Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2 preview and discussion

[hypered1]

Spoiler:

[TheLabRat]

I still don't understand why Krisa and Zodi have to join with Foot? Krisa had had enough of hurt innocent people, which even led her to betray Null. Even having them work with Sally are make more sense. These two and Casey have no excuse to be involved with the Foot getting hired to do crime.

[GameCobra]

Casey is just wandering around lost at this point since noone has no time for him. Karai asked him for his help and he obliged.

As far as Karai and Zodi goes, it's working out for them so far: Karai is beating up bad guys and Zodi is liking the work. She just doesn't like how chummy they are last i recall.

[Wentos]

I'm being lured back to the IDW comics thanks to the upcoming relaunch, but a miniseries drawn by my favorite IDW TMNT artist felt like a logical place to start so here I am.

Things have certainly changed since I stopped reading. Casey with the Foot surprised me, but Bebop and Rocksteady being outright loyal to Karai surprised me even more. Did something happen between the three of them? As I recall, Bebop and Rocksteady were loose cannons that Karai essentially conscripted into the Foot in exchange for sparing their lives.

The story isn't wowing me so far, but I came for Santolouco and I have not been disappointed. He's every bit the beast he was a decade ago and I'm very happy he's found his way back to TMNT. Now that IDW finally has a talent budget larger than $3, hopefully they can keep him around more permanently.

[CyberCubed]

Casey Jones went from leading the Purple Dragons again to basically feeling useless after Hun died and the mutant town bomb went off. He also broke up with Jennika when she was human off-screen. So after that he decided to work for Karai...for some reason.

Zodi and Krisa just randomly went to work for Karai after Null was captured. Didn't really make much sense and i guess still doesn't, but here we are. Rocksteady/Bebop being so loyal to Karai I guess kind of fits since she brought them back into the fold after they wandered off a bit on their own adventures. I did like the confrontation between Rocksteady and Zodi.

The story didn't really progress much this issue. The Dog Star gang are from the Archie TMNT series and the main guy is supposed to mutate into a dog mutant named Chien Khan, so I guess that will happen by the end of this. I just wonder if they'll be killed off after this or continue on.

[martinitolove]

The art is magnificent, the writing is boring, slow-paced and outright bad. Santoluco is top, Burnham is flop. Sorry to say but IDW TMNT is nothing without Waltz.

[BornAgain]

The ongoing with Waltz at the helm was boring imo. He has great ideas but his writing just goes on and on with lots of explanations, characters catching us up, or having one-liners or jokes that just fall flat.

Clearly the man is talented bc no one else seems to be able to keep an ongoing consistent for that amount of time, though I suppose editorial gets some of that credit. I also love a few of the concepts he brought to the book, but not the exectution.

I actually suspect he may have taken lead on the latest issue of TLR2, because suddenly that book shares a lot of those issues.

[CyberCubed]

I think the issue is these stories are always longer than they have to be, this is 4-issues, but could probably be done in 3 issues. So there's always pacing problems. They make the stories stretched out to sell more issues in each mini.

[TheLabRat]

Originally Posted by BornAgain

The ongoing with Waltz at the helm was boring imo. He has great ideas but his writing just goes on and on with lots of explanations, characters catching us up, or having one-liners or jokes that just fall flat.

Clearly the man is talented bc no one else seems to be able to keep an ongoing consistent for that amount of time, though I suppose editorial gets some of that credit. I also love a few of the concepts he brought to the book, but not the exectution.

I actually suspect he may have taken lead on the latest issue of TLR2, because suddenly that book shares a lot of those issues.

They always focus on too many unnecessary subplot and other side character, or don't even have patience to explore their new ideas. I think they should stop making TMNT an ensemble story. Especially IDW City at War arc and Armageddon Game arc are a mess.

[CyberCubed]

Having just read the 2 Sourcebooks IDW put out, it really makes you realize how many unnecessary and extra characters IDW introduced, and this is even before all the mutant town stuff.

Null's entire role in IDW has been rather underwhelming and she probably should not have been introduced since they had no time to do anything with her. That's also why Zodi and Krisa are just there now since they don't really have a purpose. They had no reason to introduce Darkwater when they had the EPF, there's no point for Agent Ravenwood who basically wound up being forgotten even though she was supposed to be Bishop's replacement.

You also have this Natsu character here, who was fine in the first Karai mini-series, but had no reason to stick around. Natsu should of just been a one-story character, instead they bring her back and she's just there.

[Boco]

Heh. Kaneda cameo on page 10.

[BornAgain]

Originally Posted by TheLabRat

They always focus on too many unnecessary subplot and other side character, or don't even have patience to explore their new ideas. I think they should stop making TMNT an ensemble story. Especially IDW City at War arc and Armageddon Game arc are a mess.

Yeah, I agree that there were too many ideas introduced and not enough time spent exploring them.

One reason I am hoping to hop back on with Jason Aaron’s run, is he seems focused on trying to capture some of the style that the early Mirage books had. He talks about how they were gritty and felt like they left a little bit of a grime under your fingernails. I love that.

It’s not that I necessarily need things to be dark and gritty, but it’s the sense of style he seems to understand. I don’t feel like the IDW ongoing has really had that. I don’t want to say the book doesn’t have an identity but it doesn’t feel like it has a voice.

It’s a remix album. It has a ton of your old favorites and the foundation is solid. It never really does much to excite though, with the resurrection angle being the only caveat that comes to mind - what an intriguing new layer that is.

[TheLabRat]

I don't expect Viacom will allow the Turtles killing in the main series. But at least the new writers should let the four turtles kick these villains asses. Everyone loves to see the boys finally master their strengths and skills, but when the they build a dojo and become martial art teachers, they actually become weaker and even fighting some minor villains was an tough fights for them. Not to mention losing to them in the first battle.

[Wentos]

Originally Posted by BornAgain

The ongoing with Waltz at the helm was boring imo. He has great ideas but his writing just goes on and on with lots of explanations, characters catching us up, or having one-liners or jokes that just fall flat.

Clearly the man is talented bc no one else seems to be able to keep an ongoing consistent for that amount of time, though I suppose editorial gets some of that credit. I also love a few of the concepts he brought to the book, but not the exectution.

I actually suspect he may have taken lead on the latest issue of TLR2, because suddenly that book shares a lot of those issues.

Agreed 100%. Waltz has neat ideas, but he's terrible at writing characters. Everyone talks in the exact same overly expository way. And you'll notice his characters always say exactly what they're thinking and feeling. There's never any subtext in his writing, it's always very trite and on-the-nose. His characters don't feel real.

Waltz writes like an editor. He's someone that would be great to bounce ideas off of and he comes up with ideas that could be great with the proper execution, but unfortunately just doesn't have chops to follow through on them himself.

[Jeff]

Originally Posted by Wentos

Agreed 100%. Waltz has neat ideas, but he's terrible at writing characters. Everyone talks in the exact same overly expository way. And you'll notice his characters always say exactly what they're thinking and feeling. There's never any subtext in his writing, it's always very trite and on-the-nose. His characters don't feel real.

Waltz writes like an editor. He's someone that would be great to bounce ideas off of and he comes up with ideas that could be great with the proper execution, but unfortunately just doesn't have chops to follow through on them himself.

i never noticed that until i read your comment and now everything i know has turned upside down because what you said is so true!

[TheLabRat]

Originally Posted by Wentos

Agreed 100%. Waltz has neat ideas, but he's terrible at writing characters. Everyone talks in the exact same overly expository way. And you'll notice his characters always say exactly what they're thinking and feeling. There's never any subtext in his writing, it's always very trite and on-the-nose. His characters don't feel real.

Yes, these characters behavior are more like plot-first than their personality. IDW Bishop respects his father and wants to make him proud yet he suddenly murder his father for no reason. It's feel like the writer want to make sure Hob stays suspiciously innocent and morally grey instead of the evil human hater that he is. Another one is Oroku Hiroto from The Last Ronin. He love his mother very much (maybe even has a little oedipus complex) and wanted to kill Splinter and the Turtles to avenge her. However, in the last issue, he suddenly reailzed that he actually hated his mom so he killed Karai. It feels like they don't want Mikey to kill a braindead enemy.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by TheLabRat

Another one is Oroku Hiroto from The Last Ronin. He love his mother very much (maybe even has a little oedipus complex) and wanted to kill Splinter and the Turtles to avenge her. However, in the last issue, he suddenly reailzed that he actually hated his mom so he killed Karai.

It’s obvious that he has a personality disorder (and a god complex). One minute he’s showering her with love, the next he’s mocking her for her failures and resenting her for leaving him as a kid.



This is evident in issue 3 during the rooftop scene with Hiroto

Who knows? Maybe he killed Karai out of love, as sick and twisted as that sounds. He figured that the end was near for both of them, and he didn’t want a lowly mutant like Mikey to get his hands on his beloved mother. So out of both love and hate, he finished the job himself.

[CyberCubed]

You know I just remembered, what happened to that mutated dinosaur that Bebop/Rocksteady had been friends with? I just realized it's nowhere to be seen in this arc. Did they just forget it.