3 out of 5

A “one-shot,” only sort of in the sense that nothing much of consequence happens.  Still, an enjoyable filler issue, because we’re sort of back on familiar ground of the boys gearing up to fight a street war, without a whole bunch of Shredder and dead Donatello baggage.  Because the melodrama in this book is killing me, enhanced into the annoying stratosphere by Waltz’s average scripting skills.

So: Mikey has some family flashbacks while he digs through stuff in their sewer home.  This is prime TMNT: some jokes, some moralizing, and goddamn pizza.  The pages dedicated to this are an unfortunate few, but they worked well.  Similarly, regarding  some stuff with Fugitoid and Harold, foreshadowing Leatherhead: it’s brief but fun.  Harold has been a good character in his appearances because his curmudgeonly nature prevents him from being over-played for schmaltz, and his role will always be one connected to the sci-fi lite elements of the book… which have generally, in my opinion, been the most enjoyable ones.

Nobody and Alopex do some research on the new Shadow gang (or whatever they’re called).  Silly, Waltz-y scripting which draws from the worst tendencies of comics: over expositing to explain the Why of a scene, characters narrating their motivations out loud.  Meh to these pages.  Meh to wasting these cool characters on dumb moments.

Meanwhile, Casey and April bicker and annoy.  I hope the teen relationship aspect of this book burns in fucking hell.  The Nick show has handled this pretty well: Casey is stand-offish but jokey, Donnie is heartsick but goofy, April is independent and rolls her eyes at silly boys.  It’s light, but allows for the inevitable Casey / April fling.  Waltz and crew, meanwhile, have wanted to “serious up” the book, and one way of doing that is by giving people “serious” problems like annoying fucking relationships.  Fuck you, Casey and April.  The mini-series actually handled this fairly maturely, but, y’know, Eastman and Waltz and Curnow didn’t work on that.  So the pages dedicated to our arguing couple are trash, and only acceptable if its a gateway to Casey becoming crazier Casey from the first movie or totes crazy Casey from the Fred Wolf cartoon.  (I doubt that’s the case, though.)

Tearing out those pages, you’re still left with enough to read and enjoy.  Again, not much really happens, but I’d sincerely rather read a series of tolerable to enjoyable not-much-happenings over the overwrought nonsense that was Northampton and the issue 50 buildup.