4 out of 5

You know the shtick by now: Mirage micro-series; IDW micro-series; IDW macro-series. And as I’ve stated in all the previous Best Ofs: this obviously isn’t a hand-picked list of “bests,” since we’re sticking to that above-mentioned shtick.

…But, like the Donatello Best Of collection, we have the benefit of the established pattern happening on some great Mikey issues, and there’s also something interesting to be gleaned from the sequencing, as Mikey sort of regresses from more mature to child-like along the way, but also goes from goofy to somewhat more serious at the same time: he seems like an adult in the Mirage book, but cracks wise while gangsters are shooting at him; he’s got a young adult-ish sense of abandon in the IDW macro, and a relatively modern sense of humor; then he’s a knee-jerk responding kid in the macro, and goes pretty teeth-gritting somber in it. They’re all good issues playing within those lines, though.

Some usual complaints about the presentation: no covers; no page numbers or anything to find your way to one story over another. The coloring done on the Mirage issues was never very desirable, especially since the duotone work on the B&W original was so damn good, but IDW is just reprinting the same garishness as before, so whatever. Lastly, though: gotta love when you misprint something on the credits page, calling the Macro-series the Leonardo issue instead. Poor Mikey.