The Fate of the Ninja Turtles was decides in issue 150 where they faced the Universal threat of Armaggon. With that the Four brothers and their adopted Sister ended up cast to the far corners of the world to pursue their own goals. Mutant Nation picks up the story of Raphael and Pepperoni ( his faithful sidekick Triceratops) on their journey and with a back up story about Casey Jones in Japan.
Tom Waltz is back writing the TMNT in this monthly series with the last artist to work on the final run of the IDW TMNT series Vincenzo Federici at his side for the A part of the story. With TMNT Saturday Morning Adventures writer Erik Burnham and his longtime collaborator from The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan the legendary Mateus Santolouco handling the artwork.
The best description of this book would be to say it’s a jumping on point. It’s definitely taking advantage that the reader has kept up with the regular TMNT series, and knows the outcome post Armageddon Game and TMNT Alpha as well. The book also seems to take a heavy influence from the new Amazon Prime remake of “Road House” as well, with Raph as a bouncer in a rowdy bar.
The book establishes how disconnected the character feels despite his previously close family relationship, which sets up why he and Peperoni stay away from the rest of the team. We get teases of holidays spent together and then Raph is back on his own, and feeling disconnected after the events in Armageddon game.
As the title suggests Ambush at Area 51, Raphael is indeed ambushed by Metal Head ( the Turtle Robot created by Donatello and Harold that turned psychotic). Now this would be a great reveal, had it not been on the B cover by Jim Lawson. Great looking cover, but kind of gave up the surprise reveal. Metalhead is back and has a proposition for Raphael, and he will leverage Peperoni to get what he needs.
The B story is about Casey Jones in Japan, working with the Foot Clan. With a new look and mask, he is taking in some of the local spots, when he gets a phone call from his friend April O’Neil. Casey, ever the multi tasker, takes the phone call while fighting some local gang members to remind them of their fealty to the newly reformed Foot Clan.
April has her concerns about working with Karai; however Casey is going to see this through, and hopefully try to steer her in the right path as her conscience. The last panels show a somewhat suspicious Karai listening in to the phone call and looking at herself in a mirror to some startling results. This is the follow up of the events in the Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan mini series.
I think this book has a lot of potential, and is a great jumping on point. The idea of a secondary character focused book with an A and B plot is a refreshing idea to supplement to the monthly IDW TMNT series and now the Nightwatcher series as well. The story is simple but to the point and gets the characters where they needed to be. There’s nothing complex but we are building to the next step in their respective journeys.
I am really enjoying the character interactions with Raphael and his human counterparts, because that’s unexplored territory for the character to be so exposed as he is, and the Casey Jones story was really enjoyable. My review would be to check this one out 3.5 out of 5 and the artwork gets a solid 4 out of 5.