Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #1 Review

Writer: James Tynion IV
Art Team: Freddie E. Williams II, Kevin Eastman,
Jeremy Colwell, Tom Napolitano
DC Comics/IDW
Release Date: May 1, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

Turtleman?! 

All good things come in threes they say, which leads us to this moment right here the return of the Batman/TMNT crossover, by DC Comics and IDW, for the third time.  I managed to avoid the solicits for this title, as well as any and all spoilers prior to picking it up for review, however having read and reviewed all the previous two series myself, here on this very website, I was fairly confident in my knowledge involving this continuity entering this issue. With that said, why then was my head spinning, while also having a heck of a lot of fun at the start of this issue? Lets discuss just what James Tynion has up his sleeve for the beginning of his Batman/TMNT grand finale.



The issue begins in typical Batman fashion, with Batman doing Batman things to start, until you get a few minor hints that things seem a bit different. When I say different I mean things like Batman's costume looks pretty makeshift and there are references to something called the Smile Clan.  Batman heads off to deal with the threat, eventually confronting Harley Quinn who appears to have taken hostages ... with a Killer Croc/Bee-Bop and Clayface/Rocksteady.  Even the uninformed at this point now know something strange is afoot, I personally was very intrigued to try to put these pieces together, in between long loving glares at Freddie E. Williams art.

Jim Gordon gets introduced quickly only to be attacked by the Laughing Man, a Joker/Shredder combination character, who is then followed up by 'the Family' dropping in to help Batman. At this point you've probably figured it out by now, we're in some sort of amalgam universe, so the Ninja Turtles will be filling the role of the typical Bat Family members, ditto for Splinter in Alfred's place, and we go on from there. Its a lot of fun especially with Freddie Williams once again seemingly having a blast with the various character designs. The combination of Red Hood and Raph is almost too perfect of a fit with it being far and away my favorite design. The art in general goes a long way selling me on this idea vthat otherwise still had me off a bit unsure of what was happening.

By the end of this story my complaints about confusion are eased and the answers to most of the whys raised here are provided. This makes room for next issue to really tackle the story and I'm very pumped for that. I'm not going to outright spoil all the reveals here in this issue mostly because I think they make it stand out enough from the predecessors in this series to make this worth a look on its own. You should know though that James Tynion does a great job of flipping this concept on its head here in issue one, getting new and old readers alike all on the same page by the end, aided by the excellently rendered pages of Freddie E. Williams II and Jeremy Colwell throughout.

Overall, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III's first issue does a great job of bringing the reader into this universe and building this world. Tynion even has a few surprises in store for fans of the series from the beginning they wont see coming and I know I certainly didn't.  Williams and Colwell are always reliable as an art team really coming through with some truly excellent character designs here. Don't let this being the third arc, in cross company crossover series, discourage you from jumping in cold here, there is plenty to enjoy for everyone.

9.0/10