Chris Cooper reviews the second issue of IDW’s four-part miniseries Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret History of the Foot Clan…
“In the present day, new facts about the history of the Foot Clan have been uncovered by Dr.Miller that both the TMNT and Shredder have taken an interest in In the past, the Foot Clan has seemingly been set on a path of righteousness by Oroku Maji. But not before a curse was placed on Maji by the mysterious woman Kitsune.“
SHOTFC #1 was a great comic. It delivered a lot of backstory whilst keeping me entertained. No mean feat. As it also contained amazing artwork, I considered it near perfect, and I’m very pleased to say that #2 continues in the same vein.
I feel sorry for Ben Bates (artist on the main TMNT title). I really like his designs, but they pale next to Santolouco’s. His turtles contain many influences from The Next Mutation to the latest Nickelodeon CGI show. It all comes together to create what is currently my favourite ‘look’ for the TMNT. This excellence spreads across the whole comic everything having a high level of detail, yet not going too far. I’d go as far as to say that this work stands side by side with Greg Capullo’s on Batman. Considering I adore that book, it’s high praise.
The ending, whilst not as surprising as #1’s, is fantastic, with a really good use of perspective showing us a large battle that is about to get a whole lot worse.
Special mention must be made of a comment made by Raphael to Donatello. I won’t say it here, but if you’re off a similar age to me (late 20s) you’ll get a great kick out of it.
With #1 balancing everything so well, it would have been easy to fall into a lull this issue. This possible pitfall is leaped over with the grace of a ninja however, as the tale continues to push on with purpose and give us more information. Right now, I don’t want this to end and I’m already figuring out where the collected edition will sit on my shelf.
Chris Cooper
Originally published January 22, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
