Throughout its run, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey Jones has been putting its titular brawler through the wringer. A fight against the mutated snow leopard Ludovic, taking care of a young mutant girl while looking for her father, and still dealing with being shot in the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is taking its toll on Casey, to the point where he ingested the strain of mutagen called Nostrum. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey Jones #5 has Casey at his lowest: he succumbs to Nostrum’s side effects, which lock him in an escalating state of rage, but also cause him to hallucinate his late mother.
It’s a recipe for emotional turmoil, and Alex Paknadel is cooking up a hell of a feast. Throughout the issue, Pakandel flips between Casey’s rage and his mother’s specter, as he breaks down and confesses to her that he fears he’s becoming like his father. These moments are enough to shatter even the hardest of hearts, and they make a nice parallel to Ludovic’s situation. All the leopard wants is to be treated like a human being, yet his owners see him as a weapon at best and a mere animal at worst.
There’s a big difference between the two, and it comes down to their support systems. Rather, it’s who has one and who doesn’t. Casey, despite his best efforts to push the Turtles away, ends up seeking help from Donatello when the Nostrum begins to overtake his system. Ludovic has no one to turn to, no way to kick the Nostrum, and ends up in a terrifying position. His entire story more or less feels like “this is what could have happened to Casey if he didn’t meet the Turtles or April O’Neil,” and Paknadel excels at pushing that parallel to its logical conclusion.
IDW
Worry not, Turtle fans, this is still a Casey Jones comic, and it has all the baseball-bat-swinging, bone-breaking action you’d expect, courtesy of Amancay Nahuelpan. Nahuelpan sketches Casey as a terrifying figure from the jump, with the very first page featuring Purple Dragons either fleeing from him in terror or sent flying by his Nostrum-enhanced strength. Not helping matters is the color art by Luis Antonio Delgado, which casts light in the wrong way, making Casey’s signature hockey mask look less heroic and more like Jason Voorhees. Even worse is when he takes the mask off; his bloodshot eyes and gritted teeth are far from the Casey fans know and love.
The art takes a shift in the back half as Enid Balam steps in, but it never loses its intensity. In fact, there’s even a sequence that rivals the cargnage Nahuelpan brings to the page! I first became aware of Balam’s work on Spider-Gwen: Smash, and she manages to keep that same level of hyperkinetic action throughout, whether Casey’s sneaking into a heavily guarded fortress or taking on security guards. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Casey Jones #5 hits hard in terms of action and emotion, as it sets the stage for an intense finale. I have every bit of faith in this creative team to bring it home.
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