By d. emerson eddy — Throughout the last year, IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles title has been embroiled in the “City at War” story-arc, a massive arc from Tom Waltz, Dave Wachter, Michael Dialynas, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee that took elements of the story right from the first issue. It was the culmination of eight years of storytelling in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100, and it was epic. It set up a new status quo and delivered some deeply personal, intriguing ramifications for the Turtles and, really, the rest of the world.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #101 sees Sophie Campbell, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee pick up the baton and begin running with it, ultimately taking it to new heights. While it definitely builds on the events of “City at War” — on a group of Turtles that feel more splintered than ever before, a situation in New York where a mutagen bomb has been unleashed transforming normal people into mutants dividing part of the city, and our new fifth Turtle, Jennika, is trying to make sense of things — it still somehow feels like a fresh start. New readers can easily jump on with this issue and still understand what's going on and get a real feel for the characters and how lost they're feeling at the moment.

Part of that is the incredible dialogue and narration that Campbell provides. Her voice for Donatello in the narration dives deep into the problems that the Turtles are currently having, how they're grieving, and/or not dealing well with their current state. It's very nicely presented as well through Lee's lettering, giving Donatello's narration boxes the appearance of ruled, lined paper. It's a little touch that helps reinforce the character as well, especially as he waxes about writing his sci-fi novel. The heart within the story also shines through in Jennika and Alopex, dealing with the hardships of a sequestered and undernourished Mutant Town, still hoping for the best. There are compelling themes here for how we treat one another, how we treat the “other”, and how we reconcile our differences that elevate this beyond just a simple “us vs. them” story.

There's also a good amount of action, which allows Campbell to show us that she's equally adept at fight sequences as she is with talking heads or the opening funeral sequence heartbreaker in silence. The art here is absolutely gorgeous. Campbell has a style that seems to blend bits of Kevin Eastman with some manga artists like Katsuhiro Otomo, though refining it so there aren't a lot of random scratchy lines. It results in a cleaner, and sometimes rounder, appearance that just seems to perfectly work for TMNT. It's a look that evokes the past, but is still something entirely new and unique, much like the story itself.

Ronda Pattison's colors complement the line work well and further enrich the overall tone and atmosphere of the story. While to a certain degree the color themes are richer than what we saw in “City at War”, there's also a certain restraint to it. Backgrounds are somewhat muted, fitting with the tone of grief and uncertainty, while also ensuring that the characters themselves stand out against it.

Overall, this is a wonderful start to a new era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Campbell, Pattison, and Lee give us some wonderful characters dealing with grief and change, questions of identity and self- worth, while continuing on the butt-kicking legacy that you'd expect from four pizza-eating martial artists.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #101
Writer & Artist: Sophie Campbell
Story Consultants: Kevin Eastman & Tom Waltz
Colorist: Ronda Pattison
Letterer: Shawn Lee
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Price: $3.99

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.