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Some TMNT stuff was always meant for grownups. |
What has been going on in New York while the Turtles have been scattered across the globe? A dangerous district attorney has come into power, and he’s got a grudge against mutantkind. Backed by some powerful benefactors who have designs of their own for the city, he’s doing everything he can to stoke hatred against the mutants. With the TMNT absent, someone needs to step in and stop this power grab – and figure out who is backing this nefarious new enemy.
Enter Casey Jones! Jason Aaron completes his first story arc for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, teaming with legendary artist Darick Robertson, co-creator of The Boys!
Appearing in The Law of the Foot[]
Major characters[]
- Casey Jones
- Foot Patrol
- Hieronymus Hale
- Oroku Karai (flashback only)
Minor characters[]
- Bebop (flashback only)
- Carmichael (dies in flashback)
- Donatello (flashback only)
- Foot Ninja (flashback only)
- Leonardo (flashback only)
- Michelangelo (flashback only)
- Mr. Hale (debut) (dies in flashback)
- Mrs. Hale (debut) (dies in flashback)
- Mr. & Mrs. Hale's alleged killer (debut) (dies in flashback)
- Raphael (flashback only)
- Rocksteady (flashback only)
Species[]
Locations[]
- New York
- Foot Clan Headquarters
- Hale apartment
- State Supreme Court Building
- Tokyo (flashback only)
Objects and vehicles[]
Synopsis[]
A huge crowd of protestors stand in front of the State Supreme Court Building in New York City. Barricades separate the protestors from District Attorney Hieronymus Hale, who is guarded by a squadron of Foot Patrol soldiers. Hale narrates the tale of his life, starting by saying people think they know him. Take one look and presume to have figured out his story.
A reporter calls out to ask him how he responds to multiple charges of excessive force being leveled against the Foot Patrol. Including reports that they’re disproportionately targeting mutants. Hale responds by saying he won’t be taking any questions… ever. Then he orders the Foot Patrol to disperse the mob.
Hale continues his story with how people would figure a guy like him must have been picked on as a kid, and now the bullied kid has power. The Foot Patrol attacks the crowd, viciously beating them back with tonfas and maces. Hale enters the building, ruminating on how no one in the city knows a damn thing about him. He was never bullied, he was simply ignored, almost invisible. He secretly yearned for his classmates to at least laugh at him or call him names, then at least he’d know he was real.
As the Foot Patrol continues to batter people, even using shuriken on them and then launching tear gas arrows at the crowd, Hale thinks about how he suffered his youth in silence. He used that experience to toughen himself, swearing that no matter what it took, someday he would give the world no choice but to see him. To that end, he roared through law school, making a name for himself with his razor-sharp debate skills. Then, as the youngest prosecutor in the city, his skills in the courtroom became legendary. Once, the judge actually stood up and applauded.
Yet the world still found ways to turn its back on him. A younger Hale is seen sitting alone in a conference room while his co-workers are off to the side talking amongst themselves. When Hale was elected District Attorney, these same co-workers began to offer their congratulations, but he fired all of them. Even after everything he’d overcome, Hale still felt slighted and ignored. Except at home. His mom and dad, who called him Ronnie, greeted him enthusiastically as Hale is shown going home. They wanted to hear everything about his life and about all the big trials he had won.
His parents saved every mention of him from the paper. They bragged about their son's exploits to their friends. They were his biggest fans. Hale was very proud when, even on his meager salary, he was able to buy them a new apartment uptown. For the first time in his parent’s lives, they felt rich, they told him. Then one day, Hale returned to the apartment to find that his parents had been slain.
At the funeral, the only people in attendance are Hale, the minister and a pair of grave diggers. Hale recalls that the police called the murders a robbery gone wrong. He knew his parents were tough people who never bit their tongue. They probably said or did something to set the robber off and died for it. Later, sitting alone in his parents’ kitchen, Hale thinks on how the weak devour the strong these days because the city has become backwards. The only description the police had of his parents’ killer was that he looked like an animal.
Seated in a bar, Hale complains to the bartender about what the city has come to. He tells him he should hear stories they tell down at the jail. Turtles running around like they are people! The bartender informs Hale that he’s had enough, but the man keeps on drinking as though he hadn’t heard. He says that he doesn’t believe a word of what they say on the news and the nonsense about mutagen bombs. It makes it sound as if the mutants didn’t have a choice. That, he says, is what we do for freaks these days, make excuses for weakness. Once again, the bartender tries to cut him off, but he sees a pair of large figures approaching and attempts to warn Hale, who keeps complaining and ignores him. Finally, when the two are behind Hale, does the man respond to the bartender, who replies “never mind”. Hale tells him to shut up and pour him another drink. Behind him, one of the newcomers tells him he’s going to need it. Asking what that’s supposed to mean, Hale looks over his shoulder and sees Bebop and Rocksteady.
A battered Hale, one eye swollen shut, is unceremoniously tossed on the floor in the Foot Clan Headquarters. He is greeted by Karai, who thanks him for joining them. Hale complains that he thought those “monsters” were going to kill him. Karai tells him that this is a business meeting. In reply to his question as to what kind of business, Karai says the only kind that matters, the business of power. She then introduces herself and says that like her father and grandfather before, she is Jonin of… Hale interrupts to say the Foot Clan, one of the world’s most powerful criminal enterprises. As he works in the prosecutor’s office, he knows who she is. Karai says she knows him, as well. Since they can skip the formal introductions, they will get to the reason he is here. She tells her underlings to bring “him” in.
Half a dozen Foot Ninja march a small, bound, and frightened looking mutant into the room. When Hale asks who that is, Karai informs him that it’s the mutant who murdered his parents. She says that it barely took any beating before he confessed. The mutant claims that he was lost, confused, newly mutated, and went to Hale’s parent’s house by chance, looking for help. They attacked him, he says, and he merely defended himself. Karai takes a mace from one of the Foot Ninja and approaches Hale with the weapon. Hale tells her that’s a lie. Karai says she doesn’t care what he believes, all she needs is that he accepts this is indeed his parent’s killer. He is her gift to Hale. But in the Foot, gifts are not given, they must be earned.
Karai tosses the mace on the floor between Hale and the mutant. When Hale says he doesn’t understand and asks what this is, Karai says the question is actually, what are you? A Foot Ninja cuts the rope binding the mutant’s wrists. Hale and the mutant stare at each other. Hale sees the mutant going for the mace and yells “no!” before making a dash for the weapon himself. Karai flings a shuriken into the mutant’s thigh, which gives Hale the opportunity to grab the mace first. He approaches the fallen mutant, growing angrier by the second. He calls the mutant a monster and shouts that he deserves to die. Hale lifts the mace to deliver a killing blow, but Karai takes it from him and says that will be enough. Hale is mortified and mumbles that if she hadn’t… he was about to… Karai says she knows. Nearby, a Foot Ninja has filmed the entire thing. Karai tells him everyone else will know unless he does exactly as she says. He protests that he won’t, that he’s an honest man, and he won’t work for her. Karai says she wouldn’t dream of asking him to break the law. She is asking him to be it, holding in her open palm a “Vote Hale” lapel button.
Back in the present, Hale thinks on how, just like that, when the world finally turned its fickle gaze upon Hieronymus Hale, he was ready. Ready to seize the moment. What remains of the crowd at the State Supreme Court Building are limping away, their eyes burning from tear gas. The Foot Patrol stands on the steps to the building, shields up and weapons held ready. A figure walks through the smoke, an ice hockey stick balanced on his shoulders. He calls out to the patrol that he heard on TV that their boss wants to make this city mean again. There is a closeup on a hockey mask as the man says that on behalf of every New Yorker from the Bowery to the Bronx, allow him to respond.
He strikes a Patrol officer in the face with the hockey stick, shattering the glass on his helmet. Casey Jones stands over the fallen man as others in the Foot Patrol surround him. He asks them if they got the message, or if he needs to repeat himself. The Foot Patrol attacks and Casey goes into action, gleefully fighting with weapons, fists and feet.
Unfortunately, he is outnumbered. As Casey is dragged before Hale, the man says that he hears it took more than a dozen patrolmen to bring him down. Impressive, he says, stupid, but impressive. Hale then assures Casey that such lawless vigilantism will no longer be tolerated in his city. Casey says that Hale is just a lapdog and that he recognizes his little ninja cops. He knows Foot Clan training when he sees it. Casey shouts that he wants to talk to the real boss, Karai. He says that even after everything she’s done, he can’t believe that she’d leave a mutant-hating madman like Hale in charge of her ninja.
Hale laughs and says that Karai is indisposed. She left strict orders not to be disturbed. Hale claims that the only interest he serves is that of the good people of New York, however few of them are left. He tells Casey that there is no place for mutant enablers like him in the five boroughs. Casey tells him there is six and he can’t just erase Mutant Town. Hale says he’ll see about that. But first, he’ll give Casey one last chance to redeem himself. The same chance he was given. He holds up a mace and says the chance to show the world your true worth. He tosses the mace on the floor and says that when he gives the order, the patrolmen will release Casey. Then there will just be the two of them… and the mace. Casey says he’s joking, but Hale tells him the Foot will not interfere and no charges will be filed against him no matter what happens. Casey tells him that he’s out of his mind. Hale says that he is a proud New Yorker who’s determined to see that the animals within this city stay in cages, where they belong. The Patrolmen release Casey, who immediately darts for the mace.
Hale narrates that he’s finally doing it, the work he was always meant for. In service of this ungrateful city, whether it likes it or not. Before Karai left, she charged Hale with one objective. To see that the enemies of the Foot Clan were kept… occupied. Flashback to the attacks on Raphael, and Michelangelo. To accomplish this task, Karai left him his own cadre of highly trained killers. Assassins he’s already set to work all over the world. Flashback to the attacks on Leonardo and Donatello. Soon, Hale believes, he will have an even greater weapon at his disposal. The entire city, a city remade in his image. For the mutants of the Clan Hamato… a city of death. He wonders sometimes what his beloved parents would thinks of him. He has done things he never thought he could. He won his office only after his opponent unexpectedly dropped out of the race. Flashback to when Hale had his opponent Carmichael thrown off a bridge. As for the mutant, the one Karai stopped him from murdering in cold blood… Flashback to a van stopping and the mutant being taken into the woods. He protests that he thought he was being taken to prison and he wants to talk to a lawyer. Hale finishes the job he didn’t complete before by bashing the mutant’s head in with a mace.
Brandishing the mace, Casey yells that he won Hale’s stupid game, and so enough of this craziness. He’s walking out or he promises he’ll use the weapon on someone. Hale believes his parents are looking down at him and beaming with pride. He grins as Casey curses and says not to make him. Then Hale reaches into his jacket, pulls out a gun, and shoots Casey.
My name is Hieronymus Hale. The King of New York.