TMNT Vol 4 #31!!!
 

It be up, on Peter Laird's blog. Ain't read it yet, thought i'd share first:

http://plairdblog.blogspot.com/2010/...lume-4-31.html

I read it.

I am going to offer my unedited commentary. The loss of this comic book is no great loss in the world of comic books, or in the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I didn't follow much of Vol 4. Picked up a couple issues here and there. The writing is boring, the art is boring, and the characters are boring. Particularly the "April kicks some ass!!!!!!" scene. Gimme a break.

Favorite piece of dialogue: "I'm... dissolvin'!"

I welcome contrasting points of view. Who here really enjoys Volume 4? If so, why? Am I missing something?

*blinks*@the cover.... Robin Hood? Wha??


Buh wha?!@the ending.... wait what?!

I can't believe it!

Oh, awesome. *bookmarks to read later* Thanks for letting us know!

Well, it's nice of Laird to give these away for free, so I can say I appreciate that very much.

As for the issue, well, more of the same generic Vol. 4 complaints blah blah blah art is dull blah blah blah terrible, stilted, unnatural dialogue blah blah blah.

In regards to the storypoints, the ending has my interests piqued:



Mike seemed too comfertable with the Triceratons wasting an innocent farmer who obviously wasn't a soldier. A rather shallow reference to America's napalming of Vietnamese villages, really, and seemed very out of character for Mikey, especially his energetic reation to the promise of a bloody, carnage-filled massacre. Really? Mikey would go all "woo hoo" at the thought of slaughtering people?

I liked the dream sequence, even if it was pretty silly. It was a nice callback to Don and Casey's encounter in "Shades of Grey", if that was the intention.

As for April, well, it was good to see her for the first time since "White Horses". The whole "Harley vs. Ricers" thing would have left me with the feeling that it was more of Laird shoving his trivial opinions on the plot of the book if I knew exactly what his opinions of motorcycles are (outside of the fact that he's an enthusiast). Is he a Harley man or a Kawasaki man? I really don't know.

Either way, the fight was kinda stupid.


Anyway, it was a pleasant surprise to see the issue up today, whether I cared entirely for its contents or not. The ending at least has me intrigued, I'll give it that.

just read it, and i think it's very much the same as the entire vol 4, the story is kind of weak, and i don't mind the artwork. i just wish that there was more of an exiting story line - having said that i am still happy to read it, and hope that one day we will at least see a wrap up of the series. The michaelangelo story is the most interesting in my opinion.

I used to feel this way, but now I find Leonardo's story MUCH more intriguing.

Man you guys complain a lot. It's not the greatest story ever told but I've read comics written way worse than this. The book really only suffers from two things for me. First some of the things the characters say should be in thought bubbles because it looks like they're talking out loud to themselves and unless you're The Maxx you shouldn't be doing that. Second each character is doing something or has something interesting going on and he really only has time to show 2 turtles an issue and one human character. If the releases weren't so far apart this wouldn't be a problem but that isn't the case.

I haven't re-read any of the V4 books. I was waiting for the series to end because I can see it's very much a story meant to be read in rapid succession. Until the final book comes out, if it comes out, I won't judge the series. I've been reading Shadowland and it started off as pretty crappy but it's getting near the end and it's starting to get good. If the ending is worth it then I will have enjoyed reading it the whole way through.

I believe the same applies to the turtles. I'm also intrigued because Donatello is my favorite turtle, Raph second, and they are currently the least interesting. The book is making me intrigued in Mikey and Leo. Mikey especially who is refreshingly mature compared to his TV series counterpart.

This popping up is quite strange to me as it was only last night that I asked myself when it would. Weird!

...But great.

I'm not gonna use spoiler tags so don't read my post if you've not read the "book" yet.
Don't be mad at me, why're ya readin' this thread & not the issue, ya jackal?!

Regarding Donatello's dream sequence, I can't say anything negative knowing that there's a bigger picture to it. Am I fan of Shakespeare and the like? No. However, I've always appreciated what nods to history the mirage guys would put in. They're there because they're timeless & they relate to everyones own struggle in some way. I love a good Shredder cameo, but when he became Casey, it threw me. I'm very interested in seeing what that's all about.

Mikes storyline, as some of you have said, is in fact out of character, but with reason. Think about it, this dude has been the comic relief, the guy who keeps his head up in the worst of times, the subdued one in battle, etc. He's still young, life changes you. He's maturing, even if that means he doesn't see death as such a bad thing, so to speak. One of his best pals got cancer & a timebomb lifespan thanks to being a drawing & her spouse remains a deteriorating drunk. His brothers have been mutated & sized down to an action figure & zapped off to some other dimension. His surrogate father, the one person who raised him & cared for him & taught him all he knew, is dead. When all you've come to know has been changed dramatically, what do you have to lose? Sometimes, your empathy meter goes down a few notches in hard times. Besides, Raph always used to be the hard case, it was bound to rub off on him sometime. Thats just my take on it.

Aprils adventure... What can I say? I somewhat agree with you guys. It's a little cheesey to me, in all honesty. The whole empowerment, April kicks butt thing, its been done & it ought to be done, as in never done again. I guess I understand it, though. It shows that she's more then able to deal with all types of bullsh!t from cancers to bullies & whatnot. Its a sign that she's ready to deal with everything up front, & that means goin' back home.

The ending, well, I'm 70/30 on it. 70% of me says "Holy sh!t! No way! What could this mean?! Is that really him?! Oh f*ck, this will never be finished & I'm dying to know!" etc. 30% of me says "Really? Really now? I think we all told ourselves we didn't see it coming a thousand miles away, but we did. Ya couldn't of just kept him dead & gone? Ya hadda go the generic comic book route & bring him back? Nothin' better up yer sleeve?". Well, at the end of the day, I'm happy to see his face. Nothing would be greater for the turtles then having their father back while all of this other nutso stuff is going on, even if he's merely a spirit or a parallel version or whatever the hell he is.

Now, for your complaints. If ya don't like Jim's art, don't f*cking look at it, ya assholes. Time & time again, thats the response we get. Counterproductive sons of bitches. You want new turtles books, real ones, by the real mirage crew, we get them, you bitch & moan. How dare you! With Diacom & Dick at the wheel, we won't get this kinda stuff. This is the purest form of the turtles that will ever be. & for the record, Pete reads the things we say here, so thanks alot for discouraging him & potentially the rest of the guys. Just 'cause you would rather nothing then something doesn't mean the collective fanbase agrees with you.

Well, to cap this off, I hope to see more. Thanks to Pete for puttin' it up. Much like a few others around here, I wasn't too sure it'd ever show up, especially not this "soon", even though its been about a year since he said he might post it. That's not a complaint, by the way.

You know what he probably reads BEFORE he comes here?

The comments on his blog. If you feel so strongly about encouraging him, go there. I did.

I pieced it together into a more easily readable .PDF. If anyone wants, send me your E-mail address.

Finally!!! :D Thanks Pete!!

Just right click and save-as.

http://www.thegreenlanterncorps.com/tmnt31.pdf

cool issue!!!

I love that PL posted this. I believe #32 was also pretty much finished too, right? I wonder if he'll post that one as well eventually.

As for the story, its pretty much the same.

We can say that's not "our" Splinter, but a different one. It'll be interesting if he's like that Oroku Yoshi Shredder.

I wonder if Mike is "playing along," with the invasion just to find out where the Regenta is. I agree with others that it doesn't seem right for Mike to want an entire race to be killed. Makes me think Mike is pretending to go along with it for the time being.

Don's part was filler, but you can tell it has to do with Casey worried if April will truly be back or not.


Good issue. I'd love to see Vol. 4 reach its conclusion someday.

You know my addy, shoot it over.

That never occured to me but would make alot of sense. & yeah, it's a good issue!

O yes ! thanks !! :D

My thoughts...

It's a little meandering, and it seems to be raising more questions than it's answering, but I actually liked it quite a bit. Also there's a good use of duotoning here, which is always a plus.

I mean, let's do an appraisal here: pretty much all the storylines going on got a bit of a nudge in the issue (except the whole thing with Casey screwing Karai... I want to hear more about that)... and there was a fight scene. Of course, it wasn't entirely a very necessary fight scene, but it counts, doesn't it?

Laird seems to be more writing around April than actually writing her, but it was nice seeing her again nonetheless.

There's always a lot of filler scenes in Volume 4.

The previous issue had Casey tangling with a mechanical shark that Karai trains with for no reason, this issue had an April fight with some guys for no real reason etc.

I wouldn't mind those filler scenes so much if they didn't take up so much time in the book, delaying the main story.

There's also so much exposition going on with Mike's story, its like every issue another small detail has to be explained over the course of 8 pages.