5 out of 5

In my made-up story arcs for TMNT Image, while these issues start out by continuing the crossover stuff seen in the preceding issues – Vanguard and Mikey and Leo hunting down an alien serial killer while Raph hangs out on Earth, getting drunk and brawlin’ – a B-plot of Raph getting wrapped up with the foot clan and the mutated Splinter bat very quickly become the A-plot, carrying through to a very satisfying pseudo-resolution on all fronts in issue 16.

Gary Carlson has a stiff, ‘say it out loud’ writing style, but it’s thus far been a perfect fit for the punchy way in which he writes the book, and doesn’t detract at all from some very fun and surprising plot directions.  Eastman and Laird, depending on who was writing, varied between more drawn out and muted bits and hollow action, while later iterations on Tales of the TMNT or the IDW-verse tended toward purposefully isolated stories or rather generic comic book soap.  Carlson, despite leaning in to the promised grim and gritty of the Image-verse, with lotsa blood and swearing and the boys watch porno and lose limbs, may have landed on some of the most exciting plotting, as it was both aware of the past (for all intents and purposes, Image was still linked to the Mirage-verse at this point) and loosened from any need to fan-serve, allowing things to spiral off in very interesting ways.  And when the book threatens to waste time on something generic, like intra-group squabbles or whatnot – it’s quickly dispensed with a couple of panels later.  Because almost everything we’ve read in the Image series comes to a point in these issues, that sense of momentum and Carlson’s creativity result in a great payoff battle and conclusion.

Artist Frank Fosco and inker Mark Heike also find a great synergy with one another over the course of these issues, Heike getting tighter and tighter on Fosco’s art – without dimming its energy – until book 16 looks almost like a brand new team, in the best of ways.  Fosco delivers awesome action and splashes throughout, there’s just an extra sense of drive when the two sync up.

And IDW’s colorization, via Adam Guzowski, continues to impress, balancing flats with computer blends on the background and some lighting effects.