Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2024] #5 - IDW Publishing

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES No. 5, December 2024

It's pretty clear from Jason Aaron’s script for Issue Five of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” that District Attorney Hale is going to be a major antagonist of this comic’s central cast – especially when Hieronymus is depicted shooting down Casey Jones with a handgun during a cold-blooded set-up. But debatably few of this book’s bibliophiles will probably have enjoyed an entire twenty-two page publication being dedicated to the villain’s nefarious rise to power; “I won’t be taking any questions at this time. Or ever. Disperse the mob.”

Indeed, the likes of poor  Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo are frustratingly relegated to just an all-too fleeting ‘flashback’ cameo, as the book predominantly focuses upon the increasingly insane lawyer’s grief over his murdered parents, and subsequent battle to the top of New York’s justice tree with the aid of Karai and her deadly Foot Clan. Admittedly, many of these sequences are entertaining enough, most notably Hale’s fall under the thrall of Hamato Miwa when his anti-mutant prejudice gets the better of him. However, an entire edition dedicated to the new character is arguably a bit too much, and will doubtless have lead to some within this ongoing series’ audience yearning for more detail as to what is actually happening with the four anthropomorphic turtle brothers.

Likewise, despite the vigilante Jones being ‘pushed’ in the periodical’s publication synopsis, the sports-gear wearing crimefighter doesn’t actually make an appearance until the story is half-way through, and even then for much of the time he is simply held captive by Hale’s no-nonsense personal retinue. This ‘side-lining’ genuinely makes the entire Alabama-born author’s narrative feel like a bit of a ‘filler’, with the writer appearing desperate to have something going on whilst the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are busy reforming and getting ready for their cataclysmic return to the Big Apple.

Perhaps just as disappointing as this comic’s script though are the layouts of “legendary artist” and “co-creator of The Boys” Darick Robertson, whose style just doesn’t seem to suit some of the situations penned for this book. Of particular note has to be the super-cute look of the mutant who supposedly gutted Hieronymus’ mum and dad during “a robbery gone wrong”. The hamster-like creature doesn’t seem likely to say ‘Boo’ to a ghost, yet the audience are asked to believe the long-toothed critter slashed the attorney’s elderly relatives to ribbons in their own home.

The regular cover art to "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" #5 by Javier Fernandez