TMNT Journeys # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

IDW has been reprinting the classic Mirage comics over the years. For some reason they decided to give these new subtitles for the later volumes, so Volume 3 was called Urban Legends and Volume 4 is going to be called Journeys. Originally released in 2021, Volume 4 deals with the Turtles as they reach adulthood and deal with an ever-changing world that now accepts space aliens to live among them. Let's step back in time and check out the beginning of the final volume of the Mirage TMNT. 

 

The story opens on the moon as a robot leaps across the surface. He finds an old moon base and is impressed by how well it held up over the years. As he inspects the base, he gets a message and says he'll be along shortly.

The robot does several moon jumps and meets up with an Utrom. The Utrom asks if he had found the artifact. The robot says he did and called it a wonderful piece of human history. He was tempted to take a souvenir but thought better of it. He asks if 'the separation' was complete. The Utrom says they are still several hours away from completion of the assembly and testing. He thought the robot would like to do a final check on his modifications to the platform.

 

The robot asks how their guests are doing. The Utrom says they are less fearful but excited about what's to come. They secured their vessel on hangar level three and were promised a front row seat for the event. The robot says the Utrom has handled the crisis well and have given them a tale worthy of entertaining scores of future generations. The Utrom is flattered. The robot says it was the Utrom's insight in the psychology of the world's denizens that guided their work. He remarks that he has only met a few of them personally.... and they weren't even human.

We cut to the Turtles as Leonardo narrates that they took a wrong turn and ended in an alley on the Manhattan Militia turf. The Turtles are backed against a wall, all of them in their battle stances, weapons drawn. The Militia says they don't like trespassers on their turf, especially space aliens. Leonardo narrates that they're wrong. They're not space aliens. The Turtles leap into action.

 

The Turtles fight off the Militia and move too fast for any of the armed men to get a good shot at them. One of them is about to shoot Leonardo, but his gun jammed. He tosses the gun and tries to choke Leo with his scarf. Leo flips the guy off him and says this is getting old. He tells Raph that they should leave and head to where they can't follow. 

The Turtles go up a nearby fire escape and hit the rooftops. Raph knocks another gunman out and says he was having fun. Leo says that kind of fun can get them killed, as they dodge some gunfire. Mike says that Raph wasn't in any anger since the guys are horrible marksmen. Leo says even the hopelessly inept can get lucky. They enter the building and it looks deserted.

The Turtles take a break and Mikey asks if this was easier 15 years ago. Donatello says the nuts keep getting nuttier. Mikey compares the Militia to the Purple Dragons and Donnie says they could at least spell. Leo says it's time to move out and determines they shouldn't run into any trouble on the rooftops. 

The Turtles head out to the roof and think they're safe until they hear a noise. Just then some of the Militia members find them, using snowmobiles on the roof. Mikey runs up to one of them and flips him off the vehicle. Another chases after Raph who manages to run up the side of the wall. The driver is so focused on Raph that he crashes into some of his buddies.

Donatello asks how these guys even got snowmobiles onto the rooftops. He flips a TV antenna upwards, which knocks one of the guys off his snowmobile, sending them both crashing into the building. Leonardo says they should wrap this up and head out. The Turtles leap off the roof as the men yell threats at them. Donatello finds one of their snowmobiles and decides to take it for a spin.

Michaelangelo sees Don on the sled and wants to come along. He slips on the snow and lands on his shell. Before he can get up, he suddenly gets hit by a bus. Mikey is out cold and is picked up by someone. The person calls 'Magnrok' and tells him he needs a pick up.

 

Donatello rides the sled down the stairs leading to the subway. He rides the train tracks but it's hard to steer without the snow. Donnie hits the fuel line and leaps off the snowmobile before it explodes. Donatello makes a remark about proper vehicle maintenance when he notices the explosion demolished a brick wall. He finds a big truck which was hidden in this area.

Meanwhile, Casey waits for April as they head off for a doctor's appointment. They have been having trouble trying to conceive so they want to find out what's wrong. 

Elsewhere, Shadow is sparring with Metalhead (the superhero, not the robot). This helps keep her mind off things as we waits to hear from Casey and April. Splinter tells her to be patient. Shadow says she's trying to. Splinter says he knows how impatient teenagers can be. Shadow says it's more than that. She has the strongest feeling that big things are about to happen to the world....

 

My Thoughts- 

This takes me back. While I never actually read these issues back in 2001 (I had no way to do back in Mexico), I was there as the message boards discussed this brand new Volume 4 which would ignore the events of Volume 3. At the time Volume 3 was still not completed and left most of the Turtles in horribly mutilated ways, so a new volume would have had the burden to somehow revert them back to normal if they didn't want to keep them that way. Rather than do that, Volume 4 (and Peter Laird) chose to completely ignore Volume 3 and make a big time gap between Volumes 2 and 4. And to clarify, at this point in time, Eastman sold his ownership rights to the Turtles, so Peter Laird was the sole owner.

I eventually found the Technodrome Forums and Dr. Spengler's TMNT Entity Blog which helped me keep track of the issues as they came out. Volume 4's story was kind of weird... but they did release a Volume 2 of Tales of the TMNT which I was lucky enough to pick up a few issues at good ol' Velvet Underground once I moved to Vegas. Now with IDW reprinting these I can get the actual books in my hand to read beyond what a story synopsis will describe.

One of the biggest questions that 'Journeys' will have is what will happen once they reach issue 32? To further explain, Volume 4's story, as of now, was left without an ending. The last regular printed issue that one could buy in comic shops (back then anyway) was issue 28 released in 2006. Issue 29 was released in 2008, two whole years later, and only had 1000 printed copies that you could only buy at the Mirage website. Issue 30 was released in the same way (1000 limited copies) on May 2009, months before the Ninja Turtles franchise was sold to Viacom on October 2009. Issue 31 was released only online in 2010, eventually getting a physical copy in 2015. The final issue so far, 32, was released with limited copies and online in 2014 days apart. What a journey for those that stayed faithful to the story and wanted to see where it would end.

Volume 3 had a similar treatment which also left things unfinished with issue 23 in 1999. Eventually IDW started the 'Urban Legends' reprints and actually made brand new issues 24, 25 and 26 to give the story a conclusion in 2020. Now one would say, can't IDW just do the same thing with Volume 4? The major difference was that Volume 3 was done by other guys at Image with pretty much the permission of Eastman and Laird but not much involvement from them. They were able to bring back writers Gary Carlson and Frank Fosco to finish their story. Volume 4 is another story... Peter Laird's story.

After the Viacom buy out, Laird still retained the right to do at least one new TMNT story a year as he saw fit, completely unrelated to whatever Nickelodeon was doing. Laird has grown more and more detached from the property over the years and focused more on his family. With the Journeys re-prints starting up, will he be burdened with trying to wrap up his story once we get there? I can only hope that IDW was smart enough to consult with or cut some sort of agreement with Laird before even starting this, but who really knows with IDW. Or maybe he'll just give them the outline and let someone else do it. It's hard to say and we're a good two years away from that. Hopefully plans start taking shape once they get to issue 25 or so....

As for the story itself... well, this is mostly a set up issue, though the Turtles see some action as they fight this anti-space alien group. While Leo's narration was a reference to when the Turtles faced the Purple Dragons way back in the very first issue of Mirage TMNT, this fight is a lot longer. I'm assuming back then it gave readers that feeling of 'we're back!!!' as they got to see the original Mirage Turtles back in action. No puns or pizza references. They even had Mike say 'cowa-somethin' or other' to point out the fact that this version of Mikey is not the party dude and doesn't say cowabunga unless it's in jest.

We also get to see the Turtles acting a little older, a little more tired. While Raph might be high on adrenaline, the other three needed some time to catch their breath after fighting regular thugs that should be a cakewalk when compared to fighting with the Foot Clan. 

Ninja Turtle fans that haven't read the Mirage comics might be confused with a guy named Metalhead that isn't a robot turtle. In this case he's a member of the Justice Force, a superhero team that exists in Mirage (and the 2003 cartoon), and we'll see other members in the following issues.

Shadow also appears, Casey's adopted daughter. With Casey and April getting married somewhere in the time gap, they now both raise Shadow together.

 

 

Jim Lawson's art might not be for everybody. He draws the Turtles just fine... but the humans.... oh god. And the Turtles themselves will get more 'angular' and 'blocky' looking as the issues go on. At the time Lawson's art was also featured in the cut scenes of the TMNT Smash-Up and TMNT Arcade Attack, black and white and all. It's kinda cool to see if you're a Mirage fan and recognize the art style being featured in the games... but it might be rough for everybody else.

The story has two main things, namely Mikey being separated from the others and Donnie finding that truck. The real big deal is what that one robot and the Utrom are planning.... At least thing time around we can read Volume 4 at a regular monthly schedule instead of once every two years or limited to 1000 copies and whatnot.