Forgotten older plotlines in IDW
 

This is basically for stuff even prior to Sophie's run.

1. Maligna (the Archie series alien bug queen), was introduced in the Turtles in Space arc as a major threat saying she uses her hive of bugs to harvest planet after planet. After that mini she was never brought up or mentioned again.

2. The orphans that Michelangelo was protecting from Splinter when he took over the Foot Clan and is a major plot point of the City at War arc. These orphans were sent to Dimension X to prevent Karai from also recruiting them as Foot Clan members, and they were with Harold and Fugitoid, but then they were never mentioned again. Harold and his wife are actually back on Earth now, but the orphans have not been seen prior to Sophie's run. Where are they and what are they doing? Karai probably isn't going to recruit them again so why not bring them to Earth.

3. Metalhead wanted an alliance with Bishop to visit Area 51. This was kinda tossed under the rug and forgotten when Bishop died and Krang took over Metalheads body.

4. The Turtles mystic training, so many issues dedicated to this and it never really had any actual payoff?

5. Mutagen Man and Mondo Gecko completely disappeared after post issue 100. What happened to them?


There are some more but they're still technically around in Sophie's run so I can't say they're forgotten, like if the Triceraton/Utrom stuff will ever be resolved but I guess we'll have to still wait on that.

Ah, I see that IDW continued the tradition of the Mutagen Man being forgotten despite being potentially useful, bravo.

After #100, the ninja magic became more like the plot devices. Like In AG arc, the writer want you to believe that Hob is actually the good guy and Magneto. Raph even uses his newly learned ninja magic to lie detection, and it turns out that Hob is telling the truth, because he is indeed the good guy. Haha!

Another worst is they actually took mystical stuff from Leo when they showed that Donnie would be a mad wizard in the future instead of a mad scientist.

Also another oddity remember when Alopex wore a green bandana to match the Turtles? That was really short-lived wasn't it, I think it only went on a few issues and then Alopex got mad at Raph again and left the whole team in the last few issues lol.

I've been looking over the last number of issues and realizing how many things are just rushed, forgotten or glossed over. Did anyone ever find out the Weasels killed Man Ray? Did people just...not care he's dead? Did Old Hob ever find that out? I don't think he did.

Mona Lisa's issues with her parents was never brought up again, not that anyone cares. April survived an attack from Baxter's slithery lizards or whatever they were, and then she just stayed in the lair and none of the Turtles care about getting revenge on Baxter for April almost being eaten. Baxter's whole story being Mayor kind of fell flat too and I'd rather he had just been arrested at the ending of Armaggeddon game, he's just there now.

Future Raph did talk about Ninjara/Umeko, which mean Raph is done with Alopex. Ninjara will be his new girlfriend. This is main problem with IDW TMNT. Do we really need Nova Poose and Four Winds when this comic already has Neutrinos and The Pantheon?

I do. One of the few things in Sophies more socially-inclined run that I was interested in was that. Dont forget when she found out that the TMNT were mutated from animals and she was SO SUPRISED AND INTERESTED she never brought it up again.

Mona Lisa felt like she was originally going to have a bigger role but then Sophie kinda forgot about her as she went on. Mona was one of the first new major characters introduced in the Mutant town arc too after the weasels.

We also have Regenta now touring with Sally and I'm also wondering if that "Sally being mayor of Mutant Town" thing is going to be forgotten about as well. She was supposed to run for mayor and it never happened.

Actually, I think that's going to be taken advantage of and it'll be Baxter Stockman Vs. Sally.

I honestly wish they stuck with the idea of Mona Lisa and Donatello hanging out more and developing that between them. It was starting to look so good. I get that she couldn't handle the romantic part, but I'm pretty sure she would've been curious why he's so smart and go from there at least, romantic or not.

Dr. Barlow maybe a mouse now, but I can see him returning. More theatening even.

One last thing on my mind: Mikey did mention rebuilding the Dojo after it caught fire. Will they get Alopex and Jennika back and fix it properly someday? That would be awesome.

Why does Krang need Hamato family DNA? Did he really foresee something, or can the reincarnation system be artificially controlled through science?

Looking at this now they did address Metalhead and the missing Mutanimals so that was good.

Weirdly they never wrapped up the whole Utrom/Triceraton on Burnow Island plot. What are they going to do with them?

Also Maligna never returned yet, which is too bad. Would like to see her in a major story arc.

Pretty sure Seri is the only Triceraton left and with Krang and Ch'rell both gone it just leaves peaceful Utroms on Burnow Island.

Didn't they want to find a new planet in space to settle down on? I don't remember, but it didn't seem like they planned to stay on Earth indefinitely. I'm just surprised they haven't followed up on them at all since the Armaggedon game ended.

I remember there was a future Raph who came from another universe that was destroyed by Armaggon. In 2023 annual comic ending, he was attacked by foot ninja, and never appears again.

The only forgotten characters I can think of are Maligna, Future Raph, Dan (Spirit Tanuki), Wyrm and Zog !

Well, the IDW universe has become so large that I can't blame the creative team. Good thing they have the Sourcebook now.

As for the Kuji-Kiri, well I agree that it was a cheap Nen (Hunter X Hunter ref), it was always a plot device and they already put limits to "justify" the fact characters are not using it. To be honest, some of these abilities are useful only in certain circumstances and Donatello has a very good reason to not use it. Perhaps we'll see Kuji-Kiri again in the future

They made another excuse that why Karai wanted to attack the turtles was because they had carry these magic secret, but at the same time the turtles seemed to have forgot these technique they had learned.

They even forgot that Leo can travel to spirit world, which mean that when Leo was in India, he could actually use this method to find the other ancient spirits and seek their wisdom instead of wanting to be eaten by soft-shell turtles.

Agreed, Karai's motive for killing the turtles were forced. But it was implied that she felt threatened by them. And it is true that as Splinter's sons and Shredder's disciples they could claim the Foot clan legacy, but that would be out of character. Or perhaps was the Dragon manipulating her ?

I was just thinking there was another forgotten IDW character : Dreadmon ! It would be nice to see his reaction to the new world

It's not like every one-off mutant has to come back, Wyrm and Dreadmon weren't part of any major stories. But characters like Maligna did seem set up to be a threat but then just disappeared. Hopefully she's involved in some future Dimension X story.

I'm sure Future Raph is going to be followed-up on, that was too big a deal. And yeah, those orphan kids Mikey trained with are still in Dimension X apparently? Harold and his wife came back so why didn't they? What are they doing there? I doubt Karai cares about them anymore.

Can someone remind me if there are any Triceratons who weren't killed off besides the Regenta? I don't think she made any mention of her being the last of her race.

Unless any Triceratons survived being used as hosts by Ch'rell and his minions it was implied that they were all dead by the end of the AG.

Hm, really, I'm surprised, I don't remember anything being said about that at all. Regenta didn't seem the least bit sad that her race was killed off, wasn't the last we saw of her she was touring the world with Sally? And that was awhile ago too.

Killing off all the Triceratons like that would be pretty surprising, I just assumed only some of them were used as part of the Utrom army and not...all of them?

Well, Seri held a funeral during the Armageddon Game (a very fast paced event where multiple plotlines were told at the same time), there was a line were she said Ch'rell took both her mother and people. It would be surprising to learn that Ch'rell spared any Triceration.

Possibly, but she brought this upon herself, she made a deal with Dragon, and even The Traveller/Dragon has warned her that the price would make her regret it. I just hope she won't get away with it this time.

By the way, she can easily defeat Gang of Four by herself, but the turtles were defeated by these guys, so she actually has no reason to feel threatened because she is stronger than the turtles.

Yes but no : she defeated them at their worst when they didn't use their gear, and she saw them as weaker than Michelangelo...
The Null Turtles defeated the Turtles when they used their true skills.

Anyway, I wonder what'll happen to Karai in the TMNT vs NYC arc, Jason Aaron said we'll figure what she's been up to in issue 12

Yeah, this was dumb. Also, did those eggs he ended up with at the end of that issue ever come into play again?

I don't think they did. Baxter has run his course in IDW but they seem scared to kill him off, as seen by him surviving the attack in that...Chinese writer run so far. And they clearly don't want to turn him into a cyborg or fly at this point so he's just kinda there now.

All those orphans Mike protected from Karai and Rat King are apparently still in Dimension X all this time and have been forgotten. Why did they never bring them back to Earth? So a bunch of human kids are stranded there when Harold and his wife returned to Earth.

Weirdly enough this is probably the biggest forgotten plot thread in IDW.

Carmen was quickly forgotten after Campbell's run ended, but honestly, this character did seem superfluous.

Weren’t they in Armageddon game? Or at least mentioned? They probably have lives on Neutrino by now.

What lives do they have waiting for them in New York anyway?

Not to mention that Neutrino have a better quality of life, and the turtles are also their benefactors. They might ultimately prefer to stay in outer space and live a new life rather than return to Earth.

I don't think they were mentioned in that arc, but that was a few years ago for me. If you read it more recently maybe they were mentioned? I don't remember. Still they never came back to Earth.

Just remembered that there were more Slithery eggs and mentally controlled younger eels in #118. They attacked April and that’s what finally ended her working for Stockman and got her quarantined in Mutant Town.

He was selling them to Null and that’s the last we see of them.

A major plot point of the Fugitoid micro was Krang wanting to get ahold of the SAL robot to replicate the technology for his own robot army. This was back in the days when they were still hinting that Krang and Shredder would end up joining forces, so it seemed like this would be the origin of the robot Foot Soldiers. But it was completely dropped.

Mandela effect at works here ^^
Krang never mentionned a robot army and only needed Fugitoid for the Technodrome. I reread the Fugitoid micro so maybe you're refering to something else.

If Shredder takes control of the Dog Star clan, he can have his robot ninjas though. Maybe they'll introduce IDW's Chrome Dome this way.

By the way, where are Raph's dinosaur now? Even Mutant Nation comic don't explain how Raph lost his pet and went to jail.

I feel like a killjoy when I contradict people but we saw Raph entrust Peperroni to in Mutant Nation.

Maybe some of Mutant Nation's plotlines will join this thread in the coming years though lol.

I reread it, my mistake, but we still don't know why Raph was imprisoned.

You’re right, I misremembered. And yes, I think that’s the direction the Dog Star plot is heading.

It still bothers me those human orphan kids Michelangelo befriended just went to planet Neutrino when Karai was trying to get them to join the Foot, and then they just...stayed there? When Harold and his wife was with them I thought there would be some plot point there that they were the only humans on Neutrino, but then Harold and his wife return to Earth. Then those human kids just stay there...and we never heard from them again. Like it wouldn't bug me so much if they got a mention, or Michelangelo wondered how they were doing. They've just never been brought up again after issue 100.

True all we know is that Raph got himself in a bunch of fights and made a deal with a warden at some point.

Now that I think about it, its worse for the other turtles :
- Leonardo gave up on the Splinter Clan and went on a depression/spiritual exploration at some point for unknown reasons, after doing some fighting with an anti-mutant group.
- Donatello broke his gauntlet in Feudal Japan and somehow managed to come back through Northampton's portal while abandoning the Warp Turtles.
- Michelangelo traveled to Japan and became a celebrity (For this part I don't think we need to see it though)

They didn't explain about the fate of Old Raph from Annual 2023, and who are these Foot ninjas? Why they attack him?