WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #106, by Kevin Eastman, Sophie Campbell, Ronda Pattison, and Nelson Daniel, available now.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always gone through their ups and downs, but things have been especially rough lately for the Heroes in a Half Shell. Not only have they been dealing with the death of Master Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100, but they’ve also had to adjust to a whole new population of mutants in New York.

With their father dead and their whole world turned upside down, the Turtles are understandably going through a lot. But Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #106 by Kevin Eastman, Sophie Campbell, Ronda Pattison, and Nelson Daniel goes to show that Raphael is having a much harder time than the rest of his family.

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Over the last few issues, the Turtles have been grappling with the death of their father and sensei, Master Splinter. After sacrificing himself to defeat Kitsune and save his family, Splinter exchanged his life for the Shredder’s, restoring balance and almost tearing apart the very thing he sought to save in the process. On top of the Splinter situation, New York City isn’t the town it once was thanks to Old Hob and the Mutanimals. During the “City at War” story arc, the old tomcat detonated a mutagen bomb during Baxter Stockman’s mayoral election rally, resulting in the immediate mutation of dozens of people. The mutagen soon went airborne, quickly spreading to evolve thousands of New Yorkers and giving Stockman the excuse to quarantine a section of the city with a 50-ft wall and guarded by the Earth Protection Force with decreasingly frequent supply drops.

While Donnie updates the reader on the group’s new status quo, the other Turtles are shown diving into their new roles. Raph, however, is shown ditching the class he’s supposed to be teaching to go brood on the roof with his pet dinosaur, Pepperoni. Though this may not be the healthiest thing for Raphael to do, it’s hardly out of character for the teenage Turtle. Historically, Raph has the habit of being the most emotional out of his brothers, and this time he may have a point in blaming himself for their current situation.

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During “City at War,” Raphael joined forces with Old Hob and the Mutanimals to put an end to Madame Null’s schemes, but he had no idea that Hob was planning to unleash a mutagen on unsuspecting citizens. Blaming himself for the part he played in Hob’s detonation of the mutagen bomb, he’d been acting as a vigilante, protecting the citizens of the quarantine zone from the Mutanimals before eventually reuniting with his family. Apart from his guilt over the part he played, Raphael is also struggling with his new position as a kinder, gentler Turtle. As the historical rebel of the group, he’s having to adjust not only to a world without his father, but a new status quo in which he is looked up to as a role model for all the new mutants that he feels he helped create.

While all of the Turtles have grown to enjoy the fact that they can now move around freely without having to hide their status as mutants, Raph can’t fully bring himself to enjoy it as he still feels he carries the burden of blame for his part in Hob’s plan. In addition to t the fact that he has to step into Splinter’s shoes as a sensei in his own right, it’s no wonder he’s having a shell of a time adjusting.

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