Comic Books

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #75 Review

A beautiful looking book, but with a flimsy narrative and poor resolution. You’ll want to escape from Planet X, too.

October 25, 2017

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The “Trial of Krang” is finally going to reach its oversized conclusion. The wrap around cover is a gem, but will the story (and the verdict) be one fans will like, as well?

First Read Reactions

Triceratons vs. Space Bugs. I know who I’m betting on.
I’m not sure space melee weapons are going to be much use here…
Leave it to Hakk-R to make guard duty exciting again.
What’s the best way to stop a badass space assassin? Allergies, of course!
What’s the best way to win a fight that might never end? Hire a badass space assassin!
Well now that that’s over with, let’s get back to the trial, shall we?
Both these lawyers are terrible.
Like, worse than TV terrible.
Good lord. The new judge might be even worse.
Hard to imagine a verdict where no one is happy, but the Neutrino’s pulled it off…
…or not. Way to secure the building, guys.
Remember when I said the new judge was terrible. Well he just proved my point…again.

The Verdict

The artwork, all drawn by a team of some of the best to work on the series, is fantastic. There is so much going on that it should be hard to keep track of everything. Instead, this group not only tells a story, but makes it look absolutely gorgeous in the process.

The story, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired.

Aside from a thrilling opening sequence, the rest of the issue gets bogged down in long strings of dialogue expounding some of the flimsiest court arguments you can imagine. I know that TMNT isn’t a legal drama, but c’mon. Even the people who watch JAG would be rolling their eyes. It would be more tolerable if it was condensed, but the arguments go on forever, potentially rivaling the actual legal briefs you might find in a real-life insurance fraud case.

(Okay, not really, but they do go on for an exceptionally long amount of time.)

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And then you have the verdict. Whether you agree with it or not, all the work of the last three issues (and the tie-in miniseries) is completely negated in one fell swoop. It’s meant to be a badass moment, but instead feels like a cheap twist that cheats us out of an earned (for better or worse) resolution.

I do give Waltz credit for setting up a great new storyline next month, albeit through an absolutely terrible decision by someone who is supposed to be incredibly wise.

All in all, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #75 may look pretty, but its abundance of expository dialogue, flimsy narrative, and poor resolution had me wanting to escape from Dimension X back to Earth as quickly as possible.