4 out of 5

Whoa, whoa, hold on, ye podunk wilding: that rating doesn’t mean this is required reading. Hardly. That rating just means this is a fine deal, collecting the Kingdom of Rats TPB prelude pages, issue #84, and both the 2020 Annual and 2021 Annual, all for $6.99. That’s a lot of pages for that price, and it even has the covers / interstitial pages and pinups, to boot. Like, I rag on IDW’s greedy reprinting / repackaging practices a lot, but this is exactly what it’s advertised to be: if you want to catch up on whatever the next TMNT event is, here is an insanely priced book to do so.

…Or mostly advertised to be. I shop online, so I can’t preview the content first. The back cover copy (which is what I would’ve used for shopping) mentions issue #84 and the two annuals, but then also says “…and more.” Is that a lie? No. But does it suggest / allow that there might’ve been some new material in here? Arguably. Had I known that all of this was reprinted, I likely would not have bought it. And yeah, again, “more” isn’t an outright lie – you could also cite those pinups. But if we’re just focused on the comic content, the prelude is four pages, so not anything to go sell your home for. …Though wrapping back around, you’d only have to get $6.99 for your home, which is a shitty deal for a house (probably?), but really good for this comic.

So I can only get so angry. Recommended for those in the “want to catch up” boat; if you don’t own the trades and have single issues, just flip through this on a rack – I promise you’re not missing any key details in the prelude.