4 out of 5

Three issues is a bit much for this, but ‘Robotanimals’ is much closer to what I wish they’d been doing with the ongoing series – trying actual stories versus gag strips – and there was obviously a bit of love put into the concoction, as it functions as a “farewell” to the Amazing Adventures line (and perhaps the Nick series as well, ending after the current season).

The story is a tossaway reason to show every character for at least a panel, but that same reason gives Chad Thomas and Heather Breckel ample space to deliver the most fantastic art I’ve seen in a while – both from them and in general.  Chad’s layouts are comic brilliance, even though Goellner’s script is a bit over-stuffed at points and requires some huge leaps from panel to panel; I was salivating over the expert way he guides the reader through chaos, and Breckel’s colors are bright delight, super rich while maintaining the sewery, dungy vibe of our Turtles crew.  And though Goellner’s script doesn’t have any real stakes attached – Stockman just isn’t that compelling of a bad guy – it’s still a pleasant read: fast moving, and maintains a non-grating, consistent level of humor.  The title comes from the Mutanimals being nano-botted into Baxter Stockman controlled robots, the (Chad?) design of which are pretty cool.  The Turtles turn the tide in issue 2, then take the battle to Stocko in issue 3.  Pigeon Pete amusingly doesn’t appear almost at all, but Caleb finally gives him a moment to shine late in the game; similarly, all of our villains get at least one panel, and the series frequents in some great splash pages, including a celebratory concluding one.

There’s hardly enough to this concept to really fill three books, despite the fluster that ends up cramping certain sequences, but I still would’ve been much happier reading full length antics like this.  Ah well.  As Mark Pelligrini mentioned in his review, through its various iterations, Amazing Adventures has, for better or worse, committed to a certain tone and style, and it ended up doing that well, even if it wasn’t what a lot of us old school readers were likely looking for.  But we got what we got, and I enjoyed my time with these three issues more than much of the ongoing, may Chad Thomas and Heather Breckel’s fine work live on forevermore.