Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #46
IDW Publishing
Written By: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow & Tom Waltz
Art By: Mateus Santolouco
The mourning period is over, and now it I time to gear up for the future. There isn’t the normal amount of ninja kicking and ‘chuck slinging in this issue, instead we get a load of inner turmoil bubbling to the surface. The Foot Clan has begun to move on without Shredder, and they plan to cleanse themselves of outsiders and weakness. Meanwhile The Shredder, who now lives on Burnow Island (See issue #44) has partnered with Baxter Stockman who reveals his scheme to try and take control of the city. Casey defends his new family (the O’Neil’s) from his father Hun, who is drunk from celebrating not having to kill Casey. Lastly the turtles turn their attentions from Donnie who continues to cope with living inside Metalhead for the time being. They are looking for where the next threat is coming from. However while pushing our titular characters toward war TMNT #46 is more of a character driven issue, which is always refreshing.
Laid thickly with metaphors that serve as the segues between characters’ converging story lines, this issue was very 
well written and scripted. I really enjoyed reading about the events one group of characters were talking to each other about, and in the final panel, the new story with different characters started with a sentence or two that could have easily have been a part of the previous dialogue. Again Mateus provides art that is now the standard for my TMNT viewing pleasure.
In the grand scheme of this on-going series we have seen war, the repercussions of the war, and now the first moves towards the new war. As Stockman monologues in a typical evil villain fashion, he talks about the lessons he learned from his father who used chess as a teaching tool. That idea can be applied to this issue as the first moves of a chess match have been made from at least one side. To dig deeper into the connections that are talked about in the comic and the events unfolding, April talks to her professor, Miller (who first introduced us to the idea that The Shredder is more than mortal in The Secret History of the Foot), who tells her that there is another ancient script that tells of an
immortal family who struggled with each other to try and control the world. Bringing this issue full circle, Miller becomes one of the outsiders that The New Foot Clan wishes to cleanse themselves of.
Just when we thought we were out of the woods and the turtles could breath and be happy again, they are about to see their friends and family thrown into a new war. The best part of this issue comes when Mikey shares a slice of pizza with his human friend, as he vents all the emotions he currently has. A whole other story could be written about how Mikey hides his feeling from his brothers, so he doesn’t look weak. But all he wants to do is live life. He fights. and thinks his brothers fight so they no longer have to. I can feel his disheartened feelings toward Splinter having his son’s look for the next fight. They barely came out of the last fight with all their shells intact, why can’t they all just get along? Foot note of this issue (no pun intended), we find out what T.C.R.I. stands for. If you plan on seeing how things end in issue #50, this issue is the first steps towards the end.