Issue #149 preview and discussion

[Cowabung-Gal]

I knew it was going to end up being a dumpster fire after I asked the newly appointed Campbell on DeviantArt not to get all political with the new run and Campbell basically responded with, “Just who do you think I am? Of course I’m going to insert politics” and even added an evil laughing gif at the end. My fears were confirmed in the Jennika miniseries where blatant TDS was shoved into your face, and with Jennika becoming the stereotypical Mary Sue butch lesbian, I finally bailed out.

I applaud the rest of you for remaining hopeful up until #149, though.

[Sabacooza]

Sophie Campbell was never a fan of TMNT. No real fan would sell out and sh*t all over a property they love like she has. There. I said it.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Cowabung-Gal

I knew it was going to end up being a dumpster fire after I asked the newly appointed Campbell on DeviantArt not to get all political with the new run and Campbell basically responded with, “Just who do you think I am? Of course I’m going to insert politics” and even added an evil laughing gif at the end. My fears were confirmed in the Jennika miniseries where blatant TDS was shoved into your face, and with Jennika becoming the stereotypical Mary Sue butch lesbian, I finally bailed out.

I applaud the rest of you for remaining hopeful up until #149, though.

https://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sh...0&postcount=35

But I mean... she's honest about it, right? 99% of these folks in comics and beyond are not.

[Monty Mole]

Originally Posted by Sabacooza

Sophie Campbell was never a fan of TMNT. No real fan would sell out and sh*t all over a property they love like she has. There. I said it.

Didn't she also make a bunch of Tcest art at one point?

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by Monty Mole

Didn't she also make a bunch of Tcest art at one point?

As a longtime DeviantArt browser, I remember that Campbell did in fact have Tcest fanart, specifically of Raph and Leo snuggling/kissing, until one day, for some strange reason, all of that was deleted, conveniently before it was announced that Campbell would be the new head writer. It was the painted face AU with the then yellow Artemisia.

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

...Like the whole story makes zero sense. Evil Bob from the future who only cares about being human again, yet can't use his QNA magic powers on himself like he did Lita? The Turtles and April being "outraged" Lita was turned back to a human girl, saying "they'll fix this" (wtf?) Weird nonsensical future stuff with cyborg Jennika and a famous Michelangelo?

The whole arc makes no sense. Even IDW's version of Armaggon is pretty boring since he's not a real character and just a giant space shark.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Weirdly I feel Sophie had a better grasp on the Turtles and characters earlier in her run, but in the last number of issues it feels like everyone is just a little out of character for no reason at all. Like nothing that is happening makes any sense, and the way the characters interact with each other makes no sense either.

Also wtf is Carmen? This character is like a glorified extra, I can't be bothered to go back and check but she didn't have a single line of dialogue the whole issue did she? ... Carmen is like an "extra" on a movie set that has no reason to be there.

You know, when you're right, you're right, Cubed. So much about the series has made so little sense for the past couple years. This was one of my favorite comic series for a long, long time, hell, this run has been going on for over a decade now. But despite it having some really, really interesting ideas, even in the last few years, the execution has just not been there. So many of the plot points the series has done in the past few years could have actually been really good, if they had been done a little differently.

All in all I still think this IDW run has been a good one, and I'm optimistic about the soft-reboot coming this summer.

[shredder orokusaki]

This proves again WHAT MONSTERS the turtles are. Instead od being happy that their friend Lita became human now they are angry because she is not a freak like them!

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by shredder orokusaki

This proves again WHAT MONSTERS the turtles are. Instead od being happy that their friend Lita became human now they are angry because she is not a freak like them!

It might be an allegory for de-transitioners. Can't have that!

[CyberCubed]

I think the weird thing is there's nobody to reign Sophie's writing in, meaning no higher up to tell her what she can or can't do. Tom Waltz no longer works on IDW full time and the other editors there simply gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted. Like can't someone look at her story outline and say, "Where are you going with this?" Or "This feels out of character." etc.

Where is the quality control. Not to mention we have 3 female Turtles in the book at the same time (Jennika, Venus and future Lita) which alone is absurd when you stop to think about it. Why couldn't Lita be some other animal like a newt or lizard or something than yet another female Turtle?

Why is it half the plotlines under her run were botched when on-paper they could have been interesting with any other writer? It really does feel like stuff you'd see on fanfiction.net or deviantart in the early 2000's. Like someone's fanfiction officially published.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Where is the quality control. Not to mention we have 3 female Turtles in the book at the same time (Jennika, Venus and future Lita) which alone is absurd when you stop to think about it. Why couldn't Lita be some other animal like a newt or lizard or something than yet another female Turtle?

Heroes In A She-Shell

[Zog The Magnificent]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

It really does feel like stuff you'd see on fanfiction.net or deviantart in the early 2000's. Like someone's fanfiction officially published.

I mean, that's basically exactly what it is. Like many other things these days that were hijacked by people who don't even like them, claim to be fans, and then destroy everything about them that people liked, all in the name of hubris, to "leave their mark" on the franchise.

[DexVcx]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I think the weird thing is there's nobody to reign Sophie's writing in, meaning no higher up to tell her what she can or can't do. Tom Waltz no longer works on IDW full time and the other editors there simply gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted. Like can't someone look at her story outline and say, "Where are you going with this?" Or "This feels out of character." etc.

Where is the quality control. Not to mention we have 3 female Turtles in the book at the same time (Jennika, Venus and future Lita) which alone is absurd when you stop to think about it. Why couldn't Lita be some other animal like a newt or lizard or something than yet another female Turtle?

Why is it half the plotlines under her run were botched when on-paper they could have been interesting with any other writer? It really does feel like stuff you'd see on fanfiction.net or deviantart in the early 2000's. Like someone's fanfiction officially published.

Couldn't be anymore true

[Bahamut810]

Finally read it...yeah...

1. Yeah, I agree about Lita. What happened was objectively good for her. Bob should have just come to them and said "Hey, I can sold this problem that some of the people have." and sold it to them like that. ALL THE QNA HE COULD WANT. I guess this may be Lita trying to fix herself? Tell the turtles that he was important so that he becomes this villain so that he steals her QNA so she can go live normally.

2. An extension of that, yeah...I can't bring myself to care about Carmen or Bob either. Literally the only reason they were there is because we were told (not shown) that they were important and we should care.

3. I am not sure how I feel about this plot that seems like its going to end with Armaggon's victory. He is going to eat the old souls of the boys thus rebooting them to the more gritty storyline where they aren't tied to their history beyond being mutant turtles. It could be different, but that considering the next issue is it and what we were told is coming up its the most reasonable end. As long as this era comes to an end I can get over it.

[Stu_Padasso]

Originally Posted by Sabacooza

Sophie Campbell was never a fan of TMNT. No real fan would sell out and sh*t all over a property they love like she has. There. I said it.

I think it might be a little more complicated than that.

From my understanding, when “Sophie” was “Ross,” she had been working at Mirage and was working on a “Secret Of The Ooze” fan comic. So, I think it’s fair to say that she is a fan and is familiar with the lore but didn’t know what to do with the characters.

It’s the same problem I have with Chris Yost and Craig Kyle on the X-Men. From all accounts, they are both big comic book guys and are very good at adapting the source material to other media like television and movies, but when they work on the comics themselves, they just recycle characters and ideas only edgier and more violent. For example, you have Laura/X-23 who is basically a teenage Wolverine with tits who cuts herself and and the Predator X creatures the are mindless Warwolves from Excalibur that dig up and eat the carcasses of mutant kids that were blown up in a missile attack on a school bus. By the time the event Second Coming came to an end, the franchise had become murder and misery porn with many characters like Nightcrawler being needlessly killed off or mutilated and others, particularly Cyclops, being irreparably damaged.

Of course I’m of the personal opinion that the X-Men have creatively and conceptually run its course like so many other properties that have become victims of their own success and should have been allowed to end gracefully, but whatever. I just hope that the same doesn’t happen to the Turtles.

I think it might be important to point out that while someone might be familiar with what happened in a character’s history, they may not understand who the character is. K&Y didn’t understand that Wolverine wouldn’t be the sort of person who would murder an unarmed person pissing themselves in the middle of the highway. Logan wasn’t that man anymore. He had grown and developed with his time with the X-Men and serving as a surrogate father figure for Kitty Pryde and Jubilee. Likewise, Leo would never become romantically involved with a bloodthirsty psychopath like Koya or Donnie the resident scientist and engineer become a wizard.

That’s why I m cautiously optimistic about Jason Aaron taking over TMNT because over the work the work he did on the Wolverine Goes To Hell story arc, Wolverine and The X-Men, and Astonishing X-Men, he un-f*cked a lot of the damage that Kyle and Yost did.

It’s just a damn shame. Campbell is a great artist, the Mutant Town concept had a lot of potential, Jasper Barlow had a fun Dr. Herbert West vibe and little Lita is was such an adorable little bean. But it all just got pissed away.

[shredder orokusaki]

Originally Posted by Bahamut810

Finally read it...yeah...

1. Yeah, I agree about Lita. What happened was objectively good for her. Bob should have just come to them and said "Hey, I can sold this problem that some of the people have." and sold it to them like that. ALL THE QNA HE COULD WANT. I guess this may be Lita trying to fix herself? Tell the turtles that he was important so that he becomes this villain so that he steals her QNA so she can go live normally.

2. An extension of that, yeah...I can't bring myself to care about Carmen or Bob either. Literally the only reason they were there is because we were told (not shown) that they were important and we should care.

3. I am not sure how I feel about this plot that seems like its going to end with Armaggon's victory. He is going to eat the old souls of the boys thus rebooting them to the more gritty storyline where they aren't tied to their history beyond being mutant turtles. It could be different, but that considering the next issue is it and what we were told is coming up its the most reasonable end. As long as this era comes to an end I can get over it.

Armagon will eat the turtles and april and iw ill win!

[MikeandRaph87]

Why did everyone react like Future Bob murdered Lita? Leonardo crying, claiming he failed her? She is demutated and can be adopted into a loving family now. No crazy future with her training under Renet. I don't understand. Is it some trans allegory or something? Some liberal agenda of Campbell that I am missing? It just looks like a whole set of characters acting out of character. Why Donatello has not been toiling away to cure the mutations is beyond my understanding to begin with.

[CyberCubed]

There's definitely some "trans allegory" implications here. The fact that they say it's a "violation" that Lita got changed back, as if they had to "ask her permission" first whether she wanted to be a mutant or human again, is very odd. The whole issue and the last several has some very not-so-subtle "I changed my identity" aspects to it, with Venus going from a frog to Turtle being experimented on by Dr. Barlow, Mona Lisa before that, Jennika, Bob wanting to be human again, Lita, etc.

I suppose people who are unaware that Sophie is trans probably wouldn't pick up on this stuff, but if you know, you know. It's hard not to see the connection. I never saw TMNT mutants as struggling with their identity before (besides the few who genuinely wanted to be humans again), and even then it was not an identity thing, just that they wanted to live normal lives again.

[Sabacooza]

@Stu_Padasso You may be right in some respects but I lose respect for anyone that sacrifices their fandom on the altar of woke and ruins it for everyone else.

Nobody is interested in reading about a day in the life of Sophie Campbell and what makes her tick. We want to read about TMNT.

[Stu_Padasso]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I think the weird thing is there's nobody to reign Sophie's writing in, meaning no higher up to tell her what she can or can't do. Tom Waltz no longer works on IDW full time and the other editors there simply gave her free reign to do whatever she wanted. Like can't someone look at her story outline and say, "Where are you going with this?" Or "This feels out of character." etc.

Where is the quality control. Not to mention we have 3 female Turtles in the book at the same time (Jennika, Venus and future Lita) which alone is absurd when you stop to think about it. Why couldn't Lita be some other animal like a newt or lizard or something than yet another female Turtle?

Why is it half the plotlines under her run were botched when on-paper they could have been interesting with any other writer? It really does feel like stuff you'd see on fanfiction.net or deviantart in the early 2000's. Like someone's fanfiction officially published.

“Old Hobb turned me into a newt!”

“A newt?”

“I got better.”

Yeah, I’ve been on a Monty Python kick lately.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? The weird thing is that I thought that things were steadily getting better with the introduction of Barlow and the buildup to the Armageddon Game event. For a while I had thought that maybe Campbell had found her footing or editorial had finally reined her in. Who knows? Maybe her run would end on something of a high note?

But what we got was the enchanter known as… Donatello?

I blame myself. I knew something was amiss when Jennika showed up at the police station to bail Raph out dispite knowing that she was a convicted felon and a fugitive from justice and the cops knowing who she was. When I was on probation I did my tried to keep my head down and be the best goddamn Boy Scout that ever lived. Someone should have stood up to Campbell and said, “No, that’s stupid. Haven’t you been paying attention? Explain this.”

Oh, well. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

I know I’m not as young as I used to be and I couldn’t draw to save my life. But I wonder if I should look into becoming a comic book editor. I’d make Jim Shooter look like Barney the Dinosaur.

Originally Posted by Sabacooza

@Stu_Padasso You may be right in some respects but I lose respect for anyone that sacrifices their fandom on the altar of woke and ruins it for everyone else.

Nobody is interested in reading about a day in the life of Sophie Campbell and what makes her tick. We want to read about TMNT.

Agreed. It’s no different than what Tim Sheridan has been doing on Alan Scott: Green Lantern whereas he took a a golden age character who should have been left out in pasture, retconned his sexuality without the input of his creators who themselves are long gone and turn it into gay trauma porn.

So, Campbell is transgendered. Whatever. You’re an adult, it’s your body, your money, your choice. You could have another head grafted onto your body for all I care.

Of course if you’re transitioning from male to female you would be losing a head…


This may not be a very popular opinion, but probably the biggest reason I’m fine with introducing new turtles like Lita, Venus or Odyn, Moja, Uno, and Yi in TLR because when, God forbid, both Laird and Eastman have passed on, the old school turtles can ride off into the sunset and hopefully be left the ever-f*ck alone.

[Rooish]

I'm not saying the characters haven't gone totally OOC lately, and I'm not saying this wasn't a trans allegory (and I'd be fine if it was, although yeah I haven't needed the entire comic to become queer, even as a queer person), but I think people are overreacting to this particular incident. Leo is a Turtle and he can't remember when he was a human. To him, Lita is family--basically a daughter. It makes sense that he would automatically react to her transformation as something ghastly when he knows her as a turtle and a member of his family. He is a character--not necessarily what we the audience are supposed to think is the truth. And she was demutated without her consent and she did seem pretty happy as a turtle. So I think like, he can overreact and that's okay.