If you were writing for the IDW series what would you do going forward?

[ChosenOne]

Damn, that's good, Powder! Not the direction I would take per se if given the chance but I'd love the hell out of that book. And as the cherry on top, it would satisfy my craving to see the Turtles explore weird underground settings.

[CyberCubed]

I do kinda wonder what the mutant town arc would have played out as if Tom was still writing it. Based on what he did before, I do think it would be more related to gang violence, with Hob and the other Mutanimals, as well as different mutant groups/factions, all fighting for territory while the Turtles/Alopex/Jennika/good guys all try to keep peace. Basically a "no mans land" type of story arc with each mutant faction trying to gain control

It wouldn't really be about mutant animals trying to come together for a musical band or political issues like Sally running for Mayor (and I'm pretty sure Lita and the weasel kid mutants wouldn't exist, they were very likely a Sophie invention), so it would likely be Jennika coming to terms with being a mutant turtle and her and the others fighting against Hob or other mutant factions.

That's how I assume things would have played out. I do like that we got Rahzar/Tokka out of Sophie's run, but a lot of the other new additions aren't very interesting. Like the Diamond porcupine mutant, the blue poison frog guy, the mutant hogs, Sheena the pig mutant, the weasel kids, and Lita.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I do kinda wonder what the mutant town arc would have played out as if Tom was still writing it. Based on what he did before, I do think it would be more related to gang violence, with Hob and the other Mutanimals, as well as different mutant groups/factions, all fighting for territory while the Turtles/Alopex/Jennika/good guys all try to keep peace. Basically a "no mans land" type of story arc with each mutant faction trying to gain control

It wouldn't really be about mutant animals trying to come together for a musical band or political issues like Sally running for Mayor (and I'm pretty sure Lita and the weasel kid mutants wouldn't exist, they were very likely a Sophie invention), so it would likely be Jennika coming to terms with being a mutant turtle and her and the others fighting against Hob or other mutant factions.

That's how I assume things would have played out. I do like that we got Rahzar/Tokka out of Sophie's run, but a lot of the other new additions aren't very interesting. Like the Diamond porcupine mutant, the blue poison frog guy, the mutant hogs, Sheena the pig mutant, the weasel kids, and Lita.

That's exactly what I expected immediately after #100 and when we got our first hint of Mutant Town. Alas...

I think we would get Tokka and Rahzar eventually anyway, even if they would be quite different from the way Campbell portrayed them.

[Leo656]

Like, it's not even a horrible premise, the stuff the current arc is dealing with. There's story potential there, as Cubed pointed out. It's just that the execution itself is dreadful, and not dealing with any of the potential angles that it could have and should have been exploring the whole time. There's no real logic to why things have played out the way they have, other than "The writer thinks these things are Super Important and wants you to think so as well."

And that's where people get into calling it "propaganda" and whatnot; because it has less to do with an organic resolution of the premise or previous plot points, and more about "Well, this is what the writer cares about, so that other stuff can wait."

And it's like "Well at least it's new and unexpected!" Yeah, it's unexpected because it literally doesn't fit what had previously been set-up and established. That's not the "good" kind of unexpected; that's the "Stink Palm" type of "unexpected".

[MikeandRaph87]

I never imagined Mutant Town being all that important beyond an arc. First and foremost I would have commissioned a micro-series spotlighting each member of The Pantheon with the issue's focus member narrating his or her story allowing for us to see each one's perspective and gain some background on each. While this is unfolding leading to The Armageddon Game I have Baxter Stockman focused on his intentions with Mutant Town as he attempts it as a goodwill endeavor since they were mostly his supporters and look good to the public, while getting resources to rebuild what he lost from Stocktronics. Stockman would be forced to give up the resources to the government after April catches him and he gets credit for finding the retro-mutagen cure.

We would also see Leatherhead-Krang reunite with Chrell. The utroms will realize Krang's ambition and how he has caused much more harm than good and Ma'rell will contact Fugitoid for help as Krang and Chr'ell have scaped to deep space.

[CyberCubed]

Mutant town can also continue to go on in the background as a whole bunch of other main plotlines go on outside of it. Having a section of NY quarantined for mutants to live in is pretty interesting plotline, but you have to do something memorable with it.

The problem is instead of a bunch of mutants freaked out and fighting for survival for food, medicine, shelter and different factions trying to take over...it's basically just a Zootopia furry community where most animals seem to live in peace and accept their lives. Remember all these mutants were previously human beings, you'd think most of them would want to be de-mutated and be freaking out they can't get in touch with their family members.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Like, it's not even a horrible premise, the stuff the current arc is dealing with. There's story potential there, as Cubed pointed out. It's just that the execution itself is dreadful, and not dealing with any of the potential angles that it could have and should have been exploring the whole time. There's no real logic to why things have played out the way they have, other than "The writer thinks these things are Super Important and wants you to think so as well."

And that's where people get into calling it "propaganda" and whatnot; because it has less to do with an organic resolution of the premise or previous plot points, and more about "Well, this is what the writer cares about, so that other stuff can wait."

And it's like "Well at least it's new and unexpected!" Yeah, it's unexpected because it literally doesn't fit what had previously been set-up and established. That's not the "good" kind of unexpected; that's the "Stink Palm" type of "unexpected".

Like, you extend your hand to someone and go, "Put'er there, partner!" but instead of shaking your hand, they punch you in the face.

I don't know that "unexpected" points should be awarded. It's not "groundbreaking" or "important," it's just a dick move.

[miru]

Originally Posted by Powder

I'd make this like an annual sized book to just sorta wrap up Mutant Town & transition into the next phase.

"At least, that's the way I wish it had happened..."

We'd find out that everything past issue 100 was actually Michelangelo's fan-fiction. After the trauma of battling a demigod & losing his father, he took to creative writing as an escape. He made up a quaint little world where from the ashes would come a future in which doe-eyed anthros can tend garden, everyone is really in touch with their feelings, & all the bad guys & authority figures get shamed by Really Cool Alt-Teens In Love. It was merely a fantasy version of the hell wrought upon his world by the events of #100.

In reality, the mutagen outbreak wouldn't have made a bunch of Warped Tour furries, but instead, absolute abominations. Cronenberg stuff. Limbs & features split between man & beast, deformities, madness, loss of function, gruesome death, an absolute horror show. The mutagen was in some way contaminated or whatever, uh-oh. There is no new society, but instead it's like Escape From New York but with quarantine camps, where many of these mutated people are put into drug induced comas, and/or euthanized. The ones who were able to get away, hide, half in fear, of sound mind, the other half, deranged, hostile. Mutants are now hated more than ever. Baxter's in office, but leading the charge against them, at the unknown behest of Leatherkrang. Have Jennika transition from struggling immensely with her mutation, to preferring it, & wrestling with the fact she was ever human after taking in 6 months of their systematic elimination of & cruelty toward mutants. The turtles beg/force their homies to just get the hell out of New York City, early on. April & her family go upstate, Casey goes to MA, becomes a drifter for a while, grieves his father, & eventually hardens into a more Mirage-like version of himself. Angel & Alopex stay behind, insisting they can help, but after Alopex is nearly killed by human resistance, the two flee out of state.

The dragon's arrival & guts actually had a damaging effect on that area as well, it became sort of a self-contained abyss, & created a strange rift with his dimensional plane & our own. Maybe the two are combining as a consequence, & that chunk of the city ends up basically being a hole into some hollow earth type sh*t. Turtles explore for a while & eventually find some kind of convenient otherworldly solution to the mutant crisis in the process of closing the gate, if you will, but they can't seal off the portal without staying behind in this new realm. The fix they found would need to be implemented in a directly confrontational way which would expose them to the military/camps/etc even if they could get out in time. Some turtles could die, others could be left behind. Not good. They'd hope to at least all be together, whatever they do. As a way to try & make things right, the Mutanimals take it on as their last & final mission, & save the people of NY. In the mayhem, they all die, but for Hob, who wishes he did too. At a complete loss, disconnected, he nopes off. Turtles are left behind in the hollow earth type place. From here starts a new arc, one that is TURTLE CENTRIC. Only now, truly isolated, with the distractions of the modern world gone, will they finally begin to face their grief over Splinter. Little do we know, Saki is also here, he took to this place to cleanse his spirit. We won't see him until later, though. Now we loosely adapt Notes From The Underground, but tie it into The Pantheon.

This idea blew my mind. Also, I was thinking about ways to circumvent this arc if there was ever a 2k3-like Mirage adaptation. And I had the idea to adapt the Kraang zombies from Nick mixed with Notes from the Underground, as the mutagen bomb on its own contradicts how Mutagen worked in IDW before.

[TheLabRat]

- The Turtles will never see their parents because they have reached to nirvana. In buddhism, that mean they broken the cycle of reincarnation.

- Just like 20/20 Leo, Leo will devoted to the study of eastern mysticism and astral training. He will become more powerful, but it also bring him a lot of mental pressure, which will eventually one day crush him and even make him blind. He will step down as the leader, and Donnie will be the leader and Mikey is his assistant. But eventually the others will see Mikey's potential and let him take over as leader.

- Aka is dead forever, and the rest of demigods knew it was Kitsune kill her. After committing a series of serious crimes, Kitsune found that her divine power was slowly disappearing, and negative forces such as evil thoughts and resentment began to corrode her, eventually causing her to become a yokai. The other demigods disowned her and she could never return to her family.

- The Dragon/Takeshi Tatsuo didn't died. His soul still wanders on the material plane and seek his revenge. Although Saki's soul escaped him, the other bloodline of Oroku Saki's descendants remained under his control, although some of them were long dead. He chose to possess Karai's father's corpse and took control of the Foot Clan headquarters and most of the Yakuza in Japan. Karai tried to take back leadership, but failed. Toshiro betrayed her because he had always been a follower of Takeshi Tatsuo. Some of her minions are killed by Tatsuo, like Natsu, Bebop and Rocksteady. Only Koya and Bludgeon are still alive, but Koya's talisman was destroyed in the battle so she can no longer fly. Both they and Karai were captured and tortured in various ways before Tatsuo released them and deported from Japan. After experiencing humiliating defeat and betrayal by her mentor, her self-esteem was destroyed and she began to give up on herself. Even in her sleep, the Dragon would cause her to dream that she is in Hell, haunted by the ghosts of those she has killed.

- Although Saki got rid of The Dragon/Takeshi Tatsuo, but there was still a darkness inside him. If he goes down a dark path again, the dragon will take control of his soul again.

[CyberCubed]

Man, most of the things I said in 2021 wound up happening, just in slightly different ways.

[Jeff]

Oh man, what a great thread! I'm glad it resurfaced to read all the ideas and toss my own out there.

• I'd love the series to explore other TMNT series/comics/movies story arcs, especially 2007. Do a time jump and an IDW interpretation of the film for an arc, then fully-fledged minis bridging the missing time, and THEN explore what happens after the movie. So much potential with the Ghost of the Jungle and Nightwatcher.
  
• Do basically what the Last Ronin is doing, but in continual form - take a huge jump forward in time. All the Turtles are still alive, it doesn't even have to be grim, or they're estranged - they can just be older turtles doing the same stuff they're doing now. It would just be a refreshing new direction.
  
• Show them pre-Feudal Japan. If they were reincarnated into Turtles from humans, maybe they were reincarnated into those humans from an even earlier mutated species. It could be set in Feudal Japan, or maybe somewhere else ancient - Egypt, maybe? There's PLENTY of mythology there to do a really awesome 2 year long run.
  
• As a huge Doctor Who fan, some of the best stories are "Doctor-lite" (Blink, anyone? Do this. Use the HUGE supporting cast to further their stories, etc. I know we've had 100+ issues of minis that do this, but I think the quality would be better in the series proper.
  
• Do something new. No returning secondary characters. There are the Turtles and a brand new cast. Luckily, we've got some pretty cool new characters since 2011, but I'd love to see a nostalgia-free dozen-issue run.

[miru]

My idea for Mutant Town was that the bomb, due to mutagen physics, simply turned the humans into Utrom-like zombies that are normally docile and loyal to an unknown force, but when they detect a mutant become extremely aggressive to them. Meanwhile, Old Hob has been experimenting with mutating humans out of a sadistic, vengeful pleasure, including Mona Lisa. Soon, these two overlap, as Mona Lisa, as well as Dreadmon, are at the speech of Old Hob, and Dreadmon tries to prevent the bomb from going off, knowing Hob has no idea how the bomb actually works and is doing this out of blind anger. He fails… horrifically. The mutagen has an odd effect on human-born mutants, turning them into much more bizarre horrors that barely resemble the animals they had previously became. Mona Lisa becomes the Oni-like, acid-spitting Quarry. Dreadmon becomes the sharp-clawed Razorfist. Meanwhile, Rocksteady, who was just getting a shawarma the hard way, is turned into Stonebiter. Now the other mutants are forced by Stockman to help clean up this mess, with the “Underground Monsters” providing more complexity to the situation, as they have more control over themselves than the other zombies, but are still dealing with monstrous impulses! Meanwhile Hob continues his experiments, yet feels no satisfaction with what he’s done in his blind rage, trying to save his own sanity and life, trying to take his mind off of things, hoping perhaps one day someone could truly look up to him.

[TheLabRat]

Originally Posted by miru

My idea for Mutant Town was that the bomb, due to mutagen physics, simply turned the humans into Utrom-like zombies that are normally docile and loyal to an unknown force, but when they detect a mutant become extremely aggressive to them. Meanwhile, Old Hob has been experimenting with mutating humans out of a sadistic, vengeful pleasure, including Mona Lisa. Soon, these two overlap, as Mona Lisa, as well as Dreadmon, are at the speech of Old Hob, and Dreadmon tries to prevent the bomb from going off, knowing Hob has no idea how the bomb actually works and is doing this out of blind anger. He fails… horrifically. The mutagen has an odd effect on human-born mutants, turning them into much more bizarre horrors that barely resemble the animals they had previously became. Mona Lisa becomes the Oni-like, acid-spitting Quarry. Dreadmon becomes the sharp-clawed Razorfist. Meanwhile, Rocksteady, who was just getting a shawarma the hard way, is turned into Stonebiter. Now the other mutants are forced by Stockman to help clean up this mess, with the “Underground Monsters” providing more complexity to the situation, as they have more control over themselves than the other zombies, but are still dealing with monstrous impulses! Meanwhile Hob continues his experiments, yet feels no satisfaction with what he’s done in his blind rage, trying to save his own sanity and life, trying to take his mind off of things, hoping perhaps one day someone could truly look up to him.

I like this because I don't like the IDW writer try to pretend to Hob is secretly a noble, virtuous hero. I also thought of a plot where Woody was also mutagen bomb's victim and he turn into a twisted monster but soon died a painful death in front of Mikey. This finally made Mikey angry and even goes into TLR Mikey mode. If it weren't for the other minions cover Hob and help him escape, Mikey would have killed him, and this was the first time that he didn't regret kill an enemy.

[miru]

Originally Posted by TheLabRat

I like this because I don't like the IDW writer try to pretend to Hob is secretly a noble, virtuous hero. I also thought of a plot where Woody was also mutagen bomb's victim and he turn into a twisted monster but soon died a painful death in front of Mikey. This finally made Mikey angry and even goes into TLR Mikey mode. If it weren't for the other minions cover Hob and help him escape, Mikey would have killed him, and this was the first time that he didn't regret kill an enemy.

Yeah, I prefer that Hob had his chance to be a noble hero but that chance is over and now he has to live with being a villain. The longer he survives as a villain, the more he’s gonna like to thrive as a villain, he just doesn’t know it yet, which makes it more tragic. Having some Utrom zombie hybrids not even surviving it would be another nice twist. Splitting up Bebop and Rocksteady provides some drama even for Chaotic Evil villains like them.