Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #23 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: For those who’ve ever wondered what turtles dream about.

The Review: A while back, a friend of mine and I had a long discussion about predictability in fiction.  He insisted that predictability is toxic to the quality of any kind of story; if something is predictable, then it reveals not only a lack of originality, but also weakness in execution.  I saw his point, but ultimately disagreed with the basic premise.  After all, predictability is a very relative thing, dependent on every individual’s fictional experience.

As a reviewer, I’ve seen more than my share of narrative formulas, but who’s to say anyone else has had that luxury?  From last issue’s final scenes, I already knew that this month would be all about Shredder pressing Leonardo into his service.  And because Leo, as the most devoted of Splinter’s sons, could never be legitimately persuaded to follow Shredder, I knew that the only avenue to obtaining his loyalty would be some serious Kitsune magic.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #16 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Andy Kuhn (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: Forget doves—nothing is more heartbreaking than seeing a turtle cry.

The Review: This site is not the proper forum for espousing political or moral views—but what the heck.  If you ask me, it seems pretty clear that no sensible moral compass requires you to let yourself get killed.  If someone’s threatening to take you down, you can try to dodge the bullet as well as you can, but at some point, you’ve got to take a shot yourself.  And as long as you don’t take that choice for granted, you shouldn’t have to guilt yourself to death afterward.

Last issue, the Turtles found themselves confronting this rather perplexing question of ethics: does the right to survival give them the right to end someone’s life?  As anybody else would do, they decided to leave the answer for another day.  Unfortunately, the moral dilemma has caught up with them, in the form of Slasher, a fellow mutant turtle without the distinguishing intellect, forcing them to confront their principles a lot sooner than expected.

Predictably enough, the Turtles do their best to diffuse the situation to avoid making the hard choice.  Given the circumstances, they make a very respectable effort toward minimizing the violence while keeping themselves alive.  While their behavior is worthy of applause, ultimately the mindless savagery of their opponent leaves them with few options.  And with Mikey pleading for compassion on one side and Raph and Donnie insisting they’ve got to ensure their safety on their other, the burden falls on Leo to call the shots.

Even though Leo’s the de facto leader of the brothers, it seems a bit mean to leave all the responsibility to him.  He shoulders it admirably, though, and does his very best to keep the peace.  And since this is TMNT we’re talking about, and not Kick-Ass, Eastman-Waltz write the circumstances to make Leo as blameless as possible.  To the very end, Leo tries to reason with Slasher, even with his brother’s life in the balance, and only the most unfortunate of accidents results in blood spilt.

I’m also impressed with the aftermath of the battle.  While everyone tries to move on from an obviously pitiable conclusion, no one takes it lightly.  Their discussion of the event results in one of the better speeches of the After School Special variety, probably because this is the Ninja Turtles and also because the message of it means a great deal in this day and age.  Of course, Master Splinter delivers it, and I think it says a lot that it takes an overgrown rat to declare, “In a world as jaded and cynical as this one, Michelangelo’s unbridled optimism is to be celebrated, not discouraged.”  I hope all the other comics out there are listening.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #15 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Andy Kuhn (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: A new development shows that not all turtles share a love for pizza product.

The Review: While you’d be correct in saying that I read this series purely for its entertainment value, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that reading TNMT is a brainless exercise.  Obviously, history will not look back on this title with the same reverence for its themes and character development as, say, Watchmen.  At the same time, though, the Turtles have moments that deserve to be taken seriously, albeit only mildly so.

Master Splinter opened the door to some fairly thought-provoking problems when he declared that conflict with Shredder will inevitably require deadly violence on the Turtles’ part.  Eastman-Waltz have never shied away from these kinds of conflicts, although they don’t attempt to examine them in much depth.  It’s clear that most of the brothers are troubled by the prospect, although Raphael takes a practical view of it: “It is what it is, bro.  No point dwellin’ on somethin’ you can’t control—sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #13 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Andy Kuhn (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: The Turtles must endure their most torturous challenge yet—the game of Twister.

The Review: All in all, the Turtles have had a pretty eventful first couple arcs.  Even though I picked up this title only a little more than half a year ago, we’ve had quite a few changes from where the Turtles stood then and now.  At any rate, they’ve definitely beat several titles from DC’s new 52 in terms of plot and character development, despite being nearly the same age.  The series has earned a breather issue, one where they can relax and regroup for a bit.

Eastman-Waltz seem like they’d rather keep riding on the momentum they’ve built, though.  To be fair, the Turtles take their fun wherever they can get it, so even with ninjas attacking from all sides, they can always deliver a few moments worth laughing over.  Still, it’d be nice to have an issue committed to the comedy side of things again.  An impromptu game of Twister (or at least some facsimile of it) is an amusing aside, but I’m looking for a bigger dose of humor than that.

Next Issue Project #1: Fantastic Comics #24 – Review

By Erik Larsen, Joe Casey, Tim Scioli, Tom Yeates, Fred Hembeck, Ashley Wood, Andy Kuhn, B. Clay Moore, Bill Sienkiewicz, Mike Allred, Brian Maruca

Fantastic Comics #24 is, well, fantastic! Hats off to the entire creative team who labored to get this book out. For those who don’t know, Image Comics has been working on this “Next Issue Project” for a while now. It’s goal is simple: Give readers the next issue of an old Golden Age comic that was canceled back in the day. Well, after 67 long years, Fantastic Comics #24 has hit the stands!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much love went into this book. The teams on this book put so much attention to detail in the art, color, nuances, and even typography, that new readers may look at this and wonder if they’re holding a reprint. Let’s go down the list: Zippatone colors that bleed off the panels (and characters)? Check. Hand written lettering? All over the place. Off-center logos and fonts? Damn right! Silly stories? Definitely. Newsprint-esque paper? Hell yeah! Archaic comic book advertisements? Woohoo!

I won’t go into all the stories, but Erik Larsen’s story of Samson is just pure pulp fun. The way Samson fights for his life only to be rescued by the very kid he snubbed off at the beginning of the story perfectly encompasses old school storytelling. Joe Casey and Bill Sienkiewicz channel the science fiction genre with their offering about a man who creates a machine to the Fourth Dimension. Thomas Yeates tackles the medieval adventure category. And Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca take on the whole war genre with Captain Kidd! There’s actually more stories I’m leaving out, but I think you get the gist of what’s going on here.

This is probably the cheapest Golden Age book you’ll ever buy (sorta). But seriously, the book’s cover price is $5.99. Ouch, I know – but you do get 64 pages of comic book fun – and coming from someone who bought the book today, it’s easily the best comic I’ve read all year. Stuff like this doesn’t come around very often. We should consider ourselves so lucky for a gem like this. (Grade: A+)

– J. Montes

A Second Opinion

I can’t disagree with anything Jay said about this book. The Next Issue Project is a great concept and the contents of this issue do not disappoint. I enjoyed it from cover to cover (although I needed a translator for Sub Saunders). If you’ve read any Golden Age, multi-story format books, this faithfully recreates that feeling – it’s amazing. You’ll really appreciate all the little details that the team slipped in, too. Because it feels so authentic, Fantastic Comics #24 makes the 67 year gap since issue #23 melt away in an instant.

In my opinion this book well worth the $5.99 cover sticker as compared to some of the crap people buy for $2.99 each week. I am putting the Next Issue Project at the top of my pull list (whenever it comes out next). I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us next. (Grade:A)

-Chris Williamson