Originally published on Set The Tape
‘Trial of Krang’ Part Three – The oversized conclusion to the Turtles’ greatest extra-dimensional story arc is here! Both the prosecution and the defense have tricks up their sleeves as testimony gets emotional. Meanwhile, a war rages outside the courtroom as the Malignoid swarm engulfs Planet Neutrino!
The bumper sized 75th issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles celebrates this important milestone with a story steeped in TMNT lore and history, and sets up two exciting new stories to come.
With the evil Krang on trial for this war crimes across two universes, the Turtles have to help protect the planet Neutrion from invading alien forces. This means that we get to see the Turtles, minus Donatello, fighting with glowing energy versions of their weapons and flying around on jetpacks.
The shift from street-level New York (and below street-level on occasion) to an alien planet complete with robots and spaceships creates a very different tone, which helps to have this particular story stand out from a lot of other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books. Whilst the alien invasion of Neutrino takes up a large portion of the book, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, and the back half of the issue shifts back to the courtroom drama of Krang’s trial, featuring some familiar faces from previous TMNT stories.
We all know Krang is a villain, that he’s motivated by evil and has done some unforgivable things in the past, but the book manages to make a very real and reasoned argument for the heroes of the book to have to find him not guilty of war crimes. It points out that often those on a winning side of a war perform some very questionable actions, and that they justify these actions by making their foes into monsters.
Yes, Krang is actually a monster, but this argument does appear to sway King Zenter, making him question some of his own actions, which leads to one of the set-up’s for an upcoming story in which the Triceratons invade Earth. This is a surprise development in a story that I thought would have been fairly simple, one in which Krang would be found guilty for obvious reasons; instead, the story manages to surprise and subvert expectations in great ways.
The book also sends the Turtles off on another exciting adventure when they step through an interdimensional portal, an adventure that will play out in the upcoming TMNT/Ghostbusters 2. Where a lot of extra-sized issues tend to add padding or feel overly long, the combination of action and courtroom drama mean that the issue feels well paced and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
Go to Amy's Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment