tmnt 117 preview and discussion
 

here's a preview of tomorrows issue. http://majorspoilers.com/2021/06/08/...7/#prettyPhoto

love mikey's "star", i would've thought they would have tried to at least clean up jennikas hole.

Hm, is that really it? The big battle of the bands story they've been building up for the last numbers of issues and it's over in 3 pages? Maybe I'm speaking too soon and Bebop/Rocksteady will turn around.

Here's the panels from that preview.

I've been so distracted by the overall state of the comic and the disbelief that a battle of the bands was a focus for 10+ issues that I completely forgot the inherent flaw of the entire thing: A comic book is a print medium. There's no audio or video. Music requires audio, and a performance requires both. There's no way to actually do a battle of the bands justice in a comic book, because there's no way to actually depict music. It's why whenever original songs show up in comics, it's always slightly annoying because I have no idea how it's supposed to sound in my head, and thus I don't know how to "sing" it. At least in a show or a movie, the payoff is that you actually get to see the battle of the bands. You get to hear the music that they've created, and you get camera shots and a dynamic peformance. Here? 3 pages of still images and everyone telling you that the music is fantastic, which of course we can't verify because we have no way of hearing it! And to top it all off, it looks like we're not even going to see the other performance anyways! Not only does it end in the most anticlimactic fashion possible, but if those pages are an indication, it's not even a real "battle of the bands!" And even if it was, the same problem that music in comics runs into occurs. If that was the payoff, then this was an even bigger waste of time than before. At least now it's over and the plot may finally be able to get back on track, and we can finally get out of the city ghetto for a bit.

But it's so different and unexpected and subverts expectations!

If you could go back in time and tell your 7-year old self that THIS would be the main plotline in the only ongoing TMNT media to exist in the year 2021 - essentially carrying the flag for the entire brand - they'd never believe you. Young You would think that Older You was a lunatic!

It. Subverts. Expectations.

I mean, just because it's like ordering a pizza only to have the delivery guy show up, slap you in the face with a frozen carp and tell you you're lucky to get anything at all, and that you should be GLAD that what you got wasn't at all like what you asked for or wanted... that doesn't mean it's not "brilliant". :lol:

That's the same line of thinking behind more than half of the crap that comes out these days. Especially the sequel trilogy. I think that one pisses me off the most. It would be nice if people would stop trying to reinvent the wheel or reinflate an already popped tire. Just make good stories!

You guys should have seen the one show that started as a gang war where territories were decided by break dancing and how it became fan-favorite in it’s franchise.

The whole build-up to this was utter crap, what made you think the payoff would be any different?

As praised on Twitter. And nowhere else.

I think the general idea -- or the boon -- of a concert in a comic book is that your mind and own tastes can fill out what is being played as opposed to being "told" or hearing what's being played on the page, which you might not like. Because comics aren't quite like the movies, where you'd have the screenwriter write the story and then you'd have 10 separate guys working out the songs for the big dance number at the end. You certainly wouldn't expect the screenwriter to be coming up with the music.

I wonder if derbys frills puff up automatically if he's agitated or if it's volentary. I'm also wondering what the goth bats story is.

I wonder where are the Ninja Turtles in their own comic.

At the very least it's an easy version of where's waldo/wally.

Eh. 7 year old me might not care since I wasn't into comics then, but I think 15 year old me who was a seasoned comic reader would believe it, and scoff at how comics have gone downhill.

My God, though, this sounds so awful. All that build up for...this? Really?

I know, "like whatever you want" but the pay-off for this is so pointless and meh that I don't understand what the fans of this run are getting out of it.

That's the contextual equivalent of "You wouldn't know her, she's from Canada".

I guess when it comes to the questionable task of communicating music into the comic book medium, Archie Adventures did it about as well as anyone could hope:
http://i.imgur.com/3sAbVWSl.jpg


One would think in today's day and age, the comic might include a QR code that opens up a weblink to play some commissioned jingle.

Oh, man, I think I see where this is going... Kitsune is gonna be offed by RK to further motivate Saki to become the Turtles' mentor in a sort of mirror to Splinter and Tang Shen's backstory, isn't she? Even after everything she's done, the possibility saddens me, seeing the life they've made for themselves.

And not gonna lie, Saki being able to straight-up (pun intended) fly is COOL AS F*CK!

Koya, girl... You couldn't even cut it against Leo every single time. Maybe calm down in front of the Psycho Safari Twins.

Is it me or was there a sixth Turtle with a white bandana in the group shot of the future, in the top left corner?

All in all, quite a decent issue after the whole battle of the bands silliness wrapped up. Let's hopefully try to steer clear of that stuff in the future.

Score one for love and acceptance... or something.


What the heck kind of book is it?

Not the kind that brought us all together as fans, that's for damn sure.

It's funny how the hated book gets all the discussion, despite there being previews for The Last Ronin on twitter every few days.

Far be it for me to regulate what people want to discuss, and I know there's a general truth to there being more discussion around hated things, but I'm still amused. Sue me.

Now that I read it, it's a pretty decent epilogue issue. The whole battle of bands thing fizzled out fast. But I like that Karai has a truce with the Turtles again (make it last this time), and we see more of Saki/Kitsune.