Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1, cowabunga indeed

Let’s look at one of the most anticipated comics for us this year. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures is easily one of the best all age comics you can pick up any month.  Contrast that with the fact that there really isn’t a consistent Batman comic book that’s great for young readers.  Put the two franchises together for a 6-issue run where they have to work together and you have Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, a mini-series that kids 6 and older must pick up.

This is the animated Turtles, not the series that is drawn for older readers. It has a little more humor, softer edges, brighter colors (for turtles that live in the sewer anyway) and will remind readers of the Nickelodeon television series.

It starts out with a generic bad guy trapped in an alley. He’s scared and being given a dark, brooding, somewhat sarcastic talking too from a hero that’s obscured in the darkness. Michelangelo appears, only to have the baddie faint before he can get off any more quips. The rest of the turtles join in, except this time they’re making fun of Michelangelo, before the scatter off into the night.

Next we see Batman entering a large house. He takes out the various goons guarding it to find Harvey Dent watching My Little Pony on television. It’s obvious he’s in ‘Harvey Dent’ mode and not Two Face because Batman is very calm, even friendly and says that it’s time to go back to Arkham. Harvey draws a triangle on a dusty computer monitor and mutters something about a rabbit hole where the rest of Arkham’s inmates went, where there is no Batman.

It’s not too far after that when the TMNT meet Clayface in the sewers. The boys make a couple pudding and pizza jokes while fighting this creature whose size and strength they’ve never experienced before. They also notice a very large pink triangle in the sewer that plays a part in Clayface disappearing from them.

This is an incredibly fun comic book. It combines two franchises that kids 6 and older want to consume on a regular basis in print, but don’t have many avenues to do so. Capstone does some great Batman standalone books and IDW has its monthly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures series. However, there is just something about a top notch comic book team-up that makes kids giddy.

If your kids like TMNT on Nickelodeon they will absolutely love this. That age will already know who Batman is, but may not have read much about him yet. The content in this perfect for an all age comic book, there is action, but nothing graphic or cruel and a strong story to let that age know they have to read and pay attention. Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures is $3.99 and from IDW, as well as, DC Comics. It’s only 21 pages, but is still worth it due the quality of the paper, bright colors and fabulous talent involved with its production.