‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Classics Vol. 9’ Comic Review

The ninth volume of the TMNT classic collection follows the adventures of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo in their second series by Mirage. The issues collected here, #6 through #9, focus on a mysterious killer robot on the loose with ties to the turtles’ closest friend, April O’Neil.

Oh, the near twilight years of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles massive popularity, missteps like volume 3 at Image and the Next Mutation were still a bit in the offing, such halcyon days. Volume 2 doesn’t get nearly as much love as the Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman original or the later Volume 4 which was also heavily handled by Lawson.

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This is an interesting volume of the series. Jim Lawson was writing and drawing while Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman handled other things in their massive media empire. Oddly enough, this arc has a bit of a legacy, as it was loosely adapted for the 2003 and 2009 animated series. Here it’s used as a way to focus on Casey and April while the Turtles hang back before getting involved and leaving us with a cliffhanger with one of the brothers seemingly captured.

Jim Lawson had his work cut out for himself. These issues mostly focus on plot while showing us how the Casey-April relationship dynamic is working. There isn’t a lot of character work for the four brothers being done here, but Lawson sneaks in some nice beats with the turtles’ reactions during the big battle of the volume.

It’s cool to see his art from 1994 and compare it to his style that he would use later in the 4th volume by Mirage. The IDW re-coloring works well here. Digikore Design Limited has really made the colors pop with vibrancy while still maintaining a pulpy comic feel from the 90’s.

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For those who are curious about the turtles’ canonical history and have never experienced these original TMNT stories, and die hard fans, this collection will be a can’t miss.

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