Excited doesn’t come close to what I felt when seeing Old Hob on this week’s cover. I don’t know what it is about this furball, but his story and character is definitely one of my favorites. If you remember a couple of issues ago, Hob was experimenting with Splinter’s blood and the extra ooze. He created some pigeon dude which in short came out pretty dumb. Trial and error. We just kind of left Hob, so now I am sure he has even more to show. I hope there are some success stories this time too. Plus Slash is now a genius. I love him and Hob together and again and hope that these two teams can work together in the future. We dive right into the story and finally all hell breaks loose when Splinter confronts Donnie about the missions on hand. He pretty much tells the gang that they all have to work together in one goal and that goal is taking down Shredder. I don’t think I have ever seen Splinter mean, but for me, he came across as rude to Donnie. There wasn’t any wiggle room and it seems that Splinter has tunnel vision that only Donnie can understand. So like any crazy ninja teen, Donnie blows up... but I have to agree with him. Donnie is right. They need to focus on the Technodrome first before Shredder. He even explains that he never vowed to fight crime but instead to fight for people. He verbally slaps Splinter telling the gang that the only reason he is going after Shredder is to live up to some old vendetta. Again, I agree with Donnie. I think if the Turtles put all their focus on Shredder, Krang will come to pull the rug right out from under them. The threat is more severe than Shredder, who will always be around and can be taken care of at any time.
I think even the audience is being fooled because we haven’t seen much with the Technodrome either. This only fuels my suspicions more. The Krang is going to destroy the world so his people can live. So yeah it seems like more of a threat to me. The only other Turtle that is leaning towards Krang is Mikey. I knew Mikey always has my back. Honestly though I think all of the Turtles agree with Donnie, but they don’t want to step on Splinter’s toes.
The issue revolves around the family business of deciding what to do with Shredder, but nothing really gets solved because Hob is waiting to show the gang his new surprises. So who knows what will happen. I think that whichever villain strikes first will be the villain the Turtles decide to go after. The Turtles just seem to keep beating around the bush, so the villains will probably make the first move. I hope that Krang comes first for obvious reasons stated above.
The surprise that Hob and Slash have for the Turtles is quite a weird surprise. Not exactly what I was expecting and I don’t know if I even like it either. So my excitement was clearly subsided. It gave the comic this corny feeling that I didn’t enjoy. Only time will tell if I like this surprise. I feel like the past couple of issues keep building something, but we don’t know where it is coming from. Whether Krang, Hob, Shredder, Rat-King, and so on, I just want something to explode because all this rising action is running in too many circles.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Tom Waltz Artist: Mateus Santolouco Colorist: Ronda Pattison Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/1/14 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital