Comics! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5


Story: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz
Script: Tom Waltz
Art: Dan Duncan (New York City) & Mateus Santolouco (Feudal Japan)

The Comic
Wow. I thought at first it would just be a boring story and maybe the first issue that I didn't like. Wrong. This is the "origin" story for the turtles. And by "origin" I mean how they got so good at their ninja fighting skills.

The comic takes it time between two different settings. One is modern day New York where the turtles are training with Raphael and catching up on events. In the second part, we are presented with a tail from Feudal Japan featuring the names of some more familiar characters from the turtles' past.

Since I haven't read the Raphael one shot, this is the first time seeing another artist in the book. While Mateus doesn't draw the turtles directly, he does have the same spirit and slightly different style that sets his work apart in more of a way than the story does. While Duncan's work uses more white space in defining the panels and doesn't have much overlap with them, Mateus' does this blending and overlapping of the panels that works well.

The story is more focused on the Splinter side of things, which I honestly thought would be boring at first, but turns out I was wrong. As for the development that happens at the end, I would say that if you are willing to believe that Turtles can mutate and talk and grow teeth, then the explanation for their ninja skills will make sense as well.

The Cover
Good: It is an excellent way to show that Splinter will take the lead with the story, and shows the Turtles in the back ground that works well.
Bad: There are multiple covers for this issue. The cover I got was nice, but I need to get the other cover to get the full picture. However, the third cover only tells a little bit of the story that is shown at the end of the issue, but is still nice. Snow turtles!


Grades
Words: 10/10
Pictures: 10/10 for both artists. Distinct enough to be different, but alike enough not to jar the reader and mess with the flow of art.
Recommend: Highly do. Nice placement of a one shot story that works well by itself in the series.
Buy Next Issue: Gimme more, more, more!

Previous Issues
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4
Three Issue Trial