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IDW TMNT # 58

By Mark Rodriguez

The Turtles meet Leatherhead and try to awaken the Utroms trapped in stasis in the Technodrome. Someone slaughtered several Utroms and Fugitoid and Leatherhead leads Leo and Raph to where the culprits might be. Fugitoid is salvaged but is in a coma. The Utroms ask Donatello why they haven't revived Ch'Rell. Meanwile, Leo and Raph run into Traag and Granitor, who they blame for the murders, but they know nothing about it. Suddenly Leatherhead attacks Traag and reveals that he was the culprit all along. Now what will happen?


Donatello tells the Utroms that Ch'Rell was kept in stasis since he was considered a war criminal by the Fugitoid. The Utroms are offended by this and declare him a war hero. Donnie wishes to speak to Ma'Riell in private. Don explains that the reason the Utroms can breathe just fine in this new environment was because Krang managed to terraform the island they're on, and he was stopped before he could terraform the whole planet and therefore commit mass genocide. Krang was taken to be judged by the Neutrinos since he caused war crimes towards them, and it seems Ch'Rell was kept in stasis for similar war crimes though Fugitoid never said what they were. Ma'Riell says they were wise to be cautious around Ch'Rell because he would have been very angry to find out that Krang was imprisoned.

Mikey is with one of the Utroms as he laments the loss of their Councilor. Just then, new Utroms awaken and recognize Mikey as one of the 'lizard warriors of the past' and try to attack them. The Utrom with Mikey tell them that he's there to help and Mikey remembers the Utroms as the ones they saw in an adventure when Renet took them to prehistoric times (a mini-series called Turtles in Time).

Leatherhead arrives, nursing a bleeding arm. He tells Mikey to follow his blood trail through the tunnels to find Leo and Raph, while he watches the Utroms. Mikey dashes past Donnie explaining where he's going. Just then Fugitoid's head reactivates and tells Donnie that Leatherhead was the one that hurt him.

Mikey finds Leo and Raph, along with Traag and Granitor, all of them in bad shape after Leatherhead kicked their asses. Mikey tells them that Leatherhead told him where to find him and that he's now with Donnie. Granitor warns that they're in trouble and Raph snaps that they were trying to kill them too. Granitor says they just wanted the Turtles' air tanks to survive, Leatherhead wants revenge. Leo says they have to head back ASAP and take Traag and Granitor with them.


Granitor explains that mutagen and ooze was dumped in the island's inlets and it eventually mutated Leatherhead. Krang found him and captured him and ran all sorts of torturous experiments on him. He planned to use Leatherhead as the first of an army of intelligent mutants. Whenever Krang's plans failed though, he would take out his anger on him. Eventually he decided to shift focus on the Technodrome and left Leatherhead to rot in a cell, until the Foot attacked the base. Now Leatherhead's just out to kill any Utrom he can get his hands on. Mikey mentions this is like what Hob said, another mutant tortured for no reason. Raph says the only thing he hates more than Hob is when he's right.

Leatherhead starts monologuing before getting ready to kill the Utroms until Donnie arrives to attack, giving them time to flee. Leatherhead tosses Donnie across the room and then gets tased. The other Turtles arrive to help and tell him to calm down before things gets ugly. Leatherhead rams against a wall and says it already got ugly centuries ago. He grabs Donnie and drags him off towards the teleporter.


Leatherhead makes Donnie activate the teleporter and he prevents the others from trying to stop him. He says he only wanted to kill the Utroms, which is why he tried to lead them away from the carnage. Raph angrily tases Leatherhead and Mikey removes his breathing mask. Leatherhead quickly wraps his tail around Mikey and removes his breathing mask as well. Donnie activates the portal and allows Leatherhead to escape. He says he still owes him one for saving his life and they have to let Leatherhead go so they can save Mikey's life. He tells the others to go ahead and he'll have Harold help him return later.

Once in New York, Leatherhead is simply overwhelmed by all the new sights and sounds. He doesn't know what to do. He tells the Turtles he's not done with them and dives into the river. The Turtles head back and Leo wishes Mikey didn't have to go to the old lair by himself, but Raph agrees that he needs his space. When they arrive though, they find that Kitsune and Alopex have killed all the Foot Ninja, and they wonder what happened to Splinter!


My opinions-

So we finally have Leatherhead in the series and so far he is out for revenge on the Utroms, which honestly isn't much different from the Nick version. I don't know why Leatherhead threatened the Turtles one last time before getting away other than being a douche. I mean, he DID save Donnie's life, and Donnie did repay his debt. And if Leatherhead was telling the truth, he was only out to kill the Utroms and leave them out of it. Sure he did lead Leo and Raph into a trap, but he only beat them up to keep them out of the way rather than outright kill them. He's a strange and tragic character but now that he has his freedom I don't see a real reason for him to become a bad guy. Unless of course, he runs into Old Hob and is enlisted into the Mutanimals since he also hates the Turtles, and thanks to Mikey, he's also in need of new members.

Leatherhead is kind of a sadistic somewhat philosophical character, especially when he taunts the Utroms on how they've been in stasis for so long, oblivious of the world changing around them, only to wake up in a strange new world to be killed by him without really knowing why. And he also questions his place in the world knowing full well that mutants like him and the Turtles shouldn't exist.

I guess Kitsune has finally made her move. I just hope they don't completely focus on this and still show a bit of what Donnie is up to. There's still the matter of Ch'Rell, as well as Traag and Granitor, and I kinda don't want to wait 3 or so issues to get back to that plot thread.

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