Armed with knowledge from the future, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look to stop two catastrophic events but it won’t be easy.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #113 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Sophie Campbell, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee, on sale now.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are finally finding a rhythm in their lives after so many hard-fought battles for the future of Mutant Town. Between appearing on news segments and running the dojo, things are looking up for the Splinter Clan, with a chance at better things to come. Unfortunately, they’re about to find out that the future isn’t nearly as bright as they would hope for but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still time to fix it.
One of their own has just come back to their present from almost two decades ahead of them, not just with a dire warning, but with knowledge of exactly what they need to do to prevent their own demise. It’s just two simple things that are in fact very, very difficult.
As the Splinter Clan finishes up their evening training session, they’re stunned by the sudden arrival of a young, white turtle covered in tattoos. The not unfamiliar face belongs to none other than Lita, one of the Turtles’ youngest pupils, all grown up and back from the future. Jennika can’t believe what’s happening, but the rest of the Turtles have been through these kinds of scenarios enough times before to recognize a genuine time traveler when they see one. Lita hasn’t just come back for a family reunion, even if she is overjoyed to see them all together again. She knows what’s in store for her friends and family if they can’t set things right, and it’s worse than imaginable.
There are two major events that Lita has come back to change in the hopes that doing so will prevent the downfall of the Splinter Clan, not to mention the city itself. Lita tells them that the entirety of New York City will be transformed into mutants in just over a decade. This mass transformation leads to an all-out war between the Splinter and Foot Clans for control of the territory, each of the Turtles even leaving behind any other passions in their lives to focus solely on the battle. When Karai is killed, the Foot targets the Turtles’ dojo specifically, and in the fallout the entire family breaks apart, leaving Lita all on her own. The Timestress Renet took Lita in, allowing her to eventually commandeer her Time Scepter and travel back to fix things. Preventing Karai’s death isn’t the only thing Lita needs to do, though, she also needs to help Jennika find her soul again.
Jennika giving up her passion for music seems to be just as important to saving the future as stopping her from killing Karai is. Jennika’s love for performing isn’t just a hobby, it’s the thing that keeps her from going over the edge to the darkness she fought so hard to wrench herself free from. With all the pressure on her already, giving that up is makes Jenn just the first of the Turtles to forget how to have fun and enjoy things, and considering the bleak fates awaiting them all individually, that particular bit of humanity is the only thing that will hold them together when things get worse down the line.
There’s no telling yet what happens to cause NYC to become Mutant City, and as such, there’s no telling how to stop that when and if the time does come. Still, knowing how to prevent a horrific and personal assault, as well as how to hang onto the very last bit of hope they have, is far better than knowing nothing at all.
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