Chris Cooper reviews Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Deviations…
IDW have taken their biggest licenses – TMNT, Ghostbusters, G.I Joe, Transformers and The X-Files – and set out to tackle one of the biggest questions in comics.
What if?
What if Casey Jones had been killed by The Shredder?
What if all the Turtles had been brainwashed by Kitsune and become members of The Shredder’s Foot Clan?
Like DC and their ‘Elseworlds’ tales, these one-shots give IDW the chance to branch out of current continuity and show fans a different take on well-established stories. In the case of the TMNT they’ve taken the huge ‘City Fall’ arc as their inspiration, and are answering those questions in a particularly brutal fashion.
The story is relatively dark and the inking reflects this. Having seen some pre-inked pages it would seem that the inking added a grittiness to the pages, a grittiness that I understand but don’t like. It makes the images look cluttered and harder to follow. Perhaps it’s just me. Overall it’s good work, I just think it could have been better.
Story wise it’s a mixed bag. The biggest problem is length. With only one issue to tell the tale it needs to be wrapped up quickly. There isn’t a lot of time to really explore the ramifications of different actions. Familiarity with the original story does allow of lot of character details to be skipped over but I’d have liked a couple more issues for this to breathe and get more complex.
The idea of all four turtles turning against Splinter is a fantastic one. I’m not sure there can be anything more unsettling then an evil Mikey, still joking with his brothers as he attempts to catch and kill his father.
I just wanted more time with this alternate tale. Then it could have really shined.
Rating: 7/10
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @Superdstuff or visit the site’s Facebook page.
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Originally published May 9, 2016. Updated November 13, 2019.
