Comic Books

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #55 Review

February 24, 2016

This month’s issue features a standalone-ish story that wraps up a few plot points via bridging them into the upcoming story arc. Is it good?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #55 (IDW Publishing)

Buy From Amazon

The Plot

Sad Mikey makes me sad :(
Sad Mikey also asks stupid rhetorical questions.
Alopex may be a badass, but this chore Harold has her doing feels like an excuse for a great fight scene rather than something truly helpful.
Did Casey start taking steroids during his miniseries with April? I ask because even though he doesn’t look any bigger, the dude is starting to match his dad’s level of raging douchebaggery.
Ugh. All that dialogue just for Casey to prove that he really is a jerk.
At least something interesting is happening with Alopex…although it doesn’t look like it will turn out well for her.

Is It Good?

You won’t find a bigger fan of IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than me, but this issue is easily one of the worst ones of the series.

Fortunately, artist Michael Dialynis does some really great work that keeps it from being a complete disaster. His big splash page with Alopex being put ‘under the influence’ gets a nice color boost from Ronda Pattison, making it one of my favorite pages in the entire series.

But then you get to the Casey/April stuff…ugh. I never read the April and Casey miniseries, but if this is how the characters came out of that story, then I’m glad I skipped it. Their entire big fight centers around virtually every single Casey/April relationship cliché you can think of. Considering how well Tom Waltz normally writes them, their by-the-numbers (and needlessly melodramatic) spat feels jarringly out of character.

And then you have Mikey’s ‘revelation,’ which is really just a poor excuse to get him back into place that was stupid for him to abandon anyway. The issue’s only redeeming qualities (besides the art) are Alopex’s fight scene and the Leatherhead preview at the end. Hopefully the next one will put this normally stellar series back on track.