Wednesday, September 4, 2019

BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III #5 REVIEW


Writer: James Tynion IV
Art Team: Freddie E Williams, Kevin Eastman, Jermy Colwell
DC Comics/IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 4, 2019
Cover Price:  $3.99

Black, White, & COLOR?!

Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossovers score points in my book simply for taking a couple of my favorite childhood properties and smashing them together to see what happens. Sure by the end it wraps up ultimately being a predictable crossover extravaganza, but this third volume has stood out for its uniqueness, due largely to the fact of its multiverse angle.  So lets get back to business in the penultimate issue and see where it leaves us for the finale.



The issue resumes with the Krang robots flooding the Earth, as Joker taunts the heroes to stop him, they each do their part from being completely overwhelmed by everything coming at them to varying degrees.  When Batman catches up with Joker, the big moment of the issue happens, the villains mention of crowbar rings some past bells in Batman's brain, obviously about Jason Todd. This causes what looks like a freak out as Bats takes off and the rest of the first act of the issue is hectic and doesn't much slow down from there.

With Batman out of the events of the fight for now the rest of the team (Shredder, Splinter, and Casey) split up duties to keep the robots at bay. Meanwhile the Turtles head off for the portal to get to Krang, which is where my favorite parts of this crossover come back into play, when the old Turtle art contrasts with the color splash pages of Freddie Williams current Turtle and Batman art. So we have a battle going on two fronts here as the issue begins to wind down.



The conclusion continues the issues incredibly fast pace, I seriously think I read this in only a few minutes time, as the entire crew reassembles to bring the fight to Krang and end this menace once and for all. I still really enjoy this series but this was the weakest issue in the bunch so far, just setting up the pieces in place for the big finale, a little window dressing here and there and that is about it. 

My favorite aspect of this series is still Freddie Williams art, I just think he does a great job of creating consistent character designs, dynamic action scenes, and drawing the readers eyes to what is necessary.  Bottom line regardless of the time he's on I usually buy the book and this series is no exception to that rule.   



Overall, Batman/TMNT III #5 is a bit of a down issue, however it sets up some necessary pieces in place to wrap up whats going on throughout the series in the finale.  I look forward to seeing how everything concludes next month but at the same time I think the concept here has also run its course.

7.5/10


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