A King Enters The Battlefield — Reviewing ‘TMNT: The Armageddon Game’ #8

At long last the game is over. Rat King’s dangerous Armageddon Game has come to a powerful status quo-altering conclusion.

Often, events are things touted to leave comic book worlds quite different in their wake. These proclamations, often stated as “nothing will ever be the same,” are generally hit or miss. With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game, that is decidedly not the case.

<<<Spoilers are ahead, so be warned.>>>

After seven issues (plus the tie-ins) of various moves and counter-moves, the Rat King took matters into his own hands. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t enough. As he beat around Kitsune, Shredder, and the Turtles, the rest of the Pantheon entered the fight. It was the sacrifice of Kitsune, using the orb of Turtle ally Cherubae, that brought his game to an end.

The Pantheon (what’s left of them) has seemingly left this plane of existence. Mutant Town’s wall has come down. Thanks to dirt on Mayor Baxter Stockman, Mutant Town is now an official New York City borough and integration of humans and mutants has begun. Those that read the latest issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series have already witnessed what these changes are bringing.

This is the biggest status quo change for the characters and the series since the 100^th issue led to the creation of Mutant Town. Now the Splinter Clan and their allies are in various spaces, and the world as they know it has changed. It’ll be interesting to see where many of the various character plots this issue sets up at the end will be picked up.

This has been a culmination of various plotlines that Tom Waltz has been seeding through the ten years he was writing the main series. It seems that he probably will continue to have a hand in some of these stories, beyond the alternate universe TMNT: The Last Ronin stories.

Overall, it’s a satisfying, albeit semi-rushed feeling, conclusion. It might have been nice to see a bit more with Rat King through the overall event, he played shadowy manipulator for most of it, but at least this is now over, and it had an impact. Easy enough to point to this as one of the best-handled and written overall events in recent years.

Artistically, Vincenzo Federici and Heather Breckel close things out with the same energy they’ve displayed previously. All the action flows smoothly and has the right amount of movement/kinetic energy on the pages. We can feel the weight of each moment and the character’s various emotions in the moment. Federici just has a very dynamic and detailed style that lends itself to these characters and their world.

There is just enough roughness to complement the smoother elements to get across the rougher tone of the story, which pairs well with the color choices that Breckel has made. Where we get some bits of vivid colors popping up here or there, namely when magic is involved, alongside more toned-down often darker colors. Those color palettes shift and change to reflect the various realms that we visit in this issue, making sure no two places are entirely alike.

As a final issue, there is a ton of dialogue/information that must be imparted alongside the fighting. That’s why it’s great to have the TMNT-veteran letterer Shawn Lee on board. Not only because Lee is a master at making a lot of lettering on a page never feel overwhelming as it flows, but the overall energy. Uses of different font styles/sizes as well as the various bits of color and changes to bubbles make sure that words have even more power. We can hear the character’s voice while also ensuring that many of the bits are distinct/unique for the characters.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #8 is now available from IDW Publishing.