Inkspot Fancy

Splinter is gone, and the Turtles are off to get him back - with help from both old and new human allies, and this series continues to amuse me. :)

Also, I am doing my best to keep from making an "enter the dragon" joke in this review, but my will power may not last.

Familiar groups continue to converge, and I'm continually surprised it doesn't feel more forced. This time, we get Angel and the Purple Dragons, who aren't that happy about the Turtles being on their turf but aren't any more cool with the Foot Clan running around, so it's a tossup as to whether they'll let the Turtles do their thing, or attempt to teach them a lesson about gang violence.

I actually kind of like these Purple Dragons. In a lot of things, they're played sort of the way Rocksteady and Bebop were in the 80s cartoon series, but here they're presented a bit more like the gang in the original live action movie. They don't come off as cartoonish, like parodies of a gang, they seem like a group that would be legitimately in the city and legitimately dangerous to the people IN the city. Woo!

Anyway, the bulk of the plot is them trying to get to Splinter, and the baddies making their own plans for him. Ths Splinter is wonderfully calm and efficient and scaaaaary when he wants to be! There's a particular confrontation late in the volume with him that I particularly liked (no spoilers, but man I WANT to be all spoilery!)

I also like that this version of both Raphael and Casey Jones aren't as overtly violent and out of control, but it's all still *there.* Leo shuts them down hard when they start getting too out of control, and I kind of love it.

Overall, another great volume. I'm liking pretty much everything this series is doing, and am excited for more!