4 out of 5

Why do I suspect I’ll be buying some expanded hardcover version of this in two months, IDW?  MILKIN’ ME FOR ALL I’MA WORTH, YE ARE.  Bastards.  BUT – this was a pretty nice special, not just doing the regular “here’s how the Turtles were created” retread, and even including mention of Volumes 3 (Image) and 4 (Laird’s solo volume), which I feel like have been somewhat glossed over in IDW discussions.  The book’s bound prestige style (squared, creased edge about a 1/4″ from the binding) on flexible but sturdy paper stock with slightly thicker covers, so it’s a nice presentation – flippable, bright, comic-sized, but notably a special edition.  The cover’s a big to-do, since it’s the first Laird / Eastman artwork in however long (Eastman art, Laird inks), and I don’t think it says anywhere who wrote the copy, but the book has a page or a couple of pages introducing the various eras of TMNT with a brief description (and then a matching short by that era’s artists), and the text is surprisingly legit – a rather sober celebration, not over-selling the history with excessive exclamation points.  As a result, the book has a more adult vibe (not R-rated adult, just meaning it’s written for the older crowd who’s reading it), which is truly appreciated since all Turtles stuff gets sorta associated with fanboys or kids.

The ‘early Mirage’ story by Eastman is a reprint from one of the Hero Initiative one-shots, and it’s a clumsy narrative a la his annual, but whatever.  It’s also the only reprinted story in the Special, so that’s nifty.  Up next is the squeal-with-delight reteaming of Dean Clarrain and Chris Allan for an Archie Adventures-era TMNT tale.  There’s some groan-worthy attempts at stretching the ol’ “we can swear now” limbs, but otherwise it’s a perfect time capsule.  Gary Carlson and Frank Fosco similarly deliver a slapdash tale that’s perfectly in-line with the Image years – and again, I dig that this special included Image, as they seem to get poo-pooed on for being non-canon – and then Jim Lawson’s ‘volume 4’ short is just Jim getting to draw like Jim and be awesome.  Who cares what the narrative was.  (Fighting.)  Finally – and I guess it makes sense but it seems rather self-promoting all the same – we get an IDW-era short from Dan Duncan and Tom Waltz.  Oddly, this is some of the best writing Waltz has done… normally his attempts at emotion come up short, but this bit covering the usual TMNT theme of family was actually paced out really well.

So it’s a pretty snazzy deal over all, though I sort of wish there was just… something more.  One page that was a retrospective from the creators, or a couple pages for a timeline.  I don’t know why it seems like it needed that; I suppose because we’re still just getting comics – and though we obviously love comics and this special was a fun trip – there’s a sense of distance from the material that some type of extra bit could’ve helped.

We’ll touch base again when IDW releases the 10 different special editions of this.