hello ladies and gentlemen this is the pull bag
and you're hearing the sound of my voice before
this episode of the pull bag because in episode
579 i tfg and mike forgot to say or maybe i did
say but didn't really acknowledge it but we recorded
this one day before mine and joe's 12th anniversary
of when we started doing turtles coverage January
22nd, 2014 is when we released our first IDW
Publishing TMNT comic book episode here inside
the pull bag. So literally it's been 12 years
ago today as you're listening to this, January
22nd, 2026, because I'm going to edit this and
publish it as soon as I possibly can. Hopefully
it will air on January 22nd, 2026. But it was
recorded January 21st, 2026. If that makes any
sense. And yes, I know I'm talking super, super
fast because it is early in the morning and I'm
trying to get it all out. I'm getting all of
this out all at once and I'm in the middle of
eating my own breakfast and everything else and
all that. And hope everyone has an excellent
day, an excellent week, and hope everyone has
a happy new year here in 2026. Right now, The
Pull Bag, episode 579. The Armageddon Game from
the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is Opening
Moves. Up next here, Inside the Pull Bag, only
on the Geekcast Radio Network. Tonight I dine
on turtle soup. Hi, this is Bobby Kernow, and
you are going to have a shell of a good time
inside the pull bag. Hey, this is Tom Waltz,
IEW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle writer, and
you have jumped inside the pool bag. Well, ladies
and gentlemen, it's 2026. Holy crap. And we only
released nine episodes last year for multiple
reasons. Number one, I had surgery in August.
For those of you who don't know, I believe I
released the last episode. Episode 578 was an
interview with my buddy Tom Zoller. Comic writer
and artist is illustrator Tom Zahler. That was
the last episode that we did. That was August
of something last year. I forget the actual date.
But that was the last episode that I was able
to do before I went in for On Our Nerve and Crippled
Tunnel. surgery on my left arm. For those that
don't know, I'm TFG1 Mike, and I have cerebral
palsy on my right arm. So, yay, I was Mr. No
-Arm for about three or four months. I'm still
kind of Mr. No -Arm now. Now, as you can hear,
the return, finally! After whatever the... How
do you lose your freaking comics, dude? I put
them in, like, three different places in the
house when I get them home, and then... Look
at the big pile of things I haven't read and
go. But no, I had we had friends over for New
Year's and then again a couple of nights ago
and art art dinner. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I came
over and said, so what about these comics? Like,
oh, dude, I forgot. Sweet. And all of my Ninja
Turtle comics are in order now. What kind of
order? Who knows? But I was able to... We're
going to find out, because we've got to get to
the end of this run. Yes, I have to. And then
we've got to start the new run. I'm told that
I haven't finished this, and hopefully this will
get me going again. Well, that's the point. And
originally, folks, I was going to do something
so huge and so stupendously stupid, I was going
to put all of Armageddon Game into one podcast.
We're not doing that. I was going to edit it
into one long, awe -inspiring episode, and I
ain't doing that. This is episode 579. This is
part one of Armageddon Game. This is opening
moves. Episode 580 will be part two, which will
be the overall story for Armageddon Game. And
then episode 581 will be part three, which will
be the alliance or aftermath or whatever it is.
I think it's Armageddon Alliance. So three episodes
for Armageddon Game. And then we will be getting
back to TMNT Reborn with Volume 8, Damage Done,
or Do Damage, Damage Done, Go Red Sox, all that
good stuff. And then Volume 9, First, Last, and
Always, or First, Last, Always, whatever it is
on the trade there. But yeah, Armageddon Game,
this is the... Going into this, even before we
had all the delays last year, this was the story
I was least looking... This is a... You know
how sometimes... I forget which movie it was,
but there was a movie where somebody was tired
of somebody speeding in their neighborhood, and
they just kept making the speed bump bigger and
bigger and bigger? I forget if it was a movie
or a TV show. Somebody out there is going to
know. I don't remember off the top of my head
what it was. And, oh, I forgot to say, folks,
Mr. Joe Reed is back. Hello, sir. How are you?
I'm good. I forgot you didn't say that. Yeah,
I didn't say that. This is so far out of practice.
This is what happens when you only release nine
episodes in a 52 -week year. That's a lot of
comics you got to go back and read. Well, that's
what we're doing now. So. So, yeah. Yeah, I was
like, oh, OK, we're doing reborn volume one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oh, wait.
Armageddon game. We should do that. Right. What
is Armageddon? Oh, for flubbers sake. It's the
thing is an insane crossover. And yeah, I feel
like we're going to discover things when we get
into the main. like the books want to be in the
middle of it. I have no idea, but I mean, I think
this is probably why I stopped reading it or
started to hesitate reading it because the reading
order was just kind of crazy. Yeah. So this is
why, this is why I always have them in trade
now and I don't do single issue. Like I understood,
and we've known this for the last 2014 to 2026.
10, 12 years that you and I have been doing these
comics since we started January of 2014 that
we did this. We've known this about you since
day one. You have to read the single issue as
soon as it comes out. And I understand that and
I respect it. But for me, it's like for organizational
purposes, IDW has always done the greatest thing
with their trades. They put them in. the story
order the way they want you to follow the story.
Yeah, for sure. That's why I've always championed
the IDW TMNT trade paperbacks. And that's why
I always will. But I, unlike you, as far as like
the story order of it all for me, I'm not a fan
of the Pantheon stuff because not anything against
Kitsune or. toad boy toad baron i almost said
toad boy toad baron or any of the other pantheon
family members i'm not a fan of rat king i don't
care i even in this even when we're gonna get
to this but even in this i yeah the chaos for
the sake of chaos is uh not very fun for me i
think and he's a very chaotic villain and yeah
i just gross yeah plus you know i go back to
what indy said about his dad he never made it
past the rats like that's that's me i never made
it i never made it past the snakes i never made
it past the rats so Armageddon game. The trade
paperback collects Kingdom of Rats Prelude. The
story was done by Bobby Kernow. Yay, Bobby! Art
done by Pablo Tunica. Letters done by Sean Lee.
TMNT number 84. Is that our book? That is our
book. That's right. Look, folks. We're a little
rusty here. They're pulling a little short story
out of 84. Yeah, 84. Story by Eastman, Kernow,
and Waltz. Strip done by Waltz. Art done by Dave
Wachter. With colors by Rhonda Pattison. Yay,
Rhonda! Letters by Sean Lee. Annual 2020. Story
by Tom Waltz. Art by Adam Gorham. I hope I pronounced
that correctly, Adam. Colors by John Rausch and
Michael Garland. Letters done by Sean Lee. Sean
Lee's on all the letters, folks. Sean does all
the letters. Annual 2021. Story by Tom. Pencils
by Casey Maloney. Inks by... Maria Keene. Colors
by Luis Antonio Delgado. Another IDW staple for
the colors. Yay. And then opening moves. One
and two. Tom Waltz on the story. Pharaoh Pei
on the art. Colors by Rhonda. Yay. And letters
by Sean. So that's what's here. And that's what
we are here to discuss this evening. Oh, boy.
Kingdom of Rats Prelude. I listened to our first
5, 10, 15 minutes of episode, whatever episode
it was. I forget the number. But when we did
episode 81 to 85, issues 81 to 85 in the old
episode, and I'll link that old episode, but
even listening back to that after reading this
one part of the story, I'm like, I still don't
remember this shit. The reason I didn't remember
this Kingdom of Rats Prelude is because it showed
up at the end of Ninja Turtles Universe number
19, which had a completely different story in
the beginning where Raphael and Alopex are raiding
Null's land. But there's these couple of pages
here, beautifully drawn, creepily drawn. Creepily
drawn, yes. Yeah, so this is basically Rat King
just setting everything up for himself for that
story, the Kingdom of Rats story, 81 to 85 of
TMNT. And it's been years, folks, and we will.
Since the run is concluded for the main story,
we will be going back and doing other TMNT books
that IDW has done, including Universe. We never
have covered Universe. That was by design because
we were so engrossed in the main story. I didn't
want us to get distracted on anything else. We've
done some crossovers here and there when it seemed
fit and it wasn't too distracting away from the
main story. Yeah, universe is kind of like, what
were those two characters doing when they went
this way and you went that way? Yeah, exactly.
But that was a good issue. I read that part anyway,
just in case. Rat King is establishing his new
base, talking to his rats in creepy ways. At
least he didn't eat any of them this time. But
I think he will later. The last page of that.
He is seeing New York City in ruins like as a
premonition. This? Or something. Yeah. Yeah.
This is where he decides to start making things
happen toward that premonition. And this is way
back in 2018. Yeah. When that particular book
was published. Yeah. So long ago. So long ago.
Yeah, because we published that episode in 2019.
So the next part of the story opens up with the
turtles and Rat King on some sort of scaffolding
and the Rat King is holding up some child. Oh
boy. Yeah, it begins this way. We're kind of
in the middle of a story when they're hitting
this kind of flashback. to Armageddon games starting,
and I think these were Splinter's kids. Yes.
The Foot Clan kids that he had lured out of the
place, and he's threatening to kill them, and
the turtles are trying to stop him. Yeah, is
it Splinter's kids, or are these the kids that...
No, these are Rat King's kids that he manipulates.
The turtles save them, I think. The turtles save...
They get brought back to splinter. Yes. Cause
I nearly gorged my eyes out with tears when they
came back. I think if I have this right, fast
forwarding a little bit here, folks. Yes. Yeah.
Because at the end here, I think at the end,
yes, yes. Cause he bring, yeah, they, yeah, that's
what it is. So. Yeah, in the beginning here,
these are the children they are trying to save
from the Rat King because he is trying to bring
them over to his side. He is messing with their
minds and whatever else. Piper trying to walk
them off the cliff. Yeah. And then he sicks them
on the turtles. With mind control and the rats.
And so the turtles don't want to fight these
kids. No, they don't want to fight these kids.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mouser, because we can't call
him Mr. Mayor yet because that hasn't happened
yet. As of this, he's still Professor Inventor
Creepy Moron Baxter Stockman. Oh, whatever. Dexter
Boinkman. Yeah, there you go. That's an inside
joke in our family, too, whenever that character
is mentioned. Yep, yep. You mean Bat and Stockboy?
Bat and Stockboy? That's right, that's right.
Flyborg, Flyborg. Yeah, this was 2018 as well.
Wow, yeah, man. Rat King's been at this for a
while. Yes, he has. So what is, yeah, I... What
is Baxter up to? So Baxter is manufacturing the
mousers. Oh yeah. Baxter's plan is to eradicate
the city's rat problem. So that way he can get
more power because he wants to eventually the,
from what I remember going and we'll go through
it obviously. But what I remember from just having
read this again today is that this leads him
to declare his intentions to become. mayor but
that's what gets him there to do it is that he
invents the mousers to get rid of all the rats
and they get rid of all the rats very violently
which I'm not saying that because I have a problem
with the violence I'm just stating a fact that
the mousers they kind of violent so I hate to
clean those things out after a hunt yep I love
the exchange here between Raph and Mikey. You
got him secure, Mikey? Yeah, he's safe now. Good.
Can't say the same thing for Rat Boy, though.
No. And then we have this whole thing and man,
I, as much as I'm not a fan of the rat King,
just because I do love all of the interactions
between the turtles and, and him. And I love
that Leo is trying to outsmart him because he's
like, why are you going all the way up there?
What are you doing? Trying to get the high ground
for whatever else. Oh, man. Look at this. This
reminds you of anything? Oh, yeah. Even though
the fact that it's creepy as hell? Hmm. Target
Mouser. Kill number one. Literally, I'm like,
ooh, that reminds me of an old cover. Target.
I love those red covers. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.
Wow, that was fast and extremely disgusting.
Don't get squeamish on me now, Miss O 'Neill.
This was your plan. And he explains to her how
his Flyborgs... Does he call them Flyborgs? He
does. Oh, wow. He does. Damn. The only other
place that I've heard of the term Flyborg is
in Phineas and Ferb. Uh -huh. In Phineas and
Ferb, across the second dimension. Because the
evil Doofenshmirtz in the second dimension has
Flyborgs that he uses. But yeah, so that's what's
going on here. My machines are functioning as
designed. No surprise there. Which just means
it's a matter of time. Dun, dun, dun. Leo up
here gets his high ground so that he can attack
Rat King psychically. He goes meditating. Yeah,
it goes into the astral plane. I was wondering
why it went from outside the docks looking thing
to a really bad... Well, I was going to say a
really bad nightclub that looks like it would
be in a John Wick movie. But he and Leo and Rat
King have a battle of wits in the astral plane.
The other turtles think that they can attack
Rat King in the real world. That's not so easy
to do since the Rat King is the master of the
real world and the astral plane. He's in there
multitasking. Yes, he is. My god, the colors.
The colors. And just the visualizations of this
page, the page where, does not happen by accident.
You wish to stop me to save those pathetic urchins?
Dave Wachter has grown on me for a long time.
Oh, yeah, but yeah. I do enjoy this. Like, look
at his design on Leo. Like, man, just. This image
alone, I know it wasn't knocked out or whatever,
but just the way he's designed him. Yeah, drawn
real small. Well, yeah, but I'm saying... It's
hard to get the pen to do what you want to do
with that tiny, tiny scale. That's very true.
But it's so good, and it's done so well. And
the writing's just there, and you get the scenes
mixing with each other. You get Leo and the Rat
King, and Leo's coming back, and they're fighting
each other, and you got the turtles fighting
the Rat King's body. Yeah, I like how the Rat
King is fighting them in the real world with
absolutely no expression, because he's not there.
He's not there, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. Absolutely.
And then just... Wow. And then you get Flyborg,
and Flyborg comes in, and oh boy, you get astral
plane projection, and this is creepy as hell.
He looks like a vampire here. How's this? It's
just all so good. But the mousers invade. Baxter,
the mousers distract. The mice, or the rats,
rather, taking care of them. In the astral plane,
Leo scores a big hit. The Rat King, which wakes
both of them up right before Rat King gets socked
in the mouth. Yep. You got punched right in the
mouth. How's that? What? What? Huh? Who? Where?
Why? And the flyborgs and the mousers determine
little monstrosities, aren't you? And he just
jumps right off the edge of the building. Oh,
boy. Smell you later. Smell you later. Hey, you.
But all's well that ends well. The turtles save
the day. The children are saved. I love this,
though. Because this is like one of those running
TV gags to me. So you go down to the very bottom.
So you get. Is something I picked up like mentally
snared mammoth, yada, yada, yada. Final page.
I think, dudes, I think I know. So you see Mikey
looking at the kids like, what are we going to
do with them? Well, dudes, I think I know. And
then all of a sudden, mouse are chasing rat.
One last rat to go. And I'm like, that's a TV
run through right there. That's like Urkel running
through the camera to chasing something or whatever,
whatever. I'm like, oh my god, I laughed so hard
at that when I read this. And this is where we
get the emotion down of Mike, because damn, I
was not expecting this. Not expecting this at
all. This is an epilogue that I was not expecting.
We need your help. And then obviously Baxter
makes his thing known that he wants to run for
mayor so far like the opening moves opening whatever
armageddon game so far it's okay yeah even with
the rat king like going back and getting the
context of what i know is happening now compared
to these books that we read back in 2019 uh it's
interesting to see that yeah the this is where
it started this is where they were kind of starting
to put the seeds for an event maybe they didn't
know what it was going to be but they knew that
the rat king was maneuvering and like i said
even though i don't care for the character overall
even later he gets we're gonna get there but
when he talks to all his siblings like the turn
like When I hear, oh, it's a Rat King story,
I'm like, oh, great. It's going to be the same
thing every time. Let's get the family back together.
Let's get the game going again. I want to play
the game. I want to have, like we've already
said already, I want to have the chaos. I want
to have the this. I want to have the that. This
threw me for a loop because of what happens and
how. But unfortunately, because of what happens,
he has to pivot. Pivot! Oh, God. Don't get me
started. And yeah, so we... This is something
I was not expecting. I was not... I did not remember
this. I did not remember... I remember Frank
discovering the body of Leatherhead and inhabiting
him. But I don't remember where that happened.
Yeah, I... Folks... Like I said, we are very
rusty, and we have not gone back to do super
deep dive research. You're getting our real raw
reading reactions. Research? You mean we read
everything from issue 80 on? Yeah, I know, right?
No. Even if we were to go back and listen to
all the podcasts from 80 to now, that's still
thousands of hours of audio. Yeah, it'd take
me less time to reread it. I know. I already
did that when I edited the podcast. Yeah, exactly.
I already did it when I edited the podcast. So
we start this one where Shredder's still in hell,
I'm assuming. Or he's somewhere. Because that's
the devil, clearly. Yep. Okay. So this is coming
out of the annual 2020. Yeah, this is annual
2020. Okay, cool, cool, cool. And the coolest
thing for me out of this, look what they have
him in. Yeah, the animated colors. Not just the
animated colors. Them's toy colors, man. Oh,
no shirt? Yep. That's the toy. That's the freaking
toy. I was like, oh, okay. That's that for okay.
Yep, yep, yep. Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Because every child wanted a shirtless
shredder in the 80s. 1988, folks, you could have
gone to whatever store and gotten a shirtless
purple shredder for $5. You got to ask the...
If you get to a con, you got to ask... Kevin
East saw how they arrived at that action figure
because that was a whole bunch of people at the
toy company not understanding the drawings. Yeah.
Oh, that's the other... Is it... Who is it? Yeah.
Playmates no longer has it? Oh, yeah. I just
heard that news recently. Yeah, yeah. I don't
know. I mean, what? McFarlane Toys has a license
now, but they're making the high -end figures
or the medium -end figures. I don't know who's
going to be doing the Mutant Mayhem toys. That's
crazy. Crazy, crazy. Hasbro? I hope not. Oh,
God. If Hasbro had... That would be everything
is a super monopoly now. Like everybody has everything
or one company has everything for everything
these days kind of things. But Hasbro already
has Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers, Polly
Pocket, Polly this, Polly that, whatever, whatever,
whatever. They have so many things. I couldn't
even imagine if Hasbro got Turtles. Oh, God.
If they do, if they get Turtles, that's going
to soften up. And we're going to get a whole
bunch of Transformers crossovers and G .I. Joe
crossovers. Too many crossovers. No more Turtles.
Yeah, no more Turtles. No more crossovers. No
more. And we see that... I almost said Yoshi.
Wow. For two seconds, I thought that was not
who it is. But we get Saki and Kitsune. And then...
And then Rat King shows up and he's there to
see his sister because he's there to recruit
her. And he and Saki have a conversation, which
I love this. I loved all of this. I thought this
was, this is, this is cool. This is great. And
this is what's so great about this story because
Rat King is looking for players for his game.
He wants Kitsune, even though Kitsune failed
him last time. He wants to see if... That's the
whole point of this. That's the whole point of
opening moves. That's the whole point of the
annuals and whatever. He wants to see who's going
to play the Pantheon game. The Armageddon game,
whatever you want to call it now. Spoilers, folks.
Nobody wants to play. Oh gosh, what's the line?
The only way not to lose is not to play the game?
The only way to win is not to play. Yeah, the
only way to win is not to play. Yep. Yep, yep,
yep. But you know what? They address that in
this book later. Yep. They do. But I just...
Ah, what the... Wait a minute. Oh. Uh... Yes,
by this point... Oh, God, yeah! And Shredder's
moving toward the good side here. Right. Yeah.
No, no, no. Uh, cause this is a, this is after,
uh, he leaves and she says, beloved, what are
you contemplating? And he goes, and you see splinter
and he goes, old friends, kitsune. And the next
will be yours. Just. And new possibilities. Just,
oh god. Just, oh god. Again, these books just
always find ways to just crush your heart. And
then we get to Oroku Karai. And all her stuff.
Stuff. So it looks like she's this is an issue
I somehow missed, never read, don't have. So
I'm seeing this for the first time. But she's
harvesting parts of the dragon that was partly
formed in issue 100. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. So she
says to all her minions It's been nearly a month
since Kitsune's attack, so why am I still staring
at all this destruction? I want answers now.
And then he says, What do we have here, my children?
I'm losing my voice. I understand your frustration,
Karai, but we're fortunate to have anything left
after the dragon debacle. If Stockman wasn't
mayor, it's almost guaranteed we'd have government
inspectors snooping all over this facility, which
would fully expose our operation. So they have
all this discussion about all that, and we eventually
have the Rat King break into this whole thing,
and we have him basically put them to sleep kind
of thing, where he does his... Does his whole
thing with Karai and he says to her, Not a mere
knight, no, but a veritable queen in the making.
And what's more dangerous, my children, than
having a deadly and determined queen at your
behest? You may continue. Get moving. And all
her minions kept moving because he stopped them.
He stopped the thing right before she could say
that. And now we get to Alopex and Angel, and
oh boy. He's going to try to recruit them? You
know, he's Chaos. Yeah, he's Chaos, all right.
No, he's following them to see where... No, he's
following them to get to this. He's following
them to get to Leatherhead and Krang. That's
what he's doing. I do think that that is the
coolest thing to have done to Krang. Oh, no.
I'd like to see more of that because it's horrifying
and nasty and it makes Leatherhead even more
scary. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah, it's very, very scary.
And nobody's like, oh, shit. Or something to
that effect. It's actually bleeped out. What's
this? A monster within a monster? Two for one
sale, pal. Tell me you're not playing with a
Jose Canseco tale. And war with each other, no
less. How splendid. Again, Dave Walker's art,
the colors, and just, oh, man, it's so good.
So, so good. Like, just the change. Like, just
the change. In this entire page, you start with
the dark, like, inner panel here with the what's
this. You have the green and pink, green overall
of Leatherhead with the little leg thing he's
got, little bandages he's got. And you get the
background there, and then pink of Krang, and
then you get Alopex within the white, and nobody
with the purple. And then down at the left -hand
side of the page, he picks up a Mouser, which
is a yellow background, and basically he just
chucks it. Let's liven things up a little bit,
shall we? Hey, he'll throw that at me. Oh, no.
Yeah. Uh -huh. Intruders. Uh -oh. We're in trouble.
Uh -oh. But Angel got a little electrocution
stuff on her side, though. She electrocutes the
shit. It had a crying Leatherhead. Just find
a way to total the damn thing while I keep the
psycho twins busy. So Alopex tries to get to
the van. Leatherhead's tail stops her. More fighting
ensues. Krang says, I've never experienced such
infuriatingly resistant host. But thanks to you,
I am now in full control of the local idiot.
Oh no, the elect... Oh, it knocked him out, but
not Crank. Yeah, it knocked Leatherhead out,
but not Crank. Oh, God, yeah. Well, now he can
do whatever he wants to do, and what he wants
to do is make contact with the other U -Troms,
because that's all he has ever wanted to do.
Jamming remains active. You weren't able to disrupt
that. It ain't reptile, which means I'm still
invisible to my prying enemy eyes. And then they
threw a... She shot... One of them threw something
at the thing. And we get more electrocution soon
here. And then Alopex does her thing with the
computer. Man, so much electrocution. I love
this. Where, where, where? There. You're a regular
riot, Libby. Break glass. Push button. Run. Bye
-bye. Man. And then, yeah, they do all that and
get down. How absolutely beautiful. Rat King
just stands there. And Leatherhead's like, er,
Krang's like, uh, no, I need to get back in there.
Stop, you fool, you'll burn us both. And then,
uh, Rat King puts an all -stop to it. I won't
have all the delicious mayhem this motley group
provides snuffed out so soon. Like these two,
Biological Warrior and her furry mutant sidekick.
How absolutely thrilling. Truly, ladies, it's
been a joy to watch you both in action. Simply
leave here with the pride of a mission successfully
accomplished. Really, really sore for some reason.
Yeah, that was crazy. That was crazy. Yeah. Crazy
mind control. I hate that shit. Absolutely hate
that shit. But here's where it gets even stranger.
Speaking of weird, you are bizarre, and most
tumultuous sense of the word, my friends, two
oddities for the price of one. So many chaotic
possibilities. So no, there will be no murder
-suicide today, no martyrs. I will put those
thoughts out of one's obstinate mind, and memories
of today's battle will be lost to you both. Come
with me, my pets, until we again enjoy the amusement
of these two offers. But for now, we must bid
them adieu. Wow. Oh boy, this comic. So Leatherhead
and Krang wake up. Who, where, what, what the
hell have you done? You idiot! You brought us
here through this... But you soared just to steal
this opportunity to reunite with my people away
from me. He thinks Leatherhead is the problem.
Oh, boy. The end. Gotta love Leatherhead. I love
that because of the alternate cover by Kevin
Eastman, though. That's a good Leatherhead cover
with the city as a backdrop. That's a good one.
Oh, boy. This is Casey Maloney and Maria Keene,
Louis Antonio Delgado for the cover here. You
got the turtles all in the front. You got Leatherhead
Rat King and all the Pantheon people in the background
on the chessboard. And I'm assuming this is opening
moves? This is the annual 2021. Oh, this is annual
2021. Okay. Wow. Annual 2021 has... Wow. Okay.
So this is where we really kind of get going
with the setup. I love this page here where he's
kind of recapping. And this is the cool thing
about the annuals, folks. If you haven't kept
up with some of the stuff, the annuals are a
good way to get a refresher course. But you still
should read this series from issue 1 to issue
150. Yeah, the annuals and the free comic book
days are great places to jump on and start reading.
If you don't feel like going back in time and
reading everything, good place to start. Yeah,
absolutely. And we have this big giant recap
page of all of the siblings for the Pantheon
and where everyone's been. And this is where
he starts going to all of his siblings and the
various ways and things. And this is my favorite
page of this entire trade right here. This is
so frigging cool. This is awesome. We're making
a, a poster out of that. Uh, they should make
a, I don't know why they didn't make a poster
out of this. This is so cool. So this page here,
folks, so the previous page to this is. As I
said, it's Rat King says, my sister Kitsune particularly
has been a rather aggressive run -up until recently.
He talks about the dragon. He talks about all
this and everything else. And then this giant
poster at the top of it, it says, do I really
have to spell it out for you? Oh, because at
the bottom of the previous page here, he says,
You see, the source of my sister's failure, nay,
the source of all of my siblings' recent failures,
as well as many of your own, is annoying as a
assembly of antagonists shared by us all. And
then that's where he says, do I really have to
spell it out for you? So in this annual, he is
actually talking to an audience that we can't
see. So he is sitting somewhere talking to somebody
somewhere that we don't know who he's talking
to. And we get this poster. So starting at the
top left there, you get Casey's dad, Alopex,
Casey himself, Angel as nobody. You get Splinter,
Shredder, April, Kitsune Karai, Jenica, all the
turtles. Mondo Gecko. Mondo Gecko. Can't believe
I forgot Mondo. All the humans. Wait, who the
hell are these guys? Woody. Okay, that's Woody.
Who's this? I don't recognize who those two are.
Yeah, that's Harold. Those are April's parents.
Okay. And then there's Pete. Good old Pete. Herman.
There's Fugitoid and Hob and Man Ray and there's
Harold. There's Libby. There's Mr. Alien Dude,
whatever his name is. Donnie and Leo. Bebop and
Rocksteady. Wait, where's Rocksteady? Slash.
Slash Dude. Raph and Pepperoni and Koya. I saw
my first Pepperoni toy today. And you didn't
buy it? Well, it's a pre -order, but the McFarlane
Raphael, I think, comes with pepperoni. Oh, nice.
That's so cool. Yeah, so that's a nice little
big ol' splash page poster -like thing. So, yeah.
So he's going to Splinter. He's going to Shredder
and Kitsune. he's going to everybody he can think
of to go to. And then he starts going to his
siblings. And this is where I do what I don't
feel bad for him. All of his siblings tell him
no. I don't have time for your games. I don't
have time for this anymore. Like, I'm doing my
own thing. Like, the whole cat lady thing here.
I'm like, yeah, okay, you got your own war. And
then we get to this. Oh, my God. Not this. Not
this. Not this page. We get to this. And I was
like, oh, what the? Oh, right. It's going to
be kickball. Because I knew as soon as he held
the head in his hand, I'm like, you know, I always
preferred a good. I knew he was going to say
kick. And then I knew it was going to be like
an Alice in Wonderland -like thing. And then
I'm like, oh, right, the Toad Baron. Because
the Toad Baron kind of reminds me of the Queen
of Hearts. Like some Miyazaki fever dream. Yeah,
a little bit. Time out, time out. And I do love
how fun this is. I wanted any of the Pantheon
characters to be... not super regular, but a
more regular thing, the Toad Baron place would
probably be the funnest place to be. I mean,
it's still creepy as all hell, but it's probably
the most fun. Players to the pitch and all that.
And yeah, they basically tell him, no, we don't
want to do it either. And then we get to the
mammoth and the mammoth. I didn't... Okay, maybe
you can explain this to me. Like, I know they're
just kind of, like, sparring each other, but,
like, his moves here, like, how... Huh? He didn't
really move. Like, they are going at each other,
but, like, there's, like, again, they're not...
Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought he...
Yeah. The knife sent the swords in him. But...
Yeah, I think he's killing the wolves for furs
and food. Yeah, but... That kind of thing. Maybe.
Yeah, he's not so much of a protector as much
as he's a survivor. Okay, maybe I read it wrong.
I guess I did. I don't know. Again... But yeah,
basically everybody's telling him no. No, they
don't want to go back to the game. And this is
like the easiest one of all. He just goes there.
There's nobody else around this sibling. The
Pacific Northwest. No. I don't remember who that
is. Oh, it's just the black inky thing. Yeah,
that's... Tentacle squid. Jaguar to Toad Baron
to Mammoth, it was all beginning to come together
for me in a most unexpected fashion. I was ready
to return home with my newfound knowledge and
one determined, but I first had one last step
in order. I, yeah, I don't remember the character.
I thought they said it already. I thought they
were going to say it. And so there you have it.
Oh, Gothano. The dragon is dead. And Garfano
is like, no. Oh, honestly, no surprises there.
So that was a quick, easy exchange. And then
this is where we get the nice little nine panel
thing of him explaining everything. And we get
the reveal of who he's talking to. Well, yeah.
Everybody that we've. Yeah. Met so far. Yep.
Pretty much. Laying out his pitch. This is his
elevator pitch to Leather Crang, Baxter, and
Madame Null. Yep. This was crazy. And it's the
first time that we hear the Armageddon game.
The Armageddon game. Yep. I have to go back and
look at what year. So this is 2021. Holy cow!
Five years that's been sitting around. Oh my
gosh. Yep. And that was Opening Moves 1 and 2.
Wow. Yeah. That's, yep. Crazy. So Opening Moves,
what'd you think overall? It's a long draw. I
don't know what you'd call it. It's taken a long
time to get to where it wants to go. Which, again,
I feel like I've read Armageddon Game three times.
But I don't know that I ever got anywhere in
any of these. I know I've read all the annuals.
But I don't remember this stuff coming up. And
so I'm very excited that this will finally get
me over the Armageddon game speed bump. And then
by March, I'll have caught up with the new series.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, there you go, folks.
Armageddon game opening moves. Zero to five with
half points. What would you give this overall
story? Three out of five, only because it is
set up. It's not a complete story yet. For the
setup, I absolutely love it, but I do agree with
you. It is basically three out of five. There
are a couple of good... really good moments.
Yeah, lots of character moments. Yeah, and those
character moments for me are the Turtles, Splinter,
Kitsune, and Shredder. The whole Kitsune and
Shredder thing where they're basically you know,
Ghost of Christmas gone by, past, future, present,
whatever. When they're doing that stuff, oh man,
I love that. And when the turtles show back up
to the thing, oh, that was so cool with the kids
and everything. That was awesome. Like I said,
because all of his siblings did say no to him,
I kind of felt a little bit mad for the Rat King.
Still doesn't mean I still don't dislike the
character overall. But I'm interested to see
where the Armageddon game goes with this new
quote -unquote family that he has now with Leathercrang
and Stockman and Null. Yes, I don't have any
idea where this goes. I don't either. I've never
read it until now. I know from the covers of
some of the books closer to 150 what shows up.
how it related to some of the Archie books and
things that sound like the word Armageddon. Uh,
but, but I don't know. It'll be interesting.
I'm excited to get there. Yeah. Look, man, the
only thing I know of what are we getting is that
it's a Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck joint from 1998
directed by Michael Bay with Aerosmith. Oh my
gosh. I remember that song. Live Tyler. Yep.
Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right,
folks, that's going to do it for this episode
of the pull bag. We are back in the swing of
things and we are going to get things going.
Coming up. We've got the Armageddon game part
two. Let the game play out. That's just my own
little subtitle for the episode number, but that's
episode 580. After that, we will finish with
the Alliance, which is the Armageddon game Alliance,
which is the finale for that. Only because this
was recorded months and months and months and
years and years and years ago, my buddy Beachhead
Mike is going to join me, and we're going to
do G .I. Joe Silent Missions from Skybound Entertainment
in the episode after Armageddon Game, but then
after that, Joe and I are going to do Damage
Done Vol. 8 from Reborn, and then first, Last
Always, which is the final... trade paperback
for the original IDW Publishing TMNT run. We
will be doing that in February of 2026, and then
we will start the new Jason Aaron run, which
his run only lasted 12 issues, which, you know,
it's a good run. 12 issues is not bad. I think
there might be some behind -the -scenes drama
going on with that. I don't know, and I don't
care. I don't want to get into any of that. I'm
just saying he had a 12 -issue run. He kicked
off the new run. Yeah, I've heard it's very good,
too. So, yep, yep, yep. And it's IDW. It's still
Turtles. We're still going to cover it because
we still love it. So, you know, we're still here
for it. So that's what's coming up here inside
the pull bag. Thank you for joining us. Thank
you for watching us here at the show. If you'd
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game will begin. So Joe and I will be back for
that. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with... Joe
Reed, currently at the shop at geekcastradio
.com store looking for this shirt because I think
I need to wear that sucker. I think they're there.
I think there's pool bag shirts. I'm not sure.
I haven't looked. Okay, okay, okay, good. As
always, make your greatest game of the comics,
and we will catch you next time here inside the
pull bag. Oh, man. I could really go for a little
deep dish action right about now. I had some
pizza down here the other day. There might be
some left over. Well? Question. Yeah? Do you
like penicillin on your pizza? You've just heard
the latest episode of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's
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