No Right Way To Grieve — Reviewing ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ #09

Do you hear that sound? A deeply emotional crying? Perhaps you’re losing reality, or maybe you’ve pierced the immortal veil.

This is a question the Hamato clan will have to find out as the final three brothers find their Splinter connection, just in time to be taken down by the city authority Foot Clan in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9. This story comes from Jason Aaron, Juan Ferreyra, and Shawn Lee.

When Aaron spoke about bringing the grittiness and darkness back to this book, he sure wasn’t kidding.

Bonding with that gritty darkness, though, is a really powerful heart and depth of character. It really showcases these brothers as they deal with their own issues and their issues with each other. Pulled apart by the hardness of life, they’re just trying to figure out who they are, and how they fit into this harder world that wants seemingly no part of them.

How Aaron writes them really speaks to me. That was one of the things which drew me so hard into the previous volume run. It’s t

he depth of character and how it didn’t pull punches with those emotions and growth. Though this book might have changed creative teams and renumbered, it carries on that same spirit with its own spice.

I love these characters, and have since I was a tiny little tyke, and this series remains one of my favorites. There isn’t a ton of movement outside plot wise, but the developments on the micro level are enough to make the book refreshing and welcoming.

Tapping Ferreyra for this series has continued to be the perfect choice. Whether the scene calls for dramatic multi-panel, or giant spread, action or just quiet moments, he delivers. He brings authority and authenticity to every single panel through the issue. As the style provides grand depth and detail at every turn and pours on the emotional elements in such a controlled way.

Which is great since this is such an emotionally heavy series, as noted previously. We need to be able to believe the strife these brothers are going through at every turn. With a raw power that wants to burst from the page into our reality.

This follows into the color choices he’s making along the way as well.

The art takes the route of combining washed out and saturated state of affairs, letting the overall color palette feel darker, grayer, and grittier in most respects. The more vibrant aspects dial up the saturation and flashiness, popping against the more neutral backgrounds, as they should. These are colorful mask-wearing turtle mutants who are ninjas moving through a version of our New York City after all.

It continues to be great to see Lee still helping provide the voices of these characters and their world. He brings the same power from the beginning of his time with the TMNT till now, only gaining his own strength and authority as time has passed. He gives them all their unique levels of depth and energy that helps form the voices ringing through our minds as we read, shifting the lettering visuals here or there as really necessary.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #9 is now available from IDW Publishing.