Comicon Advent Calendar 2024 Day 18: The Holidays In A Half-Shell With ‘Leonardo: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’ #1
by Scott Redmond
The tree is trimmed, the food is cooking, and the family is gathering with the holidays almost within touching range. As the clock ticks closer to the end, Day 18 of the Comicon Advent Calendar 2024 brings us a Turtle wrapped surprise.
We’re turning back the clock to a more radical time, the decade known as the 1980s as we gaze upon Leonardo: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle #1 from Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Steve Bissette, Michael Dooney, Ryan Brown, and Steve Lavigne with the addition of Tom Smith’s Scorpion Studios for the modern colorized version of the originally black & white issue. We’re talking prime Mirage Studios era TMNT here.
Oh dear reader, you are in for a treat.
Not only is this a holiday related issue, but it’s a pretty easy one to follow for anyone that has even just a basic knowledge about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In a brilliant choice of storytelling, the main story follows Leonardo as he battles Foot soldiers across the rooftops and streets of a snow covered New York City. This sequence takes up the entirety of every page, save for the final panel (more on that soon). Silence is the major feature of this action packed sequence, as there is not a single bit of dialogue or SFX. Just Leonardo, the snow, and the increasing danger of the variety of Foot soldiers coming out of the woodworks (some literally burst out of hidden spots in the snow).
All of the visuals do the storytelling, as no words are needed here.
On the bottom of the pages (told you we’d get there), each page has one single panel the focuses on what is happening back at April’s apartment. There we see April, Splinter, Raph, Mikey, and Donatello preparing for the holidays. With April & Raph finding a Christmas tree, Mikey cooking the Christmas Eve meal, and Donnie joining April to decorate the tree while singing Carols. Splinter watches on, helping with some food stuff, like the proud father.
We even get a funny moment with Raph’s desire to sneak present looks and Mikey’s newly adopted cat Klunk.
All of this culminates with the others realizing that Leo has been out too long, just as their brother and friend finds out he was being herded into a construction site. That site holds Foot Soldiers, and the returned Shredder, leading to an epic fight and devastating beat down for the clan leader (all off panel). Those who know (and love) the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will recognize that this issue very much inspired the sequence in that film where Raph is the one being beat around by the Foot Clan.
It all culminates with the horrifying moment when Leonardo’s beat and broken body is flung through the apartment window, as he utters his only words all issue: “…He’s…Back…The…Shredder…!!!”
I got goosebumps just thinking about it.
Another entry in the holiday related file, where things don’t go so cheery, but you know, that’s just the life of comic book characters for you.