Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vol. 5) #1 by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Dan Duncan

A couple of years ago, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird sold the rights to his venerable franchise to Viacom, ceased publishing his (already rarely published) TMNT Volume 4 book, canceled the anthology Tales of the TMNT, and went into retirement. Now IDW has the comic book licence for the Turtles, and they’ve brought the other co-creator, Kevin Eastman aboard to launch their new line of books. I’ve always viewed Eastman as the key factor in the early Turtles comics. Once he left, Laird’s story, while still interesting, began going on wilder and wilder tangents, eventually becoming almost unrecognizable. There’s nothing wrong with that. Volume 4 was a great comic book, while it lasted, but this new series returns the characters to their roots.

This new book streamlines the turtles’ origin, directly tying it in with April O’Neill’s job as a lab assistant (or in this case, intern). It begins in the midst of the action, with Splinter, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello battling a new villain, a cat mutant named Hob. Raphael, meanwhile, is off on his own, rummaging dumpsters for food. The book then flashes back to April’s first day as an intern, where she meets four normal turtles who the lab is experimenting on.

The “new” origin hasn’t fully played out yet, but it’s nice to still be surprised by a story I’ve seen told countless times in any number of media. The tone of this iteration is closest to that of the 1990 live action film, in my view one of the pinnacles of the franchise. The art by Dan Duncan is appropriately sketchy, and Eastman’s distinctive layouts really shine through in the action scenes.

After lying dormant for a couple years since the sale to Viacom, it’s nice to see the Turtles again, and it’s looking to be quite the glorious ressurection.