Raphael Bad Mood Rising #1 (Review)

Story: Bill Moulage
Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks and Letters: Eric Talbot
Cover: Ross Campbell
Release: July 2007

The first official Raphael solo title since his microseries way back in Volume 1. Will it be as memorable and introduce us to classic characters? Not so much. These new miniseries that Mirage released were for the most part fairly forgettable. The Raphael series and the Michelangelo series didn't really follow up on any interesting stories like the Leonardo and Donatello series did. This story follows up on Tales Vol. 2 #7, and I don't think many people were demanding that story get continued.

The issue opens up in North Hampton where Raph and Shadow are watching The Exorcist. Good flick, but what's really jarring is that a still from the movie is shown in the comic in the middle of Jim Lawson's art. The issue is only on the third page and something weird has already taken me right out of the story.

Raph gets a beer and we continue in read dialogue from The Exorcist. This movie watching goes on for a bit too long, 6 whole pages. When the comic is only 28 pages long, using 6 to take dialogue from a movie is a lot. The doorbell rings and Raph opens the door to find Lulu, the cute-as-a-button little girl who I bet has more to her than meets the eye! (Spoiler: She does!) Lulu asks for help finding her mother, which Raph and Shadow agree to do. Lulu then asks if her dog can come in, but hey, it's a werewolf. Not just any werewolf, but  Sloane, a character from Tales #7.

Raph agrees for the second time that he will help find Lulu's mother, who turns out to be another werewolf. He can't have his brothers help though because that story is "in a tale as-yet untold". I hate it when Mirage did this. Foreshadowing is one thing, but confusing the readers by teasing a story that has not been written yet, but has already happened in the timeline is frigging annoying. Tales biggest flaw was how much the narrative jumped all over the place and how long stories would take to get a conclusion. Crap like this does not help.

We then see Raph get decked out in gear to fight the supernatural. This outfit was first seen in Tales Vol. 2 #3 where Raph is saying "Let me tell you a story". That issue came out three years prior to this miniseries. While I doubt things were planned out that far in advance, it's neat to see it come back around.

Lulu then teleports everyone to a different dimension that exists in the shadows of our world. The rest of the issue consists of everyone riding on giant bats, being chased by demons that eat your soul. I really like the creature designs of the soul-eaters. They're a mix of lizard, dinosaur, and have a giant eyeball for a head. The issue ends with them getting surrounded with no obvious way to escape.

This is not a terrible issue, but it's not very good either. The pacing is poor, the beginning spends too much time watching a movie and the end spends too much time just flying on bats. The middle is really the part that moves the plot forward. I also really miss Casey in this series. It feels like all good Raphael stories have Casey in them, and Shadow is a poor substitute.

2/5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #24 Review (IDW)

Story: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, & Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Mateus Santolouco with Mike Henderson
Color: Ronda Pattison
Letters: Shawn Lee
Editor: Bobby Curnow

City Fall part 3. While still interesting, this story is starting to feel bloated. And honestly, it might not be the story. I think it has more to do with IDW blowing their load with all their TMNT promotion and pretty much letting us know how this is going to end. While not everything is known, I feel like a lot the overall story has been laid out. Hopefully something will surprise me along the way, but I really don't know.

The issue opens with Karai training. The Shredder essentially tells her to stop whining like a child and come be useful. We then get another family moment with Casey have a dream sequence with his dead mother. If this issue has a theme, it's about broken families. Karai looking for acceptance, Casey needing to get away from his abusive father, and the Leo turning against his family. For as potentially deep as this subject matter could be, the issue reads flat for whatever reason.

We then see the Turtles following Hob to a warehouse. And it has taken a very long time, but Hob is actually interesting. I was more intrigued with him than anything
else in this issue. He's playing both the Turtles and the Foot, and I'm looking forward to seeing what his ultimate objective is. The highlight of the issue is Mikey trying to make friends with Slash. He gives Slash some candy, being the first kind act done towards Slash. Slash goes from a snarling monster to over-excited child in just a few panels. It's a different take on Slash, but that's a good thing not to just rehash what's already been done. I always like seeing when Michelangelo is portrayed as just generally decent instead of just a "party dude".

The Turtles might be ninjas, but seriously lack common sense. They walk into yet another trap, a reoccurring plot device in City Fall. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that the Shredder is there with "Dark Leo" (a really uninspired name) and he fights his brothers. Leo quickly defeats them all, which is fine by me. Leo has been shown to be a superior fighter and lets assume his brothers aren't trying to kill him. The Shredder has a really cliched moment where he tells Leo not to kill the Turtles, you know, so the comic can continue beyond this issue. But what's really weird is that four panels later, he tells Leo to kill them all. What? This is all on the same page, why tell him to not kill them and then to kill them with literally nothing happening in between those orders.

Dome-atello

Slash then busts in, looking for candy and fucking up a bunch of Foot soldiers in the process. It's another cliche moment, but it works. The Turtles escape with the mandatory "TO BE CONTINUED!" and the issue ends. Typically, I praise Mateus Santolouco's art, but this issue was not his best. He took a different approach to drawing the Turtles and gave them heads that look like domes without a lot of dimension. They look more like parody drawings of the Turtles. Hopefully this is not a trend that will continue.

2/5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2 #2 Review (Mirage)

Story and Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Jason Temujin Minor
Letters: Mary Kelleher
Colors: Eric Vincent
Cover: Peter Laird

For as hard as I was on issue #1 of this series, I really do like Vol 2. and wish Jim Lawson had the chance to flesh out his planned story. You know what? Now that I wrote that sentence, I'm kinda pissed he didn't take that opportunity in Tales of the TMNT Vol. 2. Damnit Lawson, what were you thinking?

Anyways, the issue opens with a nice splash page of where Klunk takes a shit. No really. It's a complete waste of a page, and it's nothing but filler. A page could have been used to explain where the hell Splinter is in all of Vol. 2, but no. Let's take a look at the litter box instead!

I actually really do like this issue as it quickly gets into what do the Turtles do now that their problems with the Foot are behind them. Where do they go from here and what can give them purpose? Donatello has apparently moved out with Splinter to North Hampton. This wasn't abundantly clear in the last issue, but absolutely nothing was clear in that issue. The three remaining Turtles are left talking in boredom with each other. Michelangelo says he plans on starting a journal, and I really like that. For as flat and two-dimensional as he is in every other medium, the Mirage Mikey is my favorite character. Why? Because he has dimension and growth. Mirage, more than other comic companies, like Marvel and DC, had the opportunity to make their characters grow and change over time. Most of them stayed exactly the same once they developed personality other than "I'm a gritty bad-ass that likes to kill Foot soldiers and have dark  inner monologues".  Michelangelo actually changed and grew and I liked his character arc. Sure he became WAY to aware of it by Vol. 4, but that's gripe for another time.

Now that I've had a strayed long enough from the plot of this comic, Raph moves out to find his own place in the world, leaving only Mike and Leo together. The story than cuts to D.A.R.P.A., a branch of the military that is paranoid and like the color green. Some soldiers are killed by a gun hanging from the ceiling, and let's face it, if you hang a loaded gun by the ceiling, you're just asking to get killed off. The gun is being controlled by the mysterious figure who happens to be African-American. Who could it be? Let's run down the long list of black TMNT characters: 1. Baxter Stockman 2. April in that one issue she was colorized. OK, fine, it's Stockman. Actually kind of surprising since he hasn't been seen since issue #2 of Vol. 1. Unless you count the Fred Wolf series, and I doubt the Mirage team was taking influence from that show.

The story then goes to North Hampton where we find Donatello hiding from Evangelists. Don't know why they're there, don't know if this story was going anywhere. It's random and has no purpose, but look! Donaltello! He's one of the Turtles too, so fuck it, add some filler pages in with him.

We cut back to New York to find Leo. Leo stabs the car of a probable criminal (cause that'll stop it) and they get in an accident, probably killing the criminal. One of the things I like about the Mirage comics is that the Turtles never viewed themselves as heroes. Despite what other incarnations did, the Turtles didn't go from rooftop to rooftop doing rounds looking for villains. Except that's what Leo's doing here and I love how out of character it is. Leo is looking for honor and purpose, but all he has is rage. He's not a leader anymore, and I wish this story could have been fleshed out further, because it had a lot of potential.

The issue ends with what is not surprising reveal of Baxter Stockman. He no longer has the uncomfortable plot of destroying the World Trade Center and  has some kind of plan involving his brain and robots. Overall, I like this issue. But it's disappointing in a way to. It's like looking at the potential that Vol. 2 had that readers never got to really see pan out.

3/5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 2 #1 Review (Mirage)

Story and Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks: Jason Temujin Minor
Letters: Mary Kelleher
Colors: Mary Woodring
Cover: A.C. Farley

Oh man, Volume 2. The unceremoniously cancelled series that really went nowhere. And it's too bad, Jim Lawson clearly had some long term plans on this book, but they would never come to fruition. And get used to it, this is the beginning of a lot of unresolved TMNT stories that would plague Mirage for the remainder of time they published Turtles comics.

The issue opens with a letter from Peter Laird talking about how the Turtles are going "back to basics". What a joke. Back to basics would last a whopping three issues. Laird also discusses the change from black and white, giving the explanation of "why the heck not?". Personally, I have no strong feelings on the Turtles being black and white or not. Overall, I associate the Turtles with being black and white more than I do color, but I overall don't care. It's not like color is going to make or break if a story is good or not. It's also kind of funny reading this letter now where Laird says "Welcome to the Future" when I'm reading it 20 years later.

The first page is shocking. It's a splash page of Splinter dead, beaten to death by an unknown Turtle. Oh my God! Where could this shocking foreshadowing be going? Fucking nowhere. We've seen Splinter die, and it was by a heart attack. But he's alive in the Battle Nexus, or a ghost or something, so maybe Leo beats him in the Battle Nexus later on, a concept that wouldn't be conceived until the 2003 animated show. Maybe Laird and Co. had that much foresight. Actually, forget it. It's just a disappointment.

This is followed by Donatello meditating about burying Splinter in the future. We've since seen Splinter's funeral, which was in Central Park and not Japan so again, something that went nowhere. Seven pages in, and already two unless plot threads.

The issue then cuts to the dreams of April and Casey. Casey's dream involves Dark Casey, and do I really need to say it? It goes nowhere! Here's a huge shocker, April's dream sequence does go somewhere! It takes over a decade for it to be resolved, but it gets there. Crazy.

The story goes over to, you guessed it, another dream sequence. This time it's Raph and he's dreaming about killing a helpless rat. Except then the rat gets friggin' huge and attacks Raph. This possibly could be related to Splinter's dream, and maybe the unknown Turtle is Raph, and maybe Splinter isn't really dead, but there is no way to know. Again, just another story being set up that goes nowhere.

Leo (or possibly Raph) then dream about Raph and Leo being experimented on. This dream also goes somewhere and is resolved by the end of Volume 2, but not exactly as it's shown in the dream. I like that the dream is distorted and not a direct translation of events to come, because that's just how dreams are.

The last two pages show Michelangelo as a TV or movie producer. No real indication is given here if this is the future, or just another dream sequence. Way back in #17 of Volume 1, it was shown that Mikey liked to write and makeup stories, and as much as I hate to sound like a broken record, this plot thread goes nowhere.

When this issue came out, people were confused. It didn't make any sense and readers didn't know what to make of it. It's funny reading letters pages now. The Mirage crew is so proud of themselves for confusing readers, promising that everything will make sense in the future and that you confused intentionally. Well it's been 20 years, and I still don't get it. Aside from Volume 4 never being completed, Volume 2 being cancelled was the worst thing that ever happened to TMNT comics from Mirage. The series really did have potential, but it was never fleshed out enough to really have anything become of it.

1/5