This month marks the return of TMNT, the fourth volume in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series, with issue #29, after spending nearly two years on indefinite hiatus. This volume, written by original co-creator Peter Laird and illustrated by longtime collaborator Jim Lawson, is considered the official venue of the Turtles’ universe. Whereas the sister publication, Tales of the TMNT, explores their universe in self-contained episodes set in the past and written by a string of different writers, TMNT is the contemporary, farsighted series which allows their story arcs to advance in time and to create and explore new mythologies.
In this series the Turtles are no longer teens, but have grown up into middle-aged adults. The real defining difference is that now the brothers spend more time apart than together. Leonardo has traveled to another dimension where he is fighting in a gladiator-esque arena called the Battle Nexus; Raphael was bitten by a strange group of vampires and has morphed into a semi-rampaging dinosaur/lizard-thing; Donatello is the size of an action figure after mistakenly being shrunk by the alien race of Utroms; and Mikey, well he made some babies with a Protoceraton princess, but then got kidnapped and smuggled into space. And, oh yeah, Master Splinter is dead. These guys have got some issues.
Number 29 opens up with a scene straight out of the Mos Eisley Cantina. The Utroms, who developed the ooze that mutated the Turtles into their current sentient form, have finally revealed themselves to the people of Earth. Now, establishments such as the bar Galaxies, have welcomed all forms of alien life to eat and drink alongside their human counterparts in New York City. Casey Jones, feeling a bit down in the dumps, is joined by Professor Honeycutt/Fugitoid and some Utroms when suddenly a red-blooded ‘merican crashes the party. Addressing a couple of hot political topics here, Laird combines the paranoid and reductive tendencies of anti-immigrationists (insert Lou Dobbs joke here!), and the methods of terrorist suicide bombers, to which Casey and the gang must try to put a stop. While not exactly subtle, Laird adds a dash of humor, and the scene becomes a bit more than a throw-away.
The Turtles don’t make an appearance until page 22 (of 37), reminiscent of 2005’s issue #22, which focused solely on their dear friend April and the mysterious circumstances of her birth. These are just a couple of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed reading the TMNT series. Laird isn’t afraid to experiment with his characters, or his storytelling method, combining equal parts sci-fi, fantasy, romance, history, and world cultures. As you can probably tell from the summary above, a lot has happened in the world of the TMNT in just 29 short issues. In theory, combining dinosaurs, aliens, vampires, and talking ninja turtles seems contrived, excessive, but this ever-evolving mythology is a constant joy to read. Jim Lawson, the only artist to work on this series, has created his own immediately recognizable style, and other artists’ interpretations of the Turtles rarely achieve his level of empathy and “realism.”
In a unique turn of events, all new issues of TMNT will simultaneously be available for purchase and free download. The catch is that each “collector’s” issue will now cost $10 instead of the typical $2.95. Seeing as how new issues are only released every other month, as opposed to your traditional superhero books who can run as high as four per month, I think the ratio of price to entertainment value is still within reason. Mirage, the company that publishes TMNT, embodies the very essence of independent publishing; black and white comics, no advertisements to disrupt the comic’s narrative, and quality to boot.
If you’re still skeptical, at least check out some of the free downloads from ninjaturtles.com, where you can read the entirety of Volume 4, and also catch up on the original 1984 comic series and the Turtles’ origin story. But if you’re expecting the same childish and goofy humor made famous by the 1990s cartoon series and live action films, then don’t bother, this won’t be for you.
Aside from the usual hiccups (a couple of hokey lines of dialogue, the occasional typo, incorrect grammar, and those “36-24-36” proportioned women) Peter Laird’s narrative direction of the TMNT, and Jim Lawson’s always enjoyable illustration are worthy enough to continue following the series, perhaps even until the Turtles reach old age.
