing

chess with all of the people in the story Daniel

Pez Lopez playing chess with a oh Want an IDW

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles chest set just like

this that is so friggin cool And look look at

the Kreg piece it even has the little brain and

well it has the brain in its chest not its stomach

But that's where that's because that's where

it is in this series I'm trying to see If he

has no he doesn't have wait does he yeah, he

doesn't wow that's a really weird looking piece

of that shredder Might be splinter though On

the left there that looks like kitsune to me

Okay, that could be kitsune. I although I'm looking

at a one. That's an inch wide over here, but

Yeah, could be splinter Could be All right up

next is um the saddest kitty tail you've ever

read Up next is old hob the cover art is old

hob basically pulling a Wolverine pose because

he has you know claws slash marks behind him

and it's done by Tyler Walpole and this takes

place after he saves slash because slash is with

him here yeah so that's that's kind of nice and

Know we should probably Well, well we did talk

about that earlier in this episode. We talked

about how this takes place during Issue 23 of

the ongoing So So hub it starts out hub saying

our problem is humans See I never had much dealing

with him and that's good. Oh, no. He says see

you ain't had Very much deal with him. That's

good. You ain't ever been nobody's pet And with

good reason. I mean, I look at you and you ain't

exactly warm and cuddly. But me, I had plenty

of dealing with him. And too much if you ask

me, in fact. And then we get... That's one thing

I love about all these origin stories for these

guys. It's current day and flashback. And it's

just absolutely amazing. So we go back to before

Old Hob became what he is today and he... he

was a regular house cat that uh had an unfortunately

lazy owner yeah poor poor billy uh or danny uh

i don't know my memory from back my memories

from that back then are all out of whack anyway

we got along like mayo and tuna and i like the

art here and i like how They basically took you

know you know we've said many many many times

that this series is a this entire IDW series

is a love letter to the turtles and what they

did here was they took the opening of the 87

cartoon and gave it to old hub Where the kid

with the fishbowl with the turtles in it slips

and falls on the street and it cracks and the

turtles fall down the sewer They kind of took

that Turned it into a story for old hob a little

bit because he started out as a pet of some little

boy Which is kind of nice and neat and because

he because Billy or Danny or whatever his name

is Yep, we don't actually know cuz hold Hobb

doesn't remember. Oh, yeah, he doesn't remember

so good from those days Billy or Danny's mom

just is so fed up with him not taking care of

the cat so she finds the cat grabs the cat and

tosses him out in the snow man that should be

uh that poor cat you can just hear it yeah there's

no sound effect but i know what that cat is sounding

like yeah pretty much um And he says, please,

ma, he's going to die out there. Your own damn

fault. And the saddest cat panel I've ever seen

in a comic. They did that without making it look

like a cartoon, too. I appreciate that. Absolutely.

Absolutely. He's got the puss in boots eyes.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Mercy from puss in boots

And I mean this this he's not a Old hub as a

regular cat. He's not a he's not a Kitten per

se but he's not a full -grown adult cat. I would

I don't know. I I'm not a cat owner. I don't

deal with cats personally I can deal with them,

you know from a distance I'm more of a dog person,

but he doesn't look like he's an old You know

that old fat. He doesn't look like a Garfield

granted Billy probably wasn't feeding him all

that much, but He doesn't look like he is he

still looks like he's a kitten, but not like

firstborn is my kind of point here Because the

the saddest cat face ever on the left panel here

before Billy says no and then down later where

he says his monologue says I learned pretty quick

that if you want something on the street you

got to fight for it when he walks away it just

he just doesn't I don't know it doesn't look

like he's fully grown but I like it I mean I

think it's really cool and I think it's kind

of sad and strange that this little kind of kitten

would eventually end up becoming Old Hob, because

he's ugly as sin in the present day, whereas

as an actual kid he was kind of cute. Until he

starts getting the snot beat out of him by everything.

Yeah, including what do we have here in these

in this panel a another cat? There's a dog The

next page has him getting the snot kicked out

of him by our favorite rat splinter the poor

guy no love Absolutely no love whatsoever and

then Yeah, he gets he gets beat up by splinter

but in the process of all this he gets covered

in the mutagen now here's my problem with this

scene where he says and when you see something

you want you better be ready to take it this

whole page where he's getting attacked by the

future splinter was this before they got captured

at and put in stock gen because I thought the

whole point of them being in stock gen for the

origin was that they were injecting mutagen into

them they were so having a scene here seeing

them cover and it's been so long since I've read

those first issues having a scene here seeing

them all covered with mutagen I just don't remember

the turtles were being used to Terrapin human

soldier hybrid and they were making the humans

grow like turtle shell out of their skin Which

was where the rock soldiers came from that's

what the turtle they were a separate project.

They weren't getting injected with anything Okay,

this point where old hob takes, you know, he

runs away with Raphael at that point was after

the ninjas attacked they had bagged up the turtle

the ninjas came in they had bagged up the turtles

they had bagged up some of the mutagen and it

got dropped as they were jumping from the building

and old Hobbs said oh hey now we know why he's

attacking he's attacking because he was hungry

and he wanted to eat one of them and he walked

away with Raph yeah okay I got you now very cool

very cool It goes back to present day. He says

I don't know how it was for you. I know they

stuck it in you They stuck it in you with needles

and so maybe it was different Hey, I ain't looking

for a shoulder to cry on here The story is important

you need to understand what we're facing and

how it all got started see now Where was I? Oh,

yeah, so I figured out I was dying, but then

I didn't So this is old hob nearly died twice

because earlier in the series Baxter shot him

and you know current day Baxter pulled the trigger

on him, right? Mm -hmm remember I said a few

a few few of the back of your glasses ago I'm

like, oh no, he killed old. Yeah. Yeah Apparently

for old hob the mutagen not only mutated him

into a humanoid cat. It also gave him This is

why I'm saying he's basically the Wolverine of

the turtles universe because he has the healing

powers I Don't know if he's got healing powers.

I just think he's springing back from these injuries

Not any faster. I think there's this time compressed.

I don't know Cuz he didn't regrow that I Okay,

no, he didn't regrow the I but like what I'm

saying is Being like you shoot Wolverine five

seconds later. He's going to you know squint

his eyes and Concentrate real hard and next thing

you know the bullet hole in his skin is gone

That's what I'm saying in the current day when

Baxter shot him That's what I'm saying. I'm not

saying here where no no we see yeah mutated I'm

saying in the current day when Baxter shot him,

and I thought he was dead I'm like well, okay

there goes old hob and apparently he's not dead

because he has some sort of healing Property

from the mutagen. I I don't I don't read that

as healing property I just think he went and

licked a bullet wound for a couple of weeks Because

he yeah, I mean he's gone for a couple issues

yeah, or in arc or three Yeah So we see his mutation

and it is freakish It's He kind of looks like

it this This full page of him mutating the bottom

left right above where he says and coming out

something totally different He kind of looks

like a cat version of razor Just his body his

skeleton. It kind of reminds me of razor just

a little bit So then we see him he's you know

full cat humanoid thing and I kind of want him

to go back and see Billy or Danny or whatever

his name was. Hey, remember me? You gave me such

good tuna. Oh my God, it's a mutant cat. So.

Oh, yeah. So wait, they were out searching for

the turtles in Splinter before they mutated and

they mutated and Raph or Old Hobb. got mutated

and he overhears them talking about so that's

where that scene comes from see that's interesting

because we had already seen him earlier in the

series say hey look I can I can help you guys

out so they we now see where he says that you

know he can help them out They take him back

to StockGen and perform a whole bunch of tests

on him. And don't look too pleasant. No, not

at all. StockGen isn't exactly an animal friendly

place. I mean, come on now. There are some PETA

violations here. Do you think? I mean, not just

one or two or three, it's like a hundred million

violations. So. Old Hobbes says you don't want

to He says Look I still got that filthy animal

scent. It won't be hard. I'll stick to the alleys

and flush them out plus Don't you want something

new to poke and prod at? And Baxter's like hmm

about that Again the art is really, really magnificent.

I love how they change. I love how the colors

constantly change from panel to panel to illustrate

the backgrounds and how different all the scenery

is. I really think that is awesome. Conveys a

sense of time when you do that. Oh yeah. Absolutely.

I'm trying to see here. So we got He says that

he didn't need to think long. He knew letting

me go was a risk, but I was his best chance at

finding the rat and that was too much tempting

for old Bax. I love how he calls him old Baxie.

Bax said he'd give me cash if I needed it, just

needed to keep checking back with him at the

lab. But who was gonna take cash from me, looking

the way I looked, so I lived the only way I knew.

That got me thinking, if the rat is anything

like me, he could be a handful to take in. Ain't

saying I was scared, but I ain't stupid either

in this life It's good to be prepared for anything

a few extra bodies to throw at this problem couldn't

hurt But how was I gonna convince a human to

join up with me? Which it's really like at first

I When I first heard about old hub I was really

skeptical I was very nervous when they said they

were introducing new characters like okay They

have a right to introduce it. It's their thing,

but I was nervous, you know You don't play with

a formula that worked I was very nervous because

I was like really am I gonna even like this character

and as I've kept reading him throughout, you

know Throughout the series so far I'm liking

him a little bit more. He's not my favorite character,

but he's not someone I dislike either uh... and

i i really like seeing his his backstory so he

uh... he goes and fights all these guys and like

uh... real monsters uh... and he builds himself

up a uh... an army obviously uh... we go back

to presence and he's talking a slash again He

says he needed to know his days of poking and

putting me on that damn hamster wheel were over

And slash says no more pain He says speaking

of rats we got right to looking for that stinking

rodent after my little visit with bags I remember

the first time I saw them all together And we

do another flashback which I believe this is

the first fight they had with the turtles yeah

yeah red bandanas so yeah it would be an early

one if not the first yes and oh god splinter

look at that bottom left panel oh my god this

is so bad Gosh, I gotta I I am doing a new splinter

drawing. I have to find that and see if See if

I like it now that I've had some time. I don't

know where I put that thing I probably just start

over I'm making little Small printouts and selling

them at the geek sale of some characters and

he's one of them But we'll see anyway tangential

It just Oh, they explain your gunshot. Oh, they

do, yes. That's why. On the very next page. Yeah.

I just still can't get over that. Between City

Fall Part 1 earlier in this episode and now,

I just can't get past that. Can't get past what?

How Splinter looks. It's one okay sure they you

know they did a really cool thing with the bandanas

absolutely loved you know even though I was but

None of the artists have been able to get there

are certain artists that I like splinter more,

but Lately how he's been drawn and you know in

the series of us reviewing it so far. It's just

And like I've said before there's there's I don't

think there's anybody who draws splinter well,

and it's not to speak in anybody's art it's just

that a rat that's a human size is really hard

to draw without it looking like a dog like there's

too many of the features that are shared between

the two of them and when you make him look like

a real rat he doesn't look like a rat anymore

he looks like a mouse and you know you can't

have Splinter looking like a mouse because a

mouse is too wimpy it's not terrifying like rats

are terrifying So I give a lot of room for my

splinters just because. I do, but the one on

the previous page before you said the gun shot

it, it looks like a smaller version of what Kitsune

put in Leo's dream. It looks the same kind of

the way his face is drawn. But anyway, let's

not dwell on that. He does have round ears in

that panel. Yeah, which is nice. So Hobbes monologue

continues. What's that old saying about fooling

me once or whatever? Yeah, well shame on me.

Bax made a show of me to his pal. He was covering

his bases all the way home and I didn't fit into

the plans no more. I gotta hand it to Bax though.

I didn't think he had it in him to do the dirty

work. I guess he underestimated me too. He had

thought he had me but nobody one -ups old hub

Remember what I told you about leverage. Oh But

wait, he's already mutated. He took a vial of

the healing mutagen Okay And he smashed it on

his chest to heal it yeah, yeah Okay, so when

he mutated he didn't get healing powers like

Wolverine But still my whole thing of of the

healing it kind of worked a little bit Yeah,

you were I there there was a connection there.

I didn't little bit So the final page here is

And the whole city is gonna shake with fear when

they see what's coming next you got two minutes

before my better judgment Hmm I didn't think

you'd show no not now We got business with these

boys and says to be continued in TMNT 23 which

is when When they when he sets them up to go

meet with shredder What I'm staring at now after

this page here is next issue is alopex and it

is a beautiful illustration that I have not noticed

before or seen anywhere else, but it's Alopex

the Arctic Fox standing on a bright red looks

like it's the foot logo kind of sprayed into

the snow in blood. And she's got bloody claws,

bloody fists, and that's gorgeous. I've never

seen that. It's done by Ross Campbell. It's in

the back of the trade here. Yeah, it's very,

very interesting. I love that, but I love her

main cover a little bit more. I had a thought

about this main cover before we started to record.

The main cover of the alopex issue. She's kind

of a traditional Comic book pose. We're at the

corner of a building a raised building lights

kind of in the background the water tower from

New York City and She's standing there kind of

triumphant with her claws kind of in a in a grasping

pose and her legs and body are wrapped in this

tape One I I think we've discussed it before

that we think that alopex is going to be a replacement

for Ninjara from the Archie Turtles who I don't

think they have the rights to. We could ask Bobby

to clarify. So I think she's going to be the

love interest of Raph someday. Ninjara in the

old Archie series had, because of who was drawing

her, had gigantic boobs. And I noticed as looking

at this while thinking about the love interest

thing, that Alopex does not have any breasts.

And it led me to think, okay, why did they make

this decision or why not? Because the wrapping

around her torso is very tight. You can see her

thoracic arch, her rib cage, the ab muscles.

She has no breasts because foxes, like all kind

of canine dog -like things, have eight or nine

of them, well, pair, so they'd be... you know,

six, eight, ten of them down the middle, she

would have eight or ten gigantic ones, she'd

look like that dancer from the Star Wars movie

Return of the Jedi, and I'm glad that they decided

to do this, and it's a mutant fox, it's not a

bloody boy toy fantasy thing, so no breasts on

our alopex, and I'm happy to see that. I have

to... I have to wonder. Now, I do know... I don't

know if it's a beginning, but I do know because

I have read ahead for that interview that we

did with Bobby oh so long ago. I do know that

in Northampton when she shows up that she and

Raph kind of start to have a little bit of...

I don't want to say chemistry. What the hell

is the word? Not fatal attraction, but some sort

of something starts you are very Perceptive to

notice that because I did not catch that and

as soon as you said that I'm like, oh frick.

It's Ninjara They're totally gonna do it and

Not do not the turtle and her do it no, but the

comic writers are totally gonna do it and make

that happen but um, oh now I forgot where I was

going with it, but yeah, well, you know, I don't

know I I have In the past had terrible luck with

girls, and I missed those obvious signs like

this, but you picked it up good on you, man Well,

it's just one of those things because it reminds

like Okay, what? We're not even up to Northampton.

Yeah, we haven't even begun city the rest of

city fall yet, but here's the thing When I was

reading Northampton Which is issues 29 through

32 of the ongoing? There are several scenes in

there where she pins him or he pins her. And

the first thing I think of, besides Mask of the

Phantasm with Bruce Wayne and Andrea Beaumont,

you know, Batman and the Phantasm, the first

thing I think of is, and I don't know why, this

has nothing, foxes and lions have nothing to

do with each other. The come hither look that

Nala gives him well not even the cut not even

the come hither look the The pin look when they

go tumbling down the hill and she pins him she

Nala pins Simba as A cub and then she pins him

again as an adult. Yeah. Yeah That was the first

thing I thought of when I saw alopex in her I'm

like, oh my god now a fox and a turtle that God

no, that's like Simon Belmont wanting to have

mother -brain babies with mother -brain uh...

uh... anyway that's a little here we go yeah

we actually got a review this issue here all

yes yes alopex here okay we start out at twelve

forty two a m uh... the cleaning crew is not

home security guys mapping from his secret hiding

spots a broom closet next to the lobby Are they

trying to say something about the guy in the

closet? Not that there's anything wrong with

that. The owner of the building is holding an

after -hours meeting. He's a wannabe ninja looking

to level up organizing muscle buying intel. The

city is not my concern. The four turncoats selling

him the secrets of my ninja clan, they are my

mission. They want to betray the foot they want

to betray my master Now I I've said this before

I have not read them the old comics is was Ninjaro

also part of the foot clan I I would need to

reread that but I don't think so Okay, I can

picture the issue in my head where she shows

up and I think that was about the time that I

stopped reading it I'm waiting to read it because

I want to do a podcast series with art where

we read them all Oh, absolutely. You guys are

so doing I yeah, I totally need to make a time

for that. I'm recording so much. It's Insane

for me. Anyway, someday I'll find out and I'll

report back when I know Alright, so she basically

busts through the glass time to go to work So

-called ninja immediately goes for a gun I get

there first What are you I'm Batman Sorry, I

could I couldn't help it I guess he wasn't expecting

a mutant arctic fox she says hold it and again

the the interesting thing with the alopex issue

is the difference in the red white and blue because

she obviously as an arctic fox she she's all

white outside of the the purple on her forehead

and eyes but the background coloring on this

page where she breaks Where she shatters the

glass and breaks in it's all kind of like a bluish

grayish background the very next page or the

series of pages is a Combination of the blue

gray and red and white. I Love that. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah Well, yeah, the red and white the

the red stuff is It's she puts on a red blindfold.

She she hands these four foot clan ninjas the

ninja turtles weapons Here's a bow. Here's some

sighs now defend yourself and she blindfolds

And they think well, we're gonna kick the snot

out of her and then she proceeds to beat them

and as she's beating them these red stripes that

go across are I I would I It's it's envisioning

what she is picturing in her head being blinded

by a red bandana picturing the turtles getting

smashed as she's actually practicing on these

human foot ninjas. Yes. Now, again, I think right

now, they are hinting with just the color of

the damn bandana, they are hinting of things

to come. Because why is it going to be red? Why

can't it be purple or orange or blue? You know.

And my question is, how are these their weapons?

Like, she fought them and took them from them,

or are these just... She brought them along to

train. Okay, so these aren't the actual... These

are their weapons, but they're not their possessive.

Like, she didn't have some off -panel battle

with them. No. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's

what I figured. And I want to give you this bit

of symbolism, although I'm sure... I can't remember

the phrase. It's when Freud... And sometimes

a hot dog is only a hot dog and it doesn't represent

a penis. Sometimes it's just what it is and it's

not. I'm reading too much into it. But in the

panel where she's thrashing Raph in the last

panel, in her dream or fantasy, she's clawing

at his heart. I don't know if that's symbolism,

foreshadowing, but I noticed it after hearing...

you talk about their eventual love relationship

i don't know maybe not well i don't know if it's

an actual i just know they're flirting with each

other in northampton i don't know no no no i

don't even think they're flirting i don't think

anything of the sort because he hates her right

now in that no no no well in in northampton yeah

but it's as northampton goes along he starts

that by the end of it they respect each other

So like the middle of it when he's not necessarily

hating or loving her he's There there's a when

we get to that recording you'll see I don't think

I will cuz and then they end Like I'm gonna kill

you again because I think she stabbed him all

in the back or he thinks she did Yeah, but we're

getting way ahead of ourselves. Sorry listeners,

but you should go read that before we get to

it It'll be fun. Yes, exactly So next page we

get these men were part of the foot part of a

family Halifax please They had a home a purpose

a calling they threw it all away and for what?

Keep the money. He's distracted much attention

to us Let it let us go. He doesn't have to know

There is no escape from the foot that image right

there of her. Oh my god That's not something

I want to have in my dreams at all. Oh My god,

that is so freaky with this section. They have

painted her as extremely loyal to the foot That

she can't be bought off and it says a lot about

what that foot soldiers Thinking and where his

mind frame is that he thinks he can buy this

person off He thinks he can buy this Arctic Fox

off to the point where that's an option for him

to say it, but no, she proves him wrong and probably,

oh wow, she guts them and I didn't realize she

burnt the building down. In the next panel. Yeah,

building go boom. But if you look at the juxtaposition

of, in the trade it's a little hard because of

the binding of the book, but like... the bottom

panels, the two bottom panels left and right

of the pages between her jumping at the guy and

then Saki with her standing in the shadow of

the very bottom panel on the other page here

the reds almost bleed together Between the left

page and the right page on the bottom panel and

I had to actually separate I'm not separating

my binding here, but I'm actually pulling it

open a little bit more to see if there's it make

sure it's not a Bleed over and it isn't She covers

her tracks and then she goes home Things are

tense at HQ. We've being attacked from all sides.

Most of the humans aren't ready for war some

are Alopex he wants to see you back five minutes

and already a new mission master I love that

shot of her in shadow That's one thing that all

of these artists do very well is characters in

shadow Well, that's the the sign of a good a

well -designed characters Can you recognize them

in a silhouette if you put them black on white?

Can you read them? And you know we we know what?

You know, we know who X, Y, and Z are just based

on their silhouette. And yeah, I mean, even though

Alopex is one of the few new characters that

they've made for this, we know who she is. And

that purple domino mask isn't hard to figure

out, but either way. Yeah, see, that's the other

thing. I want to talk about that because she

puts on a red bandana during the fight and...

Don't know if because I'm looking at the close

-up on The page opposite of where her monologue

says master trader knows I won't fail him The

very top singular panel that doesn't look like

a mask that looks like it's paint I think it's

paint Yeah, it looks like more paint. So my question

would be does she have a thing for Donnie and

Raph? Nah, I think she had that before she ever

saw him. Yeah, she does she did but yeah There

are rumblings he's going to promote me, but that

is not at all why I work as hard as I do. I owe

this man everything. He made me what I am, more

than a mindless animal. Without him I'd probably

be dead in a hunter's trap, or starving in the

snow. The traitors have been... Opposition is

escalating. We need to consolidate resources.

Tomorrow at dawn, you and I are leading a cleanup

of one of our research facilities in Fairbanks,

Alaska. He says, is there a problem? She says,

no, sir. I know that name. It's not just on this

file. Dawn it is then, looking forward to it.

Oh, she says it's I know that name. It's not

just on this file. It's on mine So again, we

see and this is why I love the micro series We

see these origin stories of these characters

and they're so so well done So they head out

to Fairbanks and the background art is so good

Like these artists nail these backgrounds, you

know, I'm not Can't draw to save my life. I can't

paint I can't you know I can't do you know I

can't sculpt a a shredder shuriken you know But

I mean damn these these all these different background

colors and how they do the backgrounds absolutely

amazing So the monologue starts on this one Never

thought I'd come back here. Fairbanks is where

they mutated me, but it goes deeper than that.

The surrounding area, the woods, the mountains.

According to my file, this was my home. Master

is watching. He's wondering if I'll react. Truth

is, I don't remember much about this place. Everything

pre -mutation is a blur. So, between Hobb and

Allopax, most of their pre -mutation, even though

Hobb's story had a little bit more background,

As far as where he came from they both have fuzzy

memories when it comes to before they were mutated

Yeah, the turtles don't hold on to anything either

It seems that the Well, yeah, it's it's convoked

nerdism to go here But I think that the mutagen

gives them sentient self -awareness that you

know They are aware enough to realize that they're

hungry and that they go animal instinct sorts

of things the only one who Was a smart animal

was splinter. Yeah, but that's the reincarnation

stuff and the the brain serum Yeah, that's I

was gonna say he was getting the brain serum.

He was getting a brain juice So she goes on and

says so I'll show him this place has been closed

for months, it's probably empty She says, with

your permission, I'll take care of this. Okay,

let's make this quick. Plant the bombs, grab

any useful equipment, blow the place to hell.

And again, just the art. And her, she's having,

she starts having flashbacks for her old wife.

Not so much of a blur anymore, is it? No, not

really. You know, when you see Bugs Bunny, you

tend to remember stuff. So she goes on to say,

I only knew it's scent, I knew how fast it ran,

I knew how it tasted. All sorts of life, rabbits,

squirrels, they could hide all they wanted. I

remember this. I had a family. I was a hunter

of the pack before I was fully grown. I should

get back to work. It was a long time ago. The

foot is my family now. Push the memories back.

Fight. You know how to do that. We get her flashing

back on the bear. The interesting thing here,

I think the flashbacks of the wolf and the other

foxes and the bear here are done in pencil sketch,

scanned into the computer and grayscaled. So

they look... There's a different treatment of

the flashbacks. I wonder if that's a thing. I

mean... It makes a lot of sense to do it that

way to make the flashbacks a different style

But I wonder if I wonder where that first started

Because the first time ever noticed it you know

I know that IDW has done it before I know they

do it Like I was saying earlier I know they have

on the on the transformer series that they do

they have one artist on the present day and then

another artist in the past it's completely different

art styles and it looks really really cool for

the most part unless they're actively referencing

uh... uh... unless they're actively referencing

uh... the old marvel g one days because that

art back in the eighties just uh... so she goes

on to say uh... i knew how to fight them to the

truth was different Uh, known throughout the

land, feared by all, that's what I felt like

at least. I was just a dumb kid. The truth was

different. The bear. That monster wasn't afraid

of anything. That's a beautiful illustration.

Yeah. I'm just glad there's no picnic basket

anywhere here. She goes on to say, but we survived

my family and I. We stayed together, my old family.

And again, the art in this is absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, Ross Campbell. It's beautiful because we

don't see any turtles. I feel awful saying that

because he does a beautiful job with the styles.

It's not what I... It's it's it's not my favorite

style, but that doesn't mean that it's bad. I

feel really bad Ross Campbell. I love you He's

not listening to this podcast If I find him on

Twitter, I'll point him out to it and tell him

it's all your fault Why is it running there's

no danger scent what is that something is burning

smells like meat smells like death Welcome, Alopex,

to your final initiation. You are no longer just

a soldier from this point on. You are a chunin

of the foot. This is a sacred ritual that dates

back for centuries. Today, you will let go of

your past so that you may embrace your future

with your true family. I am so proud of you,

and oh my god, Ross and the colorists and everybody.

The red on her. Oh, so good. Oh, man. And she

basically goes off on shredder. She basically

claws the crap out. I'm wondering. No, wait.

No, he had the scar before, didn't he? Yeah,

this is a different cut. Yeah. Because the one

on his eye is still there. Yeah. That's what

I need to look at. Yep, it does. The helmet and

the face mask. The faceplate on him. covers up

his entire Except the very top under his cheek

and from the right eye I can't see anything at

least in this panel in the next page there you

can see it, but Yeah, oh yeah, yeah you can the

bottom panel yeah, you're right Let's see She

says You had my loyalty, but then you bring me

back here Show me my life, and then you destroy

it all you kill them all Are you smiling at me

I am You know it was my idea to use Fox's Crafty

so perfect hunters. I hold the highest team well

duh Yeah, he does Your old girlfriend is a fox

quite literally when she puts on her mask so

um that's one thing i'd be interested to see

is if current day kitsune as a fox would go up

against alopex that would be kind of interesting

to see that kind of fight um but you need to

remember your place never touch me again and

he backhands her that's just he's letting her

tear him up and then it's all over oh yeah pretty

much yeah uh the forest was full of life and

it is all gone you've destroyed them all you

act as though you're still one of them you're

not your foot i want to slice it off i want to

run i can't you're right master it was my old

instinct there is no escape from the foot Where's

the? What? I'm looking for the turn here. I'll

be his greatest warrior. I will fight my way

back to his side. I know he'll forgive me, but

I know who he is. He's the bear. And this time,

I'm going to kill the bear. Kill the bear. Which

is foreshadowing that has not yet paid off exactly.

Which is a man they plant that seed early and

from here on out We can't trust Karai near shredder

like we know something is going to happen eventually

Who did I say? Oh, yes, I'm looking at the next

issue picture with Karai there. I think that

it polluted me So in the trade I get the the

foot bloody footprint with alopex like you said

I also get a two -page spread done by Eastman

of Krang it's very mechanical looking but it's

just Krang and it's all blue and white it's on

a white background and then I also get a black

and white of art by Mike Henderson black and

white of Krang in his body And some art by Andy

Kuhn with Baxter and the fly board So overall,

you know City Fall part one and the Part one

as far as the trade goes City Fall part one and

the first villains micro series absolutely brilliant

I don't think there was anything You know in

is this a little thing a Few things, you know

that kind of bugged me about the art and stuff

I'm not gonna sit here and take a point off because

I continually complain about splinter about them

not being able to draw splinter properly, but

Other than that City fall it It was and wasn't

what I was expecting which is a good thing. I

think that was really awesome what they did with

it I'm trying to think as far as a rating for

for city fall itself for part one for issues

21 through 24 I There are a couple little nitpicks,

but I am going to give it a four out of five,

which is really liked it. Um, I like where they're

going with the story. I like that. They're not

just sitting like, they're not just sitting here

saying, Oh, Hey, shredder is going to say he

wants Leonardo as his tune in. And then nothing

comes of it. Cause sometimes things like that

will happen. I love how fluid this series is.

It's absolutely amazing. What are you going to

rank a 21 through 24? It's hard to. There that

that four and five thing, you know, there's really

liked it and then there's it's perfect. I I think

Short of them screwing up. I'm still going to

give them a number five eight eight eight five

points rather a five star. Yes whatever unit

of Measurement we give them I think I still get

a five just because the series is still so good

and it's done with love even when they screw

up something Gotta give him points for doing

things that are better than a lot of the mainstream

books with Material that we've all seen and read

and done before yeah, absolutely for the micro

series for the villains micro series volume one

I I Think I like them all except for crying honestly,

I Don't know I mean like Crank story yes, I'm

very appreciative and I understand now where

current -day crank is coming from But there are

just way too many old movie cliches. I see that

story so for villains micro Let's see I'm going

to give it a three and a half, which is liked

it for Villains Microvolume 1. I really did dig

Elopec's Old Hob and Baxter. Those were all very,

very well executed stories with very few, you

know, things I didn't like in the art. The art

in all four of them there, Crang, Baxter, Aleph,

Hex, and Old Hob, all four of them are just amazing.

You know, absolutely. What about you for the

villains? With most of the one -shot micro series

books that they've been doing, it's really not

necessary to read. Unless you're a hardcore fan

that really wants to know more about these characters

Like us like us. Well, you know, yeah I've spent

so much money on Ninja Turtle books. I'm not

gonna stop now I can't I'm gonna buy the books

even when they're terrible because I don't ever

want to change my mind 20 years later and say

man I really wish I wouldn't have sold all those

Archie books to that dude Because then I have

to rebuy them all so either way I think just

from the standpoint of you don't need to read

these books, I'll give it a four. It has less

to do with how much I actually love them than

how much I think you all actually need to read

them. Oh, absolutely. I mean, and that's kind

of the point here, is that, you know, our rating

system is, you know, how we feel about the books,

not necessarily... Am I gonna sit here and not

recommend people read Krang? Because I don't

like certain plot points in it, or the generalization

cliche of, you know, father versus son. No, I'm

gonna sit here and say you should, you know,

if you want to know about Krang, if you want

to know where his motivations come from and what

happened to him in his life, go read it. So the

only way I would not be able to recommend anything

here on this podcast is if I rated it anything

lower than a three. So Alright, where can the

people interact with you online if they would

like to do so sir? I would love to interact with

people Although I I'm a technological Oh, I forgot

the word Luddite, you know, I don't have the

Twitter's I I do the Facebook But if I don't

know you I probably won't like it I tell you

what what you can do to interact with me is if

you go to Facebook and search for geek stuff

garage sale you can like that page even if you're

not in the West Michigan area to come to our

sales and interact with me there send me messages

and and I can get back to you on Twitter you

can also find that geek cast radio over there

that's gonna do it for this episode of the pull

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