TMNT #51

‘TMNT’ #51 cover by Ken Garing

• Story by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow & Tom Waltz
• Script by Tom Waltz
• Art by Ken Garing
• Colours by Ronda Pattison
• Cover by Ken Garing

A new age begins for the TMNT. The epic events of TMNT #50 have created new opportunity… and dangers. Will the family stay united in the face of a devastating new foe?

Pickup your copy of ‘TMNT’ #51 at Comixology now!

Coming off the back of massive changes to the franchise in issue #50 ‘TMNT’ is venturing in to new territory with #51.

Donatello is back. Splinter is leading the Foot. Michelangelo is out on his own. Ken Garing has stepped in as the new artist for the series.

Picking up the dangling plot threads left by the previous arc, or in fact the previous four years of story Eastman, Curnow and Waltz are looking at a brand new landscape for ‘TMNT’. I’ve said in previous reviews that bringing Mateus Santolouco onboard as writer completely rejuvenated the look of the series and now with the Turtles and Splinter in bed with the Foot Clan the writers are trying to do the same with the non-visual aspects of ‘TMNT’.

The decision to permanently (or temporarily) remove Shredder from the storyline was a great idea to allow the story to open itself up to new ideas but to take it one step further and give control of the Foot Clan to the Turtles themselves was utter genius. I don’t know if this storyline has happened in past iterations of ‘TMNT’ but for this current series it’s a bold and brilliant move.

‘TMNT’ #51 is but the humble beginnings of this new storyline so serves to lay the groundwork for what is to come. This issue also reintroduces April to the series after her departure to appear in her own mini-series with boyfriend Casey.

There’s a new gang on the streets of New York calling themselves The Street Phantoms so we’re now set to deal with a new villain over the next few months although we know very little about them at this stage. Their first fight with the turtles serves as an introduction to the new status quo with Leonardo calling in backup in the form of a swarm of Foot soldiers.

Much of the rest of the story is taken up by a heated exchange between Michelangelo and Raphael which in storylines past would easily have been the reversed with Raph normally the one to storm off and leave the team and also Donatello and Harold Lillja conversing about the tech used by the new street gang.

It’s a quiet issue by comparison with recent editions but it’s welcomed given how fast paced ‘TMNT’ can sometimes be.

New artist Ken Garing brings an interesting new style to the book. It broadly reflects some of the older versions of the ‘TMNT’ comic paying a great homage to the past but in an interesting new slant on the character designs many of the close-up shots are reminiscent of the original ‘TMNT’ movies, the facial designs of each of the turtles is very close to the animatronic masks worn by the original actors. It was a little jarring the first time I saw it but given time to go over this issue it actually works. What ‘TMNT’ needed coming off the back of Santolouco was an artist not afraid to take things in a new direction and judging by his first issue Garing is capable of doing just that.

Not an overly exciting issue but a good jumping off point for new readers and an interesting beginning to a new chapter of ‘TMNT’.

3 stars