Hey all, Crooker here again, with the final Turtletastic issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle Nexus! This is issue #5, the wrap-up, with a lot of credits to its name. Story contributions include: Tom Waltz, Sophie Campbell, Paul Allor, Caleb Goellner, and Erik Burnham, who is also the main scripter for this issue. And of course we have Ben Bates on pencils who also handles colors alongside Luis Antonio Delgado. Phew, you get all that? With that out of the way, let’s dig into the issue proper.
The end of this story line is about what you’d expect: the turtles make their last stand against Savanti Romero and reunite with their interdimensional counterparts at the cost of the Battle Nexus… for now, at least! We’re all but told this is not the end of the place where the big brawl takes place. I am somewhat surprised we never saw the appearance of the Gyoji, an important figure of the Battle Nexus from both the 2003 and Mirage storylines, but I suppose we can’t expect a reference to everything. What we do see though, is the person I was hoping for since the start, the final ruler of the nexus, and the first followup to a decade and change old unresolved Mirage storyline…
Pause for spoilers….
IDW
Battle Nexus Damiyo, Hamato Splinter of the original Mirage universe! Yes, a cliffhanger that Turtle fans like me have been hanging on for over a decade now, and while it does nothing to resolve that unfinished story, it was nice to be seen. To know how much the loss of Mirage Volume 4 meant to a lot of us, and to show that the current people helming the franchise care too, and care enough to not step on Peter Laird’s toes by making anything definitive. This story to me is a love letter to Laird’s TMNT. The Battle Nexus he and Loyd Goldfine introduced in the cartoon universe, nurtured and reintroduced into the comic canon proper, and that all being brought to now. It’s a story with some pacing and thematic confusion, mostly due to the rotating staff every issue, but it knows how to tug on those Turtle fan heartstrings.
Ben Bates’ art is of course, also wonderful. Though he doesn’t render the characters in their universe-relevant artstyle, you still have no trouble telling people apart, which is nice. The action scene with Mikey and Slash is appropriately brutal, and the big detailed spreads are a visual treat. This book has looked consistently good, and this is no exception.
IDW
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle Nexus is a great story, if a bit mixed. As I said above, any flaws this has comes from the rotating staff, making a fully consistent vision a bit difficult. But it knows that we’re here for nostalgia, so it gives us some, and sometimes I’m just okay with that. The Battle Nexus is about getting that big brawl, to see an awesome smackdown between cool characters we love, and this delivered on that. It was a great time, and I loved combing through it for continuity nods both old and new. I can’t wait to see the Battle Nexus come back someday, stronger than ever, and we get a REAL all out battle between every turtle ever! And every Shredder ever! And all the Stockmans, and the Splinters! And all the Usagis too – Stan Sakai would be into that, right? Can somebody ask him for me?
…hey, a guy can dream, right?
Oh and of course, they had to save the day with an Inter-Dimensional Portal Stick. I mean, obviously?
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