TMNT Universe #1 Preview & Discussion

[myconius]

Spoiler:

the person (that we only see the close-up of their eyes) giving the order to the bowmen to fire looks a bit like Karai

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Okay, not surprised and yet surprised.

Spoiler:

Not surprised to hear it's a dream sequence, in fact, a bit disappointed. But it easily explains the four-armed ninja, and I was wondering if they'd really do a "dream sequence." It's pretty worn out.

BUT... Leo dealing more with his brainwashing? That could make it okay. I'm much more interested and curious now...

[Mormegil]

I loved this first issue, but it's the really good issues that make me want to trade wait. I keep buying the issues just to keep the numbers up.

[ToTheNines]

Great issue, definitely a dire situation. Raph is freaking out!

I really liked the new mutant. Love her pragmatism and sense of humor. Couceiro was pretty great, I think he's the most Duncan-esque artist we've had yet.

The backup looked great, and I loved seeing Leo have some fun. But it was a little too verbose... maybe shoulda just let that beautiful Sienkiewicz art do the talking.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I have to ask in the scene where Zodi kills all the soldiers and there's blood everywhere after she impales everyone, was that in the original script and did you wonder if Nick/Viacom would approve of it? Seemed like a very violent scene for the IDW comic, a lot more than other scenes recently.

Perhaps you should dust off your back issues. Donnie's shell, Shredder's head, Viktor's hand, Mikey and Hun beating the hell out of each other, Splinter's leg, Takeshi Tatsuo's foot, The Neutrino Royalty beating, (I could go on).

This series is frequently all kinds of explicitly violent. Really don't understand where you're coming from.

[myconius]

Originally Posted by Mormegil

I loved this first issue, but it's the really good issues that make me want to trade wait. I keep buying the issues just to keep the numbers up.

yeah, for that reason alone i'll never stop buying the single issues.
there was a mini-series my brother was buying with art by Glen Fabry that he also had the trade on pre-order.
for what ever reason (guessing low sales?) thew trade was cancelled.
one story he was reading (No place like Home by Image) didn't even conclude it's first story arc.

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

... Perhaps you should dust off your back issues. Donnie's shell, Shredder's head, Viktor's hand, Mikey and Hun beating the hell out of each other, Splinter's leg, Takeshi Tatsuo's foot, The Neutrino Royalty beating, (I could go on).

This series is frequently all kinds of explicitly violent. Really don't understand where you're coming from.

yeah, even since the very beginning!!
issue #5 especially. it had Tang Shen's Death, Hamato Yoshi go all berserk terminator of her assassin's.
then later on in the same issue Hamato and son's executions.

Spoiler:

ironic how Saki decapitates Yoshi in #05
the Yoshi ends up decapitating Saki in #50

[ToTheNines]

@mycoinus also great examples. Even before that, the Jones family domestic violence was pretty grim, Splinter performed a pretty messy ocular surgery on Hob AND a ninja in the same issue, then Hob getting 3 shuriken to the arm was followed by a pretty ugly brawl with Raph, plenty of blood.

So yeah, outside of the turtles not being allowed to plainly kill, IDW really doesn't pull any punches.

[Utrommaniac]

They actually showed Shredder's decapitation as well! It was probably best that they didn't show the children being killed; that really would not have flown.

To add more

• The royal "Holy F***!!!" of where Krang got his suit...and the exact nature of how he got it. I'm surprised he doesn't reference that as a threat. "I killed a man with a pointed stick when I was a teenager, don't think I won't do the same to you now!"
  
• Then personally shoving people who would not join him into a furnace like he was King Nebuchadnezzar.
  At least I guess that's what it was.
  
• And THEN somehow managing to kill a Stone Soldier out of spite with his bare tentacles...and drawing blood...???
  (I'm so glad Mr. Curnow is calling bull on that as much as I am.)
  
• The carnage of it isn't shown, but you all know that Shredder setting fire to Alopex's home forest would have made some ugly deaths.
  
• Shredder publicly executing the...French rival group. They were so low-impact that's all I remember about them.
  
• Leatherhead's carnage on Burnow. And worse, that they just left it while letting out the Utroms. You just don't do that, for so many reasons. I don't know how Churk and Yoom didn't see it, since it was right across from their room.
  
• The carnage on Neutrino and Utrominion respectively.

I haven't read Infestation, but I'm sure that's an ugly piece of work to some extent.
At least every collected book has some amount of massive bloodshed, and Zodi's in TCRI is no exception.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

It's like any good PG-13 movie. It clearly communicates the violence, using blood as able and gore sparingly, but pulls very few punches.

And I almost always prefer a PG-13 story to an R-story. I think it takes more skill to communicate violence without gore than just go "squibs and splatters" everywhere.

If only people would stop freaking out over the "F-bomb"... that I do feel the lack of in PG-13 movies. Wolverine gets his one "go f yourself" joke and that's it.

[Utrommaniac]

And let's face it, there are G-rated movies that could give IDW TMNT a run for its money

[myconius]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

@mycoinus also great examples. Even before that, the Jones family domestic violence was pretty grim, Splinter performed a pretty messy ocular surgery on Hob AND a ninja in the same issue, then Hob getting 3 shuriken to the arm was followed by a pretty ugly brawl with Raph, plenty of blood.

So yeah, outside of the turtles not being allowed to plainly kill, IDW really doesn't pull any punches.

thank you. yeah, i forgot about that Splinter/Hob 'Eyeball' Chomp!!
not to mention before they were mutated, Hob was trying to eat Raphael.

this is no lie, my all time favorite comic i buy! and to think i almost passed on it cuz at the time i was already overloaded with titles in my pull-list. most of which were either dropped or got cancelled ....or BOTH.

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

It's like any good PG-13 movie. It clearly communicates the violence, using blood as able and gore sparingly, but pulls very few punches.

And I almost always prefer a PG-13 story to an R-story. I think it takes more skill to communicate violence without gore than just go "squibs and splatters" everywhere.

If only people would stop freaking out over the "F-bomb"... that I do feel the lack of in PG-13 movies. Wolverine gets his one "go f yourself" joke and that's it.

that Wolverine line was my favorite part of the movie!

if it's done right, an R-rated movie can be a masterpiece.
the original Psycho is among my favorites, though at the time it was rated 'Mature Audiences'.

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

And let's face it, there are G-rated movies that could give IDW TMNT a run for its money
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...rship_down.jpg

Watership Down was rated 'G'???
terrific movie BTW!!

[DK2]

Don't really understand why this is $4.99 cover price. Page wise its the same as a regular IDW comic length isn't it? I counted a 20 pg story and then the 4 page extra short story. How is that to be priced more than the $3.99 issues at all? That just irks me off. Really IDW? Charge a whole dollar for what? Another 4 pages? Comics already are expensive as it is and this just seems like IDW's going "we have a 2nd TMNT title, lets charge more". Couldn't bother to justify that whole dollar and since I'm in Canada every comic store charges the cover price and then tallies the exchange rate. Thats way over almost $6.50 CAN.

[ToTheNines]

Only #1 is an extra buck. Rest of the series will be $3.99.

[funatic]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Only #1 is an extra buck. Rest of the series will be $3.99.

Actually in the Ask the Editor thread Bobby said it would remain at $5 as long as they continue to include backup stories.

[ToTheNines]

Oh, ok. I was just confused because the solicits for 2-4 all say $3.99. Looks like all covers for #2 are showing the correct price point. Whatever, it's worth it to me.

[Sabacooza]

I wonder if Universe will continue to have the cardstock covers. I like that it makes the book feel more high end.

[RaphaelsIsolation]

So I snagged this on a discount at a local comic shop for 4.00, I was surprised to see it cost 5.

Anyways, the cover I got was the SUB cover. And I think it looks fairly familiar to me? It was the Eastman/Laird cover. That isn't a new cover they've done right? I don't think so.

I did like the comic, I'll have to re-read it again tonight to get a better grab of it, but I wasn't crazy about it. The new mutant is cool I guess, and does have some cynic personality which was cool. There's good action, and all that and I did like the Baxter snapping at April bit too.

I guess I was expecting a more bright setting or something with TMNT in this one. Like a Archie meets Tales thing, but brighter colors and less darkness in overall texture/color.

Like I said, it was a good #1, and I do hope that they keep the Universe stuff to 2-4 issues and switch it out to something else.

The backup story has been getting killed here... I liked it. I thought it was cool to see Leo a bit cocky. It was a little OOC for him though.

A backup story is just a small side story that has 0 ties to the main story in which it is featured in right guys?

I'd give it a B+ I think. They did well.

[myconius]

Originally Posted by RaphaelsIsolation

The backup story has been getting killed here... I liked it. I thought it was cool to see Leo a bit cocky. It was a little OOC for him though.

i really enjoyed the back-up story.

[Powder]

Originally Posted by RaphaelsIsolation

I guess I was expecting a more bright setting or something with TMNT in this one. Like a Archie meets Tales thing, but brighter colors and less darkness in overall texture/color.

The backup story has been getting killed here... I liked it. I thought it was cool to see Leo a bit cocky. It was a little OOC for him though.

A backup story is just a small side story that has 0 ties to the main story in which it is featured in right guys?

It's a companion to the ongoing, so it has to be stylistically consistent with it. The stories & settings will be all over the place, I imagine, but it seems IDW's TMNT comics will always have dramatic leanings, so I wouldn't bank on too much in the way of "fun" or cheery palettes beyond the extent of previous works. I could be wrong, but if they're all to be arcs where a threat is posed, it will likely remain as is. But this would indeed be a great vehicle in which to flex the slice of life side of things that IDW has immensely underused! A multi-part road trip or bonding with nature experience, something like that would be awesome & align with your visual expectations (which could make for a nice change of pace so long as it's not accompanied by a goofier tone). There's room for occasional pleasantries, I think, especially if you jump around the timeline.

I guess it could be seen as a little OOC for this version of Leonardo, probably because Kevin's turtles always read like they're from Mirage. Wouldn't bat an eyelash at such a display in an older comic, it could've come right out of Shellshock. But maybe he's just feeling more confident with Shredder out of the way. Yes, that is what a back-up is. It isn't usually related to the rest of the story itself, but is often is tied to the overall continuity of its series.

[myconius]

Originally Posted by Powder

I guess it could be seen as a little OOC for this version of Leonardo, probably because Kevin's turtles always read like they're from Mirage. Wouldn't bat an eyelash at such a display in an older comic, it could've come right out of Shellshock.

i definitely agree that the Leo back-up story felt very much like some of the writing from Mirage. probably why i enjoyed it so much?
many forget the sass Leo displayed in 'Don't Judge a Book' when he was fighting the robbers dressed as a Granny.

many people just assume that would be out of character for him, but reading enough stories you get to see that is a side to his character. it's just rarely seen.
in Mirage, Leo DID secretly sign Raphael up for the Barry Manilow Fan Club that one time.

one of the problems that i've felt with the IDW Tmnt is that we've had the Micro-series for each Character, but most stories don't really focus on any down-time. there's never really a break from all the conflict (unless it's the occasional stop at Rupert's Pizzeria)

at least now that we finally have a new comic title to help expand the story, the Turtles aren't feeling so much like guest stars in their own series to me anymore.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by myconius

one of the problems that i've felt with the IDW Tmnt is that we've had the Micro-series for each Character, but most stories don't really focus on any down-time. there's never really a break from all the conflict (unless it's the occasional stop at Rupert's Pizzeria)

I'd love to see issues where the Turtles just skateboard down in the sewers or go surfing.