IDW General Discussion

[AlZarkovski]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

There's some Kevin Eastman covers out now as well

Spoiler:

https://68.media.tumblr.com/01190f82...6xwo1_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/7e403273...6xwo2_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e4d6d1ac...6xwo3_1280.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/83ed3499...6xwo4_1280.jpg

Yes. It's my photos. From my post.

[Utrommaniac]

Okay, so the mutagen in IDW alters DNA under certain exposures, right?
With its whole purpose initially being to mutate soldiers with stoney skin?

But we know the Utroms were using it with their last personal use being use for stasis?

Well, what if, at least to some extent, there was still a little bit of DNA altering in the Ooze used to keep the Utroms in stasis, but not enough to fully mutate them?

In a way, there is something very similar to the Utroms going into stasis in nature. It's something that West African Lungfish are the prime examples for.
During droughts, they can survive years without food or water by burying themselves in mud and making a kind of mucus cocoon while they wait it out.

I speculate that Utroms used to be able to do it, but that behavior died out the more they expanded and got hardier against the elements of their planet. That is, until it got to the point where they really, really needed it. So the stasis that gets developed first "switched back" the gene that made them sleep for a long period of time, and the ooze itself replaced the normal cocoon (because they just don't generate enough mucus as their ancestors did to generate one one their own...probably because as they "urbanized", they first no longer needed so much, and maybe they started to find extra sticky bodies unattractive???) and kept them under longer, with just a tiny hint of any mutagenic effect that would have shut off when they were removed.

But because that engineering was only meant to be temporary, there really wasn't an antimutagen developed for the more "extreme" mutations.

[myconius]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

Okay, so the mutagen in IDW alters DNA under certain exposures, right?
With its whole purpose initially being to mutate soldiers with stoney skin?

from what i read in IDW Tmnt #1, General Krang had acquisitioned several things from Baxter Stockman.

-Terrapin/Human Exo-Armor Synthesis
-Rodentia Psychotropic Serum Tests
-Super-Soldier Mutagen

three separate orders.

[Sophie Campbell]

The mutagen is made from ooze. Ooze itself isn't mutagenic, it's just some natural substance found on the Utrom planet.

[Utrommaniac]

Late-night thinking did seem to get ahead of me .

Krang specifies it as an ooze "technology" specifically to support stasis.

It's not necessarily mutagenic per say, but it switches on dormant genes that once made long-term hibernation possible and also replaces the "cocoon" that they weren't able to make for themselves.

In the case of Karai stealing some of that particular Ooze, its temporary purpose could easily be removed from it and become mutagen.

I guess my cap-off is that the idea of stasis reminds me a lot of how Lungfish survive drought and I speculated if the idea worked for Utroms, but they had to pull some strings to make it work.

[myconius]

Ooze is the base compound of Mutagen. it must be synthesized to get the mutating effect.

though Ooze does have healing qualities, as it helped April's dad fully recover after his stroke.

it also enhances one's strength as we saw with Hun.

i'm guessing these healing and strengthening qualities helped preserve the Utroms while in their prolonged stasis.

[Utrommaniac]

The big issue I have with Ooze is that they say it was used for their technology, but they never show it...which is IDW's biggest problem with everything in general.

I mean...can it be compared to oil on Earth? Is it not quite the same, but similar enough?

[myconius]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

The big issue I have with Ooze is that they say it was used for their technology, but they never show it...which is IDW's biggest problem with everything in general.

I mean...can it be compared to oil on Earth? Is it not quite the same, but similar enough?

yeah, too much 'tell' and not enough 'show'.
talk is cheap!

i figured it's a lot like you just described, like drilling for oil.

"drilling for Ooze" ..... that just sounds nasty!! xD

[Utrommaniac]

A dermatologist's least favorite part of their job .

So far Ooze just kind of seems to do what the plot needs it, but it does have its constraints, all of which involve some kind of bodily modification.

From what it was meant to do (heal, for instance) and what it's not meant to (mutate to severe extremes, such in the case of Rocksteady and Bebop)

[myconius]

but the synthesizing of Ooze into Mutagen had actually been introduced back in issue #1.

the telephone conversation between Baxter Stockman and General Krang, Krang is telling Baxter to hurry up with his order of Mutagen.

in issue #4 after StockGen was ransacked by Foot Ninja-
Chet informs Baxter that the small amounts of Super Soldier Mutagen that were recovered from the alley were tainted beyond repair.
Baxter says-
"Losing the Psychotropic Serum is bad enough news, considering we'll have to start from scratch in it's development. but the Mutagen?
The basic components for that were supplied to us by General Krang. and at personal risk if our client is to be believed. Now I'm to inform him we require even more?!"

[Utrommaniac]

We don't know what the Utroms were using it for, to their fullest extent. Obviously their technology, especially their ships. I think Utrom Empire would have been the perfect time to show them using it as they originally intended (and Krang's relationships outside his father. Friends? Colleagues? The soldiers he bossed around? Lovers??? MOTHER????)

But we have strayed a little from my original thought about the stasis ooze specifically, which had to be different from any other use and wasn't stuff that StockGen touched. I think Karai is the only one that's used stasis ooze to make mutagen. Then maybe Hob in turn once he got a hold of it.

And I stand by that it replicates some original Utrom biology that they could no longer do themselves, since that behavior got weeded out of the gene pool as they got more and more self-sufficient and dependant on technology.

Which is just aspect of Utrom biology I've surmised.

[myconius]

i know EXACTLY what they were using it for.....

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by myconius

i know EXACTLY what they were using it for.....


https://i.redd.it/hxs663bb5vux.jpg


http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6...c476o1_400.gif

Originally Posted by Nostalgia Critic

... tasted like splooge...

Trustworthy?

[myconius]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Trustworthy?

my guess is that guy would be the expert!

[Utrommaniac]

I blame Quanin . Then again, he's to blame for just about everything.

[myconius]

having read and knowing the Bishop reveal in issue #70, re-reading issue #68.

it not only clarifies how Bishop was able to best Man Ray, but it also explains why his hands were so cold as he was observing Mondo Gecko's tail regeneration.

pretty clever on the writers part!

issues #67 through #70 really were a nice and neat little arc.

[Utrommaniac]

That's a really good catch !

It was there all along and we weren't paying a lick of attention. That's how they get you...

[myconius]

thank you

that's one of the great things about this series is the little subtitles.

the writing is pretty rich with multitudes of layers that only reveal themselves upon re-reading.

[Utrommaniac]

Which always makes room for this situation



Honestly, it's the best way to put things together, considering how woven together everything is.

Except for Null at the moment, aside from how she's getting mutagen. She's just sort of standing away from the rest of the chaos that is the combined Utrom-Kitsune Situation. When you think about it, they are pretty wrapped up with each other, and probably far more than we realize.

[myconius]

one post that i saw online was pointing out how The Dragon that Kitsune mentioned during the Pantheon family reunion, actually first showed up in the Eastman/Sienkiewicz back-up story from Tmnt: Universe.

that actually adds a bit of gravity to that story, seeing how the Turtles had known nothing of the Dragon at that point.

Leo was tripping pretty hard.