Your favorite green amphibians have returned to the small screen with the new Nickelodeon cartoon Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For those of you who just can’t get enough Turtle Power, IDW Publishing has just released a new all-ages comic based on the series. In this week’s Family Comic Friday, we review the first issue and judge how it compares to the original series moms and dads grew up with in the 80s!

Then we’ll continue our 5 part look at the mini-comics being offered at this year’s Halloween ComicFest. We got a few complaints that last week’s preview wasn’t Halloween themed. Well, you’ll just have to get upset again this week! See, IDW’s releasing a Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mini-comics for this year’s festivities. It just seemed wrong not to tie it in with our review of the regular series. Plus, this book also is being released in 25-pack polypack bundles for those wanting to give away comic books for trick-or-treating. This preview might help those of you not able to make Comicfest be able to score a TMNT mini on All Hallow’s Eve. So bear with us, we’ll have a spooky themed preview lined up next week. Promise!

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Written by Matthew K. Manning
Art by Chad Thomas
Cover by Andy Sunano
Published by IDW Publishing

I was very excited when I found out about this comic coming out this week. I actually bumped my intended pick for this week’s review when I saw that Matthew K. Manning was writing it. Manning did the scripts for the fantastic Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures crossover. That 2016-2017 miniseries was a classic. It had the feel (and the look) of both the Batman: The Animated Series and the original Ninja Turtles cartoon. When it comes to The Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I have no idea what I just read…

Rise is not just completely different from the original cartoon, it doesn’t even resemble the original Eastman and Laird comics that inspired the TV show. True, all four turtles are here. But instead of all being of the same species of turtle, Raphael is a snapping turtle while Donatello is a soft-shelled turtle. I don’t know about you, but being a ninja without a hard shell seems like a bad idea to me.

Then we have the issue with the villain. It’s NOT Shredder! Instead we have an alchemist warrior mutant named Baron Draxum. I understand that to have Shredder right now would probably keep this version of the Turtles from being a fresh reboot.

But this new series doesn’t just reboot; it retcons. Instead of Shredder being the creator of the Turtles, this Draxum fella is their maker. That correction ruins some of the backstory of the series. Here, Baron Draxum seems to have created the Turtles as a sort of lab experiment. He throws all sorts of mutant foes at the Turtles in order for Draxum to better create an army of baddies. Instead of doing his experiments in hiding, why doesn’t Draxum just have the Turtles in a controlled environment and have them fight in an arena every time this new foe makes a mutant?

By not having Shredder or his motivation of revenge against the Turtles’ adoptive father Splinter, you don’t really need the rat sensei. In fact, Splinter isn’t even in this comic. While he was missed, without the right arch-enemy, he wasn’t needed.

I kinda felt that April O’Neil was missing too. In this series, she is portrayed as an African American girl. While many readers will obvious have fits with this, I did not. What I did not like was that instead of an intrepid reporter investigating rumors of sewer monsters, April is now a weird amalgam of Casey Jones. She’s now of a street fighter and not a street reporter.
A lot of characters in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are mixed up versions of classic Turtles characters. In this issue, the character of Man-Bun was a combination of Stan Sakai’s Yosagi Yojimbo and Baxter Stockman. I liked the individual elements that Man-Bun represented. But put together, it was a mix of honorable hero and spineless wimp that just didn’t gel right.

I am also rather mixed with the artwork. Baron Draxum actually looks pretty cool. But when it comes to the Turtles, Leonardo and Michelangelo look retro-awesome and Donatello and Raphael look like emerald colored Lucha Libre. You can’t really blame Chad Thomas for the uneven character designs of the established characters. That was all done months in advance by the series’ animation team. Man-Bun seemed to be the only original character here and I did like how he was drawn. So, majors props to Thomas on the character.

If parents and guardians, who were fans of the original, expect to answer questions about characters and history of origin, they might want to do some research. This is not the Turtles you grew up with. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has action and adventure that should delight to young fans. Unfortunately, it’s missing some key characters to advance the story. As much as I hate the character, you wouldn’t reboot Superman without Lex Luthor now would ya?

Just as Superman needs a bald business man to fight, the Ninja Turtles must battle Shredder! It’s like an unwritten rule. A rule that was broken, sadly.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 debuted in print and digital platforms on October 17th, 2018.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com.

Halloween ComicFest 2018 Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minicomic #1
Written by Dale Malinowski
Art by Andy Suriano, Ida Hem, Brandon Cuellar
Published by IDW Publishing

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reinvent the meaning of "fast food" as they chase after the diabolical Meat Sweats who has just stolen a pizza truck!

Rating: All Ages.
Code: JUL180060
SRP: Free. Trick-or-treat 25-issue polypacks are $4.99 each.