Tag Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (IDW)

A TMNT #139 Micro-Review – “I Know You Wish For This to Be Over…”

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***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 139, cover, April 2023, Fero PeTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #139
AUTHORS: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eatman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)
RELEASED: April 26, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Kitsune, early in this issue: “I know you wish for this to be over, and so do I.”

This whole Armageddon Game story? You have no idea, lady.

The Turtles learn some more meta-physical, extra-dimensional stuff in this issue. It results in a big exposition dump early on where the returning Kitsune essentially has to explain what it all means. On the upside, we then get some pretty cool splash pages, each featuring an individual Turtle. I don’t think I’ve ever complained about Fero Pe and Ronda Pattison’s art. Just the story they wound up in…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #138 Micro-Review – “Gettin’ Way Too Big For Us”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 138, variant cover, March 2023, Kevin Eastman, Sophie CampbellTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #138
AUTHORS: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer). Variant cover by Eastman & Campbell.
RELEASED: March 22, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Raph has a line early in this issue: “This is gettin’ way too big for us, Leo.” That feels like a thesis statement for this Armageddon Game stuff at large. I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier to see a TMNT story wrapping up.

On the plus side, I’m still really enjoying Fero Pe’s work. Ronda Pattison compliments him very well, as she’s done for virtually all the artists she’s worked with on this series. I’m hoping he sticks around post-Armageddon Game.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #137 Micro-Review – Storylines Converging

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 137, variant cover, February 2023, Kevin EastmanTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #137
AUTHOR: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer). Variant cover by Eastman & Campbell.
RELEASED: February 15, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Great variantscover by Eastman and Campbell. One of my favorites the series has had in awhile, despite Casey Jones not actually being in the issue…

Storylines seems to be starting to converge in this big Armageddon Game story, as four of our five Ninja Turtles are now back together. That’s a good thing, as I’m dying for us to have a more focused narrative. Great art notwithstanding, this story continues to be a big mess.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #136 Micro-Review – A Game of Thrones Connection?

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

**This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 136, cover, January 2023, Fero PeTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #136
AUTHORS: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)
RELEASED: January 18, 2023

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

No Casey Jones in this issue, contrary to what the cover might have you believe. *sigh*

This “Armageddon Game” story is like the TMNT equivalent of Game of Thrones, only there’s no gratuitous sex or violence. And without that, what do we have? Great characters, sure. But we’ve also got a lot of story elements in play at once. And you practically need to read with a notebook to keep it all straight.

Fero Pe continues to impress with the art, though. So at least there’s that.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #135 Micro-Review – Lost in the Woods

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 135, cover, December 2022, Fero PeTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #135
AUTHOR: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)

RELEASED: December 7, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This might be the first time in the decade-plus long history of this TMNT comic that I’m not enjoying myself. Which is a shame, as the art by Fero Pe and Ronda Pattison is about as strong as it’s ever been. It just feels like they’re lost in the woods on this “Armageddon Game” story. Between the three books (Armageddon Game and The Alliance being the other two), everything feels very disjointed and convoluted. It’s very uncharacteristic of this book.

And this story is supposed to stretch into the spring? *groans*

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #134 Micro-Review – The Other Mutant Turtles

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 134, cover, 2022, Fero PeTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #134
AUTHORS: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)

RELEASED: November 9, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Fero Pe draws a damn good Casey Jones. He draws a damn good TMNTverse as a whole, to be honest.

This issue raises an interesting question. We’ve seen these four imposter Turtles attack Mayor Stockman, right? So how many other mutant Turtles did the big mutagen bomb create? We know about Jennika, obviously. But there could definitely be more. Leo, Don, Raph, and Mike aren’t the only mutant turtles in the world anymore. So what does that mean for them going forward?

Despite the cover, no Krang in this issue. Just sayin’.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

TMNT: The Armageddon Game – The Alliance #1 Micro-Review – Karai and the Imposter Turtles

Rob Siebert 2 Comments

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT Armageddon Game Alliance 1, cover, 2022, Roi MercadoTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game – The Alliance #1
AUTHOR: Erik Burnham
ARTISTS: Roi Mercado, William Soares (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)

RELEASED: November 9, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

We see the events of this issue from Karai’s perspective. That’s nice to see, as she hasn’t gotten a lot of focus lately. That’s an advantage of this story having such a wide scope.

We also gain a little bit of insight into our four imposter Turtles. We can flat out say they’re imposters at this point, can’t we?

The Foot Clan’s training facility is apparently in Queens. Is that a weird place to put it? Or do I just not know New York City well enough? Maybe Queens is crawling with ninjas…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

Toy Chest Theater: “I Am Here, My Son.”

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By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

As far as toy photography is concerned, those Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie figures from NECA are like the gift that keeps on giving.

TMNT, Splinter and Raph, dr mumbles

This image from @dr_mumbles recreates a moment from the film where Splinter is comforting Raphael, telling him, “I am here, my son.” It’s a fine shot in that regard. But what I really dig is how Splinter is lit. He’s cast in white light, which suggests he might be dead. I like that idea of Splinter watching over his son from beyond the realm of the living.

Granted, it also helps that Splinter is dead in the IDW comic books right now. I say “right now” because we know he’ll be back…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT #133 Micro-Review – The Long (and Slow) Game

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT 133, cover, 2022, Fero PeTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #133
AUTHORS: Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz (Story Consultants)
ARTISTS: Fero Pe, Ronda Pattison (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer)

RELEASED: October 12, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series has always played the long game, to an extent. For more than a decade now it’s been great about planting storytelling seeds, setting things up for the future, etc. It’s one of the book’s greatest strengths.

But this “Armageddon Game” story is one of the rare occasions that I would accuse the series of going too slow. We’re several issues in, and while we’ve gotten our inciting incident, it feels like the story has stalled. I’m not sure if they’re dragging things out, or if they’re just going at a very, very deliberate pace…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A TMNT: The Armageddon Game #1 Micro-Review – An Intimidating Scope

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TMNT Armageddon Game 1, variant cover, 2022, Kevin EastmanTITLE: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Armageddon Game #1
AUTHOR: Tom Waltz
ARTISTS: Vincenzo Federici, Matt Herms (Colorist), Shawn Lee (Letterer). Variant cover by Kevin Eastman.

RELEASED: September 28, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This issue makes it apparent how wide the scope of this Armageddon Game story is. It touches every major character (a lot of minor ones too) introduced into IDW’s TMNTverse since the series’ introduction in 2011. Even as someone who’s followed that universe since its inception, the scope of this story is a little intimidating. I get the sense there’s going to be a lot to follow here…

And yet, by the end of this issue things start to get interesting. So I can’t say I won’t be reading along.

I love that Krang/Leatherhead hybrid design, by the way.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.