November / December 2022 Solicitations

[Shargor]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #134

Spoiler:

Sophie Campbell (W) • Pablo Tunica (A) • Fero Peniche (CA)

With his brothers away on their own missions, Donatello must seek special help to protect a new friend-Regenta Seri of the Triceratons-who’s being hunted by Utrom assassins hellbent on destroying her people. Meanwhile, Jennika has her hands full maintaining law and order and trust in Mutant Town in the wake of the mutant terrorist attacks in NYC.

FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Available November 9, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #135

Spoiler:

Sophie Campbell (W) • Pablo Tunica (A) • Fero Peniche (CA)

Official tie-in to TMNT: The Armageddon Game! The Rat King’s Armageddon Game rages on-and as his machinations come to life with the fate of Mutant Town hanging in the balance! Donetello and Angel try their best to head off Ch’rell’s assassins before they complete their mission to destroy the escaped Regenta Seri. Meanwhile, Jennika is caught in the crossfire of a community divided on whether or not they can trust the TMNT. It’s up to her to stop the imposters wreaking havoc across the city. With the rest of the Splinter Clan spread across dimensions, can Donnie and Jenny keep it together, or will it all come tumbling down?

FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Available December 7, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE ARMAGEDDON GAME #3 (of 8 )

Spoiler:

Tom Waltz (W) • Vincenzo Federici (A/CA)

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MUTANTS AND MENTORS! The TMNT and their new mentor, the Shredder, have quickly discovered their mission to recruit new allies to battle against Rat King and his minions (Baxter Stockman, Madame Null, and the newly minted MetalKrang) in NYC has its own set of perilous circumstances. In Dimension X, Michelangelo and the Neutrinos are forced to join the Nova Posse as would-be bounty hunters. Meanwhile, in Dimension Z, the Shredder and Dark Leo realize they must undertake a deadly rescue mission if they are to have any chance of bringing Cherubae to their side. And on Earth, Raphael is finding nothing ever comes easy when Old Hob is involved, while nearby, Donnie and Jennika have their fair share of dangerous problems, not the least of which is the mysterious Null Turtles!

FC • 36 pages • $4.99 • Available November 23, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE ARMAGEDDON GAME - ALLIANCE #2

Spoiler:

Erik Burnham (W) • Roi Mercado (A/CA)

Casey Jones has had a tough life. Mom dead from cancer when he was just a teen; father an abusive, drunken wreck; his best friends a bunch of mutant ninja turtles embroiled in a centuries-old clan war. Yeah, it’s been a rough ride, and along the way, Casey’s learned one important lesson: monsters come in all shapes and sizes. And they must all be stopped. Now, when the maniacal Rat King’s latest gambit, the Armageddon Game, threatens those closest to his heart in their own home, Casey Jones dons his hockey mask and prepares for his most dangerous battle yet. But that’s okay… He’s not afraid of monsters.Official tie-in to TMNT: The Armageddon Game! Written and illustrated by Will Robson.

FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Available November 30, 2022.

[Shargor]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SATURDAY MORNING ADVENTURES #2

Spoiler:

Erik Burnham (W) • Tim Lattie (A/CA)

While intercepting a contingent of Krang’s stone soldiers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles witness one of their enemies get struck down by the very tech he was sent to steal! With a single blast of mysterious energy, the hard-bodied baddie drops his tough facade and gains an affinity for hair metal and power ballads! Will this transformation last? Can rock ‘n’ roll really change hearts and minds? Find out in the second exciting episode of TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures, “For Those About to Rock”!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Available November 2, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: SATURDAY MORNING ADVENTURES #3

Spoiler:

Erik Burnham (W) • Tim Lattie (A/CA)

Casey Jones may not be souped up with mutagen ooze, but even without ninja skills and a half shell, he holds his own as a hero. So imagine everyone’s surprise when stopping a burglary at a top-secret R&D lab leaves Casey imbued with superpowers! Emboldened by his new gift, Casey takes on NYC’s criminal element to great effect. The problem is his new powers are wreaking havoc on the city’s power grid!!! Can the TMNT talk Casey into giving up his powers, or will they have to take them by force? Find out in the next electrifying episode of TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures, “Super Casey”!

FC • 32 pages • $3.99 • Available December 7, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE LAST RONIN - THE LOST YEARS #1 (of 5)

Spoiler:

Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz (W) • SL Gallant, Ben Bishop (A) • Kevin Eastman, Ben Bishop (CA)

RETURN TO THE RONIN-VERSE! In the smash-hit miniseries TMNT: The Last Ronin, readers were taken on a pulse-pounding trek through time—past, present, future—to witness the final gut-wrenching days of the Heroes in a Half Shell. For Michelangelo in particular, the march to his heartbreaking last battle was long and dangerous, taking him from New York City, to Japan, across Asia and Europe, and then back home again to administer final justice against those guilty of killing his family. But what happened during those fateful years when he had only the need for vengeance and Master Splinter’s journal to guide him? What battles did he fight? What hard lessons did he learn?The time has come to find out as original miniseries writers Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz join artist Ben Bishop (TMNT: The Last Ronin) to finally reveal what adventures the Last Ronin experienced during his vengeful journey. While in the present, a new master, Casey Marie Jones, prepares her young terrapin students to be the next generation of…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

FC • 36 pages • $4.99 • Available December 7, 2022.


TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BEST OF LEATHERHEAD

Spoiler:

Various (W) • Various (A) • James Biggie (C)

Long before becoming a pawn in the Rat King’s Armageddon Game, Leatherhead ran rampant as one of the TMNT’s most iconic foes! Relive some of the ruinous reptile’s most raucous tales in this collection featuring the lethal Leatherhead!

FC • 100 pages • Available November 23, 2022.

[ChosenOne]

Well, sh*t, that's a huge spoiler right there concerning LeatherKrang's fate! Makes a lot of sense, I guess.

[neatoman]

Dimension Z? What happened to Dimension Y?

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

Well, sh*t, that's a huge spoiler right there concerning LeatherKrang's fate! Makes a lot of sense, I guess.

I want to say that the covers don't always match the content but that one I can't argue with although MetalKrang does make me wonder if the remains of Metalhead MKII are involved somehow.

[Coola Yagami]

WTF with cover 3 of the 80's TMNT series. Krang is right there and half the characters are facing the opposite direction. Just looks terrible.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Somehow I get the feeling that Donny and Seri will hook up later instead of it being Mikey.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by Cowabung-Gal

Somehow I get the feeling that Donny and Seri will hook up later instead of it being Mikey.

He was supposed to hook up with Mona Lisa.

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

He was supposed to hook up with Mona Lisa.

She seemed to be really put off when he told her about the whole reincarnation thing and they haven't really interacted since then. Also Mikey was pretty keen on Princess Trib before and that went nowhere either.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Shargor

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #135

Spoiler:

https://i.imgur.com/Kv0rToe.jpeg

Sophie Campbell (W) • Pablo Tunica (A) • Fero Peniche (CA)

Official tie-in to TMNT: The Armageddon Game!

Huh... I kind of had a feeling the main series would effectively be a tie-in while Armageddon Game essentially served as the real main series, just makes it a bit weirder now that the solicitations openly admit it. It's the same for 133 as well.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Huh... I kind of had a feeling the main series would effectively be a tie-in while Armageddon Game essentially served as the real main series, just makes it a bit weirder now that the solicitations openly admit it. It's the same for 133 as well.

They're finally saying the quiet part out loud and admitting the real comic had been on hiatus since #100 and was replaced by a glorified rework of Universe until Waltz came back.

[Stu_Padasso]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

They're finally saying the quiet part out loud and admitting the real comic had been on hiatus since #100 and was replaced by a glorified rework of Universe until Waltz came back.

I’ve had similar thoughts that Campbell’s job was to basically keep the pilot light on while Waltz was busy elsewhere. That’s why she created so many plot threads and characters that have never went anywhere. She’s just had to produce something to sell until Waltz or someone else came back in.

I actually wouldn’t have minded Campbell’s run except for that cringy Battle of The Bands story if only it was sold as a satellite title instead of the main one.

It reminds me of when X-Force Volume 3 under Chris Yost and Craig Kyle became the driving force behind the X-Men comics while Matt Fraction wrote Uncanny turning it into their edge-lord murder porn fan-fic.

I’d just like to point out that’s when I pretty much gave up on the X-Men.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Stu_Padasso

I’ve had similar thoughts that Campbell’s job was to basically keep the pilot light on while Waltz was busy elsewhere. That’s why she created so many plot threads and characters that have never went anywhere. She’s just had to produce something to sell until Waltz or someone else came back in.

I actually wouldn’t have minded Campbell’s run except for that cringy Battle of The Bands story if only it was sold as a satellite title instead of the main one.

It reminds me of when X-Force Volume 3 under Chris Yost and Craig Kyle became the driving force behind the X-Men comics while Matt Fraction wrote Uncanny turning it into their edge-lord murder porn fan-fic.

I’d just like to point out that’s when I pretty much gave up on the X-Men.

It's disappointing how The Punk Frogs, Groundchuck and Dirtbag, Razhar and Tokka are non-essential pieces along The Woke Bridge.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

It's disappointing how The Punk Frogs, Groundchuck and Dirtbag, Razhar and Tokka are non-essential pieces along The Woke Bridge.

I'unno, they're all pretty crap characters anyways. No real appeal outside of, "Oh hey! I remember them from when I was 7!" "Really? What do you remember most about them?" "They existed!" "Yeah, I figured."

Campbell's handling of pretty much any characters is generally not good, but for me it's not a huge problem when she's "mishandling" characters that are already junk.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'unno, they're all pretty crap characters anyways. No real appeal outside of, "Oh hey! I remember them from when I was 7!" "Really? What do you remember most about them?" "They existed!" "Yeah, I figured."

Campbell's handling of pretty much any characters is generally not good, but for me it's not a huge problem when she's "mishandling" characters that are already junk.

Yeah, it really isn't a big loss at all. If there is anything beyond people remembering playing with their toys, what's memorable about them? The Punk Frogs were in Leatherhead's debut in the FW cartoon, which only makes them noteworthy by association. Groundchuck and Dirtbag are in episodes that are considered "good" because they're too bonkers to be forgettable, not because of they themselves or because the episodes were good in a objective/conventional way. Razhar and Tokka were the characters that kids sort of just pretended were Bebop and Rocksteady because they wanted the movies to reflect the cartoon, even if it took imagination. This is as close as I can come to think of any more intricate reasons for their memorability and they still all come down to association, nothing more.

Hell, Razhar and Tokka quite literally just exist because Eastman and Laird hated the idea of Bebop and Rocksteady being further "validated" by being in a live-action movie, they really only exist to nullify the point of Bebop and Rocksteady but they're only really remembered because people pretend they were Bebop and Rocksteady, effectively failing their one purpose.

Had they been the ones used like this instead, I would have considered characters like the Newtralizer a bigger waste and that's not exactly a high bar either.

[Leo656]

"Mom, can we have Bebop and Rocksteady?"
"We already have Bebop and Rocksteady at home!"

Bebop and Rocksteady at home:


Says a lot about many TMNT fans when some of the most "iconic" characters, to them, are the ones who are essentially "Dollar-store versions of the Retard Mutants, only MORE retarded."

And the Punk Frogs aren't THAT bad comparatively, but the fact that they themselves are also just "Dollar Store Ninja Turtles" existing within the actual TMNT canon does them no favors at all. Like, it makes the actual TMNT look bad to have them palling around with their bootleg counterparts, there's just no nice way of saying it.

I'm definitely not one of those "NO other mutants besides the TMNT!" people (although I do think there needs to be a strict limit on how many you actually do have and it shouldn't be very many), but there sure are a ton of crap mutants in the canon going way, way back. Like you said, outside of "I had their action figure!" most of them just don't have any appeal or anything that makes them noteworthy at all.

[Stu_Padasso]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

It's disappointing how The Punk Frogs, Groundchuck and Dirtbag, Razhar and Tokka are non-essential pieces along The Woke Bridge.

What’s really disappointing to me is that Campbell has, intentionally or not, planted the seeds of what could be some really interesting stories in the right hands, but will never be realized at the pace of things right now.

For example: What if a retromutagen is created that could change the residents of Mutant Town back? Would it be entirely voluntary to take it or would people be pressured or even mandated to have whatever is left of their lives and freedoms left? What if Lita’s family who presumably abandoned her tried to take her back and have her take the jab? What of those who could want the potential clean slate that their current forms might offer them? What would the mutants’ legal status be, especially for animal born ones? Could someone like Stockman try to claim some kind of ownership or stewardship over the turtles because they were originally the property of StockGen? What if Casey and Jennika tried to reconcile (or just got shitfaced one night) or if something developed between April and Donatello like in the Nickelodeon show? How would such relationships be viewed? What’s to ultimately become of Mutant Town? Will it eventually be folded back into NYC proper or become it’s own jurisdiction with its own laws? And what the hell happened to that blonde reporter Lola What’s-Her-Name?

A lot of these used to be the concepts of morality and ethics that often had no clear right or wrong answer that Star Trek used to explore before they decided that they hated half of their own fans and went full blown woke.

Of course, even if they wanted to do stories like this, Trek had about two dozen ~45 minute episodes per season whereas we’re currently waiting a month or longer between 10 minutes of reading material. I realize that is the nature of comics these days especially when you only have one ongoing title but people aren’t going to hold their attention and spend their money for very long.

But, hey, at least we got to see Jennika and her pals win a Battle of The Bands against Bebop and Rocksteady. In a comic book. With pictures. Guh.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah, Mutant Town as a concept was actually a really good premise. We could have had gangs of mutants fighting for control, people struggling to survive, Old Hob and his Mutanimals actually enforcing law, people revolting against Baxter/the EPF.

What we got was very disappointing compared to the potential.

[AlZarkovski]

Best. Cover. Ever.

Spoiler:

[AquaParade]

Yeah, I may have to buy that, in spite of my ongoing war against clutter.