TMNT: Villain Micro-Series: Old Hob Preview
 

As with our other micro-series, this directly affects City Fall. Good stuff -- enjoy!

http://bit.ly/17jTj26


Talk soon...

Tom W.

Looks like its gonna be great.

Now I feel empathy toward Hob. :cry:

This issue will be great for sure, and I bet we will know more about who Hob's wanna take a revenge on, in Issue #25. (or #26?)

Its #26. The boy's mother perhaps if not Baxter Stockman himself?

I am a cat owner and have a softspot for all cats so its a bit much for me to see the overacting mother and gruseome injury.:cry:

This is gonna be badass. I love Dave Watcher!

for some reason this comes to my mind (the scene with the kittens):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPkx8kDsYwo&feature=player_detailpage#t=12 2s

:cry:

Wait a sec... Since Hob is a cat, and he might very well eat rodents, maybe there's a chance for seeing Rat King related to him. Maybe, that's who he wants revenge on, because he will beat him in this issue? :teek: Would make sense to also add Splinter to the mix later, just as they'll do in #26...

Well, I think Rat King is unlikely yet, but still, it would make sense.


Edit: Also, sorry for double posting, wasn't intentional.

I took a quick peek at the first couple pages. I'm saving the rest for tomorrow when the issue comes out.

Was that really neccessary to have a bag of three kittens drowned to the bottom of a lake and show it in a cartoon? That would horrify me as a kid while the others are unrealistic. I'm sorry I looked at the link.

As for Rat King, is it mice and rats that cats chase as a natural predator? I thought it was just mice? It does seem like a lot is going on with Leo's secution to the darkside and battles with the Savante ninja, Hun and Bebop and Rocksteady joining Shredder's ranks while Old Hob and Slash work with the other three TMNT. early 2014 would be a great time for him! Its just so much going on right now with another new character and two being furthered it may make him a footnote. His own story would be better for Rat King.

Spoiler tags, guys.

I feel like I've just been a negative nelly on these micros as of late, but:

Does Old Hob really need a sympathetic backstory? Does he even need a backstory at all?

I guess I'd just be enjoying these a lot more if they were just one-off character-building stories that featured these villains, a la the four Turtles' micros. Krang's was interesting, Baxter's was all right, but this just feels a little disingenuous.

Judgement reserved until I read the actual issue, of course. Hob is also a really fun character, so there's that.

A W E S O M E ! ! I waited along time for this, cant wait to check it out! Old Hob is my new fave!

the empathy card is a powerful one to play. i just glanced at the art, not reading any. i like to get a glimpse and save the reading for release day :)

when is this out again?

It should be out... today.

I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite micro since the Fugitoid one. Maybe I'm biased, but the Krang and Baxter micros just felt rushed compared to what I've read of this one so far.

For me, I always liked complex villains more than simple, evil cartoony ones. Sure, a villain who dies after a few issue does not need a detailed personality, but if the character stays longer, it definitely helps. For example, this is my main problems with Ch'rell, at the end of the day he is basically just evil for the sake of being evil, and his motivation is just to **** the multiverse up, and even his own existence, because he got beaten by the Turtles. (<- who actually not beat him, since Shredder almost killed the Turtles in the Exodus storyarc, so Ch'rell actually won the last battle, if you don't count Turtles Forever.)

About Hob, and Slash... Slash was an anti-hero in Archie, there are some hints about that he will end up something like that in IDW too. Hob is agressive, and ugly but if I recall it, he was never really portrayed as an "evil being", only if eating animals makes you evil, but the Turtles also ate pizza which has meat on it so... Sure, he wants his revenge on Splinter, but Hob basically lost his eye thanks to him, so even his hatred is totally understandable. So he might be a foe to the turtles, but he is neutral in the big picture.

Today!!!!!!!!

Fantastic issue. No big shockers but it explains quite a bit.

Filled in a lot of holes concerning Hob, his origins and his current place in the story. I think Hob is a great character so this was a fun read.

Also, am I only the one who reads Old Hob with one of Mark Hamill's rough scratchy voices? It fits him perfectly.

I agree except to the extent that Hob has a major grudge against Splinter and the turtles... Splinter even says early on, "what was once simply a battle for survival has become very personal." Hob can't be faulted for needing to eat, but the point of mutation is to make animals humanoid and raise consciousness/awareness. To fault Splinter for trying to protect Raphael is irrational and petty. It just seems that Hob has to have someone to be angry towards, and now the enemy is humanity instead of four turtles and a rat. I may be giving the creative team too much credit here, but Hob seems to have been intended as a tribute to Scratch/HallowCat, Jagwar, AND Manx/Verminator X all at once in this series.

*Spoiler Alert*
 

And for those of you who may think we're fibbing when we say the Old Hob micro picks up directly in issue #23, well, check out this little tease from TMNT #23 (in stores next week!). It's a wee bit of a spoiler, so don't look at the pic if you don't wanna know...

Talk soon!

Tom W.

Here's my review of TMNT Villains Microseries #3: Old Hob at TMNT Entity.

This one was a bit of a dud for me, I hate to say. I was never really taken with Hob during the ongoing, and while this microseries takes measures to pep him up, it didn't really succeed in changing my mind.

The issue essentially takes all his appearances in the ongoing and sews them together, answering any lingering questions that may have been left over. While that's much appreciated, it was a lot of answers but not a lot of *story* (or, rather, story we hadn't read before, at least from one POV).

I was mostly taken with the 4 page flashback to his pre-mutation days. But I'm a sucker for animals, so everyone else's mileage may vary.

Wachter's art was great, though. If the credits are complete, then he did the whole shabang by himself and he's quite good at the full gamut of pencils, inks and colors. That retailer incentive cover was an especially great piece of art (kinda wish it hadn't been the hard-to-get, expensive cover).

So while this one didn't win me over, I WILL say that I'm curious as to what Hob and Slash have cooking. So even if Hob's character isn't impressing me, I'm definitely excited about the possibilities of his story arc.

Old Hob and Slash are cooking up the Mutanimals. Just watch when Leatherhead is introduced, he'll probably join up with them.

I hope so,this would be sweet!:tsmile:

Ah, but why is Hob referred to as "Old?" He seems about middle-age to me!

I kind of have the same feeling, especially when it came to Baxter Stockman's Micro which was just so-so. I wouldn't say it's disingenuous, though. Maybe a little lazy. As if the only way to make a character and interesting is to show his "interesting" back-story! Why not just make him interesting now instead of waiting for the back-story?

Having said that, I actually still enjoyed this Micro, but maybe that's because this attempt to make Old Hob interesting doesn't have much to compete with since there really hasn't been any made at all up to this point.

Oh man, that looks great! As a cat owner, I don't think my heart can take that intro :cry:

i enjoyed this book. it added some back story and tied up some loose ends. sure it wasnt a knock out issue like #22, but it's not suppose to be. this issue had a support roll and i thought it did that rather well :)

I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. Old Hob has the potential to be a pretty cool character, and I'm really interested to see what this plan of his that will terrify the city is. Right now he's an army of two, which makes him seem like the underdog. On top of that, while this issue does show him to be a bit more competent than he's otherwise been portrayed, I'm still not convinced that he has the intellect to be much of a threat. We'll see though!

Two other things:
1) Anyone else getting a George and Lenny vibe from Hob and Slash? I really hope the writers delve deeper into this relationship and allow Hob and Slash to really care for each other.

2) Anyone else love the way these turtles were drawn?! I'd be totally okay with this guy coming back to draw another issue. (Sorry, I don't have the issue in front of me, and I can't remember who did the art in this one...)

I actually didn't care for this issue.... They made old Hob a sympathy character and there just wasn't much action.....

This look at Hob may be more informative than poignant-- but the way he went about things (playing dumb, etc) sort of defines his "street smart" approach in an appealing way, and presents him as more of a threat than a screw-up (as he kind of seemed before now). That aspect plus the ending has built up my anticipation.

I am starting to wonder if Hob is trying to put together some sort of Mutanimals type team. If so, who might his sights be on? Alopex? The rumored Bebop & Rocksteady? Maybe there'll be a second turtle betrayal other than Leo? Hob's methods might seem a bit more appealing to Raph's impatient side...

Leatherhead may even empathize with Hob's backstory should they go with the "flushed pet" origin...

You definitely shouldn't read the origin of the Red Lantern Dex-Starr, then.

For a moment old hob reminds me to Nick Fury, a eye patch a jacket and a cigarette.

Heh, I knew something seemed oddly familiar about that page!

I agree the intro was a little disturbing

Is Hob smoking a cigar?

Does nobody else see that he is clearly an homage to both Jagwar AND Verminator X?

I go further: If they ever introduce a future turtles/future shark kinda storyline, it would make a lot more sense to turn Old Hob into Verminator X, instead of introducing Manx. In case they introduce Baxter's (or Cyborg Donnie's) "biometal" stuff somehow, there's a pretty obvious way how it could happen.


About the issue it was nice, but the first part with the new info was definitely more interesting than the last pages, yet it was nice to watch a recap of Hob's affairs with Stockgen and the turtles, but drawn by a different artist in a different style. I hope he (sorry, can't recall his name) will draw more TMNT in the future.

One thing tho, I don't exactly understand is

Old Hob becoming Verminator X has been speculated for some time.