Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 Review

 

Writer: Juni Ba

Artist: Fero Pe

Colorist: Luis Antonio Delgado

Letterer: Nathan Widick

Editor: Thea Cheuk

Cover Artists: Fero Pe, Jon Lankry, J Gonzo & Eric Talbot

Publisher: IDW

Price: $3.99

Release Date: August 14, 2024

 

Terror stalks the streets of Mutant Town. Some Humans fear the Mutants. Others prey on them. But the Mutants have a new protector. Who is the hero who haunts the night and strikes down those who would harm the Mutant community? Let's strap on our armor, leap into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1, and find out!

 

Story

A car roars through the streets, dispelling the festive, if guarded, calm of Mutant Town. Behind the glaring headlights, a figure crouches atop the automobile. Unlike Scott Howard in 1985’s Teen Wolf, the armored mutant isn’t street surfing. Nor is the hero savoring the chill thrill as Michelangelo did atop the armored SUV in the Turtles' 2014 film. The masked driver’s eyes bulge as a gauntlet shatters the windshield. Like the Terminator, the armored assailant reaches inside for the driver. The car swerves and plunges into a dark alley. Squealing brakes send the attacker flying.

 

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1, the driver isn't inclined to flee. He pulls a semiautomatic from his overcoat and straps on a metal gauntlet akin to his attacker's. Suddenly, the fight isn't so uneven. The driver knows he can fight off the Nightwatcher. But the noises and thuds coming from the car’s trunk suggest there’s more going on than a driver protecting himself from an unprovoked attack.

 

Juni Ba interposes a highspeed chase and fraught fighting with insights from the Human and Mutant community. The Mutagen Bomb created more Mutants than ever before. Since Mutant Town became an incorporated borough of New York City, Mutants gained a legitimacy that many regret. Mayor Stockman’s lack of leadership and the Turtles' departure threaten the fragile peace between Humans and Mutants. While the new hero protects them, the Nightwatcher’s vigilantism could rebound against the Mutant community. 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 delivers an action-packed rescue plot while reminding us of the threats facing a diverse community. Juni Ba’s story shows how the Nightwatcher’s actions inspire some and worry others. Yet the stakes seem highest for the Mutants' latest vigilante. Living a double life could destroy what the Nightwatcher values most.

 

Art

Mutants walk the streets or hang out by cars and mailboxes stuffed with uncollected mail. Snapshots of frightened faces scatter across the top of the page as a car hurtles across the bottom. As his roof bulges inward, the masked Human’s eyes reveal he shares their fright. Fero Pe devotes a page to Nightwatcher reaching through the fractured windshield and intersperses the battle with four nine-panel pages. The Tic-tac-toe pages introduce not the Brady Bunch but two Humans and two Mutants. Despite the concerns over the vigilante's activities, a ghostly bust of Mutant Town's newest hero rises above the dilapidated buildings of this troubled borough on Fero Pe’s final page.

 

Colorist Luis Antonio Delgado shines orange light upon the purple-gray buildings. A purple-gray haze rises from the rooftops but cannot obliterate the white stars in the black sky. Green, orange, and yellow shine amid the street life, while red often fills the backgrounds of Nightwatcher’s battle. The red echoes the marks on the silver armor and the scarlet liquid that splatters the pages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1.

 

An energizing Skree circles the clock from 7 to 11 across the frightened neighborhood and races alongside the protesting tires. A terrifying Krish joins the glass shards flying toward the driver's eyes. A Krzssh rises as the classic car plunges into the boxes near the dumpsters. Amid the spectacle, black uppercase letters in gray boxes relate to one person's hopes and fears. Nathan Widick’s white letters in black balloons with red borders signal the vigilante's reluctance to fight. Words embolden, change color, occasionally swell, and rarely shrink as the speakers in Juni Ba's Turtle Tale share the concerns of a community in crisis. The balloon and box shapes underline the precarious nature of the participants and the stakes facing everyone in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1. Thanks to IDW for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Adults fear New York's latest vigilante. Children admire their protector, even if they wish they didn't need one. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nightwatcher #1 is a tale of heroism, sacrifice, and resistance to change.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.