IDW TMNT #1 Review!

[Michaelangelo]

Hey everyone,

I sadly have not gotten this yet because they were sold out by time I got to the store.  Though I wanted to make a topic.

Please give reviews and spoilers here.  For those of us who have not seen the comics yet please use the spoiler button so that we can still at least read your reactions without knowing the story of the comic.

[Sykorax]

I picked up my varient cover of the new IDW TMNT #1. I was very lucky to have found it at my store, and it was the only copy there too. I really like the cover art that Kevin Eastman has done for it. To me, it brings back memories of my life around 10 years ago when I started collecting the comics and falling in love with them. Anyways, here goes my review of the comic. Warning: they're are spoilers in this review, so if you haven't read the comic yet, simply scroll down past the spoiler section and stop at the end to read my reations on the issue.


                                                        DON"T READ! SCROLL DOWN! CONTAINS SPOILERS!
======================== ++SPOILERS IN A HALF -SHELL! SPOILER POWER!!++ =========================

Okay. We open up to a dark back alley where we see three of the turtles (Leonardo, Michelangalo & Donatello) and Master Splinter fighting off a street gang who is led by a new character, Old Hob, who is a half-man, half-cat guy with an eye patch. We really don't know much about him yet, but they clue us in that he and our heroes have fought many time before. So after a few pages of cool fighting, Old Hob is defeated by Splinter. Old Hob then flees the scene after uttering to Splinter "You'll see... all of you. Just like that other stinkin' freak, you're all gonna disappear and be forgotten forever!" The turtles tend on following him, but Splinter stops them. Then we get a moment of our heroes showing sad emotions over Raphael, who is not with them. We're not exactly sure why Raph left the group to go out on his own, but I think Old Hob may have something to do with it.

Then we flash back into eighteen months earlier where we are introduced to a science laboratory called "Stock Gen Research INC." (Guess who owns the place) We see four turtles inside a glass case, a scientist and a young woman, who they reveal is April O'Neil, who is a new recruit to the lab. The scientist explains to her that the four turtles, and a rat that just happens to run free in the lab, are all part of a genetic regeneration experiment or something. April insists that she should watch over, and take care of the turtles, because well... she thinks they're cute. She even names the cute little guys

But while that is going on, we then see the owner of the company, Baxter Stockman, who is in his office negotiating with a shadowy figure known as General Krang via speaker phone. It turns out General Krang is apparently funding Stock Gen to produce a new weapons for is upcoming war, including a "Terrapin/Human Exo-Armor" and "Super Soldier Mutagen." General Krang has grown impatient over Stockman taking too long for his experiments, but Stockman assures him that the experiments will near 100% very shortly.

Then we go back to the present day as we see Raphael in the alleys at night digging through a dumpster. He finds a pizza box, which has half eaten pizza inside. Raph eats the pizza and moves on to the next garbage can where he finds a t-shirt with the words "COWABUNGA" on it. Raph mutters "Oh, that is just wrong." and tosses it away. Then he hears crashing coming from one of the houses. He finds out that a drunk, violent, alcoholic father is abusing his teenage son, who they reveal is Casey Jones. And then the comic ends when Raph kicks down the front door of the house and tells the drunk "You know what I hate, Jerkface? Stinkin' bullies. Let me show you how much."

============================== ++ END OF SPOILERS! ++ =====================================


Now for my overall thoughts on this issue.

I really like this first issue for what it had to offer. It's got some good action, and it's a nice set up for what is to come for this new installment of the turtles. One major thing that I realized about this comic after reading it was that it was in color. I don't know why it threw me off. I guess I'm so used to reading TMNT comics in black and white, but I'm glad it's in color. Ronda Pattison did a great job with the coloring. I also like that the design of the turtles haven't really changed that much. They still have their red masks , trademark weapons, and the white wraps around their elbows and knees didn't really bother me. Right off the bat with this issue, I can tell that they are going for that same dark tone of the story that the original comics had. I'm glad they are too. Tom Waltz definitely has potential of telling a real good TMNT story, and what more positive things can we say about Kevin Eastman? I am very happy that he is helping out with this new comic series. One thing I should nitpick on is some of the artwork from Dan Ducan. Don't get me wrong, he did a good job with the art, but there's one thing that kind of bothers me. Sometimes he'll draw the turtles with this really bizarre "horse that just passed wind" expressions on their faces while they're ready to fight. To me, it just looks silly on the turtles rather than intimidating. Who knows? It might grow on me.

Overall, I really like this issue and I can't wait to see what happens next in this series. If you ever see this comic, pick it up.

Cowabun.. oh wait. It's wrong. Sorry Raph. LOLZ


Edited to use the spoiler button. - Raph

[GMR4LFE]

I got the Donatello and Michelangelo variant covers. My two favorite turtles! Woo hoo!



-----------------------Spoilers!--------------------------

The flasback is 18 months earlier[I suppose these could kinda be spoilers lol so just in case].
But great review. I too, really loved the issue. Super excited about issue 2. The origin story was something I didn't think i'd like being changed, but it is working alright so far. I must ask though, what was the original timeframe it took the turtles to grow to human size? A year and a half seems crazy short to me, but this is genetic mutation we're talking about so yea. >_>

Also edited to use the spoiler button - Raph

[Raphael]

I managed to get the 4 turtle covers, so I was happy about that. As for the comic...very interesting. I do like the direction it's being taken in, it's intriguing. Should be fun to see how it works out.

Not to mention, how much of the previous incarnations they tie in to the origin reboot.  April named the turtles?  She worked with Chet? Baxter has dealings with "Krang"?  Casey's father was abusive?  Definitely a different take on the origin story. Can't wait to see what happened with Raph.

I decided to not waste time going to the comic store, only to find they had no TMNT comics, so I posted a question on my usual comic shop's Facebook page, asking if they'd gotten in any extra TMNT comics. The first reply was not from the shop but from another member of the group - she said the comic was great and hoped I would have luck getting a copy. Then I heard from the owner of the shop that there were, indeed, enough copies to "satisfy my ninja need".      But that wasn't the end of the discussion. Two more people piped up, wanting to know about back issues of TMNT, a few more piped up about the upcoming reissues and I got at least one more "It's really good!".  I was very pleased to see multiple TMNT related reactions to my one little question.

Although, I wasn't happy when I got to the comic store today (after stopping to watch Brad Marchand & the Stanley Cup go by) - they had plenty of the Don, Leo & Mike covers...but not ONE Raph cover on the shelf!!  The guy that rang it in mentioned this and I said that there were none on the shelf. Luckily, one of the other workers came out of the back room at just that moment and he ducked out back and pulled a Raph cover for me.  I was dead chuffed.   

[Sykorax]

@GMR4LFE

Oops! I said eight months instead of eighteen months. My bad. It was late at night when I was writing that review. I'll go ahead and change that real quick. Thanks.

[GMR4LFE]

@GMR4LFE

Oops! I said eight months instead of eighteen months. My bad. It was late at night when I was writing that review. I'll go ahead and change that real quick. Thanks.

No prob, no prob.

[Michaelangelo]

I finally got my hands on the comic, got three covers... Mike, Leo and Don... still need a lot more covers esp Raph. 

Here's a link to my review - spoiler warning - http://www.cowabungacorner.com/reviews/review-idw-tmnt-1

[Michaelangelo]

I got my hands on six of the covers now.

Cover A, B, C, D, RI A and RE

I got RE at Detroit Fan Expo back in September and did a wonderful sketch of all four Turtles on it!  Will have to share this sometime with everyone.

I still need the other covers and will pick them up when I can.  Though I have to admit I'm not activity looking since there's so many of them.  If I find them, I find them.

What are your thoughts on all the covers?  Is anyone out to find all, and does anyone have all of them?

[Sykorax]

I only got the Kevin Eastman variant. I love the "old school look of his variant cover art.