Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #110 Review - Date Night
Writer: Sophie Campbell | Artist: Jodi Nishijima | Publisher: IDW Publisher
One of the biggest regrets of 2021 was falling behind on IDW’s TMNT comics. Like Tom King’s run-on Batman, TMNT is a series I will keep reviewing. Neither run is in great shape at the time of writing this review, but I will plug along until the series flatlines or gets better.
TMNT #110 has two plots running concurrently. The main plot follow’s Leonardo as he gathers intel on Old Hob and his plans for Mutant Town. The cover plot follow’s Raphael and Alopex’s date night.
I am not the biggest fan of Sophie Campbell’s chosen direction of this series. The story is not bad, but her creative choices are not the best for this series. If TMNT: Mutant Town was a side series, and the main book was more action oriented I do not think the fandom would be as apathetic to the comic book.
This issue is over a year old. If you have stuck with the series to date, I am curious of your thoughts on how Sophie’s direction is playing out?
It is nice seeing the Turtles lives when they are not on missions. The relationship between Raph and Alopex is cute and the interaction they have with the mutant biker gang goes does a nice bit of character buildings for all involved.
The segments with Leonardo are a lot more interesting and serious. He gets to show off his skillset as a ninja and goes undercover to infiltrate Hobs base of operations.
The strongest aspect of Sophie’s direction is that Mutant Town feels like an actual community of mutants that have lives independent of whatever is going on with our heroes. It just feels weird that everyone seems to have acclimated to being mutants so quickly. I would be losing my shit if I woke up one day as a mutant Cockroach. There are elements of the Mutant Town storyline that work but the presentation is a bit too whimsical.
In Short: TMNT #110 is okay single issue, light on action heavy on world-building and character progression.