Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #50 – A+
Writers: Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Kevin Eastman
Artists: Mateus Santolouco, Cory Smith

This issue is jam-packed with action, flashbacks, great quips and is executed absolutely perfectly by the creative team. As a long-time TMNT fan, this issue was everything I have loved about TMNT, as well as everything I have wanted to see from a TMNT comic.

With this being a double-sized issue, it makes it quite simple to see all the steps among this series that led the turtles here and how every story has brought them to this point – even the most forgotten issues among the series. But this issue has just about every element that makes TMNT so great in it with major game-changing elements that will leave some readers dragging their jaw around the ground for days.

To get into the story a bit, which is done with near perfection by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow and Tom Waltz, we see the Turtles in an epic battle with Shredder and all his forces. With the turtles up against Shredder’s minions – Bebop, Rocksteady, Koya and Bludgeon – Splinter is in a deep state of meditation to prepare for his battle with Shredder. While we see Splinter in meditation, we get some informative flashbacks thanks to artist Cory Smith doing a great job with the dreamy colors for the flashbacks. It does a wonderful job of matching Mateus Santolouco’s art; the books flowed extremely well with no extreme art changes between the two separate stories.

The whole issue is basically one giant battle ending with a surprise reappearance from Donnie, a rather brutal death and huge surprise that the Turtles may now be a band of three… It all leaves to reader on the edge of their seat insanely excited, deeply saddened, extremely satisfied, and with such a large amount of surprise you MUST talk to others about it even if that means talking into a sewer hoping a turtle is there to hear you… no matter how insane you may look… not admitting I did this… 

To sum it up, this issue packs a wallop of a story with an insane amount of game-changing elements for the reader, leaving us wanting needing to read it again just to make sure the shock of some elements didn’t make you miss something. I can’t say I have enjoyed TMNT this much before, and can honestly say I feel this is TMNT in its prime!

See all of this week’s reviews here.