5 out of 5

We’re full into it, now: while these issues are still very tainted by toy promotion – check out these cookie cutter monster characters, and random <brand-name> vehicle appearances! – Clarrain & Brown give as much 28-page dimension as possible to one-offs, making the reads fun rather than advertisements.  And from my recollection as a kid: this didn’t make me want a Chameleon or Knucklehead toy, I just wanted to read more comic books about them.  Because the way our writers were piecing this together was so unlike the show, and unlike most kid comics, dotting in plot points beyond “bad guy takes over world” and allowing references to drift over from issue to issue, even daring to reference events from, like, four issues back!

…Which is the great fun upon rereading this: is realizing how soon Clarrain and Brown were keen to jump in to narrative building, as almost all of these books start building up to a ‘turnstone’ related scuffle, tying in the appearances of Leatherhead, and Stump and Sling, and adding further, eh, dimension, to Krang’s status as a legit warlord.  It’s enjoyably self-contained – and still wonderfully weird – with just enough connective tissue to make you say, ‘eh, let me read one more issue.’

I’m of the Jim Lawson supporter camp, so having art split with two issues by Lawson and two by the wonderfully expressive Ken Mitchroney is a damned fine serving of art.  Price and color printing quality remain the same as before, but if you’re up to volume three, you should be used to the former by now, and to the latter – IDW hasn’t let me down, as these are crisp representations (colors flubs and all) of the originals.