Review by Frank Plowright
Since relaunching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in 2020, co-creator Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz have overseen a creative regeneration, reclaiming the feature from the upbeat, wise-cracking cartoon stars known to most of the world. The Armageddon Game changed much about the Turtles and their world, and New York’s mutant population (humanoid animals) found their lot improved by the removal of the wall imprisoning them in a ghetto. Mutant Town is now recognised as an official New York borough.
However, not everyone thinks that’s a good thing, and a group of mutants have occupied an island near New York, turning it into their own kingdom. It’s also providing a safe place for geneticist Lindsey Baker to carry out uncontrolled experiments away from prying eyes. Tom Waltz drops a fair amount of exposition at the beginning, primarily by having a meeting between several characters in a police station bringing them and us up to date. Gavin Smith on art delivers.
That, though, is just the opener in a collection bridging the end of Sophie Campbell’s version of the Turtles and the following series by Jason Aaron. The term’ Mutant Nation’ is used in a far broader sense than just the single island in New York as a few loose ends are tied up and seeds are sown for moving forward, although a second volume is required to compile the entire series.
After New York and catching up with Raphael and Pepperoni courtesy of Paul Allor and José Jaro, a couple of longer stories take precedence. ‘Ambush in Area 51’ is by Waltz and Vincenzo Federici and concerns Raph’s trek into the unknown accompanied by loose cannon robot Metalhead. It turns out Area 51 isn’t just a dark site for UFO investigations, but has a sideline imprisoning mutants, which boils Raph’s blood. As with Federici’s art on other Turtles projects, the visual opportunities are squandered by concentration on close-up views and generic backgrounds. What begins as a relatively standard action adventure is propelled upward by the reintroduction of a dangerous enemy, but then just fades away for the plot points to be picked up elsewhere, which is disappointing.
‘Casey Jones, Agent of the Foot Clan’ by Erik Burnham and Mateus Santolouco is altogether better. During events shown in The Armageddon Game Karai came to believe her destiny was to lead the Foot Clan, but asked Casey to ensure she kept on the right track. They’ve relocated to Tokyo, and he’s become concerned that she’s changing for the worse. Burnham doesn’t take long to show readers that’s the case. There’s finesse and creativity to Santolouco’s art, and the mask Casey wears provides a distinctive visual effect. It’s messing with the status quo, but is altogether more satisfying in setting things up for the future.
Closing with the trivial ‘Frogs vs. Punks’, this is a disappointing collection, but with a few moments worth your time. The feeling, though, is that future Turtles adventures will catch readers up on what’s necessary.
