Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Each of these deviations ends in pretty much the same way: that is, at the end, the world doesn't seem all that drastically changed.   There is one fairly big change at the end of this, which means I liked this one a little more for daring to change a little more and in a little bit more of a permanent manner. 

For alternate timelines, though, these are pretty tame.   Marvel's What If, and even DCs Elsewhere titles, did a lot more damage, in a much more permanent way, and did so gleefully.   It's fun to play out the changes: if one thing had happened differently, how would it all play out?  (I've heard  the complaint that What If ended in a depressingly morbid manner a lot of the time, and I agree.   So many seemed to be a reason to make it as angsty as possible that it lost it's edge after a while.  A more balanced mix of happy/sad endings would have at least kept me guessing a little more, and thus kept up my interest.)

But I digress.  I wanted to read this deviation because I've read some of the TMNT series set in this universe - and I've been pleasantly surprised by them all.  I quite enjoy this continuity, so I wanted to see: what if Shredder got the Turtles working for The Foot Clan? It seemed like an intriguing premise, ripe with possibilities.   

I had problems with the way this was executed.   The ending.   The ending, had it been more of a contestation of this idea, could have promised a lot more of those possibilities. Casey's father acted out of character from everything I've seen of him.  

I also found a lot that was successful, but in particular, the first scene in which the four brothers track down their father.   It's tense, it's painful and heartbreaking, and it works not only as scripted, but visually as well.   Everything brings out the creepiness and wrongness of this scenario, and it worked me up and got me ready for what was coming. It completely captured my attention. 

In a lot of ways, I actually think this was the most successful of the three Deviations that I've read.   It still didn't work completely for me.   I doubt I'll invest in either the Ghostbusters or G.I. Joe issues.   I'm already less invested in those series, or franchises even, and I was slightly  underwhelmed by these three issues as a whole.