TMNT Universe #1 is out this week from IDW, and I’ve picked myself a copy of it up because I’ve been needin’ some good ol’ Ninja Turtle action in my life for a while now. I completely missed the other Turtles series, and I’m one of those people who won’t jump into a book if I miss a lot of issues before I get to it. So, for me (and maybe you?) this is the perfect time to jump on board with The Turtles. Getting into it, in this issue, the story opens with The Turtles trying to tap up Baxter Stockman for some help by way of April O’Neil. Baxter’s being a dick about things and before long, there’s a badass scorpion-like mutant in the same building… The shit hits the fan quickly. Even worse for the lads, The Earth Protection Force are waiting outside, too… That’s as much of the story as you’re getting out of me, haha.

I really liked this; it was well written, there’s an exchange between Donnie and Mikey about their choice of weapon right near the beginning that made me laugh out loud. It’s heavy on the action and fast-paced, which is great for a first issue. Writer Paul Allor’s done a great job of getting the hooks in me and I can’t wait to see where the story goes. All in all, a good job on the writing side of things. Nothing groundbreaking just yet, but a great start to a story nonetheless.

And, this is really nice to say: I loved the art in this book. I think Damian Couceiro’s art is fantastic; I’m really into it, and it works well for this story. Looking forward to seeing more from him and I’ll also take the opportunity to give a shout-out to Ronda Pattison who has done a great job on the colouring here.

I’m struggling to find anything I didn’t like, and I think I’m about to break Comic Bastards with all this positivity… As if the main story wasn’t enough, this issue has a back-up story in it. It’s a story plotted by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, and Tom Waltz, scripted by Waltz. On art duty Eastman has done layouts for the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz (copy and pasted his last name from Google there to make sure I didn’t fuck it up!) I really liked this, too! The art is absolutely phenomenal (I would expect no less from Sienkiewicz), beautifully complemented by colors from Tomi Varga. It’s a story focusing on Leonardo which is going to carry over to future issues, so I’m looking forward to that. Great job from everyone involved with this book. Well done.

I usually end my reviews with a big rant about why you should get the book I just reviewed; I’m not going to here. Go get it and see for yourself. This is a great first issue.

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TMNT Universe #1 Writers: Paul Allor, Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz Artists: Damian Couceiro, Kevin Eastman & Bill Sienkiewicz Colorists: Ronda Pattison & Tomi Varga Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $4.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

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By Chris Tresson