IDW TMNT The Armageddon Game- Opening Moves # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

A lot has changed since I last read the Ninja Turtles comics from IDW. The Shredder was killed but has recently returned form Hell. Splinter was killed. Krang has taken over Leatherhead's body. Jennika was mutated into the fifth Turtle, and now we have Venus lurking around the corner. Throughout it all there has always been the lurking threat of the Pantheon, run by several other-worldly members such as Kitsune and the Rat King. It seems they have finally started to play their game now.

The story opens with Shredder watching over the New York skyline contemplating his past and present to prevent a perilous future. Back in ancient Japan, he was the one bringing peril as Jonin to the Foot Clan. Oroku Saki would kill any who stood in his way, which would include the execution of Hamato Yoshi and his four children. He would later perform of ritual of death and rebirth with the help of Kitsune. He took his own life and was preserved by a demonic fluid and hidden away until the time was right for his rebirth as Kistune's Dragon Warrior. 

Centuries later, Oroku Karai would be the one to revive him into the modern day, now becoming The Shredder. Alongside Karai and Kitsune, Shredder would continue to rule the city with an iron fist with his Foot Clan until he realized that Hamato Yoshi and his sons have also returned, in mutated forms. In the end, Hamato Yoshi, as Splinter, would give Shredder an honorable death. This time there would be no demonic fluid to preserve him, and he'd go straight to hell. However, between Kitsune using the Sword of Hate and Splinter sacrificing himself in the other world, Saki was able to return for a third time. This time he seeks to redeem himself for the atrocities of his two past lives, but he fears he's unworthy. 

Sometime before, Saki asks Kitsune if she thinks he is ready as she works on her paintings. She says he had already revealed his return to Yoshi's children, it is up to him to know. Just then Aka, an angel girl of sorts flies in to eat some sweets. Saki thought Kistune had killed her, and Aka said she did. However, since she is immortal, she merely comes back in a younger form. 

Aka warns that their brother, the Rat King continues to play their little game despite most of the Patheon no longer showing interest. He calls his next play 'The Armageddon Game' and has recruited new pawns for his team that they will find familiar. Rat King is out to 'defeat' the entire world and has recruited Baxter Stockman, Krang and Madame Null to help him out. With that Aka leaves them, telling them the only way to win in this family game is to play. 

Kitsune tells Saki that they must take up his challenge and meet him on his terms and his rules. Saki asks what rules, and Kitsune tells him the oldest rules of all, survival of the fittest. Kistune and Saki discuss how an Armageddon Game is a chess term in which Black starts with the advantage and White has a limited time to take it away. Rat King has begun his opening moves so they have to hurry to counter them.

Kitsune has Saki lie down and tells him he will take a journey into the past into his memories. She tells him a similar strategy was successful against him once. When Yoshi challenged him to the Gauntlet, the Turtles kept him busy in battle while he searched his memories for clues on how defeat him. This cost Saki not only his clan but his life. Now they will seek out the memories of the fears and failures of the Rat King's pawns. Kitsune managed to give both Saki and herself an out of body experience. 

Elsewhere, Leatherhead, being taken control of by Krang, has been starving himself for a week, hoping to get rid of him. Shredder and Kitsune see this as ghosts of sorts, and can't be seen nor heard. Shredder thinks Leatherhead eliminate Krang on his own, so perhaps Krang isn't the threat that Aka has indicated. Kistune doubts this and thinks her brother must have chosen him for a reason. They will go into Krang's memories and see what weaknesses they can find.

Krang's memories take him to planet Balaraphon in Dimension X as he is attacking the Neutrinoes despite having peace treaties with them. The Neutrinoes raise their shields and Krang tells Captain Hambrath to cease fire. He wants a more hands on approach as he wants to capture Zenter's Royal Guard and sends Colonel Ch'Rell and his troops to get them. Zak sends out a Mayday for anyone to help as Ch'Rell leads troops of Utroms, Stone Warriors and Triceratons to take down their forcefield.

Ch'Rell commands one of the Triceratons to take down the shield. Kala is angry that the Utroms always send others to do the dirty work for them. Dask tells Zak to get the flank shield down and he blasts right through the Triceraton with his weapon. The Utroms send in more Triceratons and even if they choose to leave the forcefield up, they will destroy it. At this point, their only option is to get away, even if they have to deactivate the shields to take off.

As the Neutrinoes fly off, Ch'Rell fires a blast towards the ship, knocking Kala off it. The Triceratons capture her, when suddenly Commander Luna Azul and her forces arrive to help out. Luna Azul sends her troops to rescue Kala. Krang is angry to see the Nova Squadron and knows more reinforcements will follow. He tells Hambrath to teleport Ch'Rell and the Utroms back on the ship at once. Hambrath asks about the Triceratons they have enslaved and Krang tells him to forget about them.

Ch'Rell sends his troops to attack the Nova Squadron. With Ch'Rell being involved, Luna Azul knows Krang is the command ship hovering overhead. She orders Trip to lock all weapons on it. Krang knows that engaging Nova Squadron in a fight will give them time for reinforcements to arrive. 

As the fighting continues, Ch'Rell says since the Neutrinoes are staying to fight, they won't need their ship anymore and so he blows it up. Krang tells Ch'Rell to pull back. Ch'Rell says they have the advantage and Krang says they lost the advantage and have to get out of here. Captain Hambrath teleports the troops back to the ship. The Neutrinoes are thankful and the Nova Squadron tell them they come to win.

As the troops return, Ch'Rell argues with Krang about the order to bring them back. Krang says they already have incoming ships on their sensors and this isn't running but a strategic withdrawal. He senses displeasure in Ch'Rell's tone and will make sure it's duly noted.

From this altercation, Shredder and Kistune were able to determine that Krang fears the Nova Squadron so recruiting some of them would be beneficial. There is also the rift between Krang and Ch'Rell that can be exploited given the proper encouragement. They fly off and will now explore the memories of Mayor Baxter Stockman. 

My Thoughts-

Pretty cool set up and love the art. The Shredder flashbacks were pretty helpful as the series has now run past 100 issues, so it was cool to remember all the stuff he has been through. The more I see of them, the more I'm starting to think Kistune really does love Saki, instead of just using him for her schemes... but who knows.

It's kinda funny to see Krang bossing Ch'Rell around, especially considering how both characters acted and were established in previous media. I know the overall concept of the Utroms comes from the Mirage comics pre-dating everything, but when it comes to the individual characters, Krang did come before Ch'Rell, so I guess that's the path IDW took.

The flashback story was cool, we got to see the IDW Neutrinoes again, who were definitely a lot more bad-ass and taken more seriously this time. The really went deep into the obscure lore this time as we even got to see The Nova Squadron, a renamed modern version of the Nova Posse from the old Archie comics run, which originally started as an adaptation of the 80's cartoon but soon followed its own path.

Overall an entertaining read. Wish it a big longer. It felt like a larger than normal issue... but the rest of the pages were showing all the other alternate covers and other advertisements and whatnot. Since we already followed Shredder's life through the series and the Krang/Ch'Rell stuff was new, I'm thinking we'll get something similar next issue as they breeze through Baxter's backstory and focus more on Madame Null. 

I'm curious how Shredder and Kitsune will recruit Nova Squadron into all this (as well as how they might have changed over the years), and I also want to see why the Rat King chose Krang in his current weakened state. And hey, maybe next issue we'll see some of the Turtles as well, not just in flashbacks.

Still surprised how they grabbed goofy characters like the Neutrinoes and still made them much more serious while still keeping their overall designs.