"Turtle Power!" IDW sends the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in time for its romping revival of a classic TMNT video game. Utroms, dinosaurs and a time-jumping misfit spell hilarious hijinks for your favorite, green "heroes-in-a-half-shell."
What's Fun About This Book
It's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in colorful flare, and that's what's fun about this book. The creative team of Paul Allor (writer), Ross Campbell (artist), Bill Crabtree on colors and Shawn Lee on letters do the turtles right. I write this not as a TMNT aficionado or as a super-fan, but as a guy who grew up with TMNT as a kid: watching the cartoons, collecting the action figures. So when I read in the solicits that IDW was publishing "Turtles in Time," my heart skipped a beat. Wasn't that a video game? Didn't TV attempt to produce something akin to that in syndicated animation? I was on board the moment I finally saw this book sitting on the shelf at my local comic shop. I am not disappointed.
Admittedly, I haven't read any of the recent TMNT stories being told down at IDW. So I'm not really abreast of all things Turtles. With a new movie around the corner and feel-good reviews of the comics, I thought "Turtles in Time" would provide a great jumping on point for me. David Peterson of "Mouse Guard" fame effectively drew me into the story with his marvelous cover art shown above. The synopsis on the inside cover provided me with enough information about events that occurred in other books, which led to their time-crisis, without having read any of them. Then, BOOM! That full-page spread captured my attention like a knuckle sandwich to the jaw.
The art is colorful. I've never seen TMNT drawn quite like this before. They were almost cartoonish in a good way. The Turtles actually looked, dare I say, "cute." Some might ask, "How can you say that about Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael? Cute?" Yeah, cute...with their no-nose, unlike-Michael-Bay's upcoming version. There were some tender moments, especially when Raphael reflects on family. Writer Paul Allor did a wonderful job portraying each one's own personality. We see Donatello's sciency-self come out; Raph's kick-butt and ask questions later attitude; Leonardo's honor and Mikey's wild and crazy ideas that often make matters worse.
This creative team has sold me on collecting this book. It's humorous, light-hearted and action-filled. I simply love the art of "Turtles in Time." Kudos to Campbell, Crabtree and Lee. The soft color palette stood in stark contrast to the old black-and-whites of past TMNT books.
What's Not So Fun
I have nothing negative to say about this book. Though I did get a little emotional in parts of this issue. Should a book like this one really tug at a dude's heart-strings as "Turtles in Time" did to mine?
The Punch-Line
This book made me feel good about the Turtles again in a way that I hadn't in 20 years. It's also kid-friendly, which is really cool. I wouldn't feel awkward about recommending this book to an eight year old bring comics for the first time. I recommend "Turtles in Time" to the eight year old in all of us who remember a time when TMNT meant much, much more. I give Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time #1 four out of four stars.
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