1 out of 5

Of the same “Really? This is the ‘best of’?” curation quality as the preceding April issue – maybe made worse because this is the TMNT’s most known foe, although I’ll allow that April has probably been in more issues overall – we are again treading the waters of obvious / questionable choices, also again sans covers.

Sure, the original Mirage TMNT #1 is the first appearance of Shredder, so I’ll grant that it should be considered for a best of, but it’s also, undoubtedly, the most republished issue of any of the Turtles series, including a few by IDW already. You get the Color Classics edition here, but I was honestly surprised by the laziness of including this, though by this point, I shouldn’t have been. My main gripe here is that, if readers have read any Mirage issue, it will have likely been this one, and maybe in a full trade comp of Shredder appearances that’s fine, but in a single issue, surely exposing readers to some less common choices would’ve been better…

Next on the lazy, repetitive inclusions is the by-now standard IDW Micro issue. Again: best of? Debatable, but because IDW has tossed in their micros in every single one of these comps, I’m less inclined to believe that someone has actually qualified it thus. I will say I liked this issue when I first read it, but it definitely works best with context; as a standalone, it’s much less effective, and you’ll note that like the next issue included here – Shredder in Hell #1 – it ends on a To Be Continued, which is a mighty ‘eff you buy our books’ for readers; so way ta’ go. SiH I was not a fan of, in context or not, but if I’m waffling I’ll say it’s probably “cool” for a random read, making things in the IDWverse seem a whole lot more complex and serious than they are. Still, I’m obviously triggered by this whole ordeal, so fie on that.

And with the next issue being Jennika, I’m exhausted of my curiosity to see of what these Best Ofs will be comprised, given that Jennika’s material can pull from, at most, 5 years of IDW-only continuity.