Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #6 – James Tynion IV, Writer; Freddie E. Williams II, Kevin Eastman, Artists; Jeremy Colwell, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 8/10
Ray: James Tynion IV has clearly had a lot of fun writing these team-ups with the Bat-family and the Turtles since the first miniseries all the way through Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #6, the final issue, and it shows.
The threats kept escalating – from an alliance of Shredder and Ra’s Al Ghul, to a Mutagen-boosted Bane, and now to Krang hybridized with the Anti-Monitor. The twist for this mini – fusing the Bats and Turtles into one strange original backstory, with Batman being raised by Splinter after his parents died – was one of the most clever alternate realities I’ve seen in comics, but the back half of the series didn’t quite live up to the first as it became bogged down in massive cosmic battles.
Fortunately, the final issue pulls things back nicely to the series’ best strengths, as the two families – with Batman now reunited with his Robins – make one last stand against the evil brain and the traitorous Joker.
There’s a lot going on in this issue, including two Batmen and two teams of Turtles – one from the original Eastman/Laird comics, as drawn by original creator Kevin Eastman. The addition of Eastman – who has stayed involved with the franchise and has co-written most of the IDW run – gives the series a unique visual flair. The final battle against the Anti-Monitor Krang delivers some great visuals, although I’m wondering just why Tynion likes to fuse characters into some sort of body horror so much – it happens to Batman and the Turtles this issue, albeit much more briefly and less graphically than it did in Justice League Dark to Man-Bat.
The ending of the series sort of slams the door closed on future crossovers, but nothing is for certain. But the last page, summing up Tynion’s view of the Bat-family in a few simple lines, was the perfect capper to one of the best recent crossover events.
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
