Classic Comics Cavalcade: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Stranger Things’ Hits All The ’80s Nostalgia

When you’re a pop culture juggernaut, crossovers require a little bit of suspension of disbelief. How can Batman meet the Ninja Turtles without Robin saying “holy crap, it’s the Ninja Turtles?!” otherwise? Well, how about setting the crossover prior to their pop culture juggernaut status?

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Stranger Things, two pop culture juggernauts collided. The series was created by Cameron Chittock, Fero Pe, Sofie Dodgson, and Rus Wooton.

I was starved a bit for Stranger Things content before tonight’s big season five premiere. Sure, I’ve been re-watching the series (Season 3 remains the show’s high point), but it’s such a rich universe. Then I remembered that I had this series in singles, so I dived into my short boxes and began re-reading.

The spring of 1985, New York City is being overrun by vermin unlike any the city has seen before. Lucky for them, a particular group of teens just arrived from Hawkins. And alongside a certain group of mutant turtles, Eleven, Mike, Dustin and the gang will just have to find out what Baxter Stockman wants with the Upside Down.

So first of all, Chittock does a great job with the characters. The Turtles’ personalities come through really well (which is great because the art honors the ’80s style pre-bandana and belt buckle Turtles). The Hawkins party is mostly perfectly done (there’s a few weird moments early with Max that gets better as the series goes on). You want to see these two groups meet, you got it.

In the art sense, Pe was a pitch perfect choice for the art here. For his figure work, he takes the ’80s indie aesthetic of the original Turtles comics, modernizes it slightly, and uses that style all through the book. His Turtles are straight out of the original Eastman and Laird comics, and the Hawkins kids are recognizable without being slavishly photoreal (though Mike and Will blend together more than once). I also really enjoy his layouts, which frame the characters in dynamic ways in action, but keeps the POV interesting and engaging in the quieter moments. Dodgson’s colors lean a bit towards ’80s indie comics sensibilities, and that really makes it come to life.

But in a mixed sense, this series both is held back by and benefits from its length. It’s a trim four issues. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but that did mean a lot gets left out. In some cases that’s good, in others, that’s bad. So let’s talk about those.

First of all, on the Hawkins side, the smaller cast is both a good and a bad thing. The Stranger Things cast is just the party — Mike, Will, El, Max, Dustin and Lucas. While adding Nancy and Jonathan or Erika would have been too much, it just feels like something is missing. I’m not sure if it would have helped more to have Steve come along as an older mentor, or to have Joyce and Hopper chaperone, but those characters would have added so much to make it feel more like a Stranger Things story.

But on the Turtles side, it’s a good thing. Why? Because keeping the antagonist to just Baxter Stockman, not the Foot, kept with the “evil science gone wild” theme of Stranger Things much better than the Foot Clan. The final issue could have easily thrown Shredder in, but it was so much better for not doing that.

And in the last sense, it did have an incredibly quick pace. In some ways that was good — no lagging, no slow spots. But at other moments, it felt like there was a shorthand or details being skipped, like the two groups’ connections.

Overall though, this is a fantastic crossover that balances both main concepts really well. It’s incredibly fun and looks great. It’s a great quick read before diving into the much heavier episodes hitting tonight.