2 out of 5

So the new jam for TMNT Animated, apparently, is to try out some two part stories across two issues, with shorter backups in each ish.  Landry Walker tries to have fun with this format by cheesing up the cliffhanger with some “stay tuned” zaniness in issues #17 and 18 but turns in one of those dumb “the turtles only speak lines in service of their one-line attribute” scripts, so any levity only seems to add to the dumbness.  For those who can’t grasp the meaning of my horrible explanation: Raph is a loner, so every single line he says must be about not trusting anyone.  Extend to every character, every panel, beat yourself over the head, then add Brizuela’s (still) boring treatment of this TMNT incarnation and thats 25% of this collection wasted.

Walker does redeem himself with a Pizza-Face two-parter in issues #19 and 20, with the polar opposite of Brizzy’s snoozy layouts via Chad Thomas’ continually energetic art, which perfectly translates the anime influences to the page while also seeming like Chad’s own style.  The Pizza-Face bit isn’t great – it’s essentially a retread of PF’s first appearance, though with the admittedly smart touch of combo-ing him with the mushroom fungus – but it’s about as solid as the stories come in TMNT Animated.

Which applies to the back-ups in these issues: all have pretty good takes on the art style (Dave Alvarez a standout, as he ventures further outside the safe zone to add almost a dash of Mark Martin goofball to the look) and generally have learned its okay to not have to pull an Archie Comics-type punchline in the last panel.  And the subscription covers for these issues are all particularly grabbing.  But: the book still hasn’t found its mark, I feel.  It doesn’t really feel like it captures the show all that well so much as summarizes it; I don’t get the sense I’m reading extended adventures, only retreads, and while extending the stories to two-parters is cool if it means eventually going toward longer form storytelling (I doubt it), since at this point there’s no real change to the structure, it just stretches out that retread feeling and sucks out some momentum.  I know licensed properties are a good deal, and I guess kids will just poop on it or whatever kids do for fun, but I remember being something of a discerning reader as a youth, and so far the book has yet to even semi-consistently be above shrug-worthy.