Mona Lisa screaming at Mikey because he is choosing to go help his family protect the town from rampaging monsters rather than make signs for a protest is probably the dumbest thing I've ever seen in this book. And in general, all this focus on protests and politics feels like a very immature attempt at topicality, and it just doesn't work in context. First of all, why in the freaking world is it only this far into the whole mess that someone has said, 'hey, you know what, being turned into an inhuman monster against my will was sorta' uncool, I'm slightly miffed at Hob, the mutant terrorist who did this to me and uncounted others, including children.' That seems like it probably should have been, I don't know, the first, and a rather universal, reaction. Everyone has been surprisingly enthusiastic and chill about being turned into mutants.
Like I said, there's a ton of cool stuff here, but it's drowning in B and C material. Most of these plotlines and characters would really be better off relegated to some type of spin-off title dedicated to the life and culture of Mutant Town. It just doesn't really fit with this book and its focus and themes. Despite that, the idea of Lita coming back from the future, stealing the time scepter from Renet (fun!), and all of that is really cool. The idea of a battle of the mutant bands is also really awesome, but it's something that should be a one or two issue absurdist jaunt, not a super-serious focus of the entire arc. It was cool to see Bebop and Rocksteady take on their alter-egos, after a fashion. I'm actually mildly tempted to put Tokah and Razor into my TMNT mod just for that kind of matchup.
You know, it's always cool to have an issue or two of downtime, where you see the characters going about their lives, healing, and developing relationships, and that is a staple of the TMNT books. But you've got a problem when that becomes the only thing you do for issue after issue after issue. And there is SO MUCH MELODRAMA! Everyone is navel-gazing and emoting and talking about how terrible their lives are, and it grates after a while.
On a related note, Jennika, who was a really cool character that I thoroughly enjoyed while she was human, is now basically unrecognizable in more ways than one and not nearly as interesting. I had my doubts about her becoming a fifth Turtle, as I felt it messed up the dynamic, but that might have been okay if they had managed to keep her interesting and compelling. I really just have zero interest in what they're doing with her though, other than brief moments of light in her interactions with Karai.
