Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Untold Destiny of the Foot Clan #1-5

by Erik Burnham, Mateus Santolouco (artist)

Oroku Karai takes center stage in this action-packed battle for control of the Foot Clan. Karai has spent her life in the shadow of first her father, then her grandfather, Oroku Saki, the so-called Shredder. But no more. Now the Foot Clan is hers to command, and she has grand designs on seeing her clan reach its full potential. Karai has learned that Saki shared mystical secrets with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—secrets meant only for those loyal to the Foot. As she and those loyal to her set out to master the ancient way of the ninja, she’ll discover that she’s not the only one who lays claim to the Foot Clan’s destiny. Erik Burnham and Mateus Santolouco told The Secret History of the Foot Clan. Now they return to lay out the future!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

Kindle Edition

First published January 7, 2025

About the author

Erik Burnham is a Minnesotan writer and artist that first broke into comics with a series of humorous short stories in the Shooting Star Comics Anthology. These stories featured his original creation, Nick Landime, and culminated in a one-shot: Nick Landime vs. the World Crime League, published by Shooting Star in 2005.

Off and on, in this same time period, Erik also produced a short run of an online strip, The Down Side, until technical issues wore him down. He aims to return to the strip one day.

In 2007, Erik found produced work for two other anthologies – a short humor piece for History Graphics Press’ Civil War Adventures #1, and a horror story for Gene Simmons’ House of Horror #3, produced by IDW Publishing.

This lead to several other projects for IDW, up to and including his critically acclaimed run on the ongoing GHOSTBUSTERS comic book.

Erik has worked on other projects not related to comic books, and hopes one day to share those with the public at large. In the meantime, he still lives quietly in Minnesota; any rumors about this being because he’s completely afraid of the forty-nine other states (and Canada) remain unverified at this time.

Reviews

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book to help kick off the new era of the TNMT and the Foot Clan. Good story and artwork.

Karai and the Foot Clan have returned to Japan. What starts as an easy/fun job, turns into a brutal beating. The message is received, now it is time for retaliation. What secrets will be uncovered and which Clan will survive?

A great start to the new era, I can't wait to see where things go from here, I love the brutal fights I am looking forward to more. The book finishes with a variant cover gallery and a book of character designs.

[iamjacsmusings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad this was told.

[Seth Grindstaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as it came out and again in trade. It (like most comics) is more enjoyable in trade.

I particularly liked the dream sequences in the middle of the book, which force the main characters to battle their inner fears--similar to Luke on Dagobah in Empire.

The scenes with Beebop and Rocksteady are fun. The fight scenes are a little drawn out for me, but I'm interested in the history/lore of the Foot Clan. I'm interested in Karai's character and story arc in general. The book does a good job of setting up more exciting stories for the future.

I don't think Santalouco's art is as sharp here as in other Turtle series--like Untold or City at War.

Casey Jones character is a weak spot in this series. I feel like he doesn't have much to do, even though he is wearing a cool new mask.

[Neil Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a mixed bag. I thought the first two parts were engaging with some cool action (mutant whale!) and an interesting new set of foes (with a fun origin). The cast were dynamic and made good use of Casey Jones (who has really been sidelined/poorly used for a long time) and perhaps my favourite use of Bebop and Rocksteady as powerhouses but also surprisingly loyal.
Where this collection fell apart was in how rushed the conclusion was. It sped through what were already storytelling shortcuts to get characters from zero to hero. Maybe this series was testing the water to see if the foot clan could become an ongoing? If so they did themselves a disservice by choosing a story that was too big for the 5 issues.
The art was strong throughout particularly with the action and the flashback sequence.

[Mike Jozic · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new enemy but no character arc.

[Kamen Rider Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido y divertido, pero habría sido 3 estrellas de no ser por el arte