By: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz (story), Mateus Santolouco (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)
The Story: Introducing the new mutants—not to be mistaken with those of the X-kind.
The Review: I read plenty of dark, angry comics on a daily basis, so I appreciate the break I get from TMNT. On the other hand, it’s a little implausible that a group with such strong, diverse personalities who constantly get into high-stress situations can somehow escape major conflict. Heck, even when one of their own turned to the dark side, the tension over that didn’t last very long. I don’t want to see the gang broken up or anything, but some genuine differences of mind would be a nice change of pace.
Eastman-Curnow-Waltz grant my wish this issue by putting the debate on which enemy to deal with—Shredder or Krang—out in the open among the turtles. We’ve seen serious discussion on the subject before, but always discreetly, to avoid actual argument. That pretty much ends once Donnie, aghast at Splinter’s deal with Hob and even more flabbergasted that it won’t be used to repel Krang, finally blows up over the failure to prioritize.
It’s pretty significant that Donnie and Mikey, the most intelligent and morally centered turtles respectively, think Krang is the bigger problem—that is, if the risk of mass extinction fails to properly impress on you, as it does Splinter. Donnie accuses him of letting a family vendetta blind him to what’s at stake, and his only rebuttal is, “If we are to be the world’s saviors, we must be alive first.” A fair point, but one that overlooks the possibility that bringing the fight to Shredder will get them all killed anyway, and that every second they spend on the Foot brings Krang closer to sealing their doom.
Anyway, it’s a weird pleasure to see Donnie and Mikey truly asserting their voices, though Donnie is the only one to take action. Walking off is a fairly hostile move in the even-tempered world of the turtles, forcing Leo to run after him in pursuit of some happy middle ground. Given that Leo’s expressed his own doubts to Splinter about their plan, I suspect he’s encouraging Donnie to do the groundwork while he subtly pushes their father into targeting Krang anyway.
Whether it’s Krang or Shredder they make a move on, the turtles now have some decent allies in Hob’s army of mutants, which just added Herman the Hermit Crab and Mondo Gecko to its roster.* Lately, I feel like TMNT has added a lot of new characters without doing much with them. Sharp designs and colorful personalities (Herman’s a military nut and Mondo a skateboard punk) aside, they’re mostly around to spice up the battle sequences, and little else.
The writers already have problems keeping up with the characters they already have. Herman and Mondo’s introduction is diverting, but shouldn’t we be more invested in Slash’s increasingly unsettling intellect? It also would’ve been nice to let April and Casey have more space to hash out their problems, or to see the growing bond between Angel and Harold, who, despite his crustiness, urgently warns her of an attacker from behind and demands she immediately return afterward.
I never fail to be dazzled by Santolouco’s art every time I see it on this series. I just think it’s so awesome how he makes the Turtles and the rest of the cast look—awesome. Time and experience has only made their movements look cleaner, smoother, more ferocious than before, even when it’s just Mondo hopping onto his board. More than that, Santolouco draws the non-human characters with such detail and depth that they emote with the best of humans (and, quite honestly, more so than many of the comic book characters I’ve seen). Pattison keeps the energy level of the issue high by splashing together the wildest combination of colors. Mondo may be my newest favorite character just because of the hip contrast between his neon-blue eyebrows, reptilian green skin, and rave-yellow shirt with the cut-off sleeves. I mean, come on—how is that not entertaining?
Conclusion: Finally, something like real interpersonal conflict among our heroes, though the issue stalls to play it out.
Grade: B+
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: * Something that I feel TMNT always glosses over: how do you suppose each of these mutants develop their individual personalities?
– What do you suppose Mondo’s fighting ability is like? He’s just got a skateboard.
Grade
Conclusion