Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret History of the Foot Clan #2

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Shredder find themselves after the same thing, the man who knows the "secret history of the foot clan," the one who has the ability to grant the Shredder secret power that could allow him to defeat his ancient enemies once and for all and have the most powerful ninja force on the planet at the tips of his fingers (or perhaps the tips of his toes, because they're called the Foot Clan, not the Hand Clan).

Much like in the first issue, the art is great when we're looking at people and not so great when we're looking at turtle-people, the narrative is strong, and the climax is interesting. It is hard to say much past that without either giving away the plot of the mini-series or being entirely redundant. Instead, I'd like to do something that I don't normally do, a digression on the character of Alopex.

Alopex is a mutant fox who was introduced in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Micro-Series issue about Raphael's solo mission. As far as I know, she is an entirely new character, not present in the original comics, the Archie comics, or the cartoon. She's popped up here and there, but it is not entirely clear why she was introduced. Prior to the introduction of Alopex, a mutant alley cat named Old Hob was brought into the origin story of the Turtles and Splinter. It is pretty clear what his future is for the series, but Alopex remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, in the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret History of the Foot Clan, we learn the story of an ancient witch who made contact with a magical force from beyond the stars and sold that power to the ninja clan. This figure is surrounded with much of the same mystery as Alopex. My thought is that Alopex, who keeps popping her head up in this mini-series despite not being pivotal to the plot in any way, is the reincarnated witch. If Splinter can be the reincarnated Hamato Yoshi and the Turtles his children returned from the dead, then there is certainly room for more rebirths. I'm sure Splinter wishes he could see his own wife again, but maybe not until after the threat of the Shredder is defeated. Why would Alopex be a reincarnated figure and not others like Old Hob or Slash? I can't answer that question, but I can mention that Alopex had latent ninja fighting abilities that neither of the other mutants possessed.

Originally, I mentioned that this second issue is exactly the same as the first issue in terms of quality, but after this tangential discussion I think this one might be better. After all, one quality of great art is that you think about it for some time afterwards.

I've syndicated this review at Examiner. You can read it here. If you click on it a few times, spend some time there, or navigate to a new page, I might get some money. But I'm only asking that of you if you liked reading the article here and want to show your appreciation.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret History of the Foot Clan #1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret History of the Foot Clan #1 tells the story behind the ninja army lead by the Shredder through historical lecture and Master Splinter's recollection of his prior life with simple literary flashback filling in the gaps that neither could have possibly known. These truths are revealed because the turtles and their allies wish to gain any possible knowledge about their adversary and also because the Shredder wishes to restore an incredibly mystical power to his followers.

I went into this book skeptical of how it would turn out. I have been really impressed by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ongoing series and the various mini-series installations to date. The only thing I found hard to digest was the annual, which read like a Legion of Super-Heroes of thugs, spending every panel and every page introducing a new villain. What I've been impressed with the most is how the mini-series tend walk the tight rope between giving you too little useful information (seemingly unimportant and disconnected from the main story) and giving you too much useful information (making it so you need to read the mini-series in order to understand the main story). These books are written incredibly well. Normally, I'd be skeptical that the writers can continue walking that tight rope with the bomb that is dropped at the end of this first issue which will definitely affect the main story in many ways, but after the flawless delivery of the Fugitoid story among others I trust that these guys know what they're doing.

Mateus Santolouco's art is really impressive. For a ninja-based back-story, the Manga-style drawing works fantastically. My only problem is that the turtles themselves do not look as good. But the people look great, especially in the flashbacks.

It is very difficult to read this issue and not reveal the ending. I just want to talk about it. What I can say is that this issue teases a great source of power that a shape-shifting ninja delivers to the foot soldiers in the distant past. At the very end of the issue, in what felt almost like a really good episode of LOST, the source of that power is revealed. I think the repercussions of this one panel are likely to define where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics proceed from this moment forward. It will add excitement to this year, but also to the entire run.

The book wasn't flawless, but it was awfully close. Give it a read.

I've syndicated this review at Examiner. You can read it here. If you click on it a few times, spend some time there, or navigate to a new page, I might get some money. But I'm only asking that of you if you liked reading the article here and want to show your appreciation.