Father Doesn’t Know Best — Reviewing ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ #14

For the Hamato brothers, there is an honorable and dishonorable way to deal with the various criminals they face regularly. Their latest foe, the Ujigami, has chosen the path of dishonor. This leaves the Turtles in the toughest of spots.

The enemy of your enemies is anything but a friend, as Gene Luen Yang, Freddie E. Williams II, Andrew Dalhouse, and Shawn Lee drop the second chapter of their run in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14.

-Spoilers Follow-

This new arc for the Turtles has a number of ups and downs. Personally, having Splinter back isn’t something that was on my cards of wanting. Keeping things moving forward with the IDW Turtle-verse was one of the things I have enjoyed about it over the years. Not looking back to try to recapture the past vibe was part of the appeal.

There is some semblance of that going on here, but with some changes too, of course.

I do like how Yang writes the characters and the title overall. The dispatching of Lao Ban was kind of a waste. This character was quite compelling in the short-lived Nightwatcher series with Jennika (where the hell is she now!?). To have him wiped off the board so easily and so quickly takes out a potentially intriguing future piece.

I did dig the references to other stories, like the Donatello reaction to Bebop/Rocksteady, and the usage of the Foot Clan. Karai is always a fun middle ground ally turned antagonist for the brothers and their family. The ending is quite the pivot after what we’ve seen with Splinter and Ujigami so far.

A roughness permeates this story with the subject matter and what the characters are going through. It’s clear within the artwork of Williams II, who always brings a sharpness and lighter touch simultaneously. Really giving the spaces weight and depth that keeps the scale of the situation and the action steady and familiar.

All of the fight scenes surely benefit from these energies. Being able to really flow around the page through solid paneling and direction. This showcases the Turtles’, and others’, skills and the way that these fights would be going down, keeping the darker elements through the shadows that linger about at all times.

Much of that coming from the color palette employed by Dalhouse. It keeps things at a more sedate natural space the whole time, pumping up the vibrancy here or there for effect, while overall a more neutral and familiar level of lightness and darkness takes point.

Stalwart and true as always is Lee, delivering the same quality and power to the lettering through the years. He’s a master of the voices of these characters by now, making sure all the dialogue and other lettering is tight, logical, and flowing as it moves through the pages. He drops boxes and colors and other modifications along the way to strengthen the voices but also the visual appeal on the page.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #14 is now available from IDW Publishing.