Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4 Review

 

Writer: Erik Burnham

Artists: Mateus Santolouco

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Cover Artists: Mateus Santolouco; Tango & Paris Alleyne; Santtos

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 19, 2024

 

Yoshi Chen wants to unite his Dog Star Clan with Oroku Karai’s Foot Clan. But he played a cruel trick on them, and his soldiers sent Karai to the hospital. Yoshi’s actions indirectly cost Toshiro his life. Karai doesn’t believe that Yoshi will be content to share power. But what are Karai’s options? Can she ensure the Foot Clan's dominance over Yoshi's Dog Star Clan? Let's grab our katanas, leap into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4, and find out!

 

 

Story

Yoshi's story of the Foot Clan's origins differs from hers. Yoshi claims their ancestor Daigo assisted his brother Tadami before building his clan in China. Karai’s copy of the Foot Clan sacred text, Ashi No Himitsu, states that Tadami killed all his brothers and retained sole leadership of the Foot Clan throughout his life. Yoshi traces his genealogy back to Daigo and suggests that Tadami and Daigo could have built a stronger clan together. But when Karai refuses his offer, Yoshi's hologram disappears, and the transmitter explodes.

 

Perhaps Yoshi didn't try to kill her (again), only erase any technological link to his Dog Star Clan. But this second attack confirmed Karai’s assertion that she alone should steer the Foot Clan’s destiny. So she sought guidance from the Realm of the Dead, which led her to the secret cache of the Foot Clan's founder, Takeshi Tatsuo. Karai chose her companions carefully in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4. That's wise, as magical caves are dangerous places.

 

Fighting and status are significant parts of the ninja life. While Karai enjoys a Tokyo penthouse suite, the mutants share an open-plan apartment. Zodi feels especially aggrieved. The mutant scorpion itches for action and yearns for status. Yet Zodi sits on the sidelines while Karai focuses on achieving her destiny. Her fellow mutants punished her for speaking out. Karai selected one mutant companion and two Humans as her companions for this mission. Why didn't Karai invite Zodi?

 

In Erik Burnham's story, the Foot Clan faces threats from without and within. Like the cave on Dagobah, the Secret Cache of Takeshi Tatsuo will test the intruders. Magical forces will force Clyde, Natsu, and Casey Jones to confront their insecurities, their feelings about others, and the ambitions that drive them. But their leader, Karai, will face the biggest test. Is she worthy of guiding the Foot Clan toward their prophesied destiny in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4?

 

 

Art

From feisty Zodi sporting her new stinger to technology wizard Kris staring at her monitors, sleep-befuddled Bebop, and wide-eyed Clyde, Mateus Santolouco fills the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4 with engaging characters. Santolouco's magic transports us from the cave in the woods to a sun-drenched tropical beach and a snow-covered hillside. The expressive characters argue before exploding into action as Raphael kicks Casey, Natsu punches a zombie, and a dragon hurtles through the air.

 

Marco Lesko bespells Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4 with a loaded palette of appealing colors. Whether on a New York City rooftop or in an empty armory, characters shine in the dark, aided by ambient light and glowing fire. Lesko enhances the realism of violent moments, such as when Zodi flings a monitor from the Python's workstation or a Turtle punches off Casey's mask.

 

Shawn Lee conjures black uppercase words in white dialogue balloons and color narrative boxes. The words rarely shrink and grow bold or swell for inflection. Panels explode with the sounds of gunfire, the clang of swords, and spontaneously erupting people. Thanks to IDW for providing a copy of this issue for review.

 

 

Final Thoughts

Like John Wagner and Vince Locke's classic graphic novel, the Foot Clan's past is A History Of Violence. Karai seeks to rule over others with an iron fist in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #4. But is crushing anyone who opposes you the best way to achieve your destiny?

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

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

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3 Review

 

Writer: Erik Burnham

Artists: Mateus Santolouco & Santtos

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Cover Artists: Mateus Santolouco; Kevin Anthony Catalan; Santtos;

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 15, 2024

 

Yoshi Chen hired Oroku Karai to steal the Utrom device from the Chincha Technology underground facility. Then, he sent his Dog Star soldiers to attack them. The cyborg ninja sent Karai to the hospital and cost Toshiro his life. Now, Yoshi wants to talk. But can he say anything Karai wants to hear? Let's grab our katanas, leap into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3, and find out!

 

Story

Yoshi tells Karai a story about the Foot Clan’s origins. Some of it she knows. But his story differs from hers. His retelling also threatens her purpose. Karai had thought she was the sole inheritor of the Foot Clan’s destiny. But Yoshi also traces the Dog Star Clan’s lineage back to the Foot Clan. He suggests they unite and pursue their destiny together.

 

Karai has good reason to distrust Yoshi in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3. Yoshi hired them to assess their strengths. His Dog Star Clan soldier committed suicide rather than answer Casey and Natsu’s questions. Now, he wants to join forces? What has prompted Yoshi’s change of mind?

 

Erik Burnham doesn’t visit the Foot Clan’s Mutant Compound, so we don’t see how Zodi is faring after Rocksteady’s brutal attack. Nor do we learn what Danno told Karai about the Dog Star Clan in the Singing Rabbit karaoke club. Instead, Burnham backs Karai into a corner. Yoshi's story makes her sacred history a lie and threatens her future.

 

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3, Yoshi Chen offers Oroku Karai an olive branch. The two have much to offer each other. Yoshi has invested in his clan’s future by enhancing his soldiers with technology. Karai has worked to master magic. But these are two ambitious people. Karai and Yoshi’s copies of the Ashi no Himitsu differ. Yet both agree on one point. Oruku Saki and Kitsune’s sons fought for the leadership of the Foot Clan. If Karai agrees, would her partnership with Yoshi last longer than Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement? Or would it only buy peace for a limited time?

 

 

 

Art

Clad in her uniform and armor, and with her katana strapped to her back, Karai stares bullets at Yoshi in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3. The Dog Star Clan’s Jonin smiles at her hostility. Then, his expression grows serious as he instructs her on the Foot Clan's true history.

 

The wind makes Takeshi’s cloak flutter like the flags that jut from a mound of bodies. Blood sprays at Oroku Maji attacks Takeshi in Yoshi’s story. Tall grass and trees greet our ground-angle view of four brothers battling. An explosion hurls Karai to the floor. When she rises, she hurries to her study and opens the safe between two bookcases behind her desk.

 

A white haze lightens Yoshi’s hologram. The warm tones of the open wooden staircase, orange carpet, and blue couch in Karai’s apartment fade away. Marco Lesko casts this secret history in limited shades of brown and orange, blue and green. Stronger versions of the same colors enrich Karai’s visit to her office, punctuated by the vibrant green and purple adorning Natsu's head. An orange glow surrounds her, and yellow overtakes her eyes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3.

 

Oroku Karai’s black uppercase words inhabit white dialogue balloons. Yoshi uses white dialogue balloons outlined in pink. Yoshi’s alternative history of the Foot Clan appears as white letters in blue narrative boxes. Immense Japanese writing appears during historic clashes, while the English language Ktangs and Thwocks hover beside them. A pink beeping precedes an immense white Kzzzhark. But Shawn Lee saves the best for last, as electrifying sound effects accompany burning characters that hurl white letters into crimson balloons.

 

Thanks to IDW for providing a copy of this issue for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

The leader of the Dog Star Clan shakes the ground beneath Oroku Karai’s feet while suing for peace, prompting her to demonstrate how ruthless she can be in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

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

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2 Review

 

Writer: Erik Burnham

Artist: Mateus Santolouco

Colorist: Marco Lesko

Letterer: Shawn Lee

Cover Artists: Mateus Santolouco; Edison Neo; Santtos;

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: April 17, 2024

 

Oroku Karai ordered her Foot Clan soldiers to learn about the Dog Star Clan. After scouring the streets for weeks, Natsu and Casey Jones show Karai a finger. Are her ninjas insulting her? Or have Casey and Natsu learned vital intel that will give the Foot Clan an edge over their rivals? Let's grab our katanas, leap into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2, and find out!

 

Story

Karai hungers for revenge. The Dog Star Clan beat her to the Utrom device secreted in the Chincha Technology underground facility. They also beat her into the hospital. Toshiro brought her back from the brink of death but at the cost of his life. While Karai regained her strength, the Foot Clan squeezed local street gangs. When a Dog Star Clan soldier investigated the missing payouts, Casey Jones, Natsu, and Clyde were waiting for him. Casey and company thought they had ways of making the cyborg ninja talk. Their captive proved otherwise.

 

Karai’s mastery of magic doesn't include learning vital intelligence from a cyborg's finger. Worse, the Dog Star Clan knows what her people are up to. Karai decides to take matters into her own hands. Her target likes to end the day with a song. So in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2, Karai slips inside the Singing Rabbit karaoke club and seeks an audience with Tanaka Danno. Unlike Casey and Natsu, Karai knows how to make people talk.

 

While Karai hunts for information, Zodi seethes over their humiliating defeat. The Mutant Scorpion wonders if Karai is best suited to lead them to victory over the cybernetically enhanced Dog Star Clan. Science transformed them and gave them superhuman abilities. Karai can’t even keep Casey and Natsu from arguing. Is a nonmutated Human, even one with magical abilities, the best person to lead the Foot Clan?

 

 

 

Art

A Dog Star Clan ninja delivers a flying kick to a Frog ninja’s head. The cybernetic fist shatters Casey’s mask. When a sword slices into the cyber-enhanced soldier's armor, blood spills, and electricity arcs. Standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows of her penthouse, Karai studies the crackled metal finger. Then she tosses it to Casey before striding across her balcony and leaping off the railing.

 

 

Marco Lesko brings brilliant color to Mateus Santolouco’s art in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2. Purple letters replace yellow ones on the giant TV monitor in a blue, pink, and purple room. Subdued green, blue, and orange dominate the Foot Clan’s Mutant Compound, as Rocksteady and Bebop work out, Clyde eats pizza while playing a video game, and Zodi asks the mutant snake Krisa searching questions.

 

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 #2. Words grow bold for inflection and rarely shrink. Lee helps us hear the Dog Star Clan soldier's armor reverberate, crack, sizzle, and hum. Skulls bang together amid throbbing music. As white words outlined in red waft through the karaoke club, we wonder if Karai enjoys her new life in Japan.

 

Thanks to IDW for providing a copy of this issue for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Casey Jones gives Karai a finger, Rocksteady gets Zodi's sting, people party with Edgar Allen Poe, and the Dog Star Clan reassesses their rival’s threat level in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #2.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

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

 

 

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.