Articles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Just Revealed Shocking Return (And The Turtles Will Never Be The Same)
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have witnessed their share of heartbreak over the years, and the TMNT relaunch from Jason Aaron and Juan Ferreyra has especially put the Turtles through the ringer. Aaron and Ferreyra close out their run in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #12, and they weren’t just going to leave the series without leaving one last surprise for fans. That was in the form of a shocking reveal that sets up the series for big things moving forward, and after this twist, the Turtles will never be the same. Spoilers incoming for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #12, so if you haven’t read the issue, you’ve been warned.
The Turtles turn the corner and rediscover their brotherhood as they battle with Hale’s monstrous new form, but they get some unexpected help from an army of rats during the fight. Coupled with how they’ve felt Splinter’s presence at various times, they decide to tap into the realm of magic and provide him a path to the living if he’s indeed stuck between realms. The spell doesn’t seem to go as planned, but as we learn on the final page, it did indeed work, and now Splinter is back from the dead and walking amongst the living once more.
This all goes back to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 back in 2019. In that issue, Splinter gave his life in order to save his longtime nemesis, Oroku Saki, and stop the Dragon’s rampage. Splinter’s death did help the heroes win the day, but Splinter has been such a vital part of the Turtles’ lives that it has had a profound effect on all four of them, and the current series has brought that into focus.
The Turtles have started to hear his voice at times, and it feels like he’s almost been fighting alongside them. While Donatello was pushed so far over the edge that he was speaking with a dead rat as if it was Splinter, though that rat did keep Donatello from completely breaking. That comes full circle in issue #12, as the Turtles initiate a spell to try and find Splinter, who they suspect is stuck between the realms of life and death.
The spell works, as they see Splinter form in front of them, but they can’t make out what he’s saying. Something goes wrong at that point, and there’s an explosion, incinerating the rat in the process and causing the Turtles to think Splinter made a choice not to come back and stay in whatever realm of peace he’s found.
That’s not the case though, as we later see that same green magical energy starts to form at another location in the city, and the narrator is revealed to be Splinter, who is now very much back in the land of the living, admitting that he had forgotten how much it hurts to be alive. The Turtles don’t know he’s back, but Kairai does, and this will lead into the new status quo for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #13, which teases the arrival of a new assassin named Ujigami. Coincidence? Well, it could be, but it also could be very well not be, and it’s going to be interesting to see which way Splinter’s return eventually goes.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #12 is in comic stores now.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Just Revealed Shocking Return (And The Turtles Will Never Be The Same) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
