IDW TMNT # 131

 By Mark Rodriguez

The Shredder has returned to life after literally escaping hell. Rather than continue his evil ways, he is actually trying to redeem himself from his past sins and sets out to lead the Turtles against the Rat King and his evil plans. 

The story opens with Shredder talking to the Turtles around the campfire in the forest. He wanted to keep away from the Turtles after all the harm he's caused them, but with the upcoming Armageddon Game coming soon, he can't sit idly by. He says the Rat King will bring obstacles that will not know how to deal with and with proper training they will not survive. 

Shredder will teach them the lost mystic arts of Kuji-Kiri, The Ten Cuts, hand gestures that can summon the energies of the universe. These techniques were taught to individuals in critical secret missions and are forbidden to use them outside of that mission. Mikey asks why these techniques are so dangerous. Leo says these techniques have close ties to black magic, similar to what Kitsune once used on him. Jennika asks what happened and Raph tells her that this is one bear they don't want to poke. 

Shredder explains the black magic opens you up to dark spirits. The part of the forest they are in is a thin place, where the walls between worlds are malleable, which will make the techniques of Kuji-Kiri easier to master. 

Shredder says they have already mastered Astral Projection which is Retsu, the Seventh Cut. Now they will master Rin, which Michealangelo says means strength. Shredder does the hand gesture and then smashes a tree to bit with his bare fist. He explains the mystic arts hold a risk, after they are invoked they must be revoked. The energies can affect a person's mind and body if left uncontrolled. The techniques are to be used sparingly but without hesitation and always in secrecy. The Kuji-Kiri works best in the shadows, the direct gaze of an outsider will cause it to go awry. Shredder spits out a fireball, amazing everybody. He reminds them that when working in the shadows, they won't be the only ones lurking in the darkness. 

We see a flashback of Alopex freaking out upon the Turtles agreeing work with Shredder. Alopex reminds them that Shredder brainwashed both Leo and herself. He burned down her home and killed her family. She was experimented on and denied her life as a normal fox. Raph tries to calm her down but she says if they go along with Shredder then she is done with the Splinter Clan. 

Raph is pondering these past events as he feels he is being watched. Raph seems some sort of demonic monstrosity that seems to be a combination of Bishop and Hob. They say they can change a lot of lives together and they can set off another bomb. Raph stabs the creature until it becomes a blob. The blob then turns into Alopex and tells Raph thathe destroyed what they had. The fake Alopex jumps on Raph and he stabs, making it revert back to its blob form. 

Mikey wakes up and wonders where Raph is and heads out to look for him. As he looks for him he finds Slash lying dead. Slash then wakes up, being fused with demonic looking children, asking him how he could have left them behind. This fake Slash knocks Mikey to the ground and tells him to fight. Mikey gets into a meditative stance and says that he won't. Slash screams in his face and turns back to a blob. 

Elsewhere Donatello is running by a fused version of Bebop and Rocksteady. They grab onto his shell and tear it off him, reminding him of how they nearly killed him before. Don uses the Kuji-Kiri gesture to slice the fused mutants in half. A creature crawls out from the remains saying he tried to fix him. Donnie blasts him to death. 

Jennika has a nightmare of a horrific fusion of her old friends, Silas, Ivan, Karai and Rita. She grabs onto them and yells at them to get off her. The abomination falls apart in her hands. 

The next day Jennika tells the others about her nightmare, and Mikey and Donnie tell them about their run ins with the fake Slash, Bebop and Rocksteady. Jennika asks Leo what his nightmare was and he says he didn't have one. This puts Shredder deep in thought.

Raph asks if these powers they're learning will really help stop the Rat King. Saki tells them that he hopes so since the Rat King and the Pantheon are gods, and they also enlisted their other enemies. Leo asks if Kitsune is involved. Saki says this is the Rat King's game and Kitsune is not involved. 

Leo asks why he didn't have a nightmare. Saki says Leo has a particular capacity for black magic and he's fighting it. Leo asks if he means his dark self that Kitsune created. Saki says he must do battle with him again. Leo says he has already defeated him. Saki says he merely beat him back but he wasn't destroyed. Leo says his dark self was created, but Saki says Kistune wasn't implanted into him, he was created based on what was already there.

Saki tells Leo to prepare to fight the Rat King, he must learn to inhabit the dark side. Leo asks if he has to summon Dark Leonardo and what will happen after that. Saki tells him that he will have to harness him and become him, then he will know what he will have to do. 

My Thoughts-

Things are getting interesting as the Shredder is training the turtles in dark arts to stop the Rat King. Alopex angrily stormed off due to her history with the Shredder, and who knows... Rat King just might use this against them. 

It's kinda cool that 'Dark Leo' became Leo's personal 'Evil Ryu', a separate entity he must fight within himself, instead of just him being brainwashed for a while. It was a pretty sweet design and it's also cool to see such a big event, City Fall had lasting ramifications that still effects the Turtles to this day.

The nightmare creatures were weird, but they were good flashbacks for all the things the turtles have gone through in the series thus far. Michealangelo still misses Slash after his death, and Donatello never got over almost dying when Bebop smashed his shell with a sledgehammer. 

One thing about the story though is the art, which I'm assuming will be what we can expect to see in the next 4 or so issues. Shredder looks very odd and he looks to be about the same height as the Turtles. The characters all look odd and too short, and I really don't like the way Alopex is designed, also looking too short and almost de-aged. This series has always had a different art style which usually changes either either 4 or so issues or per story arc, this one is gonna take a while to get used to. 

an example of several different art styles throughout the series

My only other question here is is Shredder knew all these techniques... why hasn't he tried them against the Turtles, especially in his final battle with them? Yeah, they're forbidden and they might go awry if used in front of onlookers... but at the time Shredder was still an all-out villain. I mean, usually villains lose all control or say 'the hell with the rules' when their plans start falling apart. Spitting out a random fireball would have shocked the hell out of everybody and helped him gain the upper hand back in the day.