This time the spotlight shifts to Michelangelo as we learn more about what the brothers have been up to since their split.
Writer | Jason Aaron |
Illustrator | Rafael Albuquerque |
Colorist | Marcelo Maiolo |
Content Rating | Teen |
Publisher | IDW | 09.11.24 |
Spoilers Ahead
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has rapidly gone from lukewarm to red-hot. Under previous writer Sophie Campbell's guidance, TMNT had become a sleepy slice-of-life comic that would have felt more at home as a furry fan fiction somewhere online versus a mainstream adventure comic. Just two issues into Jason Aaron's run and already the stakes feel high as the Foot wage war against the nominal team of mutant brothers. Although there are still a lot of questions that need answering, with issue #2 of TMNT, I'm fully onboard and excited to see what happens next.
I had been confused by IDW's plans for this relaunch, as I was under the impression that we'd be getting a round of micro-series issues devoted to each turtle. Instead, the first four issues of this relaunch will be focused on an individual brother with a different artist each time. For issue two, Michelangelo takes center stage, and quite literally, at that, as he's now the star of a Japanese action TV series. Cast, fittingly, as ninja warriors, Mikey is living the good life, but is also feeling rather lonely. As Mikey starts to feel nauseous from what he believes to be a spoiled pizza, a crew of Foot Clan assassins come tearing into the turtle's penthouse.
The action is swift to pick up in this issue, which might disappoint some, as we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on Michelangelo's new status quo. However, I think it's fairly clear that the current state of Michelangelo and Raphael's lives as seen in the past two issues is meant to be transitory. This is just where the brothers are now before they properly reunite. So, while it could feel like a waste, let's face it—no one wants to see the turtles in these new lives.
This series is, or at least it should be, all about returning the turtles to a state of relative normalcy. Unlike Marvel's From the Ashes X-Men books, which are actively staying away from a version of the line that fans are familiar with. My hope is that IDW does the opposite and gives fans something akin to the vanilla Ninja Turtles that they've been missing for so long.
The action, by the way, is very good. Artist Rafael Albuquerque is a veteran of the industry and a solid illustrator. The fight scene in Mikey's penthouse feels like something out of a movie, bolstered by colorist Marcelo Maiolo who imbues the shots with a lot of light. The idea is that the Foot are trying to blind Mikey (on top of poisoning him, thus the pizza making him sick) and disorient him. Actually being able to convey the flashing light in the room on a static comic book page is quite impressive. I also thought Mikey's diamond-encrusted nunchucks were a cool touch.
I do have one gripe about the art, which is that Albuquerque, like so many artists, struggles with drawing the turtles' heads and bodies. The end result is that Mikey and Raph have these odd bubble heads on top of almost totally normal human figures. I'm not saying that Eastman and Laird's take on the turtles is the only acceptable one, as artists like Michael Dooney, Jim Lawson, and Frank Fosco (to name a very few) have shown us that there are plenty of different, engaging ways to draw the team. At the same time, with so much on the line with this revamp, I think all of the art teams need to be able to draw more conventional versions of the turtles to succeed and pull in lapsed and new fans.
We also get a small nod to The Last Ronin in that Mikey is having conversations in his head with his brothers at one point. It's a nice bit of foreshadowing (although to my knowledge Last Ronin is just a possible future, but still), and also establishes just how much Mikey's brothers mean to him. Although we don't want to veer too much into the mushy, saccharine aspects of Campbell's run, family is, was, and will always be important to TMNT. Establishing the importance of these bonds from the offing is wise and will only benefit the book in the long run.
We wrap with the first reunion of the series as Raphael makes his way into Mikey's home as the Foot prepare for another attack. The problem is that Mikey is ticked at Raph and ready to lay the beatdown on his brother. This ties into whatever conflict caused the brothers to split in the first place, and that's where I worry just a bit about what Aaron has in store. The writer is notorious at this point for awful "deconstructions" of characters, his most notable and recent assassination being the Punisher over at Marvel Comics. Whatever tore the Ninja Turtles apart is, hopefully, not something series-breaking. Regardless, this was a great second issue and I'm genuinely excited to see where things go from here.
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