Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #7 Review

Metalhead is back! What better way to celebrate the return of this wonderful character than a full-blown existential crisis?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #7 (IDW Publishing)

Observations

• No matter how smart you are, everyone resorts to “Hit it as hard as you can” when stuff refuses to work.
• Good lord!
• Oh man. This is beyond awkward and more than a little depressing.
• Donnie’s handling this a lot better than I would. If a robot double carrying my thoughts and soul showed up, I’d immediately start drawing up contingency plans for our inevitable battle to the death (after asking it/me lots of personal questions, of course).
• Ugh. What happened to Donnie last year when Bebop and Rocksteady wailed on him is still hard to watch.
• Donnie vs. Donnie in chess would be all types of challenging to keep up with.
• Yeah…no comic book character who gets caught talking to themselves is ever innocent or well-intenioned.
• Not that this scene isn’t cool, but I think it would feel pretty weird to have another version of yourself riding you like a motorcycle.
• HOLY CRAP!

Verdict

There’s no way you won’t see the big twist in this one coming. It’s so painfully obvious that the events leading up to it quickly start to feel like forestalling rather than foreshadowing. That being said, the narrative still manages to create a solid foundation for what could turn out to be a great story.

Give writer Ryan Ferrier credit for not only crafting an intriguing premise, but also managing to keep the dialogue from two versions of Donatello from being boring. The script still drags a bit at times, but the great artwork from Adam Gorham (particularly the way he draws Metalhead) helps to make up for it.

Also, the last few pages of the issue are much better than the rest of it. In addition to a series of beautiful drawn action sequences, the narrative finally releases itself from the shackles of disguising a mystery in plain sight, delivering a knockout punch of an ending. Let’s hope the next issue picks up with the momentum this one ended with.