IDW TMNT # 52

By Mark Rodriguez

After killing Shredder, Splinter took over the Foot, causing Mikey to walk out. The Turtles run into a new gang called the Street Phantoms who work for an evil businessman named Darius Dun. Darius gets a visit from a member of the Foot who is not happy with Splinter's new rules.

The issue opens with Alopex and Leo sparring. After a quick match we see that they are actually training a group of junior Foot Ninja. Leo tells them to pair up and fight each other using a different fighting style against each other (one using karate against another using tae kwon do for example) to learn to use unpredictability to their advantage. Leo says he thought they would be done with the Foot after winning the gauntlet and never thought they'd be training them now. Alopex asks about Splinter and Leo says he is upset over Mikey leaving the gang even if he doesn't show it. Alopex likes helping out but does miss patrolling the streets with Angel.

Angel runs into Casey as he's fighting off street punks. She's surprised to find out that Casey picked a fight with them for the simple fact that they were lurking around, without actually having committed a crime yet. Casey says they don't belong in his neighborhood and Angels mocks him. She wanted to see what was new with him and April since things got crazy in their absence. Angels sees that Casey is just out looking for trouble, but he says that he learned on his trip with April that as soon as evil thinks they're going easy on them, it returns to threaten everyone they care about. Casey is out to stomp the bad guys before they have a chance to start.

Took me a while to figure out this was Angel. Looks more like she has purple highlights instead of all purple hair

Splinter arranges a discussion with Kitsune. He says he's aware of the schemes she and her family have around the world and won't stand for it. Kistune says he must have heard this from April since she and Casey encountered the Rat King during their trip. Kitsune says her family is ageless and her siblings were probably just having fun with them. She says she is not the enemy and shares the same goal of reforming the Foot Clan that he does, but real dangers lurk everywhere.

Splinter dodges an attack from the female Foot Assassin that contacted the Street Phantoms earlier, and the high tech gang join in the fight. Splinter is caught off guard by their ghostly technology and is taken down. The rat master orders the Foot Elite to attack. The female assassin fights Splinter while the Phantoms take out the Foot Elite. Leo and Alopex hear the fighting in the next room, but the Phantoms phase through the walls and take the fight to them as well.

Splinter is Batman!

Splinter continues fighting the assassin that says the Foot don't deal with mercy, but with death. Splinter reminds her that it is with death that he came to rule the clan.

 Leo and Aploex are having problems with the Phantoms until they mention that they get their powers from their cloaks. Leo decides to turn their disadvantage into an advantage. Leo challenges them to fight hand to hand. The Phantoms pull out knives but Alopex tosses Leo's swords at them while Leo jumps behind them and yanks their cloaks back. Due to being distracted by Leo's swords, Leo kicks both Maze and Jammer, knocking them both out. The Phantoms escape and while the Foot want to give chase, Leo says they should help Splinter.

Splinter says he only had a misunderstanding with a confused child. He takes off the assassin's mask and asks her name. The ninja is named Jennika and feels the clan has weakened under Splinter's role, never killing their enemies, and questions her role as an assassin. Splinter says her role does not change, but unlike Shredder using them to kill for his personal ambitions, he will use her to kill to protect the clan from those that want to attack it. However, for her treason she deserves to be punished and must prove herself worthy of being Splinter's assassin, to which Leo and Alopex will help.


Mikey follows Mondo Gecko to their lair and says that while helping Splinter lead the Foot feels wrong, so does joining up with Old Hob's group. Gecko says while Hob is an acquired taste, he reminds him that his other friends are there too. Mikey sees the rest of the Mutanimals welcoming him, complete with Slash offering him a cake. While Mikey starts to make himself at home with the new gang, all of them are being watched by an agent from Darkwater, who is told by his superiors to standby and continue to gather intel on the mutants.....

So this is the first appearance of Jennika

My opinions-

This comic reminds me why I like comics over cartoons. Cartoons, for the most part, except for a few exceptions, rarely go past status quo. Even with the shake ups in the Nick show, we are never gonna have one of the Turtles leave the group for half a season, or have Karai just flat out reform and live with them for half another season. Whatever happens gets resolved within the same episode, or in Karai's case, there's excuse after excuse, wether the Foot kidnapping her or her mutating into a snake, something will always keep her from joining the team and staying with them for an extended period of time.

Here we have Splinter and the gang leading the Foot, and while we know it might not last at least we can enjoy this new status quo for a few more issues. Mikey left the gang and might be joining the Mutanimals for a while. It's the kind of drastic changes I love reading in comics and seeing how these characters deal with these new situations knowing full well that things won't just go back to normal 'at the end of the episode'.

 I see that now Splinter has the Foot Elite, and rather than looking like those long armed sharp clawed assassins, they pretty much look like the 2K3 version of the Foot Elite. I liked the fight scene between Splinter and Jennika, much better done than the sparring between Leo and Alopex.

The only complaint I have was it really took a while to figure out exactly what happened between Leo, Alopex and the Street Phantoms. Like I said, it looks like Leo gave her his swords (though we never see him do it) and she threw them at the Phantoms to distract them while Leo himself jumped up and over them, flipping up their cloaks as he landed behind them. It just.... it looks like Alopex tossed Leo at them... and he dropped his swords as he flips their cloaks up.... or is that what actually happened? It's just so confusing, but either way... yeah, that somehow made Leo be able to actually hit them without his foot going through them with their ghostly cloak powers.

Let's see what happens next issue as Jennika joins the fold.