The first two story arcs in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation come to a close in this fourth issue.

Raphael is trapped in a cage in Area 51, after following Metalhead there to rescue his little dinosaur buddy, Pepperoni. However, Metalhead, who encounters someone offering him a devilish deal that he might not be able to refuse, may just have an ace up his sleeve, and Raphael’s imprisonment might not last anywhere near as long as he feared. Can he save Pepperoni and the other caged mutants?

Meanwhile, in the second story, Casey Jones is fighting a demon which has taken control of Karai. Can he stop her? And can Karai free herself from the demon in the driver’s seat?

This issue’s Raphael story concludes in a way that relies far too heavily on recently concluded continuity for my liking. Given that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the main series, was rebooted with a new #1, I thought we’d leave behind any convoluted story elements to ensure that new readers could jump on board each title, but that definitely doesn’t seem to be the case here. It’s also weird that the story ends here by leading into TMNT’s #1 issue, which of course was released last year. It’s a bit of a messy and unsatisfying climax to what’s been an average story at best.

The same can be said of the Casey Jones tale in this issue too; it wraps up fairly neatly and leads us into seeing a familiar face in TMNT #5, but it’s not all that vital to read this particular story at all.

I’ve said it so many times in these reviews of Mutant Nation, but I really do wish that we’d be able to explore beyond our usual cast of characters. Seeing the revealed cover for issue 5, featuring Raphael and Pepperoni again, doesn’t fill me with any sort of optimism that we’re going to get beyond the usual, familiar characters, unfortunately.

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