Guys: Hob sucks.  Introduced in issue 1 of the IDW run, he was an obvious non-Shredder placeholder; the unimaginative mutant parallel for the Turtles’ rat sensei.  He has sucked since that first appearance, existing only to espouse bad guy claptrap, and he has sucked ever since, despite thinly-plotted attempts to have him play both sides as a Mutanimal.

Leatherhead is alright.  The prone-to-rage genius version of him feels a little tired, but it at least gives his motivations a bit more logical of a throughline.

Chris Mowry is also alright.  He’s kicked around as a quality letterer on some of the Turtles books; this Leatherhead vs. Hun vs. Hob mash-up is straight-forward and without cheer – and because Hob sucks there’s no way to write him unsuckily – but Chris takes a solid approach to getting his players in the room and then divvies up the action sensibly, with some true-to-character violent / illogical (e.g. Hob) reactions from our mutants.

Artist Michael Dialynas is god-damned awesome.  Get that Santolouco guy outta there and give me more of Dialynas’ weighty characters and patient, moody panels.  Especially here, colored by Tomi Varga, this wintry tale looks all sorts of menacing done up in shadowy pastels.

So the awesome balances the sucks, and two alrights = three stars.  Congratulations.