REVIEW: TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures #1

3.68/5.0 Stars
Rating if the Book Were a Movie: G

Creative Team:

• Writer: Erik Burnham
• Artist: Tim Lattie
• Colors: Steve Lavigne
• Letters: Shawn Lee
• Cover: Kevin Eastman
• Editor: Charles Beacham
• Publisher: IDW Publishing 

Ratings:

• Story: 3.6 Stars
• Artwork: 3.8 Stars
• Cover Artwork: 3.6 Stars
• Dialogue: 3.7 Stars
• Mechanics: 3.7 Stars 
• Editing: 3.7 Stars 

About the Book:

It’s a rainy day in New York. The turtles don’t want to go above ground in the weather. Master Splinter has a new line of training for them to begin. They are not very keen on that.

Donatello has made a VR simulator to use for training that he’s been saving for a rainy day. The turtles can use this to hone their craft. A power surge hits while the turtles are in the simulation. Now they must beat the game if they want out.

Reader’s Notes:

TMNT will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the last toy/cartoon/comic franchise that I was really vested in before middle school came along and it wasn’t “cool” to be all in on everything geek. After a decade of doing the jock thing to try to fit in I came back to my roots. Don’t get me wrong. In baseball I was good enough to earn a tryout with a pro team. It had stopped being fun though.

Michaelangelo didn’t care about what happened in the past. When I came back he was the same wild and crazy guy that loved his pizza. Bebop and Rocksteady were still the perfect henchmen as long as they weren’t expected to do any thinking.

“TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures” #1 recaptured all of the magic of the franchise I fell in love with. You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to appreciate it. Just sit down and enjoy the nostalgia.

Usually I don’t go after variant covers. This was Kevin Eastman doing a mashup of his original style (which is iconic) and the cartoon series. The results were incredible. With cover prices being equal, I had to go with the variant.

With the artwork on the interior pages I’m torn. What was better? Was it the way that Mr. Lattie made a spot on match to the cartoon series? Or was it the way he made the characters fit perfectly in panels of video games we’ve come to love? Truly there is no wrong answer here.

As a geek on a budget I firmly believe that this is a must read for TMNT fans that want a nostalgia fix without having to read 200+ issues to get up to speed with where we’re at in the ongoing series. Pick this one up for the kids and watch them take their first steps into a new world of action, adventure, and crazy pizza toppings!