4 out of 5
While Peter Laird’s return to the Turtles books after the declared non-canon volume 3 Image run did not have much in the way of story breaks – it was defined by being one long narrative – I’ll do my best to find some points where it feels like the focus (or approach) shifts and makes sense to pause for a review.
Thus: from December 2001 to August of 2002, we got the first five issues written, lettered inked and toned by Laird-sans-Eastman, with art from Jim Lawson, additional inks by Eric Talbot, and covers by Michael Dooney. I know there are plenty of Eastman fans out there (and Veitch, and Zulli, and others who contributed to volume 1 in greater or bits-and-pieces amounts), but the core group presented here is, admittedly, my dream team. If you pare it back to just how you feel about Laird’s writing and Lawson’s art, that’ll give you a vibe check for what to expect, and… well, I did. I went in with high expectations, and they were met. I’m a volume 4 defender, through and through.
Issue #1 through 5 carve out some of the initial beats of the series: the tone is somewhat more moderated but holding on to some Whiz! Bang! comic-pop takes, allowing the boys to both be more grown up (and operate in a world where April and Casey are considering a child) and still subject to their archetypal personas, where Raph is always gonna go against the grain; Leo tries to be peacemaker; and so on. What I’ve always loved about Peter’s take on this, though, and why it leant itself especially well to volume 4, is because he never really leaned into the teenager stuff as much as other iterations, where the boys would bicker themselves into isolation. I mean, yeah, a big chunk of volume 1 relies on that to start, but it becomes part of the DNA Laird (and his co-creations) would evolve from. We check in with general operations of Shadow and the Justice Force and Splinter hanging out in Northhampton while the TMNT are in the city, while cutaways to Karai and the Utroms foreshadow their roles-to-come. By the very nature of being a setup “arc,” these issues do bounce around a bit with Peter writing the long game, and thus not trying too hard to justify all the bounces, making those cutaways somewhat dry if you’re looking for end-of-issue cliff hangers. But man, this exact blend of slow-roll world building and that old school aforementioned Whiz! Bang! is exactly Laird’s sweet spot; it made Planet Racers amazing, and it was / still is so satisfying to see it employed in full force on the Turtles. And I think exactly the legacy of Volume 1 and 2 and the Image series made it make sense in a way that wouldn’t have registered if we’d started out here.
Art-wise – wow. Laird was dialed in from City of War through Volume 2, but combined with how expansive Laird’s writing could be, it really gave him the chance to bounce between the car / motorcycle detailing he enjoys, creature creation, martial arts antics, and the somewhat byzantine but also grounded scene work he does. Combined with Peter’s duo-toned inks (and maybe with sharpening from Talbot – hard to say how he layered on here), every page is a masterfully stylized piece of hatch-work, shading, Lawson’s jagged lines, and little line flecks, with Peter’s tight lettering polishing the look. Dooney’s painted covers – always mimicking a scene from the issue – were beautiful.
And to cap it off, for those really all-in, we got unvarnished Laird sounding off in the returned Turtles Tracks letters column. This turned into something of a fun war-zone during the run, and man, it starts pretty early on, with Peter willfully engaging all opinions. I love it.
