3 out of 5

Pardon the average rating, because I really hope the style which has been forming in the post #50 idw turtles u continues, and it’s on good display in these two issues.  There’s just not too much going on: the creative gang definitely has a tendency to hit full stop on story to do showdown issues, so we get one tip-toe plot issue, and then a fight issue.

Touching on the story in a second, let’s first talk about new artist Dave Wachter.  He’s quickly carving out his own take on the Turts, after establishing his more Mirage-y style muscled look versus previous artists’ tendency to focus – reasonably – on the ‘teenage’ part of the team name.  And I’m not saying one way is right or wrong, but as Santolouco really started to push to a more slender frame, and made Michelangelo look ootsey cutesy innocent, fan appreciation of his detailed work had other artists following suit, and though its good that the Turtles look “age appropriate,” there’s a line to cross where everything shifts to teen drama – art and writing influencing each other, maybe? – and that’s never been the draw of the Turtles, to me.  In fact, the whole teenage thing was superfluous; I never age-identifies with the characters in any way, I just thought they were fun, interesting, and cool.  So… while Wachter’s initial attempts were rough around the edges, the character designs harkened back to a different era, and thus elicited those feelings of yore.  Definitely a YMMV, but my M was positive.l

With these issues, his linework is a ton more confident (he was a bit sketchy in his debut), and he’s brought in touches of the Santo design – around the eyes, the thicker forearms / calves – but without losing his more weighty, formidable style.  The result is one of my favorite TMNT looks of the IDW era; they look like teens but also like they can kick ass, not weighed down by excess bandages and grumpy issues.  And Mikey doesn’t look dumb.  Watcher is still very foreground-centric, but the confidence is in his page layout and framing, as well, so he keeps your focus on the main event while giving enough setting to allow us to realize the space in which things are occurring, i.e. you don’t end up really needing more detail in the background because your eye is effectively directed.  Nice, yeah?

Back to story, which will be brief because, ad mentioned, not much really happens.  Kitsune shows her hand and makes good on the Alopex-control hints that’d been dropped in the past few issues.  Her eyes go glowy, Alopec says “yes master,” and issue 59 ends with a shitty Splinter stabbing cliffhanger.  I’ma spoil this for you: We know Splinter will probably be fine, but then”shitty” is because issue 60 has him popping right back up with Leo commenting “good thing for that Kevlar, hyuck!” or something to that effect.  Like, why bother?  Such a throwaway.  Issue could’ve ended on the verge of the battle and been fine.  Meh.  Anyhow, fight fight more mind control, Kitsune after Shredder’s leftover bits and bobs ’cause I guess she wants to resurrect her old buddy.  Fight ends, she escapes, we know she’ll be back.

Issue 59’s dialogue has Waltz’s typical “lots of words that say nothing” storytelling – I had to read an interaction between Splinter and Kitsune a few times to verify that all of the ominous / wizened sounding talk effectively had no content – and poor letterer Shawn Lee has trouble fitting this mealy-mouthed stuff in, leading to panels where balloons are distractingly cut off by some art layers or overlapping them.  But I’m used to Waltz’s heavy handedness.  I didn’t mind it here because we’re finally in pure IDW territory, not playing in the Mirage Shredder / Kraang toy in, so it feels less forced, less like an attempt to try to prove legitimacy.  It’s been proven; we made it.  It feels, appropriately, comic booky.

Which is fine by me.  So though these two issues feel like an inbetween moment, I like where we are tonally, and I love what Wachter’s doing.  So please, please – let’s stay on this path.