IDW TMNT # 47

By Mark Rodriguez

Bebop and Rocksteady nearly killed Donatello by smashing his shell with a sledgehammer. Luckily Harold and the Fugitoid managed to place his mind into Metalhead's body. Baxter Stockman helps Shredder recover from his battle and shows him an army of Mousers and Flyborgs. In his absence, Karai leads the Foot. Casey, Angel, Alopex and April's family are about to have another run-in with Hun and the Purple Dragons. What happens now?

 Hun and the Purple Dragons are ready to bust some heads, and Casey, Angel and Alopex leap into action. April's dad wants to help in some way and tells his wife to call the cops. Casey is grabbed by some of Hun's boys, and he manages to kick the bottle of jack into his face. Hun is now pissed when he is suddenly hit by Arune, a neighbor of the O'Neils. April's father tosses a toaster into someone's face. Other neighbors see this and decide to join in the fight and defend the hood from the Dragons.

I always love Mexican swearing

Casey and April's dad beat Hun down with their weapons. Hun gets up and says Casey's new family is nothing. Casey says Hun's new 'family' is running out on him as all the street punks run from the rampaging neighbors. Hun laughs and says his son is just like him, no matter what, they always handle their problems with their own fists. The police show up and arrest Hun. One of the cops swears to have seen 'a giant fox' but the police detective decides booking Hun is enough paperwork for today.

Meanwhile, April shows Splinter and rest the secret scrolls that she grabbed from the Foot Clan. Splinter says it warns of dangers of the past and of some to come in the future. Mikey points out a 'weird rat dude' in the pictures and Leo is reminded of his encounter with the Rat King. April feels hurt seeing Donnie in critical condition and Raph says it's even weirder to see the robot version.

April decides that she can help out by going out west with Casey to investigate the meaning of this scroll further. The Turtles mentioned that when they last saw Hun, he was back to drinking and it seemed he was working without the Foot. April sees this as more reason to take Casey away from all this.

Karai finds out that Hun went his own way, and during the fight against the Turtles, they had a secret weapon that defeated Koya and Bludgeon. Karai is tired of hearing excuses, but Shredder suddenly steps in says that they speak the truth, but they also have secret weapons. Baxter is with him and everyone bows to show Shredder respect. Koya and Bludgeon apologize for leaving him behind on the battle on Burnow Island. Shredder doesn't care and blames their defeat on betrayal. He wants help from everyone to take revenge on his enemies, but for now wants to speak mostly with Karai. As everyone leaves, Karai tells Baxter to leave as well. Shredder says he can stay since the three of them have business to discuss.

Karai says their failure was due to trusting outsiders. Shredder doesn't consider Baxter as such and says their real reason for failure was the betrayal from Hamato Yoshi. Baxter is ready to help them and Shredder will send the Foot to ensure his victory. Karai asks if this honorable. Shredder says this is vengeance. Baxter places on a helmet and says the business for today is extermination.

Flyborgs and flying Mousers fill the skies, and go mostly unnoticed by April and her family as she prepares for her road trip with Casey. April's dad says that with Hun in jail, the neighborhood will be a lot more peaceful.

MetalDonnie tells Fugitoid and Harold that he is patched into the alarms he has rigged up at their lair, and has now detected something. He shows them a swarm or something headed for his family, and fast.

At the lair the Turtles are chillin' when suddenly an army of Flyborgs and flying Mousers bust into the room. The Turtles get ready to fight and Splinter tells them to protect Donnie. The robots are all saying that their main mission is to 'kill the rat' and Raph says it's not Donnie that they're after.

My Opinions- 

Just to explain a few things real quick, the Turtles mention an off-panel fight they had with Hun and the Purple Dragons which happened in the Free Comic Book Day comic of 2015. I missed out Free Comic Book Day that year since I was busy with the gang watching Avengers Age of Ultron. 

Detective Kay was introduced in Mikey's solo story a few years back where every Turtle (and several other characters) all got their own solo issue. Also this issue starts off April and Casey's road trip journey to solve more mysteries of the Pantheon, which will be told in their very own min-series. I liked the first issue since April and Casey got alone time and discovered that they really don't have anything in common besides the fact that they both know the Turtles and get dragged into their adventures. And of course, the Rat King is gonna be involved.

Now for this issue, it's pretty good stuff. Casey and Hun finally had their final battle for a while, as the neighborhood decided to stand up to the gangs and Hun was taken into police custody. It was a cool fight and I liked seeing Mr. O'Neil swing a toaster around. I also liked Casey's 'evil eyes' look when he puts on the hockey mask, it makes him look totally bad-ass. And extra points for making the Hispanic Purple Dragon, Malo, call Casey a Guey. LOL Classic Mexican slang.

Shredder comes back really quickly I have to say. I really liked to have seen Karai do more than toss a few motivational speeches before his inevitable return... 2 issue later. Karai is always getting shafted. Metalhead-Donnie has also been kinda shoved into the background despite the big reveal of it all. He was showcased way more in the Free Comic Book Day issue I missed than in this own series. 

Other than that, it's a great issue. Now that Krang and Hun are out of the picture, it's time to put the focus mostly on Baxter and the Foot. But based on previous incarnations... what fate awaits Baxter should he fail???