Broken Frontier

Raphael, Donatello, and Casey Jones take a trip through alternate dimensions, and as is always the case, they don’t end up in friendly territory.

Tales of the TMNT presents a fun idea. Since the main continuity title is only released bi-monthly, this book has produced one shot issues, telling tales that focus on one particular member of the Turtle family. Normally taking place in the past (during the times that, through some grave error, there was no Ninja Turtles book), these books have run a full gamut of story ideas– from time travel, to aliens, to just a simple coming-of-age story, they have provided a fun book for fans of the characters to read and enjoy. This book breaks from two of those traditions. For one, it includes three members of the Turtle family; and secondly, it takes place in recent Turtles continuity.

For those that haven’t been reading it (and shame on you), this issue starts off with something that could be considered quite a bombshell– Master Splinter has passed on. This issue starts off as Casey and Raphael are sharing a drink and toasting to the honor of the deceased with an Utrom scientist named Glurin. It seems that Glurin has invented a new dimension-hopping machine, and Raphael and Casey want to be first in line to try it out. After some coaxing (and alcohol), Glurin agrees to let them be his guinea pigs, but not before they run across Donatello and trick him into joining their adventure. And, as always happens with stories of traveling to alternate dimensions, the Turtles and Casey end up nowhere near where they thought they’d be, in hostile territory and fighting for their lives against giant insects. It’s a good thing for them they deal with that all the time.

Jim Lawson, the man responsible for many of the Turtles’ recent adventures and maintained a sense of stability on this book, unquestionably knows his characters. The story here is obviously nothing new, and follows one of the main story archetypes for science fiction. To his credit, he doesn’t try to do anything special with the story and clog it up with special meanings and themes. It’s just a straight action story of a bunch of friends fighting some monsters. The dialogue is true for each of the characters; the ultimate test of this being that you can tell which Turtle is which, during any scene. And of course, Casey is still a good intentioned, sometimes misguided stooge who ends up getting his friends into more trouble than they planned.

Similarly with his writing, Lawson is dead-on with his interpretations of these characters. Having drawn them so much recently, Lawson has really come into his own on this title. His work seems simple at first, and is in many instances, but looking at each panel will show a very exceptional level of linework. His facial expressions are where he keeps things simple, and that helps him showcase the different emotions, something incredibly difficult when drawing humanized turtles. Lawson also has some fun with the backgrounds, vehicles, and monsters on this alternate dimension. There are some times when it really looks like color would have helped with the backgrounds and differentiating items in this world, but all in all there aren’t any times that a reader will be confused. Lawson’s storytelling is succinct and works really well.

Tales of the TMNT has been a very fun series. With tales that require minimal knowledge of the current Turtles continuity, it’s easily accessible for anyone curious as to how the once incredibly popular characters are doing.