Written by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz
Illustrated by Kevin Eastman and Dan DuncanThey’re BACK! This summer, the original heroes in a half-shell make a triumphant return to comics! Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael reunite to bring their ninja aptitude and teenage attitude to IDW Publishing in this all-new, action-packed series. Featuring a cast of familiar characters–Master Splinter, April O’Neill, Casey Jones, and more–and true to the spirit of the original comics created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES are bigger and badder than ever, and ready to rock old and new fans alike!
They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting team. They’re heroes in a half-shell, and they’re green! When the evil Shredder attacks, these turtle boys don’t cut him no slack.
Let’s talk about that after the cut.
It has been far too long since my life has included new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles media in it. I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say that if you were a child in the ’90s, that you could sing the theme to the show by heart, you owned all the movies on VHS, and you maybe had a bandana or two. But as we grew up and new kids took our places in front of TV sets, the adventures of the Turtle gang became less hip (probably because the parents weren’t serving them as good pizza as we got).
Of course, the Turtles did get two reboots, only one of which I watched. There was that really oddly animated TMNT film, plus a brand new show that was “darker” and “edgier” or whatever. As much as the Turtles felt like cultural icons to my generation, however, it didn’t seem like they’d ever really stick to this new audience who seemingly doesn’t have the attention span to stick with characters as much as we did.
So screw them. Let’s make a new comic book and forget about it!
With IDW’s new book, Kevin Eastman returns to help with the story and layouts for the new creative team of Tom Waltz and Dan Duncan, who are here to reboot the Turtles for a new age. Starting off in the middle of a fight with a new villain, the book seeks to retell and revamp their origin. The interesting thing about that is it doesn’t feel like that is being done out of necessity, but rather just because. The Turtles don’t need a new origin because anyone who is familiar with the concept to even a tertiary extent gets it: these turtles are ninjas. And teenagers! But I suppose in today’s day and age, people want more in-depth stories than “Oh, it’s just ooze.”
That being said, this is certainly a Turtle book. I have only ever been able to read one issue of the Eastman/Laird run, and I found it to be quite great. This issue is honestly fairly similar, which I’m sure Eastman had a great hand in shaping given his involvement. The book has a nice focus on stylized action with amusing repartee from the characters to match the familiar tone that most of us are used to, as well as add in a new stamp for Waltz to call his own. There are a few familiar names that all set-up future stories, and the relationship between the heroes feels as fresh as ever. This is a Ninja Turtles book, and thank god for small favors with that.
The real selling point for the issue (to me, anyway) is the visual component, though. Eastman’s layouts keep the book feeling like the Turtles of days gone by and less like the weird blocky crap that kids of our generation got, while Duncan breathes life into the characters to give them a new snappy look. The Turtles are both familiar and new at the same time, returning to their classic look and evolving slightly from that point as opposed to being reinvented for a completely new audience. Duncan’s Turtles are not the Turtles, but they are as close as you are ever going to get with this new book, and for that alone there is reason to get excited.
It basically rounds up to this: I love the cartoon as a kid, but my parents didn’t buy me the comic. Now that I’m older and can buy myself the old comic, I’m still pretty psyched that there’s a new comic to read as well. The Turtles hold an important place in comic history that is often over looked due to their more popular incarnations, but that changes very little: the Turtles are still awesome. Obviously it’s easy to over look this book on shelves (at my story, it wasn’t exactly placed prominently or easily visible or anything), but it was worth the effort and the money. This is a comic that, outside of wanting a bit better of a cliffhanger, I found myself enjoying and satisfied with. At the end of the day, isn’t that enough?
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Turtle Power!
