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 #19 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Ben Bates (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: Every war goes a little smoother once you get ninjas involved.

The Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is kind of a funny bird in the world of comics.  At first glance, it looks a lot like a kiddy comic book, the kind you’d buy for your eight year old as a gateway drug to the graphic novel form.  In some ways, the series can be a little juvenile—and yet it’s really not.  While it may be a little silly and gentle in its humor and plotting, you’ll never catch it being stupid, cheap, or cocky (see Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans).

Take, for example, the characters’ reactions to Krang using the Neutrino king and queen as hostages.  Though Zak completely blows his stack, Commander Dask quickly shuts down his tantrum, but also shows empathy for his soldier’s feelings.  Princess Trib also stands strong, admitting her fear for her parents, but remaining resolute in resisting Krang to the end.  The Turtles, having found a stake in this fight (as Krang does plan to take over Earth once he’s done here), cautiously voice their support but make it clear they an agenda of their own.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #18 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Ben Bates (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: This may be a stress dream from eating too much pizza and watching A New Hope.

The Review: People tend to fall in either the Star Wars camp or the Star Trek tribe, and I admit that if I had to choose, I’d probably go for the latter.  That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the appeal of both, though.  While Trek stories play with questions of philosophy and politics in an era where all primal needs are satisfied, Star Wars is the big, epic fairy tale in sci-fi clothing, chock full of princesses, wise men, evil lords, and fabled warriors.

Given Star Wars’ timeless, almost elementary qualities, it’s no surprise you can see its influences in so many stories, particularly comics.  Half the cosmic titles out there try to capture the furious, grand-scale action of the SW films, and Saga follows in the same fable-gone-sci-fi tradition.  But it’s here in TMNT that you get the most direct tribute to the (original) Lucas trilogy.  Eastman-Waltz never directly reference the old movies, but they don’t have to; the fanship can be seen in nearly every part of this issue’s plot.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #17 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (story), Ben Bates (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: Counting on warrior turtles to save the planet?  Well, beggars can’t be choosers.

The Review: A big chunk of the appeal that goes into reading this series comes from its pure nostalgia factor.  It just feels good to rediscover all the characters and concepts that made up so much of my childhood.  For instance, I almost forgot that the Neutrinos had any part of TMNT continuity, and hearing the name only conjures an image of several pointy-eared teenagers, rambunctiously tearing around town on flying convertibles with headlight laser beams.

I don’t know if what I remember from the cartoon was simply the product of a lot of creative licensing on the producers’ part, or if this title is taking an edgy interpretation of some otherwise frothy characters.  Whatever the case, the Neutrinos here are a much more serious, militant, desperate sort of characters.  When Raphael confronts one of them, asking if they’re about to make the fight personal, the Neutrino replies, “No…just business.”  And I believe they mean it.