Enjoyable but Forgetable
Let me go on record saying that I miss Klunk the cat. In the original Micro-Series one shot involving Michelangelo, we received a Christmas tale with the fateful meeting between Mikey and everyone’s favorite pet (not Krypto or Ace). This issue mixes things up for turtles history and involves Mikey incidentally getting involved with a jewel heist.
The issue follows the usual conventions of a character getting into something a little too over his head. Mikey finds a costume party, enters the party as himself, jumps through some lasers, and ends up stealing a precious jewel that is jokingly hinted at being Kryptonite (but might come into play later). Once you get over the typical premise by Brian Lynch, the comic is actually a pleasant, action romp. Mikey is a naive guy (turtle) who hasn’t really experienced much of the world but yearns to walk among humans. Unlike the Raph Micro-series (review here), the writing doesn’t seem so stilted. It’s more loose and fun. Though, some of the jokes like “Don’t wanna buy a guy a drink first?” seem a little out of place for a teenage anthropomorphic turtle who hasn’t experienced much human contact let alone alcohol. Other than that, the plot and words are basic but enjoyable.
The art by Andy Kuhn is pretty basic with a thick, solid line and some shading, but what really shines is the choice made for coloring by Bill Crabtree. The colors really compliment the art well by being solid colors without much fuss. They bring the art to life in a splendid way, and I like their boldness. Two problems I had with the art were 1. the size of Mikey differentiates from one frame to the other – he can be skinny one moment and very broad in the next 2. his bandanna is colored orange**. I’m pretty sure IDW is sticking to their all red bandanna mandate for the turtles (that the classic fans cherish).
The issue is nothing special, by any means, but it is a drastic improvement over the previous Raph one-shot. It’s fun but slightly forgettable.
**Apparently this takes place after issue 5 of the main series where the comic has resorted to the cartoon colors of the turtles... *sigh*