Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 #2 – James Tynion IV, Writer; Freddie Williams II, Artist; Jeremy Colwell, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 8.5/10
Corrina: Individual Turtle Spotlight
Ray: For someone who does pitch-black, character driven books like “The Woods”, or the elaborate Gotham thriller of Detective Comics, James Tynion is surprisingly equally at home in this wild crossover right out of a Saturday Morning Cartoon. When the issue opens, Batman is meeting with Ra’s Al Ghul to discuss Bane’s invasion into another world, while Donatello teams up with Damian to take on Mr. Freeze in an inventive action sequence that delivers in fun and visuals. Bat-Sled! Hell yeah! But as Donatello prepares to return to his own world (and gets some positive advice from a surprisingly sympathetic Batman) the news is much less good for the residents of his home world. Bane has wasted no time making a move on the Turtles’ New York, and the city is on fire when Batman, Robin, and Donatello emerge.
With Shredder in prison, Bebop and Rocksteady have been making a play to take over the underworld, but that comes to an abrupt end when Bane dismantles their forces and brings the Foot Clan to their door. The two dim-bulb mutants are forced to bend the knee. Bane, much like Doomsday, is a character that’s hard to write well. Tom King managed, but too often he’s a one-dimensional brute. Here, Tynion doubles down on the menace and intimidation elements and makes him a truly fearsome figure, almost larger than life. But he also has one huge weakness – Venom doesn’t exist in this world, and he desperately needs Baxter Stockman to engineer it for him before he loses everything. Between that threat, and the growing tension between the Turtles over Donatello’s rash actions, this miniseries is setting to easily equal or even top the highly entertaining original.
Corrina: The original crossover between these two read like a Gotham story with the Ninja Turtles as just another weird element in Gotham, albeit one that contained a decent amount of the Turtles’ world. This one, however, makes it clear that we will be focusing not just on the Turtles’ world but on each individual within their team. Which is a nice change for me, since I’m basically unfamiliar with their differing personalities.
And, Bat-Sled!! That has to be the single best sequence using Damian since he and Dick were Batman and Robin. I’d recommend this issue for that alone.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
