Punching Toward Truth — Reviewing ‘TMNT: Mutant Nation’ #2

Raphael and Casey Jones are old friends. They’ve been through some wild stuff and (almost) always have each other’s back. Too bad for them they are both currently going through some stuff worlds apart..

Both their adventures continue in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation #2, as the ongoing anthology series keeps chugging along. Tom Waltz, Vincenzo Federici, and Ronda Pattison throw Raph into the deep end at Area 51 while Erik Burnham, Mateus Santolouco, and Marco Lesko deal with Casey’s growing unease with Karai and the Foot Clan. Rus Wooton provides lettering for both stories.

Both stories do what many second parts of a story do. They flesh out of the stakes, set up the players, and kind of kick things off.

With the first story, we get to see Raph really do his thing to draw attention in Area 51, as well as find out there is another issue to deal with (more on that soon). Waltz uses this space to really flesh out what happened with some beats of the recent TMNT: The Armageddon Game event, which he was the writer and architect behind. While short, the story chapter plays well with the energy always present when Waltz tackles TMNT, with something a bit faster feeling.

I’ll take as many of these stories as possible, especially as long as it keeps Federici within the family. There is just something about the way that he brings life to these characters and their universe, really living within the space of gritty and grounded but also fantastical, giving everything plenty of weightiness with just the right pinch of roughness. Swift action and well-paced quieter moments all with great attention to detail.

Speaking of never wanting to see them far from this line, Pattison’s colors are always like a welcoming warming blanket. She’s able to shift as necessary, to capture whatever energy a given artist is delivering. There are plenty of lighter and flashier colors this time, mixed with the more neutral washed-out tones of the government space (in the middle of a desert) they are invading. It’s poppy, but heavy enough to really hit home what is going down.

If things aren’t going so well for Raph, well they might be going even worse for Casey Jones. At least Raph has a clear antagonist with a mission that will save Pepperoni and perhaps let him beat up his foe. Poor old Casey threw himself into a potential pit of vipers and he’s only now having to reckon with it.

While I was hoping that the Karai change and the new Foot Clan she built was a lasting change, the drama being mined out of the inevitable fall (already being seen in the new main TMNT series) is intriguing at least.

Burnham gives us time for Casey to have some back and forth with his fellow clan members, chiefly Natsu with a great Bebop and Rocksteady beat, as his concerns around Karai deepen. It’s a pretty slick and faster paced yet slow story, as the characters engage in some training, but it’s mostly a lot of talking. Jones tries to get others to notice what he has, only to basically fail. A lot of great character work and beats are played out here and amongst the dire status there is some fun.

I mean, if Bebop and Rocksteady in full suits pulling out holographic image devices so they can hit up Vegas isn’t fun, I don’t know what is.

Balancing both those tones is something that Santolouco and Lesko keep nailing. Finding ways to keep ‘talking head’ pages flowing, interesting, and dynamic can’t be the easiest task. There are no concerns here as the characters are just breezing through the pages, our eyes bouncing around as necessary, with tight choices in framing and composition.

Natsu and Casey’s battle is a back-and-forth affair that livens up the moment which lets the dialogue have something to grip onto and basically dance with. All of the colors are just as slick, favoring the darker elements at times without losing the flashier vibrancy that marks this particular universe.

Both stories benefit from Wooton’s keen eye, allowing the lettering to really sing in each. Wooton matches it to what each artist is dropping down, and then some, and giving every letter or word on the page its own personality, energy, and tonal energy. I mentioned dancing alongside the artwork above, and that comes from how Wooton places it all, going for the most direct spaces to compliment and accentuate the rest of the art.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation #2 is now available from IDW Publishing.