This is the latest Return to the Sewers comparison piece following IDW’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles timeline and how it differs from the original Mirage timeline. These reviews will reference IDW’s TPBs as well as original issues that are being re-released by IDW in TPB format. IDW’s TMNT Annual 2012 was released in October 2012. IDW will release The Ultimate Collection Vol 4 in December 2012 which contains issues 48 to 55 from the original series, the Shades of Gray story arc and the first half of City at War. These reviews will also contain spoilers to the plot lines so ***SPOILER ALERT*** to everyone who wanted to read these issues first.
This is the first Turtles issue written and drawn by Kevin Eastman in over 20 years and he has not missed a beat. Within the first few pages, Kevin sucks you back in time and it feels like we are reading a Mirage TMNT issue again. Granted, it is a watered down version, like having a Mirage issue crammed into the IDWverse, but that does not diminish the overall quality of the issue.
When Kevin and Peter first wrote the City at War issues, it was a chance to bring the franchise back to it’s roots. By 1992, during the success of the Fred Wolf cartoon and live action films, the comics had has so many guest writers that the continuity was a mess. Every issue was a standalone story without any regard for cohesion. With The Shredder gone and the Foot with no clear leader, different factions fought for control of the city. This 13 issue story arc would end up being one of the Turtles comics’ defining moments.
With Kevin diving head first into this huge project after so many years, this new story would have to be as equally meaningful. This time around, The Shredder is still alive and working with the French Savate, first introduced in issue 6. The gang wars begin not with the death of a leader, but what seems to be a misunderstanding and an accident. A car crashes, a suitcase full of diamonds gets lost, and everyone thinks it is someone else’s master plan to dishonor them and take control of the city.
The IDW TMNT Annual does not try to retell the City at War arc, but it is a nice nod to the past. We get a tamer version of the Turtles issues that we grew up on but the respect that Kevin and Tom show the reader is evident on every page. I really loved this issue. I know some people has their gripes about it: being B&W when the other issues are in color, the art felt like it was rushed, the story was too convoluted and was hard to follow as some points, but I did not find any of those points to be valid. I loved having a gritty, B&W issue which was all tied together with a basic crime story. Yes, there was very little Turtles in this issue, but that would probably be my only negative. The fact that Casey Jones, my favorite non-turtle character, drives this issue makes up for the lack of Turtles for me. Some people did not like the constant “5 minutes earlier” way of storytelling, but to me it added drama and cranked the intensity of the issue up a notch.
It will be interesting to see how this story ties into the ongoing issues as they are branching off into a “Turtles in Space”-type The Krang War story arc. I really hope we do not drift too far away from New York City; there is so much they have introduced in this issue and to have it on the back burner for another year would be a shame. Definitely pick this issue up if you have the chance; with 60 pages of Kevin Eastman art, you will not be disappointed.
Stay tuned for my next review, IDW’s Micro-Series Vol 2 TPB collecting the next 4 Micro-Series issues, Splinter, Casey Jones, April O’Neil, and Fugitoid. The TPB will be released in November 2012.