TMNT #88 Preview and Discussion
 

First Look:

https://media.giphy.com/media/l0K4jN...2TtK/giphy.gif
This issue is kicking @$$ already!!!

Holy ****, this issue is going to be nuts.

By the way, isn't it a bit early for this preview to drop? Are the Leo Macro and this issue going to be released on the same day? Man I hope so.

Yes. #88 & Leo will be released 11/28/18.

I think this is going to be next Wednesday, so it's just in time. It's showing 28th on Comixology, but we usually don't get previews until the Friday before release.


Also, so far it looks like Ch'rell is doing all the work ahead of Kleve and Montuoro. They're going to end up looking like this in front of everyone else :lol:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...40/075/90f.png

Sorry, but 28th.
It's not preview, it's "first look" from ITunes. They always come out earlier, then full preview.

Ah, that makes sense (also why the preview is so small; I think there is a way to get a wider read through it)

I believe the Leonardo Macro was supposed to be released on the 21st, right? I'm guessing something changed.

Yes, the date has been changed. This often happens.

I did realize that the normal release date would be happening right before Thanksgiving (and Black Friday) in the US, so it makes sense that they would postpone it a little bit.

Happy Thanksgiving TMNT fans, have some D E A T H from a character that's been getting the short end of the stick from the time he set his big ol' foot in the series.

Thank you Mr. IDW, may I have some more?

Well, that's a shame. I was hoping for and expecting it to be this coming Wednesday, though I suppose the likelihood that Slash will die in this issue is a good reason to not make it the day before Thanksgiving...

Why? Not like it's Thanksgiving in the comic...

I mean...it could be, but given the way everything has gone one, especially in New York, things probably aren't going as smoothly as typical.


For us though, I think it's more a matter of taking advantage of sales. Better to do it in the region of time after Black Friday when people will be buying more.

How does everyone know Slash is going to die instead of someone else?

Because of Archie comics I guess where Slash died while sacrificing himself to save the day.

Yeah, exactly. It seems like the kind of symmetry IDW will really lean into here, especially considering how bad it's gotten for Slash...

I mean, there's no coming away from this for Slash, with all the trauma he had already gone through. And there's plenty of baggage to carry over.


If I may unleash my inner AP English student and roll out a Crazy Board...


The turtles have known Slash from near the beginning of his story. He was one of their first big moral dilemmas and first big arguments. The "To Fight Shredder or to Stop the Technodrome" before that was a thing. Or, "To kill or not to kill". Mike was one of the first to break through to him before Hob gave him the serum to stabilize his mind.


Speaking of Hob, Slash has enormous significance to him. Slash was his first real friend after the human mob fell apart. Slash was there through the founding of the Mutanimals, as every new member was gathered. His leaving the family over Hob's business with Hun was enough of a deep cut.
Basically, the emotions of that will never be resolved. There won't be closure for Hob, and that's going to cause some of the problems hinted at in #90. Their friendship ended with foul air and that will never be cleared.


In another thread, I mentioned something along the lines of everyone's emotions from it bleeding into each other.


It's a shame we won't get a fight of Leatherhead and Slash teaming up to fight Bebop and Rocksteady, because that would be absolutely bad@$$, but I think Leatherhead and the Mutanimals might end up clearing up their own baggage together as much as they can.

Mostly just referencing your first paragraph but I'd argue that the fact that Slash will be so far gone is why I WOULDN'T want him to be killed off. I mean, let's be real here, he's totally getting killed off but helping him deal with this trauma and maybe getting him back on track as a changed person would be quite interesting. Personally, I'd prefer if someone like Old Hob sacrificed themselves to save someone else from Slash. Slash sees that he killed Old Hob and snaps out of the brainwashing, realizes what he did and kills Bishop, and then spends a good portion of time dealing with this trauma, feeling self-hatred, and finally being able to forgive himself. Would be quite emotional in my opinion.

While it's certain that someone will die what with the synopsis of #90, I myself wouldn't rule out the possibility that it's actually Slash that kills someone, as opposed to getting killed.

*sigh* It's kind of annoying that they keep hinting at plotlines months in advance and then everyone guesses what they are and is correct because the series is kind of predictable.

They haven't been hinting anything will happen to Slash, it's just assumptions even if they are correct. He's been low-key this entire arc with nothing pointing toward him in series.

Ah, they manage to surprise us sometimes. Krang being a snack for Leatherhead, Bishop 'jacking Slash, Splinter killing Shredder and assuming Foot leadership...

But yeah, a lot of the times it is pretty predictable. But I think that's more to do with solicitations and the comics industry in general?

I do wonder why Slash would be killed off after everything giving him the short end of the stick with a brief period of happiness, and in such a precarious spot. It seems needlessly cruel, not just for him, but for his friends.

Hob has much more going on for the series, so it really can't be him. Especially since he's been there since the first page!

It's so clearly Slash, it's just a question of how.

Anybody but Hob. It CANNOT be Hob.

I'll frickin' riot if they kill Old Hob!

Because the IDW crew are actually Joss Whedon in disguise...? 8)

Hob's not going freakin' anywhere, and I can't imagine a point where it would be even remotely reasonable for him to be killed off.

He'd probably just...shrink into the shadows of the woods like a cryptid and live like a woodsman in a 1700's German fairytale.

Hob's not dying because he's the breakout character of the IDW run from the very first issue in 2011. He's the "Harley Quinn" of the IDW run, if that makes any sense. :lol:

Boy, is that EVER the perfect way to describe him :teek:

There's a big difference between IDW TMNT and something like Marvel and DC, though. IDW can get away with killing off someone like Old Hob, and, as a matter of fact, the fact that he's the breakout character of the IDW run just gives his death such a large impact, something that the writers seem to be hyping up for #88.

Preach. It seems fully agreed on by everyone that Slash hasn't had as significant an impact as Old Hob, so, if it isn't Slash that dies, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Old Hob dying instead.

Is there any reason this issue is coming out so late? We're literally at the end of this month and the issue isn't coming till 2 days before the end of November?

I'm still pretty sure it was because of Thanksgiving.


And we should have the rest of a preview by now.

I agree with that, especially when you see the two regular covers. One has Slash with his hands covered in a red substance, maybe blood, and the other cover with Slash possibly standing over people he's badly beaten, one being a Triceraton. Maybe Zom and/or Ma'Riell will be the ones to bite the dust, especially since Ch'Rell is now on the loose.

The assumption that it's Slash comes from the synopsis of #90 describing the TMNT and their allies falling apart over a "tragedy".

The only one who would deeply care if Zom or Ma'riell died would be Don, considering how long he had been working with them to get a treaty together. Either one of them dying is not going to affect anyone in Don's circle. They might say "that's rough buddy, we'll help you deal with Ch'rell when we can", but it's not something that's going to have the whole group so emotionally vulnerable that it would hinder them during whatever the hell is going on with the Foot, Karai, and Kitsune.

Sure, 88 describes "devastating consequences for many", but I think Ma'riell is just going to be IDW Ch'rell's Mortu. With a deep-set anger that makes more sense after he spelled it out at the start of 87. I don't think the writers are going to skip out on the chance for a great conflict between Ma'riell and Ch'rell, especially for how polarized they are in how they would handle leadership of the Utroms. And that's why the 20 Years Later comic has the Utroms at war with each other.

Plus, the whole flashbacks about Bishop will presumably come to conclusion. I guess we're gonna find out he is a cyborg so that he would survive his early days. And the whole thing about what Sally is doing that prevented her from being present on Burnow Island. These make me a little anxious to find out what's gonna happen.

There really isn't any time for anything to happen to Ma'riell besides looking on in horror at what has happened and probably yelling at Churk and Yot as they're hauling out a woodchipper in the plant field.


We do see what she was getting up to at the start of the preview though; she and Pete were preparing an aircraft of their own to bring to the fight.



My one disappointment is that Ch'rell is probably going to go back on ice through the whole of City at War for the next several issues...unless there's a mini or micro focusing on him at some random point. That after a very long series of short glimpses and bookending.
Come on man, get to it.

With Sally, I see that now, though what Hob said last issue about her knowing exactly where the fight was, and then him and Ray giving each other a look makes me think something else may happen, though I might be looking too much into it.

And you never know. Maybe Ch'rell and crew will play some sort of role in City at War albeit maybe from a distance. After all there's still the probability of a Ch'rell/Leatherhead confrontation in the future judging by the unflattering comment about him Ch'rell said last issue.

That's probably one of the least things Leatherhead has to worry about in a confrontation with Ch'rell :lol: . Pretty sure he wasn't anticipating anyone coming back around to avenge Krang.

Not... really? There's a lot that if you said you saw it coming I'd either say you're a liar or you did a shakedown on someone in the writers' room for info. What people "guess" is what they usually have purposely telegraphed with foreshadowing.