It’s A Foot Meets Dog World — Reviewing ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’ #8

Wherever Oroku Saki goes, a path of blood, destruction, and death will be left in his enormous wake. With the mysterious effect on the Dog Star Clan now clear, the infamous Shredder has his sights on a new threat.

The first blow is struck, as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder #8 sets the tone under the care of Dan Watters, Sid Kotian, Marco Lesko, and Darran Robinson.

Rough. Tough. Gruff.

All those words continue to describe this series and the compelling saga it’s weaving with its bladed anti-hero protagonist.

We open with a multi-page sequence of Shredder just decimating members of the Dog Star Clan sent to wipe him out. It’s brutal and dense in its execution, as Kotian taps into all the right energies here. It strikes the right balance between whimsically smooth and razor sharp, especially in the kinetically charged action sequences.

I’ll reference that opening sequence again. Shredder feels like a force of nature. The captions that Robinson sprinkles through the panels ad to this dimension. Everything artistically matches what I would expect to find in a series about a character as dangerous as the Shredder. Nothing comes across too polished or ‘big bold superhero’ in execution.

It’s pure and straight to the point.

This is also where Lesko keeps landing with the colors for this series. There’s a perfect balance between the lighter and darker spaces upon the color spectrum, utilizing darker tonal choices to give more depth to the whole art and provide the contrast for the brighter flashier vibrant beats. Similarly, the same is felt with the rest of Robinson’s lettering.

I already noted the way the captions work here, and all of the lettering works in that same fashion. No need for flashy colors or bold modifications. Just sharply attuned letters that convey their message with the same brevity and pointed directness.

Giving Shredder a momentary step above his new foes was a grand choice by Watters. It’s what we would expect for a man like Saki, taking the fight right to those who were trying to wrong him. Allowing their own weaponized clan to do the dirty deed was some inspired stuff and pretty darn badass.

The final reveal about what is powering the Dog Star Clan’s mutations was simultaneously off-putting and intriguing. Exactly what I would expect from Watters at this point.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder #8 is now available from IDW Publishing.