3 out of 5

Note: the trade collection of these issues includes #37, but I reviewed that separately since it was considered a one-shot.

The gulf between Donatello and his family widens as our writers churn over the characters’ disagreements in focus: Donnie seeing Krang’s Technodrome as the immediate threat, Splinter and crew wanting to take down Shredder.  This is one of the most unique additions to the IDW plotting – all of the variations to the concept aside – as inter-family struggles are normally isolated to Raph’s rage; nuancing Donatello’s discontent has been well effected over the past couple arcs, making the direction things could take truly exciting.  But… these three issues are mostly just a battle-rama.  Donnie’s story is inserted as the sub-plot while the rest of the Turtles gang hangs out with Hob and then ends up fighting Bebop and Rocksteady.  It’s an appreciated pause, though – the action and build-up to it are fun, all the drama sorta’ looming in the background.  Santolouco has really found a sweet niche with his art, slightly less stylized than his initial appearances but looking all the more confident for it.  However, this is a dialogue-heavy series on occasion, and though Santo’s figures are pleasant to look at, his static scenes are pretty… static.  Backgrounds drop out and the camera just closes up or sits back, nothing much to break up the scenes.  He also has the difficult task of drawing a bevy of differently sized characters contained within single panels – huge Slash, human-sized Hob, the short Turtles – and it causes some slight perspective hiccups.  Interestingly, in a bonus interview in issue #40, he mentions not being great at backgrounds… and also incorporating some of Russ Campbell’s style, which perhaps accounts for the more streamlined look.

Misfits is a wise pause before the storm, getting some mutie chuckles in with Pigeon Pete and newbie Herman the Hermit Crab before we launch into the sure-to-be-huge Technodrome battle.  It advances the story on the side, and ends up primarily just being big-battle issues – with some Man of Steel-esque violence and destruction that’s not really spoken to – but it’s a fun, good lookin’ read.