Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #22
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Tom Waltz
Artist: Mateus Santolouco
Cover: Mateus Santolouco & Ronda Pattison
Spinning out of the events that have been building since the first issue, along with The Secret History of the Foot Clan, is the beginning of City Fall! With Shredder reunited with Kitsune, he begins plans to fulfill his destiny. Though he has other obstacles, there’s none greater than the Turtles and their father Splinter. He has a plan, and with the abduction of Raphael and Casey Jones he puts things into motion to destroy them all.
Tom Waltz delivers a great action filled intro into this event that dares you not to pick up the next issue! The action is worthy of anything that is on the big or small screen, along with some really good moments that remind you what family will do for each other. From Casey’s promise to his mother, to Raph’s dedication to see that his friend is safe. Waltz has established some very good depth with these characters to get us here. There’s also the way he’s keeping Shredder on the front lines that is impressive. This makes him a more interesting villain who isn’t afraid to get his hands bloody instead of calling shots from the shadows in his lair. Waltz gives a reason for the Turtles to fear this man and for Splinter to be cautious in his approach to his old enemy.
What can be said of Mateus Santolouco’s artwork here other than he nails every single page with some of the best artwork on the shelves today! He shows that you can have very fluid and great looking fight scenes that don’t make the Turtles look silly either. The facial expressions of the brothers are also a very huge part of what helps syncs his art with Waltz’s script. He brings the Turtles to life and humanizes them just enough to get the point across. Raphael’s emotion was perfect throughout the issue, and showing Splinter having to physically restrain him was a very strong panel. I’ll also add that the costume design for Shredder is perfect and is a lot more functional in terms of not having way too many spikes all over the place. Pattison’s colors also take this issue to the next level and just punch you in the face with a fistful of awesome!
If you’ve been debating (and you shouldn’t have been) about picking up this title, then go ahead and snatch this one up now! “City Fall” looks to be an event worthy of the title, and the creative team is definitely cranking out some quality work here. It’s obvious that IDW didn’t bring these characters back with the intention of giving us the same old thing wrapped in a new package.They took everything we already knew about TMNT, cranked it past ten, then turned it up some more.
Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net
