Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vol. 4 #31 Review (Mirage)

Written by: Peter Laid
Layouts and Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inking: Eric Talbot
Lettering and Tones: Peter Laird
Release Date: October, 2010

Last time I looked at the first issue of Ninja Turtles. Now let's take a look at the last, and man, is it disappointing. It's not so much the issue, it's just that it's not right to be the final issue of the Turtles. This was a story that had been going on for 25 years, and it just ends on such a flat unresolved note.

By the end, Volume 4 comics were barley being released. Good things Tales of the TMNT was happening, or there would have been practically no new Turtles books. Released started getting spread far apart in 2005. 2006 is when things took a serious turn for the worst. There was a 22 month gap in between issues #28 and #29. If that wasn't bad enough, issue #29 could only be ordered online and cost $10. Issue #30 was released 13 months later, again only online and for $10. After that, the Viacom sale was made, and Ninja Turtles was no more. But Laird still had one issue that was 98% done, so he released it on his blog for free. Laird claims that he could wrap up the Turtles story with five more issues, but who knows if that will ever happen. Hopefully it will. I'd really like to see a proper ending to this long running story.

The issue starts with Laird laying the groundwork for future issues by having the Triceratons try out a new weapon that they will be bringing to war. Not a lot to say here, since I have no frigging idea where this was going. That's the first 11 pages, and I summed it up in one sentence. Not very impressive.

We then see Donatello asleep on the couch having a strange dream about fighting the Shredder. The dream is similar to Don's encounter on the log with Casey in Shades of Grey, except here it's the Shredder, and they're dressed and speak like characters from Robin Hood. The Shredder's dialogue is just not as threatening as in past versions. "Marry, thou are an agile fellow" just doesn't carry the same weight as some of the other Shredder lines. Don knocks him off the log, and Shredder transforms into Casey and says "To be or not to be. That is April's question!" It's lame. The inking during the dream sequence is very good and adds a lot of depth to the art. But it can't save the dialogue.

On cue, April calls Don to check in. After their conversation, April has a boring and random fight with some bikers outside of a bar. This fight, for some reason, inspires her to go back to North Hampton. Again, this was a good number of pages, and there's just not a lot to say about it.

The end of the issue is the best part, and also the most frustrating. Really, this whole issue is frustrating because it's nothing but exposition. The story moves to the Battle Nexus to reveal that Splinter is still alive. It's nice to end the series knowing that Splinter survives, but brings up a lot of questions. And as an unintentional middle finger to fans, the last words written in Ninja Turtles are "To be continued!!!". With three exclamation marks. Again, I hope it will be continued, but it just seems so unlikely. Please Peter Laird, finish the story that began in 1984. You're so close to the end.

2/5 (For setting up plots that have never been resolved)