2020 may be the year of the rat, but 2019 hasn’t been kind to the Hamato Clan’s Big Cheeze. Shredder returns from Hell, Mutants wage war on the city, and There’s an “Egyptian God Card” sized Dragon Invading New York. Nothing gets easier for Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 written by Tom Waltz, with art by Dave Wachter & Michael Dialynas, and colors from Ronda Pattison.

Splinter searches the mystical plane in hopes of redemption and a way to stop the birth of the Dragon Warrior into his plane. It seems the only way to do that however is to bring back his greatest foe. A foe who he ended himself, long ago… like 50 issues ago. Meanwhile, the turtles, Casey, Alopex, Angel and Jennika (a new turtle now) have their hands full with Bishop, Hun, The Slash clone, BeBop, and Rocksteady. It’s like the MEME of the first level of the TMNT Arcade game where all the bosses show up and everything is ON FIRE. It’s all the turtles can do to stall for time and hope their Father’s plan pans out. Still, in the end, everything comes at a cost.

Tom Waltz does an incredible job of balancing the story and tying up some loose ends. There’s an incredibly powerful scene between Leo and Raphael where Raph confesses what he’s been up to lately. Throughout all of their conflicts. Leonardo’s love, trust, and compassion for his brother are so profound. The relationship between the two has never been demonstrated so well. Wachter and Dialynas do a phenomenal job capturing the emotions of that scene, the brutality of the fights and the hilarity of Bebop and Rocksteady’s mishaps. Ronda Pattison brings it all to life again with beautiful pastels but is especially effective in the scenes involving mysticism and the flames in scenes with Kitsune. When you see that Red hue, you know it’s going to be a dramatic scene.

Waltz and company go out with a Bang in issue 100, which is what you should expect from the best interpretation of the turtles ever produced. Artist/Writer Sophie Campbell will be at the helm next year with issue 101. It’ll be interesting to see how she dives into Jennika’s character and if she can learn to “love being a turtle”. The first arc in IDW’s TMNT is called “Change is constant”, and there are deff a lot of changes coming after this issue. Families change, Friends change, Writers change, but you can bet This being a must-have book every issue won’t change at all.

Grade: A+