Character Spotlight: Ch’rell

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Ch’rell!

One of the great things about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is that each new adaptation feels free to do its own thing. And it's only with that freedom that we could get a character like Ch'rell.

Ch'rell was introduced by the 2003 animated series in the episode "Secret Origins, Part 1" (January 2004). In the episode, the Turtles are trying to learn how an alien race called the Utroms got to Earth, and they discovered it was because a Utrom ship passed by Earth while transporting an evil Utrom named Ch'rell, but the ship malfunctions and they crash land in 11th century Japan. Ch'rell escapes and steals an exosuit from another Utrom. It is also in this episode where the Turtles discover there was a Shredder that long ago as well. The next episode doesn't have that much information except that Shredder returns despite being previously decapitated, which is a clue to the big reveal of "Secret Origins, Part 3" (January 2004): Ch'rell has been Shredder the whole time! Not just from the beginning of the show, but since the 11th century.

Ch'rell has not been that active in the comics, unfortunately. We first meet him in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #56 (March 2016) - or more specifically, we don't meet him, because the whole plot is that while he's one of many Utroms that are kept in stasis and there's talk of waking all of them, the characters end up waking all the Utroms except Ch'rell because he's at least as dangerous as Krang.

Two years later, that changed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #22 (May 2018).

Where will he go from here? Will he take Krang's place in the narrative? Will he become the new Shredder? Will he take over a Triceraton's body like an abandoned plot from the 2003 series was going to have him do? I don't know, and knowing IDW, it might take four years to find out.

Costume Spotlight: Catwoman

Right now, the Batman books are in the middle of a storyline officially called "The Gift", but many fans are calling "Batpoint". The gist is that Batman and Catwoman are getting married, and as a wedding present, Booster Gold went back and saved Batman's parents from death. This creates an alternate reality that, frankly, the details of which aren't worth getting into. But suffice to say, Booster Gold realizes he made a mistake and now has to fix it.

To do so, he thinks getting Bruce and Selina in the same room will spark something in Bruce that will want him to put the world back to normal. This happens in Batman #46 (May 2018), and Booster thinks the best way to jog his memory is to have Selina dress up as Catwoman. But since she doesn't have a Catwoman suit, Booster - despite not being great at sewing - decides to make one anyway.

 Here's a closer look:

As I'm sure you can tell, this outfit is based on Michelle Pfeiffer's rendition of Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992):

This isn't the first time that version of Catwoman has influenced the comics.

Character Spotlight: Maligna (and the Malignoids)

The current run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics by IDW is trying to more or less be the definitive TMNT story by synthesizing all the Ninja Turtles media that came before it. As such, that means it has had a ton of canon immigrants and will continue to have many more.

This week: Maligna (and the Malignoids)!

Maligna is an alien insectoid who's the queen of the Malignoids, a race of insects implied to all be her children. They first appear in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #12 (July 1990) when Krang wants to borrow ten of her soldiers in exchange for showing her the planet Earth. Maligna and the Malignoids made several more appearances in that series, and were even going to be recurring protagonists in the Mighty Mutanimals cartoon, but it never got made.

She didn't appear again until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #73 (August 2017) when it was mentioned she was filling the void left by Krang (ecause he was on trial).

She hasn't appeared again, but this series plays the long game. She'll pop up again when you least expect it.

Magneto’s Telepathy-Blocking Helmet

CBR, formerly Comic Book Resources, has a feature called “Follow the Path” that’s essentially the same as this blog. Sometimes they post things I was not aware of, and unfortunately they go into so much detail that anything I wrote about the subject would basically be plagiarism. In cases like that, I just post the link and be done with it. But since it’s not a “real” post, I’m doing it on Saturday instead of the usual Wednesday. 

In the following link, you can learn all about how the idea that Magneto’s helmet is to block Xavier’s telepathy was a product of the 2000 X-Men film. I don’t know if I completely buy it; I don’t recall being surprised by that fact when I first heard it, which makes me think I’d heard it before. Unfortunately, I can’t find any evidence online.

https://www.cbr.com/magneto-helmet-telepathy-protection/2/

Appearance Spotlight: Miss Gsptlsnz

Pretty much everyone knows Mr. Mxyzptlk, the 5th-dimensional imp who's a perennial thorn in Superman's side. He's appeared in most Superman adaptations, including Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Smallville, and Supergirl. But did you know he has a wife?

Miss Gstlsnz first appeared in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #52 (February 1964), and although Mxy called her his girlfriend at the time, she developed a crush on Jimmy. As you can see, she was depicted as being very impish, just like Mxy himself.

She made a few more appearances after that, but most people know her from seeing the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Mxyzpixelated" (September 1997). As you can see below, she was drawn much differently on that show.

Gspy appeared in the comics again in JLA #31 (May 1999), in a story that used as many 5th-dimensional imps as it could - and even made a few pre-existing characters imps when they weren't previously known to be so. If you'll notice, she's drawn here to pretty much be a modern take on her original appearance. I only include this to indicate that, although the change is coming, it didn't happen right away.

In Countdown #31 (July 2007), we see Gsptlsnz again, and this time she has a look that's clearly influenced by the animated version, although taken in a more realistic and mature direction.

But then in Action Comics #975 (March 2017) - more specifically, the backup story, which is written by Paul Dini - we get a version that's also clearly based on the animated version, but plays up the bombshell look and doesn't adhere to the color scheme (although to be fair, the animated version didn't always either).

Most recently, in Action Comics #1000 (April 2018), we get a version of Gspy that sort of splits the difference between her previous two appearances.