More Punching, Less Yapping — Reviewing ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle Nexus’ #2

Sometimes there are things in life that seem so cool in concept, but in execution just miss. They’re right there, tantalizing in the possibility, yet far out of reach of that overall feeling once reality sets in.

Right now, that would describe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle Nexus; the event throwing the Turtles into a multiversal brawl. It features the talents of Tom Waltz, Paul Allor, Sophie Campbell, Caleb Goellner, Erik Burnham, Ben Bishop, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Tom Napolitano.

There are five writers envisioning this piece, each of them taking on a chapter. So, there are a lot of ideas and styles melding into one thing here. Nothing wrong with that. Collaboration often brings out even more of the best that resides within us all.

Where this series is starting to drag is the amount of telling that is happening. All of the opening pages are dedicated to detailing what has happened to the villain Savanti Romero, and how he came to be back in power. This shifts to a bit of the teased cover battle between Leonardo and the Mirage era Shredder. Quickly it shifts back to explain mode as some mystery person (seemingly some version of one of the Turtles) again explains the concept of Romero’s plan.

There are so many captions and dialogue bubbles, often crowding the pages. Napolitano is doing his best to keep it flowing and unique, hitting all the marks with lettering. It’s kept to a point where it’s not fully overwhelming on any given page, but there is only so much the letterer can do. In the end it still feels like a lot of talking and setup, much like the first issue, and light on the battle concept.

Extra points still for the very old-style looking font and bubbles for Mirage Shredder.

Bishop takes over on the artwork this issue and has a style similar to the first issue artists. This tracks, since they all worked on The Last Ronin series together. A touch of roughness is very apparent and thriving in the artwork. There are some flashes in the opening where Romero is meant to be aging and growing hair, but the depictions feel slightly off from one another. Nothing much, but just a small notice.

Part of that is the shifting colors too, as on the same page Delgado has Romero show up as three distinctly different colors. This could be a lighting effect or such, but it’s pretty wildly different in tone.

All the action sequences are pretty smooth, with some decent amount of movement. There isn’t a lot as the fight is short, and the combatants are mostly swiping at one another. What is there is at least somewhat fun, and the continued use of Mirage Shredder being monochrome through and through is neat. I just wish there was more to this battle and Leonardo wasn’t dispatched with such a novice move.

Surging forward foolishly to be stabbed feels nothing like what the current IDW Leonardo would be doing.

Overall, the issue does deliver what it promises from the cover, even if the overall delivery is weaker than assumed. What could have been a really fun cut loose tournament style story is weighed down by the focus on the story-telling elements. A little less expositional lore dropping and some more character beats and action and we could be cooking.

Next issue is Campbell scripting and a fight between two exes. Hopes for something more are at least raised for that third issue.

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