4 out of 5

Two tales in this FCBD: one that’s a preview of the (then) forthcoming Nightwatcher series; one a short “Tales of…” type that wouldn’t’ve been out of place in one of the family friendly TMNT mags.

Juni Ba’s / Fero Pe’s Nightwatcher lead-in is… fine. The series is called ‘Nightwatcher;’ the suit / character has been all over the press; and he’s on the damn cover. So structuring the story around a “reveal” of types – with the ‘Watcher chasing some thugs for several pages, narrating serious stuff to us while his visage is kept in shadow – seems pretty pointless. Additionally, while Ba’s writing is 100% less over-expository than Waltz’s, he still displays a problem a lot of the TMNT writers have, and a lot of mainstream comics in general: good writing that serves no purpose. They’ll run a dual voiceover to the art, which is a smart practice for comics – let the images do their work – but the words also don’t add anything to the story. In this case, them serious words prattle on about how people take mutants for granted, and yadda yadda. Again, it’s well written, and well paced, and damn, Pe’s art is so weighty and amazing, but ultimately the text doesn’t need to be read, and I’m not sure how this builds any hype for the character / book, beyond being free.

That said, I give me usual pass: the IDW Turtles books have not been written for a reader like me for a while. I’d say Ba has been a good nab for the titles, as his books read easily and aren’t as forced as a lot of modern TMNT is, plus: yeah, this is free, so, fair enough – just give your artist a few pages to shine. Which they do. In conclusion, I think this is a fantastic IDW TMNT book.

The back half is a goofy tale with god-I-love-him art from Andy Kuhn. I really feel like I’m reading a short from one of the Panini mags, it’s that kinda goofy. Writer Paul Allor does a riff on “what Splinter does when the boys aren’t around” – a gag we’ve definitely seen before – but I like how he has Splinter mimic things each of his sons do, even if the comedic timing between Allor’s writing and Kuhn’s art is a bit clunky. But, again, it ends up reading well, even with the clunk: it’s just feels like it should be fun, and it’s maybe 75% of the way there, so those vibes sell the remaining percent well enough.

Shoutouts to our colorists and letterers – Luis Antonio Delgado and Nathan Widick on Ba’s piece; Ronda Pattison and Widick again on the latter – for really working in palettes / styles that match the art and tone. And additional props to the book designer (maybe we’ll say ‘group editor Jamie S. Rich?’) for giving us title pages for each story.