From IDW Publishing is a special issue featuring the TMNT – This is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual 2021
For millennia, the Pantheon family have played a deadly chess game with humanity, willingly sacrificing innocent and guilty alike in their twisted pursuit of victory. But now, one member of the family sees the opportunity to end the eternal contest once and for all — a final, crushing triumph over his immortal siblings and all of human- and mutant-kind. The time has arrived for the Rat King to make his most chaotic and destructive moves yet. The time has come at last for… THE ARMAGEDDON GAME! Written by Tom Waltz and illustrated by Casey Maloney, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual 2021 is the official prelude to the major TMNT event years in the making.
Tom Waltz (Author) Casey Maloney (Artist, Cover Artist)
This was a great refresher for fans of the TMNT. Building on the family’s issues with the Pantheon in the past and letting us know what happened and why in the past.
It’s a great storytelling method, with the Rat King being the perfect storyteller. He’s vain and his comments on the story are well written.
You can tell he is planning a deal with someone, but you are not sure who. I guessed one, but the others all make sense. I would be surprised if you get them all.
It builds nicely though with re-introductions to the other members of the Demi-gods and their different motivations (mostly). I do wonder if they will be a factor in the future though, as I would love to see them more involved.
The artwork is excellent, moving from jungle to snow, to a madcap game that gave me flashbacks to the football in Bedknobs and Broomsticks! The different members of the Pantheon now have their own motivations, and that seems to leave the Rat King at a loose end.
You can see how this story is going to build onto the larger story in the world of the TMNT – even with their current issues. And I’m looking forward to the build of it all.
An excellent primer for what is to come.
