Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Amazing Adventures #1 review

It seems like every week some comic is coming out with either Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Transformers. While both of those titles, in theory, are good for all ages, it depends on the age of the child. At least it did until now. Recently an animated, i.e., more all age title came out for Transformers and this week sees a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic, Amazing Adventures that is squarely aimed at that age group too.

From the first couple of pages it’s obvious that Amazing Adventures nails the all age comic book thing. The pages are filled with color. You’ve got the many hues of turtle green, accent colors for the bandanas, movement lines and the city nightscape that really make the turtle move.

It’s printed on thicker than average paper, like all of the IDW comics are printed on. I’ve really grown to enjoy this paper; it’s easy to turn and reflects the colors well.

Technical aspects of the comic aside, it’s jammed with action. Our five-year old will love this. He’s already a TMNT fan, knows the characters and isn’t a big fan of Shredder. The plot starts out simple enough with the turtles see some shady activity by the pier. They get knocked out by something mysterious and wake up in the sewer with Master Splinter.

He convinces them that they should all go back down to the pier to see what caused them to pass out. In doing so, they run across Shredder, who is there doing research and simply wants to talk to Splinter. It turns out that they have a common enemy, the Zodiac, who has returned and can control people’s minds.

A grand battle ensues between the Zodiac, turtles, Splinter, Shredder and his henchmen. At the end of it Master Splinter looks like he belongs to the Zodiac! It’s only the first issue, so probably not. He’s got some Turtle mind repellant that he’s wearing probably, so he’ll be fine.

But the point is that children will absolutely love this book. It’s better than the animated version of Transformers that came out recently because it has more action, bigger font and moves at a quicker pace. After the main story there is a short story with rougher turtle drawings about the guys having an adventure in the sewers.

Another reason that this book is great for kids is because it’s more realistic than they expect it to be, but 100% OK for all ages. The characters are drawn realistic enough to look like something that is not for kids, but has rounded enough edges to soften things for the younger set.