Thursday, 11 September 2025

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2024] #11- IDW Publishing

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES No. 11, September 2025
There is no doubt that Jason Aaron’s penmanship for Issue Eleven of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” imbues the comic with plenty of pace. But despite this twenty-two page periodical containing a fair amount of adrenalin-fuelled action, it will arguably be hard for many long-term readers not to think that its opening half simply repeats much of what they already knew had occurred. In fact, the vast majority of this book’s courtroom antics simply regurgitates past events from the titular character’s previous battles; “Apologies to the jury, as this footage is quite graphic and disturbing.”

Happily however, this feeling of being somehow slightly ‘cheated’ courtesy of numerous flashbacks and witness testimony, is eventually lifted once District Attorney Hale’s nerve finally breaks and the rotund lawyer makes an ill-advised bolt for the supposed safety of Karai’s inner sanctum. This escape bid finally provides the honest people of New York City with an opportunity to witness first hand just what a cowardly bully Hieronymus really is, as well as show the corrupt politician’s police brutally beating up anyone foolish enough to get in their way.

Furthermore, the sequence generates a much anticipated ‘feel-good’ feeling for the likes of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael and April O’Neil, as the Big Apple’s population unite behind them as the metropolis’ protectors. Indeed, many a bibliophile can probably hear Chuck Lorre’s instantly recognisable TMNT television theme song starting in the background as the ‘Heroes in a Half-shell’ lose their handcuffs, collect their weapons from the evidence desk, and bound outside the court building to batter the Foot Clan once again.

Convincingly illustrating Hale’s rapid descent into an anger-fuelled madness is Juan Ferreyra, who increasingly pencils the wannabe tyrant’s corpulent face struggling under the weight of all his lies and grisly murders. Such close-ups really help ‘sell’ just how overconfident the portly prosecutor had been when he first arranged the mutants’ show trial, and just how insane the counsellor has come now his grand scheme is unravelling before his reddening eyes. Furthermore, the artist also provides this comic with an absolutely cracking double splash of the Turtles and O’Neil-turned-Casey Jones smashing into a line of undercover ninjas, whilst taking the fight back out onto the streets of “the most populous city in the United States.”

The regular cover art to "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" #11 by Jorge Fornes

No comments:

Post a Comment