TMNT Urban Legends #26 Preview and Discussion
 

First look on final issue:

Damn, that first page is killer. I'd buy a poster of that and hang it in my office.

Seriously. The colore truly pop on the splash and even the panel looks finely detailed compared to following page.

Uh oh! This is it! Good stuff in this.

Exciting stuff indeed. And, yeah, that first page is pretty damn awesome.
Who'd ever think we'd get here, eh?

All good things and all that

Full preview.

This is gonna be badass, folks. Get ready.

I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit, felt better and less "90s edge" than the previous two (and the rest of the series, but that was to be expected). I really liked

Some beautiful pages but the story didnt do much for me. It's cool they were able to conclude the series, but it still felt like a whole lot of nipping and tucking in order to wrap things up.
The first and last page splashes are visual highlights and I really liked a particular, small panel of all four turtles gearing up in a battle stance together - it just looked cool.

Really cool of IDW to let this team wrap the story up. You can bet I will pre-order a hardcover collection the moment they announce it.

King Komodo's ultimate allegience was a high point of the issue. And the ending of the Warlord Komodo was a pretty great twist!

And for all my ambivalence towards Lady Shredder, seeing Lady Shredder face off with Donatello was pretty great, too!

The last page was a nice ending.

But somehow, even though IDW had one extra issue to wrap things up with, Andrew's original conclusion somehow felt less rushed. Maybe it's just me?

Overall, I liked it. I wonder where the TMNT would go from here? As this is now it's own continuity and not tied into Volume 4? Very strange, to have two valid conclusions to one series. :tgrin:

Maybe I missed something but was it ever explained how Leonardo's hand was growing back and while he still had some tech surely Don would have had to have grown a new shell and spine.

I long assumed that the story line that was hinted in the last few issues of the Image series about the mutagen wearing off hence why Leatherhead got into rages. That they'd seek out Warlord Komodo's sythetic mutagen for a 'booster shot' and it has the side effect of healing all their various injuries. Here the turtles heal because they just do I guess.

Speaking of Leathheard it would have been nice if Dr. X had left the group to go off searching for him. I didn't expect that story line to be resolved but a nod in that direction would have been nice.

While it didn't wrap up the important things in a manner in which I was satisfied with it was certainly enjoyable. Lady Shredder being Amai was an interesting twist and I liked Warlord Komodo's final fate. I also liked the final shot was the same as Andrew's Image conclusion.

In all fairness, my #24 and #25 were FAT issues. With many pages. We basically had the same amount of space, between both. More or less.

Technically Gary and Frank could go into the unknown into some pocket between Vol. 3 and 4 for quite some time and still be "canon safe." That'd be my vote. Let's see #27. I'd try and help if possible (more importantly, if allowed). Sales will tell, I suspect. I really like what was able to happen, personally. I was on board to assist with these to make sure they "work" with Vol. 4, and initially there were some spots where it wouldn't have. But it was a fun and smooth thing. I don't think any suggestion of mine was batted down, not that there was a lot of them. Gary did a great story and dove right into it like it was 20 years ago.

But yes, these were refined to work with Vol. 4... not form some kind of divergent timeline. That's not what's going on.

I was very aware of the acknowledgement to yourself. #27? What's that about?

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

It's kinda of cool to treat it as it's own branch-off universe from Mirage, separate from Volume 4, and just see the guys finally get a bit of a "happy" ending. Sure, I'd love to see them go on being tortured in Mirage volume 4 and beyond, but we all know how screwed they are in the future timelines, so it's sort of nice to have an alternate timeline where things "end" in a sense without everything going to ****. Just my take at this moment in time.

One more thing I'll say about this series: I love the way they visually differentiated the characters in ways that were still recognizable but spoke to their character as well as the trauma they had been through. Like I mentioned before, there is a group shot panel and it looks really cool to see the slight visual distinctions between all the characters.
It's not something every iteration of the franchise nails, and lately it feels like character designers are stretching to find new ways to give the four brothers distinctive looks in ways that arguably go way overboard. I want to give it credit for that.
Although, Donatello's cyborg armor has a pretty ugly design. Could have done better there.

Yeah, when I was reading the issue it felt like some of the series plot threads were kept open-ended enough so that the series could be continued if it was deemed profitable enough.

The last page looked gorgeous in color.

Read it, it was a very enjoyable conclusion and I didn't see the Komodo mutant turning over a new leaf. Seeing Lady Shredder essentially defeating by being sprayed on like bug spray honestly reminded me of how the Turtles would have defeated their enemies in the original cartoon. :lol:

I liked how the Cheng plot was wrapped up too, and Amai is gone for good. I suspect Karai was kept alive to keep continuity with Vol. 4, I assume the original idea was for her to die? If so, I'm glad they didn't kill her off.

Also I have to say the art in this issue and the colors were fantastic. I liked the art in the previous two issues but they went above and beyond with the finale here, every panel was a joy to look at. Also the last page being the same as from Andrew's Image finisher was a pretty nice nod.

Some random thoughts:

- I suppose Leo's hand grew back as a side effect of the mutagen in their body? The Turtles never lost limbs in Mirage, so they probably never knew this could happen to them.

- Now that Don lost all the cyborg armor, does his metal shell heal permanently to his spine?

- I would have liked to see April/Casey in the last page, but it's not a big deal.

- Leatherhead's fate from Image is still left open, but given we know in Mirage what happens to him through Tales and Vol. 4...I guess we know he stays on Earth anyway. Dr. X and Leatherhead were together in one of the Tales issues too, so I guess they do reunited at some point.

- The subplot of the mobsters wanting to get Shadow back was pretty much ignored, but I guess that's not a big deal. Personally I always thought it was kinda dumb one panel of that was thrown into issue 22/23 or whatever it was, the story seemed finished.


I wouldn't mind if we do get an issue 27 or beyond, but if this is it, it's perfectly fine.

Now if only we could finally get a Vol. 4 conclusion at some point...then we can all finally retire!

I'm not sure if all understand this completion. Like IDW and Gary and Frank could have been just done as such. But that isn't what happened. This was a labor of love. And creativity. And yes, the goal was to make this compatible with Vol. 4.

Yes but can this continue passed issue 26?
Do you have any insides that it could happen? Besides the sells?