4 out of 5

Behind a kinda weird, bubble-shaped-characters cover from Steve Lavigne, we have four Mighty Mutanimals-adjacent issues (okay, three), including the lead-in to that mini-series, which is collected in the following trade.

Man-Ray returns in Fight the Power, which is all ecological anti-shrimp-nets, and probably one of the sloppiest issues here: April randomly disappears and appears; there’s a gigantic sea turtle no one seems to address, and the Turtles plans to overtaken evil shrimping pirates amounts to ‘inventively’ storming their ship.  The details on the nets – which are supposed to have catch-and-release functions for larger critters – is actually interesting, but, I dunno, Man-Ray doesn’t really shine until he hangs out with the ‘tanimals.

Mondo Metal introduces Mondo Gecko in a delightfully bonkers tale of ‘heavy metal’ and mutations.  Both of these issues feature fantastically energetic art from Ken Mitchroney.

The Man Who Sold the World digs into our Null storyline, with more WTF territory explored via the appearance of oddball alien brothers Skul and Bean (they actually appeared earlier, but get major facetime here), and Garret Ho on art.  Ho has slimmer, more limber characters, but where Mitchroney tends to excel at conversational expressiveness, Ho does badass comic action, and this issue allows for plenty of that.

Sun and Steel is a one off featuring Warrior Dragon – not a mutant, but a mythical man-enchanting dragon spirit, who goes all kaiju battle with a giant foot.  Bill Wray’s art with Hilary Barta’s inks is actually a little sloppy, but it’s a wild and ‘dark’ changeup from what’s come before, and I remember loving it as a kid.  The issue is so over the top (and dumb – Splinter’s ‘disguise’ to walk amongst the humans is a trenchcoat… that doesn’t cover his face) that I do get that kid-love: Wray’s loose, thick linework is a good match, and Dragon and Foot throwdown enough to keep things moving.

It’s sort of a bummer that we get a lead-in for Mutanimals, and then an issue that takes place after the events in that series’ first issue, but I can understand the logistics of why these collections we’re split up as such.  And it’s not as though the continuity is so tightly wound that you won’t be able to follow along.  Overall, several sorta kinda standalone issues that are high on the stupid fun meter.