Dude you have to check out this week’s cover by Mr. Charlie. By far, the best cover of the series. It has all the right splashes of color, and some childlike horror that just gets me all excited. The art all around for this series has to be given praise. It is fun animation with vivid colors. I love the action and don’t think that the artist dumb down the movements for kids in any way. Obviously, this series is geared towards children. And I can totally put myself in that role while reading this comic. But I think kids would have some issues with this series as well. First, I think children expect the series to mesh with the TV show. The series does mesh well with the series, but after the big reveal of Casey Jones last weekend, I would expect that some kids wanted an extension of that story. When we are kids we want to learn every possible thing about stuff we are obsessed with. With the comics, I (and probably thousands of other kids) know we are not learning anything we don’t already know. I don’t feel like I have an inside track. That just isn’t fair! Kids will start to realize this soon and spend their money on more revealing series, such as the seasons, or action figures.
The second thing that just irks me is the issues not fading into one another. I don’t mind each month taking some time away from ongoing stories to give us just some beginning, middle, and end stories in one issue. These issues are many times the backbones for series. They give the reader a chance to understand what the comic is all about. But if you do these issues each month then we are stuck with the same recycled story each month. That needs a break too. I was really hoping with this issue that we would have some story fade into the next couple. No such luck.
Instead we follow Fishface around trying to capture his old-time friend, Vitor Sousa. We have no idea why Fishface wants him, and it seems that we won’t ever find out. The Turtles are tracking Fishface with the help of April (I don’t know why they don’t just use this device all the time, so yeah even the children can see these plot holes). The Turtles find him on a cruise ship which leads to some fun. Like I said before, the action scenes are always great in these series. The jokes are funny too, and honestly they capture the Turtles humor nicely.
Not much else happens, and I was sad to see no ongoing story in this issue. We have all the right key elements here, but now we just need some expanding on it. I think the series needs it in order to keep readers continuing with every issue. If they don’t, I see kids just buying only some issues and still knowing what is going on.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Kenny Byerly Artist: Adam Archer Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 11/20/13