Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II #5 Review

Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II #5 Review

Writer: James Tynion IV, Ryan Ferrier
Art: Freddie Williams II, Jeremy Colwell
DC Comics/IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 21, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

Donnie's Breaking Bad Vacation 

Did last issues cliffhanger leave you shell shocked?  Sorry, couldn't help myself.  If you recall how we last left things Donatello decided to go the route of Bane's venom formula to combat the evils confronting Batman and his brothers. Well needless to say, that decision didn't please everyone, or really anybody at all, so lets see how we're going to deal with this pissed off purple turtle with an agenda this month in the penultimate issue of Batman TMNT II.



The issue begins with Donatello not wasting anytime and getting right to action taking the fight to the now Bane sponsored Foot Clan elite soldiers.  A juiced up Donnie doesn't find much of a fight here and sends all but the leader scattering.  Before Donatello does something he regrets Batman and Leo arrive to try and talk him down ... which doesn't go as planned for the crossover duo.

Back in the sewers Raph and Damien set aside their differences and come up with an idea to help Splinter heal of his near death injuries suffered at the hands of Bane and Company.  They, with the assistance of April O'Neil, fire up the ol' inter-dimensional teleporter and head off to Gotham, on the hunt for a Lazarus Pit.

Jumping back to Donnie, Leo, and Batman, the later two heroes attempt to talk down, Donnie while dodging punches they know Donnie will regret throwing later. Ultimately their attempts do prove successful when its made clear "old Donnie" is what's needed to save the day, not the venomed up monstrosity in front of them. 

Back in the sewers for a second time the team regroups, now with a healed Splinter, Donnie who has developed a Venom antidote, even Nightwing and Batgirl have joined the inter-dimensional team up. Suddenly the pow-wow is interrupted by a message Bane is broadcasting to every device in range.  The sum of his speech boils down to "Join my venom Army, or I'll inhale your bone dust" so ya not much of a choice their at all. The issues cliffhanger ends with our heroes turning to some unlikely allies to help aid their quest to gain control of the city from Bane once again as we're left waiting for next month.

Overall, this issue was a lot of up and down for me to be honest.  I like about half of the developments we got here like the Raph/Damien interplay, Mikey's jokes we're alright, and the ending really provided the energy and surprise the series solely lacked. However some things like Donnie's turn away from Venom so quickly, the wipe away resolution to Splinter's reaction to the Lazarus Pit, and Bane just repeating the same nonsense

Bits and Pieces

Batman/TMNT II is fun just not as much fun as its predecessor was with a plot that feels like it wore out it welcome.  Bane might be just too one note of a villain to in his portrayal here to carry the mini series however the cliffhanger brings a little bit of that promise back I had before this all kicked back off. Freddie Williams continues to render some pretty great looking work each month.

6.5/10