Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green has delivered on what’s expected from an anthology series. Each creative team that has worked on a story in the first three issues have showcased the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a variety of ways. That has created high expectations for this final issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green. The stories need to match or exceed the expectations set by their predecessors. Let’s find out how they go with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green #4.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Lee Garbett (Legends); Chris Condon (Shredder Gets Caught On Things); Jeremy Holt (Does This Android Dream of Electric Sheep); Patrick Gleason (The Book of Splinter)
Artist: Lee Garbett (Legends); Carson Thorn (Shredder Gets Caught On Things); Sebastian Piriz (Does This Android Dream of Electric Sheep); Patrick Gleason (The Book of Splinter)
Letterer: Nathan Widick
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BLACK, WHITE, & GREEN #4 SOLICITATION
“One last chance to experience the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in black and white with splashes of green, in four brand new standalone stories from comics’ top talent! Patrick Gleason, Lee Garbett, and Erica Henderson join the lineup with their own writer-artist entries, including a TMNT-led tour of New York; and in Gigi Dutreix and Lorenzo Hall’s collaboration, Raphael comes into contact with a meddlesome spirit!” – IDW Publishing
REVIEW
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green #4 concludes this mini-series showcasing the power of an anthology series. Every creative team maximize the page count they were given to tell their own unique story within the same franchise. The way the stories all honored different eras of the TMNT franchise made this series a big success.
Right after finishing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green #4 the first story that came to mind when thinking back to this finale was Chris Condon and Carson Thorn’s “Shredder Gets Caught on Things.” The tone of this story showing different versions of the Ninja Turtles battles with Shredder leading to unexpected endings made it immediately stand out. The other three stories being more on the serious side helped this one stand out.
The other aspect that made Condon and Thorn’s story even more of a standout was the structure. Thorn did an excellent job adapting their style to match the different eras. That is not an easy thing given how differently the TMNT designs are for the original comics, 1980s and 2000s cartoons and other iterations. Thorn captures each art style wonderfully that is further elevated by color palette.
Condon adding in an alternate universe version of Michelangelo as a broadcaster commentating all the ways a fight with Shredder went wrong was cool narrative device. Condon played to the personality of this version of Mikey so his broadcaster voice was what you heard rather than Condon as the narrator. It made the moments of comedy even better, like Mikey’s reaction when he had to do a segment on the 80s animated series universe.
Lee Garbett opening story, “Legends,” did a good job at setting the tone for the rest of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green #4. The framing device of a mother telling her daughter about the turtles legend was a creative choice. Mixing in how the Ninja Turtles helped the mother along with a fairytale version being told to her daughter. Garbett’s art style makes you want to see the full fairytale told in its own mini-series form.
These first two stories were balanced out by the more dramatic stories by Jeremy Holt and Sebastian Piriz and Patrick Gleason. Holt and Piriz’s story may have needed a few more pages and more of a usage of all the Ninja Turtles to get its full impact. But for what it was, it was a good exploration of Donatello’s character and how it would be if he became an android. The mental impact of that is something that, as mentioned, could be a full one-shot on its own.
Patrick Gleason’s story from Splinter’s perspective was a great way to cap off this entire mini-series. The narrative device is this being told from of Shredder’s robots analyzing Shredder’s diary about his sons gave things an even more personal touch. Even though they were scenes of the Ninja Turtles growing up we’ve seen before the perspective it was told made the story. That made the way the story in the present day concluded with Splinter’s appearance hit harder.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Black, White, & Green #4 solidified the must-read nature of this mini-series. The four stories in this final issue highlighted the variety of stories that can be told with this franchise. If you are a TMNT fan this is absolutely a must-read comic book.
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
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