IDW TMNT #71–72: Pantheon Family Reunion

Hey, this is Tom Waltz, IUW's Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtle Rider, and you have jumped inside

The Pull Bag. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag.

This is episode 153, continuing on here in Sewer

Surfing September here in 2017. I am of course,

TFJoneMike. Joining me is Mr. Joe Reed, who hates

Funko Pops, folks. Please, talk some sense into

this man. It won't happen because I was aware

during the beanie baby craze and I smell the

same thing one of that's what that's my superpower

is that I can smell the industry trends in any

particular industry and I know which way it's

going and Pops will go the way of beanie babies

someday He hates the funko pops he hates mighty

mugs and it's like what the hell you like action

figures damn it Well, they're not action figures.

They're vinyl statues. Okay fine. They're they're

in action figures fine. I mean come on Yeah,

I pose ability and points of articulation. We

fought too hard to come as far as we have in

all the engineering So yeah I guess, but we are

here to continue on, as I said, server -to -server

in September. We're going to talk about issues

71 and 72 of the IDW Publishing main ongoing

series for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This

is the Pantheon Family Reunion two -parter. As

always, Kevin Eastman, Bobby Kernow, Tom Waltz

on story. Script was by Tom Waltz. Art in these

two issues, both of them, Dave Walker is back.

Dave was on... Street Phantoms, I think? I think

so. Yeah, 61 to 64. And Rhonda on colors, Sean

Lee on letters, and Bobby's on editing, as always.

And we open up in the Den of Delights, home of

the Toad Baron. Who? Well, we I have seen this

guy you showed up in in universe Yeah, the story

with nobody and alopex They visited this guy

and we kind of got introduced to who he is and

what he does But I think this is the first time

he's been in the mainline books It's all getting

very confusing now folks because they're there

are these Well, not confused. I take that because

IDW does a good job, but my brain is getting

confused because I'm reading the the two kind

of intertwining series and then there's a mini

series going on too with the dimension X so I'm

getting confused but if you're only reading the

mainline book which is the only one that you

need to read if you want to that they're doing

a good job and they're keeping it separate continuity

wise absolutely absolutely so the toad baron

calls his his little toady in there Alberto and

yeah and apparently the toad baron has some fox

fur on him because apparently in TMNTU issues

9 and 10 or yeah issues 9 and 10 as you said

nobody and Alan place showed up yeah yeah they

crashed a party they wrecked the place but Burns

here getting ready for some event cleaning up

putting things together setting out the food

now. He's not Still his little frog lackeys are

yeah, and then the rats enter enter the rat king

And so how do you feel I guess I'm an editorial

point about the these I forgot what they call

them now, the family, the pantheon. How do you

feel about these guys? I mean, we've obviously

met Rat King and Kitsune before, and we've met

Akka, or how do you say the bird lady's name,

because we had other adventures with them. That's

fine. I don't remember us having any other adventures

of the rest of the family that comes in. I don't

know all as I know is there some you know secret

society thing that want to you know control the

universe Yeah, they're these immortal gods and

and though some of the characters are familiar

And we'll see some of these more familiar people

show up here in the next couple of pages the

their take this immortal going through messing

with the the human world thing is that's new

for the turtles these are these are new villains,

a new force, a new thing that the Turtles have

to deal with. So it's unfamiliar territory for

me. I'm having a hard time relating to the story

or connecting to it because of that, but I know

it's going to pay off because IDW's always, they

do such a good job. They'll figure it out. Yeah,

this whole issue, issue 71, I was like, okay,

so we're getting the full introduction to the

Pantheon family. We meet each of the family members

here as they arrive to the Toad Barons' Den of

Delights. One of them, the cat, tiger, cheetah

-like lady, she brings her giant sword and he

puts it in with the other umbrellas. This is

Jaguar, who was one of the original mutanimals

in the Archie series. Jaguar was a male cat in

that series. So we get this female version of

Jaguar, who I cannot wait to see turn into something.

However, we get this now where now Jaguar, this

character that, if you read the Archie series,

we're all familiar with now, is one of the Pantheon,

the immortal villain, kind of finger quote. People

and so I'm wondering how this is going to play

out it also means that we probably won't see

her with the mutant animals But that's okay.

I can feel I can change Well, we might see her

fight the mutant animals, but we may not see

her, you know actually with them, but yeah So

we get We get the bird lady back aka So she shows

up Apparently, she's the oldest of them and kitsune

is the youngest which is a little okay cool kitsune

shows up and This whole issue is basically family

squabbling. You know that's really what it's

basically you know the The Griswold's you know

family Christmas dinner thing where everybody's

talking all at once and I I love the two toadies

who are the one one of them's like Pull yourself

together Bob The master's family is nothing to

fear Pardon me is some giant hairy thing looking

Cousin it guy with fountain. Yeah, like what

the uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... the union the confederacy

and at one point and for the sergeants that this

too it was larry or more somebody says that really

says take that jellyfish up and revive and that's

all i can think of with bob here passing out

uh... so the toad baron just wants to always

have fun and that's the problem with uh... with

the rest of them because they're not really fun

people, and then we meet kind of the final dude,

the elephant dude here, who eats one of the rats.

Man -Meth, who was also one of the Archie creatures,

but I don't have a good memory of him. I don't

know what was happening that I don't remember

him, but I remember a cover, him being on one

of the covers. The it's it's what's weird about

this family is as they all come to sit and man

with shows up Is that they are all really really

different? You know you have the toad baron who's

into the pleasures and the lights the rat king

who? Eats rats and messes around in the sewers

aka who's benevolent a little more kind and understanding

but that death look and do that I can't figure

out and man that his his dick is that he's a

a survivalist and kills every eats what he needs

to and doesn't bathe goes by smell and then Kitsune

who is just creepily villainous and evil and

manipulative uh they're all so different and

they're here meeting the the story goes that

they're meeting once every several hundred years

i don't remember how many yeah yeah that's it

it's once every 100 years i think yeah they kind

of let's lay out their plans but Mm -hmm. And,

uh, yes, Alberto does the introductions to each

of the characters, um, which is really, really

interesting. Uh, Gothano, keeper of the secrets

and caretaker of the hidden knowledge. That's

the hairy, octopus -looking dude. Cha -Yu is

not here because... Oh, yeah, Chi -Yu's, uh,

he's trapped over in the Ghostbusters realm or

something. Yup. Huh. Yeah, she oh and then because

that can be in canon because I do W owns those

buskers. Yeah right now That's right Before we

were recording we were discussing how the crossovers

have worked in the past and and I forgot about

that one that that one is in canon. Yep it is

and You know, we get the little toady kind of

closing off the thing and they all start talking

about how they're going to deal with the turtles

and they start kinda um questioning kitsune about

chi -yu and and all of that and yeah I like this

but like I don't know like I like the introduction

I like seeing all these characters but from where

we kinda left off in issue 70 this feels like

it's almost it's not disjointed but reading this

to me like we get nothing of the turtles themselves

at all at least until you know the very very

end here but um like I said I did enjoy the issue

it's not it's I don't want to say it's wordy

but there's more there's more action here in

Rat King's jokes and him either eating rats or

not eating rats and just No. My issue with this

issue is that these characters, we don't know

what any of their motives are. We don't know

why they exist. We don't know what kind of danger

they either will or will not pose to the turtles.

And in the dialogue that we're getting here,

it's a lot of vague stuff because they aren't

revealing what's going on just yet. We know in

the main arc that in the background, April's

always been working on that That the book the

foot clan book that talks about what's going

on and they're trying to work out What these

people are up to with a whole April miniseries?

But we still haven't figured that out yet And

we do finally see kitsune's plan here where she

reveals to them that there does she wants to

bring back their father the dragon spirit or

whatever it is and she's you know found a vessel

that could actually be able to hold it and that

was supposed to be a Rokosaki and although he's

dead for now apparently he doesn't stay dead

I don't know but like we do finally see because

Kitsune says For centuries I have been working

to create the perfect vessel for a being of unimaginable

power a being powerful enough to rule this world

and Reunite this family a being whose time was

and will be again Brothers and sisters. I am

I aim to bring the dragon back. I am to bring

father home they're all just kind of like stunned

silence and toad barren just kind of laughs it

off and they then have a further discussion on

it and and then as the issue kind of closes out

oh no guys it's on my head what's this levitating

rats now there's two of them quiet they'll hear

you Have you learned a clever new trick without

me my pets uh -oh or Nice going Mike yeah, yeah

The turtles wearing the street phantoms cloaking

thingamajigs and Mike's like yeah my bad to be

continued Well, at least we now know that they

know that they're bringing the dad back they're

bringing this dragon creature, who I think looks

suspiciously like the big yellow dragon from

the Archie series. So I'm interested in, man,

I need to get back and read that whole run again.

I imagine, I think what's gonna happen, if I

may take a minute to speculate, I think. Issue

100 is going to be the return of the shredder

in the form of this dragon Maybe with the help

of an utram named cherel and then we have 25

issues to get there and they're going to kind

of pace it out mixed up with maybe going back

to the future and visiting the future turtles

and More of the dimension X stuff. That's my

theory. That's my cool theory, but they're gonna

prove me wrong Something way better and way more

creative Yeah, I you know when you when you think

about it at this point you know we're on our

way to 75 once we do hit 75 they do only have

25 issues till 100 that may not that may not

seem like a lot but it kind of is but wow like

it's that there's only this amount of things

until we reach this epic milestone again because

they already reached another epic milestone they'll

do it next time we talk uh -huh I mean, you know,

they've surpassed 73, so IDW now has the longest

running TMNT comic. So yeah, 71, I enjoyed it,

but I didn't enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed

a lot of the other ones. I'd probably give it

a three out of five. Yeah, that's where I was

leaning three and a half to be generous And I

think I wonder if this is suffering this was

particular spark this to issue little arc here

is suffering from The writers knowing what's

going on and the readers not having a clue and

so the writers are very excited about what we're

about to read And they're building up to it,

but we just none of us relate to these characters

yet, and we don't yet have the compelling reason

Like them to be interested in them. Yeah, they're

gonna give us that reason real soon though Yeah,

I mean I like this I like issue 72 because we

actually get an explanation of how the turtle

like I get it they wanted a shock and surprise

and they wanted a surprising ending to kind of

you know Leave everybody on that month's, you

know, thank God. I'm not buying monthly comics

anymore Oh God, I would be I don't know how you

could like I know how you are. You know, you

go down there, you grab it, you read it in the

car, you leave your jaw on, you know, next to

your gas pedal and, you know, I'm like, I just,

I can't do, I cannot go back to the way I, I

cannot go back to monthly comics anymore. I just

wait until two or three or four issues are out

and I'll read them then. And that way I have

a fuller. Depth of the story, but I can only

imagine what this was like for you Reading 71

when it first came out and finding that ending

like how did they get there? And it's it's something

that I've just been conditioned to do it didn't

Well, yeah, no struck by it. Yeah, but this it's

this my wife can't read issue issue by issue

comics like this unless I have the whole run

to giver or trade paperback this is excruciating

uh to her um because she's a big book reader

she reads cover to cover and usually will devour

a book in a couple of days but um comics are

just there's not enough information there for

and she hates having to wait so yeah 72 picks

up where 71 kind of left off um uh hey dudes

and dudettes i uh I think these little guys belong

to you. Sorry for crashing your pantheon party.

I love Dave Lockter's art in this. I think it's

so cool. I didn't really talk about it in 71,

but I love his art. The panel where Mikey says,

sorry for crashing your pantheon party. Guided

view on comics ology pulls out on that panel.

You see all these characters and you see it from

basically It's like where we're Mikey because

it's the way it's framed as it's his hands holding

up the rats and you see all I love the way he

did that and love the way that they they they

spot that out so we get a before segment and

we see Baxter Stockman for the first time in

a long like the last time I think the last time

I saw Baxter he was trying to nurse uh shredder

back to health after issue 37 I think wow really

yeah like I thought it was 50 -ish but you know

you're right the yeah yeah happened before 50

yeah technodrome was 41 to 44 uh... yeah he might

have been in fifty and i'm sure that i'm sure

it but it's been so long we've done so many of

these things i but i was like wow cool baxter

awesome so we've got april angelin april angelin

alopex and uh... the four turtles talking to

baxter basically trying to convince him to help

them because it's going to be the end of the

world that does affect him and I I love the two

panels here where he says hmm so you say miss

O 'Neill but this is he's looking at the scroll

that she hands him but this is all Chinese to

me I just love love the look on Mikey's face

Japanese dude figure of speech dude like I just

just again that's another thing of Mikey's character

that they added like he's he's the only one of

them that can speak japanese and just think that

is so friggin cool that each of these versions

of the turtles have their strengths and weaknesses

and the fact that he is the only one that can

do that is just so friggin cool absolutely uh...

Angela and Alopex tell them about the Pantheon

thing that they crashed and that they got the

drive and all of this and you know they're explaining

their plan to him and then we get back to the

present because Mikey says... Quit worrying so

much, Doc. We're ninjas, remember? Sneaking around

is like totally our middle name. Those Pantheon

dudes will never know we're there. Is it okay

if I put these little guys down now? Hey, they're

kinda grossing me out. Mike, your dad's a rat.

What do you mean they're grossing you out? You

live in the sewer! I didn't notice this before

and normally I don't point this out and I don't

want to I'm not gonna take a point off for this

but I don't know if it is in the physical issue

you can tell me but you look at what Mikey's

saying he's saying they're kind of grossing me

out the T is missing in there at least the digital

version it is it is here too wow dang eek not

good I don't usually, I read right over typos.

I wouldn't have noticed that unless you said

something. Like I said, when I first read it

myself for the story, like I say every one of

these episodes, I read the story first and then

I pay attention to shit later. I didn't notice

it at first either. I did not notice it at all

until I'm looking at the panel now. So the Rat

King makes another joke and we kind of get this

whole... You know, guy's new plan, hide! And

everybody runs. Mikey just throws the rats, sorry

little dudes! And the Pantheon are gonna go chase

down the turtles. And we get Leo trying to call

back to Stockman to get them to pull back. We

get Angel kind of... angel alexander going off

on him because he doesn't really care about saving

them and april comes into the is the voice of

reason that she often does all of that so we

get more of this this hunt uh... the the cheetah

lady uh... jaguar jaguar thank you Jaguar sees

one of them hiding under or behind the curtain

and of course it's Mikey and she destroys his

little transponder thing which is gonna sadly

come in very unhandily later and the toad baron

is just worried about you know them destroying

his home and all his nice things and his you

know den of delights and Akka's walking around

her flying around to her people saying look we

should sit down and talk with these guys they're

reasonable people they're fine but everybody's

I know they don't deserve anything any any understanding

we're just going to take them out and uh it's

just it's it's weird that these people the the

pantheon are very different but they they do

have their own motives and they do have their

own ways to do things it's almost like I don't

believe that they're together in any way, but

only out of necessity, only out of this one,

every 100 years do they bother aligning. Now

normally I like, and I've said this before, normally

I like Mikey and Donnie teaming up and Leo and

Raph, but the way this kind of... broke out was

mickey's by himself raf is kind of by himself

and leo at leo and don are a team and donnie

kind of gets mesmerized by kitsune and leo's

like yeah join this which he throws a throwing

star oh so cool and raf has such a great line

because he comes out of nowhere so The Leo and

Donnie are escaping here, getting away from Jaguar.

Um, cause Leo, Leo's trying to get Donnie back

under control. You know, remember your train

and Jaguar comes in and out of nowhere, Raphael,

bad kitty. Raph, how? I got tired of hiding.

I love Raph. He was the only one who was successfully

hiding. That's kind of scary. When you think

about it, Raph is the only one successfully hiding.

Because Raph is... They're all having fun. I

gotta get out of here. Well, Raph is the one

that normally will rush in and do the fighting

and all of that. the tentacle monster dude Gothon

or Gothon or whatever his name is attacks Raph

and we get more fighting and we get Akka and

all of that and then FOOM! Raph's gone. Just

disappeared. Where did it go? and Raph is back

with Angel and everybody and Stockman and all

that so they're gonna basically teleport them

all out and that's what is going on over these

next panels and pages where the fighting and

the teleporting and we get Donnie back and we

get Leo and Mikey and again like I said the team

ups and how the various so Raph and Donnie are

back Leo and Mikey are you know left to face

the Pantheon and You know It's Leo and Mikey

and the shot of where where they say Mikey I

was worried they hurt you or worse now I'm good.

Just got my transponder whacked is all which

means I'll really be dead when Harold finds out

This panel of the two of them. Oh my god. Does

it remind me so much of the arcade game? Just

the way the two of them are standing next to

each other and the way that Leo is holding the

swords and Mikey's holding his chucks and it

just Reminds me so much of the TNT arcade game

action the side scrolling goodness of that game.

Oh My god, I miss that stuff and then Leo despairs

whoops And Mikey's left all alone and she says

oh come on pantheon dudes can't we talk about

this and rat kings or mammoth says do you think

turtles taste like chicken too sorry to say mammoth

but there won't be much left to taste crazy he's

like spitting his chucks catching them They approach

like flinging each one as he nails it with this

thing So, you know rat kings going on and on

and on and Akka comes in and Continues to say

hey, let's you know You know that you know, that

is not true Kitsune and rat king. You know, this

is your fault. This is your doing And we get

another fume here and Leo comes back and grabs,

you know, Leo, grab my hand, Mike, if you want

to live. Stockman, I've got him. Do it now! Do

it now! And fume and they get out and oh, so

good. I love this. They're back and, you know,

thanks for coming back for me, Leo. Hey, I'd

never leave you by yourself, little bro. and

we get this kind of recap of of Leo saying I

mean if we've definitely got their attention

which is probably not a good thing but we did

learn who they all are and now and what they

each want which could be valuable info in the

future all I know is that they're toying with

us today playing another one of their crazy games

I hate to think of what would really happen if

they were being serious which means it's time

for us to get serious it's gonna take everything

we've got and more to beat them we've gotta get

bigger better smarter because the pantheon won't

forget what happened today and neither will clan

hamato to be continued woohoo i love that they're

embracing the clan hamato thing yes absolutely

there was there was a moment went in the old

4Kids TV series where I think Splinter went to

the Battle Nexus or something and introduced

himself as Hamato Splinter. And like, yay, they

acknowledged the family name because he was.

And I like that kind of stuff. Yeah, no, that's

very, very awesome. I remember that season of

the 2003 series. Absolutely cool and great and

just so wonderfully done. So so yeah, that's

that's 71 and 72 72 Easily is a four and a half

for me. I loved every bit of it. I think Dave

Walker's art is great It was a nice little action

issue you had so much action going on in here

you had the whole thing of the turtles kind of

getting split up with the transporter stuff and

and all of that Yeah, absolutely loved it. Thought

it was wonderful. What about you, final thoughts

on issue 72? I think we're there. You know what,

I have to, on second or third thought, I think

I'm gonna stick with a solid three and a half

on that. Oh man, or do I go to the four? It's

still, the reason that I hesitate with my fours

and fives with this is that I'm not... Yet on

board with the Pantheon and I know that they're

gonna figure it out I know that they're gonna

be awesome once they get to it, but I'm just

not there yet In and I don't I don't care about

him yet. I'm not as invested in them yet as as

villains So we're gonna have to see we're gonna

have to find out Yeah, I think for me the only

reason why I'm giving 72 a for is because it's

We had all of the story building stuff with the

with the pantheon in seventy one and there was

very very little action in that really hardly

any action that issue at all and in this one

we get a mixture of both story line and action

because the rules have to react to and it's basically

a hunt the turtles of the hunted the pantheon

are the hunters kind of thing so hunter be hunted

type of thing Absolutely love that and it's basically

turtles in action as always and yeah, I just

Just kind of really dug it so So there's that

Coming up next week. We've got episode 154 where

Joe and I are going to be entering Dimension

X now We actually have kind of already done the

prelude to this we did that in our free comic

book day episode uh... this year for the poll

bag which uh... i will link in this podcast as

well as an episode one fifty four will probably

we're not gonna go we didn't really go to in

-depth into prelude to dimension x but will probably

bring it up in the beginning of next week's episode

really quickly just to catch everybody up on

it thing anything you want to go before i close

this one Am not aware of anything that I'm doing

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Absolutely. All right, you can follow at the

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on this and every other of the suppose for the

full bag and all of our other episodes we've

got almost ten years of podcasting content over

there on my god uh... i think my podcast number

like all -time recorded release but it's somewhere

close to two thousand podcast almost ten years

of doing this stuff so Yeah, I've recorded alone.

You're old, Mike. I know. I know. I'm an old

man. I don't know what to do anymore. I need

a cane and I need whip cream and... All that

stuff for pizza and whatever else, but yeah.

I'm gay for my elbows! No, I need turtle wax

for my elbows! That's more likely. They get callousy

when we get old. What's this Wii stuff? Anyway.

So join us next week, folks, as we enter Dimension

X with the TMNT here inside the pull bag from

IDW Publishing and all of that. We will catch

you next time. Make your great escape into comics.

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