Christmas Comics Cavalcade: Merry Shredder-Mas! In ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures’ #7
by Tony Thornley
The winter holidays have boatloads of traditions. One common in major cities is Santacon, a bar crawl for charity. In the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #7, we see what happens when Shredder takes the tradition as his own.
Erik Burnham, Sarah Myer, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Ed Dukeshire have a lot of fun with this one. Taking a real life tradition, and shifting it just a touch out of reality, they’re able to make a real interesting threat for the Turtles.
When NYPD bans the rowdy St. Nick-Con, the Shredder sees it as an opportunity that he’s been waiting for. Thanks to Krang’s duplication ray, he can cause chaos in his own visage, enabling him to steal several priceless artifacts that could help him end the Turtles once and for all. Will the Turtles be able to stop him, or will the chaos of Shreddercon be too much?
Burnham knows that the original TMNT cartoon seldom strayed from the Shredder as the Turtles’ main antagonist. This entire issue was driven by the Shredder but presents a new sort of threat for them. The fake Shredders all present the Turtles with a new sort challenge. They’re really just a bunch of drunks trying to cause a little anonymous mayhem- the Turtles need to stop them without hurting them.
It centers the conflict on the Shredder and Krang’s schemes, as the animated series often did, but the story doesn’t hinge on it. They’re used more as a storytelling engine than they are an actual villain. It makes the story a little deeper than a typical animated series episode.
Another thing I really like about this is how all-ages it is. I’ve said before in other reviews how there’s a fine line between a kids’ comic and an all ages comic. This is just as enjoyable to me as a 40 year-old TMNT fan that grew up on the animated series this is continuing as it is for my 8 year-old who’s just starting to realize how much he likes the Turtles.
Myer has a great eye for the adaptation here. Her character work is reminiscent of the 1987 animated series, without being slavish to it. The Turtles and the supporting cast are incredibly expressive. Every panel shows an incredible amount of detail, and when a conversation is happening, she makes sure it’s always engaging. The action is good too, especially since the plot involves an entirely defensive fight. That makes for an interesting challenge for any artist, since it’d be much easier just to have the heroes punch the threat in the face.
Delgado’s colors are bright and largely done in flats. That adds to the feel of this being an 80’s cartoon adaptation, but he does just enough shading and gradients that it still feels modern. The colors also help the holiday feel too- he adds the traditional Christmas colors schemes in the backgrounds, he makes sure the snow is the right mix of dirty and bright white. It’s exactly what this book needs.
Though it’s not an extremely Christmas-y story, this is a lot of fun to check out. It fits the sillier side of the holiday, and hits all the right notes for any Ninja Turtles fan.
