Written by: Tom Waltz
Art by: Mateus Santolouco, Mark Torres & Cory Smith
Publisher: IDW
Thinking back to about a month ago with TMNT #35, it is such a shame to know my feelings towards the book are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum. Last time, I was blown away with story development, humor, and of course action. This time, the term being blown away never came to mind.
Waltz did a generally good job with A story line, but THE story line that was accumulating seemed almost non existent. We begin with a seemingly random poem, set way back in the day, pertaining to rats. Rats that share the definition with how most humans feel about them. Gross, semi scary creatures. The curiosity of why this poem happens, definitely gets explained, so no fear! Waltz then leads us underground to Leo and Splinter talking about the known, growing problem with Shredder, and what the team plans on doing to stop him with his evil ways. These few pages are great recaps for readers who are a few issues behind, however, it doesn’t deal with too much detail to guarantee a good refresher course. Suddenly when things almost seem to get a little dull with the two’s conversation, we are placed in the dark, where lurking in it’s depths is The Rat King.
This is where the story takes a turn, in what seems to be, a total not needed additive to the plot line. This Rat King comes from the past, when humans just began. Almost god like creatures, with powers. The Rat King paralyzes Leo and Splinter, and can create a kind of hallucinogenic trait. However, to gain more information about where exactly or why he is the way he is, is not explained. He begins putting the two through emotional trials, where some action occurs, but this issue seemed too far away from it’s ongoing story to have the little bit of action actually make a difference.
The comic ends with a disappointing feature which left me saying “Really? They don’t have enough to deal with right now?!”. I can see where Waltz will use this story in the future, but for the turtles problems going on RIGHT NOW, I deemed it not necessary. To add to my dilemma with the issue, the Rat King story took major priority over the entire comic. We got a small glimpse of Casey being taken care of by April’s parents after the beat down with his father, but not a single blink of the other turtles.
Santolouco, of course delivered with his now seemingly traditional take on this ongoing series, but for everything else…let’s just say I’ll be expecting huge story development in next months comic. Should you actually read this story? Yes. Like I stated earlier, I can see where Waltz wants to go with this Rat King, so getting the small back story on him now will be needed. Unless Waltz decides to wait a substantial amount of time to bring him back, in which case, a recap would essentially happen for the readers anyway. Overall, your call Reader!
