WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #118 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Sophie Campbell, Nelson Daniel, Ronda Pattison, Shawn Lee, and Bobby Curnow, on sale now.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have just overcome some of their most grueling and unexpected battles ever, not to mention having recently ended the war that has been waging long before they were even born. Now that things are finally starting to look up for both the Splinter Clan and Mutant Town, it would take something truly massive in scope to rain on their parade. Unfortunately, a new threat has emerged which is exactly that, and it has come at the behest of one of the Turtles' classic villains. Not only is Baxter Stockman back to terrorizing the Turtles, but as April O'Neil has just discovered, he is more dangerous than ever.
April has been working alongside Baxter since before his election to the office of mayor, and continues to do so, even though that hasn't changed her willingness to call him out when the situation demands it. As she is preparing to leave for the evening, she spies a Null Corp truck being loaded up with what appears to be giant mutant eggs. April also overhears what sounds like instructions to have them delivered behind the walls that separate Mutant Town from the rest of the city. Once she has confronted Mayor Stockman about this, he confirms her suspicions that these are indeed the eggs of the Slithery. Even worse than that, he doesn't have any intention of letting April get in his way.
First appearing in 2020's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #106 by Sophie Campbell and Ronda Pattison, the Slithery was believed to just be a children's fairy tale or boogeyman. Young Lita described it as a sea monster that lives in the sewers where it brings its child victims to be kept in cages. Though no one believed her at the time, her story wasn't far from the truth, as the Slithery turned out to be a massive eel mutant that in fact lived in the sewers, and had been kidnapping young mutants, eventually including Lita. Once the Turtles had caught up with her in the Slithery's lair, they realized that the creature was more animalistic than the other mutants and ended up releasing it. They also realized that Baxter Stockman had been keeping it contained for his own reasons, which turned out to be the eggs he is now looking to unleash upon Mutant Town.
There is little doubt that all of this is a ploy to garner public support for an eventual invasion of Mutant Town by himself or the EPF, and he is willing to go to any lengths to ensure it all goes according to plan. When April threatens to expose him, Stockman has his associate unleash two eel mutants on her, both of them wearing some sort of device that has put them under his control. Even though she makes it back to the Turtles, April is injured during her escape. On top of everything else, Stockman has just turned her into a target by releasing her name and image as a "Mutagenically contagious threat."
No matter how injured she is at the moment, April still has the Turtles and Casey to look out for her. Unfortunately, even they might not be enough to keep her safe now that she is a wanted person in the eyes of every law enforcement agency in the city.
Additionally, there's no telling what fallout the heroes could be facing if Stockman is able to unleash a horde of wild eel mutants into Mutant Town. The citizens of Mutant Town might be feeling better than ever at the moment, but they're going to be in for a world of hurt if Baxter Stockman isn't stopped.