The Rat King Returns!!
 

Yes!! My wishes have been answered. The Rat King returns to Mirage in an upcoming issue of Tales:

Tales of the TMNT #35

Ship Date: Junel 15, 2007

Format: 32 B&W pages, full color cover, standard size comic
Retail Price: $3.25 US $3.95 Canada

Cover by Chris Allan; story by Dean Clarrain; art by Chris Allan.
“The Pantheon” - Splinter the rat versus the Rat King! Featuring the origin of the Rat King and the truth behind his mysterious historical relationship with the Turtles’ sensei. Plus… who, or what, is The Pantheon? Bonus pin-up by Ross Campbell!

Woa great news...the origin of the Rat king...wow...hope its good :)

Awesomesauce!

Oh SWEET! The Rat King AND my favorite writing/art team!

Does the Rat King really need a backstory? :ohwell:

I hope this doesn't turn out like what happened with April.

Eh, I've always disliked what Splinter looked like in the Archie series and he looks that way on the cover. :/

If this story is meant to be serious, I could do without a cute/furry version of Splinter that fit in better with the Archie comics.

The Rat King's always been a very mysterious character, this should be a good issue, I've always wanted to see a bit more of him in the comic.
I'm not so sure about those Wild West Cows though, they're back this month, they seem a bit out of place in the Turtles universe.

Dude, this is a world of alien dinosaurs, evil sorcerrors, guys putting they're brains in robots, superheroes, ancient ninja clans, and giant mutant turtles that know ninjitsu.

Nothing feels, "out of place" in this world.

*JOYGASM*

Rat King's my favorite returning "villain" (though he's really more of a neutral, which is why I like him so much).

I sorta liked that he didn't have an origin in Mirage. In his first appearance he's shown to just be some nut whose hallucinating and thinks he's a monster, while he's later shown to have crazy spiritual powers.

One thing I want to know is how he died between his appearance in Tales Vol. 1 and City at War. They never explained that.

Anyway, very looking forward to this. Incidentilly, this will be the first time in Mirage continuity that the Rat King has NOT been drawn by Jim Lawson (Lawson drew his appearances in Tales Vol 1., City at War and TMNT Vol. 4).

For the better because Lawson sucks at humans and he'd butcher Rat King if he drew him now.

Anyways I always loved Rat King, my fav villain so I'm looking forward to this.

The Rat King has only ever been drawn by Lawson dude.

Yeah and his style has changed since last he drew him dude. In fact there's a whole topic about how his artwork blows now compared to what it used to be.

Rat King looked pretty good last time he appeared...
In all honesty, I'd rather have Jim Lawson draw him over the Archie style. It's not that I don't like Chris Allan's art, I just think it's better suited to certain stories over others - Tales of April for instance worked really well. Still, it's a few months off yet so it's probably better to wait and see how it plays out. I still say if Jim does what he did with Blindsight, any book by him would be sweet.

oi this is great but at the same time I'm scared not so much about whos drawing it because I love Chris Allan's art..but I'm worried Peter's gonna pull another 2k3 on us I swear if rat king ends up being some odd clone or something or they bring some bishop guy in I'm gonna be really ticked off.:roll:

I could definitely see him working as some sort of military telekenesis experiment gone wrong, kind of like the Mr. Braun prototype - hence his connection with rats (well known lab test animals)...

oi...must keep down urge to kill...urge to kill rising rising!! lol:lol:

Oh boy, I dunno if I'm ready for an origin of Rat King. I actually liked his mysteriousness. It made him so..... mysterious. Anyway, I'm sure this ish will be hot. Rat King is definitely runner-up in best villains for the Turtles.

I have a feeling if it's tying into Splinter and deals with the history of the character (and based on what we've seen already) it's likely going to be something spiritual. Maybe some sort of totem reference? I'm game either way (though I do have my preferences ;) ).

You have a point alright, I did think of that before I posted though, I dunno it's just cowboy's with Ninja's in New York doesn't do it for me.
I'm not really interested in those characters that much, maybe that's a better way of putting it.

Point taken. Though, I really wish this would lead to Mirage doing a Moo Mesa comic series. Done like the Gargoyles comics, only without the delays and crappy art.

If I remember correctly, didn't the Rat King make Splinter eat live rats or something? I remember one TMNT comic buff saying that if they ever made an episode out of that, it'd be one of those Adult Swim episodes or something.

Get out of my way, I'm drunk as hell...:)

Yes, that was in his second appearance during the City At War story arc.

Apparently, Rat King had died at some point after his appearance in Tales Vol. 1. Splinter eas drawn to the abandoned factory where the Rat King lived and feel into one of the shafts, breaking his leg and making it impossible for him to climb out. He was threatened with starvation until the Rat King's ghost appeared to him, urging him to eat the rats around him. Splinter refused to give in to cannibalism until eventually his need to survive took over and he ate the rats. Splinter thanked the Rat King's spirit and left the shaft when his leg healed.

In TMNT Vol. 4, as Splinter was dying from a heart attack, the ghost of the Rat King can be seen lurking in the shadows behind him. We still don't know the signifigance of that, though this upcoing issue of Tales Vol. 2 will most likely clear it up.

Sounds really exciting!

The City at War arc is one of the finest pieces of TMNT fiction ever produced (the 2k3 cartoon adaptation was watered down to practically nothing). If you can get your hands on it, it's completely worth the effort.

I disagree. That was probably my favorite saga of the series...except maybe Exodus or...whatever! Point is, it was good!

Oh, the 2k3 version was good, but when compared to the comic version, it is a very VERY watered down adaptation. It's hard to cram 14 issues (16 if you count "Shades of Grey") into 3 episodes.

I'm glad you liked the TV version, because you'd totally dig the comic version.

I got tired of reading those 14 episodes on ninjaturtles.com. Seems like it took too long and some of the parts didn't relate to the city being at war plot or whatever.

P.S. The new series ain't as watered down as the old series though, no question about that.

Lies, I tell ya, lies!! That's only counting his appearances within the pages of the Mirage comic. But if you wanna get technical, A.C Farley drew him on the cover of vol1 #55.... okay okay, its more of a silouette (sp) but its there!! :P

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/8...overch3.th.jpg

Gah! Silence!

But if we wanna get uber technical, the Rat King's image appeared on a casefile that belonged to the cryptozoologist guy in Vol. 1 #42 which was drawn by Rick McCollum and Bill Anderson.

But silence!

and if ya really wanna get technical he was drawn by a.c. farley for the mutant universe source book which they used the image on the official mirage website, he was also drawn by others in the archie series.

And he was drawn by a handful of Korean people for the old toon. And so on and so on...

I love it when you guys get technical.

Hey guys, thought you might want to see this... found it while scouring blogs. I like it! http://www.magnulus.com/images/060321jim2.jpg

We've taking this too far. There's the line and we are waaay past it...

ahaha yeah really they get no credit!
ahah me to that will be $34.99 please!
awww but thats what we do best!
ugh why does he draw bodys so well!! and yet the heads he draw are crap he's not spending any time on them at all it seems and spending his time with the bodys only...that bothers me because when I draw I start with the head and move down...the head is the most important part of a character it's usually the focal point of one..oi:evil:

*Ca Ching!*