Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #35
Teenage Mutnat Ninja Turtles #35
Story by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz and Bobby Curnow
Written by Tom Waltz
Art by Mateus Santolouco
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Nobody is scummier than Hun. Okay, Shredder I guess. And Krang, but as far as normal humans go, Hun is a grade A piece of trash. You gotta love it when somebody takes bad parenting to the next level. I guess you don’t HAVE to, but it’s something I appreciate, so it’s something I appreciate in this comic. The character’s wretched in a way I can relate to. In the story and in our hearts, Hun is constantly given second chances, and always blowing them. He’s been a terrible parent to Casey Jones the whole series, and this issue, he has to nerve to confront Casey at his mom’s grave, where Hun knew he’d be whinin’. The over-the-top dickishness of Hun and Casey’s relationship right now might be my favorite part of the comic, even if my preferred type of villains make their long awaited return this issue.
Ninja Turtles feels best to me when there’ slots of mutant animals running around. People are neat, but who’s reading TMNT for compelling human drama? I prefer lots of mutant critters running around. The top critters of the series, Old Hob and Slash, return in full this issue, so it’s great to have them here.
Too many characters make dumb alliances in TMNT. I like a guy who’s strictly looking out for himself. Ever since Hob dropped his pointless vendetta against Splinter, he’s become a much more interesting character. He’s got all this weight lifted from his back. He’s free to operate as he pleases. Now’s he’s cavorting around with Slash, kidnapping a former Stockgen scientist, and forcing her to experiment on more animals to create a mutant army. Sounds like a great plan, I know. Raphael isn’t down with the idea, but the whole debate is diffused by the end of the issue. Slash takes matters into his own hands, and (spoilers, I guess?) injects himself with Splinter’s blood, because it might make him smarter. They spend a good deal of time recapping previous issues to explain why this could work, but that only makes it more contrived. It’s all in the ooze, guys. Don’t over think it.
This may be the dumbest development in a while, and it sadly came in the issue I’ve been most excited about recently. Weird animals should be TMNT’s bread and butter, but it seems like the weird animals are being underdeveloped if they’re not teenage mutant ninja turtles. Old Hub has grown beautifully as a character, but I can’t say that for the rest of the characters. I do appreciate how fast this comic can move. It takes forever for something important to happen, but all the weird little character shit has a neat, logical progression to it. There’s not a lot of time wasted by characters explaining why they now have a cyber-enhancement suit, they just acquire a cyber enhancement suit and then start fighting entire gangs. Characters in TMNT are all about getting stuff done.*
*On the subject of getting stuff done, if anybody hasn’t read the Bebob and Rocksteady micro-series one shot, I’d highly recommend it. One of my favorite issues of the current series. I think they’re regular animals who get mutated in the Archie comics I used to read, but in this iteration, they’re human pals who get kicked out of every gang in town, before they somehow manage to fall in with The Foot Clan. These are two dumb goons who want to be animal-goons. Not a lot of thought goes into it, and they enthusiastically accept whatever crazy mutant shit Karai has planned for them. They’re just like “Yeah! Let’s be a rhinoceros and warthog, respectively!” Such enthusiasm.
Story by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz and Bobby Curnow
Written by Tom Waltz
Art by Mateus Santolouco
Colors by Ronda Pattison
Nobody is scummier than Hun. Okay, Shredder I guess. And Krang, but as far as normal humans go, Hun is a grade A piece of trash. You gotta love it when somebody takes bad parenting to the next level. I guess you don’t HAVE to, but it’s something I appreciate, so it’s something I appreciate in this comic. The character’s wretched in a way I can relate to. In the story and in our hearts, Hun is constantly given second chances, and always blowing them. He’s been a terrible parent to Casey Jones the whole series, and this issue, he has to nerve to confront Casey at his mom’s grave, where Hun knew he’d be whinin’. The over-the-top dickishness of Hun and Casey’s relationship right now might be my favorite part of the comic, even if my preferred type of villains make their long awaited return this issue.
Ninja Turtles feels best to me when there’ slots of mutant animals running around. People are neat, but who’s reading TMNT for compelling human drama? I prefer lots of mutant critters running around. The top critters of the series, Old Hob and Slash, return in full this issue, so it’s great to have them here.
Too many characters make dumb alliances in TMNT. I like a guy who’s strictly looking out for himself. Ever since Hob dropped his pointless vendetta against Splinter, he’s become a much more interesting character. He’s got all this weight lifted from his back. He’s free to operate as he pleases. Now’s he’s cavorting around with Slash, kidnapping a former Stockgen scientist, and forcing her to experiment on more animals to create a mutant army. Sounds like a great plan, I know. Raphael isn’t down with the idea, but the whole debate is diffused by the end of the issue. Slash takes matters into his own hands, and (spoilers, I guess?) injects himself with Splinter’s blood, because it might make him smarter. They spend a good deal of time recapping previous issues to explain why this could work, but that only makes it more contrived. It’s all in the ooze, guys. Don’t over think it.
This may be the dumbest development in a while, and it sadly came in the issue I’ve been most excited about recently. Weird animals should be TMNT’s bread and butter, but it seems like the weird animals are being underdeveloped if they’re not teenage mutant ninja turtles. Old Hub has grown beautifully as a character, but I can’t say that for the rest of the characters. I do appreciate how fast this comic can move. It takes forever for something important to happen, but all the weird little character shit has a neat, logical progression to it. There’s not a lot of time wasted by characters explaining why they now have a cyber-enhancement suit, they just acquire a cyber enhancement suit and then start fighting entire gangs. Characters in TMNT are all about getting stuff done.*
*On the subject of getting stuff done, if anybody hasn’t read the Bebob and Rocksteady micro-series one shot, I’d highly recommend it. One of my favorite issues of the current series. I think they’re regular animals who get mutated in the Archie comics I used to read, but in this iteration, they’re human pals who get kicked out of every gang in town, before they somehow manage to fall in with The Foot Clan. These are two dumb goons who want to be animal-goons. Not a lot of thought goes into it, and they enthusiastically accept whatever crazy mutant shit Karai has planned for them. They’re just like “Yeah! Let’s be a rhinoceros and warthog, respectively!” Such enthusiasm.
A Look Inside
