Originally published in: Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #4
Publication date: February, 1992
Story and art: Michael Zulli
Words: Steve Murphy
Color art: Steve Lavigne
Letters: Caswell
“Failed Instant”
Summary:
On a rooftop, a Turtle crouches at the edge with his
hand ready at his katana. A ninja sneaks
up behind him, wielding a sword and preparing to strike. the Turtle is aware of his enemy’s presence and
mentally prepares himself to counter the attack.
The ninja strikes and the Turtle lets his body move
intuitively in response. With his left
hand, the Turtle swings his katana, and with his right, he swipes at the ninja’s
hood.
Unfortunately, the Turtle misses and the ninja vanishes as
quickly as he came. All the Turtle has to
show for his counterattack is the ninja’s discarded hood, clutched in his grip.
Turtle Tips:
*This story takes place after TMNT (Vol. 1) #36.
*The contents page of Turtle Soup (Vol. 2) #4 mistakenly lists this story's creative
team as Jeff Bonivert and Justin Hampton.
*This story was reprinted in black and white in the TMNT:
Souls Winter trade paperback collection, published by Mirage in February, 2007.
Review:
Zulli’s third and final TMNT short strip, though he goes
out with some lavish color work by Mirage’s favorite colorist, Steve Lavigne.
“Failed Instant” isn’t much on story, but it’s a nice
display of “things going wrong”. Even
the Turtle (none of the TMNT have names in the "Souls Winter" universe), with all his practice and skill, still misses from time to time. The slow build-up is a nice bit of suspense and the fact that the Turtle winds up failing in his counterattack makes for a somewhat humorous twist ending.
I’ve always been kind of mesmerized by this story,
chiefly because of the apparition-like attack waged by the lone ninja. He strikes once, fails to connect, then
vanishes like a phantom. I find that
far more menacing than a villain that attacks, fails and then keeps attacking
until he gets stabbed to death by the protagonist. There’s something frightening about a villain
that waits for his target to let their guard down, attacks, and if he misses,
escapes to repeat the stratagem all over again at a later date.
It’s an intelligent maneuver I wish the mainstream Foot
Clan would employ over “throw wave after wave of men at the Turtles until they’re
all dead”.
Lavigne’s colors are a nice complement to Zulli’s
pencils, though he sort of mutes the exaggerated beak that Zulli typically
gives his Turtles. As it is, the Turtle
looks somewhere in-between Zulli’s “Souls Winter” style and his “Mirage” style
as seen in “O-Deed”. As a result, I’m
not entirely sure if this is meant to be “Souls Winter” continuity or Mirage
continuity. On the first page, the Turtle even
has his bandana hanging loose around his neck, and the “Souls Winter” Turtles
never wore bandanas. Of course, the
bandana disappears in all subsequent pages, so who knows? The Foot Soldier is also drawn in the design of the "Souls Winter" Foot Soldiers, not the Mirage Foot Soldiers, so it's a little confusing.
Anyway, this is a neat little piece with some fine art
and coloring, though the lack of story makes it hard to really “grade”. The most I can say is, “I dig it”.
Grade: N/A (as in, “Now if this were Mirage continuity,
it would make a pretty good ‘Old Man Leo’ story for the Future Mirage era”.)
