Beautiful Ups And Downs — Reviewing ‘TMNT: Mutant Nation’ #6

Of the many beautiful things about anthology comics, the top might be the variety of emotional depth they can provide. Switching between stories activates different portions of our brain’s emotion center.

This is perfectly encapsulated by what Caleb Goellner, Omar Francia, Nelson Daniel, Luis Antonio Delgado, David Wielgosz, Victor Cafaggi, Rus Wooton, and Nathan Widick offer up in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation #6.

This issue contains two tales that tackle different sides of the emotional spectrum, while delivering truly solid slice of life stories.

Nothing but fun is found in the first story as Bebop and Rocksteady do Vegas, their way. Content to watch the big boxing match, they get pulled in deep when things are fixed and do not go as planned. Our bad boys get up to some fun rampaging run stuff to close out their time in Vegas, proving why they are the chaotic duo we love to see.

Goellner writes the characters so well, really delivering a lot of story across those twenty pages. This allows something that could be one big joke to have some varying levels to the whole affair, creating a solid foundation to play from where the characters have authentic motives to their actions beyond chaos.

Daniel and Francia do a solid job of playing up the lighter side of this whole affair. Both of their works delve into the more whimsical side of things. Yet, it’s still rife with depth and details aplenty in every panel. These spaces have weight to them and feel like they are actually lived in and thriving.

Flashy and colorful is exactly the right atmosphere for this story. That’s what Delgado provides, with that trademark slick smooth coloring style. This gives most of the panels this really heavy middle state color palette to set the mood and allows the more fantastical or bombastic elements to stand out even more. It also contrasts against the more sedate backdrops as they are meant to do.

Pulling double duty here, sort of, is Wooton, who works on the lettering of both stories. For the first story, though, Widick is also along for the lettering ride. Together they bring a lighter feeling to the lettering here to match the off-the-wall energy, bouncing the large amount of dialogue around the page naturally and logically at all times.

Turning things onto the other side of the spectrum is the second story.

Long runs on comics end all the time. Creators wrap things up as much as they can and move on, leaving plenty of toys to be played with. Often, those toys get ignored and the unanswered questions from the run remain that way. Unexpectedly, this second story presented the perfect closing love letter to the not that long ago ended Sophie Campbell led era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

We return to the farm of Northampton, dealing with the fallout surrounding Lita, the young girl who once was a mutant turtle adopted into the Splinter Clan. Now that Lita is human again (through evil time shenanigans), she’s been left behind as the other mutants carry on life. They’ve left her with April O’Neil’s parents on the farm, “for her own good,” but naturally that’s not sitting well for the young ninja.

All the anger, exploration, and inner strife that Lita deals with here can be felt at all times. Those captions are full of punch as Wooton infuses every bit of dialogue with these emotions and the right tones.

This is a love letter to that aforementioned era of TMNT, crafted perfectly by Wielgosz. It allows us to soak in how much the characters we know have drifted apart, as life has changed so much. It embodies what it feels like to be left behind, to struggle in finding a new place in life and accepting the loss of what was, without giving up hope that one day that life or those people might return.

Lita’s letter being the overall storytelling device through most of the piece got me so emotional. It’s hard not to when this character has been a joy since day one. Seeing her go through this hurts. That’s when you know that a writer understands a character fully, when they capture so much of what the originator of the character was doing in their time.

There is something inherently instantly beautiful about Cafaggi’s artwork. It feels very sketch like in some capacity, but truly dense and lifelike at all times. The choice of a more subdued color palate befits the more melancholic emotional journey. Each of the panel choices lets the moment soak in and be bigger than it might have otherwise. Including the great showcased flashback or character spread moments.

Everything about this issue speaks to the love of this moment and franchise. It really delivers on every front as they help provide the (just as beautiful) bow to an already gorgeously wrapped gift.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Nation #6 is now available from IDW Publishing.