First Printing: May, 2004
Plot: Steve Murphy and Rick Remender
Pencils: Rick Remender
Inks: John Beatty
Tones: Scott Cohn
Letters/Frontispiece: Eric Talbot
Tales of the TMNT came back, and man, it was exciting. The first volume was cancelled after only seven issues, most of which are a lot of fun to read, for the sake of having everyone focus on getting Vol. 1 out at a quicker pace. I find it amusing that Vol. 2 of Tales became the series that came out on a monthly basis while Vol. 4 of the main series was being released sporadically at best. The downside of Tales Vol 2., is that it was all over the place story wise. This arc start in issue #3 and was followed up in issue #4, but not concluded until issue #33. And issue #4 set the stage of a story told in issues #13 and #14. Got all that? The Tales stories are a chronological mess and flow a lot better when just single issue stories were being told. Mirage tried to rectify this in their trade paperback of Tales Vol. 2, giving a more coherent flow to the series, but good luck finding those now for a reasonable amount of money. However, this arc is a lot of fun and well worth the read.
The story Raph is telling begins with the decapitation of the Shredder at the end of Return to New York. The dialogue is the same, right down to the Turtles over the top lines about destiny and honor. Only this time we get to see what happened after they burned the Shredder's body. My only real complaint here is the art. It's not that it's bad,it's quite good actually, but it doesn't have the same look and feel as what Jim Lawson and Kevin Eastman did. I would have really preferred if Jim Lawson had been the one to draw this arc. On the other hand, his art style had changed so drastically since Return to New York, maybe it's for the best Rick Remender did it instead.
A foot mystic comes out of the bushes. Because he was apparently there the whole time and begins to cast a spell that will make a seagull poke the Shredders head into the ocean, where it will be eaten by a shark, who will be infected by the worms that were in the Shredder's head in order to mutate into a Shark Shredder. That makes it sound kind of ridiculous doesn't it? Well, it is ridiculous and a weird set up, but the story still works.
We then cut to the Turtles lair where Leo is having a difficult time coping with the Shredder's death. He didn't give a shit the first time the Turtles killed him, so I don't know why he's so pissy this time around. Michelangelo essentially tells him to get over himself and calm the fuck down for five minutes. Leo responds by aggressively flicking Michelangelo in-between the eyes. Before a fight can start, Splinter jumps in and puts Leo on his ass. As Splinter is about to impart an important lesson about flicking, Shark Shredder emerges from the water. This design is so awesome and over the top at the same time. It really does look menacing, and for as impractical as it is (not that I'm looking for scientific logic from this story) I like how the shark has a mutated Shredder helmet.
There's a short fight that takes place. The Shredder defeats all of the Turtles with ease. It's interesting thinking about his only three fights of the main series. Two of them he lost, getting killed both times. He only won one fight and that was with the help of Foot soldiers and the Foot Elite. Apparently Shark Shredder is a big improvement over the original. Then, using his worms Shredder grabs Splinter and says that he will "Bring you inside of me. Make you a part of me". First, gross. Second, making Splinter a part of him doesn't really come up in the two issue that follow this up so I don't really get it.I know I'm being a little hard on this issue, but it really is worth reading. It's nice seeing the Shredder back, and it's a fun twist that he's been brought back different.
3/5
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