A classic Ninja Turtles villain just turned on his own army in an attempt to do the right thing, but he won’t have the chance to become a hero.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #120, available now from IDW.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have only recently managed to end the longest fight of their lives, and already they’ve found themselves right in the middle of another. During what should have been the biggest show of unity that Mutant Town has ever seen, a vicious attack was unleashed by the Mutanimals. While the Turtles and their allies are duking it out for the future of their home, Old Hob is getting ready to do the exact same thing in a moment that will define him for years to come, even if it doesn’t really matter.
While the residents of Mutant Town battle in the streets, Old Hob is desperate to get some answers about how this all happened. He has already been made aware of Man Ray giving the order to open fire on the crowd, but when Hob finally catches up to his lieutenant, he learns how bad things are within his own organization. Not only has Man Ray gone over his head and brought war to Mutant Town, but he has also gone as far as to kidnap Lita and the Weasels as well. Despite the fact that the mutant children were once a bargaining chip of Hob’s own, he has since come to realize just how much harm he has caused. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anything he can do but turn on his own former followers, and to make matters worse, there is no one for him to turn to for help.
Hob has been sliding further and further away from his usual tactics lately. As seen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #120 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Sophie Campbell, Jodi Nishijima, Ronda Pattison, Shawn Lee and Bobby Curnow, however, Old Hob is now willing to do just that. Hob and Man Ray can both hear the mob outside approaching, yet they still choose to come to a standoff over what to do next. As far as Man Ray is concerned, there is no scenario in which the Turtles or anyone else shows the Mutanimals mercy, and they both know he is right.
This doesn’t change Hob’s mind, though, because for him it is all about bringing mutants together under any possible circumstances. If that means seeing control of Mutant Town be handed over to people like Sally Pride who openly hate him, then that is the price he will have to pay for Mutant Town’s future. Throughout the years, Old Hob has swayed between being a cartoonishly simple villain and a tragically complex figure and never has that been more true than now. If any of it could turn things around, this might even be where Hob becomes a hero in his own right, though it seems unlikely.
It’s hard to imagine that anything Hob could ever do would ever be enough to redeem him in the eyes of his many victims. Old Hob has menaced the Turtles from the very beginning, unwittingly or not, and has only recently relented in his pursuits of ending them. The heroes don’t have any reason to believe that, though, especially after having saved Tokka, Rahzar and the mutant children from his machinations. And none of that even touches on him being the one to carry out the bombing that created Mutant Town in the first place — something that Raphael will personally never forgive Hob for. The fact that Old Hob has developed a conscience is nothing compared to the lives he has ended or irreparably altered in his time in the Turtles’ lives. For that, there is no reasonable expectation that Hob will get the chance to become a better version of himself, no matter how hard he tries.
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