Peter Laird

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Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 53
Words: 3K

Synopsis:

The Turtles are hanging out in April's apartment and decide to go for some night exercise on the nearby rooftops. They run into a group of Foot Clan soldiers and battle ensues. One of them gets hurt and all of them see a big building with the letters TCRI on it. After defeating the Foot Clan soldiers, the boys head back to recover from their fight.

The next night they head to the building only to discover it has no doors, no windows, no ledges, no apparent way to enter except the front door on the street and one door on the roof. They make their way into the building and discover Splinter in some sort of container in a coma. They set off some alarms and the aliens come running, afraid the Turtles will damage or destroy their Translocation Matrix Machine. The Turtles accidently activate the machine and the issue ends with them all fading away, fate unknown.

My Thoughts:

I feel like this comic has a rhythm and it has taken me to this volume to feel it and get in the groove. It is very different from One Piece, or Asterix or even Bone. Part of why the earlier reads felt so disjointed or disorienting to me was because I hadn't gotten that rhythm yet. I got it now though and really enjoyed this issue.

We find out the aliens are creating a translocation matrix machine, which is their goal. We all know what “translocation” mean, so it's obvious they're trying to bring something to Earth or to take something away. Of course, the boys screw up their plans royally when they invade and then accidentally activate it!

The little blobby aliens pricked something in my mind and after reading this volume I figured out what it was. They remind me of the toy brains from the Mattel toy line of Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors from the 80's. We lived in an apartment complex growing up and one of our neighbors had a lot of toys. One such set was these Wheeled Warriors. The badguys where the Monster Minds or something and they were these green rubbery brains. They were so gross! And as a boy they were totally awesome. Anyway, the aliens remind me of them. Isn't it weird how things like that work?

★★★✬☆… (mehr)

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 43
Words: 3K

Synopsis:

After the Turtles turn off the mousers, they head back to their lair. Splinter is missing and they can't find him anywhere. Cops and City Workers are crawling all over the sewers in the aftermath of the mousers, so the boys can't stay. They call April and ask to crash at her place. On the way to her apartment her van is mistaken for one that was used by bank robbers and the cops give chase. Since the Turtles can't afford to be apprehended, April drives like a fiend, through a park and evades the police. In an AMAZING coincidence they come across the real bank robbers and the cops catch them and ignore April and Gang.

The epilogue shows what happened to Splinter. After fighting off some mousers, he makes a run for it, only to be cornered. He escapes because the mousers all go after the Turtles. He is rescued by some sewer workers who find out he can talk. They take him to a TERI Lab. Splinter discovers that little blobby aliens are using meat suits as cover.

My Thoughts:

Well, THAT escalated quickly! From ninja master to aliens in only 2 issues. It does give me pause as to what else Eastman & Laird will throw our way in later issues. While I was not a follower of the Turtles, I do seem to remember aliens playing a big part or something, so I'm guessing these little blobby things are here to stay.

The “main” story with the Turtles and April running from the cops was just plain silly. They are using a volkswagon van and they are outrunning and outperforming the cops? The Turtles even mention a Nascar driver, so Eastman & Laird were very self-aware of what they were doing. When the cops eventually catch the correct van and the bank robbers, there is a page of about 10 cops surrounding the overturned van and all 10 say a variation on the old standby of “freeze!”. I think my favorite was “Do not ambulate!”

The artwork is “sketchy” as in the previous issues. The odd thing is, there was an advertisement in this for metal miniatures of the Turtles, so Eastman & Laird had the resources to do more refined work but have chosen not to. I do hope things get a little less “Number 2 Pencil” in future issues because right now it really looks like something a teenager would have scribble out in the back of their notebook.

★★★✬☆… (mehr)

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2
Authors: Peter Laird & Kevin Eastman
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 42
Words: 3K

Synopsis:

Dr Baxter and his assistant April have created robotic mousers to help with the city's rodent problem. Baxter goes nutso and decides to use the mousers to rob banks and eventually hold the entire city hostage. When April refuses to join him, he dumps her into the sewers and sends some mousers after her.

She encounters the turtles and they all head back to the secret lab to put Dr. Baxter out of business. Baxter initiates a fail safe where all the mousers will come back to the lab and eat everything within it. With only moments left, April and Donatello figure out a way to shutdown the power and stop the mousers.

My Thoughts:

This was a great little Mad Scientist story. We're also introduced to April O'Neil who I know is part of the Crew in later stories. Whether Eastman and Laird created her with that in mind or as a one off isn't apparent here but the fact that she now knows all about the turtles and didn't die is probably a good indicator that they had plans for her from the get-go.

This issue had much higher resolution pictures making up the cbr file, so it was a much better visual read. Of course, it still looks like the creators used nothing but Number 2 pencils to draw this. I guess I am pretty spoiled by either more modern comics (Bone) or higher quality ones (Asterix). Of course, I think budget had more to do with it than anything. Akira was being published at this time and that artwork isn't anything near as rough as this.

The main reason I bumped this up a half star from the previous issue is because with the introduction of April I was expecting some heavy fan-servicey shots; which never appeared. While Eastman & Laird's skill as artists is still in the budding stage, it doesn't take much to turn a woman into a sex fantasy and they chose not to go that route. It was nice to not to have to deal with that kind of thing.

★★★✬☆… (mehr)