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
For real, Campbell TMNT has such great, cozy vibes. It's nice when this goofy ass franchise feels like it was written by an actual human being.
Ready for things to get more painful than any Raph and Leo spat?
A) Some of the background mutants, like the hippo, dog man and the rabbit-mum and bear(?)-child are background characters in the first issue, dining at the tables while Raph and Al talk.
B) Love how Mushroom's all normal when she's darting inside and immediately turns demonic in the presence of stew.
Seriously, the Weasels have a surprisingly consistent amount of personality for characters that've been on less than twenty pages worth of story so far. Zink being a hellbeast trying to take Jen's head off, Zana just eatin' and eatin' and eatin', Mushroom having the foresight to grab some cans.
Also, that's Alopex, their future mum, hurling bowls at them.
Mushroom is my favourite and I feel sorry for the lift she's been born into and the two idiot sisters she's been saddled with.
Huh. Noticed this after finishing dinner and an episode of Benson, went back to check. Yeah, the Weasels do have little ear tags. Wonder if that means they might've been lab animals before being mutated, like the TMNT and Splinter in this continuity.
The following is one of the most heartbreaking sequences in Campbell's run so I'm gonna cushion things a little by pointing out that Mikey wears a custom Superman hoodie, and he's not wearing it back to front, he made sure to sow the S on the back so it'd be on his shell and it's so good, you guys.
Every night I go to bed vowing this thread'll become more concise with less page by page screencaps, and every second of every day Sophie Campbell's stupidly gorgeous art makes a liar out of me.
Would love to hear TMNT 2012 composer Sebastian Evans score Campbell's writing, especially the sort of tune he might use for the Weasel's popping up like this.
They make friends and it's great! Not coincidentally, the four standard Turtles aren't present. Do wonder about that, given how everything shakes out.
Also this issue's been a good showing for Sally. She's worried about her place in the new status quo, but she's constantly acted practically even under stress, like stopping Jen charging in and possibly ruining the kids' budding friendship. Foreshadowing!~
You're a two faced, self righteous piece of shit Old Hob and I hate you for it.
You ready to see why Sally, despite being sadly side-lined as this run goes on, becomes one of my favourite non-Al IDW characters?
There's a comic by Christopher Cantwell and Luca Casalanguida about the JFK assassination called "Regarding the Matter of Oswalt's Body". Buncha outsiders with espionage experience, criminal records and shady pasts are blackmailed by a US government agency for a simple mission: extract Lee Harvey Oswalt after he's shot JFK, dump a lookalike so the feds have a corpse, and smuggle the read Oswalt out of Dallis.
It's great, you should read it.
It's relevance to this thread is that the fourth issue is the cast being subjected to an almost full 22 pages length monologue from Oswalt about what a world changing fucking big shot he is, and that's what I think of when reading Hob talk about Mutant Town.
TLDR: Fuck Old Hob.
Issue #104, the cover of which makes ya think Sophie Campbell probably understood exactly the kinds of audience for her storytelling.
It's cold and there's nothing good on TV, just like Mutant Town, EEEEEEHHHHYYYYY, let's go.
Sally keeps kicking Hob's ass, very here for that.
A) Love how Campbell keeps the Weasels constantly distinct through expressions, posture and body language.
B) I empathise with Koya here, since if -I- had to live through the first hundred issues of this series I'd be done with fighting, too.
Part of why not-asshole fans slowly lost enthusiasm for this period of the comic, I think, is because it does put more of an emphasis on family and emotion. Often fighting really doesn't have much of a point or accomplish anything.
Like these panels. The gang's first victory, as Mutant Towners, their own entities separate from the original four, rescuing the next generation of mutants from the petty mistakes of the original, and Hob fucking off for a while. What's not to like?
We've reached the Adopted Lost Urchins stage of the comic. Also, Jennika's a big Lita Ford fan.
Love how constantly Campbell keeps up a character's body language.
There he is! I like Donnie's upcoming role, Mutant Town's handyman.
Cannot get over Raph's fucking Dave Lister looking fits.
For real, though. I recall enough about the first 100 issues to know Raph's thing was helping Alopex break away from Shredder and start healing, and I'm glad that roles reversed a little with their relationship.
(For real though, Raph's fucking clothes, he looks like he should be calling Leo a smeg head, it's amazing)
Leo'Jet Ski Fuel'nardo
