IDW TMNT Volume 8: Northampton Review

Hi, this is Bobby Kernow, Chief Turtle Editor

at IDW Publishing, and you are listening to the

GeekCast 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 continuities as the back issue classics

are also what's in the pullback Hi, this is Bobby

Kurnow chief turtle editor at IDW publishing

and you are gonna have a shell of a good time

inside the pullback Splinter I'll cut you down,

Master! Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag. This

is second week in a row. We have a back issue

of classics. Also in this week, you're going

to hear the origin of Star Joe's Chuck. This

time around, we are heading to Northampton with

the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of IDW as we

talk about Volume 8, Northampton. I am, of course,

TFG and Mike. Joining me is Joe Reed. Hello.

Hello. Where can the good people reach you online

if they would like to interact with you sir at

some point? I will figure out how Twitter works

But until then friend the geek stuff garage sale

page on Facebook send me messages there I think

yeah, there's a PlayStation Network at VV Ildfire

looks like wildfire 405 you can friend me there

as well They stole your W. I stole my W I mean

like I had an old PlayStation account from something

that was just wildfire 405 and When I went to

create my new PlayStation account, they says

you can't use that name It's already been used

and I tried to get it back wouldn't let me have

it. Screw you guys. I'll improvise that's kind

of like me with I am a huge fan of Logging in

with things with Facebook because I don't want

to have to sit like for example, ripped apparel.

When I first started really getting into that

site and really liking a lot of their t -shirt

designs, I'm like, okay, well, I'll sign up for

this and I'll buy a couple of shirts every now

and then. And I signed up with my main address,

email address that I use, and then at one point

or another, I forgot about that and just went

in automatically with Facebook. Well, because

Facebook, my address, my email address that I've

had for like God knows forever is used on that.

And they're now telling me that I cannot switch

to the one that I normally use now because something

else is using it. And I'm like, oh, it's me.

It's me. I'm using it. Yes. All right. So Turtles,

volume eight, Northampton. This is issues 29

through 32. of the IDW ongoing. This will be

a much shorter podcast this time around since

it's only four issues. The last two we've done,

we actually broke our record. The first one we

did for City Fall was like three hours and one

minute or three hours. fifteen minutes and last

week we broke it by three hours thirty minutes

one second for the likes the uh... right here

about three -hour podcast a picture that internet

need a nobody got time but i think it is so i'm

hoping if you did listen to that that you broke

it up into uh... two or three sessions at the

least yeah that's the way i look at like when

i first started but we're on a complete loop

complete edge in here people will get the turtles

in a minute When I first started listening to

podcasts, because I have a lot of time on my

hands and I'm usually either doing stuff as I'm

listening to other things. I'm not just sitting

here. with an iPad or an iPod or whatever, just

holding it, listening to something. I'm usually

using it through iTunes and doing other stuff

on the computer. So I can sit through a three

hour, four hour, five hour podcast. But there

are times where I do also break it up and come

back to it later. So that's what I hope a lot

of people will do. For Northampton, the cover,

the main cover of the trade is Leonardo, What's

the Raven's name? I can't think of it. We'll

get to it, but damn it. What's that? Yeah, I

don't know It's it's basically Leo on the left

the bird in the middle Raph and Raph Donnie and

Mikey on the right with alopex And of course

we get to The first there we go there first page

here and we open chapter issue 29 with a narration

by multiple people I assume this is like it's

like having a conversation but it's done in in

it it's done in narration form versus actually

people talking to each other which is interesting

I think the the different colors on that first

page indicate who's speaking and maybe by context

I think it's it's Casey and April and then it

cuts to once they're done kind of catching everybody

up on the tragedy that's happened the conversation

continues between the two of them in the Volkswagen

bug heading out to It is Casey Mean they they

basically recap everything that we've already

you know seen and everything else and We get

to the destruction of stock gen Stock gen is

no more Yeah, I gotta say I like how they're

opening this I mean it's it's pretty much picking

up at the end of Cityfall obviously But I really

like how they're showing you all of these various

places Then we get to eventually we get to the

van driving out into the middle of nowhere Yeah,

this it's a this is a good place for new readers

to jump on it does you know? There's two pages

of vague recap, but you're getting a new beginning

right here Absolutely, and there's not a lot

of action that occurs I don't think in this arc

until the very end but until the very end But

it is full of our turtles kind of picking up

the pieces and interesting drama from that perspective.

I think Yep, exactly I remember the first time

I read this the this issue in the trade form

When I saw that panel of April in her haircut,

I was like holding the new do that comes up later

What she has now the way her hair is in that

upper right -hand panel next to the panel where

Kate where Kate her and Casey are First thing

I thought of was, oh no, they made her look like

a white version of Willow Smith. Just the way,

it's something so simple and stupid and nitpicky

on my part, but it's just the way her hair looks.

It just reminded me so much of a weave. I don't

know why. So we get to April and Casey talking

back and forth, and they're talking about his

dad. The fact that everybody needs lots and lots

of rest. Lots of healing. When Mikey wakes up,

he looks just like a little kid would. Why are

we slowing down? Are we there yet? I can so see

Mikey doing those movies with Ice Cube. Are we

there yet? Are we there yet? So, they get to

April's parents' farm and it's pretty much...

I don't know how many other buildings were in

the movie, in the original movie, but it's pretty

much a comic version of the 1990 movie, honestly.

Which was a movie version of the Northampton

they drew in the Mirage comic. I mean, it's crazy

how much this parallels the original comic. I'm

a big fan of that. Then it goes back to that.

I love the art in this too. It's so simple, but

this page with them showing up to the farm, all

the backgrounds and the grass and the trees and

everything, it looks oh so good. I can't remember

what arc Ross Campbell's Turtles started in.

we're back to them here and this is where I mean

and I just I while we were doing the intros getting

the comics out of the bags for me and I flipped

to 32 and just opened the cover from what we're

looking at now to 32 his art has gone further

into that very cartoon exaggerated cutesy look

so while I like it now it starts to go too far

into that Yeah, well turtles in time is later.

He's drawing that that something about that looks

different, and it's way more cartoony But it

fits with that story art. This is just kind of

getting a little cutesy See I am like okay. We're

doing this after these issues have come out ladies

and gentlemen So there will be spoilers just

to let everybody know We are going to be changing

up the format of how Joe and I review these after

this episode of the podcast. Next time we come

around, we're probably going to do, well, next

time when we come around, we're going to do the

UTROM three -part story. and then depending on

if Turtles in Time has been all released by then,

we'll do that or we'll go back to issue 33 and

34 or whatever. What bothers me now reading in

the now of Turtles in Time is when the hell does

it actually take place? Because there's this

huge gap. I don't think it's going to matter

when it takes place because I don't think they're

going to tie it tightly to the continuity. But

we're I mean, two issues of that are out yet.

And it was supposed to start with Kevin Eastman's

annual, which has not released as of this record.

Right. That's what I'm saying. There's a huge

gap in between issue 34, 35, and 36 versus Eastman's

annual was supposed to be out and then Turtles

in Time. So it's going to be interesting to see

how the story chronology is told to us. I'm,

like, so lost. Well, like I said, I don't think

it's going to matter. The annuals usually don't

fit into continuity anyway. They're their own

little standalone thing. And I think Turtles

in Time is going to be its own standalone thing.

The only thing that that does was introduce Renette

as something important. So, I don't know. We'll

figure it out. And we'll review it for you, our

faithful listeners. exactly so they get to the

farm they get to where the turtles are gonna

be staying which is the barn and oh my god all

is I can think of is friggin Polly Shore and

son -in -law sleeping in the barn I don't know

why so April tells them that you know you guys

have to stay out of sight you know not to worry

April we know how to do that Let's see, you know,

she she tells them about all the All the quote

-unquote amenities that they'll have And Relax,

you know, it'll be fine. At least at least it

doesn't smell like a sewer. Yeah, that's true

and Donnie asks her about her parents. And she

says, but after my dad's stroke, mom figured

the fresh country air might help him recuperate

faster. And with everything we went through in

New York, I thought it might do us all some good

too. I still, I still don't like how much Mikey

looks like. A pony standing up. Yeah his legs

everybody's legs Ross Campbell's are It's what

it's doing now listeners who haven't seen this

yet the the forearms and the calves are getting

very very large and elongated And yeah, they

they do they kind of look like my little pony

legs Which IDW makes a my little pony comic?

I wonder who's drawing that and if it's Ross

Campbell I'm not sure I'm not sure I love this

pedal though. Bathroom's free if anyone's gonna

go. So much for fresh air. I do like the way

he's drawing April and Casey in the human characters.

I like that more than I like the turtles, but...

Yep. Absolutely. So... As we get to... the farm

here. Leo is still suffering a lot from the brainwashing

that the Foot Clan did to him, making him hate

Splinter, Hamato Yoshi, and his brothers, polluting

his mind. And so as he's here, he's still coming

out of that. And he has these in -and -out phases.

They wake him up from the van to, come on, Leo,

let's go into the barn and chill. And you know

what? No. And he takes off into the woods to

go out on his own. And we're seeing a very sad,

unfamiliar Leonardo. yes and and this is where

later on in some of these issues is where I kind

of get frustrated with the whole brainwashing

thing and mixing up kitsune with Tang Shen because

he is now in his visions as we will see later

on in these issues he is now envisioning his

mother he's not envisioning kitsune So that's

where I got confused earlier about it. Yeah,

it's I don't know I think it's his His mom is

in his head for real in a magical kind of way

and I think just anything that When he needs

to go there to bring out his mother to do something

that she's there doesn't it's not that the people

that he's seeing are reminding him of her I think

it's just You know positions in space that you

know, but also time that he needs to hear from

her. So she appears to him In his mind because

he does replace her they you know they the same

panel only kitsune is replaced with Tang Shen

again but you know I Do love it the but you know

after Leo runs off. What is that? Oh hell? So

we find out that alopex has followed them And

Raph, being Raph, assumes the worst, that she's

there to kill them for Shredder. And she basically

gets attacked by Raph. Subsequently saved by

Leo. By Leo. I know Leo isn't back to being himself

yet. He isn't ready yet for the Blue Bandana.

Just looks weird to me to have him all in black

without a bandana. It looks really weird. So,

let's see. We get to Donnie, Mikey, and April

showing up. April's like, so much for sneaky

and silent. Why is Leo yelling at Raph? And where

the heck did Alopex come from? So Leo and Raph

get into more arguments. More fisticuffs. Yeah.

Oh man. That panel. With the two of them facing

off. Yeah. And then Leo attacking him. The colors

on how they do that is so well done. It's a neat

way to frame time. I remember looking at this

panel thinking initially that the because of

the off color that that was Like a dream of Leo's

like he saw himself doing this but then the next

panel they're actually fighting and so I went

back and reread that as you know within this

rectangular panel, there's This has nothing to

do with the shredder. Are you sure and then that

moment later that instant later Leo jumps on

RAF and I liked the the handling of time I'm

starting to draw comics for the off -the -cuff

folks, and I'm learning a lot about pacing time

for panel -to -panel, so that's why I noticed

that. Like, oh, I see what they did. I have to

use that someday. But neat, anyway. And with

this whole arc of Leo being brainwashed and being

used by Shredder and being turned evil, it's

really surprising. Like, usually I don't see...

Donnie and Mikey being the These smart ones nuts.

Okay. Okay dot Donnie is smart. I'm not saying

gonna tell is not smart, but I usually don't

see the two of them They're not the relevant

ones. I Usually don't see the two of them breaking

stuff up, but here they are knock it off Raph.

Yeah guys. This is stupid What I'm liking about

this is you know, I'm thinking to the 2000 2007

CG movie the story always centers on Leo and

Raph and how they antagonize each other. What

the IDW comic does, and they're doing it here,

and they'll do it with the next issue, is they

really bring Mike and Donnie to the foreground.

They make them more important. And I really appreciate

seeing all of the turtles treated fairly. One

thing I still love about that movie. Tax support,

did you plug the computer in, sir? I need to

watch that again. It's it's the forgettable movie

and it doesn't deserve to be forgotten. Yeah

So splinter finally shows up and breaks everybody

up Basically says miss O 'Neill graciously invited

us to this place in order to provide us with

much -needed sanctuary I will not have you offending

our host and dishonoring yourselves by continuing

the conflict. We are attempting to leave behind

you go splinter like i don't care that my legs

broken if you try that again i will kick the

snot out of you i swear the panel where it's

it's all four of them with alopex in the middle

i swear they're trying to make alopex the fifth

turtle it just if you i don't know if you've

read the archie series it's coming i know i i

know that's where we're going i gotta ask bobby

love to know So Spl - So Splinter does ask Alopex

about how she came to be here and follow them

and wants her to give her side of the story and

Raphael speaks up, but Sensei, silence Raphael.

Splinter... Not a single artist I love all the

art in this in this in this entire series But

not a single artist can get him right to what?

Splinter no no I Don't even know what he looks

like in that panel where he says silence Rafael.

It's not a dog. It's it's not a rat You're not

gonna want me to say this I know what he looks

like he's a gray Winnie the Pooh My god, you're

so right Yeah, when you when you give splinter

round ears like a regular rat it does not work

I Don't know So a Lopex tells her side of the

story All about how shredder had killed her family

and the foot was all she had We get some interesting

flashback colors. I love again. I love how they

do this where they have the At the top of the

page they have a blue background with her and

then it flashes to a much lighter overall blue

background with her versus shredder I see that

version of shredder and flashback. I don't mind

it. Yeah, see a giant red snuggie Oh, he took

the snuggie off in that fight So she didn't know

where to go so they so she had followed them

She says I heard you all talking heard you say

you were leaving the city. I Love the shadows

Love that shadow of her. Oh, yeah the silhouette

stuff. Yeah the silhouette. Oh, man. It's so

awesome So she made a choice and if the foot

wanted to kill me They'd have to chase me first

The van looks so good in this flashback She goes

I don't care if you think I'm lying I really

don't want to fight not anymore And Donnie pops

up wait what I don't understand is why you attacked

shredder in the first place What wasn't it for

you? He murdered my family And of course Raph

and her go off and then Leo starts and Splinter

breaks it up again. And this is really heartbreaking.

This is like so heartbreaking because this isn't

a moment where Leo believes his master is Shredder

and Splinter says, I will not tolerate this childish

behavior. You will both cease now. Save your

commands, Yoshi. You are not my master. That

cuts deep. It just really pulls at the hard strings

like waltz and and Bobby Tom waltz Bobby and

and Kevin they're just Killing it with the writing

So we get more with raff and splinter and alopex

and April the next panel April's like okay, not

too awkward Time to go. Yeah So she and Donnie

have some conversations as well as Casey and

Raph having some conversations and and Hello,

I love the part of the conversation. Well, you

know, we'll take it easy road things will work

out now Wish me luck got to meet the girlfriend's

parents girlfriend when that happened When I

was in the hospital, we're not saying much about

it yet. It's all new and stuff and well, we don't

want to go too fast Yeah, and nothing's as slow

like meeting the parents. Oh, man I love how

they drew the look on Casey's face If you if

you look at the panel above where you smiling

when kit you win Raph asking the question, but

when Raph but His whole face just like oh no

So awesome. And that's again one of the things

that I love about the transitions for this because

you have this where Raph says this, yeah, and

nothing says slow like meeting the parents. And

then Casey's like, oh man, we go to the next

page, don't remind me is in the kind of the narration.

So they're. They they do scene movements so well

in this title. They really do. So we get up to

the main farmhouse. I don't know what's what

is it? Does April look off to you? I know it's

supposed to be a far away shot, but it looks

like they didn't even draw her face now. I think

she is looking over her shoulder. Yeah, that's

true. So so the whole dialogue here is a case

April's like you ready I Don't know April. I

feel like I should have my hockey mask on or

something Oh, come on you big baby. My parents

don't buy that line should have been I'll come

on Casey You haven't knocked me up yet So we

meet mr. And mrs. O 'neill Mrs. O 'Neill looks

like my history professor Yeah, Mrs. O 'Neill

looks like an adult version of Irma to me a little

bit if they ever aged up her So she meets Casey

they all go in and have You know they meet the

father and everything else and talk about you

know, how's he doing and Mother says he's in

the living room watching baseball, of course

we meet We meet April's father who is in a wheelchair

and I what I what I really We're gonna have to

interview Bobby again because after reading all

this stuff It's like what I really want to know

is was it from day planned from day one to have

April's parents? Involved in all because what

we get revealed later about them it I Did this

happen in the Archie series not in the Archie

series early the Mirage series I should say No,

they go a completely different direction with

her parents. I don't like the direction that

the Mirage series went I'll spoil it because

I don't think anybody's gonna go back and find

all those books They do bring in April's dad

and mom. The short story, long story made short,

is that they could not conceive a child. April's

dad found a stone that... a magic stone that

came up in one of the early issues of the Turtles

and attached the stone to a pencil. He was an

artist and he drew the baby and because of the

magic of the stone, the baby became alive. Whatever

he draws comes alive and April is not a real

human being. She is one of his creations. She's

a drawing. I'm not a fan of where they went with

that. Where the series ends off in volume four,

April's having kind of this, she discovered this

finally and is kind of having an identity crisis

about it and isn't happy doing whatever, you

know. I'm not even human! It's April and Casey

can't conceive their own child and it's because

she's not a human being. Yeah, this origin is

much better. This energy ass is much better.

That's Peter Laird when left unchecked by Kevin

Eastman. That's what happens. Okay, so April's

mom says, I can't tell you how relieved we were

when you called to say you were on your way,

sweetie. Talk about perfect timing. We had just

heard about StockGen on the news. StockGen? Wait,

you don't know? No, what? It's gone. completely

gone and the next page is a the first panel is

a beautiful image of Leo just standing by the

lake oh the the colors in this and how it all

blends together is so well done we then see him

envisioning Tang Shen oh boy let's see She says

you cannot escape the truth like a monster seeking

prey in the night. The truth will hunt you down

That's not tension. That's a that's kitsune up

there. Really? Yep Long hair wolf like your Fox

icon behind her head. Yes, that's yeah, that's

true. It's tension on the bottom. Oh That's yeah,

that's right See, I still think they look too

much alike. Whatever. Sorry listeners. So Kitsune

is screwing with his mind again. And in this

brainwashing, Shredder says, true strength comes

from the will to strike quickly and without mercy.

And then we get to Tang Shen. uh the truth in

the truth responsibility for all this sadness

belongs to another who mother tell me please

who i love that this image of the two of them

because it's almost black and white it's i would

say it's more of a what'd you say sepia tone

i don't know it's not straight black and white

pencils but it's Very light tannish kind of coloring

on on his face and on her face and on the background

It's just absolutely brilliant Honestly, I wish

like after seeing this This final little panel

on this page here when she says my child when

you find that which we will which you will have

lost You will also find the answer to the question

This panel this bottom panel here where I wish

they would do more stuff at night, honestly like

the colors and the design of of him being out

in the wilderness at night it just it's all really

awesome so we get to uh the parents uh tucking

in the april's mom is tucking her dad into bed

uh she goes down and and I knew this was going

to happen. Okay, I've got your room ready to

go, April, and here's a few fresh blankets and

a pillow for Casey on the hide -a -bed. Of course

they're not going to let them be in the same

room. Go ahead. If they're, I don't know, whenever

there's a boy sleeping over with a girl, I think

of the old days how they would sew them inside

of giant potato sacks and keep them completely

contained. April's parents seem to be a little

more hip and are not going to do that to poor

Casey. She is in college, I guess. If it were

high school, maybe. Yeah, that's the one thing.

Like in this panel where she where the mother

talks about the height of bed They both look

like that they are high schoolers and April looks

like she's ten times younger than Casey in this

panel where she's at the computer I don't know.

It's a little weird, but Let's see so So April

tells them about the Tell them tells them a lot

about a lot of eagle illegal activities at stock

jet She mentions ooze and her mother Perks ooze

did you say ooze? Yeah, why? Mom what's wrong?

Maybe nothing you two wait here for a bit. I'll

explain everything, but I'm going to brew up

some tea first Yay tea We get to Raph. Now is

this him or April? Usually they color code the

narration to the characters, and I can't really

tell. Oh no, it's the mother. The nights get

pretty cold here, so we'll need something to

keep us warm from while we talk. I've got something

to share with you. And as she is saying all this,

the images are of Raph, Mikey, who apparently

can sleep through anything, and Donnie, who has

a headlight on him. That's just awesome. I wonder

what he's reading. He's reading Professor Honeycutt's

journal about the technodrome. Ah, okay. and

then we see splinter with his leg kind of propped

up and then of course Leo is out in the wilderness

still and part of the narration is either way

you need to know the truth time you learned about

some important details from your dad's and my

past some things that may have been way more

dangerous than we ever realized and as this is

going on Alopex is watching Leonardo which is...

it's very interesting to see her not necessarily

stalking him and that's how we end issue 29 is

that Alopex is watching Leo alright Sets up a

lot of really cool things, it really does. Issue

number 30, at least the first, I don't know,

four or five pages of it, maybe the whole issue.

Issue number 30 really is probably my favorite

out of these four. I think so too. Because we

started with Dear Woody. Nah, too corny. And

they actually show Mikey erasing it, because

it's Mikey writing a letter to Woody. He's like,

yo, Woody, yeah, that's more like it. And we

get this narration from Mikey as a letter. I

love how he's doing this. I think that's really,

really great. And how they work his narration.

They work him writing a letter to Woody as the

narration of this chapter. So as as Mikey's narrating

we see Leo out in the woods and he's calling

out for his mother We see alopex and then Like

you don't see it on your As you're flipping through

the issue, but on comixology through the guided

view how the panels are broken up is we we get

to the panel where it's a where you know where

leo asks where are you then you you hit your

right arrow button you see alopex and then the

very next one it moves down and bam raps there

it's like holy crap where'd he come from my favorite

ninja turtles are where they're allowed to be

ninjas and i i do dig that we don't see any silhouettes

in the background no white pupils nope he's bam

he's there with his with his thigh tying to point

it into her throat So it looks like Rafa's going

to go take Alopex off to have a little conversation.

Yeah. And more of Mikey's letter is saying that

we think we have to take extra care of Leo right

now. It says, I think we have to take extra care

of Leo right now. Because I'm not sure he can

do it for himself anymore. Then we get back to

RAF now this starting right here where he says

a little hunting before bedtime, huh? I'll OPEX

This is where I was telling you in earlier episodes

of the podcast about their Sexual tension, I

guess you call it. I'm sure it's gonna happen

Thinking back to Archie. Yeah, she's a foil for

Ninjara. Absolutely Yeah So they go back and

forth They're arguing back and forth and I again

love the night time sceneries really do Hang

on one second Yeah, I love how she's just walking

away from him and she just says believe what

you want turtle It's like you don't turn your

back on rafael even though she's looking back

on him uh... you know here he gets stabbed either

that or she's gonna pounce on him like uh...

like nala pounced on simba in the lion king um...

so the um... raf says no way you're walking away

from me like that you ain't going nowhere until

i find out what the hell you were doing out here

Take your hand off me Always I can I can envision

her saying this you damn dirty turtle I Love

the tension between them How it goes back and

forth back and forth and she tells him She was

following Leo. She wasn't hunting him She was

following him because she was trying to make

sure he was okay because she knows what it's

like to have Shredder in your head, twisting

every thought, every emotion. Yeah, the ironic

thing is as much as they're in each other's face,

they both want what's best for Leo. Mm -hmm.

Yep. We get one panel of more flashback of her

fighting Shredder. Love that color. And that's

a panel where it's her... Those panels of her

and Shredder fighting above it is her with her

eyes closed. That's some good art She goes I

know exactly how Leonardo's feeling so I was

making sure he was alright that he wouldn't hurt

himself Not like you could understand you've

still got your family friends a home Leonardo

and me We've got nothing now. Okay, Raphael's

convinced Yeah, yeah, you can see it in his expression

And we get back to Mikey's narration nobody and

any exactly been campfire songs and marshmallows

out here It's okay, I brought these So then he's

talking about Shredder breaking Splinter's leg.

We see Donnie patching it. We see Donnie and

Splinter having a really interesting conversation.

And he's talking about how he can barely understand

any of the professor's stuff, but there's no

doubt the destructive potential and security

safeguards. That thing are huge and it could

be a really far along farther than you were even

listening Wow father, are you even listening

to me? And Mikey's narration says let's just

say it's the ultimate suck Poor Donnie Yeah Leo's

traveling through the woods looking for his mother

still Oh, the faces in those trees. It's Korai,

it's Shredder, and Kitsune. That's cool. Didn't

notice that the first two times. Yeah, that's

a little creepy is what that is. And this is

basically showing Leo fighting off Shredder and

Kitsune. That he wants to become, he wants to

know the truth. The real truth. And this is where

Tang Shen comes back in to say that he has found

her. Why does she look like an octopus lady?

The way that it's drawn, her hair looks like

the tentacles of an octopus. The the clouds her

hair is kind of merging with the clouds and they're

very stylized looking I wonder if that's a Japanese

thing or if it's just Ross Campbell doing his

thing Maybe I'm not sure So she tells him that

you are safe in this place and we get to You

know she says walk with me And she basically

takes him throughout all these places of where

he has been before in his I assume in his previous

life To kind of calm him down and to kind of

you know get him to take The new path because

the new path lies before you your answers away

to fully if you only take the first step And

And she says that she is needed elsewhere. People

keep calling Leo, Leo. And I assume it's the

guys. And it's... Wait, who is that? That's Don.

Oh, that's Donnie. He doesn't have his bandana

on. I can't tell because of the colors. I know

he doesn't have his bandana on. He's the only

other one with a shoulder strap to carry the

boat. Yeah, that's true. Should I guess that

see a Donnie So Donnie and Leo Donnie wakes him

up We go back to April and Casey She says so

dad was part of the a top secret project at Stockton

They get more information about this I love how

they're doing this origin This is so refreshing,

so interesting. I mean, normally in most things,

they'll make mention of April's parents, either

mother or father, or they'll make mention of

Casey's parents. But you don't get it as flushed

out as it is in this ongoing. Yeah, and I realized

here that April's dad had some minor thing to

do with the creation of the Turtles and the Ooze

at Stock Gen. just like in the movie. They owe

IDW Comics a writing credit, because this was

like two years ago. Well, no, this wasn't two

years ago, but... Yeah. He was still in the project

when he had a stroke. You know, April tells Casey

that her mom used to be an investigative journalist.

Huh. Hey. Nice. So we get to, let's see here.

So we get to the fact of them going back and

forth, back and forth. And her mother says, it's

just Stockton's been so good to us after John's

stroke and the internship was a huge opportunity

for you. I should have listened to my gut. And

April said, you know, April's like, don't beat

yourself up over it and everything else. And

she says, no more secrets and I have to show

you something. Wait here. She comes down and

she says, I've tried to go through it before,

but all I see is scientific gibberish, and I

just don't have the time to research what it

all means. I bet April and Casey do! Yep. She

says maybe you can figure it out. So we get Donnie

and Leo. Oh, that's why I couldn't see Donnie's

bandana. It was because I didn't see it on his

neck in the previous panel, but it's around his

neck. Donnie says must have been quite a dream

you were having bro. You were talking of a storm.

I was yeah, I'm mostly mumbling But I'm pretty

sure I heard you call for mother a few times

and something about ghosts. I think So they're

having a conversation and they're becoming a

little bit more close again. Yeah, we don't see

Don talking to Leo like this ever ever And I

think because of the way this issue is laid out

with Raff dealing with Alopex and with Mikey

basically writing the narration in his letter,

that they had to use Leo and Donna. Honestly,

we needed to see this. We needed to see the two

of them do stuff together, have a conversation,

because I don't think the entire series to this

point, they've had one on one time. Like just

the two of them in a scene that was a serious

conversation And the conversation they have is

about fate and destiny and And Donnie starting

to believe it all Yeah, and he sometimes he sometimes

feels like we're all caught up in some type of

cosmic momentum It's called you're in a comic

book, but I'm gonna ignore that because it's

a fun story. Yeah If Deadpool were here, we'd

tell you. Yeah, that's true. And Leo says, I

don't know, maybe right now, though, I just feel

stuck, frozen, like I'm treading water and going

nowhere. And Donnie says, dude, that's just a

brainwashing. The foot did some serious tinkering

inside your head, but they don't have you anymore.

You just got to hang in there and know we got

your back always. Thanks, Donnie. So, now this

is something interesting that I never thought

they would do. Glad they did it. Never thought

they would do it. Tang Shen goes to Splinter.

This is heartbreaking. This is really heartbreaking.

And she's... He says, please do not look at me,

I am ashamed for you to see me this way, a rodent,

a broken monster. And she says, do not be foolish

husband, you know as well as I that the true

essence of the individual lies within. This is

just amazing that they're doing this. I love

that. You often wonder how they're going to work

in Yoshi's past and obviously because Shen in

almost I think every version Has died that it

would have to be done flashbacks or dreams. This

is done. So and Yeah, I was gonna save this for

the end of the trade but what what I think that

this story arc does is it cements the The overarching

theme that has been the turtles theme forever.

It cements the family theme these Turtles and

Splinter and Tang Shen are all coming back together

to put the Turtles family together again, to

make it whole again. And Tang Shen is kind of

becoming the glue for that. She's putting Leo

back together and she's helping put Splinter

back together. Absolutely. And I am so glad they

did this. Like, so glad. I mean, from the very

first issue... realizing that they are reincarnated,

reincarnated versions of themselves and newer

versions of themselves. And now having to do

a dream sequence or a flashback with Tang Shen,

I'd probably call this more a dream sequence,

obviously, but it's just so amazing. And the

background, I've never seen coloring, I'm like

this, I mean. Basically yellow and white as the

background as they're talking and of course obviously

splinter is more gray here and You know she leaves

him and we get back to Mikey saying We're hurting.

Yeah, but we'd be way too starting to let this

beat us But just in case I'm cooking up a serious

plan, bro A little trick of my own that I know

will bring everyone back together. And I'm gonna

put it into motion soon as I'm done with this

letter. Anybody guess what it is? He said, it's

totally gonna work, dude. I know it. I love how,

how in this narration in this, that this entire

arc so far, at least in this issue. that Mikey

can be so negative at times when he's relaying

the news, because it is a very bad situation

that they're in. But then, you know, at the next

point, he is so optimistic about everything.

Absolutely love that characterization. So he

says that he's going to close it out for now.

I hope everything's all right with you in NYC.

Make sure you stay out of trouble. and we get

Mikey basically saying don't worry about us dude

I think everything's gonna be okay and he was

cooking a pizza wasn't he no that was a hot dog

I was thinking it was a pizza So they all go

around the campfire, you know, you know what's

missing from this campfire a giant blue flame

And then and then after Mikey does the letter

sign off your pal Mike sir, and they're all on

the fire we get two new Narrations, this is Koya.

That's the name of the bird Koya. Do you Copy.

Yes, what is your status, Koya? I have found

the prey. Excellent. Stand by for reinforcements

as you command, Karai. Wow, that's a big giant

mutant bird. Wow. That was crazy. That was just

crazy how that issue ended because you think

it's gonna end on such a great note But then

they leave you on the cliffhanger of a new character

showing up. I Assume koi is completely new or

was there something trying to think if she comes

from anything, but I can't nothing's coming to

mind. I'm Checking it up on the internet. I mean

there have been bird mutants before but I don't

think anything Like this Oh God the name of a

city in Japan. I'm trying to find out Yeah, Koya

meets pigeon Pete. No. Oh my god. I take that

back It's a sushi restaurant in Highland Park

What's it mean? So we get to issue 31 and we

start at the barn I hate to say it, but you're

100 % wrong, Casey. No way. No way, Don. I'm

calling bull crap on that. Oh god, it's the two

of them working on a vehicle. If only it was

a large truck. I don't care. I just wish they

were starting to insult each other, but they're

not going through the alphabet. How dare you

people tease us like this? Like, come on. Oh,

God. So Donnie and Casey are working on this

bike to try to get it working again. So we, so

Donnie says, well I'd kill to have access to

the internet right now, even if April's parents,

even April's parents slow dial up. Speaking of

the O 'Neils, did April tell you about her dad

working on that ooze stuff at StockGen? Pretty

crazy coincidence, huh? Fate and destiny, what?

Nothing, just something Leon and I talked about

the other day. So they're gonna fire it up and

see if it runs and of course it does run You

know Casey says I'm telling you man It's sure

cool to have a nice surprise every once in a

while Yeah, I think you're gonna get surprised

Yeah So we go to raft training And this is something

that we don't, we have, have we seen them train

at all? There's been too much going on for them

to actually step back and train. And we get to,

this is where we get, if the last issue was them

basically being Simba and Nala fighting, this

issue is where they make up. Yeah, she alopex

says that come hither look on that panel number

three. Yeah, she does She says I didn't take

you for the Tai Chi type What not enough blood

and guts for you foot types for the record Raphael?

I was never in the foot clan for the killing.

I just wanted to belong to something to feel

important You know after I was mutated I was

a total mess I felt like a weird mix of two things

that were never meant to go together like like

like a freak exactly a freak I Just I really

love these two like once they're to this point.

I really really enjoy The story and RAF does

do some you know some really cool dialogue for

her he says hey don't let it get to you alifex

who gives a crap what that pinhead shredder thinks

talk about having issues that dude's got plenty

look i was alone for a while too lost but i don't

give up on finding my i didn't i didn't give

up on finding my place and eventually i did so

you just keep pushing forward and things will

work out So then they start Fighting training

rather martial art practicing, you know that

oh, I don't remember what I remember reading

or watching something that talked about the Things

that they used to do in the old -fashioned movies

to say yeah, they just had sex but without showing

it Like this martial arts scene. That's like

this is what they do when they can't tell you

that they went away and did it I don't think

they actually went away and did it but no, I

don't This is what you do when you can't show

that. Yeah, they're having too much fun It's

kind of like I know a lot of people on the internet

and everywhere else hate Nicolas Cage movies

But have you ever seen Gone in 60 Seconds? There's

a scene and gone in 60 seconds where he's there

trying to wait out this this couple in the house

to go ahead and you know, basically go do what

they're gonna do so they can steal the car and

As he's doing this he's you know, co -starring

with Angelina Jolie so they're in the car and

he's trying to get her all hot and bothered and

everything else and and She notices that the

couple has moved into the bedroom. She's like

okay time to go to work and he's like breaks

good breaks too and they go steal the car um

that's yeah yeah that right here is where i i

this is why i keep making making the lion king

references yeah that's a null look it's definitely

a start raft like just her just basically sitting

on top of him yeah So we get back to Leo. Well,

let me ask you really quickly. The whole time

they're doing this training stuff, what did you

think of the movements and how the artists have

been able to convey them through the art without

them looking really clunky? I think it's good

framing. For lack of a better term, the camera

angles work. They've got the motion blurs going

on that kind of direct the eye. in the direction

that you need to go to see. I like that it's,

yeah, yeah, I mean, Raphael's kick flip on the

bottom and it points you toward the center of

the page. His sweep in the top left points you

toward the center of the page. Those are well

-composed things. And then on the next page,

when she trips up his legs, the motion lines

on the fourth panel points you down. toward her

face and the bottom panel the their energy is

directing you where the focal point is in the

next panel absolutely we get to Leo still in

the woods holding his sword and we get narration

between him and Raph you know nothing about me

no actually I know a lot I know the only thing

you like more than training is getting ready

for training And we see Leo training and we see

Shredder trying to slice through. I see him envisioning

Shredder. That's his in the past armor. That's

he's seeing him. Oh, no, he's seeing him kill.

Who did he kill on stage? The the Savat ninja.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Splinter comes along and they

have a conversation. Splinter says, there are

some who believe that a sword once drawn must

never be returned to its scabbard until it tastes

blood. Did you know this, my son? I have heard

something like it, yeah. Of course, it was more

myth than any true creed romanticized over the

centuries for some fanciful purpose, I suppose.

Yet all myths from seeds of yet all myths bloom

from seeds of truth. Splinter asks him, he says,

Leo says, what exactly are you getting at here?

Only this, Rokosaki tried to make you his sword,

Leonardo, and then deemed you a failure when

he wielded you and you did not draw blood. Now

this goes back to exactly what I was saying a

while ago when we first saw that Leo was brainwashed.

This is what Kitsune only brainwashed him enough

to where he would be good enough without actually

having to kill her I wonder if that was something

that they did in the writing because let's face

it Probably a lot of kids read this book. I mean

they're you know There's a lot of crap that is

going on in this series, but I'm sure some Between

10 and 15 year olds read this comic yeah, so

I well I think Bobby said at some point Nickelodeon

won't let the turtles kill Right. Which is fine

with me. I don't think they need to. I mean,

they haven't in any of the cartoons. Oh, well,

Leo did kill the Shredder in 2003. Cut his head

off. Oh, jeez. Okay, I must have missed that

episode. Yeah, but that was the, um, it didn't

actually kill the Shredder because he was an

Ultron robot, but we didn't know that when he

cut his head off. That was a, like, I watched

that episode. I'm like, oh, whoa! I can't believe

they showed that. But, yeah, the turtles kill

all the time in the Mirage book, but not in any

of the other incarnations unless it, I mean...

Occasionally when it's the big bad guy, and they've

got to get rid of it, but Like like the shredder

in the movie they didn't drop him off the building

he fell off the building and you know if we want

to believe that he's dead and he's dead, but

He wasn't no no he until he got turned into a

can opener whoops Now this Do we I'm trying to

see here in these panels We never actually okay

the only time we really see splinter full -on

like Without just seeing his his upper body like

a full body shot of him is the panel where he

says it was shredder Yeah, well, I don't feel

like Like much of a success right now. I really

don't feel like much of anything. That's the

only time we really see a full body shot of splinter

because I believe I'm trying to figure out when

he pulls out the bandana because we don't see

it in in these panels until until he says She

was always an uncannily wise and convincing person

your mother she still is Leo's eye bulges out

and he's like how I know that you feel confused

my son adrift still in the dark currents of shredders

devious plot He hands him his bandana and it's

like wow And all of a sudden is it all of a sudden

See, this is why I'm kind of going back and forth.

Oh, no, he doesn't have I thought he still had

the the black been arm bands on As the series

has been as this story arcs been progressing

there's been less and less of the black Now he's

only got it on his legs as the arms are gone.

The shoulders are gone Yeah. I love that panel,

though, of Splinter walking away and Leo just

holding the blue bandana. That is amazing. I

didn't think their bandanas were that long. I

think that's, what's the word, they're doing

it up for effect. Well, yeah. Well, I mean...

Even if you look at Donnie's in the next panel

around his neck, it looks pretty long. It looks

like a snuggie. At least it's not red. At least

it goes with his outfit. So Mikey's like, dude,

you totally fixed it. I can't wait to take it

for a spin. Well, you're gonna have a long wait

bro racing it all over the farm will blow our

cover faster than you can say dirty carburetor

Casey goes yo, there's abril fella. I got a jet

fellas You know, maybe april's dad's got an old

tractor around here we can work on next. Whoa.

Wow totally april cut her hair At least it's

not a weave anymore. Yeah, I don't know. I don't

know that this needed to be done. And I think

we talked to Bobby about it when he cut her hair.

When an artist does something like this that

just changes the appearance of one of the people.

And we typically end up recognizing people based

or characters in a comic book based on their

silhouette. And when you change a silhouette

like this, so suddenly in the middle of an arc,

It rings to me as Ross Campbell is just trying

to make April look like his ideal woman. Her

hips are getting wider. She's got that skinnier

up top, the buzz cut up the back with the little

wisp of hair over her bangs. And the bra strap

showing and the shirt over the shoulder. He's

just drawing his ideal woman. And that's, I think

it's kind of self -serving to change a character

like that. But at least at least at least within

the story they are all you know for it Well,

I don't know when Whenever a girl, you know,

and it's kind of the joke for that buzz cut thing

Like it's what the girl does when they're kind

of damaged you know, and they're coming out of

something that they just need that change and

That's an unfortunate stereotype, but it doesn't

even really Apply here as this is a time of healing.

I don't know and and and whenever a girl does

that I think you have at least some people around

them in their world who go yeah Yeah, that looks

really good and then the heart and their heart

and in their heads. It's like oh, why did you

do that? But I guess this is just the kind of

woman that Ross Campbell likes that's what I'm

gonna go with So April and Casey get in the van

And they have a whole conversation. Where did

she get that vial of ooze? Oh, she took it from

StockGen. She took it from StockGen. Yep. So

they have this whole conversation about her past

and what he says that there's something that

needs to be saying. And he says, look, you're

You're being like Donnie with baseball right

now, overthinking things. That ain't really complicated.

Me and that old rat, we're brawlers. We're used

to healing off our boo -boos without the help

of any green gloop. I know he'd tell you the

same. You're sure? Sure, I'm sure. Besides, we

already got a Dr. Donnie taking good care of

us. And, you know... He basically points out

that there's someone that could really use some

magic healing. So you know she says her dad and

And they kind of go through this whole thing

and this is where it's kind of funny for me This

is where though and this is goes back to what

you were saying earlier that IDW needs to get

you know, I would say probably 50 % of the gross

profits from the Turtles movie because The fact

that the mutagen has healing properties Came

right out of this because this is I know this

issue came out During production of the movie

well, and it had healing properties back when

old hob used it to save himself from Baxter's

gunshot. Yep So it's a it's a multi -purpose

Goo Yep So we get back to splinter the turtles

and Halopax. Mikey says, so hold on a sec, it's

good or bad that Stock Jin's gone. Donnie says,

hard to say Mikey, for sure it sucks that we've

lost an important link to our past, but the stuff

they were doing there was pretty sketchy. The

truth is, the technodrome's got to be our main

concern now anyway. I just love these back and

forths between all of them, because they bring

up so many cool things. Raph says, true intentions,

that psycho wants to build himself a mutant army,

he sure blabbed about it enough. Yes, and after

I left Stockton, Old Hob and Slash remained behind,

now I wonder. Wonder nothing, that walk and throw

rug had to be a part of it. Dude So they're basically

saying that the good thing is that all that's

far away now and that they're you know in this

place of Recuperating and I didn't last long

because lo and behold here's Batman Koya basically

pulls a Batman jumps through the ceiling of the

barn Two words massacre them And she looks really

cool. Is it a she? Yeah for a mutant bird. She

looks damn cool When did they say she was a she?

I assumed it was a she I don't know could be

wrong birds don't have mammary glands. So I guess

we're not gonna find out for a minute or three

So, Raph, Donnie and Mikey go after the bird.

And then we get these funky looking foot soldiers.

Who the heck are these guys? Like, seriously,

I've never seen foot soldiers like this. I mean,

they look like they're part of the Red Hood.

Red Hood, yeah. Oh my god. What if the Red Hood

gang and Freddy Krueger made children? Yeah,

that's exactly what these things are and we see

So we see a Fight ensues Fight fight ensues,

but Raph's trying to take care of business when

he kind of puts it together Looks for alopex

and sees that she's checking out of the barn.

I knew it What are... What the... Who are these

clowns? Foot assassins. Assassins? Yes. Killers

of the highest order. And Raph doesn't care about

helping his brothers or Splinter. He's just concerned

about the fact that he thinks Alopex ratted them

out. And he basically attacks her while Donnie

and Mikey... Make sure to work on the foot clan.

Koya comes in and screeches her way around. Let's

see, we get to Raph and Alopex again. More Red

Hood Ninjas. Mike, you're so funny. I sure missed

the peace and quiet. And of course Splinter has

to throw in the line he always uses. Focus now.

Remember your training. I love these action scenes.

These are so well done. Ross Campbell is doing

a damn good job on these action scenes. Focus

now. Defend your family. Mikey says these guys

are fast too fast You are beaten rodent There

is no escape. Are you prepared for the slaughter?

That's funny bird Was gonna ask you the same

thing and Leo's back in blue He's back in blue,

but he still has and I guess it's all right He

still has the black arm length on now, too It's

you know here's this is all you need to do to

make the four turtles look different and look

unique with the movie they went crazy you know

they gave Donnie the Ghostbuster backpack and

and Leo's got the samurai armor, but But here,

you know, they're they're all generally recognizable.

Mikey is the only one who's got the old school

knee pads and elbow pads. They all have the wraps.

Donnie's a taller, different shape. And then

I think they're going to kind of keep Leo in

these black wraps for a while. But it's all you

really need to do to make them look unique. In

that turtle documentary, I hope you've seen it

already when they were talking about the bringing

the. turtles, I mean they had footage, video

footage of Eastman and Laird talking to the guy

at Playmates going over the action figures. They

had like a, they brought their VHS recorder and

recorded it. They're talking about how the four

characters look the same and that we've got to

come up with something to make them look different,

which is why they, you know, because you can't

release the same toy, four different molds and

call it four different characters. So they made

them the different colors. They gave them the

initials and... You know, that's what they did

to differentiate four of them to justify selling

four of the same action figure, but This is all

you need to do. I mean, you know slightly different

equipment different sizes You don't need to put

a Ghostbuster backpack on the one So we get to

issue 32 which is the final chapter of the Northampton

arc uh opens up leo is like back away now now

again this is this must have been strange for

people who did this single issue because like

for me in the trade it goes right from when leo

says uh i was uh gonna ask you the same thing

uh you know and he said in the in this new chapter

back away now like this must have been really

hard reading this in singles not really Like

when I put down that last issue it got put in

a bag and bored and then when I by the you know

30 days later when I picked this up I didn't

I couldn't have told you what the last panel

of the last book was so I Just you know, I remembered.

Oh, yeah the bird attacked them and he's saying

back away now You know we get to Koya introducing

ourselves to Leo She says master shredder Sends

his regards pray and he says your master bird

Not mine and we go back to that yellow background

of attack. I love this This is amazing Such good

art in this and this is the this issue really

turned the corner to with the art because the

The the main difference that I noticed immediately

is the much much thicker outline Making them

look more like a cartoon There's less detail

on their surface Mm -hmm, and I think this is

gonna fit really well right in with turtles in

time I mean look at us page to Mikey's gigantic

cartoon eyes But he's happy his brother's back

He's totally back Mikey Donnie quit gawking and

get back into the fight. Yeah, Leo's back. He's

already bossing them around Leo's back um it

is a she told you there was no clue there was

no visual cue at all i mean yes i was assuming

but i don't know so they're all fighting you

make me want to make sure that my wife is a girl

if i didn't notice this wait a second i think

i'm straight wait a minute Oh my god. Oh my god,

ladies and gentlemen. We have a baby. We know

she's a girl. It's okay. Yeah, I was going to

say, wait a second. The pullback in GeekCast

Radio Network is not responsible for anything

Jerry says on this podcast. Wow. I was going

to say, yeah, you have a son. So unless, yeah,

anyway. So Leah says, father, did she hurt you?

And he says, no, I'm fine. um and the good to

hear oh my god he just launched himself over

splinter that is an amazing piece of art that's

awesome i always love seeing the team fight together

it's so good seeing that I love this. Leonardo,

your shoulder hurts like hell. Good thing it's

not my throwing arm. Yeah, Leo's pretty much

back at this point. He's pretty much broken all

of Shredder and Kitsune's spells. It's probably

really seeing his brother, seeing his brother's

father in peril that really snapped him out of

it. Yeah. I wonder if that's where it kind of...

came in. Could be. We see Donnie actually, I

mean he's been using his bow, but I don't think

I've seen him in a long time in this series do

what he's doing in the panel where he's kicking

one of the Red Hood gang in the head, where he's

using the bow as a... Pull vaulting stick. Thank

you, pull vaulting, that's what I was looking

for, yeah. Not so tough with a surprise on their

side. These guys look so much like the stupid

red hood gang, but they have grenades Then again

crap We get to Raph and alopex again He's determined

to hunt her down What wait I didn't call anyone

I Man and then boom explosion. Wow. Oh, yeah

the right the grenade Donnie and Mike you're

okay I I just can't hear out of all the people

that I've heard voice Michelangelo I cannot hear

this line come out of them. Yeah, I'm good. And

so are they damn it It's not that I have a problem

with the turtles cursing. That's fun. Like I

can we've heard Raft curse all the time you know

we did in the first movie you know another it

just it doesn't feel right reading it coming

from Mikey's mouth though it just I don't know

so we get more battle Mikey realizes there's

only two where is the other guy and the other

guy went after a Raft and Alopex basically saves

his life And she basically tells him that he

that she wasn't foot anymore Raphael But when

they came I saw you you stood aside like like

you knew they were coming No, I froze because

I saw they were assassins. I thought they were

here to kill me Then that means you were wrong

And so was all So we so with all this fighting

going on out of the barn and with Raph and alopex

and Mikey Mikey and Donnie and Leo versus the

the foot and Koya We get back to the farmhouse

So we all need to have a a talk Mom dad while

I was at stock Jen I took something from their

lab something I'm pretty sure You'll recognize

something that could help dad What in the world?

Oh? My god the barn April get your keys phone.

We need to get over there and see what's going

on So much for being stealthy and sneaky So they

all pile into the van as more battling is going

on back at the barn here And I do love I do love

the whispering between Casey and April Oh, man,

this is bad. What do you think happened? No clue,

but I told those guys not to burn the place down

didn't see I don't see the other grenade in this

oh I see it now it's in the other guy's hand

I thought it was in the one that Mikey was fighting

and then he's like oh no you don't this panel

here be careful Raph there's no room for mistakes

with these guys good because I'm sick of making

mistakes today I love the panel of the three

of them. If it was a panel of the four of them,

it would be even better. But with Donnie, Raph,

and Mikey, that's such a good panel. So they

end up trouncing the foot, and Koya comes in

again. And in true Raphael fashion, I want a

piece of that stinking bird. She's all, you know,

calling them traitors. I will strangle you with

your own entrails. God. This is a horrible, horrible

line. I will gorge myself on your flesh. Yes.

So, so horrible. Gorge on this. I love that image

of Raaf. I love it when they do stuff like that.

What the mom there's something really important.

I need to tell and I Forgot that she saw them.

Yeah, what what are those mom get back in the

van? You are strong reptile but even strong even

the strongest have weaknesses and Of course Koya

tries to go after April and her mom And Mikey

saves the day with the motorcycle. Yeehaw! That's

an awesome panel. That is so freaking cool. And

then he toasts the bike. Yeah, that was awesome.

Can I do it again? Maybe later, Mikey. Once you

fix the bike. Yeah. Yeah, Mikey is the only one

that has the classic knee and shoulder pads.

Dang, I didn't notice that before. I like it.

I wish they all had it, but we got business to

take care of first. Do it, reptile. Prove who

you truly are. Kill me. Oh, we all know he's

not going to do that. But I mean, look at these.

At that panel there where he's got his sword

to her throat again the colors and the shadows

and how the silhouettes play off of each other

and Then we get to him almost striking and then

we see his face in more shadow Oh, man, that

is so poor Mikey. Look at Mikey. He's like no

Don't do it No, bird. I won't kill you, but you

can still die if that's what you really want

and He does something to her that I don't think

I've seen in a long time It's basically I Know

it's probably some Japanese name for it or whatever

He basically puts on the Vulcan nerve pinch of

death to her neck. No no no he He's taking the

ninja star out of her shoulder Oh, okay. Oh Yeah,

that's right and in which opens the wound and

now she's gonna bleed out unless he unless she

takes care of it What did you What I had to do

your bleeding won't stop without medical care

you have maybe an hour leave or die your choice

I Will return trainer return all you want we

won't be here Casey's mom. Am I dreaming? Someone

tell me I'm dreaming. Okay, you're dreaming.

No, that's April's mom. What did I say? Oh, you

said Casey's mom. Casey's mom's kind of, you

know, probably dead. Yeah. Nah, I misspoke. Stop

it, Casey. That's not helping. Assassin's Vanish

now. It doesn't work. It just, it doesn't work

unless it's Tatsu. It just doesn't work. So they

leave Splinter goes on to say we must leave immediately

sons. So Neil this place is no longer safe for

anyone April the rats talking to you. I know

mom. It's okay. Try not to faint That's funny

right there because that's what usually what

April does as soon as splinter starts talking

to her These things are mutants yes mrs o 'neill

we are mutants my name is splinter and these

are my sons um i love the explanations they're

giving here uh and april brings out the ooze

uh she says that she had it from stock gen trying

to tell you in the house before all this commotion

to fill you in on everything first uh to get

when i get a chance no more secrets no more lies

please just have dad drink this and then get

away from here as fast as you can you heard splinter

north hampton isn't safe anymore what the hell

have you gotten yourself into april o 'neill

nothing that you and dad didn't teach me how

to handle uh so they leave um Everything is gonna

be okay, April. You'll see you did the right

thing. Yes, you did miss O 'Neil So the four

brothers are back together sprint with splinter

April in case you're together And Splinter says

we return to New York to rectify past mistakes

We have been on the run from Orokosaki over the

course of two lifetimes, and still he pursues

us. Understand, my sons, that as of this moment,

we are through with running." And I love what

Campbell incorporated in the art here in this

final panel of the van driving off. Thank you

for visiting Northampton! We see Alopex watching

them drive off and we get Mrs. O 'Neil's narration

about there's being a change of plans. Gonna

have to leave Northampton. She feeds the mutagen

to her husband and as soon as he drinks it, some

green background stuff happens and all of a sudden,

he can walk again. Yay! I think that's gonna

come back to bite everybody in the butt later.

I think so too because the the closing part of

this story in this trade is April where is she

her her father asked she's with friends and We

see them heading back to New York and it says

to be continued For me in the trade with the

art gallery. I have a lot of the alternate covers

there's There's one with Mikey sitting on the

tree stump. There's one of all four of them in

a tree. That's what I think should have been

the cover of the trade, but they probably wanted

something a little more action -packed than that.

Well, that's actually what we have. I have Leo

and Splinter in the woods with Leo sitting down.

The next one is what the actual trade cover was,

which is Leo on the left. Koya in the middle

and the other four turtles and alopex in the

right. Yeah, I like more of... I hate to say

this, but I like more of the non -Eastman art.

Not that I don't like Eastman as an artist. I

just like some of his stuff. It's dated to me.

It looks like 80s heavy metal magazine grit.

Yeah. We get, I've got one with Raph and Donnie

and Leo out in the storm. Got another one with

Donnie and Casey on the bike. That's an awesome

cover. And then there's one by JK Woodward that

is all four of them running from Koya. She is

in the sun flying and they're running but it

looks like they tried to do them in movie style.

Not 2014 movie style, but just in general movie

style turtles. Overall, I love the Northampton

run. The art, for the most part, is damn good.

The story is flowing so, so well. What did you

think overall of the arc? I... Less action generally

than we get to see, but... I think the character

development that occurred in this is powerful,

important, and it's who my Turtles are, to me.

Yeah, I mean, we will always have the old comics,

we will always have the 87 and 2003 series, we

will always have the 90s movies, and those all

are our Turtles as well, but right now, honestly

for me, these are the Turtles that I love. These

are my favorite. Mean these, you know you you've

said it a million times on the show. We've done

I think what five seven or eight of these back

issue classics covering this series and and They

pay attention to every bit of Turtles history

and it's a true love letter to the fans Because

they work in so many awesome things here. I so

cannot wait to do issue thirty three and thirty

four and thirty four is where metalhead appears

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... Kind of issue where you see

them coming back to New York I wish shredder

had a there back kind of moment to that issue

that would have been awesome I Think we're gonna

take a quick break. I'm gonna come back with

final thoughts overall rating and we'll close

the show out after that So let's say you're looking

for a podcast of your favorite 80s comic books,

G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, He -Man,

etc. Where are you gonna go to find us? Welcome

to Star Joe's Podcast. I'm your host Ryan. And

I'm Chuck. That's right everybody, we're the

Star Joe's. We host a podcast called Star Joe's

Podcast. where we talk about your favorite comic

books, your favorite toys of all the 80s properties.

Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Mask, Thundercats,

Voltron, you name it, we cover it. If it's in

the 80s, we will cover it at some point. Yes,

so what you want to do to find us, you can go

to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes .com.

And remember, the Force will be with you. Because

knowing us is half the battle. Alright, we are

back. Overall, I'm just gonna rank the trade

itself, not single issues, but as a whole story.

Northampton, four and a half out of five stars.

There were a few little things, nitpicky things,

but I mean, taking a half -star point off is

not that bad. Really love the art. I love when

they did the fighting between Raph and Leo and...

Showing them face off in the regular colors and

then the like you were saying earlier you thought

it was a flashback color But the yellow I love

that about it the writing could not be better.

I Cannot wait to see where this this goes. I

mean these stories are Just getting better and

better and better. I mean we're we're in real

time. We're about up to issue 37 at this point

In the time that it's taken us to cover all this

We're coming up to issue 33, which as I said

before they're coming back to New York It just

could not get I don't know how they're gonna

top themselves The only heartbreaking thing that

I have is okay. They've they want to make it

to issues 72 Because that's that's the longest

running turtles series ever. It was the archie

run I I They're moving at an incredible clip.

It's a it's I think it's just about been the

only series that's had actual continuity between

all of the issues there's never been anything

that really departed it will I don't know like

can they keep this pace up can they keep surprising

us with new things I you know I don't know what

I want them to do when they get to issue 60 you

know what will the book look like then I'm nervous

but at the same time it's been IDW and they've

done amazing things every turn so I think I think

we're gonna be okay And I think we'll make it

to 72. I thought it was 73. 73 will be then the

longest issue that a turtle's book has ever run.

The Tales of the Turtles volume 2 made it to

70. Volume 1 made it to 62. And then the Archie

run made it to 72. So I think I'm gonna count

them as 73 being the longest running that they

could make it. You know, I actually need to add

up volume 1. two and three doesn't exist and

volume four i need to add up one two and four

and see how many issues that was because i i

don't actually know that number um 62 13 and

20 now out there on 32 of some of them got released

online so they have a while you know 60 70 90

100 i guess if you count all of the mirage run

all of the three volumes it is a hundred and

six seven eight nine ten hundred and two, four,

five, six, seven, 107. So maybe we should challenge

them to get to 107 next time we talk to Bobby.

Yeah, I mean, coming up, we've got so much awesome

stuff. Like I said, Issue 33 is the return to

New York. Issue 34 is the introduction of Metalhead.

Issue 35 is... I forget what it is off the top

of my head. Issue 36 is the introduction of the

Rat King. When we get to doing that episode where

we cover 35 and 36, when we get to 36, people

are going to be able to hear our brains exploding

with what Revelations has in that issue. And

then we had it spoiled in previews that We're

gonna get to see crank and shredder get together

at some point soon Issue 37 that actually comes

out this week. Hey Actually comes out this week,

and I am looking right now at issue 38 preview

It says now there could be spoilers here. I don't

think there is but there could be Old hob has

perfected the art of making mutants with the

ranks of his mutant gang Swelling the turtles

will have to determine if they can truly trust

hob against the foot throwing alopex's return

to new york and the mutant mayhem will only get

crazier so yeah and then also uh... next month

turtles in time number four brings that to a

conclusion as well i think i missed three i didn't

get the pirate episode issue the pirate episode?

yeah isn't that what's after japan? Because I've

only read two. Turtles in time three. Let me

see. I don't remember. Did turtles in time three

come out? Let me look. I'm just looking really

quick here. Turtles. No, that's Secret History

of the Foot Clan. Da -da -da -da -da. Yay, podcasting.

Oh, crap. Here we go. We're performing a public

service. They're OK. No, no, no, no. Three is

yet to three comes out this comes at the end

of August what I was saying was issue 38 is next

Okay, and so is issue four for turtles in time

the final issue So so no issue three will come

out. I believe it's the 27th of August so yeah

that's that's what's going on with with turtles

this has been a blast and and like I said folks

we are gonna change it up a little bit now I

know I said in year two of the pullback that

we were gonna do mostly trades for coverage it

honestly depends on the trade because if you've

noticed the last two episodes of the back issue

classics where Joe and I did turtles those those

podcasts are You know nearly three and a half

three three and three -quarter hour long episodes,

so I think for Joe and I sanity We are gonna

go back to single issue, but we're only gonna

do two issues per episode So that way it you

know we we can sit here and go through the issues

and talk about it And it'll only be like an hour

and 50 minutes or an hour and 45 minutes or something

like that So that's what's going on there Once

again, do you want to remind the people where

they can get in contact with you online? Give

Facebook go search for the geek stuff garage

sale send me messages there And if you're anywhere

near Michigan, you should come check out our

sale. We're probably gonna do one G what is it

September 28th? I think we have coming not officially

yet. I need to talk to my venue, but I think

that's what we're looking at Awesome. Awesome.

You can find me on Twitter at TFG1Mike. You can

also follow at GECastRadio for all the other

network updates. And you know what? You'll actually

be able to meet me. I'll be at the GCRN table

at GrandCon on the week before the 28th in September.

That'll be the 21st. 20th, 21st, I believe, will

be there. Awesome. So coming up next week, Lady

Rec and I are going to be diving into Robots

in Disguise Volume 4. uh... and possibly volume

five as well uh... and then at the end of the

month we're gonna have our discussion which actually

need to work details out with you off air uh...

at the end of august we're gonna have our discussion

on uh... the pullback after dark comics dishing

on digital or print which one do you prefer so

that's coming up at the end of august Make your

greatest game into comics and we will catch you

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next time, make your great escape into comics

and unleash the geek in you. You're still here?

It's over. Go home. Go! So Joe, do you prefer

to be shell -shocked or ninja -rapped? Uh, neither

if I can avoid it. I understand they want to

update a theme song for the franchise, but...

Ninja rap is so much better than shell shocked

the shell shocked as in the Animated new animal

as in no as in the movie theme. Oh Oh at the

end that the end credits song see that was totally

ignorable. I didn't know they were trying to

do anything with that Yeah, because they actually

released it on iTunes, I mean it's a it's a song

people can purchase if they so choose It's alright,

it works for this franchise, I guess, but it's...

I don't know, it's a little weird. Yeah, it'll

be... They'll come up with something... I mean,

I don't think I'd call it a theme song, and I

think they'll come up with some other kind of

licensed rap music, corporate mess -up, mash

-up for the next movie. I'm trying to think.

What was the name of that stupid band from the

90s? There are a lot of them. No, I mean, the

one associated... Let's see. Yeah. Partners in

Crime. They could do a new theme song for Turtles.

I mean, they did Turtle Power for the 90 film.

They could do a new one. They could do a new

one. I mean, don't get me wrong, Shellshock,

it's alright. It's, like you said, it's fully

ignorable. But people are comparing people. I

know we're basically saying it's no ninja rap.

I'd rather have vanilla ice these guys. I don't

want vanilla ice I don't want these guys whoever

they were All right, so it is the Wednesday after

the opening weekend of Jonathan Lipsman's Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles it Didn't shatter any records,

but it made enough money where they're greenlighting

a sequel What were your thoughts leading up to

the release like when you first heard that they

were gonna announce it and that Michael Bay was

going to be a Producer on it because his company

platinum platinum dunes is doing the CGI effects

What were your initial thoughts when they announced

a Ninja Turtles movie and that Michael Bay was

attached? Yes, the initial nerd rage took over

because I I I don't know if I heard that he was

producer not director but I was furious like

oh no that's totally not what the turtles are

and that's not what they need right now but at

least we're getting a Ninja Turtles movie and

then you know as he got announced to being producer

not director you know I didn't know anything

that the director had done when he got attached

I didn't bother to go look at the times like

okay maybe but then all those leaked shots started

coming out and I remember the first one I saw

was the shredder costume in the lair Pay attention

to the fact I said costume for a second there

because that's gonna be important later So we

see this shot of the turtle of the shredder costume

and it looked terrible It looked you know spikes

everywhere big robot looking thing But then is

like oh no that's what they're doing and then

you know eventually the turtle designs got released

oh no they're vile they're just and and we've

discussed it before the problem with the turtles

is that they're too realistic they're not endearing

they're not friendly looking they're they're

nasty and they're they're repulsive but um so

i went from complete horror to oh my god what

are they doing but after that Some things started

to change I started to smell things happening

as they were releasing more and more shots for

it and Michael Fitchner got assigned to the shredder

role like wait a minute. That's fishy. Why isn't

he a Japanese man and But I started to think

Maybe these guys are doing something to pull

the wool over our eyes to surprise us with something

new a new take So I don't know what was your

What happened to you as the journey that led

up to the film? I saw the photos of the original

designs of the turtles and I saw the one where

Someone took a screen cap of Mikey's mask being

off from that first trailer And I'm like, it's

Shrek as a turtle. What the hell is going on

here? it's alright everybody makes a huge deal

every every you know bay hater bay former hater

and whatever else makes a huge deal of the fact

that have noses i don't care if they have noses

or not uh... you know i went to a fairly positive

i was like okay well i'm i'm just gonna sit back

here i'm gonna let whatever happened happened

on the watch trailers and see and i didn't make

any judgments about it because Whatever they

do now is not going to affect what we already

had I mean we already had the 90s movies two

out of the three aren't bad If I said one out

of the three aren't bad, I don't like to I Haven't

watched three since I was a kid. I need I do

need to get on that again. Well um yeah, that's

a future endeavor so you know I wasn't too um

too upset about it any of it really i think the

most thing that upset me was the announcement

of the voice cast um johnny noxville is leonardo

and tony shalhoub is splinter i didn't see that

one coming i'm like whoa wait the guy from jackass

is gonna play the leader of the turtles and then

the first thing that came to my mind wasn't even

monk it was the guy who was on wings of all things

is gonna be splinter really come on yeah With

Johnny Knoxville as Leo, I don't know why they

did that, why they picked him out of everybody

else in the world. I mean, did they think they

were going for somebody with some kind of star

power? Did they have an extra $300 ,000 to give

him? I don't know. I wonder what the other guy

sounded like that they decided to dub him over

really late with Knoxville. Yeah, because Knoxville

was a last -minute change. So I don't know what

they were thinking. I don't know what they were

thinking either. Honestly, I wonder what is going

on in the lives of Corey Feldman, Brian Toshi,

Robbie Wriste, and Josh Pace that I couldn't

get them to do the voices honestly. I don't think

they'd even bothered to try. It's like why pull

the guys up from the past and we're trying to

do something new. I don't think they'd have even

considered it. Yeah, I mean and even even if

okay even if they got Seth Green Rob Paulson

Crap Rudy Sean yeah, and and Greg Sipes that

would have been fine fine with me I think honestly,

if they had gotten Seth Green to play Leo in

the film, it would have been a huge jumping on

point for when he hits as Leo in season three

of the cartoon series. I think that would have

given us a preview of what his Leo is going to

sound like. Because we all know what Seth Green

sounds like, and I don't know if he's going to

change his voice. To to do a voice of Leonardo.

I'm not sure how it's gonna happen I would guess

I'm gonna try to be similar to the first season

just to not make it jarring That would be my

approach Maybe. I just really hope that they

come in and say, we're sorry, the part of Leonardo

is being played, you know, some sort of soap

opera gag where we're an announcer, you know,

you see the character, but an announcer's voice

comes overhead, the voice of Leonardo is now

being played by. That would be amazing if they

did that. Or if they do the Roseanne joke where

they're all talking about... When they replaced

Becky and they're all talking about bewitched

in the original this person or that person I

like the new one better and it's the new Becky

saying that I would expect a show like that with

the tone of that animated series to make a reference

At least a passing reference to why do you sound

so different? I've got a cold or something The

more I saw of the trailer, the more things I

saw of the characters, I liked it more and more

and more. And I've seen all these people on the

internet saying, oh my god, Bay Turtles, oh no,

it's all gonna, honestly, my personal opinion,

this one movie is better than all four of the

Transformers movies combined. It's hard for me

to say that. I hear ya, but I don't know if I

can say that. Because this is still the well

I'll warn our listeners from here on out. I'm

I'm not holding back spoilers, but when I walked

out of that film my Initial reaction was well

that wasn't as bad as I thought it was going

to be But it wasn't nearly as good as I wanted

it to be. I mean, it's not a good film but But

it's not as bad as it was going to be when we

had heard things like alien turtles and William

Fitchner as Shredder. But here's a very big thing

that I caught them doing. Alright, so I don't

know. Over a year ago, we heard the news that

William Fitchner is cast as the Shredder. We

see a physical Shredder armor getting photographed

in the lair, walking around the turtle's lair.

Okay, everybody freaks out. The internet's like,

oh my god, what are they doing? Shredder's not

a white dude. And then the alien things drop

or it starts to come out that they might be aliens

not mutated on earth. And everybody's like, no,

what are they doing to my turtles? I think so

much fan rage got conjured up over some of these

things that were starting to leak that about

three quarters of the way through filming, the

plot and many, many other things changed in the

movie. I think that William Fitchner was originally

going to be in the shredder armor Which I think

is backed up by the action figure that we got

because the action figure that we got has flesh

tone exoskeleton Happening going on there's actual

that was not in the movie. Okay. I mean they

they CG it over it looked like Megatron meets

shredder It looked like Megatron me shredder

meets the red skull. Yep. That's the one There

were several things overall that I did not like

about the movie the one Glaring thing I hated

about the designs was shredder's face. It looked

horrible Up close on his mask. It looked like

crap. It looked like remnants of the silver samurai

armor from The Wolverine is really is really

what it looked like to me and I'm like Okay,

I get it and this isn't me even fanboying. I'm

just saying have a unique, you know simple design

How hard is it to create an optimist prime like

faceplate for shredder? I mean seriously That

was the one thing and then I'll get to the other

thing later. Go ahead. It's it's The turtles

and shredder were over designed That's just what

it comes down to and I want to know how much

that was director and how much that was The director

saying hey go do Ninja Turtles and show me what

you come up with You know, did he have the input?

anyway. So the film changes halfway through.

They've already filmed scenes where Fitchner's

in the Shredder armor, but they have to wipe

a lot of that out. I think in losing Fitchner

as Shredder, as Eric Sachs's Shredder, you lost

some important plot points. Like, okay, Splinter,

who we now know is a rat in a cage, doesn't remember

anything before that, just knows... Eric Sachs

walking around who how the heck does he know

who the shredder is? He knew who the shredder

was because it was Fitchner when that shredder

armor walked in He didn't say hey shredder. I'm

it's you know he said Eric Sachs. Oh my god.

You tried to kill us all I'm gonna get you now

that was a reason for them knowing each other

right there All the scenes with the Japanese,

Oroko Saki, who I don't think they ever named

on screen. They named him in the credits, but

on screen he's not named. That was all filmed

post -production. And he only speaks Japanese

in those scenes when he's interacting with the

turtles or anybody else. It's a completely different

voice. But in losing Eric Sachs as... Shredder

and they've filled the seams where that's what

he's named. They missed an opportunity to make

him just be Baxter Stockman Yeah, that would

have been awesome and honestly You know someone

brought that up to me after the fact of seeing

the movie that Baxter was even in it I'm like

wait where I don't even know where I think he's

in the background of the the gala. That's my

only guess I have no idea Either that or he's

one of the other scientists in the lab in the

fire in the flashback, but I honestly don't know

where Baxter was in the movie. And it doesn't

matter because they'll recast him before the

next film anyway. I mean, if he is not even a

known person there. True. But I think since the

movie changed, they got rid of the alien stuff,

they added a Rokosaki. Some things we lost are

a more coherent plot. My theory is that the ooze

that they are trying to extract from the turtles,

they're trying to get more mutagen. They're not

looking for a cure for anything, they're getting

more mutagen. Because I think that Fitchner and

O 'Neil's dad were trying to create super soldiers

with the turtles, big mutant things. And I think

O 'Neil thought they were gonna do it for good,

but Fitchner says, no, I wanna build an army.

And it wasn't. Well, yeah, it was Fitchner, I

guess, at that point. Eric Sachs, I'm going to

build an army and rebuild the Foot Clan because

I like Japanese things. And as soon as he figured

that out, O 'Neill burnt all the evidence. And

so Fitchner says, what? The turtles are alive.

I'm going to go steal their mutagen. And I think

they were going to disperse it over the city

and make an army. I think that's where that whole

plot point was going. But it completely had to

change when, you know, our purple color themed

Eric Sachs needs to get recast or redirected.

That's the thing. Throughout the whole film,

I was waiting and waiting and waiting for him

to be in the Shredder armor, not this other dude,

because they constantly had him. He was wearing

a purple tie. Behind him was a purple background,

and he always wears black suits, and I'm like,

okay, black and purple. Those are two main colors

in the Shredder's garb. Why isn't he going to

be the Shredder? I don't have a problem with...

With the Shredder itself, as far as the armor

and all that goes, I just think it's a little

strange that they changed the plot a little too

fast in post -production to not have him be the

Shredder. If they had made him the Shredder,

I think the outrage would have been worse, because

the Shredder is always Orokosaki. Orokosaki has

some kind of tie to Hamato Yoshi. I mean, you

can't let go of those things. And that's and

that's a shame and I think something Happened

in there where they needed to very quickly throw

out the book of ninjitsu Splinter and the turtles

did not learn their martial arts from a book

on ninjitsu. You can't do that I think that's

what splinter it okay in in the the continuity

that they have retconned now for us, because

I don't think that's what originally happened

in the story. I think their origin got smashed,

I think, by having to change all this, too. I

think that's the lie, and I'm finger quoting,

that Splinter told the Turtles as to why they're

doing martial arts. I think they're going to

go the IDW route and make them all reincarnated.

And that's why he does have a line where he says

they learned it, they took to it naturally. Like,

no, no, no. They didn't take to it naturally.

They remember it. See, I thought they were gonna

go the IDW route, and I really thought they were

gonna go it after the whole revelation of April

names them and April saves them and all this

and all that. I'm thinking, okay, so they're

gonna go IDW route, but wait, wait, wait. How

are parents gonna explain to their children about

what reincarnation is? Like, it works fine for

a comic book series. that's geared towards us,

the fans, but this is a major mainstream motion

picture that parents that don't read the comic

books that they're gonna take their kids to.

I'm not sure how reincarnation's gonna work for

this franchise if they're gonna, in fact, go

down that route. That's a good point. Consider

that because I don't care about the eight -year

-old fans. I only care about So yeah, you're

right. Maybe I should think about that Maybe

they will I don't know if they do even hint at

that they are going to have to Give a writing

credit to the IDW crew I think oh absolutely

I mean, we know that Eastman had some sort of

consulting or he had something to do with this

movie. So I think that's honestly where the whole

thing about April remembering them and April

naming them and the lab and all that and her

dad working in the lab. I honestly think that's

where that comes from because if you look at

it, outside of April's dad and outside of it

being Saks lab, it's basically stock, Jen. Yep.

I feel so... The movie could have been so much

more if they'd have gotten these rewrites out

before they started filming. Yeah, that's very

true. For me, there was a point where, and I

have to explain this, because I had to explain

this on Facebook to people, because I made a

comment about what I did during one scene of

the movie, and one of my friends is like, if

you'd done that, you'd have gotten popcorn, you

know, your popcorn dumped all over you, blah,

blah, blah. For me because of my poor vision

I and because of my transportation How am I gonna

wear this because of my lack of transportation

even though I take the public bus system I only

go to one theater because it's one bus ride there

and one bus ride home and this theater is like

older than dirt it has not upgraded its seats

and god knows how long and as you know guy that's

six one four hundred five pounds yeah I can barely

fit into these seats so I'm basically slumping

the whole way through the um the front row because

of my vision the front row in the theater that

I was at is about five or ten feet away from

the screen so I could sit there slumped without

actually having to crane my neck all the way

up at the ceiling to look at the screen so Sitting

in the front row everyone else there's like maybe

ten people in this theater because it was the

middle of the day On Friday, and you know everybody

else works For the most part everybody else was

sitting at least five rows behind me. There was

a point during the scene where They try to capture

the turtles try to capture April to get the phone

There was a scene where I heard Johnny not part

of that scene. I heard Johnny Knoxville's real

voice in it And he wasn't doing that. He slipped

out of putting on Leo's voice. I'm like, Oh,

Johnny Knoxville boo. It was a little, I don't

know. Cause I, I really do. I'm one of those

people that really does pay attention to voices

and voice actors. And if you're going to sit

there and put on a character, don't slip out

of the character mid sentence. Don't let me hear

your regular voice. Especially Johnny Knoxville.

He worked. That's the thing for me. When I started

watching this movie, I was against the entire

voice cast for The Turtles and Splinter. I didn't

care. As it went along, I got used to him and

I was alright with it by the end, but I still

think Johnny Knoxville should not be Leonardo.

I would have chosen somebody else, but I can

ignore it, or rather not notice it, and be fine

with it. Donatello was the only voice who was

slightly abrading, and I like what - how to say

this - Donnie was an endearing character as they

portrayed him. Were I in charge of the world,

I would not have made him that nerdy and that

awkward. But he was still endearing his voice

was a little grating at times But he's the only

one that I'm that I was worried about Tony Shalhoub

though as splinter My mind changed on him because

I'm I don't know I say purist but that doesn't

mean anything because it's just really opinions,

but I think Japanese Splinter should always be

Japanese accent watched an episode of Ninja Turtles

with my son and heard the original splinters

voice not Japanese at all Started to accept Tony

Shalhoub and he's a good enough actor that I

can be okay with where his voice is And yeah,

I mean by by the end of it I was fine with Tony

Shalhoub doing the voice I still think you know

just in my own personal Hindsight if they had

gotten Hoon Lee who does splinter in the 2012

series It would have been a little bit better

Overall, I didn't hate the film like a lot of

people did. I thought by the end of it, I was

like, okay, I'm ready for more adventures with

these characters and I want more out of this

story. I agree. I don't hate it. It's definitely

better than Transformers 2. It's better than

Transformers 3. I don't want to say it's better

than 4 or 1 yet because they both hold moderate

small important place in my heart but but so

do the turtles so I don't know but since I didn't

hate the film and I didn't I got used to the

designs and okay here's why I got used to the

designs because as soon as those turtles started

bouncing off of each other with their quips and

their and their behaviors and their mannerisms

I fell in love with them I mean they're my turtles

they're our turtles it's the same characters

they just happen to look a little different so

I can't not that's After seeing that and after

feeling that way about the characters, I'll I

will definitely be excited to see a new one Yeah,

I think my only problem that I still I hope I

honestly hope they recast Mikey because I Don't

I'm not looking at the information. I don't have

it pulled up here. So I don't remember I think

it was no somebody or other. I don't remember

Whoever voiced Mikey they need to tone down the

creepiness seriously, because every time Mikey

talked about April, or every time Mikey even

opened his mouth, it was like creepy stalker

behavior to me. Like, like, the guy's voice,

it just, it's not Mikey. It's not like, okay,

sure. I just saw, I just, cause as of this...

this recording this past uh... this past sunday

night disney xd ran the original three movies

back -to -back to back which is actually really

interesting we'll have to talk about that we

do a certain other thing here in the pullback

but um... they ran the three movies back -to

-back to back and Okay, sure. In the 90s movie,

Mikey and the turtles are watching TV and they

see April, and he's like, ooh, I'm in love. That's

fine. That's fine if you want to be in love with

someone that's on a television set, but seriously,

the 2014 Mikey basically said, yeah, she's my

girlfriend. It's just, oh my god. Yes, they got

the characteristics right, but they made Mikey

a little bit too creepy. Yes, Donnie is the brains.

Yes, Raph is. the anger guy yes Leo is the leader

Mikey is the party dude but I I don't know the

the voice just grates on me a little bit now

what did I I know in the IDW series we've talked

about this that there's a point in the series

where splinter explains to Raphael that he was

like him About the anger issues. What did you

think of them? Because this is outside of the

IDW series Honestly, this is probably the first

time ever we've gotten an explanation for raps

anger. What did you think of that whole I? Thought

that was beautiful and I think they nailed Why

Raphael is angry and why he pushes the turtles

away and and what he's actually feeling I mean,

so I think they got that more right than anybody's

ever gotten that in a kind of heartfelt way.

I only wish that they'd have been able to take

him on that journey throughout a film. I think

that should have been a subplot in a sequel.

I don't think they should have dropped that right

after the climax there. Beautiful scene. I love

it, but not there. And draw that out because

that's a huge amount of character development

that they dropped in 20 seconds. And then the

only time pizza is really used the entire film

is when Splinter is bribing Mikey. And he's like,

you've heard of four, five, six cheese pizza,

but this is the 99 cheese pizza. And he starts

listing all kinds of cheeses. And by the end

of it, Mikey gets, I don't even know what that

is, but I want it. I like that scene. I thought

that was really cool. I'm really excited for

a new one. I think for me personally, I'm still

gonna go see the Transformers movies, but I'm

more excited for any new Turtles movie that they

put out now than I am Transformers. Yeah, as

much as I'm a Transformers fan and was growing

up, I think Ninja Turtles I am a bigger fan of.

Yeah, pretty much. Alright, anything else you

want to talk about? Favorite scene in the movie

is definitely the one where they're riding the

elevator up. The only way that scene could have

been made better is if it was three times as

long. I was laughing and I think the only reason

that I would ever go see that again in the theater

to pay to see it again is just to watch that

scene one more time. Yeah, that was great. When

I first saw that scene in the trailer... I thought,

I was like, wow, they're ripping off Sam Raimi

big time. Because the first thing I thought of

is Spider -Man 2 when Hal Sparks is in the elevator

and Spidey drops in. And he's like, cool costume.

Yeah, thanks. That's the first thing I thought

of. But yeah, no, favorite scene for me, it's

got to be the buck buck. It really does when

they use it at the final battle because there

are only two places that I've ever heard of Buck

Buck or Johnny on a Pony or whatever it's called.

So it's a real thing. I didn't know that they

just made it up for the thing. There's one other

place I've heard of it outside of this movie.

It's Bill Cosby's 1969 show. It's his album called

The Best of Bill Cosby. And it's a skit. I'll

have to see if I can find a YouTube version of

it so you can listen to it. It's a skit, basically,

where he and his buddies all go out, these other

people challenge them to a game of buck -buck.

And we find out that these other guys got rocks

in their pockets to make them weight more heavier.

And we get to the end of it, and you're like,

all right, you turkeys, bring out your last man.

You ain't got no weight. Bring out your last

man. Come on out, fat Albert. Fat Albert wait

two thousand pow it's hilarious. I'll have to

find a you and you yeah I think you should link

that in the show notes to yes You're doing the

Lord's work by knowing that thank you, man. We

got to share that with the world yes, I Might

actually put it at the end of this actually put

the entire clip at the end of it but the turtles

movie I really enjoyed it I had really zero fears

going into it I I was cautiously optimistic because

of the whole Michael Bay aspect but he's just

his company is producing it I mean he doesn't

even have an executive producer credit maybe

on the set once if that yeah I mean he okay sure

you could say that that The designs of the turtles

were maybe his influence or whatever else, but

I bet you Kevin Eastman was on the set more than

he was. Yep. So. Give the turtles balls. That's

what if Michael Bay were there, they'd have balls.

No, no, no, no, no. All right. So, yeah, that's

that's going to do it for for this episode. And.

Why don't you listen to some Buck Buck right

now? you see, and they bend over, they're in

a straight line, they bend over, and one kid

grabs a fence or a wall or a pole, holds on to

that, the next kid puts his right arm around

his waist, you see, bends over, tucks his head

under, and you got five guys lined up exactly

like that. So they all look like a long horse.

Now, the object of the game is that one at a

time, one by one, kids come running up, and they

say, buck, buck, number one, come in, and they

run up, leap in the air, and they land on the

horse. and they keep going bam bam bam until

they collapse the horse you see now that's the

object of the game then you count the how many

kids you held and you go back and forth you see

now we had the champion buck buck team of the

world when i tell you we played buck buck there

was nobody that whipped us anywhere man and you

can tell kids that play a lot of buck buck because

they're built like this you see and their legs

are only four inches long that's all they have

because they've been crushed so much So we're

around there practicing buck -buck number fives!

Some kids come down from the rough part of town

and they're really tough, man. They got two pictures

of the sides of the mouth and the head on sideways

and you got the pants on backwards, you know.

Just rebelling against everything, you know.

Listen, we hear you're supposed to be so tough,

we challenge you to the buck -buck championship

of the world. So we said, all right. Side, line

up, turkeys. So we line up, five of us. They

start sending kids down. They feel pretty heavy,

man. We check them out. Guys have rocks in their

pockets to make them way heavier. And number

two. Now they get up to 300, and it's really

heavy. 300 come in. Now they're on top of us,

piled all the way up to the sky, and they're

rocking back and forth. Guys, come on, hold on.

Buckbuck 400 coming. We collapsed. All right,

how many did you hold? We held 400 of your guys.

Well, that was pretty good, but we usually hold

around 600. All right, we line up. They line

up. Send the first kid down, old weird Harold.

All right, Harold. Buckbuck number one coming.

These guys are really cool. What was that? A

mosquito? Keep going on top of me. What number

three? That was nothing. Four? Five? We got the

championship. All right, bring out your last

man, you turkeys. Come on, bring him out. Come

on out. Pat Albert. Pat Albert was the baddest

buck -buck -breaker in the world. And he loved

to hear us call his name. Albert weighed 2 ,000

pounds. And he kicked the door to his house open.

And you could hear him say, hey, hey, hey. We

built a little ramp for him to walk down so he

could build up speed because he couldn't hardly

run fast. And he was coming, hey, hey, hey. And

the ground is trembling. Trees falling over.

Buildings losing pieces of brick. Parents taking

kids off the street. And then he said, what's

the ground doing? Shake it, man. I'll come to

the ground and shake it. So that's Pat Albert

coming for you. Hey, hey, hey! And he turned

in the corner. They saw one leg. What is it?

So that's Pat Albert. Hey, hey, hey! And they

stood up. We give. He ain't falling on us.