So that was issue one! An issue of wall to wall set up that ends on a cliff hanger. It's interesting to come back to it knowing where the run's going to go and how shaky it's going to get.
There's a potentiality in Campbell's first story, people stuck in a world that's been broken, and it's that little bit more bittersweet knowing the characters never pull things back together as much as you'd hope. But Sophie's heart was always in the exact right place.
Sorry for the delays, anybody keeping up. Been moving between a new flat in Scotland and my parent's house in England a lot, so my brain's been feeling like it's stuffed with concrete.
Sally Pride, the conscience of Hob's Mutanimals team. She is sadly another causality of the comic getting slowed down and just how large the cast is, because watching her break away and her eventual role in Mutant Town deserved more.
Another core of Campbell's writing: "This is all I've got." "No it isn't."
Back because it's not even throwing rotten tomatoes, but talking about TMNT by an actual progressive feels like -something.- And not to start this off on a sour note, but it's interesting looking at these panels when we live in a world where it's about to become more unlikely US cops being abusive will ever face consequences.
But hey, all art is dreams and protest.
#TMNT
See, if a baby dinosaur clearly hated me, I'd reflect on some stuff.
Campbell is up there with Jim Lawson for drawing the TMNT, some of the most out there comic characters ever created, in the most mundane settings and making it stick with you.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a stupid joke made from pure love for its pulpy medium, and the punchline is that this means when it's sincerely emotional it's devastatingly effective. It's rarely actually good, so when it is, it's the best.
But then, kinda always been the way, hasn't it?
Campbell could make a whole comic of characters just walking through dilapidated cities and isolated Massachusetts countryside and I'd read it back to back.
Seriously, Ninja Turtles doing mundane things. Best vibe in this world.
"Firstly, I did not tame the legendary buffalo; it was already tame, I merely shot it!"
A) God, what a perfect TMNT's NYC building that is. Could be a set from the first movie.
B) Okay, so putting aside the fact Hob is most probably firing Diamond because he's a paranoid control freak who doesn't like people he can't control; all we've seen of his Mutanimal cops is them oppressing other mutants and Raph beating them for it. What the hell kinda lines was Diamond crossing that -Hob- considers her a loose cannon? And where exactly is he drawing his line?
So fucking glad Campbell doesn't buy into Hob's bullshit. This is a guy who spent a hundred issues and Christ knows how many miniseries justifying everything he does in the name of mutant rights, and now that there's a couple blocks worth of them we see how he actually treats them. Diamond's a bully, but she was a person with a life until this asshole holding her at gunpoint turned her into a walking weapon and set her loose on his (also coerced) people.
1) So Hob, Mr. Bigshot mutant rights activist, is trading with the Foot clan, giving them mutants in exchange for supplies. Weaponizing his own people. Classy.
2) Koya! She's a mutant falcon who hates Leo, because he cut off her wings! She has ghost ones now! I have absolutely no strong opinions on her! (Even though she gets the best line in the run.)
Just everybody's favourite "complex" character selling mutant child soldiers. No biggie. There's been a lot of repetitive shots of Diamond following this attempted send off, and I think the one at these last two would be the only ones you'd really need.
TMNT is one of those IPs that's defined by a lotta noise and also hit hard and deep when it does something in complete silence.
Pretty sure I must've made the "why nerdy men hate this" joke before now, but seriously. Raph, surrounded by women trying to do something productive and being told to sit down and contribute. C'mon.
A) Raph, friend of a vigilante, asks why their cop friend doesn't just tell everyone to knock it off, because yeah, that'd work.
B) Sally Pride's response is to get into how the TMNT and Mutanimals have actually worked up 'til now. Small groups of friends and family pursuing their own agendas. And that blatantly isn't going to work anymore. Which is neat. Hob and Splinter had their ideological war, Hob won, and the results suck.
More like "Mood", amiright? Anyway, these're the Weasels, Zink, Zanna and Mushroom. They're adorable. If Lita is the ultimate question of the TMNT's family theme, the Weasels are a further question of the boys, Hob, Aloplex and the whole Mutant Town era.
They didn't ask to be here and their guardians don't know what they're doing. The adults of this series need to step up for these girls, and none of them other than maybe Al are gonna pull it off.
♫Carefully on tip-toe stealing, breathing gently as we may♫ but for real, Campbell has a great gift for motion and personality. Not only can you see exactly how the Weasels would move if this was animated, you can discern their personalities even when they're in full shadow.
Eh, what the hell, for completions sake. Do have to figure out how to get more concise, though.
Gotta wonder if Diamond's go-to insult of other mutants being "ugly" is projection. She seems the type.
Gonna try to remember to post covers for each issue, help break things up.
Love for this to be just a random nightmare, but pretty sure what Donnie's having here is a flashback to his brutal death (as in meaningless comic book death) at the hands of Bebop and Rocksteady in the lead up to issue# 50.
His soul was rescued because of the whole reincarnation deal and temporarily placed in the IDW version of the Metalhead android, before being returned to his mostly healed original body. Ever since, he's had to wear a synthetic shell.
Point being, I grok with Campbell's portrayal of a vulnerable Donnie not only coping with this soap opera shit that happened to him but the -actual- consequences of it. Barometric pressure means his shell hurts, and he isn't conveniently "over" what happened to him.
TMNT is great because you can have all this '80s dinosaurs and lasers bullshit and then someone will draw the most mundane, lonely in the woods comic panel ever, and this will make total thematic sense.
Canadian and or Scottish followers; this is how I shall visit you.
Hate traveling, but nothing gets to me like fictional characters meeting up after a long absence. That kinda "Caught up in the moment after a shitty vacation" feeling is a running theme in Campbell's work. Storywise, sure, but also damn if the lady can't draw a run down apartment.
♫Donatello, home invader♫
TURTLE POWER
Leo'Jet Ski Fuel'nardo
