4 out of 5

I don’t know from whence Paul Allor came to join the TMNT family, but his Shredder one-shot was incredibly impressive and now Utrom Empire – some focus and wrap-up issues aside – was so much more solid feeling than the monthly mag, it makes me hope they’ll shift him over to the ongoing for a run at some point.  To be fair, I wasn’t familiar with Tom Waltz, either, but I accept his name in the credit list because he’s been poking around since the start.  Allor has some G.I. Joe issues under his belt (which I’ll be checking out), but otherwise, he seems like a new find.  Good on our IDW crew for finding the talent, and good on Mr. Allor for bringing his skills to our modern incarnation of TMNT – he’s going to another mini-series soon, so he’ll be able to prove his worth to me that much more.  DON’T FAIL ME, PAUL.

Art-wise, Andy Kuhn’s not a new name to me by now, but he does stick out from the Turtles roster: Kuhn may not be as dynamic as Santolouco or as ‘cute’ as Campbell or as, *cough* sloppy as Duncan (an acquired taste – he has admittedly grown on me), but Kuhn’s look is both very adaptable – action and dramatics work well – and comfortable.  I can ‘feel’ a style or a sense of youth coming from our other artists; Kuhn’s work feels polished in comparison.  He’s found a nice balanced look for the Turtles that’s between the slope-shouldered reptiles of the upcoming Michael Bay incarnation and our classic limber-limbed fellas.  I also fine that his quick style allows for the fantastic to feel normal – Utrom Empire is obviously filled with little brainys, not to mention Fugitoid and Krang in his bodysuit, and in all cases, Kuhn wrings not only emotion from the expressionless fuigtoid bot, but he finds a range of looks for the Utroms that really helps to flesh out the Krang / Father relationship in a way the Krang mini didn’t achieve, emotionally.  A quick nod to Nick Pitarra’s awesome subscription connecting covers (lord how I love connection covers) and Bill Crabtree’s effective color work – I’ve dug his stuff on Sixth Gun, and it’s great to see that his good sense of separation and mood isn’t stuck to that series.

Shifting back to the writing, our story bounces between several characters and two times – the Turtles at Northampton, where Donny is trying to busy himself with going over the Fugitoid’s notebooks, Krang’s facilities on Burnow Island, where Baxter continues to scheme and Fugitoid plots escape, and flashing back to Krang’s past, tracing his reasons / need for leaving his Utrom homeworld.  And on the whole, Allor does the opposite of Waltz and Eastman with his dialogue by sticking to commodity, and the appropriate use of narrative captions.  We learn about what’s going in in the scene via action, not being told (still a tough skill for comic writers – and obviously goes back to the artistic component as well), and what we need to know otherwise is given to us with the snippet of words we need.  And Kuhn wouldn’t have those emotions to draw if Allor wasn’t invested in ‘humanizing’ the Utroms, but he’s made Krang’s part in this much more understandable, although he’s clearly still a villain.  The series – over the years – hasn’t had much in the way of subtlety or affecting moments, so this is an important addition, and is a nice turnaround from how one-dimensional the Villains mini made the Utroms seem.

Which leaves us with my only real complaint – too much plot.  This mini has to advance the Krang story in present day, and connect it to the Turtles and, presumably, set up Baxter’s place for a later development.  So there are some moments that feel stuffed in there.  The one-page jumps to the Turtles are actually wended in well, but at three issues, the sudden wrap up of everything comes too quickly.  Basically – for a series that’s called ‘Utrom Empire’, we didn’t have enough room to really go into it – issues 1 and 2 are paced tightly but really well, it just seems like a fourth issue could’ve been good to spread out the conclusions.  The one plot aspect that doesn’t work, because it just doesn’t get any traction, is Baxter.  His plan to ruin Krang is necessary to advance Fugitoid’s part, but that’s exactly what it felt like – a necessity.  A scene where he freaks out and wrecks his lab carries no weight.

The IDW TMNT era has been filled with many pleasant surprises – plot-wise, talent-wise – and Utrom Empire gives us both of those.  I’m still not completely sold that this couldn’t have been worked into the regular series (as with Secret of the Foot Clan), but whatever, more crap to fill up my bins.