Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1-6

The last six months has been quite the transition for me. Before that time, I don't think I'd ever read a teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic, despite having watched two cartoon series, three feature length films, had the toys and played (some of) the video games.

Now though, not only have I acquired and read a trade but I've also collected the first six issues of IDW's new series.

Jason Aaron's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles provides us with a brand new issue 1 as we see the heroes in a half shell return with a new dynamic following on (presumably) from the book's previous run.

Now, however, the four brothers have gone their separate ways in the aftermath of (slowly revealed) prior events. But now, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo must come back together and return to their city and home when an old enemy attacks each of them, an enemy with an unlikely new master.

I don't know what I fully expected with this series. Jason Aaron, an exceptional as well as veteran comic writer, being on this title, along with the cover and Joelle Jones on the art were all massive drawers.

Indeed, as the series got underway, I liked Aaron's idea to separate his protagonists, giving them (as well as the villain) an issue each to show their current place and state of mind before bringing them all back together for the finale issue of the arc.

However, while the first couple of issues really roped me into this story, the last four on the first read failed to match their intrigue. I do say 'first read', however, because upon reading them as a collection, the final four cam across as so much stronger.

Unfortunately, what a re-read couldn't help me with is dealing with the extreme changes that were not expected for a new reader. The predominant issues were Splinter's absence, which felt like a key missing component (though I am recognising it's necessity in the final issue) as well as Donnie's rather broken appearance.

While these most likely make sense to an ongoing reader, they are certainly jarring changes for me.

Fortunately, the artwork (for the most part) really helps sell to me this series. The first arc presents a selection of top talent in Joelle Jones, Cliff Chang and Rafael Albuquerque opening things in the first three issues with some excellent visuals.

Chris Burnham and Darick Robertson followed up with issues four and five and, while they are also fantastic talents, I certainly struggled to attach myself to their work on this series. Of course, like anthologies, this is the downside to multiple artists. You can't like everything.

Finally, Juan Ferrera took on art duties for the final issue on the arc and, once again, I was absolutely in love with what he gave us. Thankfully, he's now on the book for the foreseeable, so that's a point in the win column for the future.

By the end, I feel that it might have done me better to have picked up the original collected editions instead, so that I'd have a start which made more sense. However, despite the up is down nature of this series, Aaron and his gang have certainly made things enticing by issue 6 to keep on going.

I just hope the gaps in my knowledge will be filled with this next arc and (maybe more optimistically) something resembling the characters ì grew up with start to show themselves.