Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enemies Old, Enemies New Volume 2
Authors: Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz
Artists: Dan Duncan and Mateus Santolouco
Genre: Action
/ Ninjas / Animals / Superheroes / Retelling
Year Published: 2016
Year Read: 2/11/2017
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2
Source: eARC (NetGalley) / Library
Content Rating: Ages 12+ (Fight Scenes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Source: eARC (NetGalley) / Library
Content Rating: Ages 12+ (Fight Scenes)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
I would like to thank NetGalley and IDW Publishing for providing me a copy
of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Introduction:
Now, I have to tell everyone
this: I am a huge fan of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!” I may
not have the toys or the video games to prove that, but I sure as heck got a
lot of movies and DVDs to prove that theory!
So, after I read part of Kevin
Eastman and Peter Laird’s original 1980s run of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (the comic book series that
jumpstarted the entire franchise), I was looking forward to checking out more “Ninja Turtles” comics and lo and
behold, NetGalley happened to have a volume of the legendary IDW series of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”
available for free called “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enemies Old, Enemies New Volume 2!”
What is this story
about?
In this reboot of the famous franchise “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” the story starts off with Master
Splinter explaining to the audience about how he remembers a previous life in
Feudal Japan where he was known as an honorable ninja named Hamato Yoshi, who
was a member of the Foot Clan. But one
day, when Hamato Yoshi’s former ally Oroku Saki wanted to kill a group of
innocent people to show everyone that the Foot Clan was powerful, Yoshi disagreed
with him and left the clan. Yoshi’s
depature caused Oroku Saki to go to Yoshi’s house and murder his entire family
and also Yoshi himself and at this moment, the audience wonders what became of
this life that Master Splinter was reminiscing about. Meanwhile, during the present time, April and
Casey Jones had finally met each other due to April needing someone to teach
her self-defense, which Casey was obliged to do and Casey needing a tutor to
help bring his grades up in school, which April could do. Later on, Baxter Stockman is up to no good as
he creates a set of machines called “Mousers” in order to take down the Ninja
Turtles and to grab Master Splinter so that way he could use Splinter’s blood
to make super powered mutants for General Krang’s army!
What I loved about
this story:
Kevin Eastman and Tom
Waltz’s writing: I
will admit that I was a bit interested in seeing how a reboot of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” would
look like since we were going to get a reboot of this long running franchise eventually. So after reading this graphic novel, I was
actually quite impressed with how they rebooted the origin story of the Ninja
Turtles while remaining faithful to the original series. I
loved the fact that Kevin Eastman and
Tom Waltz retold Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki’s backstory to the audience
since I have always felt that it was important to explain about Master
Splinter’s backstory to the newer audience so that way, they could understand
the world of the Ninja Turtles much better if they know about Hamato Yoshi and
Oroku Saki’s backstories. Even though I wished that more was explored with in
this department, I enjoyed how the characters interacted with each other,
especially the turtles with Master Splinter and April and Casey with each
other! I like the fact that the turtles
refer to Master Splinter as their father as it made their relationship much
more heartwarming to watch and actually gives a closer emphasis on how the
turtles see Master Splinter as more than their sensei. I also enjoyed the
growing interaction with April and Casey as I enjoyed seeing them share their
personal lives with each other and I was also interested in how April was able
to witness the turtles and Master Splinter’s transformation into the mutated
heroes they are known as now and I am really interested to see where April and
Casey will go after this volume!
Dan Duncan and Mateus Santolouco’s artwork: Even
though the artwork is a bit too scratchy, I do enjoy the dark and gritty feel
of the artwork as it shows that this retelling of the Ninja Turtles is dark and
edgy like the original Mirage Comics and I also enjoyed the action sequences as
they are shown in great detail.
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
The reason why I gave this book a three and a half star
rating was because while the story was interesting, I felt that the story
tended to jump around a bit too much due to having so many events happening in
one volume (the turtles learning about their origins, April and Casey meeting
each other, Baxter Stockman building his mousers, Krang trying to create an
army) and the story felt a bit cluttered as a result. Also, I felt that while the artwork showed
the action sequences in great detail, it was a bit too scratchy for my tastes
and it was hard to see exactly what the characters were doing with the artwork
being halfway blurred out and not being able to fully see the characters’
actions.
****SPOILER ALERT****
This is a bit of a small nitpick, but I find the fact that
in this version, the turtles and Master Splinter were actually Hamato Yoshi and
his sons reincarnated to be a bit too far-fetched for my tastes. Maybe as a long-time fan of this series, I
was so used to the turtles just being mutated by ooze and the fact that they
are reincarnated in this version just seems a bit odd to me. Maybe once I read future volumes of this
rebooted series, I might start to get used to the idea of the turtles and
Splinter being reincarnations of their former selves.
****SPOILER ENDED****
Final Thoughts:
Overall, even though “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enemies Old, Enemies New Volume 2” was an interesting
read and a pretty decent retelling of the Ninja Turtles stories, the cluttered
storytelling and scratchy artwork made this volume a bit difficult to read
through at times and I hope it improves in the next volume.
No comments:
Post a Comment