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Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Issue #45 (Spoilers)

COMIC SERIES: IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

ISSUE: #45

WRITERS/ARTIST: Tom Waltz,  Bobby Curnow, Kevin Eastman/Mateus Santolouco, Charles Paul Wilson III

PLOT:

As Donatello’s life hangs by a thread, the Fugitoid and Harold work tirelessly to save their friend as the rest of the Turtles and their friends try to deal with their grief.

VERDICT:

Okay I will start by saying that after seeing the heart-breaking final page of Issue 44, I did not really feel that Donny was going to die. I mean yes it was brutal and painful to see, but when do main characters in comics ever truly die (and I mean permanently too)? They don’t, so even if the Turtles most under-rated brother was to die in this new installment, I knew that it would not be for long.

Now this issue continues directly where the last one left off, which starts off with Donny waking up to find himself in what looks like a mysterious forest where he comes across a beautiful bright light and not surprisingly his own Mother, Tang Shen. I instantly took note that she was there to keep Donny from walking straight into the light (which I found funny that despite his questioning and scientific nature. The Turtle still found himself heading for the light almost instantly without question), acknowledging her Son’s need for answers to impossible questions. This was until Splinter (who through mediation could visit this other plain of existence) arrived, having traversed through a rather tricky maze to reach them (I also liked the Inception-like design of the maze, showing that he did not have much time to reach his Son).

Elsewhere, the Turtles and their friends were shown to having different ways to deal with their grief over what had happened to Donny. With Raph being the hot-head that he is, only for Mikey to shut him up (I really liked that part). Leo then agreed with the points that both had made (Raph had said that they had failed Donny, while the youngest Turtle believed that he would have been happy to hear that Krang had been stopped), showing that he is always the one that sees all sides of an argument/situation before coming to a conclusion.

Now with this particular story-line, which was very much a downer on everything. It was good to get a break from it, with us seeing how the Foot-Clan was dealing with the aftermath of their failed attack on Krang (I was not surprised to see Karai taking command). As well as seeing Baxter Stockman holding the advantage over Shredder and gaining the Foot-leader as a reluctant ally.

Plus we got to see Casey helping the neighborhood by beating down on some Purple Dragons which gave us the action quota for this installment, and it was good to see him back in action. Though this is probably not going to end well as on the very last page of his scene, Casey spots his Dad (and Shredder had given explicit orders to Hun which involved killing his Son for not agreeing to join them).

I have to say that the artwork in this issue was excellent and having two different art-styles separate the afterlife segments from the real-world ones was a masterstroke. It is fantastic to have Mateus Santolouco back drawing the Turtles (he brings so much to every scene he draws, be it a quiet moment or an action scene etc) and Charles Paul Wilson III does a great with the dream sequences, which look peaceful when compared to the chaos of the real world ones.

Overall this was another excellent installment of this series, which even now at 45 issues is as strong as it has even been (which is because of the excellent work of the writers and artists involved), and I cannot wait to see where our heroes are taken next in this series.

Review Overview

Overall

Another great read!

This was another strong and emotional installment, which was well balanced with a perfect mixture of grief, mystery, action and plot building for coming installments to the continuing story.

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