Saturday, August 4, 2012

Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volume 1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures Volume 1
Publisher: IDW Publishing
ISBN: 9781613772898
Pub. Date: August 28th, 2012
Pages: 120 



The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic book series launched in August of 1988 ended in October 1995. It was published by Archie's Comics and released 72 issues during its run. The series followed more with the 1987 cartoon series than with the original comic books, as April is a reporter, Shredder works for Krang - who's headquarters is in the technodrome, and Shredder's sidekicks are  Bebop and Rocksteady (well for the first several issues as they were eventually phased out).  IDW Publishing is now re-releasing these Turtle Adventures, starting with Volume 1 later this month. I was lucky enough to get a rough advanced readers copy provided by NetGalley and IDW Publishing. The copy I received contains the first four original issues, as IDW hadn't finished the new layout for the volume.

The first four issues are based on the season two episodes from the cartoon series, "Return of the Shredder" and the "Shrinking Turtles." Staring with issue five the series changed its tone with original storylines and added character development.

Return of the Shredder Parts 1 & 2 finds Krang giving Shredder one more chance and sends him back to Earth from Dimension X. Shredder takes claim of a Dojo Karate school and its students. He trains four of the best students and gives them turtle costumes. The four are known s the Ninja Turtle Gang and they become bank robbers. The police and the media blame The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the crimes. Meanwhile, Shredder enlists the help of Dr. Baxter Stockman, who creates a drilling vehicle and captures Splinter! Now it is up to Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael to save the day.

The Shrinking Turtles parts 1 & 2 finds the turtles training in the park when a space ship crashes. Before the alien pilot dies he informs the turtles that a dangerous crystal called the Eye of Sarnoth has broken into three shards and has been scattered across the city. The turtles decide that they better find the crystal before someone else does, but it is too late as Shredder has found one of the shards. He puts the shard into a gun that can shrink anyone or anything, even the turtles.

As soon as I started reading issue one I remembered the storyline from the television series, though there are few different things than what was in the episode. Considering the artwork is over twenty years old, the artists did a wonderful job capturing the likeness and spirit of the characters. I can see why the series was popular. I'm looking forward to future volumes as I'm interested in reading some of the original storylines that were written especially for the series. With the new animated series debuting next month and the new movie in the works, I'm sure this volume will catch the attention of old fans and new ones as well.




1 comment:

  1. I hadn't heard about this. Definitely going to have to buy it. Archie-era TMNT(comics/cartoon/toys) is my guilty pleasure.

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