Talkin’ About Turtles – IDW Issue 17
by Marshall James
There was a delay this week with my usual installment of TaT because I knew the hotly anticipated issue 17 of TMNT was arriving. Just in time for the holidays!
The most notable change in this month’s ish is the art; as foreshadowed last month, gone is Andy Kuhn and his … drawings, and here for now is Ben Bates. Immediate upgrade. Bates falls in the middle of the pack for me as far as TMNT artists go, no Ross Campbell but also a significant visual upgrade from Kuhn.
This issue focuses on the Neutrinos and is filled with more nostalgia for the 1987 cartoon show. The Neutrinos are a race of elven people living in Dimension X, rebelling against Krang. In the IDWverse Professor Honeycutt, the Fugitoid, is also a Neutrino. And the Neutrinos that take center stage? Dask, Zala, and Zak. If those names sound a bit familiar, how about these screen shots…
…and this panel?
That’s right, the hot-roddin’ teenage aliens from the series are not only referenced, they’re in the series, crazy anime hair and all. Now don’t read too much derision into my thoughts here, I’m a sucker for nostalgia and seeing characters rendered again for the first time since my childhood has me moved, I am glad they kept the wacky hair.
Probably a good idea they dropped King Zenter’s “Midget Elvis” look, though.
As Krang lays siege to the capital of Neutrino, Shredder and his granddaughter Karai share a meal and discuss the Foot’s next moves. Several things irk me about this scene, chief among this is the nagging questions:
“Why did they make Karai his granddaughter instead of just daughter, like she is in the other cannons? If she’s even just 16, then Shredder has to be in his mid-50s? Why force him to be so old? Is it so he feels as old as Splinter? But he’s a rat-man and Yoda figure, we don’t expect him to fight.” I just don’t get it, daughter seems more poetically sound too: Splinter’s sons versus Shredder’s daughter, the sins of the fathers and all that. Eh.
The other irksome business: why are Shredder and Karai armed to the teeth while eating inside the secret Foot compound? Do they never take their arms and armor off? I mean, if not for food, then for sleep? Shredder’s claws seem unweildy even in a fight, can you imagine how difficult the very next panel of sipping saké would be?
By end of issue, there is a misunderstanding and it’s Turtles vs Neutrinos until Dask calls for a portal back home, taking the turtles with them in a wonderful parallel to the original Mirage series number 4 (subbing Utroms for Neutrinos):
This one left me really excited. We’ve got advancement of the Fugitoid and Krang plots, the Turtles are on a space journey as befits a new comic line, and seeing the Neutrinos show up gives more support to the implied promise that this run with be an attempt at a “Greatest Hits” mash up album, one that combines elements from all the previous runs while simultaneously transcending them all. Can’t wait for January!
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Marshall James is a writer and television producer living in Los Angeles. Follow him on twitter @hoodie_weather and on his blog MarshallUnfocused.tumblr.com
Planned Banter 
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