Writer: James Tynion IV
Art Team: Freddie E. Williams II, Jeremy Colwell, Tom Napolitano
DC Comics/IDW Publishing
Release Date: August 7, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99
Shredd This
Despite its ridiculous title, try saying Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III #4 three times fast, the story within the comic itself has been one of my absolute favorite of the summer. We continue the adventures of the amalgam universe here this month, with the Bat/Turtle group fresh off having recruited Shredder to their cause, in an enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of situation. So lets stop wasting time and discuss the fruits off that twisted labor.
Our issue begins as we see Shredder in an uneasy alliance, with a mostly fully in tune Batman and Turtle clan, taking down the Laughing Man's warehouses in an effort to weaken the hold on this world. The Laughing Man begins to panic with everything collapsing around him, calling out to Krang, and after some back and forth receives a Mother Box which will unleash Krang's forces when the time comes. The story does a great job of carrying over from last issue, and where a lot of current comics would spend time on who Shredder is through recap or origin tales, this book trusts you to follow along, or pick it up through context within the story, allowing the story pacing to flow smoothly.
The group decides the plan to turn the tide in their favor is to turn the Laughing Man back into the agent of chaos he used to be, a.k.a. the Joker. To do so Batman decides luring the Laughing Man to ACE Chemical plant may trigger the memories necessary, so with a little help from Jim Gordon, and Casey Jones, now both also mostly back to their old selves, everyone heads off to see what exactly can be accomplished. My only complaint really this issue involves the Turtles mostly taking a backseat to Shredder, Batman, and Joker overall. With the throwback turtles out of the picture and the focus of this story returning the Foot to glory and the Laughing Man back to Joker, its understandable, however old school Raphael really stole the show in the first few issues of this series and I hope we get a wild conclusion where they return one more time.
The story begins its big conclusion with a showdown occurring between the Laughing Man, Shredder, and Batman. Much of that concluding showdown goes a lot how you might expect to it too, complete with callbacks to previous Ace Chemical showdowns, but there is a nice twist cliffhanger ending that definitely gets me excited for next issue and the beginning of the conclusion of this series.
Bits and Pieces:
Overall Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III continues to be way more fun than even fans coming into the series would anticipate it could be. The art by the always reliable Freddie E Williams II is a blast to look at and revisit. The next two issues wrapping up this series should be a blast after what these first four have setup.
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