If there’s one word to describe Gene Luen Yang’s current run on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s “intense”. Yang hit the ground running with plot twist after plot twist, not only bringing the Turtles’ adoptive father Splinter back to life, but revealing that he was their newest arch-nemesis, Ujigami. If that wasn’t enough, the latest issues once again pitted the Heroes in a Half-Shell against their fiercest foe Karai and the Foot Clan…which also involved the forces of the dead. And that recent battle ended with Splinter’s former wife, and the Turtles’ mother, Tang Shen being resurrected from the dead!
You might be asking, “How does Yang top that?” The answer is…he doesn’t. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #19 is mostly a breather, as Tang Shen struggles to acclimate to life in the modern day. To help her, Splinter and the Turtles take her on a tour of New York. Yang has been touching on the mystical elements that have been part of IDW’s TMNT since he started his run, particularly the fact that Splinter and the Turtles are reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi and his sons. It only makes sense that he would show what happened if one of their family members hadn’t undergone that same process; to this end, the entire issue unfolds from Tang Shen’s point of view, showcasing how she begins to love the world her husbands and sons grew up in. Readers will also get to catch up on Casey Jones and April O’Neil, who are in an…interesting place following the end of Casey’s recent miniseries.
In true TMNT fashion, things go south as Splinter’s activities as Ujigami immediately come back to bite him in his tail end. To Yang and guest artist Fero Pe’s credit, that also leads to one of the more inventive fight scenes in the issue; since they couldn’t bring their weapons, the Turtles have to improvise with what they’ve got on hand. The sight of Leonardo hurling a baseball at his foes, or Michelangelo punching somebody with a rubber duck, is equal parts absurd and awesome under Pe’s pencils. So is the sight of seeing the Turtles in civilian clothing, as longtime TMNT color artist Luis Antonio Delgado gives each Turtle a piece of clothing with their own signature color.
IDW
Though Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #19 might seem like a breather issue, Tang Shen’s departure from the Land of the Dead winds up drawing the attention of a pair of fearsome figures…and the eyes of some of the Turtles’ deadliest enemies. While this is mostly setup for the next big story arc, “The City Never Dies”, which begins in next month’s monumental Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #300, it also serves as Yang imprinting a lesson onto readers: change, no matter how big or how small, has ripple effects. Some of them are unintended, but all of them will be felt. And not everyone will be able to adjust to said change, no matter how hard they try.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #19 offers a brief respite from the ongoing story, choosing to focus on the Hamato Clan’s family dynamics. It’s also a reminder that Gene Luen Yang isn’t content to do “buisness as usual” with the Heroes in a Half-Shell, but that approach is what’s keeping longtime fans like myself hooked.
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