These Animated Adventures for #6 went back to what will be most profitable; basing the story around Mikey. Obviously, Mikey in the show is the big hit. Everyone loves his simple logic, dumb jokes, and his cute freckles. The comic is no expectation bringing Mikey’s same fun-loving attitude into their writing. Sometimes when I think they are taking Mikey’s stupidity too far, they always bring it back in. Mikey will usually then have the answer to it all making him look not so dumb. It is weird, but once you get used to the concept it works. Again, TMNT doesn’t pick up any of last week’s story. In my last review, I mentioned how the comic needs to keep some kind of continuous story. Maybe we will soon. I have no doubts that this issue will be picked up by many though, because Mikey is the star. Just flipping around the pages some, you will find high action, lots of explosives, and skateboarding. So it is a fun issue.
The Turtles want to start some action with the Kraang, but Splinter gives them the advice of just watching the Kraang in order to understand them. He teaches them about patience. But like most teenagers, these Turtles refuse to listen. They jump right into the action and even steal some equipment, so Donnie can study it. Well some fighting happens with Kraang and then Bam! The equipment they stole is now alive and appears to be some giant Kraang brain. As a kid, this bad guy is exactly what makes Turtles so much fun. Who else can have a giant brain driving the Shellraiser? Sometimes I have to step back and think “damn this is so freakin’ cool.” Now it is up to Mikey to save the day.
Not only is Mikey the focal point for the action, but also the comedy. He has tons of jokes all of which made me giggle. I think we see a lot of focus on Mikey and Donnie. I find this strange because Donnie was underplayed a lot in the old series. So I am glad to see Donnie getting some recognition. The whole “him having a crush on April” needs to be thrown out. It adds some fun, and light hearted pranks in the new TMNT world, but ultimately is super weird. If anything they should have just had Kasey Jones be introduced early on, so he could have the dumb-crush on April. I’ll roll with it for now.
All and all, it is hard to give a bad review to a comic that I do enjoy. It is high in action and brings that same fun from the show. But I also don’t know how long I will last with enjoying these superficial stories. It doesn’t add any detail that we don’t already know from watching the show. For now, I do buy the occasional issue mostly because the splash pages are so sweet. I love rearranging all the comics I hang up and the Animated Adventures add some cute covers. Other than that, I can’t see myself lasting much longer.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Cullen Bunn Artist: Dario Brizuela Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 12/18/13