Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1 Review

 

Writer: Erik Burnham

Artist: Mateus Santolouco

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Cover Artists: Mateus Santolouco; Nikola Čižmešija; J. Gonzo; Santtos; Danny Earls & Luis Antonio Delgado

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: March 20, 2024

 

Oroku Karai is infiltrating Chincha Technology on Awashima Island. Why is she breaking into the underground facility, and can her people get her in and out without getting captured or killed? Let's grab our katanas, leap into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1, and find out!

 

Story

Oroku wants to establish the Foot Clan’s status in Japan. She believes the Chincha Technology job will be easy. Stealing the handheld device her employer wants will be a quick in and out.

 

Instead, guards swarm her team when they enter the grounds. Her people tackle the Human guards while Bebop and Rocksteady engage a mutant. Worried the Chincha Technology guards will slow their progress, Oroku orders Casey and Natsu to abandon the melee. But the mutant her employer warned her about refuses to go down, forcing Bebop and Rocksteady to think outside their regular playbook.

 

 

 

When they finally get inside the underground complex, a rivalry between Natsu and Casey Jones distracts their focus. Oroku defuses the tension and keeps the two moving. But when they find the device, Oruku discovers the Dog Star Clan guarding it. Their ninja rivals won't give it up without a fight.

 

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1, Oroku Karai suffers a setback. Bad intel leads to failure and disgrace. Erik Burnham doesn’t tell us about the device she's trying to steal, although he reveals why her employer commissioned her. His story delivers an intriguing rivalry between Natsu and Casey, deadly enemies in the Dog Star Clan, and a smashing dose of Hulk-inspired Rocksteady and Bebop fun. While Oroku begins this journey with swagger, she finishes in disgrace. Still, she’s more determined than ever to succeed.

 

 

 

Art

Within their highrise headquarters, the Foot Clan kneels before a coffee table. A hologram shows their desired prize. Oroku regards them from her throne-like recliner. Her people regard her with determination, while Oroku smiles down at them.

 

Spotlights rise above the chain link fencing, illuminating the fraught battle between Oroku’s team and the armored guards. Amid the fighting, a rhino hurtles overhead in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1. Rocksteady clenches his hands, climbs from the small impact crater, and trots back to engage a whale mutant slamming a warthog with a pink mohawk into the concrete. Puny Bebop!

 

 

 

Marco Lesko brings eyecatching colors to Mateus Santolouco’s art. The Foot Clan and the nearest guards stand out amid the gray yard, buildings, and sky. Battle closeups receive yellow, orange, and pink backgrounds. Oroku, Casey, and Natsu travel through aqua-green tunnels until they reach the blue-gray chamber. Suffused by a circle of pink light, the imposing gray and turquoise Dog Star soldiers regard them through orange visors.

 

Shawn Lee fills white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes with black, uppercase words in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1. Words grow bold for inflection and rarely shrink. Emotions and volume enlarge and color words, influence balloon shape, or burst free of their confines. Energetic, multicolored sound effects enhance the battles, threaten to detonate panels and pound home the Dog Star Clan’s ferocity.

 

Thanks to my compadres at IDW for providing a copy of this cowabunga issue for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Bad intel from Oroku Karai’s mysterious employers leads to tragedy and sacrifice in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.