3 out of 5

A wasted monster and a distracting coloring flub feature in some already average tales, though quality art and a goofy Talbot-arted frame help keep Turtles special #3 a mostly fun read.

In The Night of Monsterex, Stanley Wiater retroactively adds in the TMNT intro to his Bookwurm character for a barely held together story about a monster, mutated, somehow, from within the TV, smashing up the NY streets.  Ken Mitchroney is around to deliver some of his most expressive artwork yet, with some insane forced perspectives and some interesting widescreen panels, which we rarely see in the TMNTA books.  The story is an insane non-starter, though, as the creature doesn’t make sense, Bookwurm’s inclusion doesn’t make sense, and the final confrontation… just leaves it open for a sequel.  A fun idea – a mutant that’s a combination of horror’s creature icons – just would’ve been nice if it had a bit more internal logic to it.

Scott D. Fulop’s Monsters Are The Rage looks great – Doug Crane, as inked by Don Simpson, gives the boys and the strip a really classic, bouncy, animated look, with a fantastic assortment of oddball creatures dreamed up by another mutant the crew has to track down.  At the same time, though, this art duo can’t figure out if April has a sword or not, and Barry Grossman’s colors completely swap Raph for Mikey on one page.  Fulop’s script is very weird in terms of tone, with overly mystic babble spouted by Splinter and a hinky attempt at speaking to emotional abuse…

Fun, but moreso of the Fred Wolf nonsense variety.