Warning: Spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4!I am sure that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is ready to undo the franchise's most controversial moment. Anyone familiar with the cartoons and films probably thinks I sound dramatic, but those who have seen how incredibly dark the TMNT comics can get know I'm talking about Splinter's death. For many fans, it was genuinely blasphemy to kill Splinter.
However, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 by Jason Aaron, Chris Burnham, Brian Reber and Shawn Lee gives me the impression that Splinter's inevitable return was foreshadowed. You see, the foreshadowing comes from the ramblings of a madman named Donatello, whose rebranding has driven him insane.
As easy as it is to dismiss Donatello and his ramblings on this issue, I think there is at least a method to the madness – if not Donatello's, at least the story itself. I think the story is preparing the audience for a true resurrection of Master Splinter.
Splinter returns for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… sort of
A crazed Donatello mistakes a dead mouse for a live splinter
During IDW's previous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles volume, Splinter died in issue 100, having sacrificed himself in an effort to save the world and resurrect Shredder's dormant humanity. Since then, the four central Turtles have gone their separate ways, fighting in different ways. Raphael was completely reinvented when he went to prison, while Michelangelo became a famous TV star and Leonardo regretted his greatest sin: taking a life. But I'm tempted to say that in your post-Turtles life, Donatello goes through the worst of it all.
Not to minimize the pain of any of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as they all go through their own unique brand of turmoil, which eventually forces them to come together again at the end of this issue, but as this issue shows, Donatello became a reluctant participant in a mutant fight club. In fact, Donatello has been in bad shape for some time, even before the events of this book. In the previous volume of TMNTDonatello began dabbling in magic, using it to the point where he found himself able to travel through time.
Where does Donatello's mouse come from and is it really Master Splinter?
Not likely, but never say never
Although his decision to begin choosing magic over science transformed Donatello's power level, it negatively transformed him on a physical level. Both his psyche and his skeletal and bodily structure began to deteriorate; it became harder for him to keep food down. As he mourns Master Splinter, he mistakes a random mouse for his late fatherthinking Splinter is sending him a signal for his next chapter. However, this leads him to find a truck full of imprisoned animal-mutant hybrids, moments before he is captured and used in a mutant fighting arena at Sunshine Safari Park.
Even when the rat is killed by a wild shuriken when the Foot Clan attacks, Donatello is still convinced that he is Master Splinter, alive and in the flesh.
Donatello spends months in his cell, only coming out to defend his life. He never eats to give his food to other inmates. His body and mind deteriorate further, and all he has to comfort him is a rat in his cell. This may or may not be the same rat that took him to the prisoners, but Donnie definitely thinks it's the same rat that was once Master Hamato Yoshi. Even when the mouse is killed by a wild shuriken when the Foot Clan attacks, Donatello is still convinced he's Master Splinteralive and in the flesh.
Could the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles be foreshadowing Splinter's true return?
Assuming this random mouse isn't a Splinter
There's a good chance that Splinter wasn't reincarnated into a random rat who guides Donatello through life. I actually think it's pretty safe to assume this – but then again, never say never, right? Strange things happened in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tradition. After all, the Turtles' origin story confirmed that Master Splinter and his sons were – respectively – humans reincarnated into rats and turtles, who happened to transform by chance through radioactive slime. I don't think Hamato being reincarnated into another rat it would be the most far-fetched or strangest thing to happen in these stories.
Alternatively, let's just say that it's absurd to think that Master Splinter became Donatello's guide rat. Let's assume this moment is as dark as it really is, and it's just Donatello freaking out, walking away with a dead rat with a shuriken stuck in its head that he keeps nestled into his shoulder. Nothing more, nothing less than that – at least on the surface. Beneath the surface, this little moment could be foreshadowing Master Splinter's real return. Maybe not through this mouse; the mouse probably has nothing to do with Splinter.
But the story could lead to a true Splinter return. In fact, knowing how much Aaron, as the series' still new writer, professed to be a longtime fan of TMNT during its darkest days, I'd be shocked if he wasn't at least a little tempted to write for such a central figure. Turtles tradition. If that's the case, then he's not going to let a little death stop him from bringing Splinter back. When death stopped someone to return to superhero comics? THE Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchising should be no exception.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 is now available from IDW Publishing.