Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #25 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz (story), Mateus Santolouco (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: Brothers don’t let other brothers kill cops.

The Review: If you ever get into this reviewing gig,* you have to be careful to keep your expectations under control.  We critics too easily fall into the trap of growing too experienced and thus jaded about storytelling.  With the excess of fiction we have to wade through, we soon learn to see all the patterns in plot, all the archetypical foibles of the characters.  You risk seeing only the clichés and tropes, and failing to appreciate everything else that’s done well.

For example, I can easily spend the review pointing out how predictable it is for the remaining Turtle brothers gather to make one last-ditch effort to free Leo from the Foot’s clutches, or for Shredder and Kitsune to pointlessly stall on converting Leo permanently to their side, or for April and Casey to hook up.*  Make no mistake, these are undeniable defects to the story, but certain formulas are unavoidable in the world of serial comics, and at least Eastman-Curnow-Waltz do their best to make the course interesting, even if the destination is pre-ordained.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #24 – Review

By: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz (story), Mateus Santoluoco & Mike Henderson (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: A war that will brother turtle against brother turtle…atrocious, indeed.

The Review: One thing I always find interesting in fiction is the presumption that somehow turning evil makes a person more powerful.  I can see how the reverse correlation can be true—how the more power a person gets, the more tempted he’ll be to abuse it.  Yet it always struck me as unusual that going to the dark side would result in an automatic power boost.  I mean, why is Evil Ryu stronger than normal Ryu?  Why are the Sith more powerful than the Jedi?

Perhaps it’s not so much that people get more powerful when they give in to their baser urges, but rather that they get more uninhibited.  Looking at Leo post-Kitsune indoctrination, he doesn’t seem nearly as calculating or restrained in his fighting form than before, allowing him to take on all three of his brothers at once.  It’s almost surprising that he doesn’t just slay them all right away; he certainly has the opportunity for it, and even with Shredder saying he wants Splinter for himself, there’s no reason why the other Turtles should be spared, even briefly.