TMNT #84 Preview and Discussion
 

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...It's gonna be Stockman saving the day in the end here, isn't it?

Gotta say though, I wasn't expecting Rat King to turn the kids against the turtles but man...his "lol chaos time" scthick is wearing thin.

And April....what are you doing, girl? It's looking like she's pulling some big ol' strings on Stockman.

Well, I feel like I should have predicted this particular turn with the kids... oh well.

Yes, April is the soon to be the real mayor of New York City and Baxter just the face.

So when do we get mousers vs Rat King?

Probably just against rats, and probably just a page or two or a few panels. This is the last issue of this arc after all.

That shows how monsters turtles and Splinters are! Taking orphans and training them to become murderers! I never did anything like that! All of my human foot ninajs are adults men and women who decided to join me and came to me train them.

Is Splinter gonna pull some Big Boss/Fagin/Movie 1 Shredder crap now?

I guess a bunch of kids committing suicide would be a bit too dark for IDW.

Kinda reminds me of Dark Leo not killing anyone. Just feels weird to show a vision of it happening, and then stop it from happening. Like having the horror without actually having it. I dunno.

I guess if you give me a situation that is ripe with grim horror, such as Rat King leading people to their deaths or Leo being turned against his family and encouraged to kill, but then you ultimately avoid that payoff, it looks like Nick holding IDW to a certain kid-friendly standard. Even though, in this case, it can be read as "hey, we PREVENTED that horrible atrocity! Yay team!"

But if Rat King actually isn't given a chance to follow through, he just feels a bit nerfed to me... although the vision was of adults, and then the Turtles find him with kids... so maybe Rat King was on Round 2?

Anyway... all that aside, bestial astral plane Rat King looked pretty ferocious!

Liked this issue a lot more than I was predicting due to all the stuff that happened. Leo fighting Rat King on the Astral plane reminded me of the Image series, and I loved Rat King transforming and Leo using some slight mystic powers. It was also their first real time fighting Rat King, at least as far as I remember, so it's nice to see Round 1 finally go by.

Baxter running for Mayor was expected but it's nice to see his character go down this route. The Flyborgs serve as a reminder how Baxter could have gone (either mutant fly or cyborg), so this Baxter looks like he may have the best ending of them all.

Lastly this is how I prefer Splinter and the Turtles interactions. Whereas Splinter is still the leader of the Foot, he and the Turtles still have cordial meetings and the Turtles can still come to their father for help. Makes what's Splinter's doing a lot more realistic than how cold he seemed in some previous issues.

Given the choice between Casey and Jennika getting together and Jennika dying in childbirth...or Casey plucking up one of the orphan kids and screaming to the sky "I am your father now!", I'd prefer the latter one.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this issue. After being built up for the last couple of issues, the Rat King lived up to it and really got to shine in this issue, at least in my mind. Stockman as mayor would be cool to see; he'd be like the Lex Luthor of TMNT. I am very much looking forward to the Pantheon arc going forward, though I feel the road to #100 will most likely focus on the Foot Clan subplot, rather than the Pantheon. I feel like once they're dealt with, the comic will be over. As for the kids going to the Foot Clan, I feel like they're setting up a partial adaptation of the plot from the 1st TMNT movie.

After a couple of rereads, I enjoyed this issue more than I was prepared to and initially thought I would. RK worked great, particularly when his body started fighting autonomously and very zombie-like indeed, his visage on the astral plane, and the way he just fell back off the bridge as the flyborgs' lasers went through him. Made him look as eery and ethereal as he should be, especially in his IDW incarnation. I don't necessarily agree that the Pantheon will outlast the Foot plot, they could very well be dealt with simultaneously in the climactic run up to #100. At this point, it's just RK and/or Kitsune who oppose the Turtles anyway. Shredder is very much intertwined with Kitsune and her plans to restore the Dragon Warrior, so... We'll see.

Of course, one of the big talking points of the issue is the ending. I have a feeling those kids are a major part of what ends up causing further conflicts between Mikey and Splinter in the Michelangelo micro.

And the Mayor Stockman thing is indeed genius! Too bad it probably won't pay off for real until after #100, though.

Repetitive as this gets... Great issue!

My guess is the Patheon plot won't end but come to a climax, with Kitsune/Rat King probably being defeated or "banished" in some form but Shredder returning, the rest of the Patheon will just be around as usual since they don't seem to cause much trouble.

Bishop will likely still be around post issue 100 and probably stay as an adversary or uneasy ally for the rest of the series. Only plot I see ending soon is the Triceraton/Utrom stuff. It makes sense to wrap up something since everything else like Ch'rell, Null, Leatherhead will continue or hasn't even really started yet.

Yep, pretty much. They're immortal so the most the Turtles can hope is to thwart/contain them for some time. But aside from those two outright villains, I expect the rest of them to just fade into the background. Might be cool to get a more in-depth look at Jagwar and Gothano eventually, but that's about it.

I don't think the Foot Clan subplot will conclude with #100, as Karai still has to come back into the game. I feel like it's just going to come to another landmark. As for Shredder, given his redemption at the end of #50, I feel like he's going to discover the truth of Kitsune over the course of his miniseries, and ally with the turtles against the Pantheon going forward. That would be interesting to see. And of course, Ch'rell is still around, and I doubt he'll be done after the next outing at Burnow Island. I agree that the Pantheon won't necessarily be beaten; I feel like it'll be more like Kitsune and Rat King end up in a cosmic prison or something, and the rest of the Pantheon agrees to leave them alone as a reward for helping them stop the Dragon. Oh, and Null's there too.

I could, in theory, agree with everything you said but personally I think Karai and her posse are coming back in the #90's.