3 out of 5

Another average bundle of issues with a relative high and low that balance it out to a 3-star.  The series shifts towards a format of one longer story and 1 shorter gag story.

Issue 9 is all Kenny Byerly, and runs about average for his issues.  ‘Metalhead Games’ is a Donnie-experiment-gone-rogue tale, springing from a brains vs. brawn argument he’s having with Raph.  Chad Thomas’s clean, dynamic panels bring to mind Chris Allen’s art from the Archie years, flat color backgrounds included.  Although this may seem like a shortcut, Thomas (with nods to Heather Breckel’s effective color juxtapositions) knows how to apply it on his page so you never feel like you’re just staring at empty space the whole time.  As Brizuela’s work has turned into this kind of short-hand, rushed-looking style, Thomas’ art – which on its own merits is great comic pop art – just zings in comparison.  The second gag bit (drawn by Brizzy) is… not notable.  You can hear the knock-knock set-up.  It’s almost worth a wince.  But in the main tale, Kenny has one of the more effective handles on the Nick Turtles’ ‘voices.’

Issue 10 is our low point, an uncomfortably non-sensical tale about Spiderbytes and Valentines Day, by Derek Fridolfs.  (Thankfully, he makes up for this story blunder in issue #11).  Panini-mag transplant Landry Walker contributes our short, which is another predictable gag (Mikey claims there’s an emergency… to get to the pizza parlor before it closes), but it’s done up in a Looney Tunes style that makes it worth a chuckle.  Art split between Brizuela (first story) and Thomas (second story) again.

Issue 11 is the best of this batch – a truly hilarious (like – I laughed out loud.  …Reading a kids’ Turtles comic book whilst home alone.) tale by, whoulda-thunk Fridolfs, wherein Mikey teams up with a malfunctioning foot bot to fight crime.  Solo Mikey tales where he’s not just cast as the doofus (he actually accomplishes positive things here, despite his naivete) always pluck at the ol’ heartstrings for me, and Fridolfs paced things well so the team-up feels warranted and the return to status quo sensible.  Adding to the all-around solidity of the issue is the gag strip by Jackson Lanzing and David Server (dunno these guys) – ‘Mutagen and the Entity Known as You,’ a silly ‘training video’ for Krangs on how to apply Mutagen.  The bit falls apart when they break from the training vid framework, but it’s still an inventive send-up.  Brizzy and Thomas on art.

And issue 12 has Walker giving us a long and short tale, though both are essentially gag strips again, and sort of fit in line with the breezy fun work that appears in the Panini mag.  But gag-strip or not, story one has a pretty hilarious set of panels where we keep pulling back on people spying on people spying on people – including Kurtzman and Pigeon Man – as the Turtles try to track down a video Mike has sent in for the ‘One Minute Masterpiece’ video contest.  Again, you know where it’s going, but the hijinks are well-executed, and, y’know, Pigeon Man, and a footbot wearing a hat.  The ending gag strip (‘Pizza Prize’) isn’t too notable – April sends the boys off on a nonsense mission so she can scarf down their pizza – but we get a new (I think?) artist in the mix, Marcelo Ferreira, who has a pretty devastatingly mobile look to his panels, and draws the characters with a bit more pizzazz then the other artists, who draw them fairly close to the Nick standards.  Hopefully we’ll see more from Ferreira, with room to expand on his skills.

Issues 11 and 12 also feature “Lego” backups, parts 1 and 2 of a retelling of the original Turtles #1, all in Lego characters… I guess to celebrate the Lego TMNT sets.  Your mileage may vary with these extras – I mean, they’re truly bonuses, I don’t think we’re getting shorted story pages for this – but what is amusing for those of us who’ve read #1 a million times is how they’ve changed bits and pieces (and condensed them) to soften it up for the Nick crowd.  So probably more of an interest for longtime readers, and will function more as the Lego advert it is for kids.