TMNT 125 preview and discussion

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Art isn't great (at least for the main ongoing), that I hope this artist is only around for a few issues and they change again.

Funny how it wasn't Hob or anything else that happened in mutant town that burned down their dojo...but a random group of Punk Frogs they met literally for less than 5 minutes. I don't see what the point of Casey talking about Jennika was, they had long since broken up and that doesn't even make sense. Their entire relationship was off-screen too so it barely existed.

Did Carmen imply she was in a relationship with Sheena too or am I just reading into things? I wouldn't be surprised if Carmen is a lesbian as well.

Carmen knows Sheena through the fight club introduced in #123.

[AquaParade]

I wonder what ever happened to Mateus Santolouco. Bobby said a couple years ago that he was in talks to come back, but it must have fizzled through. Makes sense when Sophie is sort of doing her own thing on the ongoing, but you'd think he'd get a mini-series or something.

Maybe there's a chance he's already working on a TLR spin-off. Just a wild guess, but you never know. Personally, I'd like to see Kevin collaborate with some new artists or writers on the next chapter of TLR that he works on. It would be cool to see Bill Sienkiewicz or Simon Bisley step into this world. But I'd be even more open new collabs. They should have a stronger budget than usual.

[hypered1]

From Sophie's twitter:

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

I wonder what ever happened to Mateus Santolouco. Bobby said a couple years ago that he was in talks to come back, but it must have fizzled through. Makes sense when Sophie is sort of doing her own thing on the ongoing, but you'd think he'd get a mini-series or something.

Maybe there's a chance he's already working on a TLR spin-off. Just a wild guess, but you never know. Personally, I'd like to see Kevin collaborate with some new artists or writers on the next chapter of TLR that he works on. It would be cool to see Bill Sienkiewicz or Simon Bisley step into this world. But I'd be even more open new collabs. They should have a stronger budget than usual.

I wonder what happened to Kevin doing all the layouts. Did he lose interest? Was he told that they would be no longer needed?

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

I wonder what ever happened to Mateus Santolouco. Bobby said a couple years ago that he was in talks to come back, but it must have fizzled through. Makes sense when Sophie is sort of doing her own thing on the ongoing, but you'd think he'd get a mini-series or something.

Maybe there's a chance he's already working on a TLR spin-off. Just a wild guess, but you never know. Personally, I'd like to see Kevin collaborate with some new artists or writers on the next chapter of TLR that he works on. It would be cool to see Bill Sienkiewicz or Simon Bisley step into this world. But I'd be even more open new collabs. They should have a stronger budget than usual.

Santolouco's instagram is active again with TMNT posts, at least. Seems like he's just wrapping up old commissions, but maybe there's another reason he's posting TMNT artwork again

[lonewarrior20]

Originally Posted by hypered1

From Sophie's twitter:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJkfk3eX...jpg&name=small
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJkfd6vX...jpg&name=small

what the hell's gonna happen if the rat king meets this guy?

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by ProphetofGanja

Santolouco's instagram is active again with TMNT posts, at least. Seems like he's just wrapping up old commissions, but maybe there's another reason he's posting TMNT artwork again

For what it's worth he did the RI cover for this issue:



He's also done few other RI/ collectors covers for both the ongoing and TLR since #100.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I wonder what happened to Kevin doing all the layouts. Did he lose interest? Was he told that they would be no longer needed?

What do you mean? For the last Ronin, he is still doing layouts as far as I know. For the ongoing, he hasn’t done them since issue #4 right?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

What do you mean? For the last Ronin, he is still doing layouts as far as I know. For the ongoing, he hasn’t done them since issue #4 right?

Am I misremembering that bad? I thought he was doing them even into the 20s, at least.

[neatoman]

For what it's worth, this is one of the better issues in this run. A back alley cosmetic surgeon does honestly seem more like the sort of story that fits this setting, a whole lot better than a battle of the bands or glimpses into a future that obviously won't be the canon one. And yeah, obviously it's nice to see what's going on at Burnow Island again, even if it feels a bit like it's too late, the whole "months ago" thing makes me think this could easily have been a subplot all along. In terms of the plot, the only thing I feel criticising is the... A-plot(?) about the Frogs showing up and burning down the Dojo, which feels kind of abrupt. We have never seen these frogs before and they accuse the Turtles of being kidnappers without much context or hints towards might have actually happened. And I'm also not that sad to see the Dojo go up in flames, I always just felt it was a lame excuse to show meaningless montages, though it still seems a bit weird. Was the the only point of it just to train a mob?

Anyway, the short of it is this:
It is nice to have subplots and ties to previous stories again, even it's still not great at the core. Decent-ish issue, I'll give it that. C-Grade.

Spoiler:

But then again, this does give me a bit of a nagging feeling in the back of my head. I have to wonder, since this is a big departure from how Sophie typically writes and the dialogue seems so different in some parts, did Sophie actually write all of this? Because as it is, I would suspect it is at least partially ghost-written, possibly by Waltz or Allor.

[Wingnut II]

Originally Posted by hypered1

From Sophie's twitter:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJkfk3eX...jpg&name=small
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FJkfd6vX...jpg&name=small

Holy CRAP, is that Groundchuck and Dirtbag? Damn!
Groundchuck looks okay...but DIRTBAG! He looks like the deformed brother of Rufus from Kim Possible!

[Sumac]

Groundchuck looks recognizable, which I guess, is an achievement for IDW Turtles (or any modern Turtle media in general), but what the **** had happened with Dirtbag?!

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by neatoman

For what it's worth, this is one of the better issues in this run. A back alley cosmetic surgeon does honestly seem more like the sort of story that fits this setting, a whole lot better than a battle of the bands or glimpses into a future that obviously won't be the canon one. And yeah, obviously it's nice to see what's going on at Burnow Island again, even if it feels a bit like it's too late, the whole "months ago" thing makes me think this could easily have been a subplot all along. In terms of the plot, the only thing I feel criticising is the... A-plot(?) about the Frogs showing up and burning down the Dojo, which feels kind of abrupt. We have never seen these frogs before and they accuse the Turtles of being kidnappers without much context or hints towards might have actually happened. And I'm also not that sad to see the Dojo go up in flames, I always just felt it was a lame excuse to show meaningless montages, though it still seems a bit weird. Was the the only point of it just to train a mob?

Anyway, the short of it is this:
It is nice to have subplots and ties to previous stories again, even it's still not great at the core. Decent-ish issue, I'll give it that. C-Grade.

Spoiler:

But then again, this does give me a bit of a nagging feeling in the back of my head. I have to wonder, since this is a big departure from how Sophie typically writes and the dialogue seems so different in some parts, did Sophie actually write all of this? Because as it is, I would suspect it is at least partially ghost-written, possibly by Waltz or Allor.

I agree with what you said, this issue was a significant departure from what we've been getting but it was very welcome. So much a departure thought that I, too, wonder if someone else helped with the plot and/or script.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Am I misremembering that bad? I thought he was doing them even into the 20s, at least.

I remember this too; there were layouts of issues past 20 on Eastman's site. Or covers, at least.

[hypered1]

Originally Posted by ProphetofGanja

I agree with what you said, this issue was a significant departure from what we've been getting but it was very welcome. So much a departure thought that I, too, wonder if someone else helped with the plot and/or script.



I remember this too; there were layouts of issues past 20 on Eastman's site. Or covers, at least.

Kevin Eastman still does the 'B' covers for most issues and he was also the main artist for both of the 2012 and 2014 Annuals.

[Bahamut810]

I think this issue is my favorite of Sophie's run! I saw three big things that I hope are all parts of the bigger upcoming event. Even if they aren't part of it, its still a good departure!

Spoiler:

The big three!
1. Jasper Barlow attracting mutants with promises of *portions* of a cure.
2. Donatello being (potentially) framed for kidnapping
3. Alopex seemingly feeling let down by Raphael not being there to help protect their home.

I am hoping that all of this is part of a larger plot by the Rat King with the upcoming Armageddon game to try to pre-emptively remove their involvement considering they have been all up in every other main event.

I wonder how much of that fight is going to be a long term hurt on Michelangelo as well.

I can also see the more gruff Casey Jones that Campbell was wanting to bring out as well and I am good with it (I was really unsure after Raph and his talk in his apartment).

I really hope it keeps going with this momentum!

[CyberCubed]

My only problem is there's no way to jettison the extra supporting characters.

- Jennika is obviously not going anywhere, so by default Sheena is sticking around unless they break up.

- I don't know how they can write off Lita and the 3 Weasels unless Mona Lisa or someone looks after them.

- Mona Lisa herself is probably sticking around awhile because she barely had any plot relevance yet

- Most of the Mutant Town extras can be ignored if the Turtles travel elsewhere

[TigerClaw]

So Sheena wants to get some hair transplant by this Jasper Barlow, But he looks very sketchy, Also we saw a glimpse of what Sheena looked like from the future in issue 117, and she was still bald, She never got that hair transplant, So something fishy going on.

[ProphetofGanja]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

So Sheena wants to get some hair transplant by this Jasper Barlow, But he looks very sketchy, Also we saw a glimpse of what Sheena looked like from the future in issue 117, and she was still bald, She never got that hair transplant, So something fishy going on.

Literally just ignore everything from that future flash-forward arc

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by ProphetofGanja

Literally just ignore everything from that future flash-forward arc

I think what we see from that future are a taste of things to come, Carmen for example, and soon we are expecting Bob to show up.

[CyberCubed]

The future scenes are very likely an alternate timeline. No writer is going to force themselves to stick to that especially when there will be multiple different writers on the ongoing forever.