TMNT #150. Preview and discussion

[Wentos]

I haven't collected the main IDW series in years, but I remember release dates getting pushed back was pretty common, particularly milestone issues. Issue #50 was delayed almost two months.
(It was worth it though. That issue is a masterpiece.)

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by Wentos

Issue #50 was delayed almost two months.

Issue #50 was delayed by one week. The only issues delayed by over a month were #105 - 107 and that was during Covid.

[CyberCubed]

I really don't know what to expect from this final issue but I guess it's a good things it's over.

[Stu_Padasso]

I just read #150 on Apple iBooks.

Ooo- kay… no spoilers here.

While I do believe that Campbell is a very talented artist and character designer, she doesn’t seem to know what to do with them. Characters are introduced or re-introduced from other iterations of the franchise only to be disposed of later on. While we do get an explanation about how the QNA resulted in the Turtles “resurrection,” the narrative is an incoherent mess that will probably leave all sorts of questions in regards to the continuity of previous events upon closer examination.

I just thank thank merciful baby Jebus that TMNT isn’t part of a massive shared universe like Marvel or DC that involved all sorts of tie-ins and crossovers that require f-cking flow charts involving titles and characters that you couldn’t give a crap about in order to follow the story. But, that’s the subject of another time.

And of course the premise of Mutant Town that I believe had a lot of potential was wasted.

And, dammit, I really liked little turtle Lita, even though I usually hate kid sidekicks.

It’s funny that some people here think that Campbell’s run should be retconned out of continuity, but the truth is that hardly anything really happened. Out of a 50 issue run, 30 or so could basically be ignored.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Stu_Padasso

I just read #150 on Apple iBooks.

Ooo- kay… no spoilers here.

While I do believe that Campbell is a very talented artist and character designer, she doesn’t seem to know what to do with them. Characters are introduced or re-introduced from other iterations of the franchise only to be disposed of later on. While we do get an explanation about how the QNA resulted in the Turtles “resurrection,” the narrative is an incoherent mess that will probably leave all sorts of questions in regards to the continuity of previous events upon closer examination.

I just thank thank merciful baby Jebus that TMNT isn’t part of a massive shared universe like Marvel or DC that involved all sorts of tie-ins and crossovers that require f-cking flow charts involving titles and characters that you couldn’t give a crap about in order to follow the story. But, that’s the subject of another time.

And of course the premise of Mutant Town that I believe had a lot of potential was wasted.

And, dammit, I really liked little turtle Lita, even though I usually hate kid sidekicks.

It’s funny that some people here think that Campbell’s run should be retconned out of continuity, but the truth is that hardly anything really happened. Out of a 50 issue run, 30 or so could basically be ignored.

You know, if you want to state spoilers you can just use the spoiler tags.

[TheLabRat]

All this pseudoscience crap about "magic gravity" really means nothing. They could even explained more simply in terms of theology things like reincarnation, fatalism.

[neatoman]

Alright, I've read it and all I can say is:


It was stupid, really stupid and basically relied on hijacking moments from the Waltz run to fake any sort of impact, but at least it's over and reasonably irrelevant enough to be disregarded by future writers.

[TheLabRat]

What the hell? They "suddenly" stopped search for Donnie and all went on vacation and maybe having a snowball fights. The bonds of family? Pfff!

[benea]

eh so basically theres no big important finish. ends like a damp turtle shell which is a bummer. the guys didnt even get the final page.

[BornAgain]

I haven’t read since early on in Campbell’s run and haven’t read consistently since like issue #50.

I checked this issue out because I’m looking forward to the reboot and thought it might be helpful to catch up. Pretty confusing, and not the clean slate ending I was expecting but I suppose that will be taken care of in “Alpha”. Overall I was very confused but that’s what I should expect when jumping in at the final issue.

Hardly recognized Dan Duncan when he popped up on art duties. His style seems to always change.

[CyberCubed]

This issue had a lot going on, I'm not sure I liked it but it was a vast improvement over the last few issues. So Venus is the reason the Turtles and Hamato Yoshi were reincarnated after they died, due to time travel shenanigans and transported the QNA from their human bodies to the Turtle eggs and rat at Stockman's lab. I actually like that and I guess that explains an old plot hole from Waltz run about the whole reincarnation thing rather than Splinter just wishing they had another chance in a new life before they died?

Venus' fate is ambiguous. Did she go into the afterlife with Yoshi and Tang Shen? Is she still alive? Who knows. Lita stays human which is a good thing. I guess her future self gets retconned as well?

Bob was a dumb, dumb character. Like I still don't get him. And what happened to future Don and the two magic Turtle drawings? Did they go to their own time?

All in all it was fine, better than Sophie's last few issues even if confusing. We basically went down to only 1 female Turtle, and Jennika and Sheena are probably going to be written off in a road trip somewhere soon. Or died on their way back to their home planet.

Also for a 150th issue it's weird that Donatello is the only Turtle for the whole issue and not the others.

[Wentos]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

We basically went down to only 1 female Turtle, and Jennika and Sheena are probably going to be written off in a road trip somewhere soon. Or died on their way back to their home planet.

I thought the current speculation was that Jennika is IDW Nightwatcher? I personally don't really care, so long as she keeps her Scrappy Doo self out of the main title.

[Cowabung-Gal]

It’s done. The abomination that was once IDW TMNT has finally been put out of its misery.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

This issue had a lot going on, I'm not sure I liked it but it was a vast improvement over the last few issues. So Venus is the reason the Turtles and Hamato Yoshi were reincarnated after they died, due to time travel shenanigans and transported the QNA from their human bodies to the Turtle eggs and rat at Stockman's lab.

They actually did an origin story to explain some reincarnations?

[Jeff]

i thought it was a nice way to wrap up volume 5. a lot of it was mumbo jumbo exposition, but its comics, and i love it! its a happy, bittersweet ending of this chapter and i can't wait to read what happens next! Nightwatcher FCBD issue was a nice tease, too.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Jeff

i thought it was a nice way to wrap up volume 5

Volume what?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Volume what?

Heh, yeah, it's funny when people refer to the IDW series as that. At least Image's run attempted to be a continuation of Mirage continuity until "Volume" said it wasn't.

[Andrew NDB]

It's just always struck me as a dumb thing to push. What, is Dreamwave actually the real Volume 4, then? It's IDW TMNT Vol. 1. When it comes back with a new #1 then that'll be IDW TMNT Vol. 2.

[CyberCubed]

The reincarnation thing never had a real reason to happen under Waltz run. Hamato Yoshi just wished upon it to get another chance for him and his sons and they get killed by Shredder, but it never got explained why they wound up in baby turtles and a rat in Stockman's lab in the year 2011.

I guess now we know. Venus through time travel shenanigans absorbed their QNA from their dead human bodies in ancient Japan and kept it with her till she and Don teleported to 2011 and she magically infused them with it in the lab before the Turtles were hatched and when the Splinter rat was just a regular rat. In a way it makes sense, as opposed to Yoshi just wishing upon a star to get reincarnated like Pinnocchio.

[shinycloudkid]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The reincarnation thing never had a real reason to happen under Waltz run. Hamato Yoshi just wished upon it to get another chance for him and his sons and they get killed by Shredder, but it never got explained why they wound up in baby turtles and a rat in Stockman's lab in the year 2011.

I guess now we know. Venus through time travel shenanigans absorbed their QNA from their dead human bodies in ancient Japan and kept it with her till she and Don teleported to 2011 and she magically infused them with it in the lab before the Turtles were hatched and when the Splinter rat was just a regular rat. In a way it makes sense, as opposed to Yoshi just wishing upon a star to get reincarnated like Pinnocchio.

Yeah, surprisingly I thought this all fit pretty well "lore"-wise. Like it was nice that after all of the unfortunate Sophie Campbell... Meandering... That it kind of... Got to the point?

If anyone is familiar with Anime, the best explanation of a lot of the last 50 issues is what is commonly referred to as "filler". The main story takes a pause while the plot just... stagnates? Goes elsewhere? Which is a totally viable thing when it comes to a TV show airing once a week, but when its a comic? Once a month? I'm honestly surprised that they kept the subscription numbers up enough to keep the series going.

Now, I don't want to dogpile on her as it seems like the internet has already done that enough. (Just googled her name to make sure I had the spelling right and the top google search is literally "Sophie Campbell ruined TMNT")

I will say that a lot of the characters that were brought in with the last 50 issues were some of my old school favorites, even though the utilization seems a bit divisive in this thread. (mutant frogs, venus, dirtbag, groundchuck, tokka razar etc) But from time to time, it was a good bit of fun. I'm glad I took a break and read in chunks. Because I feel like reading issue to issue would have been infuriating.

But I feel like the direction the series is about to go in to sounds interesting, like a spinoff for each fan type. Like if you actually liked the last 50 issues? (According to the letters in the back of the issues, there is an audience somewhere) Well good news, you get mutant town.

You like the "anti-heroes"? boom foot clan nonsense.

You like vigilantes? We got a book for you too.

Standard turtles? Got you

Future Mirage Turtles? Great news!

TLDR? Its a great day to be a fan. Happy 40th y'all

Last thing I'll say in spoiler territory.

Spoiler:

I'm glad that Armaggon the entity ended as it did, because as a huge fan of the Archie series, I always loved Peter Lairds original design on the cover of some of the issues. It seems like eventually we got pretty close to that visually. Kind of opens up the possibility of that becoming a legit IDW villain at some point down the road. (Despite the current "stone?" result he ended up in)