The Afghan Whigs in front of the Motown recording studio in Detroit, Michigan. Not sure about the year on this, but based on Curley's haircut I'm going to estimate 1994. Gentlemen-era.
TMNT: ODYSSEY
MARCH 2015
BY ANDREW MODEEN, JIM LAWSON, DAN BERGER, RICK ARTHUR, ARSENIY DUBAKOV, SOPHIE CAMPBELL, MARK FELTHAM, COURTLAND BRUGGER, DENNIS KENNEDY, ANGIE STERNITZKE, DMITRY BOBROVNIK, TOKKA, RICK MCCOLLUM, BILL ANDERSON AND A.C. FARLEY
After discovering she is being erased from reality, Renet goes to Donatello minutes before his death, to pass her powers to him, to prevent the destruction of the multiverse in the hands of the Shogun. Donatello then goes at the final moments of the lives of his brothers to recruit them for this final mission.
SCORE: 8
This is non-canon and also not an actual official TMNT story. However, it is meant to bring closure to the pre-Viacom multiverse and it does involve several TMNT artists from all time.
It is hard to discuss without spoilers, so I will continue in the spoiler section. I think it was mostly good, even with all the fan service, but it has a couple of flaws that could take you away from the story. One is how much it already is like another BIG crisis-event story, and the other one is the identity of the Shogun.
The art feels a lot like this belongs to the regular Mirage publishing comics. Mostly because the artists involved were a part of it.
Spoilers after the break...
Stop right there... Dimension A is both Fred Wolf and Archie. I know that simplifying them is easier, but they had different characters and events. It’s just a small detail.
Incorporating Venus de Milo and Slash (from Archie) was another interesting spin to this story, as these characters had no alternatives. Of course, Venus is forbidden territory, I am not even sure how Jim Lawson dared use her :p
Bloodsucker is another character of forbidden access. But only for Mirage comics, and not for fan-made comics like this. For whatever reason, Rick Veitch didn’t want the story to be reprinted and it remains his.
The Mighty Mutanimals are brought back in spirit to rectify the wrong done to them by Mr. Null. Now, you could remove Null and the Mighty Mutanimals from the story, and even Venus, and there could be a simpler (faster) way of approaching the same ending.
There are a couple of things I figured out by the middle of the story. One was that the Shogun was a turtle (and my main suspicion was on Mikey, since he mysteriously “dissipated” and no one ever heard from him again). The other one was that this story was written like a movie (has many things taken from the road-trip formula), or more accurately, the “journey of the hero”. Almost every story follows the “journey of the hero”, even if by accident, but in this case it is specific, that it is too evident. It’s not a bad thing. But they could have been a bit more creative with the story beats.
Now, the story that is being ripped off here is “Zero Hour”. To me Zero Hour was such an enjoyable story, I also found myself ripping it off at some point in my life. It’s very tempting because it is full of awesome tropes. In this case however, Michelangelo becomes Parallax. I don’t think this was the right choice. Sure, it made sense considering his disappearance, but even in the end, it would have made more sense for Leonardo to be doing this. After all, he was full of regret at the end of his life, he failed in keeping his brothers united and would have benefited the most by “rebooting” the universe into the IDW canon (by the way, heavy spoilers if you haven’t read the first saga of the IDW comic).
And if anything, Michelangelo should have played Leonardo’s part here, given how emotional he is. Getting the family back makes sense for him too. But this is something you may agree or disagree, as I can understand the reasoning for both.
This story separates two multiverses. Pre and post Viacom. However, this was kind of undone by the Turtles from Dimension F, when they visited the Fred Wolf world (ignoring the events of Turtles Forever). Turtles Forever, by the way, is referenced in this story.
So just like the self-made issues that gave volume 3 a conclusion that tied to Volume 4. This special ties both the IDW series with the Mirage universe. I think it is good that this was fan made. You can love it and assume this is what actually happened, or not like it, and just dismiss it.
Whatever the case is, the Turtles and Splinter finally made it into the hall of legends.
