REVIEW: TMNT- The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #3

In Issue #3 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan, the battle for leadership heats up as Karai confronts the shocking truth about her heritage. With stunning art, intense action, and a gripping story of betrayal, this issue is a must-read for any TMNT fan. Dive into the clash of ancient traditions and modern ambitions in a world where loyalty is tested and the true heir to the Foot Clan will stop at nothing to claim their destiny.

This issue of TMNT gives us more backstory on the war being waged between two factions claiming to be the real Foot Clan. One descendant, Karai, believes herself to be the sole heir to the Foot Clan heritage, but the story passed down through her family for generations is a lie. She is not the sole surviving Foot Clan descendant, and while the other descendant is determined to modernize the clan, she will not stop until he is dead and she becomes the new clan leader. Action and drama come together in this story of family treachery, and amidst beautiful flashbacks and a trip to a magical dream world, we learn what Karai must do to succeed in her quest.**

I am in love with the art in this comic. Artists Mateus Santolouco, Santtos, and Marco Lesco come together to deliver amazing cover designs, a great credit page, and, most importantly, action-packed panels filled to the brim with interesting character designs, detailed environments, and superb coloring techniques. The main cover art is fantastic. Using a simple, centered composition with a galactic background, Mateus Santolouco hints at the magical nature of the story without outright spoiling it. This cover also works really well because it keeps the flashbacks (a truly great aspect of this issue) hidden for you to discover as you read the actual story. This galactic/magical cover art gives me Doctor Strange vibes, and if you’ve read my reviews in the past, you know how much I love Doc Strange, so this is a big win for me. I also really liked Mateus’s signature on this cover. It is small enough not to distract from the rest of the cover but still uniquely done, adding a little bit of extra life to the piece.

The credit page is just as good as the cover art. Working with a simple red-on-red color scheme with white text, we get a credit page that is easy to read while also being highly appealing to the eyes. We have all the credit information in an easy-to-understand format, right down to the variant covers and who the artists were for those covers. This is a huge help for me as a reviewer because it can often be so difficult to know who drew what cover when it’s not even mentioned on the credit page—or worse, it’s mentioned at the end of the book, where I have to flip back and forth just to find out who did what.

As I mentioned before, the character designs are really cool. Even though this is a TMNT story, we focus solely on humanoid characters, and yet all the ninjas in this story are heavily styled and carry with them unique designs that can be easily differentiated. I am partial to the character design of Karai, but in all honesty, I think the character designs I enjoyed the most were the ones featured in the feudal-era flashbacks. That whole series of pages is just a pleasure to look at, both for its nostalgic feudal-era Japan designs and for the way the coloring is handled with its heavily textured and sepia-toned color schemes.

Speaking of great art, the silent art of comics that can make or break any good comic is—and will always be—lettering. In this book, even that is really cool. Done by artist Shawn Lee, this expertly placed text offers a variety of word balloons, narration boxes, and highly creative sound FX text that looks like Japanese handwriting, which serves to exalt the dynamic action featured in the panels. Short bursts of beautifully posed and highly energetic action make for a quick-to-digest and superb reading experience.

This was a great comic that left me wanting more. A straight shooter through and through with great writing, quick pacing, tons of well-distributed action, good and easy-to-understand lore, and fantastic illustrations. A must-read in my book. I am excited to see how this story develops, and I hope that our girl Karai is able to achieve her goal of becoming the true Foot Clan leader.

Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars

Overall: 5 Stars

Written by: Erik Burnham
Illustrated by: Mateus Santolouco & Santtos
Coloring by: Marco Lesco
Lettering by: Shawn Lee
Cover art by: Mateus Santolouco
Variant Covers by: Kevin Anthony Catalan & Santtos
Published by: IDW Publishing

Reviewed by Antonio “Mabs”