Mirage Vol. 4 #15 Discussion (Spoilers)

[ToTheNines]

Out tomorrow. Another nice B cover, this time from Mike Henderson:

[ToTheNines]

Preview: https://comiclist.info/2026/11/03/te...-journeys.html

Hmm, I'm still waiting for Volume 4 to get bad! Another interesting one here.

- High Tide Takeout is very good, can confirm.

- The Raph stuff was all very good. Did he kill Raptarr?

- The Don stuff is still interesting, I do remember his arc being my least favorite but it hasn't worn out its welcome yet.

- Leo's fight with the Virtuous was really really good, this remains my favorite arc out of all of them

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Out tomorrow. Another nice B cover, this time from Mike Henderson:

https://tmnt-ninjaturtles.com/assets...r-B-scaled.jpg

Very fitting for a "Godzilla Day" reveal!

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Preview: https://comiclist.info/2026/11/03/te...-journeys.html

Hmm, I'm still waiting for Volume 4 to get bad! Another interesting one here.

- High Tide Takeout is very good, can confirm.

- The Raph stuff was all very good. Did he kill Raptarr?

- The Don stuff is still interesting, I do remember his arc being my least favorite but it hasn't worn out its welcome yet.

- Leo's fight with the Virtuous was really really good, this remains my favorite arc out of all of them

I kinda wonder how much of the negative reception of this series was due to genuinely bad moves and how much of it was due to the slow schedule leading to disappointment? The release schedule was already twice as slow as most other books at the start and I know eventually there was a two year gap between issues before the Viacom buyout.

[CyberCubed]

I think the problem is taken in a bubble I like the stories going on back here, but knowing there's not really much payoff to any of these plot threads by the time Vol. 4 stopped puts a damper on things. Even stuff like Gamera Raph which had a conclusion...just kinda fizzles out by the end. He just demutates back to normal for no reason at all. The whole stuff with the vampires goes nowhere, they kept calling them "phony vampires" but that never made any sense either, lol.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I kinda wonder how much of the negative reception of this series was due to genuinely bad moves and how much of it was due to the slow schedule leading to disappointment? The release schedule was already twice as slow as most other books at the start and I know eventually there was a two year gap between issues before the Viacom buyout.

Yeah, it's a slower paced story for sure. Getting one issue every two months was probably tough. Then for everything being left unresolved certainly left a bad taste in many folks' mouths.

But at this point in TMNT history, it's hard to not look back fondly at anything from the Mirage era.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I think the problem is taken in a bubble I like the stories going on back here, but knowing there's not really much payoff to any of these plot threads by the time Vol. 4 stopped puts a damper on things. Even stuff like Gamera Raph which had a conclusion...just kinda fizzles out by the end. He just demutates back to normal for no reason at all. The whole stuff with the vampires goes nowhere, they kept calling them "phony vampires" but that never made any sense either, lol.

To be fair, the story still wasn't over. It's not like Raph rode off into the sunset after that and his story was over. Maybe he would have retained the ability to switch back and forth at will? Maybe the phony vamps were going to come back into play?

[Andrew NDB]

I don't believe Peter Laird actually ever put much/any thought into A Conclusion™. I think the first time thoughts like that even popped into his head was when the Viacom deal happened and years were flying by after 2009 and it sort of sunk in that, "Ehh... I haven't done anything yet... what would it take to wrap it up, maybe?" And he began to sort of, kind of ponder that. But not enough to actually do anything about it, of course. And it wouldn't surprise me if he completely lost his train of thought over all these years and maybe never wrote anything down.

I think as far as he was concerned Vol. 4, like Vol. 2 was before it until it was cut short, was just his personal TMNT sandbox. That he could dip in and out of as he saw fit, confined to no traditional "Story Arc" structures or anything like that.

[ToTheNines]

Small error, but they put the cover for #3 instead of #16 in the “next month” preview after the final page.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I don't believe Peter Laird actually ever put much/any thought into A Conclusion™. I think the first time thoughts like that even popped into his head was when the Viacom deal happened and years were flying by after 2009 and it sort of sunk in that, "Ehh... I haven't done anything yet... what would it take to wrap it up, maybe?" And he began to sort of, kind of ponder that. But not enough to actually do anything about it, of course. And it wouldn't surprise me if he completely lost his train of thought over all these years and maybe never wrote anything down.

I think as far as he was concerned Vol. 4, like Vol. 2 was before it until it was cut short, was just his personal TMNT sandbox. That he could dip in and out of as he saw fit, confined to no traditional "Story Arc" structures or anything like that.

Reminds me of Murphy with Forever War. He forgor

[Roseangelo]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Small error, but they put the cover for #3 instead of #16 in the “next month” preview after the final page.

More proof IDW's quality control is top notch.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Roseangelo

More proof IDW's quality control is top notch.

Yeah, like I said it’s not a big deal but… if you’re the editor of a fuggin reprint series, how much work does that even entail? Hire someone to do the B cover, do a new credits page, and advertise next month’s issue. That’s basically it lmao