TMNT #130 discussion

[superstaff]

Originally Posted by Bahamut810

I guess to be fair...he was in the Netflix series that bombed harder then Big Man over hiroshima.

Okay, but that's irrelevant to what I was saying. I'm solely talking about anime Gren.

[ProphetofGanja]

All in all, sooo much of the Mutant Town story arc is ultimately skippable in the IDW TMNT canon. Like so much.

[AquaParade]

I still think that when Mr. Waltz left, they should have let Campbell have their fun in Mutant Town, with Jennika, while sending the turtles back to Feudal Japan for a few years, via time travel. I think there is potential for interesting stories there and it'd be somewhat fresh.

Could have probably gotten guys like Sontolouco and Burnham for the Japan series, and had the best of both worlds, in a sense.

I have to wonder if that would have opened people up to Jennika a little more, seeing as they wouldn't feel like she is taking as much away from the other turtles. I don't have a big problem with the character, but it doesn't feel "organic" to me. I don't understand why she has to be a turtle to be a part of the Hamato clan, aside from just the novelty of having a girl turtle.

Although, it is a fun visual novelty to have five-tmnt posing on covers and such. The yellow bandana looks cool too. Idk, I'm sort of mixed on the concept overall.

[Zog The Magnificent]

That's been one of this run's main problems. Not all of the ideas and concepts that Campbell came up with were bad ones. There are some really good ideas in there that, in the hands of a capable writer, say, oh, Tom Waltz, could have turned out great!

But instead, Campbell focused consistently on the least interesting parts of the initial premise, with more focus given to OCs, politics, and woke allegories, all while sidelining the actual main characters and not advancing the plot in any meaningful way for the longest time.

Mutant Town, at least in the context of this iteration of TMNT, was a great idea that made sense. But it was completely wasted and turned into a 30 issues and counting of meaningless characters and badly written melodrama.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

I still think that when Mr. Waltz left, they should have let Campbell have their fun in Mutant Town, with Jennika, while sending the turtles back to Feudal Japan for a few years, via time travel. I think there is potential for interesting stories there and it'd be somewhat fresh.

Could have probably gotten guys like Sontolouco and Burnham for the Japan series, and had the best of both worlds, in a sense.

I have to wonder if that would have opened people up to Jennika a little more, seeing as they wouldn't feel like she is taking as much away from the other turtles. I don't have a big problem with the character, but it doesn't feel "organic" to me. I don't understand why she has to be a turtle to be a part of the Hamato clan, aside from just the novelty of having a girl turtle.

Although, it is a fun visual novelty to have five-tmnt posing on covers and such. The yellow bandana looks cool too. Idk, I'm sort of mixed on the concept overall.

Nah, Mutant Town should have been a mini-series after one arc. One arc was enough of a turn off and the readership response should have resulted in a course correction that resulted into any leftover story that Campbell had to be told in a mini-series like what happened with Tom King's run in the third volume of Batman. There are creators aside from Campbell who had previous experience with IDW's take on Ninja Turtles, who readers would have likely taken better to. I for one would have probably stayed on.

[CyberCubed]

The thing is even when we move onto the next arc, it's not like Mutant Town or its characters are ever going away. Most of these characters will likely be in the Armaggedon games arc, or beyond, so we're basically stuck with them.

What would you do with Lita and the 3 Weasel kids? Sheena? Mona Lisa? Carmen? The various student mutants? etc? I can't see them ever being written out entirely because that's not how IDW operates, they always keep side characters around.

And now we have Venus and Jennika, two female Turtles, that will likely be here for the entire rest of the series.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The thing is even when we move onto the next arc, it's not like Mutant Town or its characters are ever going away. Most of these characters will likely be in the Armaggedon games arc, or beyond, so we're basically stuck with them.

What would you do with Lita and the 3 Weasel kids? Sheena? Mona Lisa? Carmen? The various student mutants? etc? I can't see them ever being written out entirely because that's not how IDW operates, they always keep side characters around.

And now we have Venus and Jennika, two female Turtles, that will likely be here for the entire rest of the series.

Demutated by Baxter Stockman taking the credit publicly. They move on and we get better stories without them. If any of them needs to die for drama so be it. Treating Groundchuck and Dirtbag established characters like fodder they may as well.

[neatoman]

I'm wondering if the frogs getting out of Mutant Town is primarily meant to do two things:

1. Keep them out of the plot until someone feels like using them.
2. To prevent them from getting cured when the mass de-mutation wave happens.

Anyone else getting that feeling?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The thing is even when we move onto the next arc, it's not like Mutant Town or its characters are ever going away. Most of these characters will likely be in the Armaggedon games arc, or beyond, so we're basically stuck with them.

What would you do with Lita and the 3 Weasel kids? Sheena? Mona Lisa? Carmen? The various student mutants? etc? I can't see them ever being written out entirely because that's not how IDW operates, they always keep side characters around.

Archie found a solution for getting rid of all of the Mutanimals. Maybe you guys can hope for the same?

[mrmaczaps]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Archie found a solution for getting rid of all of the Mutanimals. Maybe you guys can hope for the same?

Perfect solution for Mutant Town.

[Zog The Magnificent]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Archie found a solution for getting rid of all of the Mutanimals. Maybe you guys can hope for the same?

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

Perfect solution for Mutant Town.

We could have Armageddon Game start with a peaceful afternoon, showing various shots of the city and the various characters we've picked up over the arc. And then, BOOM! The arc kicks off with bombs all over the city from Rat King or some sort of orbital bombardment from Null. The only character still alive are the main characters, one or two frogs, maybe two or three random side characters, and maybe the weasels. Then the surviors go off with Jennika or Venus to a safe house or something, and the main characers are all that's left to deal with the problem. Put the others with the kids in Dimension X

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

We could have Armageddon Game start with a peaceful afternoon, showing various shots of the city and the various characters we've picked up over the arc. And then, BOOM! The arc kicks off with bombs all over the city from Rat King or some sort of orbital bombardment from Null. The only character still alive are the main characters, one or two frogs, maybe two or three random side characters, and maybe the weasels. Then the surviors go off with Jennika or Venus to a safe house or something, and the main characers are all that's left to deal with the problem. Put the others with the kids in Dimension X

I already alluded to this. Make it kind of like Coast City. 7 million were slaughtered BUT NO ACTUAL CHARACTERS died. Hal's family, Carol, and Tom were not in town nor any reoccurring villains. Same here. Jennika can be cured of her unique transformation and just before Honeycutt can administer the regular doses the portal goes awry and then the waiting population is atomized. Huge dramatic potential to draw from and no actual character of any true substance dies. It's an all around win except for Campbell and Tiger Claw. City at War title is used repeatedly whether directly drawing from the original story so why not but why not call it 'Megadeath'.

[Zog The Magnificent]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I already alluded to this. Make it kind of like Coast City. 7 million were slaughtered BUT NO ACTUAL CHARACTERS died. Hal's family, Carol, and Tom were not in town nor any reoccurring villains. Same here. Jennika can be cured of her unique transformation and just before Honeycutt can administer the regular doses the portal goes awry and then the waiting population is atomized. Huge dramatic potential to draw from and no actual character of any true substance dies. It's an all around win except for Campbell and Tiger Claw. City at War title is used repeatedly whether directly drawing from the original story so why not but why not call it 'Megadeath'.

Drats, there I go getting my hopes up.

Of course, while we the readers wouldn't care and would actually rejoice if 90% of the current supporting cast were slaughtered, the main characters themselves care about the characters, which might make it weird when the single most traumatic thing to happen to them since their own deaths and Splinter's death was just never talked about. It would almost cheapen them as characters, which means that best case scenario, we'd still have to deal with 10 issues or so of angsting about it.

[MikeandRaph87]

I was being nice and letting Jennika live demutated. Any way to put Mutant Town behind us. Whether ot be by Megadeath or a cure. Donatello cured the Underground mutants in the 2003 cartoon and Agent Bishop's accidental mutant virus so a catch all cure is not unreasonable. I also wager that a majority of fans who read and still read it don't like the plotline. When plotlines don't work change direction. As dumb as DC and Marvel can be at times they atleast acknowledge that at times. I vote for the Megadeath idea. Terracide carried on the reproecussions and justice was administered. Same can happen here. A competent writer can make it hold weight and not have the Turtles mope around for issues on end afterward.

[mrmaczaps]

What about the guys just "wake up" from a Rat King induced nightmare that takes us back to issue 93 or 94 and everything for the last 34 to 36 issues never happened... boom, case closed. Then tell great stories.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by mrmaczaps

What about the guys just "wake up" from a Rat King induced nightmare that takes us back to issue 93 or 94 and everything for the last 34 to 36 issues never happened... boom, case closed. Then tell great stories.

That could work as the opening of the FINAL issue and the Turtles contend with The Dragon with an actual fight and all plot points resolved in 39 pages out of 40 of content.


If we have the same creative team then a relaunch will not work. New creative team afterwards.

[Sumac]

I don't find value in Mutant Town. Even, if IDW heavily leans into "a lot of mutants around" like FW series, it is much more prominent and basically cheapens concept of Turtles being unique.

[Andrew NDB]

Is "Burnow Island" still a thing? Why not just relocate Mutant Town there?

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Is "Burnow Island" still a thing? Why not just relocate Mutant Town there?

The Triceraton and Utrom populations are sharing it and it's been terraformed so it would be unhabitual to the human turned mutants.

[Zog The Magnificent]

I'm telling you, just boot them all to Dimension X and then forget about them, like they did with all the orphans. And throw Jennika in there while you're at it. She can the their new manager or whatever, and then we never have to see any of them ever again.