1 out of 5

Hey, remember how the IDW Turtles Animated book rebooted with a promise on more continuity or stories that could break from canon?  If issues 5 and 6 end up being the exception, fair enough, but otherwise, they are indiscernible from the generally lamer stuff that came before.  The previous series got into the habit of faking longer stories by splitting one main tale across two issues, then having short yuk-yuk backups, and Adventures is still following the same m.o., although the two parters have felt a bit more… hm, focused on telling a story versus just aiming for a punchline.  Tea-Time for a Turtle isn’t exactly that type of setup, but it’s atrociously written, so that’s quite a trade off.  Leo sneaks out at night for “training” – to have tea with a little girl – and almost misses his brothers getting involved in an escalating scrap involving Baxter Stockman and Tigerclaw.  Have we seen this little girl before?  (Yes, apparently, so I guess credit is due for a callback.)  The stories thus far have all been relatively harmless, so I guess this follows suit, but it just felt way too much like stock details taped together to make a story.  My ‘atrocious’ writing slander is due to how a lot of the dialogue… just doesn’t make sense.  Mike throws a pizza at Raph; Raph gets angry; Don taunts: “…Can’t handle a little friendly competition?”  This is a reference to Raph’s same taunting of Don earlier, but it doesn’t work in that context.  How is getting hit with a pizza a competition?  (i.e. There was no pizza throwing competition going on at the time.)  The Stockman / Tigerclaw fight has no real thought behind it (I’m not sure chasing one bad guy to have another one jump out at you is really the most genius “trap”); Tigerclaw is ‘declawed’ down to doofy status, as he apparently loses sight of four turtles hiding behind a park bench for several panels and then… I don’t know, gets caught in the Turtles’ own devious “trap” which is designed from 100% luck.

The backup in issue 5 (Ian Flynn and Coleman Engle) is okay, but adds an unnecessary page beyond its punchline, and issue 6’s backup (Fabian Rangel and Billy Martin) seems like it was written by someone whose only picture of an arcade is from a Dave and Busters.

At least we still have Chad Thomas on the main series art.  Thomas is the best thing to happen to the animated books, with great layouts and plenty of personality and motion in all of his panels.