Chris Cooper reviews the latest in IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series…
“Old Hob has perfected the art of making mutants! With the ranks of his mutant gang swelling, the Turtles will have to determine if they can truly trust Hob against the Foot. Throw in Alopex’s return to New York and the mutant mayhem will only get crazier!”
Though I have a fairly strong opinion on most things, I rarely find it hard to see the other persons point of view. When each side has valid points it can be very tricky to reach a common ground, and that’s when drama occurs.
So I was impressed with how well written (shouldn’t be a surprise really) the interactions between the TMNT were in #38. Whether to deal with Shredder and his personal vendetta or to go for the larger scale trouble posed by Krang has been a question hanging over our heroes for a while now, and here it rears it’s head once again, dividing the family. Take out the threat that is aiming personally for you, thereby freeing you up to tackle the bigger issue? Or maybe it can’t wait and if Krang wins there won’t be a Foot Clan to fight. Or a world to save. The characters could be normal people in a living room somewhere and the tone etc would still be spot on.
As you can tell up above Old Hob has a part to play this month, and he introduces us to some new characters. Don’t let them be spoilt. Suffice to say you can always trust Mateus Santolouco (backed up very nicely again by Pattison’s colours) to design something awesome.
You know the drill by now. Great lines and dynamic poses with fantastic attention to detail. I think the only thing I question now (and really it is the only thing) are the masks worn by Leo and Donnie. I prefer Raph and Mikey’s, and how they go up over the snout instead of covering it. Overall it’s more of the same though, and that means fantastic art.
This is quite a chatty issue, but when everything that’s said means something or gives you an insight into a character that’s more than enough. That’s not to say it’s completely devoid of action though, and what we do see is well handled and hints at more to come!
It would be very easy to spoil the contents of #38 so I’ll leave it there. You’ll just have it pick it up and read it!
We’re in the fourth year of this series now, and by my count (including crossovers and mini-series) it’s at 71 issues! What an achievement. The team at IDW should be proud. Not many titles last this long, and even fewer maintain such a high level of consistency.
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of the blog Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @SDCCooper or visit the blog’s Facebook page.
Originally published October 1, 2014. Updated November 7, 2019.
